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A new study explains why variable practice improves your memory of most skills better than practice focused on a single task.
While studies have demonstrated that listening to music before doing a task can improve performance on that task, chiefly through its effect on mood, there has been little research into the effects of background music while doing the task.
A number of studies have demonstrated that negative stereotypes (such as “women are bad at math”) can impair performance in tests. Now a new study shows that this effect extends to learning. The study involved learning to recognize target Chinese characters among sets of two or four.
Context is important for memory. Therefore it’s not surprising that shifting your mind’s focus to another context can impair recall — or help you forget.
Some years ago I wrote an article discussing the fact that the so-called Mozart effect has proved very hard to replicate since its ‘discovery’ in 1993, but now we have what is regarded as a definitive review, analyzing the entirety of the scientific record on the topic (including a number of unpu
A new study challenges the popular theory that expertise is simply a product of tens of thousands of hours of deliberate practice. Not that anyone is claiming that this practice isn’t necessary — but it may not be sufficient.
Because Nicaraguan Sign Language is only about 35 years old, and still evolving rapidly, the language used by the younger generation is more complex than that used by the older generation. This enables researchers to compare the effects of language ability on other abilities.
Three experiments involving students who had lived abroad and those who hadn't found that those who had experienced a different culture demonstrated greater creativity — but only when they first recalled a multicultural learning experience from their life abroad.
Another study showing the cognitive benefits of meditation has revealed benefits to perception and attention.
Great news for those who crave the benefits of meditation but find the thought a bit intimidating!
Articles on Mempowered
- Everyday memory strategies
- Improving attention
- Mnemonics
- Photographic Memory
- Practice counts! So does talent
- Knowing what to do
- Metamemory
- A cognitive failure is generally a strategy failure
- Have we really forgotten how to remember?
- Memory is complicated
- Why asking the right questions is so important, and how to do it
- Successful remembering requires effective self-monitoring
- Why it’s important to work out the specific skills you want to improve
- Variety is the key to learning
- The most effective learning balances same and different context
- What babies can teach us about effective information-seeking and management
- Shaping your cognitive environment for optimal cognition
- Retraining the brain
- Finding the right strategy through perception and physical movement
- Subliminal & sleep learning
- When are two (or more) heads better than one?
- Approaches to learning another language