Test Your Memory - Bird List - 1

Here is a list of birds; review this list for 10 minutes:

thrush
woodpecker
vulture
ostrich
turkey
raven
penguin
bittern
eider
gull
parrot
owl
avocet
egret
willet
goose
gadwall
flamingo
bluejay
flicker
blackbird
finch
pheasant
sparrow
bobwhite
flycatcher
vireo
swallow
booby
frigatebird
chickadee
crow
brant
gannet
albatross
swan
bunting
goldeneye
chicken
dove
cardiral
grackle
longspur
rooster
catbird
grebe
waxbill
scoter
condor
grosbeak
siskin
coot
grouse
killdeer
crane
heron
yellowthroat
cuckoo
hummingbird
wren
curlew
ibis
weaver
dipper
jay
waxwing
dowitcher
junco
thrasher
tern
teal
warbler
tanager
surfbird
stork
stilt
spoonbill
snipe
skimmer
shrike
shoveler
shearwater
sapsucker
sandpiper
robin
roadrunner
redstart
rail
quail
puffin
pintail
phoebe
petrel
oystercatcher
ovenbird
oriole
nuthatch
nightingale
mockingbird
magpie
loon
lark
kingfisher
kestrel

---

Now, read the following article to spend some time before getting back to the above exercise:

Want to improve your memory? Try 'Moonwalking with Einstein'
http://www.citizen-times.com/
May. 27, 2011

It is not necessary to have a photographic memory to become a memory champion, and one can improve memory using mnemonic techniques. Joshua Foer, a journalist by profession, wrote about his experience and journey to become the “U.S. Memory Champion” in the book “Moonwalking with Einstein.” It is a commendable effort to address and explain the intricacies of the art and science of remembering everything.

Underlining its importance, Foer says that a great memory is the essence of expertise because who we are and what we do is dependent on what we remember. Our identity itself depends on memory, without which we cannot connect our past and future with the present.

The author presents comprehensive research on how memory works and how it can be improved using mnemonics. Our lives and memories are anchored by major events and novelty unfolds our memory.

Routine events are hard to remember, whereas unbelievable, extraordinary and abnormal events are likely to be remembered for a long time. When it comes to text, speeches and poems, we must recognize that we tend to pay attention to the big picture and not the details.

Further, our internal memories are associational and nonlinear. So, one of the memory techniques is to convert routine things like digits, dates and names into visual and engrossing images in an imaginary space. The author argues that an image cannot be created without dwelling on these words, names and digits. He says that the art of memory is learning how little of an image you need to make it memorable.

Foer suggests that how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend. He supports this observation by citing research findings that the number of years one has been doing something correlates weakly with level of performance.

Unless you constantly and consciously challenge and then monitor improvement in performance, you cannot reach new levels of performance. The author suggests that we can do this by pushing ourselves beyond the comfort zone. Learning from mistakes is a key aspect to improve our performance.

The book is useful in providing detailed information about how one can make efforts to improve memory and its importance in our daily lives despite having the greatest external memory repository — the Internet and the plethora of search engines that can help you retrieve any external information. Further, it is important to realize that human minds have more potential than we realize.

This book assumes significance for any student because memory plays a critical role in learning and acquiring new knowledge. The author argues that learning and memorizing complement each other; you cannot learn without memorizing and you cannot memorize without learning.

He further contends that today's education must foster learning the art of remembering to supplement commonly known tenets of progressive education, such as fostering reasoning ability, creativity and independent thinking.

Vittal Anantatmula, an associate professor in the College of Business at Western Carolina University, teaches project management and is the director of graduate programs in project management.

[source: Want to improve your memory? Try 'Moonwalking with Einstein']

---

OK, now, take a pen and paper and just in 15 minutes write a list of birds out of the above list! Do not refer to the list, just use your mind! Your mind should be kept totally busy during this 15 minutes only by remembering the birds!

---

Check your list! How many items are in there?

90+ Perfect! Your memory is already in an excellent shape!

70+ Good!

50+ You have an average memory!

Less? You need to be more serious on training your memory. After 24 hours, do this exercise again. Do this exercise again and again, until you could write a list with, at least, 50 items.

Share

Tweet

9 Things You Can Do to Be Happy in the Next 30 Minutes

9 Things You Can Do to Be Happy in the Next 30 Minutes

Surprising ways to instantly improve your mood.
by Gretchen Rubin

Being happier doesn't have to be a long-term ambition. You can start right now. In the next 30 minutes, tackle as many of the following suggestions as possible. Not only will these tasks themselves increase your happiness, but the mere fact that you've achieved some concrete goals will boost your mood.

1. Raise your activity level to pump up your energy. If you're on the phone, stand up and pace. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Put more energy into your voice. Take a brisk 10-minute walk. Even better...

2. Take a walk outside. Research suggests that light stimulates brain chemicals that improve mood. For an extra boost, get your sunlight first thing in the morning.

3. Reach out. Send an e-mail to a friend you haven't seen in a while, or reach out to someone new. Having close bonds with other people is one of the most important keys to happiness. When you act in a friendly way, not only will others feel more friendly toward you, but you'll also strengthen your feelings of friendliness for other people.

4. Rid yourself of a nagging task. Deal with that insurance problem, purchase something you need, or make that long-postponed appointment with the dentist. Crossing an irksome chore off your to-do list will give you a rush of elation.

5. Create a more serene environment. Outer order contributes to inner peace, so spend some time organizing bills and tackling the piles in the kitchen. A large stack of little tasks can feel overwhelming, but often just a few minutes of work can make a sizable dent. Set the timer for 10 minutes and see what you can do.

6. Do a good deed. Introduce two people by e-mail, take a minute to pass along useful information, or deliver some gratifying praise. In fact, you can also...

7. Save someone's life. Sign up to be an organ donor, and remember to tell your family about your decision. Do good, feel good―it really works!

8. Act happy. Fake it 'til you feel it. Research shows that even an artificially induced smile boosts your mood. And if you're smiling, other people will perceive you as being friendlier and more approachable.

9. Learn something new. Think of a subject that you wish you knew more about and spend 15 minutes on the Internet reading about it, or go to a bookstore and buy a book about it. But be honest! Pick a topic that really interests you, not something you think you "should" or "need to" learn about.

Some people worry that wanting to be happier is a selfish goal, but in fact, research shows that happier people are more sociable, likable, healthy, and productive―and they're more inclined to help other people. By working to boost your own happiness, you're making other people happier, too.

[source: Time Inc. Lifestyle Group: 9 Things You Can Do to Be Happy in the Next 30 Minutes]

Share

Tweet

Word Remembering - Type 1 - No. 3

Word Remembering - Type 1 - No. 3

The mind workouts, entitled as "Word Remembering - Type X", developed by G. R. Roosta, and being posted in this blog, form one of the best methods for improving human memory, precision, and cognitive control.

You have experienced this exercise before in Word Remembering - Type 1 - No. 1 and Word Remembering - Type 1 - No. 2. Again, concentrate and just in ten minutes, provide three words for each question below:

1) Three words ending with CLUDE?

2) Three words starting with OUTS?

3) Three words containing NOUS?

4) Three 6-letter words starting with the letter M?

5) Three words containing both CA and OT?

---

To get your score, for each question that you could answer three words, give yourself a "4". If you could answer two words then add a "2.25". If you could find only one word for a question then give it a "1". Hence, if one could provide three words for each question her score would be 20.

Sum up your total score! Keep it in mind. You need to trace your own scores to realize whether you are really improving your cognitive functions or not!

---

Here are some answers to the questions of this post:

1) Three words ending with CLUDE?

1. include
2. exclude
3. seclude

2) Three words starting with OUTS?

1. outsell
2. outset
3. outstand

3) Three words containing NOUS?

1. asynchronously
2. cavernous
3. ruinous

4) Three 6-letter words starting with the letter M?

1. mackle
2. madcap
3. mailer

5) Three words containing both CA and OT?

1. cabotage
2. capote
3. carrot

Share

Tweet

Interview with Elizabeth Amini, Anti-Aging Games

Interview with Elizabeth Amini, Anti-Aging Games

Story by Benjamin F. Kuo

Earlier this week, Los Angeles-based Anti-AgingGames (www.Anti-AgingGames.com), a new online game startup, announced a new service to help users improve their memory and concentration, as well as improve brain function. The firm notably has Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as an advisor and serving as its chief game designer. We spoke with co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Amini, to hear more about what the firm is doing, how Bushnell got involved, as well as the firm's unique outlook and dedication to giving back through social entrepreneurship.

What does Anti-AgingGames do?

Elizabeth Amini: We make fun and easy online games designed to stimulate memory, concentration, focus, and relaxation. We're the only site that is specialized in people over the age of 35 in that area. The reason we're targeting that age group, is it's very hard to make a game fun for someone who is fifteen and has a very sharp mind, and also very hard for someone who is 80 and is in the early stages of Alzheimer's. So, we are specializing in cognitively healthy people, who are younger than who most of our competitors are targeting. There is lots of competition in this area for serving retirement homes. We felt we'd have more impact over time, if we instead focused on people who are one generation younger, still working, and are active.

How did you end up starting the site?

Elizabeth Amini: My background is actually in science. I studied cognitive science, the study of the brain, as an undergraduate. However, I graduated in a recession, and woke up to the brutal awakening that there were no jobs for scientists with just a Bachelor's degree. My other, non-marketable skill included philosophy. So I actually started a graphic design company out of college, and got lucky with the web taking off at the right time. This is my third company.

You also have a background as a scientist at JPL?

Elizabeth Amini: My first company was in graphic design, and provide both graphics for the entertainment industry, but also building websites for UCLA and all kinds of places around science, astrophysics, and those types of departments. Because they were science related, at some point I ended up talking with NASA JPL. They offered me a contract job at the intersection of science and graphics, which is satellite imaging, a dream come true. I ended up managing that project. That turned out great, and I ended up working on various science research projects for five years. I even built them a few websites too.

How did you connect with Nolan?

Elizabeth Amini: I actually ran into him in 2005, when he was a keynote speaker at a conference. At the time, I was running a performance-based consulting firm. I took me four attempts to run up to him, I was so nervous because he had been a childhood hero. I used to play videogames 25 hours a week. He liked my ideas and hired my company to be his strategy consulting company. Over time, we grew to be friends.

What's his role with the company?

Elizabeth Amini: He's our advisor, and also chief game visionary. I asked him if he wanted to be involved, and he asked me if I wanted his money, or his time. I told him, I wanted him to invest his time.

So Nolan is behind the design of the games?

Elizabeth Amini: He's the one who waves his hands, and tells the programmers the way they need to go. We've got an iterative design process, where he starts it, it goes to the scientists to put the science in, then it goes back to him to figure out how much less fun they've made it, then it goes back to Nolan for changes, and then back to the scientists to figure out how much less effective it has become. The iterative cycle continues until the game becomes both fun and effective.

Back to the website, describe who the demographics are of your customers?

Elizabeth Amini: Our primary demographic is 40 to 65 years old. They are really busy people, at the prime of their lives, and are sharp, and don't have lots of time. But, what we've built is a system that is super flexible, that they can hop on at any time. You don't need a CD, or hardware, it's completely web based. It's actually based on Amazon's cloud. They can hop on and play whatever games they want for the duration of time they want. Those games stimulate working memory, retention, focus, plus we also have relaxation and stress reduction games. The goal is to stimulate their brain, and the second goal is to reduce the risk of early memory loss by teaching them the most effective lifestyle habits to adopt. We are looking to teach people the right habits when they are young enough (ages 35-65) to make a difference in the long run. An example of that is we have built in daily tips, which we have put together after going through 17,000 medical studies on what to do to reduce early memory loss. One of those tips, is a half an hour fast walk, five times a week is linked to a 33 percent less risk of developing Alzheimer's. If you tell someone in science, they know that, but if you tell a regular person, they often don't know that fast walking is good for you. That's because there is a 15 to 17 year lag between science and when the general public finds that out. By doing a modicum of physical activity and changing your lifestyle, you're making a huge difference in your health in 5-10, or 15 to 20 years. It's good to invest time and care into yourself starting right now.

Was it difficult to translate the science into games?

Elizabeth Amini: It was actually really hard. We went through every cognitive training study, and looked at each to see if they worked or not, or figure out what the flaw of that game or study was when they didn't work. If they worked, we tried to figure out why, and if certain age groups benefited most. Another issue is one of measurement, It turns out most cognitive assessment tests are made for people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's, and there aren't too many tests that are sensitive enough to detect positive changes in people who are healthy and sharp. The NIH is working on building these assessment tests now.

You mentioned earlier that the customers you are targeting tend to be pretty busy-- what's your strategy to get those customers to sign up and stay?

Elizabeth Amini: Our strategy is really simple. Out of over every ten people who see the site, one or two are really gravitate or are attracted to it. Those are the innovators and early adopters. We want to grab the people who are curious, who will try to see if it works for them or not. After playing the games twice, it shows you what you did the first time, your baseline score, versus your score right now. Over time, you'll see if you are improving or not. As they improve, the will tell everybody, because they will be excited to see their memory improving. As they improve their focus and memory, and we're finding they even become happier and more self confident, those people actually do the marketing for us.

How is the firm funded?

Elizabeth Amini: We're privately funded by the founders. We made a decision not to go for venture capital early. We actually wrote the business plan in a business plan class at USC. It won a business plan contest, and we got inundated with offers from venture capitalists. But, we never were looking for funding. The more we said no, the stronger they came after us. But, the reason we ultimately said no, is because we have 20 percent in pretax earnings earmarked to fund and help lives, with prevention and cure research as well as other ways to help improve lives. We're funding things like clean water, education, and other efforts. We were worried, if we took venture capital--and this was in 2008, before everything crashed--that if we had an investor too focused on the bottom line, the first time we hit a rough patch we'd be forced to push that 20 percent down. Luckily, when the crash happened, we didn't have that kind of pressure. The other thing, which turns out to be a competitive advantage we have over our competitors, is your data is completely safe with us. We do not want to provide that data to insurance or supplement or advertising companies who, if you think about it if your mental performance is declining, are the last people you want to see your data. Compare that to our competitors, who don't know if they are being sold in two or three years, who will be buying them, and who will be seeing their customer's data in the long run. We're keeping things private, clean, and very safe.

source: SOCALTECH LLC

Share

Tweet

How to Improve Your Memory

At-a-glance

How to Improve Your Memory

May 10, 2011 By By: Andrea Morales


Don’t you hate it when you’re rushing out of the house, but then all of a sudden you realize you forgot your book upstairs? Just as you get upstairs, you forget where your book is? This happens to me all the time and I bet it happens to you too sometimes. Well, fortunately, there is a way to help improve your memory.
First of all, stay positive. If you are always telling yourself, ‘I have a terrible memory, I can’t remember anything!’ then you will most likely not be able to improve your memory. Stay positive; tell yourself that you can improve your memory. Once you convince yourself that you can, the next steps will be super easy.
Most of the time, you can’t remember your friend’s phone number because it’s just a bunch of random numbers. This also happens with many other things, such as their address or how much you spent when you went shopping, etc. Luckily, there is a way to help you remember this useful information. The first thing you can do it write down your friends’ number. Using the first letter of each number, create a sentence. If you can’t do this, make a story. Using your friend in the story is even more helpful.
Usually, you can remember something more easily if you can visualize it. For example, if you want to remember to pick up you little sister from a friend’s house, imagine her in a house with the time you need to pick her up shining brightly. You will probably forget that, so try your hardest to make the image as shocking and emotional as possible.
When you go out shopping, it’s hard to remember everything you put down. Try making it easier for yourself by categorizing the individual things from the list. For example, group together the type of shorts you want to buy and the shirt, etc. Doing this should make your shopping much easier for you.
You always hear your teacher telling you to study days before your test, but sometimes this is the wrong thing to say. Studying days before is the best option, but you can also do it the day before. When you study for days, it stays in your head for a longer period of time and can help you with finals, but if you find yourself really busy and unable to do this, it’s fine. If you do study the day before, the material you are studying will only be remembered for a short period of time.
Doing all of these things can help you, but the most important is organizing your life. Put items that you use on a daily basis in the same spot everyday. Use a daily planner to keep track of appointments, due dates, and other important tasks. Being organized can leave extra room for more things to memorize or remember.
Memorizing something can be easy if you use these simple steps. You will be memorizing pi in no time!

source: How to Improve Your Memory

Share

Tweet

Word Remembering - Type 1 - No. 2

Word Remembering - Type 1 - No. 2

The mind workouts, entitled as "Word Remembering - Type X", developed by G. R. Roosta, and being posted in this blog, form one of the best methods for improving human memory, precision, and cognitive control.

You have experienced this exercise before in "Word Remembering - Type 1 - No. 1". Again, concentrate and just in ten minutes, provide three words for each question below:

1) Three words ending with VENT?

2) Three words starting with REME?

3) Three words containing TRANG?

4) Three 6-letter words starting with the letter K?

5) Three words containing both BO and RD?

---

To get your score, for each question that you could answer three words, give yourself a "4". If you could answer two words then add a "2.25". If you could find only one word for a question then give it a "1". Hence, if one could provide three words for each question her score would be 20.

Sum up your total score! Keep it in mind. You need to trace your own scores to realize whether you are really improving your cognitive functions or not!

---

Here are some answers to the questions of this post:

1) Three words ending with VENT?

1. circumvent
2. event
3. prevent

2) Three words starting with REME?

1. remedy
2. remember
3. remex

3) Three words containing TRANG?

1. estrange
2. outrange
3. strange

4) Three 6-letter words starting with the letter K?

1. kettle
2. kicker
3. killer

5) Three words containing both BO and RD?

1. aboard
2. boulevard
3. dashboard

Share

Tweet