How narratives can improve working memory and organize information in our minds

I watched this TedTalk on working memory. Peter Doolittle had interesting points on how our working memories work. Working memory is always on while you’re awake, and it’s what enables you to make sense of everything around and also in you. It gives us aspect of time; it’s difficult to imagine world without sensation of time. Without saving that moment a second ago we wouldn’t get feeling of time passing. So working memory is very essential to how we conceive the world. As mentioned in the TedTalk, it’s also crucial to our learning. Doolittle encourages to process new information right away the moment we hear it for the first time in order to remember it longer. Processing can be done by imagining the new thing in pictures, or as I prefer to process information, place it in a narrative. Technically remembering something is lighting up neurons, and processing information increases the act of neurons lighting, and that way the memory is strengthened.

I was in this test in which my working memory was tested. On the computer screen I was shown words one after other with a time delay of two seconds or so. It started with just four words and when the words had flashed in front of me one by one, I had to remember the words and write them down in the order they appeared. In the end of the test there were 16 words to remember. First I hadn’t used any mnemonics, but when it began to be harder and harder to remember the words and they started to slip away, I came up with this idea of placing the words in a kind of story. There was no time to reason a logical story, so I just connected the words with the first conjunctions that I could think of. The connections between the words were sometimes irrational and in addition to relative words, I mentally pictured the story I was inventing. Let’s say the words to remember were: banana, tree, motorway, mirror, water tap, knife, and chair.  The story could sound something like this: “A banana tree fell on the motorway. On the motorway there was a mirror in which a water tap could be seen. From the water tap it’s pouring knives that fall on a chair.”   Placing the words in a ridiculous little story I was able to remember the words and their appearance still a week after the test. In the second part of the test simple calculations were added between the appearances of the words to make things even more difficult. But for me the second part of the test went actually better than the first because I had more time on coming up with my silly mnemonics. I also had time to repeat the whole “story” from the beginning every time a new word occurred. So the words in the beginning were repeated many times in my head by the end which helped in memorizing them.

As mentioned in the beginning, narratives are not present only in remembering stuff but also in understanding concepts, even complicated ones. Or should I say, especially when trying to understand difficult ideas like meaning of life or the beginning of the universe. Narratives are the way how small children get the introduction to the concepts of the world. Those narratives are also known as fairy tales. In fairy tales we learn incrementally, in small steps, to understand feelings like love or braveness or to deal with fear and death. In addition to the external narratives composed by other beings in books, television, internet or radio, we listen all the time the internal narrative, train of thought so to say. I would say that narratives are deeply tied to the evolution of language itself. When human beings started to communicate feelings and thoughts via language, they started making sense of their surroundings and internal conditions in the form of speak, and by structuring the speak with a beginning and an ending it became a story.

In my opinion, making up narratives is an in-built mechanism us humans have for a purpose of structuring information, and it has developed for thousands of years of evolution. So it’s something you would want to take into consideration if you wanted to understand how your learning could be improved and to actually understand why you think the way you do. It’s starting sound like I’m proposing the reader a philosophical quest to participate in but hold your horses. What it comes to internal narratives, this trick usually works. While listening your daily thoughts, take a moment to consider what they are about. Regard them as story someone else is telling you, and regard yourself as a listener, not someone who is thinking. Now you can consciously valuate your thoughts and consider them. You can then approve or disapprove with them, but there is a twist, there always is. If not focusing, the considering of the thoughts can turn into listening your thoughts again. It’s easier to take distance to an external story, like giving thoughts on a sub text of a news story.

To conclude, narratives can not only be utilized in improving working memory as I mentioned in the beginning of this article, but they can also be a method to understand the working the conscious mind. I’m certain that not everybody has this kind of verbal line of thought that I do, and not everybody would be able to improve their working memory via stories, but I think many people get influenced by TV-series, commercials and news without really understanding the mechanisms of how our minds work.

Text: Otto Koskinen, a student of Independent Study in English course

Good Ways to Improve Your Vocabulary

Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language. The more word you know the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read – and furthermore the better you will be able to write and say what you want.
Many people build their English vocabulary through a blend of methods – by reading books, watching movies in English, listening to the radio, finding a good podcast that you like in English, taking English classes and studying English with English language software. Every day you have possibility to hear and read many new English words. You can’t learn all the new words, so you should decide which ones to concentrate on.
Doing lots of reading is an excellent way to learn new English words. So read a lot and read good writing. Meeting the word again and again in your reading helps you to learn it and the text contexts will enrich your attempt to build a better vocabulary. Studying list of words in not the best way. Studying words divorced from their context makes those words harder to remember and harder to use later – so do not just read through a list of words with their definitions or translation.
Do not try to learn words that are very rare or not useful. Be focused to learn the words the subjects you are studying or working with. Or learn the words that you know you want to use yourself in every day conversation. You have to really want to learn new vocabulary if you’re going to succeed. Once you have chosen which words you like to learn – then you have to decide how you are going to learn them.
Native speakers learn new words by hearing and reading them again and again. I think, this is the best way for you to learn unfamiliar and new words, too. So try to spell and pronounce all new words you hear and find the context in which it is most likely to be used. Use the words you learn when you’re talking to people or writing an e-mail. Using your new vocabulary is not only exciting and fun, but a great way to remember all the new word. And if you have a friends who speaks English, you can chat, email and even make phone calls them every day. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
And the most important of the all – have fun and play with words. Play Scrabble and do crossword puzzles for example. These and other vocabulary games are available for the computer, so you are not always dependent on a friend to play. Use Google and play games that test your knowledge and will help you to learn new words.
English learning doesn’t have to be a daily routine, just something to do when you have time – so don’t overdo it. If you feel stressed out, you are maybe being too hard on
yourself! The truth is that you will learn new things more effectively when you find it
enjoyable!

Text: Tuomas Nykänen, a student of Independent Study in English course

As easy as ABC?

Learning Swedish at the age of 10 was like a fun game in the park! It was a bunch of strange words that suddenly made sense after a bit of repeating and memorizing. And I can still remember the same words. I even was able to sound so authentic in my Stockholm trip a few years back saying "hej" to the tourist guide that I found myself circling around the King's palace with a group of native retirees. Nice paintings - I may have missed out a couple of essential historical details, though. English was another easy ride. Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210 (all 80's kids know what I am talking about!) enriched my vocabulary with such words and expressions I have hardly found them useful in business life. But it has been handy when giving feedback at a restaurant or going out with English speaking friends. What about Spanish then? Oh boy. The grammar is just        completely against common sense. In high school it suddenly wasn't as easy or motivating to learn a new     language any longer. I even tried out German in college and was able to pass the courses (yes, two of them) by adding extra consonants to Swedish words. Smart trick at that time, very little help have I had ever since of that skill.

Is it really possible to learn a new language as an adult? Researchers know for a fact that an adult brain does not acquire new language as children's do. No-one says it's easy but it is not impossible. Language learning capacity diminishes sharply after puberty, researchers say. Adults learn differently. Key is incremental, step-by-step learning. As an adult one already has experience of learning to leverage, this is a benefit.

Just very recently I have caught myself thinking, I should learn Italian. This idea felt especially good in Venice last summer. The Italian host at the Amarone estate made me fall in love with the language. And this was already before the tasting. There is something about the culture and intonation of Italian that makes me want to learn to speak the language. To integrate to the culture the next time I travel there.

So effort matters but I claim, so does passion; if you have a certain interest, hobby or other motivation factor, it will make it easier to spend the hours remembering words, expressions and grammar. It gives the motivation to do all the hard work as an adult to learn the language.

I never liked Spanish wines anyway.

If you want to read more about Forbes columnist Keens' thoughts about learning a news language, visit: http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/27/learn-second-language-lifestyle-travel-study.html Useful tips for adult students at http://www.livinglanguage.com/community/discussion/340/too-old-to-learns-research-says-no./p1

Text: Leena Suoninen, a student of Independent Study in English course