充分利用大脑,迅速提高记忆力

刘长秀外国语言学及英语语言学

MAKE FULL USE OF THE BRAIN

TO IMPROVE MEMORY

----- LITERA TURE REVIEW Abstract: This paper mainly discussed the function of the two brains, memory and The relationship between brain and memory. Then listed some basic memory systems which were popular or widely used in the teaching acticities to cultivate the students’creativeness by the teachers in Europe , America , Hongkong , Macau and Taiwan and by some advanced memory winners. But a few teachers use it in the classroom of China. Therefore, I hope the reserchers will thinking about this after reading this literature review.

Key words: brain lateralization memory memory system

Introduction: nowadays, an increasing number of people pay more attention to the development of the biolodical foundations of language---the brain. V arious of books on exploiting the brain are showed in book stores and libruaries especially on the left brain. What is the intimate relationship between the brain and the memory on earth? So in this paper,some materials about how to make full use of the brain to improve memory were summed up.

1 Literature review of Lateralization of brain function

The brain is one of the largest and most complex organs in the huma n body.Make full use of the brain is of great importance in language comprehension, production, and acquisition and daily life. Lateralization is a localization of a function or activity on one side of the body in preference to the other.

1.1 The different function of the two brains.

As is known to all, human has two brains. One is left hemisphere , another is right hemisphere. Different hemispheres have different functions.

The left hemisphere specializes in analytical thought. It deals with hard facts: abstractions, structure, discipline and rules, time sequences, mathematics, categorizing, logic and rationality and deductive reasoning, knowledge, details, definitions, planning and goals, words (written and spoken and heard), productivity and efficiency, science and technology, stability, extraversion, physical activity, and the right side of the body. The left hemisphere is emphasized in our educational system and in our society in general.

The right hemisphere specializes in the "softer" aspects of life. This includes intuition, feelings and sensitivity, emotions, daydreaming and visualizing, creativity (including art and music), color, spatial awareness, first impressions, rhythm, spontaneity and impulsiveness, the physical senses, risk-taking, flexibility and variety,

learning by experience, relationships, mysticism, play and sports, introversion, humor, motor skills, the left side of the body, and a holistic way of perception that recognizes patterns and similarities and then synthesizes those elements into new forms. (https://www.360docs.net/doc/988762962.html,/politics/cemetery/stout/h/brain-la.htm)

1.2 Brain’s cerebral hemisphere

In the late 1960s, Professor Roger Sperry of Califorlia , who was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for his research，announced the results of his invistigation into the brain‘s most highly evolved area , the cerebal cortex . His initial findings indicated that the two sides, hemispheres,of the cortex tend to divide the major intellectual functions between them . The right hemisphere appeared to dominant in the following intellectual areas : rhythem , spatial awearness ,gestalt(wholeness), imagenation, daydream , colour and dimention . The left hemisphere appeared to dominant in a different range of mental skills : words , logic, numbers, sequence , linearity, analysis and lists. Many other experts (Ornstein , Zaidel , Bloch etc .) also have comfirmed these findings . In addition the following has been discovered : Although each hemisphere is dominant in certain activities , they are both basically skilled in all areas , and the mental skills identified by Roger Sperry are actually distributed throughout the cortex .(The Mind Map Book, P32）

1.3 lateralization of language process.

Studies of spilt-brain patients clarify the respective roles of the left and right hemispheres in the use of language. The left hemisphere is more linguistically sophisticated than the right, especially in the areas of syntactic and phonetic processing. The right hemisphere is more adept at understanding the multiple meaning of ambiguous words and in comprehending pragmatic aspects of language such as indirect speech acts. (Psychology of Language, P379)

What the materials I have cited above shows that the brain‘s two cerebral hemispheres do have different functions in language learning and in daily life. Although the lateralization existed, we need to use the two hemispheres together in

order to make full use of our brain. In fact, the range of skill available to all of us include those previously attributed to either the left or right hemisphere : a) Language (words , symbols) b) number c) Logic ( sequence , listing , linearity , analysis, time, association) d) Rhythm f) colour g) imagery (daydreaming , visulisation ) h) spatial awareness ( dimention , Gestal (whole picture )

2 Literature review of memory

2.1 The difinition of memory. In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. From an information processing perspective there are three main stages in the formation and retrieval of memory:Encoding or registration (receiving, processing and combining of received information).Storage(creation of a permanent record of the encoded information).Retrieval, recall or recollection(calling back the stored information in response to some cue for use in a process or activity)

2.2 Memory stucture.The acquisition and the production of knowedge need memory structure. The memory structure includes short-term memory /working memory and long-term memory/ Permanent memory. Short-term memory Short-term memory allows recall for a period of several seconds to a minute without rehearsal. Its capacity is also very limited: George A. Miller (1956), when working at Bell Laboratories, conducted experiments showing that the store of short-term memory was 7±2 items (the title of his famous paper, "The magical number 7±2"). Modern estimates of the capacity of short-term memory are lower, typically on the order of 4–5 items,however, memory capacity can be increased through a process called chunking. For example, in recalling a ten-digit telephone number, a person could chunk the digits into three groups: first, the area code (such as 215), then a three-digit chunk (123) and lastly a four-digit chunk (4567). This method of remembering telephone numbers is far more effective than attempting to remember a string of 10 digits; this is because we are able to chunk the information into meaningful groups of

numbers. Herbert Simon showed that the ideal size for chunking letters and numbers, meaningful or not, was three. This may be reflected in some countries in the tendency to remember telephone numbers as several chunks of three numbers with the final four-number groups, generally broken down into two groups of two.

Short-term memory is believed to rely mostly on an acoustic code for storing information, and to a lesser extent a visual code. Conrad (1964) found that test subjects had more difficulty recalling collections of letters that were acoustically similar (e.g. E, P, D). Confusion with recalling acoustically similar letters rather than visually similar letters implies that the letters were encoded acoustically. Conrad's (1964) study however, deals with the encoding of written text, thus while memory of written language may rely on acoustic components, generalisations to all forms of memory cannot be made. ( An outline of experimental psycholinguistics, P160-195)

Long-term memory, holds all the information we have retained from the past that is not currently active (in working memory). These memories are used to interpret new experiences, and the new events may be later added to this storehouse of information. long-term memory encodes it semantically: Baddeley (1966) discovered that after 20 minutes, test subjects had the most difficulty recalling a collection of words that had similar meanings (e.g. big, large, great, huge). Long-term memories, are maintained by stable and permanent changes in neural connections widely spread throughout the brain. ( An outline of experimental psycholinguistics, P160-195)

Some individuals have been reported to be able to remember large amounts of information, quickly, and be able to recall that information in seconds

3 The relationship between brain and memory.

A lot of famous professors have done many experiments on brain. Such as Professor Rosensweig‘s experiments shows that memory problems have nothing to do with the capacity of the brain but rather with the self-management of that apparently

limitless capacity. Professor Penfield did a lot of experiments. He suggested that hidden within each each brain cell or cluster of brain cells lies a perfect store of every event of our past and that if we could find the right stimulus we could replay the entire film. Professor Pyotr Anokhin investigated the potential pattern-making capacity of human brain. He found that memory is recorded in separate little patterns or electromagnetic circuits, that are formed by the brain‘s intercollecting cells. ( Use Your Mind,P14)

All these experiments show that there are huge memory potential to be explored in our brain.

4 the principles underlying an excellent memory.

From the history of memory, we know that the Greeks were the first to seek a physical as opposed to spiritual basis for memory, they developed scientific concepts and a language structure that helped the development of these concepts; and they controbuted the Wax Tablet Hypothesis, which suggested that memory and forgetting were opposite aspects of the same process. And the Romans‘major and extremely important contributions were in the development of memory systems. They were the first to introduce the idea of a Link System and a Room System. The Greeks and the Romans had intuitively realized that there were two underlying principles that insure perfect memory: imagination and association.

The rules for perfect memory laid down by the Greeks fit in exactly with the information recently discovered about the left and right brains. In order to remember well, we must include in our associated and linked mental landscape the following:①colour, ②imagination( expansion, contraction, absurdity) ③rhythm,④movement,⑤the senses ( tasting, touching, smelling, seeing, hearing), ⑥sex,⑦sequencing and ordering, ⑧number ,⑨dimention. (Use your memory, P40-41)

At the same time, in each memory system, there is a Key Word.This key word is very important and critical. It key memory word is specifically designed to be an ―image word‖in that it must produce a picture or image in the mind of the person using the memory system.

5 Some basic memory systems( Use your memory P45-165)

5.1 The link system

The link system is the most basci of all the memory systems and will give us a foudation with which to make learning the most advanced systems extremly easy. The basic system is used for memorizing short lists of items, such as shoping lists or simple words, in which each item is linked to or associated with the next. While using this system, we will be using all of the Basic Memory Principles mentioned before. In using those priciples we will be exercing the dynamic relationship between our left and right brain and thereby increasing the overall power of our brain.Imagine, for example, that we have been asked to shop for the following items:

A silver serving spoon

Six drinking glasses

Bananas

Pure soap

Eggs

Biological washing powder

Dental floss

Wholewheat bread

Tomatoes

Roses

We can teach our students remember them in this way: imange yourself walking out of your front door perfecting the most amazing balanking trick: in your mouth is the most enormous silver-coloured serving spoon, the handle-end of which you are holding between your teeth, as you taste and feel the metal in your mouth.

Carefully banlanced in the ladel-end of the spoon are six exaggeratedly beautiful crystal glasses, through which the sunlight reflects brilliantly into your bedazzled eyes. As you look with delighted amazement at the glasses, you can also hear them delicately tinkling on the silver spoon. Going outside into the street, you step on the most gigantic yellow and browned colored banana, which skids with a swish from under you. Being a fantasic balancer, you barely manage not to fall and confidently place your other foot groundward only to find that you have stepped on a shimmering white bar of pur soup. This being too much for even a master, you fall backward and land seat down on a mound of eggs. As you sink into them, you can hear the cracking of the shells, see the yellow of the yoke and the white of the albumen, and feel the dampness soaking into your clothes.

Using your imagenative ability to exagerate anything, you speed up time and imagine that, in a couple of seconds, you have gone back inside, undressed, washed your solid clothes …

Like this way all the goods can be associated in a few minutes . And we can remember them quickly. Other knoweldge can be remember in the same way. Maybe at first, it is working memory, but when we think about it for a few times and it become permanent memory.

5.2 the number-shape system

The number-shape system also called a Peg Memory System which use a special list of key memory images that never change and to which everything that we wish to rember can be linked and associated. It can be thought of much like a wardrobe containing a certain number of hangers on which you hang your clothes. The hangers themselves never change, but the clothes that are hung them vary infinitely. In this system, which is the first peg systems covered, the number and shape represent the hangers, and the things we wish to remember with the system represent the clothes to be hung on the hangers. The system is an easy one and uses only the numbers from 1 to 10.

5.3 The number-rhyme system

It is identical in principle to the number-shaped system , which can be used for remembering short list of items that we need to store in our memory for only a brieftime. In this system, we need to devise the key memory images represented by a word that rhymes with the sound of the number. Eg,number 1 use bun, 5 use hive , etc.

5.5 The roman room system

The roman room system is particulally amenable to the use of the left and right brain, and to the Memory Principles, because it requires very precise structuring and ordering, as well as a lot of imagination and sensuality. The delight of this system is that the room is entirely imaginary, so we can have in it every wonderful item that we wish. This system eminates all boudaries on our imagination and allows us to remember as many items as we wish. When we have completed this, draw our ideal Memory Room either as an artist‘s drawing or as an architect‘s plan, both drawing and printing in the names of items with which we are going to furnish and decorate it.

When complete this task, take a number of ?mental walks‘around our room, memorising precisly the order, position and number of items in the room (left brain)

and similarily sensing with all our senses the colours, tastes, feels, smells and sounds within our room.

5.6 The alphbet system

The alphbet system is the final peg system and is similar in construction to the Number-shape and Number-Rhyme systems, the only difference being that , instead of using numbers, it uses the 26 letters of alphbet. The rules for constructing our Alphbet memory system are simple, they are as follows: select a key image word that starts with the sound of the letter and is easily memorized. If we think of several possibilities for a letter, use the one that comes first in the dictionary. The reason for this rule is that we should never forget our alphabet key image word, we can mentaly flick through the letters of the alphabet in order, rapidly arriving at the correct word. Another rule is that if the letter itself makes a word, then that word should be used. Such as A-Ace B-bee C-sea D-deed etc.

5.7 The major system

The major system is ultimate Memory System. It has been used and continually improved upon for more than 300 years , since the middle of the seventeenth century, when it was introduced by Stanislaus Mink von Wennsshein‘s basic construction was modified in the early eighteenth century by Dr. Richard Grey, an Englishman. The major system was divised to enable the master memorisers of the time to break the bonds of the previously excellent but more limited system. These master memorisers wanted a system that would enable them to memorize a list o f items not only longer than ten but as long as they wanted. At the same time, they wanted this system to enable them to remember numbers and dates and to order and structure memory in hundreds and thousands of detailed ways.

The basic concept of the system is that makes use of a different consonant or consonant sound for each number from 0 to 9 in a special code.

The major system‘s special code

0--s,z, soft c (the s or z is the first letter of 0.o is the last letter)

1--d,t,th ( d,t have one downstroke)

2—n (n has two downstroke)

3—m (m has three downstroke)

4—r ( r is the last letter of 4)

5—l (a hand with five spead fingers, the index finger and thumb forming an L shape)

6--j,sh,soft ch,dg,soft g(j is the mirror image of 6)

7--k,hard ch,hard c, hard g, ng,qu(k looks like two 7)

8---f,v (f when handwritten, has two loops, similar to the number 8)

9--b,p ( b,p a mirror image of 9)

The vowels a,e,i,o,u and the letters h, w and y don‘t have numbers associated with them and are used simply as ?blanks‘in the key memory images words we will soon be creating. Then we can use these code to creat the key image words. Such as:

1—tea

2—Noah

3—Ma

4—Ray

5—Law

6—Jaw

7—Key

8—Foe

9—Pa

10—Daze

11—Dad

12—Dan

13—Dam

14—Dare

…

Use this systems, we can easy memorize cards, long numbers, telephone numbers,scheduals and appointments, dates in our century, important historical dates, vocabulary and language etc.

6 Field is worth reseaching

How to Make full use of the left and right brain to improve memory is worth researching in the modern society. We can create the rules and codes based on the rules of the basic memory systems according to the Chinese people‘s thingking model and habit. Such as 1 can be associated with the image tree, 2 with duck,3 with ears (7)

with gun,...13 with shirt（衣衫谐音），14—doctor（医师）15—parrot（鹦鹉）etc. We need to create a set of codes which are useful and easily understood for every commom Chinese people in order to easily remember the materials we need.

7 Conclusion

In order to improve our memory, we need to develop both hemispheres especially the right hemispheres. And we still need to follow the principles underlying an excellent memory were found by the the older generation. At the same time, the creativeness and new principles are also critical for Chinese people. we need to Absorb the essence, and reject the dross and adjust the measures to our local

conditions. Only in this way, can we benefite a lot from the excellent ideas and methods abroad.

References:

[1] David W. Carroll, Psychology of Language. The fifth edition Foreign

Language Teaching and Research Press and Cengage Learning 2008

[2] [英]东尼·博赞著，丁叶然译，《启动大脑》，北京：中信出版社，2009

[3] [英]东尼·博赞, 巴利·博赞.著，叶刚译. 《思维导图》.北京:中信出版

社,2009.

[3] [英]东尼·博赞著，丁叶然译，《快速阅读》，北京：中信出版社，2009

[4] [英]东尼·博赞著，丁大刚，张相芬译，《博赞学习技巧》，北京：中信出

版社，2009

[5] [英]东尼·博赞著，叶刚译，《超级记忆》，北京：中信出版社，2009

[6] 桂诗春，《实验心理语言学纲要》，长沙：湖南教育出版社，1991

[7] https://www.360docs.net/doc/988762962.html,/Q/What_is_lateralization#ixzz1Y0DJXWog