How do you usually remember new information? Do you rewrite it several times so that it is deposited in your head? Visualize? Or do you cover the entire space around with colored stickers with reminders? Neurophysiologist Melissa Mead claims that there is an easier and more effective way — drawing.
If you are afraid of forgetting to wish someone from relatives or friends a happy birthday, to book a place in a restaurant, to buy food for dinner, a simple way can help you. Grab a pen and paper and draw yourself a reminder.
An interesting study was recently published in the scientific journal Conciousness and Cognition. Scientists have found that drawing, better than any other means, helps to remember new information. It proved to be more effective than sticky notes, visualization exercises, and just looking at images with reminders. At the same time, it is not necessary to be able to draw well, it is not necessary to be a modern Rembrandt. Study author Melissa Meade, a neuroscientist, says the technique will be especially helpful for young people (such as students) and older people with dementia.
Drawing helps memorization because it involves several types of memory at once.
“Drawing small pictures is not difficult, anyone can practice it regularly to improve their memory. For example, if you draw a picture of the food you need to buy or the dinner you plan to cook, it will be much easier for you to remember this,” explains Mead.
During the study, Melissa Mead and her colleagues invited 48 volunteers of all ages, from students to 80-year-old seniors. The scientists asked them to write down 15 words and draw simple pictures for the other XNUMX. For example, a boat for the word «yacht».
Then, as a distraction, the scientists gave another task: to listen to 60 sounds and divide them into low, medium and high. After this exercise, the participants were asked to recall the maximum number of words from the first experiment in two minutes. It turned out that both young and old volunteers remembered better those words for which they drew pictures. Drawing was especially helpful for the elderly.
Melissa Mead explains that this method helps memorization because it involves several types of memory at once: visual, spatial, verbal, semantic and motor.
Drawing is especially useful for the elderly, including those who suffer from dementia. The scientists who conducted the experiment believe that it will be of great practical importance. As we age, the ability to remember new information weakens. This is due to the gradual degradation of the critical areas of the brain responsible for memory — the hippocampus and frontal lobes. But drawing mainly involves other visual processing areas, which usually remain intact even in dementia.
“Drawing helps older people remember information better than other ways. For example, old people are often advised to think carefully about the meaning of what they want to remember, but this method is not so effective, ”says Melissa Mead.
This method can also be useful for those who are younger. Many schoolchildren and students are accustomed to memorizing lectures by taking notes. In many cases it would be more useful to sketch lectures. But even if the drawing method is not suitable for some reason, in order to memorize the educational material, it is better not to rewrite notes, but to read them aloud or depict what is described with gestures.
Source: Huffington Post