Links With Your Coffee - Wednesday
Fighting in northwest Iraq claims lives of 21 Marines in 3 days. How can anyone believe we are winning and that the talk of withdrawing is anything more than declaring victory and running.
Family Values Republican Style what a guy, uses his family for PR all the photos face out, see I'm a family man, meanwhile Mitt gets the back of the frames to remind him what an ass he is.
Surprise Bush endorses Intelligent Design I like Billmon's take on it The Decent of Man and be sure and follow the H.L. Mencken link. (thanks to Rob for heads up)
Nanotechnology kills cancer cells
Learn Without Thinking
I don't know if it is the same, but there are phone numbers that I don't consciously remember, at least not reliably, but my fingers seem never to forget. I put the phone to my ear place my fingers on the keypad and by some miracle my fingers punch out the correct number. Perhaps this information is being stored in the same area of the brain as the habitual learning discussed in the article. Fascinating isn't it?
Humans learn without explicit thought
Humans can learn skills without remembering what they have done, according to a study of patients with severe amnesia. Such learning is seen in monkeys, but experts were unsure whether humans retained this ability, because of our tendency to think consciously about whatever we are learning.
Comments
While interesting, I'm surprised this study got published in Nature. Psychologists are quite aware of this type of memory--it even has a name. While facts, figures, and other types of memorization are called declaritive memory, skills and habits are grouped into what's called procedural memory. Amnesiacs have always been able to ride bikes, read, write, and yes, dial a phone number that they have repeatedly dialed.
In fact, this same experiment is shown in the film Memento, and it is eventually how Lenny determines Sammy Jenkis was lying about his anteriograde memory loss (Sammy doesn't learn the skill, even though it was known that he should have despite his injury). Still, pretty interesting stuff.
Posted by: Vern | August 3, 2005 6:37 AM | Reply to this comment
I'm usually not very good at remembering things, but have learned a technique that works for me very well...Sounds stupid, but I make small verses. E.g. I learned the "periodic table of the elements" in a day using rhymes and verses.
A1: How Little the Naive & Kind Ruben Coughs on Fridays...H Li Na K Rb Cs Fr
etc etc..
Stupid or not,- it works for me....I find it quite effective actually...
Posted by: Madsen | August 3, 2005 6:14 PM | Reply to this comment