I spent some more time today listening to Dr. Deak talk about memory and how it works.

Main takeaways:

Memory should be used sparingly because it is exhausting to the brain and an artificial practice
Memory can be useful, but teachers should always check themselves when asking students to memorize

Here are my notes from the session:

on gameplay
- Gameplay depends on the type of game and the purpose of playing it
- can get confusing if you are playing games because it is more fun, not because it is better
- Nintendo DS brain games are well designed by a neurologist

Sleep interference means the brain will not grow as well as if it was not interfered with
- text messages at night are literally decreasing IQ's
there are 5-7 things universities/companies are looking for, and we must be looking at
- brain people agree on about 5
- Tony Wagner's survival skills
- Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind
- Howard Gardner's 5 Minds for the Future

Parent education is an essential part of this
- if you don't train parents they will be scared off and head to other schools
Teachers who use too much negative emotion or anger in their voice diminishes the learning of girls

Memory

the brain tries to forget everything as soon as it is done using it unless:
- it is meaningful
- or the brain thinks it needs it to survive
- or you use extraordinary technique
we teach the brain to memorize
1. working (prefrontal cortex) 2. short term 3. long term (hippocampus)
to convert from working to short term memory, something has to happen
- when using someone's strength (big rubberband) they move it to short term memory easily
- hard part: when do you use a big rubberband and when do you make it use a shorter one?
- if you enter into visual, auditory, and motoric memory, it will have a better chance of retrieval
- when using a small rubberband, increase repetitions
- when stored in long term, the hippocampus knows exactly where to pull it from - orchestrates the answer (might be in many places in the brain)
- how you put something in the brain is the same way it is going to come out - constraining variable
Keys to memory
- attach emotion to it - make it meaningful
- repetition - depends on the size of rubberband used - inversely proportional
- which rubber bands you use
- mnemonic devices