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Abstract

To locate structural changes in the brain accounting for the increasing effectiveness in cognition and skills that occurs at the final stage of behavioral development, we attempted to determine the age at which the corpus callosum completes its active growth period. We assessed the growth rate of the corpus callosum by measuring its area twice on midsagittal magnetic resonance imaging scans separated by a 2-year interval, in a series of 90 subjects with a wide range of ages. We observed an increase in the size of the corpus callosum as long as human mentation expands, up to the middle 20s. Clinical and experimental data about the corpus callosum, together with the present findings, suggest that the corpus callosum is part of the highest order-latest maturing neural network of the brain.

Glia-Driven Brain Circuit Refinement Is Altered by Early-Life Adversity: Behavioral Outcomes.

Milbocker KA, Campbell TS, Collins N, Kim S, Smith IF, Roth TL, Klintsova AY. Milbocker KA, et al. Front Behav Neurosci. 2021 Dec 2;15:786234. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.786234. eCollection 2021. Front Behav Neurosci. 2021. PMID: 34924972 Free PMC article. Review.

Revisiting brain rewiring and plasticity in children born without corpus callosum.

Siffredi V, Preti MG, Obertino S, Leventer RJ, Wood AG, McIlroy A, Anderson V, Spencer-Smith MM, Van De Ville D. Siffredi V, et al. Dev Sci. 2021 Nov;24(6):e13126. doi: 10.1111/desc.13126. Epub 2021 Jun 1. Dev Sci. 2021. PMID: 34060677 Free PMC article.

Comparative morphology of the corpus callosum across the adult lifespan in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and humans.

Westerhausen R, Fjell AM, Kompus K, Schapiro SJ, Sherwood CC, Walhovd KB, Hopkins WD. Westerhausen R, et al. J Comp Neurol. 2021 May 1;529(7):1584-1596. doi: 10.1002/cne.25039. Epub 2020 Sep 26. J Comp Neurol. 2021. PMID: 32978976 Free PMC article.

Morphometric Analysis of the Corpus Callosum According to Age and Sex in Middle Eastern Arabs: Racial Comparisons and Clinical Correlations to Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Allouh MZ, Al Barbarawi MM, Ali HA, Mustafa AG, Alomari SO. Allouh MZ, et al. Front Syst Neurosci. 2020 Jun 23;14:30. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2020.00030. eCollection 2020. Front Syst Neurosci. 2020. PMID: 32655379 Free PMC article.

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national center for biotechnology information

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When does human brain development end? Evidence of corpus callosum growth up to adulthood - PubMed

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To locate structural changes in the brain accounting for the increasing effectiveness in cognition and skills that occurs at the final stage of behavioral development, we attempted to determine the age at which the corpus callosum completes its active growth period. We assessed the growth rate of th ...

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This figure is called ‘My Wife and my Mother-in-Law’. There are two different ways of interpreting this image. One is of a young lady looking back over her shoulder, the other of an elderly lady in profile looking down.

This sort of image is referred to as an “illusory” or “ambiguous” figure. In this example the image fluctuates in meaning (wife, mother-in-law). Other ambiguous figures fluctuate in space, as with the Necker Cube example below. There is nothing special about this image – you could sketch out a transparent cube on a scrap of paper at home and produce the same effect.

Necker cube illusion - is corner 1 nearest to you, or is it corner 2? Illustration: Pete Etchells/The Guardian

Once you have seen both interpretations you should experience the image spontaneously reversing back and forth while you look at it. It is not possible to see both interpretations at the same time and the perception of flipping back and forth is called “reversal”.

Other visual illusions fluctuate when you focus on the foreground or the background, as with the sexy dolphins illusion: adults very swiftly see the image in the foreground of two lovers canoodling, while children below around eight years of age see the nine dolphins that make up the image. This points to the importance of experience and expectation in how ambiguous images are perceived. Can’t see the dolphins? They’re there - keep looking.

How it works

Well … nobody really knows. Ambiguous figures have been a hot topic in Psychology and Vision Science since the 1800s. A great deal of research examines how on earth the brain turns the patchy deluge of stimuli bombarding the retina into a coherent, three-dimensional mental representation of the world. Ambiguous figures are interesting because they are thought to be a nice clean example of exactly the sort of ambiguity that the brain has to deal with moment to moment.

The main debate centres on whether reversals occur because of bottom-up perceptual processes or top-down cognitive processes. In the Necker Cube example above, focusing on corner 1 may cause that corner to appear slightly closer, dragging the rest of the cube behind it and causing the perception of it changing in depth. This is one piece of evidence that reversals occur through bottom-up perception. However, reversals also occur if the eyes are kept fixated on a single point, so this can’t be the whole story.

Reversals only occur if the observer knows there is an alternative interpretation and you can often make your perception reverse by simply imagining the alternative. You can also prime people to see one interpretation quicker than the other. These findings are seen as evidence that top-down cognitive processes have a role in reversals.

Interestingly, children don’t spontaneously experience reversals when looking at ambiguous figures until about five years of age, even when the two interpretations have been clearly pointed out to them. Experiencing reversals correlates with passing other tasks that require children to recognise that a single object or event can have multiple interpretations, as with homonyms, synonyms and understanding that others can have beliefs different from their own.

And experiencing reversals may be linked to development of the corpus callosum, a thick band of nerves connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. Children do not experience the same rate of reversals as adults until the corpus callosum is fully developed at around 10 years of age. Children born with a damaged or missing corpus callosum experience very few reversals at all.

So although ambiguous figures have received a great deal of research attention, it is still unclear why we experience them as flipping from one interpretation to the other. Current theories suggest that it is a combination of both bottom-up perceptual processes and top-down cognitive control that is at work, but how much each of those contribute to the experience remains unclear. In many ways, the data are as ambiguous and intriguing as the figures themselves.

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Unlike many others, the Guardian has no shareholders and no billionaire owner. Just the determination and passion to deliver high-impact global reporting, always free from commercial or political influence. Reporting like this is vital for democracy, for fairness and to demand better from the powerful.

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Ambiguous figure illusions: do they offer a window on the mind?

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Do you see a wife, or a mother-in-law in this picture? Ambiguous figures have intrigued scientists since the 1800s, but what can they tell us about our visual system?

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How are memories saved? Where does the recording take place and how?
-Michael Saayman, Cape Town, South Africa

Michael Rugg, director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the
University of California, Irvine, provides an explanation:

UNDERSTANDING EXACTLY how the brain encodes and stores memories is one of the central, unsolved mysteries in neuroscience. Currently the most widely accepted theory is long-term potentiation (LTP)-the lasting communication established between two neurons when they are stimulated simultaneously.

As a person processes an event, two neurons pass information through a small space called a synapse. This chemical conversation triggers an intricate cascade, inviting nearby neurons to fire and ultimately creating a network of connections with varying strengths. Afterward, this pattern of connections, or memory, remains within the network of neurons that processed the event.

Although many areas of the brain contain synapses capable of creating strong patterns of connectivity, the hippocampus is a particularly favorable spot for recording memories. This brain region plays a critical role in learning new information, forming spatial memories
and storing short-term memories as long-term ones.

Memories formed with the hippocampus are especially rich because they integrate input from several areas of the brain, and the hippocampus contains densely packed layers of neurons. In addition, damage to this region and nearby areas causes profound and permanent amnesia-an inability to store new memories or to recall old ones-and is observed in patients who have Alzheimer's disease.

How does background noise affect our concentration?
-Philip Miele, Dublin, Ohio

Mark A. W. Andrews, director and professor of physiology at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., offers a reply:

BACKGROUND OR LOW-LEVEL noise in the home, work or school often disrupts people's concentration. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, ambient noise also affects people's health by increasing general stress levels and aggravating stress-related conditions such as high blood pressure, coronary disease, peptic ulcers and migraine headaches. Continued exposure does not lead to habituation; in fact, the effects worsen.

Several studies have indicated that stress resulting from ongoing white noise can induce the release of cortisol, a hormone that helps to restore homeostasis in the body after a bad experience. Excess cortisol impairs function in the prefrontal cortex-an emotional learning center that helps to regulate "executive" functions such as planning, reasoning and impulse control. Some recent evidence indicates that the prefrontal cortex also stores short-term memories. Changes to this region, therefore, may disrupt a person's capacity to think clearly and to retain information.

Though not definitive, recent research also suggests that noise-induced stress may decrease dopamine availability in the prefrontal cortex, where the hormone controls the flow of information from other parts of the body. Stress resulting from background noise, then, may decrease higher brain function, impairing learning and memory.

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How does background noise affect our concentration?

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How are memories saved? Where does the recording take place and how? -Michael Saayman, Cape Town, South Africa Michael Rugg, director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine, provides an explanation: UNDERSTANDING EXACTLY how the brain encodes and stores memories is one of the central, unsolved mysteries in neuroscience.

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Introduction

A few recent studies in humans have shown that the exposure to novelty before a learning phase improves subsequent memory (Fenker et al., 2008; Ballarini et al., 2013; Schomaker et al., 2014). For instance, the presentation of novel images before a word-learning task enhanced free recall and recollection-based memory (Fenker et al., 2008); recall rates of words could be enhanced through an active exploration of a novel virtual environment before the learning phase (Schomaker et al., 2014); and already familiar scene images were subsequently better recognized when they were presented in the context of novel images as compared to a context with very familiar images (Bunzeck and Düzel, 2006). These observations in humans largely fit to animal studies, which also show that long-term memory is not only promoted through novelty exploration before – but also after – learning (Moncada and Viola, 2007; Wang et al., 2010). To our knowledge, however, such a positive effect of novelty after learning has not been reported in humans yet.

The processing of novel information recruits the dopaminergic mesolimbic system. Specifically, the hippocampal-VTA loop model suggests that the medial temporal lobe (including the hippocampus and surrounding cortex) detects novelty by comparing incoming with predicted information (Lisman and Grace, 2005; Lisman et al., 2011). The resulting neural novelty signal is then send to the dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA) via a polysynaptic path, including the subiculum, nucleus accumbens, and ventral pallidum. In turn, DA neurons back-project to the hippocampus, where DA is involved in several forms of learning. For instance, the late phase of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) is DA dependent (O’Carroll and Morris, 2004; Granado et al., 2008), and injections of DA agonists into the hippocampus improve memory processes in rats (Packard and White, 1991). The role of the SN/VTA, hippocampus and also DA in novelty processing has been underlined in functional imaging studies in humans (Chowdhury et al., 2012; Bunzeck et al., 2014), and therefore, the hippocampal-VTA model helps to explain the beneficial effects of novelty on long-term memory. More direct evidence comes from Wang et al. who could show in rats that novelty exploration after spatial encoding improves long-term place-memory (i.e., at a behavioral level), and this effect was blocked by D1/D5 receptor antagonists (Wang et al., 2010).

Recent studies have shown that novelty also activates the noradrenergic system, which co-releases noradrenaline and DA into the hippocampus. Therefore, hippocampal DA has two sources (McNamara and Dupret, 2017; Duszkiewicz et al., 2019), and novelty-dependent activation of the noradrenergic locus coeruleus also drives hippocampus-dependent learning (Kempadoo et al., 2016) and consolidation of everyday memory (Takeuchi et al., 2016) via dopaminergic neuromodulation.

Recognition memory in humans is often investigated using the remember/know paradigm (Tulving, 1985). It assumes that recognition can be associated with specific details or associations of the encoding episode (i.e., recollection), or in the absence of such recollective experience (i.e., familiarity). Further support for such a dual process (Yonelinas et al., 1996, 2010) comes from functional imaging studies, suggesting that different regions of the medial temporal lobe are involved in recognition memory processes depending on task demands and type of information (Diana et al., 2007). In particular, while the hippocampus and posterior parahippocampal gyrus are closely associated with recollection, the anterior parahippocampal gyrus is more associated with familiarity (Diana et al., 2007). Therefore, the hippocampus appears to be more critical for recollection but not for familiarity (Yonelinas et al., 2010). Furthermore, reaction times (RTs) for items that are associated with recollection are typically faster as compared to familiarity, which further indicates different processes (Dewhurst et al., 2006; Rotello and Zeng, 2008; Gimbel and Brewer, 2011). Together, the remember/know paradigm provides a good tool to differentiate hippocampus-dependent from hippocampus-independent memory performance.

In animal studies, the effects of novelty on learning are typically investigated by using an active exploration of a new vs. familiar environment (Li et al., 2003; Davis et al., 2004; Moncada and Viola, 2007; Wang et al., 2010). Studies in humans, however, often used static images (Fenker et al., 2008) or virtual environments (Schomaker et al., 2014) before a word-learning task or static images in the context of learning (Bunzeck and Düzel, 2006). In the case of Schomaker et al. (2014) and Fenker et al. (2008), the novelty presentation was 5 min long, which was based on prior observations in animals suggesting that a 5 min novelty exploration is sufficient to facilitate LTP (Li et al., 2003); in the case of Bunzeck and Düzel (2006), however, several repeating learning contexts with novel and familiar items were approx. 6 min long, suggesting that a limitation of 5 min might not necessarily be justified. Indeed, in a study with rats, the animals stayed in the novel environment for about 15 min, which led to a reinforcement of early- to late-LTP (Straube et al., 2003). And, finally, long-term memory in school children could be promoted by a 20-min novel science lesson 1 h before or after story reading (Ballarini et al., 2013). This latter finding also demonstrates that the beneficial effects of novelty have practical implications, and therefore, a thorough understanding of the underlying processes is important.

In this study, we investigated (1) whether other forms of novelty stimulation drive word-learning and (2) whether a critical time-window exists in humans (as seen in animal studies). Therefore, we employed a novel paradigm including the presentation of short (13 min) nature movies (1) shortly after, (2) 15 min after, and (3) before encoding of a word list, and tested long-term memory for these unrelated words after a 1-day delay (based on the assumption that DA affects late LTP and therefore long-term memory; Wittmann et al., 2007; Lisman et al., 2011). We expected a positive effect of novelty before and after word-learning that is particularly pronounced for hippocampus-dependent recollection. Moreover, we expected faster RTs for recollection as compared to familiarity, which might be further modulated by novelty (i.e., even faster recollection when a word was learned before or after novelty presentation). Finally, we expected novel movies to be more interesting than repeatedly presented familiar ones and a positive effect of novel movies on mental states (i.e., the novel movies lead to higher attentional states, including wakefulness, compared to familiar movies). The latter hypotheses are based on previous studies, showing high novelty preferences in particular for natural scenes as compared to faces or geometric figures (Park et al., 2010).

Materials and Methods

Participants

In total, 192 healthy, right-handed, German-speaking participants were recruited for three experiments. Five participants were excluded because their behavioral performance (including hit rates and RTs) was more than 3 standard deviations (SD) above the mean, one subject did not return on day 2, and four were excluded for technical reasons or other problems. Finally, 182 participants were randomly assigned into three experimental groups (NOV) and three control groups (FAM). In experiment 1, 61 participants were tested (NOV = 32 participants, FAM = 29 participants; mean age = 23.07 ± 3.62 years, 44 women); in experiment 2, 60 participants (NOV = 31 participants, FAM = 29 participants; mean age = 22.32 ± 3.07 years, 51 women) were tested; and in experiment 3, 61 participants (NOV = 30, FAM = 31; mean age 22.69 ± 3.27 years, 51 women) were tested (Table 1). All subjects were recruited through the database of the University of Lübeck (Greiner, 2015) and signed a written informed consent. For compensation, participants received either credits points (psychology students only) or 10 € per hour (i.e., in total between 10 and 15 €). The study was approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Lübeck, Germany, and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Table 1. Demographics.

Procedure

The experiments took place on 2 consecutive days. On day 1, participants performed an encoding task in which they classified words into living vs. non-living by button presses. In total, 50 living and 50 non-living German nouns were randomly presented on a white computer screen (13 inches) in black letters (Arial, 30 point) for 1.5 s followed by a fixation point (also 1.5 s; Figure 1B). Participants were asked to respond as quickly and as accurately as possible. In case of an omission or incorrect response, a corresponding feedback appeared on the screen (i.e., “too slow” or “incorrect response”). This encoding phase took approx. 5 min.

Figure 1. Experimental design. (A) In all three experiments, subjects watched either novel (NOV group) or five repeating (FAM group) movie clips for 13 min. The movies were presented directly after (experiment 1), 15 min after (experiment 2) or 15 min prior to (experiment 3) encoding. (B) During encoding, participants classified nouns into “living” vs. “non-living” by button presses. (C) On the second day, all 100 words from the encoding phase were presented intermixed with 100 new words, and participants classified them into “remember”, “know”, “new,” or “unsure.”

In all three experiments, a 13-min movie phase (Figure 1A) preceded or followed the encoding task. Here, participants were instructed to carefully watch 10 s nature movie sequences (no other task was required during the movie presentation), separated by a 3 s white fixation point on a black screen.

The movies depicted different nature settings from five regions including Africa, America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. In order to avoid a drop of attention – which could occur using only one longer movie sequence – movies were randomly presented with a duration of 10 s each. The sequences did not show any humans. In addition, scenes with strong emotional content were avoided to prevent high arousal (e.g., hunting predators). There was no relationship in terms of content between movies and words.

For the NOV groups, 60 novel sequences were presented, while the FAM groups watched three different movies, which were repeated 20 times. Since only three movies were shown to the FAM groups, a separate familiarization phase was not implemented.

For the three experiments, the novelty phase was implemented at different time points: directly after encoding (experiment 1), 15 min after encoding (experiment 2), and 15 min prior to encoding (experiment 3). During the 15-min break, participants were instructed to quietly wait on their seats. Directly after watching the movies, participants were instructed to rate the previously presented movies on an interval scale reaching from very uninteresting to very interesting. Further, shortly before and after the exposure to the movies, participants filled out a multidimensional mental state questionnaire (Mehrdimensionale Befindlichkeitsfragebogen, MDBF) covering: good mood/bad mood, wakefulness/tiredness, and calmness/restlessness.

On the second day of the experiment, participants performed a modified version of the remember/know recognition memory paradigm (Tulving, 1985). Here, the 100 words from the encoding task were intermixed with 100 new words (50 living and 50 non-living words) and randomly presented at the center of a screen. Participants were instructed to categorize these 200 words into “remember” (i.e., remembering something specific about reading the word at encoding), “know” (recognizing the word without any recollective experience), “new,” or “unsure” (Figure 1C) via button presses. Participants had 4 s in total for making a judgment (i.e., 2-s word presentation followed by a fixation point for 2 s).

Following previous studies (e.g., Fenker et al., 2008), participants were not tested on the novel movie sequences, and therefore, they were not informed about a possible relation between the movies and the word-related memory task. All words were taken from a pool of words and randomly assigned to experimental conditions. Thus, there was no preselection or assignment of words to certain groups or conditions.

The experiment was programmed with Psychophysics Toolbox 3.0.10 (Brainard, 1997) and Matlab (R2014b version) software.

Since the movie rating scale and the MDBF were not implemented from the beginning of the study, in experiment 1 only 55 out of 61 participants filled out the rating scale. From these, the first 37 participants completed the scale on day 2 instead day 1, after finishing the recognition task. In experiments 2 and 3, all participants rated the movies directly after presentation. For the MDBF, 105 out of 182 participants completed the questionnaire: 24 out of 61 participants in experiment 1, 23 out of 60 in experiment 2 and 58 out of 61 in experiment 3.

Statistical Analysis

For the encoding task, hit rates (HRs) were analyzed as the proportion of correct answers (relative to all possible correct answers). For the subsequent recognition task, corrected hit rates (cHRs) of remember (cHR-remember) and know (cHR-know) answers were defined as follows:

c H R=correct hits possible correct hits−false alarms possible false alarms.

Moreover, RTs were analyzed for the encoding and recognition task. Here, within each subject, RTs of 2 SD above and below the subject’s mean were excluded, and the remaining trials were averaged for subsequent between-subjects analyses.

To ensure that groups did not differ at baseline, HR and RT for day 1 (encoding task) were investigated using two-way ANOVAs (3 × 2) with the between-subject factors time point of movie presentation (experiment 1: directly after encoding vs. experiment 2: 15 min after encoding vs. experiment 3: 15 min prior to encoding), and novelty (NOV vs. FAM). The effects of novelty on memory performance for day 2 (recognition task) were investigated using a three-way mixed-design ANOVA (3 × 2 × 2) with the between-subject factors time point (experiments 1, 2, and 3, as above), novelty (NOV vs. FAM), and the within-subject factor memory (cHR-remember vs. cHR-know or RT-remember vs. RT-know).

The relationship between novelty and movie rating was analyzed using a two-way ANOVA (3 × 2). Further, a 3 × 2 × 3 MANOVA with the between-subject factors time point and novelty and the within-subject factor inner state (good mood/bad mood vs. wakefulness/tiredness vs. calmness/restlessness) was conducted for the mental state questionnaire. Finally, post hoc t-tests were used when applicable with a Bonferroni adjusted alpha level of p = 0.025 (0.05/2). All statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Version 24.

Results

On average, participants discriminated living vs. non-living nouns with a mean HR of 0.96 ± 0.02 (minimum 0.9, maximum 1; range 0–1). The mean RT was 884 ± 105 ms. A 3 × 2 ANOVA with the factors time point and novelty on HRs and RTs revealed no main effects and no interactions [HRs: novelty: F(1,176) = 0.692, p = 0.406, partial η ² = 0.004; time point: F(2,176) = 1.664, p = 0.192, partial η ² = 0.019; novelty × time point: F(2,176) = 0.349, p = 0.706, partial η ² = 0.004; RTs: novelty: F(1,176) = 2.373, p = 0.125, partial η ² = 0.013; time point: F(2,176) = 0.348, p = 0.706, partial η ² = 0.004; novelty × time point: F(2,176) = 0.587, p = 0.557, partial η ² = 0.007].

For the recognition memory task, a 3 × 2 × 2 ANOVA on cHR-remember and cHR-know revealed no main effects [memory: F(1,176) = 0.295, p = 0.587, partial η ² = 0.002; time point: F(2,176) = 0.216, p = 0.806, partial η ² = 0.002; novelty: F(1,176) = 0.510, p = 0.476, partial η ² = 0.003] and no interactions [memory × time point: F(2,176) = 1.972, p = 0.142, partial η ² = 0.022; memory × novelty: F(1,176) = 0.258, p = 0.612, partial η ² = 0.001; memory × time point × novelty: F(2,176) = 0.348, p = 0.706, partial η ² = 0.004].

Subsequently, two separate 3 × 2 ANOVAs were conducted for both, cHR-remember and cHR-know. Again, no significant main effects or interactions could be observed for cHR-remember [time point: F(2,176) = 0.990, p = 0.374, partial η ² = 0.011; novelty: F(1,176) = 0.790, p = 0.375, partial η ² = 0.004; novelty × time point: F(2,176) = 0.092, p = 0.912, partial η ² = 0.001] or cHR-know [time point: F(2,176) = 1.736, p = 0.179, partial η ² = 0.019; novelty: F(1,176) = 0.000, p = 0.986, partial η ² = 0.000; novelty × time point: F(2,176) = 0.429, p = 0.652, partial η ² = 0.005]. Figure 2 depicts cHR-remember and cHR-know for all three experiments and groups.

Figure 2. Recognition memory performance. Corrected hit rate (cHR) for remember and know for all three experiments. Error bars indicate ±1 standard error of the mean (SEM).

A 3 × 2 × 2 ANOVA on RTs (during recognition) showed a main effect of memory [F(1,174) = 127.61, p < 0.001, η ² = 0.42], but no other main effects [time point: F(2,174) = 0.102, p = 0.903, partial η ² = 0.001; novelty: F(1,174) = 0.078, p = 0.781, partial η ² = 0.00]. Post hoc analysis revealed significantly faster “remember” responses in contrast to “know” responses (Figure 3). There was no significant interaction between novelty and time point [F(1,174) = 0.097, p = 0.755, partial η ² = 0.001; F(2,174) = 0.780, p = 0.460, η ² = 0.009]. Finally, a memory × time point × novelty interaction also did not reach significance [F(2,174) = 0.228, p = 0.796, partial η ² = 0.003].

Figure 3. Results for RTs at retrieval. Overall, reaction times (RTs) were faster for “remember” than “know” responses (main effect), but there was no significant effect of novelty. For display purposes, groups were combined. Error bars indicate ±1 SEM.

A 3 × 2 ANOVA on movie ratings revealed a main effect of novelty [F(1,170) = 36.59, p < 0.001, partial η ² = 0.177]. Post hoc analysis showed that novel movie clips were rated more positive as compared to the familiar movie clips (Figure 4). The novelty × time point interaction was not significant [F(2,170) = 2.699, p = 0.07, partial η ² = 0.031].

Figure 4. Main effect of movie rating. Participants of the NOV group (mean 52.51%) rated movies more positive than participants in the FAM group (mean 33.52%). Error bars reflect ±1 SEM.

A 3 × 2 × 3 MANOVA on ratings of mental states (MDBF) showed main effects of calmness/restlessness [F(1,99) = 24.536, p < 0.001, partial η ² = 0.199] and wakefulness/tiredness [F(1,99) = 42.041, p < 0.001, partial η ² = 0.298; Figures 5A,B]. Post hoc paired t-tests revealed that in both, the NOV and the FAM group, scores of wakefulness decreased and calmness increased from pre- to post-inner state assessment [NOV: t(52) = 3.587, p = 0.001; t(52) = −5.571, p < 0.001; FAM: t(51) = 6.05, p < 0.001; t(51) = −2.674, p = 0.01]. Finally, a statistically significant interaction was observed between novelty × good mood/bad mood [F(1,99) = 6.773, p = 0.011, partial η ² = 0.064; Figure 5C]. Post hoc analysis (paired t-tests) for the NOV and FAM group separately – each averaged across experiments – showed that good mood ratings of the NOV group increased [t(52) = −4.072, p < 0.001], while good mood ratings of the FAM group did not change [t(51) = 0.865, p = 0.391].

Figure 5. Mental state ratings after movie presentation. (A) Main effect for wakefulness vs. tiredness. Higher values represent wakefulness, lower values tiredness. (B) Main effect for calmness vs. restlessness. Higher values represent calmness, lower values restlessness. (C) Interaction between good mood vs. bad mood and group. Higher values represent good mood, lower values bad mood. Increase of good mood in the NOV group, no change in the FAM group.

Discussion

We investigated whether the exposure to novel nature movies before or after encoding of a word list can improve subsequent long-term memory performance. Although novel (in contrast to repeated) movies were rated as more interesting and had a more positive effect on mental states, they did not improve long-term memory in any of our three experiments. Specifically, novel movies right after, 15 min after or before encoding did not affect familiarity- or recollection-based recognition memory scores. Our findings suggest that an exposure to novelty without an active task is not sufficient in order to promote subsequent long-term memory. In the following, we will discuss several explanations of our null finding, and conclude that a sense of agency with the novel material appears to be necessary in order to induce a positive effect on learning.

On the basis of previous work, we hypothesized that novelty promotes subsequent long-term memory since it activates the mesolimbic and noradrenergic system leading to DA release into the hippocampus (Lisman and Grace, 2005; Lisman et al., 2011; Duszkiewicz et al., 2019). Therefore, a rather physiological explanation for our null finding is that the employed stimulus material (video sequences) simply did not lead to the cascade of mesolimbic and noradrenergic activity and subsequent DA releases. While there is sufficient evidence that novel scene images activate the SN/VTA, striatum, and hippocampus (Bunzeck and Düzel, 2006; Zaehle et al., 2013; Bunzeck et al., 2014; Herweg et al., 2018), it remains unclear whether the same is true for novel nature movie sequences. Indeed, several forms of novelty have been dissociated previously, further indicating conceptual differences. Specifically, item novelty, contextual novelty and spatial novelty might differ from surprise and contextual deviance in terms of underlying processes and associated cognition. An elegant overview of these and related concepts can be found in Schomaker and Meeter (2015).

Along the same lines, novelty can be interpreted in absolute and relative terms, in the sense that expectations about upcoming information drive novelty processing. For instance, within the medial temporal lobe, novelty signals adaptively scale according to expected contextual probabilities of new and familiar events (Bunzeck et al., 2010). In other words, when cues predict a familiar but contextually novel item with equal probability, the familiar item leads to similar neural activity as compared to a novel item (in another context). Therefore, continuously presented familiar and novel movie sequences may have led to similar mesolimbic neural activity due to its adaptive properties, and the repetitive and predictive character of our paradigm. On the other hand, novel movies were, on a subjective level, rated as more interesting than familiar ones (Figure 4), and this was paralleled by a more positive mental state. Specifically, novel movies induced a better mood as compared to familiar ones. Although this was expected, and is in line with previous findings (Park et al., 2010), there was no apparent effect on subsequent or prior word-learning, which might relate to the relatively small effects of novelty on mood (Figure 5C). Together, despite a positive subjective effect (interest and mood), it appears possible that the presented novel movie sequences did not lead to neural activity within the mesolimbic system. This hypothesis, however, can only be supported by future studies using fMRI or other appropriate techniques.

A more likely explanation for our null finding of novelty on memory relates to differences in task requirements. In contrast to our experiment, subjects in other studies were actively engaged with the novel material. For instance, in Fenker et al. (2008), subjects had to make an indoor/outdoor discrimination on scene images, which, in the case of novel images, enhanced recollection and free recall of subsequently learned words. In Schomaker et al. (2014), humans actively explored a novel virtual environment, which also enhanced free recall of a subsequently learned word list. In children, the active and attentive participation in a novel science class before or after reading a story improved subsequent memory (Ballarini et al., 2013). Such active engagement with the novel stimulus material is comparable to animal studies, in which rodents are allowed to actively and freely explore a novel (vs. familiar) environment; this promotes hippocampal LTP and also drives learning and memory (Li et al., 2003; Ballarini et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2010). Further support and possible explanations of a close link between active behavior and learning comes from human studies. They indicate that a sense of agency, for instance through active choices during learning, promotes subsequent declarative long-term memory, and this effect was related to striatal and hippocampal activity as revealed by fMRI (Murty et al., 2015). Therefore, another parsimonious explanation for our null finding is that a stronger sense of agency, possibly associated with the engagement of memory related brain regions, is necessary in order to induce a positive effect of novelty on long-term memory. This hypothesis should be further investigated and has potentially important implications for possible interventions, which would need to include an active novelty manipulation.

A third possible explanation for our null finding relates to the length and onset of the novelty experience. Regarding the length, at least one animal study suggests that a 5-min novelty exploration is most efficient to induce LTP (Li et al., 2003); therefore, in subsequent human studies, novelty was presented for 5 min (Fenker et al., 2008; Schomaker et al., 2014). However, in the aforementioned study by Ballarini et al. (2013), a novel science class before learning was 20 min long; and in a study with human adults, a positive effect of novelty on learning has been shown with several repeating learning contexts that were approx. 6 min long (Bunzeck and Düzel, 2006). Finally, a 15-min stay in a novel environment led to a reinforcement of early- to late-LTP in rats (Straube et al., 2003) further suggesting that a limitation of 5 min might not necessarily be justified. In any case, our 13-min novelty presentation did not promote learning, which leaves the optimal length unclear.

In terms of onset, evidence suggests that a close proximity between novelty and the learning task is important. For instance, a weak high-frequency conditioning stimulation only induced LTP when rats explore a novel environment 5 min before, but not 1 day before stimulation (Li et al., 2003). In humans, a novel science lesson only promoted learning when it was experienced 1 h before or after, but not 4 h before or after reading a story (Ballarini et al., 2013). In our study, novelty experience and learning were close in time, but there was no positive effect on memory. Together with the systematic variation (novelty before and after learning), this suggests that other factors (sense of agency in particular) may more likely explain our null finding.

In our study, recognition memory was tested 1 day after encoding. This delay was based on previous work with a time window of 24 h between encoding and recollection due to the effect of DA on the late phase of LTP (Wittmann et al., 2007; Lisman et al., 2011). However, previous studies also revealed memory improvements by novelty after a short delay (Bunzeck and Düzel, 2006; Schomaker et al., 2014), which leaves it open whether novel movies have an effect on learning right after encoding.

Previous novelty studies differ in the way how memory is being tested. Here, we used a remember/know paradigm in order to differentiate the potential effects of novelty on hippocampus related recollection vs. rhinal cortex-related familiarity. While Schomaker et al. (2014) have used hippocampus-dependent free recall and found a positive effect of novelty on learning, Fenker et al. (2008) could show that free recall and recollection was improved by novelty. Therefore, it appears unlikely that free recall would have revealed a positive effect in our study. However, future studies might include other, more hippocampus-dependent recall and learning tasks, such as spatial navigation, to further pinpoint the exact conditions under which novelty promotes memory.

As expected, RTs were shorter for “remember” as compared to “know” responses (Figure 3). This is in line with previous studies showing that RTs for items that are associated with recollective experiences are typically faster as compared to those without recollective experience (Dewhurst et al., 2006; Rotello and Zeng, 2008; Gimbel and Brewer, 2011). While, at the first glance, this may not be compatible with dual-process models, suggesting that familiarity is a more rapid process than recollection (Jacoby, 1991; Yonelinas, 2002), the slower RTs for “know” responses might reflect difficulties in old judgments without the retrieval of contextual details (Henson et al., 1999); this also fits to the notion of “remember” responses having an all-or-none quality, while “know” responses require a post-retrieval processing to determine their familiarity (Dewhurst and Conway, 1994; Dewhurst et al., 2006). In any case, our findings do not provide evidence that novelty exposure impacts on either form of recognition memory. This has been expected for “remember” responses in particular, given its closer link to the hippocampus (Diana et al., 2007), which receives dopaminergic innervations (Lisman and Grace, 2005). However, our finding must be interpreted with the limitations and possible explanations mentioned above; therefore, they do not rule out that novelty does selectively impact on “remember” responses, for instance, when an active task on the novel material is employed.

Together, novel movie sequences were perceived as more interesting and led to better mood as compared to familiar movies. However, novelty exposure before or after learning a word list did not promote recollection- or familiarity-based recognition memory. This is incompatible with previous studies in humans and animals, which could show a positive effect of novelty exposure on LTP and long-term memory. Our findings suggest that a simple exposure to novelty is not sufficient to promote learning; instead, an active task with the novel stimulus material appears important. This hypothesis has important implications for possible interventions, and, therefore, needs to be tested in future studies.

Data Availability

All datasets generated for this study are included in the manuscript and/or the supplementary files.

Ethics Statement

The study was approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Lübeck, Germany, and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Author Contributions

DB acquired the data. DB and NB designed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the article.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank B. Fenske, L. Panning, V. Wahner, and R. Hassan for their support in data acquisition. We acknowledge financial support by Land Schleswig-Holstein within the funding programme Open Access Publikationsfonds.

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Novelty Before or After Word Learning Does Not Affect Subsequent Memory Performance

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In humans, exposure to novel images and exploration of novel virtual environments before the encoding of words improved subsequent memory performance. Animal studies revealed similar effects of novelty, both before and after learning, and could show that hippocampus-dependent dopaminergic neuromodul…

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“Reality” is constructed by your brain. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.

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What the science of visual illusions can teach us about our polarized world.

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Good memory is essential for independent living, staying focused, completing tasks and getting good grades. Research has now proven the link between the use of colors to improve memory. Art therapy uses colors which stimulates the limbic area of the brain that deals with retention. In her book 'Improving Memory through Creativity', author Amanda Pike talks of a study on 91 older adults from different countries who were administered art therapy for 10 weeks. At the end of the study, the experimental group reported improved cognitive skills, as compared to the control group.

Here are some more studies that show us how color impacts memory retention and learning.

In her book ADHD and LD: Classroom Strategies at Your Fingertips author Sandra Rief recommends use of color for teaching math to ADHD students. She believes that the use of color helps improve retention and grabs the child's attention. Ms. Rief also recommends color highlighting to avoid careless mistakes in math.

In The Encyclopedia of Memory and Memory Disorders by Carol Turkington and Joseph Harris, the authors state that intensely visualizing colors can help in development of visual memory.

Inna Segal, in her book The Secret Language of Colors, states that certain colors like Lemon and Mauve can actually improve your memory and ability to concentrate. Lemon, she says, is a color of warmth and intellect; it fuels the brain to help you make decisions and also improve ability to concentrate. Mauve creates peace and tranquility, reduces imbalances in eyes and ears and also boosts brain power and memory.

Colors and meanings- a recap

Since color impacts memory, it is important to know what different colors mean or symbolize.

Red- Red means passion, anger, danger, vigor etc

Green- money, eco-friendly, peace, environmentally friendly, jealousy, envy, fertility and healing

Blue-Peace, cool/cold, knowledge, trust

Black-mourning, death, evil, negativity, elegance

Purple- spirituality, wisdom, intelligence, royalty

Yellow-clarity, energy, freshness, intelligence

Pink- girly, feminine, playful, romantic

Orange- warmth, joy, balance, freedom, expression, success

Which colors boost memory?

According to a study in University of British Columbia, certain colors can help with concentration, attention span and hence facilitate memory retention and learning. The study concluded that Red and Blue colors are the best for enhancing cognitive skills and improving brain function. Red was much better than blue as far as detail oriented tasks, and memory retention were concerned by as much as 31%. The researchers also concluded that thanks to red being the color of teacher's pen, stop sign and danger; it helped students avoid mistakes. Students invariably tend to pay careful attention in order to avoid wrong answers since red heightened their attention and made them more vigilant naturally.

Here are some tips on how to use colors to study well and boost memory

Tips to use colors to study

Use highlighters/crayons

Highlighters help mark text in books so you can quickly read the important points. They are perfect to use with typed notes. Make use of fine tipped pens and smudge-proof products.

Get an overview of all your colors

When using different colors to study, make a side by side representation of the colors you have on hand. This will give you an idea as to how the color looks on paper and you can then choose the one you like the best, which are most intense and pigmented. Select bold colors based on the color of the text.

Use color theory

Color theory can help you color code your studies. A basic principle of color theory is that opposite colors on the color wheel create strongest contrast. Thus, you can use orange and blue or red and green or yellow and dark/navy blue to highlight complex notes.

Restrict the use of colors to only 2 colors

Do not use more than 2 colors when studying complex notes. Two colors along with your main text color like black or blue is enough to highlight important notes.

Assign chosen colors to reference information

For example, you can assign yellow to definitions, red to articles or formulae or sub topics etc. The key is to use colors that can help you easily find all the information on one page.

Do not overdo things

Avoid overdoing colors. To many different colors will overwhelm your brain.

We hope these tips help you use colors to enhance memory.
References https://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/media/departments/lis/skills/study-guides/LS011-Guide-to-Improving-Your-Memory.pdf
How Your Child Learns Best: Brain-Friendly Strategies You Can Use By Judy Willis

Build a Better Brain - Live a Better Life By Clive Cable

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Good memory is essential for independent living, staying focused, completing tasks and getting good grades. Research has now proven the link between the use of colors to improve memory. Art therapy uses colors which stimulates the limbic area of the brain that deals with retention.

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9. Aug 2017

Images are far more memorable than spoken word or written text – thanks to the Picture Superiority Effect. Even the great Roman orator, Cicero, knew this. Two thousand years ago he recommended the use of images as part of memory training. He also used visuals, in the form of props, in his speeches. Perhaps that is part of the reason we are still fascinated with Cicero’s speeches 😉

We are very familiar with the saying that “a picture speaks a thousand words”. But this turns out to not be just an old cliché after all! Psychologists confirm that pictures are more immediately recognized, and more quickly recalled, than either the spoken or written word.

This is known as the Picture Superiority Effect. When we read a text, or listen to an audio version of it, we are likely to remember only 10 percent of the information 3 days later. However, we are more likely to remember information for a longer period of time if the text (or audio version of it) is presented with suitable images. In fact, if information is presented to us as text combined with relevant images, we are likely to remember 65 percent of the information 3 days later!

How Does the Picture Superiority Effect Work?

No one can explain with absolute certainty how the Picture Superiority Effect works. It seems that the brain has the ability to process images more quickly than verbal or written information. (Scientists believe that the brain is able to process images approximately 60,000 times more quickly than it processes a similar amount of written information!)

Some experts suggest that images are more likely to be remembered than words, because our brains dually encode images, but encode words only once. What does this mean? It means that when you see an image it is stored in your memory “in the form of a picture”, but also “in the form of a word”. However, when you hear (or see) a word, it is stored in your memory only “in the form of a word”.

You’re Probably Engaging in the Picture Superiority Effect Right Now

The Picture Superiority Effect is particularly clear if we look at the corporate world and education. Just think about it, giant billboards get attention; lengthy articles on notice boards do not. Newspaper advertisements with pictures get more business than wordy adverts. Social media posts with pictures get more likes!

How The Picture Superiority Effect Works in Business and Education

When a teacher explains a complex concept, a student is likely to be far less sure of themselves when they have to complete homework on the subject a day or two later. However, when the teacher explains while scribbling a few diagrams on the blackboard, a student has a better chance to complete homework successfully, even if it is tackled a couple of days later. That is why teachers have whiteboards handy, to aid explanations by illustrating key concepts!

In any presentation, regardless of whether it is in an academic institution, politics, or in the business world, visual aids are vital in ensuring that the message sticks with the audience. For example, the content of wordy PowerPoint slides is unlikely to be remembered. (In fact, it is highly likely that the audience has already been lost during the presentation!) However, slides with short phrases supported by relevant images are much more powerful than slides with full paragraphs.

Visuals and Picture Superiority

If you want your audience to remember information, here’s how to make the best of using visuals:

Visualize before choosing visuals!

Try to visualize what you want to convey – especially if it is a complex concept! Then set out to give your audience a glimpse of the visuals inside your head, so that they too will find it easy to understand the concept.

Keep images simple.

The more simplistic the image, the more easily it is recognized, the more easily it is remembered. So, keep the images simple and clear in order to have optimal success in getting the audience to remember the information presented.

Keep the image relevant.

The Picture Superiority Effect does not only apply to pictures, but also to other images like charts, graphs, and diagrams. Whatever you choose to use, it is vital that the visuals are relevant to the content in order to reinforce your message.

Consider self-created images.

One does not need high tech visuals for optimal effect. Self-created images that are relatively simple may be the most memorable, as opposed to more sophisticated complex graphics.

Use Metaphors.

You can ensure understanding by using a simple metaphor, in the form of an image. If it relates to something the audience already knows or understands, you can effortlessly explain a complex concept. The audience will then draw on this image in the future, to remember what you have conveyed.

Images have a significantly positive effect on various levels: it grabs attention, enhances comprehension and improves recall. So, use visuals – it is pleasant to the eyes, quick for our brains to scan or decode, and easy to remember.

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What is the Picture Superiority Effect? - mysimpleshow

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Images are far more memorable than either spoken word or written text, which is related to the Picture Superiority Effect. Find out more about what it is!

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Why we remember some information and forget other information?

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Why we remember some information and forget other information?

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Why is it that you can perfectly recite the words to *NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye," but can't remember the title of the new TV show you started watching on Netflix and wanted to tell your coworker about?

We remember things because they either stand out, they relate to and can easily be integrated in our existing knowledge base, or it's something we retrieve, recount or use repeatedly over time, explains Sean Kang, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Education at Dartmouth College, whose research focuses on the cognitive psychology of learning and memory. "The average layperson trying to learn nuclear physics for the first time, for example, will probably find it very difficult to retain that information." That's because he or she likely doesn't have existing knowledge in their brain to connect that new information to.

And on a molecular level neuroscientists suspect that there's actually a physical process that needs to be completed to form a memory - and us not remembering something is a result of that not happening, explains Blake Richards, DPhil, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

In the same way that when you store a grocery list on a piece of paper, you are making a physical change to that paper by writing words down, or when you store a file on a computer, you're making a physical change somewhere in the magnetization of some part of your hard drive - a physical change happens in your brain when you store a memory or new information.

"So the ultimate question, at the cellular level, as to whether or not a memory gets stored [in the brain] is does that process actually complete properly," he explains. "Do all of the molecular signals get transmitted to ensure that that cell changes physically?"

So there are strategies for better organizing what may at first glance appear to be unrelated information to connect it to what we already know to help us better remember things, according to Kang and others. But as far as changing the physical processes in the brain that make memories stick, there's likely not much you can do now to affect that, Richards says.

And that's probably a good thing, he adds.

In a recent paper, Richards and his colleague Paul Frankland, PhD, senior scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children and Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, looked at previous studies that have investigated the physical changes in the brain associated with memory - and why sometimes that process completes and sometimes it does not. "We found that there's a variety of mechanisms the brain uses - and actually invests energy in - that undo and override those connections, ultimately cause us to forget information," Richards says.

And that would mean that some "forgetting" is actually a very natural and normal process, rather than a "failure" of our memory, Richards says. "Our brains may want us to remember the gist of what we've experienced because that will be most adaptive for making decisions in the real world."

For example, let's say you remember a friend's phone number, but that friend moves away and gets a new phone number. Remembering the old number becomes useless and may make it more difficult to remember your friend's new number.

"It's not the case that as much forgetting as possible is good, obviously," he says. "But at the same time it may not be the case that as much remembering as possible is always the best course either."

Sure, some of what determines how well you remember things are the genes you're born with, Kang says. But training can definitely plays a role in memory, as is the case for people who compete in memory competitions, he adds. "No one suddenly wakes up one day being able to memorize 60,000 digits of Pi."

If you want to hone your own skills (whether that's for memorizing Pi or better remembering names or facts), here's what might help:

Decades of research support the fact that sleep is a critical time when memories consolidate and get stored. And that means missing out on sleep - or high enough quality sleep - can compromise some of those processes. The National Sleep Foundation recommends getting between seven and nine hours of sleep each night for optimal health and brain function.

What is exercise not good for? It's important for your heart, your mood, your sleep and your mind, particularly the part of your mind involved in memory. In one study in middle-age women with early signs of memory loss, starting a program of regular aerobic exercise actually increased the size of the hippocampus (a part of the brain known to be involved in the memory storing process) and improved verbal memory and learning scores when the women were tested.

And a new 2018 guideline from the American Academy of Neurology recommends regular exercise as one of the things people with mild memory problems should do to help stop those problems from getting worse or turn into serious neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia.

Psychologists and others call this one the spacing effect. The idea is that the more you re-learn or remind yourself of information again and again spaced out over time the better you'll retain that information.

Perhaps you first learn about an Olympic figure skater's difficult upbringing watching a news clip about his story; then a day or so later you read an article about that same skater; and then a few days later a coworker starts telling you about the same figure's skater story. Repetition helps make that story stick in your head - and so does the fact that you re-learned that information on different days in multiple different settings, Kang explains. (Multiple studies show that there is indeed merit in this approach.)

"The richer the contextual details associated with a particular memory, the greater the number of possible cues that could be helpful in evoking the memory later," Kang says.

People often think testing is useful because it tells you what you know and what you don't. But the more important power of testing is giving you practice retrieving information you've learned and establishing that connection in the brain, explains Rosalind Potts, PhD, teaching fellow at the University College London, who researches how cognitive psychology applies to education.

For example, in one study that tested a group of students on new information they had learned one week earlier, students who were also tested on the new information immediately after learning it outperformed students who were simply instructed to study the information on the test they all took one week later.

Some say this approach dates back to ancient Latin scholars, but it's also been proven in much more recent literature to work. The idea is if you want to remember something, such as a shopping list or a code, you visualize those items or numbers in different rooms of your house (or some other physical place you are very familiar with).

The "memory palace" approach (also called the "Method of Loci") has been studied extensively in psychology. Research shows it can be more valuable in terms of remembering than having more intellectual capabilities in the first place, and that it can be more effective for remembering than straightforward repetition and memorization.

It's easier to remember things that relate to knowledge we already have because we connect it to what we already have stored in our memory, Potts says. That's why mnemonic devices work - they create a bridge between two pieces of information.

"So when we want to call that memory to mind, there are lots of different possible routes to it," she says.

If you want to remember the meaning of the Spanish word "zumo" ("juice" in English), you might conjure up an image in your head of a sumo wrestler drinking juice. When you hear the word "zumo," you might then think of that sumo wrestler drinking his juice and remember the meaning of the word.

Sure, it's obvious. But concentration is important if you're trying to learn something, Kang says. "If you don't pay much attention to the information, the likelihood you encode that in your long-term memory is low."

For example, he says, how many Americans could accurately draw the details of the dollar bill, even though they likely look at it all the time?

Based on the neuroscience explanation of how memory works, if you really want to remember something, your best bet is trying to connect it to some other part of your life or a topic you already know, Richards adds. "Figure out some other facet of life why it's relevant - and use it."

Want more tips like these? NBC News BETTER is obsessed with finding easier, healthier and smarter ways to live. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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How to get better at remembering things, according to neuroscience

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Why is it that you can perfectly recite the words to *NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye," but can't remember the title of the new TV show you started watching on Netflix and wanted to tell your coworker about?

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Why we remember certain words better than others

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Why we remember certain words better than others

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News Release

Monday, June 29, 2020

NIH study suggests our brains may use search engine strategies to remember words and memories of our past experiences. Zaghloul lab, NIH/NINDS.

Thousands of words, big and small, are crammed inside our memory banks just waiting to be swiftly withdrawn and strung into sentences. In a recent study of epilepsy patients and healthy volunteers, National Institutes of Health researchers found that our brains may withdraw some common words, like “pig,” “tank,” and “door,” much more often than others, including “cat,” “street,” and “stair.” By combining memory tests, brain wave recordings, and surveys of billions of words published in books, news articles and internet encyclopedia pages, the researchers not only showed how our brains may recall words but also memories of our past experiences.

“We found that some words are much more memorable than others. Our results support the idea that our memories are wired into neural networks and that our brains search for these memories, just the way search engines track down information on the internet,” said Weizhen (Zane) Xie, Ph.D., a cognitive psychologist and post-doctoral fellow at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), who led the study published in Nature Human Behaviour. “We hope that these results can be used as a roadmap to evaluate the health of a person’s memory and brain.”

Dr. Xie and his colleagues first spotted these words when they re-analyzed the results of memory tests taken by 30 epilepsy patients who were part of a clinical trial led by Kareem Zaghloul, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon and senior investigator at NINDS. Dr. Zaghloul’s team tries to help patients whose seizures cannot be controlled by drugs, otherwise known as intractable epilepsy. During the observation period, patients spend several days at the NIH’s Clinical Center with surgically implanted electrodes designed to detect changes in brain activity.

“Our goal is to find and eliminate the source of these harmful and debilitating seizures,” said Dr. Zaghloul. “The monitoring period also provides a rare opportunity to record the neural activity that controls other parts of our lives. With the help of these patient volunteers we have been able to uncover some of the blueprints behind our memories.”

The memory tests were originally designed to assess episodic memories, or the associations – the who, what, where and how details - we make with our past experiences. Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia often destroys the brain’s capacity to make these memories.

Patients were shown pairs of words, such as “hand” and “apple,” from a list of 300 common nouns. A few seconds later they were shown one of the words, for instance “hand,” and asked to remember its pair, “apple.” Dr. Zaghloul’s team had used these tests to study how neural circuits in the brain store and replay memories.

When Dr. Xie and his colleagues re-examined the test results, they found that patients successfully recalled some words more often than others, regardless of the way the words were paired. In fact, of the 300 words used, the top five were on average about seven times more likely to be successfully recalled than the bottom five.

At first, Dr. Zaghloul and the team were surprised by the results and even a bit skeptical. For many years scientists have thought that successful recall of a paired word meant that a person’s brain made a strong connection between the two words during learning and that a similar process may explain why some experiences are more memorable than others. Also, it was hard to explain why words like “tank,” “doll,” and “pond” were remembered more often than frequently used words like “street,” “couch,” and “cloud.”

But any doubts were quickly diminished when the team saw very similar results after 2,623 healthy volunteers took an online version of the word pair test that the team posted on the crowdsourcing website Amazon Mechanical Turk(link is external).

“We saw that some things – in this case, words – may be inherently easier for our brains to recall than others,” said Dr. Zaghloul. “These results also provide the strongest evidence to date that what we discovered about how the brain controls memory in this set of patients may also be true for people outside of the study.”

Dr. Xie got the idea for the study at a Christmas party which he attended shortly after his arrival at NIH about two years ago. After spending many years studying how our mental states – our moods, our sleeping habits, and our familiarity with something – can change our memories, Dr. Xie joined Dr. Zaghloul’s team to learn more about the inner-workings of the brain.

“Our memories play a fundamental role in who we are and how our brains work. However, one of the biggest challenges of studying memory is that people often remember the same things in different ways, making it difficult for researchers to compare people’s performances on memory tests,” said Dr. Xie. “For over a century, researchers have called for a unified accounting of this variability. If we can predict what people should remember in advance and understand how our brains do this, then we might be able to develop better ways to evaluate someone’s overall brain health.”

At the party, he met Wilma Bainbridge, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Chicago, who, at the time was working as a post-doctoral fellow at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). She was trying to tackle this same issue by studying whether some things we see are more memorable than others.

For example, in one set of studies of more than 1000 healthy volunteers, Dr. Bainbridge and her colleagues found that some faces are more memorable than others. In these experiments, each volunteer was shown a steady stream of faces and asked to indicate when they recognized one from earlier in the stream.

“Our exciting finding is that there are some images of people or places that are inherently memorable for all people, even though we have each seen different things in our lives,” said Dr. Bainbridge. “And if image memorability is so powerful, this means we can know in advance what people are likely to remember or forget.”

Nevertheless, these results were limited to understanding how our brains work when we recognize something we see. At the party, Drs. Xie and Bainbridge wondered whether this idea could be applied to the recall of memories that Dr. Zaghloul’s team had been studying and if so, what would that tell us about how the brain remembers our past experiences?

In this paper, Dr. Xie proposed that the principles from an established theory, known as the Search for Associative Memory (SAM) model, may help explain their initial findings with the epilepsy patients and the healthy controls.

“We thought one way to understand the results of the word pair tests was to apply network theories for how the brain remembers past experiences. In this case, memories of the words we used look like internet or airport terminal maps, with the more memorable words appearing as big, highly trafficked spots connected to smaller spots representing the less memorable words,” said Dr. Xie. “The key to fully understanding this was to figure out what connects the words.”

To address this, the researchers wrote a novel computer modeling program that tested whether certain rules for defining how words are connected can predict the memorability results they saw in the study. The rules were based on language studies(link is external) which had scanned thousands of sentences from books, news articles, and Wikipedia pages.

Initially, they found that seemingly straightforward ideas for connecting words could not explain their results. For instance, the more memorable words did not simply appear more often in sentences than the less memorable ones. Similarly, they could not find a link between the relative “concreteness” of a word’s definition and its memorability. A word like “moth” was no more memorable than a word that has more abstract meanings, like “chief.”

Instead, their results suggested that the more memorable words were more semantically similar, or more often linked to the meanings of other words used in the English language. This meant, that when the researchers plugged semantic similarity data into the computer model it correctly guessed which words that were memorable from patients and healthy volunteer test. In contrast, this did not happen when they used data on word frequency or concreteness.

Further results supported the idea that the more memorable words represented high trafficked hubs in the brain’s memory networks. The epilepsy patients correctly recalled the memorable words faster than others. Meanwhile, electrical recordings of the patients’ anterior temporal lobe, a language center, showed that their brains replayed the neural signatures behind those words earlier than the less memorable ones. The researchers saw this trend when they looked at both averages of all results and individual trials, which strongly suggested that the more memorable words are easier for the brain to find.

Moreover, both the patients and the healthy volunteers mistakenly called out the more memorable words more frequently than any other words. Overall, these results supported previous studies which suggested that the brain may visit or pass through these highly connected memories, like the way animals forage for food or a computer searches the internet.

“You know when you type words into a search engine, and it shows you a list of highly relevant guesses? It feels like the search engine is reading your mind. Well, our results suggest that the brains of the subjects in this study did something similar when they tried to recall a paired word, and we think that this may happen when we remember many of our past experiences,” said Dr. Xie. “Our results also suggest that the structure of the English language is stored in everyone’s brains and we hope that, one day, it is used to overcome the variability doctors face when trying to evaluate the health of a person’s memory and brain.”

The team is currently exploring ways to incorporate their results and computer model into the development of memory tests for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

This study was supported by NIH Intramural Research Programs at the NINDS (NS003144) and NIMH (MH002909).

NINDS is the nation’s leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

About the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit the NIMH website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

Article

Xie et al., Memorability of Words in Arbitrary Verbal Associations Modulates Memory Retrieval in the Anterior Temporal Lobe. Nature Human Behaviour, June 29, 2020 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-0901-2

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NIH study finds out why some words may be more memorable than others

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Results suggest our brains use internet search engine strategies to remember words and memories of past experiences.

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Why are some memories stronger than others?

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Why are some memories stronger than others?

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Why is that you remember the name of your childhood best friend, but you struggle to recall the name of the person you just met- even if they told you it just five minutes ago? They're both names after all. Despite this outward similarity however, it's clear some memories stick stronger than others. But what are the reasons behind this?

As it turns out, the popular idiom "practice makes perfect" may hold some of the answers. Looking at memory patterns in mice, researchers at the California Institute of Technology found that stable, long-lasting memories are formed by groups of neurons that fire in synchrony, as opposed to the activation of singular, highly-connected neurons as previously thought (Gonzalez: 2019). The activation of multiple neurons around one experience in this way, they found, is linked to repetition, or practice.

To come to this conclusion, they studied the neural activity of mice when remembering a new place. Put in a straight enclosure with white walls marked with symbols and sugar water (a mouse treat) at either end, while they explored the enclosure, the researchers measured the activity of specific neurons in their hippocampus, a part of the brain known for spatial recognition and the formation of new memories (Malewar: 2019).

They noticed that, when first placed on the track and unsure of what to do, single neurons were activated whenever the mice took notice of symbols on the wall. However, over time, as the mice become more familiar with the symbols and associated them to the locations of the sugar water, more and more neurons were activated in synchrony upon noticing each symbol on the wall, indicating that the mice were able to recognise their position relative to each symbol.

Then withholding the mice from the enclosure for 20 days to measure their long-term memory, the researchers found that mice who had formed memories encoded by high numbers of neurons remembered the task more quickly than those whose memories formed from fewer neurons.

With the activation of higher numbers of neurons around a task associated with stronger memories, these findings suggest that memories may fade more rapidly as we age as they may encode fewer neurons. This means that, should any of these few encoded neurons fail, the memory would be lost (California Institute of Technology: 2019).

However, it seems that increased activation of multiple neurons may not just come from repeated actions. From studying navigation in rats for example, researchers at the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology found that highly demanding and rewarding experiences also result in stronger memories as they lead to "memory replay" processes in the hippocampus (Michon: 2019).

According to Professor Fabian Kloosman, a leader of the research,"One of the ways in which our brains consolidate memories is by mentally reliving the experience...In biological terms, this boils down to the reactivation or replay of the neuronal activity patterns associated with a certain experience. This replay occurs in hippocampal-cortical brain networks during rest or sleep (Flanders Institute for Biotechnology: 2019)."

Although the researchers had not specifically measured for neuronal activity, it is likely that, just as repeating certain actions leads to higher activation of neurons associated with a given task, so does mental simulation, thus leading to stronger memory recall in the long run.

To conclude, it seems that the reason why we remember some things more than others is due to the number of activated neurons associated with what we're trying to remember. While repeating actions and experiences tends to make certain events more memorable, research has also found that highly demanding and rewarding experiences tend to yield stronger memories thanks to our habit of mentally replaying them, and thus consolidating them, in our minds.
Sources
Gonzalez, Walter G.: Science

Malewar, Amit: Tech Explorist

California Institute of Technology: Science Daily

Michon, Federic et al.: Current Biology

Flanders Institute for Biotechnology: Science Daily

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Why are Some Memories Stronger than Others? | Neuroscience

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Why is that you remember the name of your childhood best friend, but you struggle to recall the name of the person you just met- even if they told you it just five minutes ago? They're both names after all. Despite this outward similarity however, it's clear some memories stick stronger than others.

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Abstract

All athletes were novices at one point in their lives, even Olympic gold medalists and world champions. They committed years of practice to become competitive and even longer to become elite performers. This transformation from novice to expert requires motor learning, which is the process of acquiring and refining motor (movement) skills. Inspired by the observation that motor skills evolve from being effortful to effortless, psychologists have divided motor learning into three separate stages: the cognitive stage, in which we gather information about the actions needed to perform a skill; the associative stage, in which we refine our movements; and the autonomous stage, in which our movements become smooth and automatic. Here, we will explore how a fictional young athlete, Amy, progresses through these three stages and uses different parts of her brain to make the transition from novice to expert.

Introduction

How do you cross the street or pick up your heavy backpack? How do you get out of bed or open a car door? It is astonishing how we can move and coordinate so many different muscles at the same time with so little effort. But not all movements are alike. There are large movements that involve the body's biggest muscles, like the bicep muscles that help you throw, or the quadricep muscles that help you walk. There are also smaller muscles to control the fingers, essential for fine and precise movements, such as those necessary for playing the piano or using a pencil.

How do we acquire new movements as well as fine-tune old ones? We do so through the process of learning and refining motor skills. Inspired by the observation that motor skills evolve from being effortful to effortless, Fitts and Posner proposed a model that divides motor learning into three stages: the cognitive stage, the associative stage, and the autonomous stage []. In the cognitive stage, we rely on cognition, or the processing of new information, to determine what steps are necessary to make a movement accurately. In the associative stage, our movements are refined by feedback from the environment (for example, how far a frisbee misses a goal) and feedback from our bodies (for example, whether the frisbee was thrown with proper technique and posture). In the autonomous stage, our movements become automatic and flawlessly executed, without really having to think about them. To illustrate these three stages of motor learning, let's examine how a fictional young athlete named Amy learned to play frisbee [].

The Cognitive Stage

Amy's motor learning journey began with the cognitive stage, in which Amy spent a lot of time trying to understand how the game of frisbee works and what types of movements are required. She consulted books and instructional videos to figure out all the physical motions needed to throw the frisbee, trying to absorb all this new information as fast as she could. For instance, Amy realized that she needed to grip the frisbee with her index finger and thumb, curl her wrist toward her body, and release the frisbee while rotating her shoulder across her body.

Amy's first few tries were way off. The frisbee barely spun. Even on the next day, the frisbee spiraled out of control, flying straight into the bushes. Her frisbee throw lacked consistency, which is common in the cognitive stage. Despite her frustration, Amy continued to rehearse the sequence of movements required for a successful throw.

The Associative Stage

After a few weeks of training, Amy became fluent in the basic frisbee throw. Her improvements were momentous, but her throw was far from perfect. Amy then entered the associative stage of motor learning. She transitioned from learning what movements to perform to fine-tuning how these movements should be performed. Through trial-and-error, Amy became more accurate by tightening her grip and including a follow-through after her throw. Amy's movements became more consistent and refined in a steady manner, relying less on her knowledge of frisbee and more on her sensory feedback like proprioception, which is the awareness of where the body is in space.

The Autonomous Stage

After years of continuous practice, Amy has become an expert, and is the captain of her frisbee team. Amy is now in the autonomous stage of motor learning, throwing a frisbee quickly and accurately across the entire field. Her movements have become effortless, automatic, and at times, even outside her awareness. Her learning, however, has started to plateau, with minimal improvement even with extended practice ( Figure 1).

Figure 1 - The stages of motor learning.

(A) In the cognitive stage, Amy learns how to throw a frisbee from instructional manuals and videos. (B) In the associative stage, Amy continues to learn via trial-and-error over many months of practice. (C) In the autonomous stage, Amy's throw has become automatic and effortless, enabling her to win first place in the nation. (D) Amy's frisbee skills improve rapidly in the cognitive stage, gradually in the associative stage, and reach a plateau in the autonomous stage.

Forgetting and Remembering

If Amy stops practicing for a long time, she might forget some of what she has learnt. However, skills that are well-practiced and automatic are forgotten more slowly than skills that are less engrained in memory. If Amy picks up a frisbee after not playing for a while, she may initially feel a sense of "rustiness" or clumsiness from forgetting these motor memories. However, she will be able to re-learn frisbee skills faster than when she learnt them for the first time. For instance, re-learning how to ride a bike after years of not biking will be much quicker than learning how to bike for the first time.

The Role of the Brain in Motor Learning

The brain is divided into many regions, and these regions perform specialized functions that, together, allowed Amy to learn how to throw a frisbee ( Figure 2). There are three brain regions that seem to be essential in motor learning: the hippocampus, cerebellum, and motor cortex []. The hippocampus is thought to store new memories and is crucial for remembering the necessary steps of a frisbee throw during the cognitive stage of learning. The cerebellum is thought to help refine the frisbee throw using visual feedback and proprioception, and it is especially important for learning via trial-and-error during the associative stage of learning. Finally, the motor cortex helps coordinate the direction and force of a frisbee throw, relaying information from the brain to the muscles in an automatic manner. As these brain regions (and many others) become more in sync, Amy's frisbee throw will become less effortful and more automatic in the final, autonomous stage of learning.

Figure 2 - The role of the brain in motor learning.

There are three main regions of the brain associated with motor learning. The hippocampus stores memories of the motor skill, the cerebellum helps adjust movements through trial-and-error, and the motor cortex coordinates the direction and force of movement. The figure represents a left side view of the brain.

Conclusion

Skilled movements, like throwing a frisbee, evolve through various stages of learning, and recruit many brain regions and muscle groups. Next time you pick up a new sport or skill, notice how you progress through the three stages of motor learning: the cognitive stage, in which major improvements in skill arise from instruction and demonstration; the associative stage, in which movements are gradually refined through trial-and-error; and the autonomous stage, in which movements, once effortful, become automatic and effortless. In conclusion, Fitts' and Posner's model has not only helped us to understand the basis of motor learning but has also made sports training for athletes and physical rehabilitation for patients so much more effective.

Glossary

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

[1] ↑ Fitts, P. M., and Posner, M. I. 1967. Human Performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.

[2] ↑ Lift, A. R., and Buitrago, M. M. 2005. Stages of motor skill learning. Mol. Neurobiol. 32:205-16. doi: 10.1385/MN:32:3:205

[3] ↑ Thompson, R. F. 1986. The neurobiology of learning and memory. Science. 233:941-7. doi: 10.1126/science.3738519

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All athletes were novices at one point in their lives, even Olympic gold medalists and world champions. They committed years of practice to become competitive and even longer to become elite performers. This transformation from novice to expert requires motor learning, which is the process of acquiring and refining motor (movement) skills.

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Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

In an auditorium at Penn State Erie University students were given a simple task: unscramble three words to create new words.  What the students didn’t know was that half of them received three easy words to unscramble.

The other half of the students were given these three words: 1) Whirl 2) Slapstick and 3) Cinerama

The first two words don’t make up another. Unscrambling them is an impossible task. The third word can be unscrambled to spell, “American.”  Everyone in the auditorium got the same third word; “Cinerama.”

Here’s what happened:

The instructor gave them 10 seconds to unscramble the first word then asked, by show of hands, who had finished unscrambling the first word. Half the hands went up.

She gave them ten seconds for the second word, same result—half the class raised their hands.

When she repeated the task with the third word (the one that could be unscrambled) it yielded almost the same result. The people who failed at #’s 1 and 2 could not unscramble #3.

Why?

Because when they saw their peers succeeding where they had failed they told themselves, “I can’t do this.” And they were right, no one could. But once that story took hold in their minds, even though they could have solved the third one, it was too late. “I can’t do this.” became their reality.  The term for this behavior is “learned helplessness.”  As we go about trying to achieve the things we desire, it’s common to fall into the “I can’t do this” trap.

In just 30 seconds, this group was convinced that they couldn’t complete a simple task. Imagine the impact caused by years of telling yourself (or someone telling you) that you can’t do something. The good news is that story you tell yourself about yourself can be rewritten. Take for example Thomas Edison who when asked about his constant failure to find the right material to make his light bulb said, “I have not failed. I have simply found 1000 ways it cannot be done.”  Understanding why something didn’t work out takes the focus away from you. So instead of “I can’t do this” the story becomes “I can’t do it this way, but I can try another.”

If you know anyone who would benefit from this, who might be feeling like they can’t do something, please share the story. We all get there sometimes, and it’s important to remember, “Can’t” is often something that starts within us and it CAN be defeated.

About us:

Creative Outhouse specializes in compelling creative that is based on the science of human behavior. Clients come to us for brand launches and any communication that strives to change the way people think, feel and act.  Check us out at Creativeouthouse.com

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Experiment shows how internal stories make us succeed or fail.

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“I can’t do this.” became their reality. The term for this behavior is “learned helplessness.” As we go about trying to achieve the things we desire, it’s common to fall into the “I can’t do this” trap.

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In an experiment you may not be aware of, a class of learners was randomly split down the middle. A challenge was given to each half - each group was given three words.

Group 1 were given:
(1) whirl
(2) slapstick
(3) cinerama

Group 2 were given:
(1) bat
(2) lemon
(3) cinerama

They were all asked to work on their own and in silence. They were told that, upon presentation of each word, they had to work out an anagram from the word given - also, they only had a few seconds to work it out. At the same time, everyone was asked to start with word (1).

The teacher asked students to raise their hands if they had worked out an anagram of the word they were presented with. Many in group 2 raised their hands, as they had worked out that 'bat' became 'tab'. No one in Group 1 raised their hand. Immediately, the task continued with word (2), with the same 'raise your hand when you've finished' rule. Again, hands were raised in Group 2 as they worked out that 'lemon' could become 'melon'. No one in Group 1 raised their hand. Finally, the task concluded with both groups being asked to work out the anagram of word (3).

You will have noticed that word (3) was the same for both groups. After 5 seconds, the group was asked to raise their hands if they had worked out the anagram. Remarkably, the majority of students in Group 2 raised their hands for this trickiest problem, working out that 'cinerama' became 'American'. Only a couple of students in Group 1 managed to work out the anagram. In fact, Group 1 had learned earlier on in the experiment that they were 'no good at anagrams', when they looked over to see that their peers in Group 2 had all worked out their anagram. This was further reinforced when the second work was presented, with similar results plain to see by Group 1.

In fact, words (1) and (2) presented to Group 1 were non-anagram friendly words. They had been stitched up! By witnessing how well Group 2 were performing, the individuals in Group 1 had decided that they must be rubbish at such tasks, so their motivation to press on to word (3) had diminished. Word (3) is a difficult word to solve, but the confidence and affirmation given by successfully completing the first two words had encouraged Group 2 to triumphantly search for the answer. By the time they were presented with word (3), then why bother? Students in this experiment (you can see the video at uked.chat/helpless) who were part of Group 1 told that they felt stupid, rushed, even more confused, and frustrated.

What happened in the above example is known as 'Learned Helplessness', a phenomenon described as a behaviour that occurs when the subject endures repeatedly aversive stimuli which it is unable to escape from or avoid. After such experiences, the individual often fails to learn or accept "escape" or "avoidance" in new situations where such behaviour is likely to be effective. In other words, inaction can lead individuals to overlook opportunities for relief or change.

Learned Helplessness behaviours can manifest into many different issues, such as low self-esteem, passivity, poor motivation, giving up, lack of effort, frustration, procrastination, failure to ask for help and, as a result, is very relevant for educators to be aware of.

Academic struggles can often lead to feelings of learned helplessness. A child who makes an effort to do well but still does poorly may end up feeling that s/he has no control over grades or performance. Since nothing s/he does seems to make any difference, they will stop trying and grades will suffer even more. Such problems can also affect other areas of the child's life. Poor performance in school can make individuals feel that nothing they do is right or useful, so may lose the motivation to try in other areas of life as well. As teachers, most would be mortified if our students told us that, during our lessons, they felt stupid, rushed, even more confused, and frustrated.

Research suggests that learned helplessness can be successfully decreased, particularly if intervention occurs during early onset. Long-term learned helplessness can also be reduced, although it may require longer-term effort. As educators, lesson can be learned from the example at the start of this article. Too often, to keep the lesson pacey, we rely on our 'go-to' pupils who will quickly raise their arm to give the answer, ignoring allowing time for other students to process the question, work out an answer, and improve any mistakes in their learning. By this very act, we can be guilty of potentially making other students feel helpless, and affirm negative self-fulfilling prophesies: "Why should I bother?"; "I never get asked to answer a question"; "I don't want to share my answer, in case it's wrong and everyone laughs at me", and so on. So, what can educators (and other adults) do to limit the damage potential of learned helplessness? Here are some ideas and strategies that can make all the difference:

Encourage Independence

Don't do all the hard work for children. Let them have a go. Show young people that they are respected and cherished as remarkable individuals who have the ability to achieve.

Let them fail, but show them how to improve next time

Scaffold. Build up knowledge and skills in a logical and supportive environment. Create opportunities that let them succeed through their own hard work and 'having a go'.

Encourage problem solving

Allow opportunities to think about how to solve a problem. Make problem solving a practical part of daily life, where possible.

Give time to process, think and provide an answer

Although classroom time is at a premium, allow young people the time to process questions. Don't fill the silent gaps, and encourage answers from pupils in different ways than shouting out in front of their peers.

Help improve confidence & resilience

Celebrate the small successes young people achieve in all aspects of life. Celebrate kindness, thoughtfulness and resilient behaviour.
This article originally appeared in Issue 53 of the UKEdMagazine. You can freely read the magazine by clicking here
You need to Login or Register to bookmark/favorite this content.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In an experiment you may not be aware of, a class of learners was randomly split down the middle. A challenge was given to each half - each group was given three words. Group 1 were given: (1) whirl (2) slapstick (3) cinerama Group 2 were given: (1) bat (2) lemon (3) cinerama They were all asked to work on their own and in silence.

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You smile for a photo. The camera flash blazes for an instant, but that annoying, flash-shaped light lingers in your vision.

Here we go again.

What you're seeing is called an afterimage or aftereffect, false images that stay visible even after the original light stimulus is gone. There are two types of afterimage: negative and positive. They're similar, but each responsible for a slightly different sensation.

Negative afterimages

The color of a negative afterimage is the complementary color of the one you saw in front of you. If you stare at a well-lit, red apple long enough then close your eyes, the negative afterimage of the apple should appear in a shade of green - the complementary color of red.

Why does this happen?

The millions of light-sensitive cells along each retina are called rods and cones. The complex process of human vision wouldn't exist without them.

Rods react to low light and the light in your peripheral vision, while cones specialize in colors, bright light and fine details. When light strikes these cells, they get excited and send a nerve impulse along a pathway toward your brain, where it's eventually processed as a recognizable stimulus.

But there's a catch. Like many humans, cone cells don't like to perform long, tedious tasks. When they're exposed to the same color for too long, they get tired - or fatigued. This is when other cone cells pick up the slack.

Different cone cells react better to red, green and blue colors, and combine them to form every color in your vision. When certain cone cells get fatigued, the opponent process theory says that inverse-colored cones will pitch in and help out when their counterparts need a break.

Here's one example of a negative afterimage. It might look like artwork from the 1980s, but it's actually an afterimage demonstration created by the artist Dimitri Parant.

See that tiny, white dot on the bridge of the woman's nose? Stare at it closely for 30 seconds. Now close your eyes.

With your eyes closed, you should see a much more lifelike image of a woman. The unnatural colors you were staring at are now gone, and you're left with a mental image that looks almost like a photograph.

If you focused very carefully, you might even be able to tell that the person floating across your vision is Beyoncé.

The lilac chaser illusion

Inverted artwork isn't the only way to experience negative afterimages, as Jeremy Hinton's "lilac chaser" proves.

Stare at the black cross in the center of this animation and try not to blink. It shouldn't take too long to notice something strange.

Within a few seconds, the empty space "moving" around the circle will start to look like a green circle. But if you look away from your screen then back again, the green circle is gone - until you stare at the image again.

As you can probably guess, there is no green dot. Instead, it's an illusion formed by negative afterimages.

Your cone cells get used to seeing the pink dots, so when each one disappears, other cone cells fill their space with a bright green dot - the complementary color of pink. The "rotating" circle moves fast enough that it doesn't give each afterimage a chance to disappear, so your brain interprets it as a green dot constantly rotating clockwise.

But there's more to this illusion.

If you stare long enough, the pink dots themselves will start to disappear. But look away again, then come back to the image. The pink dots are back.

This is an entirely different phenomenon called the Troxler effect. When you focus on one point for a long time, the Troxler effect causes the images around that point to slowly disappear.

The phi phenomenon, on the other hand, is what makes you think the circle is moving, when in reality, you're only looking at a sequence of still images.

Positive afterimages

Unlike negative afterimages, a positive afterimage appears in the same colors as the image in front of you.

They're also much shorter in duration. You might be able to see a negative afterimage for several seconds, but a positive afterimage usually only lasts half a second or so.

What makes this type of afterimage remarkable is how often you experience them without noticing. Without positive afterimages, it's possible that movies would look much different.

The average human eye is thought to be able to see around 75 frames per second, but most movie theaters only project movies at 24 frames per second. So why doesn't a movie look choppy? You may be able to thank positive afterimages for that.

After each frame, a positive afterimage in your eyes maintains the image on the screen for a split second. Together with the phi phenomenon from the lilac chaser illusion, this could explain why humans are able to process smooth "motion" in a motion picture that isn't actually moving at all.

At this frame rate, a 90-minute movie contains nearly 130,000 individual frames. That's a lot of positive afterimages - but if phi and afterimages are truly behind movie motion, then they have their limits. Old silent films were once filmed closer to 16 frames per second, which gave them a trademark "flickering" effect that you don't see in modern movies.

And while most people can tell the difference between 24 frames per second and, say, 60 frames per second, a movie theater's 24 frames per second never looks choppy. Just... different.

In fact, people often complain that movies or TV shows presented in 60 frames per second look like home videos or soap operas, since they're so used to experiencing 24 frames per second.

Thanks, cone cells!
Learn more about optical illusions
Palinopsia

Negative and positive afterimages are a natural part of human vision. But rarely, an underlying condition causes people to see more afterimages or similar visual sensations.

These are part of a group of symptoms called palinopsia. There are two types: Hallucinatory and illusory palinopsia.

People with palinopsia can experience intense positive afterimages in response to light or movement. These images tend to last much longer than normal afterimages.

If you start to notice more intense, longer lasting afterimages, schedule an appointment with an eye doctor.

READ NEXT: Hallucinations

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Afterimage: An Eye-Boggling Optical Illusion

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You smile for a photo. The camera flash blazes for an instant, but that annoying, flash-shaped light lingers in your vision. Here we go again. What you're seeing is called an afterimage or aftereffect, false images that stay visible even after the original light stimulus is gone.

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In an experiment you may not be aware of, a class of learners was randomly split down the middle. A challenge was given to each half - each group was given three words.

Group 1 were given:
(1) whirl
(2) slapstick
(3) cinerama

Group 2 were given:
(1) bat
(2) lemon
(3) cinerama

They were all asked to work on their own and in silence. They were told that, upon presentation of each word, they had to work out an anagram from the word given - also, they only had a few seconds to work it out. At the same time, everyone was asked to start with word (1).

The teacher asked students to raise their hands if they had worked out an anagram of the word they were presented with. Many in group 2 raised their hands, as they had worked out that 'bat' became 'tab'. No one in Group 1 raised their hand. Immediately, the task continued with word (2), with the same 'raise your hand when you've finished' rule. Again, hands were raised in Group 2 as they worked out that 'lemon' could become 'melon'. No one in Group 1 raised their hand. Finally, the task concluded with both groups being asked to work out the anagram of word (3).

You will have noticed that word (3) was the same for both groups. After 5 seconds, the group was asked to raise their hands if they had worked out the anagram. Remarkably, the majority of students in Group 2 raised their hands for this trickiest problem, working out that 'cinerama' became 'American'. Only a couple of students in Group 1 managed to work out the anagram. In fact, Group 1 had learned earlier on in the experiment that they were 'no good at anagrams', when they looked over to see that their peers in Group 2 had all worked out their anagram. This was further reinforced when the second work was presented, with similar results plain to see by Group 1.

In fact, words (1) and (2) presented to Group 1 were non-anagram friendly words. They had been stitched up! By witnessing how well Group 2 were performing, the individuals in Group 1 had decided that they must be rubbish at such tasks, so their motivation to press on to word (3) had diminished. Word (3) is a difficult word to solve, but the confidence and affirmation given by successfully completing the first two words had encouraged Group 2 to triumphantly search for the answer. By the time they were presented with word (3), then why bother? Students in this experiment (you can see the video at uked.chat/helpless) who were part of Group 1 told that they felt stupid, rushed, even more confused, and frustrated.

What happened in the above example is known as 'Learned Helplessness', a phenomenon described as a behaviour that occurs when the subject endures repeatedly aversive stimuli which it is unable to escape from or avoid. After such experiences, the individual often fails to learn or accept "escape" or "avoidance" in new situations where such behaviour is likely to be effective. In other words, inaction can lead individuals to overlook opportunities for relief or change.

Learned Helplessness behaviours can manifest into many different issues, such as low self-esteem, passivity, poor motivation, giving up, lack of effort, frustration, procrastination, failure to ask for help and, as a result, is very relevant for educators to be aware of.

Academic struggles can often lead to feelings of learned helplessness. A child who makes an effort to do well but still does poorly may end up feeling that s/he has no control over grades or performance. Since nothing s/he does seems to make any difference, they will stop trying and grades will suffer even more. Such problems can also affect other areas of the child's life. Poor performance in school can make individuals feel that nothing they do is right or useful, so may lose the motivation to try in other areas of life as well. As teachers, most would be mortified if our students told us that, during our lessons, they felt stupid, rushed, even more confused, and frustrated.

Research suggests that learned helplessness can be successfully decreased, particularly if intervention occurs during early onset. Long-term learned helplessness can also be reduced, although it may require longer-term effort. As educators, lesson can be learned from the example at the start of this article. Too often, to keep the lesson pacey, we rely on our 'go-to' pupils who will quickly raise their arm to give the answer, ignoring allowing time for other students to process the question, work out an answer, and improve any mistakes in their learning. By this very act, we can be guilty of potentially making other students feel helpless, and affirm negative self-fulfilling prophesies: "Why should I bother?"; "I never get asked to answer a question"; "I don't want to share my answer, in case it's wrong and everyone laughs at me", and so on. So, what can educators (and other adults) do to limit the damage potential of learned helplessness? Here are some ideas and strategies that can make all the difference:

Encourage Independence

Don't do all the hard work for children. Let them have a go. Show young people that they are respected and cherished as remarkable individuals who have the ability to achieve.

Let them fail, but show them how to improve next time

Scaffold. Build up knowledge and skills in a logical and supportive environment. Create opportunities that let them succeed through their own hard work and 'having a go'.

Encourage problem solving

Allow opportunities to think about how to solve a problem. Make problem solving a practical part of daily life, where possible.

Give time to process, think and provide an answer

Although classroom time is at a premium, allow young people the time to process questions. Don't fill the silent gaps, and encourage answers from pupils in different ways than shouting out in front of their peers.

Help improve confidence & resilience

Celebrate the small successes young people achieve in all aspects of life. Celebrate kindness, thoughtfulness and resilient behaviour.
This article originally appeared in Issue 53 of the UKEdMagazine. You can freely read the magazine by clicking here
You need to Login or Register to bookmark/favorite this content.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In an experiment you may not be aware of, a class of learners was randomly split down the middle. A challenge was given to each half - each group was given three words. Group 1 were given: (1) whirl (2) slapstick (3) cinerama Group 2 were given: (1) bat (2) lemon (3) cinerama They were all asked to work on their own and in silence.

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A scientific study claims that your age affects how you see this optical illusion

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A scientific study claims that your age affects how you see this optical illusion

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A new study conducted at Flinders University in Australia has put forward a theory about a classic optical illusion called "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law." It's also known as the Boring Figure.

The drawing shows both a young woman looking away and an old lady's profile.

The study claimed that whichever woman you saw first depended on your age - people between 18 and 30 tended to see the young woman first, whereas people over 30 first spotted the older woman.

It concluded that "own-age biases affect subconscious face perception."

"My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" is one of the most well-known optical illusions in the world.

It hinges on facial perception: You can either see a young woman turning away or the profile of an older woman staring solemnly towards the left side of the drawing. However, you can only see one at a time.

See it? The young woman's chin doubles as the older woman's nose, and the old woman's chin is also the young woman's chest.

If you've ever wondered why you see whichever woman you see first, an Australian study conducted by two psychology professors concluded that it has to do with your age.

According to the study, a younger person will see the younger woman first, while older people will see the older woman first. The study included 393 participants (242 males, 141 females) from ages 18 to 68, though the median age was 32. They were shown the image for half a second, and then were asked the gender and age of the person that they saw.

While most participants saw the younger woman first, it could be because many of the participants were on the younger side. When the researchers separated the oldest 10% and the youngest 10% of those surveyed, they found that the older set saw the older woman first, and the younger set the young woman.

The point of the study was to determine if "own-age biases affect the initial interpretation of an image at a subconscious level." But even if you see the older lady first, just remember: You're as young as you feel.

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A scientific study claims that your age affects how you see this famous optical illusion - what do you see?

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A new study conducted at Flinders University in Australia has put forward a theory about a classic optical illusion called "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law." It's also known as the Boring Figure. The drawing shows both a young woman looking away and an old lady's profile.

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Scientists can predict your age based on what you see in this optical illusion

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Scientists can predict your age based on what you see in this optical illusion

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Look at the image below. What do you see first?

The answer is usually one of two things: either a young woman wearing a hat turning away or an older lady with a large nose and pronounced chin facing sideways.

Intriguingly, your response may depend on your age, at least that's the conclusion of a study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

To explore whether our own age biases affect subconscious face perception, researchers from Flinders University in Australia conducted an experiment with the famous ambiguous image-known as "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law".

"We were interested in how individual differences in traits, such as age, cause people to see things differently," Mike Nicholls, an author of the paper from Flinders, told Newsweek. "The image is perfect for this because people either see it as a young or old woman."

Nearly 400 people (242 males and 141 females) from the U.S., aged between 18 and 68 years old, took part in the study. After being shown the image for less than a second, the participants were asked what they thought the age and gender of the woman they saw first was. The results showed that people tended to see the woman that was closer to their own age.

"We found that younger observers tended to see the young woman whereas older observers tended to see the older woman," Nicholls said. "The most interesting thing is that this bias seems to be sub-conscious. The image was only shown for half a second and observers were not told that they would have to make a judgement of age."

The majority of the participants saw the younger woman first, but this is likely due to the fact that there was a higher proportion of younger participants. The median age of those who took part was 32.

The reasons for this effect are rooted in our psychology, according to the researchers. Our perception of faces relies on a number of processes in the brain. Faces of people in social "in-groups" receive more in-depth neurological processing.

"Humans have "in" and "out" social groups, which can relate to things such as sex, religion and age," Nicholls said. In the current study, we think that young and old people have an unconscious bias towards attending to their own-age group. This bias causes them to see a lady, which is consistent with their age group."

The "own-age effect" seen in the study could potentially have an effect on social interactions between people of different ages, according to the researchers.

"I think we need to be aware of sub-conscious biases and compensate for them," Nicholls said. "For example, in an interview panel, it is most probably important to have the panel composed of people of different ages to compensate for any unconscious biases."

The effect also ties in with social and cultural practices which are less inclusive towards the elderly-in the Western world at least. But these age-related biases are not necessarily universal across cultures, so the results of the study could well have been different if the participants were from another country.

"Cultures that have more inclusive attitudes towards ageing may not show this effect," he said. "For instance, in countries like Japan, where the elderly are included in the family unit and house, people may not show own-age biases."

The famous image, drawn by British cartoonist William Ely Hill, was published in American humor magazine Puck in November 1915, although the oldest known version of it is found on a German postcard from 1888. Over time, the image became well known to psychologists and has appeared in numerous textbooks and experimental studies.
This article has been updated to include additional comments from Mike Nicholls.

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What you see in this classic optical illusion depends on your age

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Look at the image below. What do you see first? The answer is usually one of two things: either a young woman wearing a hat turning away or an older lady with a large nose and pronounced chin facing sideways.

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Abstract

Remembering a lot of things at the same time is difficult. As an experiment, read these numbers: 07041776. Then, close your eyes and try to say them aloud, in order. How did you do? We would guess that you remembered around half of the numbers. Now, try again but think of the same numbers as a date: 07-04-1776. Did you remember more of the numbers this time? You just demonstrated something called working memory. Working memory ("WM" for short) is the ability to hold onto and process pieces of information. WM activates when you experience and remember events in your life, learn new facts, talk to people, read, and do math. WM is a basic human behavior. As shown in the numbers experiment, WM has limited capacity. How does the brain support WM? And, what is happening in the brain that limits our capacity to store multiple memories at the same time?

How Does the Brain Build Memories?

Remembering is a complicated process. We will tell you about a few tricks that the human brain uses to remember a lot of things at the same time; but, first it is important to understand how memory works in the brain. The memory system is built into different parts of the brain. One key player is the part of your brain directly behind your forehead. This part is called the frontal lobe. When you think (or think about thinking!), you use your frontal lobe. Another key player in the memory system is buried deep inside your brain. This part is called the hippocampus, and it is very important for long-term memories, for instance, what you remember about how the brain builds memories tomorrow or another time in the future. For a picture of these brain structures and more information about the hippocampus, have a look at Ref. []. While looking at the brain structures tells us where memories are built, it does not tell us how memories are built. This article explains how brain cells build memories. We will explain why it is difficult to remember many things at the same time and then show you a few ways to improve your own memory.

To investigate the system, we record electrical signals from people's brains while they hold onto and process pieces of information. We ask people to remember things, such as numbers, words, or pictures. Then, our electrical recordings show us what brain cells called "neurons" do when people remember things after a short time (usually between 1 s and 1 min) []. When neurons are active, they deliver very small electric currents (much smaller than currents from wall sockets). These WM experiments show that the electric currents change depending on how much information you remember.

Normally, you have to remember a lot of things at once. For example, to understand this article, you have to remember what you just read while you are still reading. Maybe you're also thinking about what is for dinner, where you're having dinner, and when you have to be there. Remembering all of these different things depends on an electric current that cycle three to eight times per second [ 2 -]. This means that some neurons in the human brain fire together over and over again between three and eight times in 1 s [].

We use computer tools to analyze different components of the brain signal. In Figure 1, we show you a picture of what the brain signal looks like and what the component for WM looks like. We also show you the component that is active when you process sensory information, such as the things you see or hear. You can see that sensory processing is much faster (between 30 and 100 cycles per second) than the WM component. Our brains have a trick to make memories out of this very fast sensory activity. The brain uses the slower, three to eight cycle waves from the WM system to group the faster sensory activity together []. Figure 1 shows that you can have, for example, seven faster cycles of sensory information within one WM cycle. This is a very effective trick for organizing seven pieces of information in WM. This trick also explains why it is hard to remember more than seven things at the same time. The speed of the WM system seems to be limited to three to eight cycles per second; that is, the same seven things cycle over and over again three to eight times per second in WM. This limitation seems to restrict the number of items that we can remember at the same time.

Figure 1 - Recording from a human brain: the brain signal (top) looks noisy and random.

We can break down the signal into different components, which have different functions. For example, electric currents that cycle three to eight times per second are involved in memory function. Much faster currents (30 or more cycles per second) represent sensory information, such as the things you see or hear. So, the brain signal shown at the top seems to be a combination of different currents, allowing our brains to do a lot of things simultaneously. As shown in the gray-shaded area, one cycle of the slow WM activity can include, for example, seven cycles of the sensory information.

It should come as no surprise that the brain's WM function, which helps you think, read, and do math, is complicated. One reason for WM is so complicated is that the memory system is built into different parts of the brain, and these different parts of the brain need to talk to each other. Different parts of the brain talk to each other when neurons fire at the same time. To understand what this means, think about how several different people play instruments together in a band. The tune sounds good when the rhythms are coordinated, which means they go together in time. In the brain, we can see the memory rhythm cycling in different parts of the brain at the same time [ 2].

Another reason for WM is complicated is that the electrical signals in any one part of the brain are already very complex. As we showed you in Figure 1, researchers have to break down the brain signal in order to make sense of it. The brain signal is so complicated, because the brain does a lot of things at the same time. Our brains do these different things at different speeds, a phenomenon called "multiplexing." Think about a song being played with different instruments together. By breaking down these sounds, we are able to differentiate the guitar's rhythm from rhythms made by the saxophone or drums. It is similar with the brain signal, where we use computer analysis to separate the memory rhythm (the slow component) from other rhythms, such as the sensory processing rhythm (the faster component).

Why is Our Ability to Remember Limited?

Think back to the WM experiment where we asked you to memorize the numbers 07041776 in order, and then to try again with the date 07-04-1776. Notice that it was easier to remember the numbers as a date, or set of three pieces of information, than it was to remember all eight numbers in order. And, have you noticed that 07-04-1776 is another way to write July 4th, 1776, the day the United States declared independence? You will probably have no trouble remembering this one piece of information. We show you more examples in Box 1.

Box 1 - What is One Piece of Information?

Remembering a lot of different things at the same time is difficult, especially if something does not have a meaning to you. We asked you to remember the following eight numbers in order: 07041776. Then, we asked you to think about the numbers as a set of three pieces of information in a date: 07-04-1776. Finally, we told you that was another way of writing the single piece of information: July 4th, 1776, the day the United States declared independence. All of a sudden, eight meaningless numbers became one meaningful piece of information - and that was easier to remember. If you did not remember the eight numbers in order, but you could remember Independence Day, then you successfully "chunked," or grouped together, the information in your memory.

Here are two more examples:

1. Let us say you meet five new friends at school and you have to remember their names: Daniel, Emily, Colin, Anna, and Bob. Try to recall their names in 1 min.
How did you do? Maybe you forgot one or two! Well, what if we tell you that your five new friends' names start with the first five letters of the alphabet? A ... B ... C ...

2. Try to remember random colors; let us say: red, white, blue, black, red, and yellow. Again, that is difficult, but if you know that the first three colors are in the American flag and the last three colors are in the German flag, it might be easier. We show you how your brain might fit this information into a WM cycle in Figure 2.

Figure 2 - Chunking information in one WM cycle: let us say you have to remember a set of different colors in the right order.

Holding onto two colors in your memory is simple. It gets more complicated if you have to remember six colors, especially if one color (here, red) appears twice. As you can see, the order becomes more important with more information to hold in memory. It probably helps if we tell you that all the colors appear in the American and German flags, in that order. That is, it probably helps if we show you a trick to put these six colors into two "chunks," making the colors easier to remember. The brain uses another trick to organize multiple pieces of information in three to eight cycles of electrical activity per second. First, different pieces of information are put into different time slots within one memory cycle. Then, our brains can automatically use timing to group different pieces of information together into chunks. When we chunk a lot of information into fewer, more meaningful pieces of information (such as two-colored flags versus six colors), we are helping our brains use their own organizational tricks!

We have long understood that WM capacity is limited to approximately five to seven pieces of information [ 4]. As shown in Box 1, a piece of information can refer to something relatively meaningless like a single number or a color, or something more meaningful like a date or a flag.

As seen in Figure 1 (gray-shaded area), approximately seven cycles of sensory information fit into one WM cycle. To understand what this means, consider how we represent pieces of information in the brain. Think about Box 1 ( Figure 2), where you used the sensory process of vision to study the colors and the colored flags. To memorize a list of numbers, you would use vision to read the numbers; alternatively, you would use hearing if someone were to read the numbers to you. Electrical activity that cycles 30 or more times per second is involved in representing brain activity during sensory processing [ 4]. So, if you try to remember more than seven pieces of information at the same time, your brain might process all of the sensory information, but you might not actually remember all of the information later. This may be because more than seven items exceeds the capacity of the slower memory component - that is, the WM cycle [ 4].

Now, let us do the math. If faster electrical currents cycle an average of 30 times in a second and slower electrical currents cycle an average of 5 times in a second, how many faster electrical cycles fit into each slower electrical cycle (30 ÷ 5)? The answer is 6, which is consistent with our limited WM capacity of five to seven pieces of information. The number of times faster electrical currents fit into the slower WM electrical cycles might actually determine our WM capacity limits [ 4]! Have another look at Figure 1 for a picture of how the number of pieces of information (represented in electrical activity that cycles 30 or more times per second) can fit into a memory cycle (three to eight cycles per second). This relationship between fast- and slow-cycling electrical activities is important to how neurons make memories. Depending on how much information needs to be processed, the brain can speed up or slow down the slower, WM wave within the range of three to eight repeating cycle per second. Therefore, this slow rhythm can adapt, which helps the brain group the fast rhythm into meaningful pieces of information.

Thinking again to Box 1 ( Figure 2), it may be easier to remember two-colored flags than to remember six colors in order, but it is more complicated to remember two flags of three colors each than it is to remember two single colors. Scientists are currently doing experiments to figure out how the brain supports WM for more complicated pieces of information - or, "chunks" of multiple pieces of information.

As mentioned above, the slower-cycling WM electrical activity is adaptive. This means that the WM cycle might slow down, from eight to three cycles per second, to incorporate more pieces of sensory information in one WM cycle [ 4]. Another way that the brain supports WM for chunked information is that the WM cycle organizes the sensory information in order based on timing [ 5]. In Figure 2, the first red-colored item occurs before the blue item, and the two red items occur at different times, separated in order by three other items. When we only have to remember two items, red and blue, the order of red-then-blue is simple. But, when we have to remember six items, the timing becomes more complicated - and important. This means that as we hold onto and process more and more pieces of information, the order in which different pieces of information enter the WM cycle becomes more and more important to WM function. The fast-cycling electrical activity, which represents pieces of sensory information and reflects the firing of neurons [ 2], actually occurs in ordered time slots within the slower WM cycle [ 5].

Putting it all together, electrical signals recorded from the human brain show us that we hold onto and process pieces of information in coordinated patterns of activity [ 2- 5]. Neurons make memories by firing together in specific parts of the brain. That might be one mechanism for remembering multiple pieces of information at the same time. This complicated WM system allows us to make memories, and it may also be the reason why remembering a lot of things at the same time is so hard!

Improve Your Memory with Science

Think back to Figure 2 again. In order to remember all six-colored items, we asked you to think about them as two-colored flags. As we described, this is called "chunking," in which you combine a lot of information into fewer, more manageable chunks. Chunking is a very effective strategy for remembering multiple things at the same time. As mentioned above, the brain uses the timing of the faster electrical waves to incorporate more and more information into each slower WM cycle. By chunking a lot of information into a single item or event, we are allowing our brains to handle more pieces of information. Usually, the brain automatically breaks incoming information into manageable pieces, making the information easier to process. You can also actively use chunking to improve your memory, for example, when you study to learn information.

You can associate and combine different pieces of information, however, you would like in order to make chunks. Your brain can actually use the timing of different cycles of electrical activity to make sense of relationships based on time, space, emotions, or anything else that holds meaning for you []. For example, think about two events that happened yesterday, such as talking to a friend and eating dinner. Which one happened first? Did they happen in different places? Did one make you laugh? Each of these questions adds meaning to the events, allowing you to chunk the events together in WM. So, make stories!

You may have guessed from our example WM experiments that the first author of this review is from the United States. Barring extensive brain damage, she will never forget the image of the American flag or the date July 4th, 1776, because it has particular meaning for her. What country do you think the second author is from? We showed you the American flag first and the German flag second (... yes, Germany!). It also helps to visualize your stories.

Finally, because we hold onto pieces of information through cycles of repetitive electrical activity, memory improves with repetition. Make sure to tell your stories to help your brain hold onto your memories.

Glossary

Working Memory: ↑ Is the ability to hold onto and process pieces of information.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Remembering a lot of things at the same time is difficult. As an experiment, read these numbers: 07041776. Then, close your eyes and try to say them aloud, in order. How did you do? We would guess that you remembered around half of the numbers.

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Take a look at this image and move your eyes across the pattern:

Do you see something moving? Well, it's not really moving. It's just your brain being confused by what your eyes tell it.

The confused brain

Our brain is like a blind supercomputer; it's very smart, but it can't see. It's just a really smart blob.

To figure out what it needs, our eyes tell our brain what the things around us look like. The problem is our eyes only know a handful of words to describe what they see.

Sometimes, our brain gets confused by what the eyes are trying to tell it.

This can mean the brain thinks things are moving when actually they're still. Or you might "see" shapes, shades or colours that aren't really there.

For example, look at Square A and Square B in this picture:

Square A looks lighter, but is actually darker than Square B. In fact, here's what both squares look like side by side:

Read more: What was the first computer?

A simple language

Our eyes and brain speak to each other in a very simple language, like a child who doesn't know many words. Most of the time that's not a problem and our brain is able to understand what the eyes tell it.

The colour of an orange, the size of a chair, how far away the door is - your brain knows all these things because the eyes told it so in simple language.

But your brain also has to "fill in the blanks" meaning it has to make some guesses based on the simple clues from the eyes. Mostly those guesses are right (for example, I can see the door looks about this big and the light falls on it that way, so my brain is taking these simple clues and guessing the door is about one metre away).

A wrong guess

Sometimes, however, the brain guesses wrong.

For example, it thinks our eyes told it something is moving but that's not what the eyes meant to say to the brain. (Our brains and eyes evolved to be quite sensitive about movement because in pre-historic times it was a big help if you could spot movement early and often. A slight rustle in the bushes could mean a predator was nearby and it was time to run away. Spotting movement early could save your life!)

Optical illusions happen when our brain and eyes try to speak to each other in simple language but the interpretation gets a bit mixed-up.

But how and why?

A lot of scientists have worked very hard for many years trying to understand how optical illusions work. But the truth is, in many cases, we still don't know for sure exactly how our brain and eyes work together to create these illusions.

We know that information that our eyes gather goes on a long, complicated journey as it travels to the brain. Some of the confusion happens early in that journey. Other optical illusions can only be explained by really complicated processes way down the line in that journey.

In general, the further down the line these "confusions" occur, the less scientists tend to know about exactly how they happen.

But who knows? Maybe you will grow up to be part of the research team that cracks the code.

Read more: Curious Kids: do different people see the same colours?
Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au

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Curious Kids: how does an optical illusion work?

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Sometimes our brain gets confused and misunderstands what the eyes tell it.

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Rorschach Inkblot

Think about how many times you've taken the opportunity to look at the clouds in a bright blue sky and how you were delighted in finding shapes and fanciful figures. When you do this, you are exciting your brain and activating areas that are responsible for thought perception and the processing of emotion, especially in the relationship to memory. There is a brain and personality diagnostic test to do that very thing and it was created a long time ago by Hermann Rorschach-and it's aptly named the Rorschach Inkblot test, and its aim is to observe the power of seeing.

Types of Learners

There are three types of learners: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Visual learners of course like to see pictures and graphs; auditory would rather hear information, and kinesthetic learners are better engaging in an activity in order to grasp a concept. Approximately 65 percent of the population are visual, 30 percent learn best hearing, and just five percent will be looking for action. Which are you?

When Rorschach was growing up, he said this: "I have a rather bad musical memory, so when I am learning a tune I can rely very little on auditory memory images. I often use the optical image of the notes as a way to remember the melody, other times when I was younger, taking violin lessons, it often happened that I could not imagine the sound of a passage but could still play it from memory, or in other words, the movement memory was more reliable than the auditory one. I have also often used imitation finger movements as a way to awaken auditory memories." The psychologist, Rorschach, was immensely interested in these transformations.

An Exciting Era

As a young adult, Rorschach scraped together money and grants for university because he wanted to become a doctor. He left his birthplace of Zurich, Switzerland, only to wind up there again at nearly age 20 to attend school. At this time, he was tall, slim and athletic with blue-gray eyes-and looked an awful lot like our contemporary Brad Pit. In his demeanor, he was serious, lively, and quick to sketch out drawings. His father Ulrich was a painter, poet, and teacher so the artistic bent was in his genes. He attended art museums when he could find a moment of peace from his punishing school classes, but he did brilliantly in his studies. His objective was to move from reading books, to reading people.

Modernity and the Culture Revolution

There are times in history when culture and invention take huge leaps and, it is at these junctures, that mainstream, commonly held beliefs are open to re-interpretation. The community-centered social fabric of nineteenth century life was being dragged into new theories from forward-thinking men and women into an era where the reexamination of the individual mind was important. There was no unanimity however, and agreement demurred to a lack of professional consensus that made up the rest of the twentieth century. During the early formation of Rorschach's medical career, modern physics was driven by Albert Einstein, modern architecture was jolted by Le Corbusier, Sigmund Freud explored the unconscious mind, Carl Jung held talks about psychological tests; Ernst Haeckel, a German naturalist, became one of the most famous scientists writing The Riddle of the Universe, while Darwin's The Origins of Species was scratching its way into the Royal Society.

Rorschach was an observer of all of these phenomena, and he soaked in all the prevailing rhetoric and was even drawn into the Russian political intrigue of the times.

Running the Gauntlet

But Rorschach earned his stripes so-to-speak as a doctor by trying to understand, decipher and treat mental illness. He knew well of, and had, as an academic advisor, Eugen Bleuler, a highly respected psychiatrist, and he often listened to Carl Jung talk about family dynamics. Problem was, the nineteenth-century psychiatrist had no insulin, no antibiotics or anesthesia so the power to cure meant the work was largely depressing. And the predominant wisdom was that the kind of people under Bleuler's care-he coined the term schizophrenia-were hopeless. But with Bleuler, the patient's environment and their personal relationships with their doctors, often resulted in reality-oriented tasks and surprisingly, eventual cures. And starting in 1902, Jung and another doctor, Franz Riklin, developed the first experimental method to reveal patterns in the unconscious mind with the word association test. Moreover, the Freudian free association, and the spell of hypnosis all became accepted practices.

Kleck

In childhood, games are part and parcel of growing up and a popular game for Hermann Rorschach was called Klecksographie. Rorschach became such a master at it, his nickname was Klex -the German word for "inkblot." The game concept required collecting inkblot cards from local shops, and then creating stories from the cards.

Funny enough, when Rorschach strolled the grounds of the asylum looking for a way to make a connection with his schizophrenic patients; he had used the lengthy historical background info, the Jung-Riklin word association test, the Freudian free association, and hypnosis. And while the first techniques revealed complexes, the free association took the patient to a dissociated state revealing how they acted, and hypnosis uncovered what had happened, (each technique had an important function), he needed a method to unify the whole story; and the inkblot drawings he'd created as a child, found their way into his mindset. He chose ten to work with.
"The most interesting thing in nature is the human soul, and the greatest thing a person can do is to heal these souls, sick souls." -Rorschach
Rorschach Ink Blots (or Interpretation)

Over time, Rorschach found that people had different types of personality and the inkblots demonstrated systematic differences in their interpretations. He was able to put each answer into a revealing category such as form, color, or a mixture of these properties. And later, he attended to the content of the answers and what insights the inkblots offered mentally.

Inkblot Controversy

Critics of this test call it a pseudoscience, not much better than phrenology-human characteristics according to the shape of one's skull, or graphology -patterns found in handwriting. At times, Rorschach was thought of as a pioneering genius, a visionary, a dilettante without proficiency or professional status, and a responsible scientist; his ideas ran the gamut according to detractors.

The inkblot tests have been used in prisons and the corrections system, in courtrooms, in psychologists' offices, in the mental health field, and more. The popular tests today are: the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Wechsler IQ test, and the Rorschach. Inkblots were synonymous with clinical psychology throughout much of the twentieth century, and, despite its widespread use, is still controversial for its difficulty and various scoring systems.

Hermann Rorschach died suddenly on April 2, 1922, of peritonitis in Herisau, Switzerland, at the young age of 37. It is believed that this was the result of a ruptured appendix.
Reference
Searls, Damion. The Inkblots: Hermann Rorschach, His Iconic Test, and the Power of Seeing. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2017. Book.
BBC News: What's behind the Rorschach inkblot test?

Cherry, Kendra. Rorschach Inkblot Psychological Test

Discover. "The Science of the Rorschach Blots"

Framingham, Jane Ph.D. "Rorschach Inkblot Test"
Harrower-Erickson Multiple Choice Rorschach Test International Society of the Rorschach & Projective Methods
Mestel, Rosie. "Rorschach tested." Los Angeles Times
NPR interview with Damion Searls Rorschach-inspired products on Etsy
Feature photo: Inkblot

Photo of Hermann Rorschach: Public Domain: Permission details
File: Hermann Rorschach c.1910.JPG

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Do you look at clouds and try to identify shapes and figures? Hermann Rorschach created the Inkblot test, and its aim is to observe the power of seeing.

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Rorschach Test: Definition, History and Interpretation

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Rorschach Test: Definition, History and Interpretation

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Instructor: Robin Harley Show bio

Robin has a PhD in health psychology. She has taught undergraduate and graduate psychology, health science, and health education.

Made popular by entertainment media, the Rorschach test is a psychological exam that uses inkblot images. Explore the definition and history of the Rorschach test, examine the test's scoring and interpretation system, and review some controversy and criticism around the test. Updated: 10/21/2021

What Is the Rorschach Test?

Have you ever seen a movie or television show where a character is given a psychological examination? Often, the character is asked to look at a piece of paper with a dark blob on it and describe 'what they see.' This is a depiction of an actual psychological test called the Rorschach test.

Also known as the Rorschach inkblot test, the Rorschach test is a psychological test consisting of ambiguous inkblots, and the test taker is asked to provide his or her perceptions of these images. The test was designed to look for patterns of thought disorder in schizophrenia, but has evolved to include other areas, such as personality, intelligence and emotional disorders.

Most personality tests are objective in that they have standard methods of administration and scoring. In contrast, the Rorschach test is considered projective, because the test taker must project his or her thoughts and feelings onto ambiguous images. Interpretation falls within the realm of the tester's judgment. This has led to controversy among mental health professionals, and revisions have been made to make the test more objective, as we will discuss shortly.

So, how does a Rorschach test work? The test materials are simple, consisting of ten 24.6 x 17 cm cards with a symmetrical inkblot on each. Five inkblots are black and white, two are black, white and red, and three are pastel colors. The first phase of the test is free association, in which the test taker interprets each card. In the second phase, the tester will ask for elaboration on why the test taker saw certain things. Let's take a closer look at the test's origins and how it has evolved over time.

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This is an example of a Rorschach inkblot. What do you see?

Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist, studied mental patients using hundreds of carefully designed inkblots. The patterns on the inkblots were meant to be ambiguous and not have an easily identifiable shape. He discovered that patients with schizophrenia perceived the inkblots much differently than other patients. After his experiments, he narrowed the inkblots down to a set of ten, and these formed the original inkblot test.

Rorschach created the test to aid in diagnosis of schizophrenia. He wrote the book Psychodiagnostik, which contained information on the test. He initially had difficulty finding interest in this work. He died the following year, and it wasn't until 1927 when a newly established publisher took on the work.

Samuel Beck and Bruno Klopfer revised the test to be used as a measure of personality in the late 1930s. In the 1960s, John E. Exner revised the original scoring system in order to make it more standardized and to improve its statistical validity. Exner's Comprehensive System of Scoring remains popular today in the U.S.

Although Rorschach only intended for the test to be used for diagnosing disordered thought in schizophrenia, the test evolved to include measurement of personality, intelligence and emotional disorders. Let's take a closer look at how Exner improved on the scoring and interpretation of the test.

Scoring and Interpretation

Exner found Rorschach's original sample of research participants and the test's scoring system to be outdated. He wanted to make the test more statistically sound, so he administered it to a non-patient sample of 450 people. This sample served as a comparison for test responses that might deviate from this group. He created a scoring system by writing codebooks and worksheets to help clinicians interpret results as consistently as possible.

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Rorschach Test: Definition, History & Interpretation - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Made popular by entertainment media, the Rorschach test is a psychological exam that uses inkblot images. Explore the definition and history of the...

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Big Picture vs. Detail Oriented Thinking

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Big Picture vs. Detail Oriented Thinking

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Are you a big picture or detail-oriented person?

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Are you a big picture or detail-oriented person?

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Editor’s note: This post was originally published March, 2011 and updated October, 2020.

The way a person approaches and interprets a challenge says a lot about how they will solve it. It is not to say that one type of approach is more effective than the others, but more so to say that different people are best suited to solve different types of problems. This means that by understanding the approach you naturally take, you can figure out what type of projects and problems are best suited for your skillset and maximize your impact on the company.

They say that there you’ll fall into one of two types of people – the ‘big picture’ person and the ‘details’ person. The big picture people tend to be creative, strategic, and visionary… but they can also be messy, disorganized, and forgetful. On the other hand, the details people are conscientious, planful, and exacting… but can lack perspective or fail to prioritize. These two types tend to complement each other and work together very well. You’ll often find this division in partnerships and many times the CEO is a big picture person while the COO and the CFO are the details people.

Whether you have good attention to detail or whether you can see the big picture easily and clearly is generally part of your personality. But it can also be a learned skill, if you wish to develop it. There are systems and processes that can help you override your natural tendencies when needed.

Whether you’re a team-member or team-lead, understanding how you and those around you think can help you optimize your team’s problem-solving capabilities and build an environment that fosters continuous innovation.

Unsure what it means to be big picture vs detail oriented? The following are traits that are generally indicators of each thinking type:

Typical of the Big Picture Thinker

You can quickly see patterns in complex problems.

You like to come up with new ideas and new projects.

You have a low tolerance for busywork, tedious errands, and filling out forms.

You are great at outlining what needs to be done but filling in the details can feel exhausting.

You may have been described as right-brained.

When you have taken the Myers-Briggs assessment, you were an N.

Typical of the Details Thinker

You think about things in great detail and sometimes miss the big picture.

You would prefer to edit or tweak a plan than to come up with it from scratch.

Highlighting study notes doesn’t work for you, because you end up highlighting everything.

You may have a tendency to over-think things.

You have excellent attention to detail.

You may have been described as left-brained.

When you have taken the Myers-Briggs assessment, you were an S.

Using Your Natural Tendency to Support Innovation

Whether you trend towards big picture thinking or detail-oriented thinking, both skills are essential to forward your company’s innovative initiatives.

Many companies have begun to prioritize digital transformation allow for operational agility throughout their business. According to a recent study conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytics Services, 92% of surveyed business and IT leaders agree that successful transformation requires a dual-track approach, combining transformation at both the enterprise-wide and business-process level. In order to implement this dual-track approach successfully, your company will need to draw from people talented at both big-picture thinking and detail-oriented thinking.

Those who identify as big-picture thinkers might be naturally suited to focusing on larger, more enterprise-oriented projects. Their ability to identify patterns can help them find business solutions that meet the needs of people across departments. They are best suited for identifying and prioritizing these large-scale efforts.

On the other hand, those who identify as detail-oriented thinkers might be naturally drawn to mapping out the workflows and processes that your business relies on day-to-day in order to function. These thinkers are more suited to making sure that larger scale efforts permeate across departments and teams by implementing changes at the business process level and ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

Developing skills on a low-code application development platform like Quick Base can not only help you contribute to company goals, but also advance your career.

As a big picture thinker, you can turn ideas into action and make a positive impact at your company by analyzing real-time insights to come up with actionable and targeted business solutions. If you’re detail-oriented, you may enjoy mapping out complex processes and implementing automations that saves the company hundreds of hours of manual labor.

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Are You a Big Picture Thinker or Detail-Oriented?

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Good attention to detail or the ability to see the big picture easily is generally part of your personality. But it can also be a learned skill, if you wish to develop it. Learn more.

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Few devices from the world of psychology have entered popular culture quite so much as Hermann Rorschach's famous inkblot test. But the test still divides psychologists, writes Dr Mike Drayton.

I first came across the Rorschach inkblot test when I was training to be a clinical psychologist. I was shown a series of cards containing inkblots and asked to say what they looked like to me (Tester: "What does this look like?" Me: "A bat.") I remember thinking that it felt more like a tarot reading than a proper psychometric test.

However, when the test was scored and interpreted, it produced a scarily accurate profile of my personality. It knew things about me that even my mother didn't know. I've been a fan, if a rather sceptical one, ever since.

So, what is the Rorschach inkblot test? It's simply a set of cards containing pictures of inkblots that have been folded over on themselves to create a mirror image.

The Rorschach is what psychologists call a projective test. The basic idea of this is that when a person is shown an ambiguous, meaningless image (ie an inkblot) the mind will work hard at imposing meaning on the image. That meaning is generated by the mind.

By asking the person to tell you what they see in the inkblot, they are actually telling you about themselves, and how they project meaning on to the real world.

But the inventor of the test, Hermann Rorschach, never intended it to be a test of personality.

As a child, the young Hermann was a big fan of a popular game called Klecksographie, so much so that his nickname was Kleck. The idea of the game was to collect inkblot cards that could be bought from local shops and make associations and stories from the inkblots.

Rorschach went on to study psychiatry and while training, in 1918, he noticed that patients diagnosed with schizophrenia made radically different associations to the Klecksographie inkblots than did normal people. He therefore developed the Rorschach test as a diagnostic tool for schizophrenia.

It wasn't until 1939 that the test was used as a projective test of personality. Rorschach himself had always been sceptical about this.

This controversy about the reliability and validity of the Rorschach has been present since its conception. Today, many - probably most - psychologists in the UK think the Rorschach is nonsense.

Criticisms of the Rorschach have centred on three things:

First, some psychologists have argued that the testing psychologist also projects his or her unconscious world on to the inkblots when interpreting responses.

For example, if the person being tested sees a bra, a male psychologist might classify this as a sexual response, whereas a female psychologist may classify it as clothing.

Second, the Rorschach has also been criticised for its validity. In other words, is it measuring what it says it is measuring? Rorschach was clear that his test measured disordered thinking (as found in schizophrenia) and this has never been disputed. But whether it accurately measures personality as well is up for debate.

Finally, critics have suggested that the Rorschach lacks reliability. Two different testers might come up with two different personality profiles for the same person.

I am also sceptical about the scientific validity of the Rorschach. But I do think it is a useful tool in therapy and coaching as a way of encouraging self-reflection and starting a conversation about the person's internal world.

Here's an example of how I have used the Rorschach:

Samantha is a 28-year-old lawyer. She is happily married and has recently discovered she is pregnant. She and her husband had been trying to conceive for the past year.

I used the Rorschach as part of a leadership coaching programme with her. To give you a flavour of the Rorschach in practice, here are her responses to this card.

"It's two people facing each other. You can see their heads, arms and legs spread out. (1) There is a big cooking pot between them. They are stirring the cooking pot, making food. (2) The thing in the middle is like two hearts - maybe it's meant to show that they are in love?

"(2) The red thing in the middle looks like a butterfly. I know it's silly - and probably because I'm pregnant, but the (3) red things on each side look like newborn babies with the umbilical cords still attached. When I think of that, the (4) two people could be a mummy and daddy holding a Moses basket or cot. Look, you can see the blanket round the side.

"(2) The red in the middle is their two hearts joined and is the baby. (1) They could be fighting for the baby, like a tug-of-war with the cot. That reminds me of work, which I haven't thought about for ages. Parents divorcing and fighting over the children. God forbid that would happen to me."

Samantha is a well-adjusted, confident and successful woman who is experiencing a particularly happy period in her life. It is clear to see how she projects the themes of her current life on to the inkblot.

There is a strong theme of partnership and attachment. The two people making something ("stirring the cooking pot"), alludes to Samantha's pregnancy. This theme is then reinforced ("the red things on each side look like new-born babies with the umbilical cords still attached"), and then instantiated ("the two people could be a mummy and daddy holding a Moses basket or cot").

Anxiety is the opposing emotion to joy in Samantha's emotional dynamic. Worries about future conflict with her partner intrude into her narrative ("they could be fighting for the baby, like a tug-of-war with the cot").

This is only a snapshot. There were many other things in Samantha's Rorschach that opened the doors to how her internal psychological world impacted on her life at home and work.

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What's behind the Rorschach inkblot test?

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Few devices from the world of psychology have entered popular culture quite so much as Hermann Rorschach's famous inkblot test. But the test still divides psychologists, writes Dr Mike Drayton. I first came across the Rorschach inkblot test when I was training to be a clinical psychologist.

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How to Create RORSCHACH / WARSHAK TEST ART - 1 Minute ABSTRACT Technique

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How to Create RORSCHACH / WARSHAK TEST ART - 1 Minute ABSTRACT Technique

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Abstract

The past few years have been marked by a large number of discoveries about the learning brain. Those insights have the potential to support teachers in designing even better classroom environments to help you learn better. While understanding the brain can be helpful for teachers, this knowledge can also be beneficial for you as a student. For instance, it can encourage you to believe in your capacity to improve your own skills. Such beliefs make it more likely for you to make an effort and to make better use of supportive learning strategies []. In this article, we briefly present some core principles of the learning brain and suggest learning strategies inspired by neuroscience for you to try at school or at home.

What Happens in My Brain When I Am Learning?

Your brain is primarily composed of about 85 billion neurons, which is more than the number of stars you can see with the naked eye in the night sky. A neuron is a cell which acts as a messenger, sending information in the form of nerve impulses (like electrical signals) to other neurons (see Figure 1). For example, when you are writing, some neurons in your brain send the "move fingers" message to other neurons and this message then travels through the nerves (like cables) all the way to your fingers. The electrical signals that are communicated from one neuron to another are therefore what allows you to do everything you do: write, think, see, jump, talk, compute, and so on. Each neuron can be connected with up to 10,000 other neurons, leading to a large number of connections in your brain [], which looks like a very dense spider web (see Figure 2).

Figure 1 - Figure illustrating two neurons that are connected.

Figure 2 - Figure illustrating the very large number of connections between neurons.

When you are learning, important changes take place in your brain, including the creation of new connections between your neurons. This phenomenon is called . The more you practice, the stronger these connections become. As your connections strengthen, the messages (nerve impulses) are transmitted increasingly faster, making them more efficient []. That is how you become better at anything you learn whether it is playing football, reading, drawing, etc. We can compare the connections between your neurons to trails in a forest (see Figure 3). Walking through a forest without a trail is difficult, because you have to compact and push the vegetation and branches out of the way to carve your way through. But the more you use the same trail, the easier and more practicable it becomes. Conversely, when you stop using the trail, the vegetation grows back, and the trail slowly disappears. This is very similar to what happens in your brain-when you stop practicing something, the connections between your neurons weaken and can ultimately be dismantled or pruned. That is why it may seem so difficult to start reading again when school starts if you have not read all summer. However, it is possible for some neural networks to become so strong that the trails or connections never completely disappear.

Figure 3 - Figure illustrating the analogy of the trail in the forest.

The fact that learning rewires your neurons shows how dynamic (plastic) your brain is-that the brain changes and does not remain fixed. Practicing or rehearsing repeatedly activates your neurons and makes you learn. These changes happen as early as when a baby is in their mother's womb and continues throughout a person's life. So, the question is, how can you help your neurons to create and strengthen their connections? Here, we present two strategies that appear to be more compatible with how your brain works and could help you learn better.

Which Learning Strategies Are More Compatible With Your Brain?

Because the connections between your neurons need to be activated multiple times to become stronger and more efficient, a first and crucial strategy is to repeatedly activate them. This means that to learn arithmetic tables for instance, you have to practice it repeatedly, to establish the "trail" between your neurons. As a baby, you were not able to speak and walk within 1 day: you practiced a lot. However, it is important to note that only reading or glancing at your arithmetic tables will not be that helpful in connecting your neurons. You might also find it quite disengaging and boring. To create the connections between your neurons, you need to retrieve the arithmetic tables from your memory. In other words, you have to try recall the answer yourself to activate your connections. We are not saying that this is easy to do! However, scientists think that this "struggle" improves learning because the challenge is an indication that you are building new connections. Remember, learning something new is like hiking in a bush with no designated trail, you will probably walk slowly at first, but if you keep hiking, trails will start forming and eventually you will be walking on well-beaten tracks. Besides, when you do try to recall what you have learned and make a mistake, it can help you identify gaps in your learning and give you an indication of which trail still needs to be worked on.

Scientists have also noted that performing tests or exams can help you remember information better than studying alone []. For example, if you study your arithmetic tables interspersed with test periods, you will probably perform better on your final test than if you had only studied. Why? The tests require that you retrieve the information from the neurons in which the information is stored, thus activating your connections and contributing to their strengthening. The point is thus to practice retrieval in an engaging way. There are different strategies that you could try at home, for example answering practice questions or using flashcards. These should improve learning more than re-reading or listening to lectures (as long as you do not flip the flashcard over before recalling the answer!). Other strategies include preparing questions to ask to a classmate or a parent as well as redoing tests or exercises. Use your imagination! What you need to remember is that first, for your neurons to strengthen their connections, you need to retrieve the information and avoid just reading or listening to the answer. Second, you should plan a way to get feedback to know whether you got something correct or incorrect. Do not be discouraged if you face challenges, this is a natural step of the learning process taking place in your brain!

Now that you know that neurons need to be activated repeatedly for learning to occur (and that it means retrieving information), you probably wonder how often you should practice. Scientists who study the learning brain observed that breaks and sleep between learning periods enhance learning and minimize forgetting []. It therefore seems better to retrieve often within spaced practice sessions, as opposed to a massed practice (practicing a task continuously without rest). For instance, instead of studying or doing homework for 3 h, after which you would probably feel exhausted anyway, you could separate this learning period into three 1-h periods or even into six half-an-hour periods. In short, when spacing your retrieval practice, you allow your brain to make the connections that you strengthened during your practice sessions more efficient. When you take a quick break from practicing, let us say a 20 min recess, you allow for the maintenance or replacement of the receptors on the surface of the neurons. The receptors are like electric outlets that receive the nerve impulse (electrical signals) from other neurons. Taking a break helps them work better: your neurons can thus transmit their nerve impulses more easily to other neurons. Finally, when you get a night of sleep between practice sessions, you actually benefit from a free retrieval practice session because while you sleep, your brain reactivates the connections between the neurons that you activated during the day. You could also get similar benefits from a nap. Next time you find yourself sleepy in class, you could tell your teacher that you are in fact trying to do retrieval practice! In brief, when spacing out learning, and especially retrieval practice, your brain is more activated than when you mass learn in one long session.

At this point, you are probably asking yourself how to space out learning in your day-to-day life. The good news is that there are a number of ways to do it and it can be easily adapted to different skills, such as solving mathematical problems or memorizing definitions. The most obvious change you can make to your study schedule is to break up sessions into smaller sessions. You could also ask your teacher to set daily or weekly review quizzes and other assignments. Finally, spacing can be done by doing interleaved practice. This consists of a set of problems arranged so that consecutive problems cannot be solved by the same strategy. For example, you could mix your math problems so that geometry questions, algebra, or inequality problems are randomly sequenced. The added benefit of interleaving is that you engage in different activities in-between two sessions, making good use of your time. In brief, one thing to keep in mind is that information that was previously learned will require less effort to re-learn because the spacing gives your brain time to consolidate-meaning your brain produces the building blocks required for the connections between your neurons.

Conclusion

Your brain is where learning occurs and you therefore need to keep your neurons active to optimize the use of class or study time. The two learning strategies proposed in this article have the potential to help you learn better by creating optimal conditions to strengthen and consolidate the connections between your neurons. You now know that you can get better by repeatedly using the "trails" in your brain and by spacing out your practice. This greater understanding of how your brain learns and the use of supportive learning strategies can now allow you to help your brain learn better!

Glossary

Neuroplasticity: ↑ The ability of your brain to change, that is to create, strenghten, weaken or dismantle connections between your neurons.

Repeatedly Activating Your Neurons: ↑ Practicing a lot, trying to retrieve information from your memory, for example by explaining a concept to a friend or answering quiz questions.

Spacing the Activation of Neurons: ↑ Practicing more often but for a shorter period. For example, instead of studying for 2 h in a row, studying 4 periods of 30 min over a few days allows your brain to take breaks and sleep which helps you remember better in the long run.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to wholeheartedly thank those who assisted in the translation of the articles in this Collection to make them more accessible to kids outside English-speaking countries, and for the Jacobs Foundation for providing the funds necessary to translate the articles. For this article, we would especially like to thank Nienke van Atteveldt and Sabine Peters for the Dutch translation.

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Understanding Your Brain to Help You Learn Better

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The past few years have been marked by a large number of discoveries about the learning brain. Those insights have the potential to support teachers in designing even better classroom environments to help you learn better. While understanding the brain can be helpful for teachers, this knowledge can also be beneficial for you as a student.

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The Essential Principles of Neuroscience

Each essential principle is supported by fundamental concepts comparable to those underlying the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Consult the Overview Matrix to integrate Neuroscience Core Concepts into your curriculum.

Explore all the Core Concept Interactives.

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Each essential principle is supported by fundamental concepts comparable to those underlying the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Consult the Overview Matrix to integrate Neuroscience Core Concepts into your curriculum. Explore all the Core Concept Interactives.

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As laptops and tablets become more popular, handwriting is slowly fading away. While new technology has many benefits such as helping us stay connected with each other and allowing us to quickly search for information, activities such as printing our letters by hand may help the brain learn. There a…

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Abstract

Imagine you are at party with loud music playing. What would it be like trying to speak to your friend in all that noise? Scientists call background noise like this "masking sound" because it covers up other sounds, in two ways. The background sound might be so loud that it blocks out other noises, or it might contain information that is distracting. Maybe it is your favorite song and you cannot help singing along! Which of these do you think affects you most when you are trying to talk? We decided to find out by putting people in a brain scanner and asking them to talk while we played various noises in the background. We found that the brain cares most about sounds that contain lots of information, even if they do not block out other noises very well. So, maybe being able to hear yourself is not as important as we thought!

Masking: The Problem With Talking in Noise

Most of us have conversations with other people every day, in all kinds of places-at home, in the street, at a party, or in the playground, for example. If you are at home in a quiet room, it is pretty easy to concentrate on what you are saying. But what if you are standing on a busy street, or meeting a friend at a fairground? Holding a conversation in a very loud place can be tricky. But what is it that makes such a conversation difficult?

Scientists who study speech have identified two ways that background sounds make it harder to hear and talk to other people. When one sound covers up another, we call this . Masking potential is how likely one sound is to mask, or cover up, another. The first type of masking potential happens when the background sound physically covers up your voice. This is called energetic masking potential because it is the of the sound wave that covers up your voice. "Energy" could include how loud the sound is (volume) or how high or low it is (pitch). The louder the sound, or the closer it is in pitch to the sound it is masking, the harder it is to pick the two apart.

The second type of masking potential happens when the background sound contains information that may distract you. This is called informational masking potential because it is the in the background sound that covers up the other sound. "Information" can mean words or other things that have meaning to you, like sirens or music. Your brain must spend time figuring out what is relevant and what is not. All sounds have a little bit of both types of masking potential.

Imagine you are at a fairground and just got off the roller coaster. You spot your friend at the candyfloss stall and go over to tell them all about your ride. But the candyfloss stall is blasting out instrumental music, making it hard to hear yourself talking. This is mostly energetic masking, with a little bit of informational masking from the pattern of the music. Now, imagine you hear an announcement on a loudspeaker saying, "FREE RIDES ON THE TWISTER!" You would probably stop talking to listen to the announcement, then rush over to the twister for your ride. This is mostly informational masking, with a little bit of energetic masking from the loudness and pitch of the announcement.

Scientists have done a lot of research into how we listen to speech when there is background noise, so we know that energetic and informational masking work in different ways and are processed differently by the brain []. However, we do not know as much about what happens when we are trying to talk in a noisy environment. This work could help us understand how our brains control our voices, which might also help us figure out why some people have problems with their speech.

How Does the Brain Help Us Talk in Noisy Environments?

We looked at a part of the brain called the posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG). This area is found in both the left and right sides of the brain ( Figure 1).

Figure 1 - Surface view of the left side of the brain, with the temporal lobe highlighted in light orange and the posterior superior temporal gyrus highlighted in dark orange.

There are two things scientists think the pSTG might be doing when we talk in a noisy environment. First, it might be listening to your own voice to see if you are being clear enough. If you make a mistake, or if you cannot hear yourself properly over the noise, the pSTG will register an "error" and try to change your voice to fix it. This is what seems to happen when people talk in noise with low information content, such as traffic noise. As the noise gets louder and it gets harder to hear yourself, the pSTG gets more active []. The second thing the pSTG might be doing is keeping track of what is going on in the background, in case there is information we can use.

We know that the pSTG is activated when someone is trying to listen to one person while others are also talking, and we also know that we pay attention to what is going on in the background when we are talking. It is easier to talk when breaks in the background noise happen at regular times []. Someone who wants to speak will often wait until other people have stopped talking. In our fairground example, you would probably stop talking to your friend until the loudspeaker had finished.

While some studies look at how distracting speech can be, most have looked at how people react to "white noise," similar to the sound of an airplane passing overhead. These studies have concluded that we do not pay attention to the content of background noise when we are trying to talk. Instead, we focus on how well we can hear ourselves and use that information to change our voices []. It makes sense that we would mostly ignore background noise when there is little information in it. We wondered if this is still true when the background noise consists of something potentially interesting, like speech. In that case, do we focus on listening to ourselves, or to what is going on in the background?

Testing What the Brain Does When We Speak in Noise

A brain scanner measures how much blood is traveling to various parts of the brain. The harder a brain area is working, the more blood it needs. The results are shown on a screen as a picture, in which brightly colored areas are the most active.

We asked people to lie in a brain scanner and read sentences aloud while we played sounds with various levels of energetic and informational masking. There were four types of sounds, starting with recordings of people talking and getting gradually less speech-like and more like white noise. We then asked the participants to read sentences silently to themselves while listening to the sounds. We compared the silent reading condition to reading aloud with the various maskers, to make sure that we were measuring changes related to talking in each condition, not just to hearing various kinds of noise. We wanted to know how active the pSTG was when people spoke in each kind of background sound.

If people focus mainly on their own speech when talking in noise, then how well we can hear ourselves will be the most important thing when trying to speak in a noisy place. In this case, we would expect the pSTG to register more "errors" when background noise had more energetic content. In other words, the more effective the background noise is at blocking out the speaker's voice, the harder the pSTG must work and the more activation we will see. But if people mainly focus on what is going on around them when trying to speak in a noisy place, we would expect the pSTG to be most active when background noise has more informational masking. In other words, the more interested we are in the background noise, the harder the pSTG must work and the more activation we will see.

Which Matters More?

Based on findings from previous brain scanning studies, we expected a strong response in the pSTG when people talked in noise with more energetic masking potential. Instead, we found something that surprised us ( Figure 2). Although the pSTG was active when people spoke in maskers with high energetic masking potential, this was only a small response. The response was much bigger when people tried to talk in maskers with high information content. In fact, the more information there was in the background, the more active the pSTG was. In other words, our brains work harder to concentrate on talking when background noise contains information that we are interested in. Our brains are less bothered by how much the background noise covers up our voices.

Figure 2 - Areas that responded more to talking in noise (compared to just listening).

The bar charts show the amount of blood flow to those brain areas when people spoke in each of the four maskers. The pSTG on both sides of the brain was most active when people talked in sounds that had high information and low energy (like speech) and was least active when they spoke in sounds that had high energy and low information (like white noise).

It could be that the brain mistakes speech-like background noise for our own voice, causing the brain to register an "error." However, there is not much evidence to suggest that we cannot tell our own voices apart from those in the background. We think it is more likely that this extra brain activity happens because people are monitoring the background noise for relevant information. This does not mean that the brain completely ignores energetic masking when we are speaking. Our participants did speak more loudly when we played sounds with more energetic masking potential, showing that our brains do monitor how well others might hear our voices. But overall, we found that informational masking made the most difference to brain responses, suggesting that speech-like sounds in the background were the most distracting. We think that the brain response to informational masking is so strong that it drowns out any response to the energetic content of sounds.

In the future, we would like to look at our data using more sensitive analysis techniques, to see if we can find brain areas that care more about energetic masking. While more studies and analysis will help us better understand our results, we now know that the ability to hear yourself when talking in noisy environments is not as important as we once thought! Understanding how humans talk is essential to figuring out how why some people have difficulty with speech. So this is an exciting result that tells us more about ourselves, and may be able to help some people in the future.

Funding

SM is funded by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship, also funded by Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship [grant number DHF\R1\211078], and wrote this article while supported by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship [grant number pf170122]. The research described in this article was supported by an ESRC Ph.D. studentship awarded to SM.

Glossary

Masker: ↑ A sound that covers up what you are trying to listen to.

Energetic Masking Potential: ↑ How good a sound is at blocking out other sounds.

Energy: ↑ Physical properties, like pitch and loudness, that block out the thing you are trying to listen to.

Informational Masking Potential: ↑ How good a sound is at distracting you from other sounds.

Information: ↑ Non-physical properties, like meaning, that may distract you from the thing you are trying to listen to.

Posterior Superior Temporal Gyrus (pSTG): ↑ The area at the back ( posterior) of the superior temporal gyrus. The part of the temporal lobe that is on the outside ( gyrus) near the top ( superior) of the lobe.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Original Source Article

↑Meekings, S., Evans, S., Lavan, N., Boebinger, D., Krieger-Redwood, K., Cooke, M., et al. 2016. Distinct neural systems recruited when speech production is modulated by different masking sounds. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 140:8-19. doi: 10.1121/1.4948587

References

[1] ↑ Evans, S., McGettigan, C., Agnew, Z. K., Rosen, S., and Scott, S. K. 2016. Getting the cocktail party started: masking effects in speech perception. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 28:483-500. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00913

[2] ↑ Christoffels, I. K., Formisano, E., and Schiller, N. O. 2007. Neural correlates of verbal feedback processing: an fMRI study employing overt speech. Hum. Brain Mapp. 28:868-79. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20315

[3] ↑ Cooke, M., and Lu, Y. 2010. Spectral and temporal changes to speech produced in the presence of energetic and informational maskers. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128:2059-69. doi: 10.1121/1.3478775

[4] ↑ Guenther, F. H. 2006. Cortical interactions underlying the production of speech sounds. J. Commun. Disord. 39:350-65. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2006.06.01

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I Can't Hear Myself Think! How the Brain Deals With Talking in Noisy Environments

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Imagine you are at party with loud music playing. What would it be like trying to speak to your friend in all that noise? Scientists call background noise like this "masking sound" because it covers up other sounds, in two ways.

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Action observation: Learning sports by watching

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Action observation: Learning sports by watching

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Watch and Learn: Athletes Can Improve by Observing the Actions of Others

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Athletes spend a lot of time and effort practicing skills to get better at their sports. In addition to physical practice, athletes can use a technique called action observation to help themselves improve. Action observation is the process of watching movement. Humans naturally learn how to perform…

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Authors Ryan T. Daley, Jaclyn H. Ford, Elizabeth A. Kensinger

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Self-Talk: Chats that Athletes Have With Themselves

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Talking to ourselves is a unique human characteristic, and it makes a big difference to our performance, especially in sports. Sports psychology researchers have examined self-talk and found that athletes often use it to express what they are experiencing mentally and emotionally. This brings athletes’ attention to anything negative that they are thinking or feeling. Once they are aware of these things, athletes can try to talk themselves out of negative thinking to improve their performance. Because this is quite difficult, sports psychologists have developed training for athletes, to help them talk to themselves more effectively. Moreover, sport psychologists have developed techniques in which athletes repeat cue words that help them learn faster, control their emotions, or increase their motivation. Overall, research has shown that self-talk is important for self-control, that it can be improved, and, in the form of cue words, self-talk can enhance attention, motivation, and performance.

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Experiment idea: More on the Stroop Effect

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Experiment idea: More on the Stroop Effect

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Abstract

The Stroop effect describes an experiment about the time it takes to name the color of printed words. When you try to name the color in which color words are printed, it takes longer when the color word differs from the ink color than when the color word is the same as the ink color. This project is an interesting variation: what happens if you 'warp' the words into a curved shape that is harder to recognize as a word? Will the Stroop effect still happen? How 'warped' do the words have to be in order to negate the Stroop effect?

Summary

Objective

The goal of this project is to determine if manipulations of words (e.g., rotation, mirror reversal, bending into circles), can eliminate the Stroop effect.

Introduction

The Stroop effect describes an experiment about the time it takes to name the color of printed words. When you try to name the color in which color words are printed, it takes longer when the color word differs from the ink color than when the color word is the same as the ink color.

To give you an idea of how the Stroop effect works, here is a task for you to try:

1. Following this list of instructions are two gray boxes that each contain a list of words.

2. The words appear in color on your screen.

3. The task is to name the color of the letters of each word (not to read the words).

4. Try to the name each color as quickly as possible.

Naming the colors was much harder for the second box, right? You may even have felt like you were fighting back an urge to read the color word out loud, rather than naming the color of the letters. This phenomenon was described in 1935 in a now-famous paper by John Ridley Stroop, and is known in experimental psychology as the Stroop effect. One explanation for the Stroop effect is called interference. From the earliest years of school, reading is a task that people practice every day. We become so good at it that we read words automatically. When we are asked to name the color of the word instead of reading the word, somehow the automatic reading of the word interferes with naming the color of the word.

This experiment explores what you can do to change the presentation of the word in order to eliminate the Stroop effect. For example, if you print the words in the shape of a circle, does it make reading the word slow enough so that the interference effect is reduced or canceled? Does it make a difference if the letters are in clockwise order or counterclockwise order? Figure 1 below has examples to show what we mean, and the Experimental Procedure section has a pdf file that you can download and print (requires Adobe Acrobat).

Will warping the words into a circle prevent automatic reading and the interference effect that goes with it? Does it matter if the letters are arranged in clockwise vs. counterclockwise order? Try this experiment to find out!

Terms and Concepts

To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:

Attention

Perception

Interference

Anterior cingulate gyrus

Cognitive psychology

Experimental bias

Questions

How does the concept of interference help to explain the Stroop effect?

Bibliography

Try these webpages for background information on the Stroop effect:

This article from Science News shows how Stroop's experimental work from 1935 has had a lasting influence on experimental psychology. You may be able to find it at your local library:
Bower, B., 1992. "Brother Stroop's Enduring Effect: A Mental Task Devised Nearly 60 Years Ago Still Intrigues Psychologists,"Science News 141: 312-314.

This is the original paper, from which the Stroop effect gets its name:
Stroop, J.R., 1935. "Studies of Interference in Serial Verbal Reactions," originally published inJournal of Experimental Psychology 18: 643-662, available online from Classics in the History of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario. Retrieved May 1, 2007.

Materials and Equipment

To do this experiment you will need the following materials and equipment:

Computer with a color printer

Five sheets of cardstock (available at an office-supply store or stationer)

Five envelopes

Stopwatch

Volunteers to take a simple color-naming test

Experimental Procedure

Note: for ISEF-affiliated science fairs, studies involving human subjects require prior approval. For more information, see Projects Involving Human Subjects.

Experiment Overview

This science fair procedure calls for two different experiments, a positive control experiment and an interference test. Details for each are discussed below. Please note that the same volunteers can participate in both experiments. But, to ensure that you are not introducing experimental bias, randomly assign volunteers to two groups. Group one will do the positive control experiment first and the interference test second. Group two will do the interference test first and the positive control experiment second.

Positive Control Experiment: Demonstrating the Stroop Effect

1. Do your background research so that you are knowledgeable about the terms, concepts, and questions, above.

2. Click the pdf file with four pages of color words (requires Adobe Acrobat) that you can use as a positive control for this project. Each page has the 20 sequences of five color words (red, blue, green, brown, purple) printed in pseudo-random order.

1. Page one in the file has color words printed in matching color ink.

2. Page two in the file has color words printed in different color ink (five examples of each different color).

3. Note: pages three and four have the color words printed in black ink. These are not needed for this experiment.

4. Print the pages you need on card stock (for sturdiness), then cut them into horizontal strips.

5. Lightly label the backs of the strips, and keep the two sets in separate envelopes.

6. Your volunteers will call out the ink colors as they read through the strips.

3. For each volunteer, instruct them on what they are supposed to do in the test:

1. You will be given cards containing a sequence of words printed in colored ink.

2. The ink colors used are red, blue, green, brown, and purple.

3. The task is to call out the ink color of each word as quickly as possible without making a mistake.

4. Time how long it takes for the volunteer to name the colors of the non-matching words.

5. Time how long it takes for the volunteer to name the colors of the matching words.

6. For half of the volunteers, reverse the order and have them name the colors of the matching words first.

7. Calculate the average time to name the colors for each word list.

8. Calculate the time difference for each volunteer (i.e., non-matching word time minus the matching word time). Then calculate the average difference for the group of volunteers.

9. Make bar graphs to illustrate your results.

Interference Test: Does "Warping" the Color Words Block the Stroop Effect?

1. Click the pdf file with five pages of circular test stimuli (requires Adobe Acrobat) that you can use for this project.

1. Page one in the file has clockwise color words printed in matching color ink. (Each color word appears twenty times.)

2. Page two in the file has clockwise color words printed in different color ink. (Each color word appears in each of the four non-matching colors five times.)

3. Page three in the file has counterclockwise color words printed in matching color ink (five examples of each different color).

4. Page four in the file has counterclockwise color words printed in different color ink (five examples of each different color).

5. Page five has solid colored circles of the same size as the circular words from pages 1-4.

6. Print the file on five separate pages of card stock (for sturdiness), then cut them into horizontal strips.

7. Lightly label the backs of the strips, and keep the five sets in separate envelopes.

8. Your volunteers will call out the ink colors as they read through the strips.

2. For each volunteer, instruct them on what they are supposed to do in the tests:

1. You will be given cards containing a sequence of words printed in colored ink, or circles printed in color ink.

2. The ink colors used are red, blue, green, brown, and purple.

3. The task is to call out the ink color of each word (or circle) as quickly as possible without making a mistake.

3. Time how long it takes for the volunteer to name the colors of each test set.

4. Mix up the order of presentation of the sets for different volunteers.

5. Calculate the average time to name the colors for each set.

6. Calculate the time differences for each volunteer between the time to name the clockwise non-matching color word set and the clockwise matched color word set.

7. Calculate the time differences for each volunteer between the time to name the counterclockwise non-matching color word set and the counterclockwise matched color word set.

8. Calculate the time differences for each volunteer between each of the four word sets and the solid color circles. Is this time difference close to zero for any of the four sets? If so, what can you conclude about interference for that word set?

9. Make bar graphs to illustrate your results.

Ask an Expert

Variations

For a basic project on the Stroop Effect, see the Science Buddies project What Conflicting Mental Tasks Reveal About Thinking: The Stroop Effect.

Does interference still occur if the test words are turned upside down or rotated 90℃? Design an experiment to find out.

For an alternative experiment that investigates whether the Stroop effect occurs with shapes, see the Science Buddies project Shaping Your Thoughts?

Advanced. Does practice make any difference with this experiment? For example, you may find little interference when reading the 'warped' words, and you might expect the interference to increase with practice as people become more accustomed to reading them. On the other hand, you might expect interference to decrease with practice as people become more accustomed to calling out the ink color. Design an experiment to find out what happens with practice. For a super-advanced project, can you figure out different practice routines to push the result one way or the other?

Careers

If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:

Why people take certain actions can often feel like a mystery. Psychologists help solve these mysteries by investigating the physical, cognitive, emotional, or social aspects of human behavior and the human mind. Some psychologists also apply these findings in order to design better products or to help people change their behaviors. Read more

Each time your heart beats, or you breathe, think, dream, smell, see, move, laugh, read, remember, write, or feel something, you are using your nervous system. The nervous system includes your brain, spinal cord, and a huge network of nerves that make electrical connections all over your body. Neurologists are the medical doctors who diagnose and treat problems with the nervous system. They work to restore health to an essential system in the body. Read more

News Feed on This Topic

Note: A computerized matching algorithm suggests the above articles. It's not as smart as you are, and it may occasionally give humorous, ridiculous, or even annoying results! Learn more about the News Feed

Cite This Page

General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.

MLA Style

Science Buddies Staff. "Warped Words and the Stroop Effect." Science Buddies, 21 Oct. 2021, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/HumBeh_p029/human-behavior/warped-words-stroop-effect. Accessed 15 May 2022.

APA Style

Science Buddies Staff. (2021, October 21). Warped Words and the Stroop Effect. Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/HumBeh_p029/human-behavior/warped-words-stroop-effect

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Warped Words and the Stroop Effect | Science Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Stroop effect describes an experiment about the time it takes to name the color of printed words. When you try to name the color in which color words are printed, it takes longer when the color word differs from the ink color than when the color word is the same as the ink color.

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Abstract

Do you like to read? Did you know that most people read without even thinking about it? Find out in this experiment how a simple reading/color test called the Stroop Effect can show you how your brain works.

Summary

Objective

In this experiment you will test if the Stroop Effect is stronger in kids of reading age compared to kids that can't read yet.

Introduction

If you are in elementary school, then chances are you have been spending the last few years of your life learning to read and write. At first, trying to read even a simple sentence was a struggle, and you needed to think carefully through each and every word. Now it may come more easily to you, and even feel like it is automatic. This is all part of the learning process, and it has a lot to do with cognitive psychology, or studies of how our "thinking brain" works.

When a behavior or skill no longer requires you to think through each and every step, cognitive psychologists say it is automatized. Even though a behavior has become automatized, it doesn't mean that you are turning into a robot! Many behaviors can become automatized: reading, writing, bicycling, playing musical instruments, playing sports, etc. Automatization is interesting because it is an important part of daily life. We need to perform a variety of automatized behaviors quickly and effortlessly without really thinking about them.

One way cognitive psychologists test for automatized behaviors is to put someone in a situation where an automatized response is in conflict with the desired behavior. If the usual automatic response does not match the given answer, then there is a conflict that the scientist can see, or observe. One well-known example of this type of influence is called the "Stroop Effect" named after the psychologist who first described it, John Ridley Stroop:

"Stroop (1935) noted that observers were slower to properly identify the color of ink when the ink was used to produce color names different from the color of the ink. That is, observers were slower to identify red ink when it spelled the word blue. This is an interesting finding because observers are told to not pay any attention to the word names and simply to report the color of the ink. However, this seems to be a nearly impossible task, as the name of the word seems to interfere with the observer's ability to report the color of the ink." (CogLab, 2007)

In this experiment you will test if the Stroop effect is stronger in students that have learned to read. You will use a "Stroop" test available on the "Brain Age" game for the Nintendo DS Lite handheld game console. You will use this test on students that can (ages 8-10) and cannot (ages 4-5) read, but who do know their colors. If the Stroop effect is due to the automatization of reading as a behavior, then will you see a different result between students that can and cannot read?

Terms and Concepts

Cognitive psychology

Automatization

Behavior

Observation

Stroop Effect

Questions

Is reading an automatized behavior, something we do without really thinking about it?

How is the Stroop Effect an example of reading as an automatized behavior?

Will children of different ages, who can and cannot read, show different responses to the Stroop Effect?

Bibliography

This experiment is a simpler version of the Stroop Effect lesson from CogLab, an online laboratory manual for studying cognitive psychology:
CogLab, 2007. "Stroop Effect," CogLab 2.0 Online Laboratory, Wadsworth Publishing. Retrieved September 6, 2007.

Here is some background information about the Stroop Effect from Wikipedia:
Wikipedia contributors, 2007. Stroop effect. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 6, 2007.

This site has a java applet you can use to make printable, color graphs of your data:
NCES, 2006. Create a Graph, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) U.S. Dept. of Education. Retrieved March 3, 2006.

Materials and Equipment

Nintendo DS™ handheld game console

"Brain Age™" game cartridge

Kids aged 4-5 and 8-10 for volunteers

Experimental Procedure

If you are in elementary school, then chances are you have been spending the last few years of your life learning to read and write. At first, trying to read even a simple sentence was a struggle, and you needed to think carefully through each and every word. Now it may come more easily to you, and even feel like it is automatic. This is all part of the learning process, and it has a lot to do with cognitive psychology, or studies of how our "thinking brain" works.

When a behavior or skill no longer requires you to think through each and every step, cognitive psychologists say it is automatized. Even though a behavior has become automatized, it doesn't mean that you are turning into a robot! Many behaviors can become automatized: reading, writing, bicycling, playing musical instruments, playing sports, etc. Automatization is interesting because it is an important part of daily life. We need to perform a variety of automatized behaviors quickly and effortlessly without really thinking about them.

One way cognitive psychologists test for automatized behaviors is to put someone in a situation where an automatized response is in conflict with the desired behavior. If the usual automatic response does not match the given answer, then there is a conflict that the scientist can see, or observe. One well-known example of this type of influence is called the "Stroop Effect" named after the psychologist who first described it, John Ridley Stroop:

"Stroop (1935) noted that observers were slower to properly identify the color of ink when the ink was used to produce color names different from the color of the ink. That is, observers were slower to identify red ink when it spelled the word blue. This is an interesting finding because observers are told to not pay any attention to the word names and simply to report the color of the ink. However, this seems to be a nearly impossible task, as the name of the word seems to interfere with the observer's ability to report the color of the ink." (CogLab, 2007)

In this experiment you will test if the Stroop effect is stronger in students that have learned to read. You will use a "Stroop" test available on the "Brain Age" game for the Nintendo DS Lite handheld game console. You will use this test on students that can (ages 8-10) and cannot (ages 4-5) read, but who do know their colors. If the Stroop effect is due to the automatization of reading as a behavior, then will you see a different result between students that can and cannot read?

1. In this experiment you will use a program for the Nintendo DS™ called "Brain Age™" which has several quick cognitive tests. Before you use the program to test your volunteers, you should get familiar with the game yourself. Make yourself a profile and try taking some of the tests, they are really fun!

2. The test that you will give to your volunteers is the "Quick Brain Age Check" in the "Quick Play" menu. It is a game version of the Stroop test. Be sure you are familiar with how this particular game works, and how to use the menus and buttons. You should know the game well enough to explain to your volunteers what to do.

3. In this experiment, you will be collecting lots of data, so you will need to make a table to organize your data. Here is a sample data table you could use to collect data for this experiment:

4. The next step is to find volunteers. You will need two groups of volunteers. One group of children who are too young to read (try asking a preschool or kindergarten class) and a group of students who can read already (try asking a 4th or 5th grade class).

5. Before you do your Stroop test, you will need to test each volunteer quickly to verify that they know their colors (blue, red, black, yellow, and green) and whether they can or cannot read:

1. To test for color recognition, hold up a piece of each color of construction paper and ask the student to name each color. If they cannot name the colors, then do not include the student in your study.

2. To test for reading ability, choose a particular passage from your favorite children's book. Have each student read the passage to you. If they are in the younger age group, and they can read the passage, then do not include the student in your study. If they are in the older age group and they cannot read the passage, then do not include them in your study. You need kids from the younger group that cannot read, and kids from the older group that can read for your comparison.

6. Ask each volunteer to take the "Quick Brain Age Check" test on your Nintendo DS™. Write down the students grade (K-5), age (in years) and score in your data table. The score of the Brain Age Stroop test is given by decade (20's, 30's, 40's - up to 90's) so write down this number in your data table.

7. Collect data from as many volunteers as possible. You should try to get at least two classrooms worth of data, about 30-40 kids total for each group, but do get more if you can. The more volunteers you get, the better and more reliable your results will be. You should also quiz the same number of students in each of your two age groups for an even comparison.

8. Analyze your data by making a frequency table for each age group. Do this by counting the number of people in each age category with the same scores and writing them in a table:

9. Now you can use your tables to make a histogram of your results. You can make your graph by hand, or use a site like Create A Graph to make your graph on the computer.

10. What do your results show? Did you observe a difference between the two age groups you tested? Why do you think you got this result? What do you think it means?

Ask an Expert

Variations

Add more age groups to your experiment. You can add in as many age groups as you like. How will the Stroop Effect results change as you look at groups of people at different ages? For this experiment, you can compare the average scores of different age groups to see if you observe any trends.

You can test any other variables that you might think are important. You can test for differences in the Stroop Effect when you test people of different:

gender (girls vs. boys)

handedness (right vs. left handed)

talents (artists vs. scientists)

amount of sleep (full 8 hours vs. 4 hours)

any other ideas?

Careers

If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:

Why people take certain actions can often feel like a mystery. Psychologists help solve these mysteries by investigating the physical, cognitive, emotional, or social aspects of human behavior and the human mind. Some psychologists also apply these findings in order to design better products or to help people change their behaviors. Read more

Each time your heart beats, or you breathe, think, dream, smell, see, move, laugh, read, remember, write, or feel something, you are using your nervous system. The nervous system includes your brain, spinal cord, and a huge network of nerves that make electrical connections all over your body. Neurologists are the medical doctors who diagnose and treat problems with the nervous system. They work to restore health to an essential system in the body. Read more

News Feed on This Topic

Note: A computerized matching algorithm suggests the above articles. It's not as smart as you are, and it may occasionally give humorous, ridiculous, or even annoying results! Learn more about the News Feed

Cite This Page

General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.

MLA Style

Science Buddies Staff. "Get the Scoop on Stroop." Science Buddies, 20 Nov. 2020, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/HumBeh_p031/human-behavior/what-is-the-stroop-effect. Accessed 15 May 2022.

APA Style

Science Buddies Staff. (2020, November 20). Get the Scoop on Stroop. Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/HumBeh_p031/human-behavior/what-is-the-stroop-effect

Explore Our Science Videos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Get the Scoop on Stroop | Science Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Do you like to read? Did you know that most people read without even thinking about it? Find out in this experiment how a simple reading/color test called the Stroop Effect can show you how your brain works. In this experiment you will test if the Stroop Effect is stronger in kids of reading age compared to kids that can't read yet.

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Abstract

Have you ever pictured yourself scoring the game-winning goal or staying calm at a crucial point in a match or performance? If you answered yes to either of these, then you have used a mental skill called imagery. Imagery is creating (or recreating) situations in your mind. Many top athletes in the world use imagery to help them perform at their best. In fact, just like any physical skill, such as running or a tennis serve, imagery improves with practice. In this article, we explain how imagery works, suggest what to image, and explain when and where you can use imagery to improve sport performance.

Imagery is more easily experienced than explained. To illustrate this point, let us go through a short exercise. Close your eyes and imagine eating a slice of watermelon. Stop reading and imagine it.

Think About What You Saw

Now, repeat this exercise, but this time, imagine holding the slice of watermelon in your hand. See the vibrant colors-the green rind, the pink flesh, and the brown seeds. As you take a bite, taste the sweetness of the ripe watermelon, hear yourself slurp as you sink your teeth into the fruit, and feel the juice drip down your hand. Stop reading now and imagine it.

In almost every case, the second picture will have been more vivid because of the focus and effort you needed to use to create the image. Most of us can create a vivid experience (like eating a slice of watermelon on a warm day) when the instructions are detailed. This exercise is an example of imagery. is defined as creating or recreating an experience in your mind. It is more than just "seeing" the watermelon-it is tasting it, hearing the sounds as you eat it, and feeling it in your hand. The imagery of eating the watermelon may make you smile and wish for summer vacation.

You may be wondering why you are reading about watermelon if this article is about sport! The watermelon exercise demonstrates your ability to create powerful images that you can not only visualize, but experience. Imagery can be used for more than just recalling a memory; it can be used to create new images, such as performing a new sport skill. In fact, researchers have found that kids as young as 7 years of age use imagery in sport to learn and develop new skills and strategies, manage their emotions, increase confidence, and improve performance []. When combined with physical practice, imagery improves performance more than practice alone.

How Does Imagery Work?

Imagery works by triggering the same parts of the brain that are activated when you actually perform the task. For example, when athletes imagine themselves taking a penalty shot in ice hockey, the areas of the brain that become active when they physically skate toward the net and release the puck will also be active when imagining the shot. This is referred to as functional equivalence [] and it can lead to improved sport performance.

Following the guidelines of the PETTLEP model helps athletes achieve functional equivalence between imagery and actual performance []. There are seven key factors in the model: physical, environment, task, timing, learning, emotion, and perspective ( Table 1). Although any imagery training is beneficial, following the key factors from PETTLEP while practicing your imagery three or more times per week is recommended.

Table 1 - PETTLEP: 7 key factors when using imagery.

Imagery Helps With Skill Development

Young athletes can use imagery to help with skill development and skill execution. When a baseball player learns how to throw a baseball with correct technique, this is known as skill development. When a volleyball player does a serve as best as they can, this is referred to as skill execution. Research shows that if you imagine the proper execution of a skill, it will help with the actual execution of the same skill when you do it in real life. Also, athletes can perform a drill faster and with less mistakes when they use imagery compared to those who do not use imagery [].

Imagery Improves Strategy

When the coach tells the basketball team to play a full-court press, this is known as a sport strategy. Imagery can help athletes learn and perform strategies in many different sports. In fact, athletes who use imagery in sport have been found to make quicker decisions about which strategies to use and when to use them. Young athletes have indicated that using imagery helps them to anticipate what will happen next in game situations [ 1].

Imagery Boosts Confidence

Researchers study two types of confidence in athletes: self-confidence and self-efficacy. If you believe that you are capable of performing successfully in your sport, you demonstrate self-confidence. Self-efficacy is similar to self-confidence, but it is specific to a task or situation. For example, a basketball player can have a high self-efficacy in shooting a free throw but can have a low self-efficacy in dribbling. If athletes imagine being confident, focused, and mentally tough in sport situations, they can gain more self-confidence and self-efficacy in their sports.

Imagery is not only beneficial for individual athletes-it can also help build the confidence of an entire team. This is known as collective efficacy and it happens when each player on the team believes that, together, they can be successful. A youth girls' soccer team improved their collective efficacy in both training and competition by using imagery for 10 min each day over 13 weeks [].

Imagery Helps to Manage Nerves

Have you ever felt nervous before a game? If so, you may have noticed your clammy hands, or felt your heart beating quickly. This is called competitive anxiety, and it can be harmful to your sport performance if it is not managed properly. Do not worry if you do not know what to do-imagery can help! If you imagine being calm and relaxed in your sport, this can help lower your anxiety and stress related to competition and performance.

Where and When Should I Use Imagery?

One of the great things about imagery is that it can be used anywhere! Imagery can be used before, during, and after both practice and competition. For example, you may choose to use imagery before practice, to help yourself mentally prepare, or after a game, to help yourself reflect on areas you want to improve. You may decide that the best time to use imagery is right before going to sleep at night. Although imagery use is important during the sport season, it is equally important to use in the off-season. Think about where and when imagery may work best for you!

What Should I Image?

When using imagery, it is important to create or recreate the content of the image as realistically as possible. Think of "content" as all the details you can include in your image to help make it more vivid-remember the watermelon exercise. For example, use as many different senses as possible to help make your images come to life. This could include imagining the smell of the freshly cut grass on the soccer pitch or the sound of the referee's whistle. It may include the feeling in your leg muscles as you perform a corner kick, or the touch of your teammate's hand as they high-five you. Also, keep your images positive. Think of times when you have done well or create images of goals you want to achieve. Finally, your images may be from either an internal or external perspective. That is, you could be seeing your image from your own eyes ( internal visual imagery), or watching yourself as if you were on TV ( external visual imagery). Both perspectives are great, and you are encouraged to use the one that works best for you.

How Do I Practice My Imagery?

To help you practice your imagery, you are encouraged to improve the vividness and controllability of your images. refers to how clear your image is, while controllability is your ability to change or control your images. Try this to help improve the vividness and controllability of your images: Imagine you are in your bedroom. What color is your bedding? How clearly can you see this color? Is it clear and easy to see, or cloudy and difficult to see? Now, can you imagine your bedding as a different color? How easy or hard is it to imagine this new color?

If this is challenging that is okay-keep practicing and over time you will improve! Take a look at Figure 1 for a summary of how to use imagery in sport.

Figure 1 - A summary of how imagery works and how you can use it to help yourself improve at sport.

Conclusion

Imagery is a powerful mental skill athletes use to improve performance. We are all capable of using imagery and we know that imagery improves with practice. While imagery may be easy for some athletes, others may take some time to develop their ability to image. We recommend using imagery at least 3-5 times a week for 10-15 mins a day. The more you image, the better your imagery will become! When you use imagery for sport, make it as real as possible and decide what you want the outcome to be. Imagery can be done anywhere at any time. You do not need a pitch, pool, or arena to imagine. Practicing imagery as part of your routine will help you become a better and more complete athlete.

Glossary

Functional Equivalence: ↑ When the parts of the brain that are activated while performing a task (like a penalty shot in ice hockey) are also activated when imagining the same task.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

[1] ↑ Munroe-Chandler, K. J., Hall, C. R., Fishburne, G. J., and Strachan, L. 2007. Where, when, and why young athletes use imagery: an examination of developmental differences. Res. Q. Exerc. Sport 78:103-16. doi: 10.1080/02701367.2007.10599408

[2] ↑ Jeannerod, M. 1994. The representing brain: neural correlates of motor intention and imagery. Behav. Brain Sci. 17:187-202. doi: 10.1017/s0140525x00034026

[3] ↑ Holmes, P. S., and Collins, D. J. 2001. The PETTLEP approach to motor imagery: a functional equivalence model for sport psychologists. J. Appl. Sport Psychol. 13:60-83. doi: 10.1080/10413200109339004

[4] ↑ Munroe-Chandler, K. J., Hall, C. R., Fishburne, G. J., Murphy, L., and Hall, N. D. 2012. Effects of a cognitive specific imagery intervention on the soccer skill performance of young athletes: age group comparisons. Psychol. Sport Exerc. 13:324-31. doi: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2011.12.006

[5] ↑ Munroe-Chandler, K. J., and Hall, C. R. 2005. Enhancing the collective efficacy of a soccer team through motivational general-mastery imagery. Imaginat. Cogn. Pers. 24:51-67. doi: 10.2190/UM7Q-1V15-CJNM-LMP4

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Inspired by Imagination: How Imagery Can Help You Be Better at Sport

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Have you ever pictured yourself scoring the game-winning goal or staying calm at a crucial point in a match or performance? If you answered yes to either of these, then you have used a mental skill called imagery. Imagery is creating (or recreating) situations in your mind.

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Experiment idea: The effect of multi-tasking on performance

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Experiment idea: The effect of multi-tasking on performance

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Abstract

Think it's a good idea to plug into iTunes, surf the Web, or watch TV while doing homework or trying to read? Lots of people do it and claim that jumping from one activity to another keeps their attention level up and even gives their brain some time to "relax" between the more challenging tasks. Just how efficient is multitasking? In this project, you'll find out after testing the ability of volunteers to successfully do two or more things at once.

Summary

Objective

The goal of this project is to investigate the question: Can people really pay attention to two things at once?

Introduction

To get started, check out the project video. It shows how two students, Maddy and Martina, designed an experiment to determine how much their volunteers noticed about their environment when they were busy focusing on kicking and passing a soccer ball to each other. You might be surprised with their findings-the volunteers in the experiment were. Then, read on to see how to set up a similar type of multitasking experiment of your own and discover how well your friends can do more than one thing at a time.

We've all heard that people shouldn't talk on cell phones, eat, put on make up, or read maps while driving. These are obviously risky types of multitasking. Common sense tells us-and research confirms-that safe driving requires the driver's undivided attention. But what do scientists say about multitasking in other situations like studying while listening to music or scanning emails while talking on the phone?

Researchers have found that when we alternate between mental tasks we activate the prefrontal cortex, an "executive control" region of our brain's outer layer. This region acts like an air traffic controller who must set priorities and manage incoming requests from dozens of planes at a busy airport. The process takes energy, focus, and time. Hardly a mental break for your brain.

According to scientific studies, it seems our brains generally prefer to think about one thought at a time and not flit rapidly from one focus to the next. Scientists distinguish between "multitasking," when we do more than one thing at the same time like studying and listening to music, and "task switching" when we rapidly change in succession from one unrelated task to another like a busy receptionist answering phones between sending emails and welcoming visitors. Both are inefficient processes for our brains according to their studies.

Researchers who map the brain's activity find that even short breaks in focus when we are working or studying forces our brain to a temporary halt. The executive control center must take the time first to process the request and then to redirect energy to other areas of the brain that will execute the switch in intellectual gears. When we decide to return our focus to the original work, more time is lost while our brain warms back up to restart the original task. Apparently multitasking and task switching are not the great time savers people often claim.

Even our natural behaviors remind us that our noggins normally disdain distraction. For instance, to really zero in on a faint sound in the distance we instinctively stop moving, shut our eyes, and focus entirely on listening carefully. Essentially, your brain does not multitask when it's time to pay attention. Fortunately, our brains can be somewhat flexible and forgiving about multitasking depending on the circumstances. If one task is very familiar to us, then there is less brain interruption when changing focus between a series of similar tasks, the studies showed. It's also less time consuming for our brain to combine automated physical chores with some types of higher mental activity. That's why, for example, we can wash the dishes and watch TV fairly easily.

In the video, Maddy and Marina examined how much detail their volunteers noticed about an unexpected event, a girl walking and juggling around them, while the circle of volunteers counted the number of times they could keep the soccer ball in play within their circle. Maddy and Martina found that no one really noticed too much detail about the wandering juggler, even though the volunteers thought they remembered the girl once they were asked about her. Maddy and Martina concluded that when people are focused on one activity, they don't pick up on too many details of other events, even unusual ones, going on around them.

In Maddy and Martina's experiment, the volunteers weren't intentionally trying to multitask, although the results showed that the volunteers were not very successful in doing two things at once. But what happens when volunteers are asked to try to multitask? Would the results be any better?

In this activity, you will ask your volunteers to complete a simple math test in two different environments. One will be quiet with no distraction, the other will be filled with background music so that it forces the volunteers to multitask. You'll then compare how well the volunteers accomplished the same type of test under each condition. We have provided below a basic experimental plan to get you started, but you can easily customize your experiment to fit your own interests. We've also included additional hints on how to set up different types of studies related to multitasking. Finally, it's a good idea to do some background research on multitasking, task switching, and the brain regions that help you accomplish both. You'll find a list of suggested terms and key questions in the next section.

Now, put down that iPod and concentrate, please. Your brain will be less stressed and most grateful.

Terms and Concepts

To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:

Multitasking

Task switching

Executive brain activities

Brain lobes

Brain cortex

Prefrontal lobe

Questions

What are examples of multitasking and task switching activities? What are common misconceptions about each?

What are the benefits and drawbacks of trying to do two things at the same time?

What parts of the brain are associated with multitasking or task switching?

What types of activities lend themselves to successful multitasking? What types of activities are better to do with full concentration?

Bibliography

Useful article describing teens multitasking with new technologies:
Clark, A. 2006.This Is Your Brain Online, CBS News.com. Retrieved May 2, 2007.

Short article with simple description of brain scan research to map activity during multitasking:
Blakeslee, S., 2001.Multitasking Drains Brain. New York Times News Service. Retrieved May 2, 2007.

Easy to read, short article describing multitasking in the workplace:
Anderson, P., 2007. Study: Multitasking is Counterproductive (Your Boss May Not Like This One), Cable News Network. Retrieved May 2, 2007.

# Link Name="HumBeh_p022.4" Value="HtmlAnchor" HtmlText="Is Multitasking More Efficient? Shifting Mental Gears Costs Time, Especially when Shifting to Less Familiar Tasks," #] 2007. American Psychological Association Press Release. Informative, although somewhat academic, article summarizing brain research and brain regions related to multitasking. Retrieved May 2, 2007.

The idea for this project is from this DragonflyTV podcast:
TPT, 2006.Perception by Maddy and Martina, DragonflyTV, Twin Cities Public Television. Retrieved May 2, 2007.

Materials and Equipment

To do this experiment you will need the following materials and equipment:

Two simple math tests with similar problems (each should take about 10 minutes to complete)

Portable music players with head sets for each volunteer

Watch or timer

Room or area with tables and chairs for volunteers to take tests

Note pads

Pens/pencils

At least 10 volunteers for your study (the more volunteers, the better). Note: To see how many volunteer subjects you need, check out the Science Buddies resource Sample Size: How Many Survey Participants Do I Need?.

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Experimental Procedure
Working with Human Test Subjects
There are special considerations when designing an experiment involving human subjects. Fairs affiliated with Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) often require an Informed Consent Form (permission sheet) for every participant who is questioned. Consult the rules and regulations of the science fair that you are entering, prior to performing experiments or surveys. Please refer to the Science Buddies documents Projects Involving Human Subjects and Scientific Review Committee for additional important requirements. If you are working with minors, you must get advance permission from the children's parents or guardians (and teachers if you are performing the test while they are in school) to make sure that it is all right for the children to participate in the science fair project. Here are suggested guidelines for obtaining permission for working with minors:

1. Write a clear description of your science fair project, what you are studying, and what you hope to learn. Include how the child will be tested. Include a paragraph where you get a parent's or guardian's and/or teacher's signature.

2. Print out as many copies as you need for each child you will be surveying.

3. Pass out the permission sheet to the children or to the teachers of the children to give to the parents. You must have permission for all the children in order to be able to use them as test subjects.

1. Recruit your volunteers and let them know the date and time of the experiment.

2. Remind them to bring their music players with a head set.

3. Prepare two simple math tests using addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Each test should take about 10 minutes to complete, should be equally challenging, and have the same number of problems. Make enough copies so that every person has his/her own copy of each test to write on.

4. The day of the test, explain briefly to the volunteers what they will be doing. Tell them they should not feel rushed since you will be giving them plenty of time to finish. You should note the start and finish times of each volunteer (or have each volunteer record their start and finish times on the test).

5. Ask half your volunteers to take the first test without their music players on, and the other half should take the same test while listening to their favorite tunes. Each person can pick their own music to listen to during the test. Tip: instruct your volunteers to keep the headphone volume low enough so that others can't hear their music.

6. When everyone if finished with the first test, reverse the groups so now those volunteers who took the "quiet" test can listen to their music players and vice versa. Hand out the second version of the math test and give the groups the same amount of time to take the test as you did the first time. Again, record the start and stop times of each volunteer (or have each volunteer record their start and finish times on the test).

7. Ask your volunteers to write down how they felt they did on the first test versus the second test.

Analyzing Your Data

1. Correct the tests and record the total points for each volunteers' test one and test two.

2. Make a table showing the total scores for each volunteer during the "quiet" test and the "noisy" test. Also show the total time required to take each test for each volunteer. Calculate an average overall score and time for each group of volunteers for each of the tests; add this information to your table.

3. Do you find any differences between the scores of the tests taken with or without background music for the individual volunteers? How does that compare to the overall group results? Was there any difference in the time required to finish the tests?

4. Did listening to music affect the ability of the volunteers to answer the math questions? Are you surprised at the results? Why or why not?

5. Did the results match the expectations of each volunteer on how well they thought they did on the tests?

6. For help with data analysis and setting up tables, see Data Analysis & Graphs.

7. For a guide on how to summarize your results and write conclusions based on your data, see Conclusions.

Ask an Expert

Variations

Customize your experiment. Repeat the experiment but change the type of test and/or distraction activity. Use a reading comprehension test instead of a math test, for example. Or, try music that you choose so the volunteers all listen to the same music instead of their own music selections. You could also intentionally pick music you know they will all like or dislike to see how that affects their ability to concentrate on the test. You might consider adding an "unexpected" event to your experiment like the example in the video while the volunteers are already busy multitasking.

Task switching. Do a "task switching" experiment instead of (or in addition to) a multitasking experiment. Have your volunteers start another math test, and then interrupt them every 30-60 seconds to have them read from a scientific magazine or newspaper article for a few minutes before going back to the math test. Repeat this start and stop pattern several times during the experiment. At the end, score the math tests and ask the volunteers to write a short essay or fill in the blank questions about the article. Are the math results similar to those from your experiment on multitasking? How well did the students do on the article quiz? Ask the students to describe how they felt when trying to switch between two types of tests versus when they could focus on the math test alone.

Effect of age. Would age affect either of these types of experiments? You can find out by giving the tests to different age groups of volunteers. Try to get at least 10 people of similar ages in each group and people who are young (under 30 years old), middle-aged (40 to 60 years old) and seniors (65 years or older). See the following website for an example of one student's science fair project related to testing the multitasking capability of senior drivers: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20040114/ScienceFairZone.asp.

Gender differences. Do girls and boys show differences in the ability to multitask? Test this by repeating your experiment with groups of similarly aged boys and girls. Compare their scores, summarize your results, and state your conclusions.

Careers

If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:

Why people take certain actions can often feel like a mystery. Psychologists help solve these mysteries by investigating the physical, cognitive, emotional, or social aspects of human behavior and the human mind. Some psychologists also apply these findings in order to design better products or to help people change their behaviors. Read more

Each time your heart beats, or you breathe, think, dream, smell, see, move, laugh, read, remember, write, or feel something, you are using your nervous system. The nervous system includes your brain, spinal cord, and a huge network of nerves that make electrical connections all over your body. Neurologists are the medical doctors who diagnose and treat problems with the nervous system. They work to restore health to an essential system in the body. Read more

News Feed on This Topic

Note: A computerized matching algorithm suggests the above articles. It's not as smart as you are, and it may occasionally give humorous, ridiculous, or even annoying results! Learn more about the News Feed

Cite This Page

General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.

MLA Style

Science Buddies Staff. "Multitasking: Brain Drain or Boost in Efficiency?" Science Buddies, 20 Nov. 2020, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/HumBeh_p022/human-behavior/multitasking-efficiency. Accessed 15 May 2022.

APA Style

Science Buddies Staff. (2020, November 20). Multitasking: Brain Drain or Boost in Efficiency? Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/HumBeh_p022/human-behavior/multitasking-efficiency

Explore Our Science Videos

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Multitasking: Brain Drain or Boost in Efficiency? | Science Project

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Think it's a good idea to plug into iTunes, surf the Web, or watch TV while doing homework or trying to read? Lots of people do it and claim that jumping from one activity to another keeps their attention level up and even gives their brain some time to "relax" between the more challenging tasks.

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Experiment idea: Can exercise improve memory?

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Experiment idea: Can exercise improve memory?

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Abstract

"Use it or lose it!" Sure, we all know physical exercise is important to keeping our bodies fit. But how important is physical exercise to your brain? In other words, is there any connection between an active body and increased brain power? This is an easy project where you can test the effect of exercise on a critical brain function: memory.

Summary

Objective

The goal of this project is to determine the effect of exercise on a critical brain function: memory.

Introduction

Couch potatoes beware. Research now suggests that a sedentary lifestyle negatively impacts our brain as well as our body. Regular exercise appears critical for keeping our brain cells fit and functioning. Studies show that exercise stimulates nerve cells to produce chemicals called neurotrophic factors that act like "fertilizer" for the brain. These proteins encourage brain cells to grow and to connect with other neurons. Other chemicals like adrenaline and noradrenaline are triggered during aerobic workouts and, at least in the short run, wake up the brain's processing systems.

Scientists think active bodies could mean improved mental focus, better decision making, faster healing time for patients with nerve or brain injuries, and reduced risk of dementia as we age. Brain scans of older volunteers, for example, indicate that the outer layer (gray matter) of certain areas of the brain, the frontal, temporal, and parietal cortexes, showed less decline in active seniors than in those who didn't exercise.

Imagine an experiment designed to test the effect of physical activity on memory. You could recruit some volunteers to participate in a study. Half of them could hang out and play board games for ten minutes. The other half could spend ten minutes completing an exercise obstacle course. Next, all the volunteers could be brought together to perform an easy memory test where they wrote down all the objects they could recall after a quick look at 25 household items you have selected ahead of time. Then, compared these scores to those from a similar memory test taken by the volunteers before they played games or exercised. What results do you think you would get if you tried this experiment?

Whether you decide to try this study or try to design one yourself, we've written down the basic steps of the experimental procedure to get you started. We've also included a short list of Terms, Concepts, and Questions to research before you start your project in order to get some background on the topic of exercise and its effect on memory. In addition, we've added some suggestions for variations and other related projects to consider. Who knows, maybe you'll come up with some amazing results of your own.

So, good luck. Get those friends moving (or not), and see if you discover a Brain-Body Connection!

Terms and Concepts

To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:

Exercise

Sedentary lifestyles

Memory

Brain cortex

Neurotrophic factors

Questions

Here are some questions for more advanced background research:

How does exercise affect memory?

What are some chemical changes that occur in the brain/body during exercise?

What are the effects of exercise on mood, decision making, or reaction times?

How does exercise influence the aging process?

Bibliography

Here are some websites to check out as you start your research:

The site includes basic brain anatomy and function along with interactive puzzles.
Bragdon, A. D. (n.d.).The Brainwaves Center: A Fun and Informative Way to Exercise the Mind. Retrieved April 20, 2007.

Summary of studies describing physical and molecular changes of the brain following exercise:
Brownlee, C. (2006, February 25).Buff and Brainy: Exercising the Body Can Benefit the Brain. Science News, Feb 25; Vol. 169, No. 8. Retrieved March 11, 2015.

Report on brain aging at the National Institute on Aging:
Elias, M. (2005).Want a Sharp Mind for Your Golden Years? Start Now. USA Today. Aug 17, 2005. Retrieved April 20, 2007.

Materials and Equipment

To do this experiment you will need the following materials and equipment:

Minimum eight volunteers

50 small household items (25 items for the practice test and 25 for the real test)

Table to put the items on

Towel to cover up the items

An obstacle course, or have your friends run around the block, do jumping jacks, skip rope, etc.

Board games

Tables and chairs

Paper or notepad

Pencils or pens

Watch or timer

Experimental Procedure

1. Design your exercise obstacle course or decide on which aerobic activities you will ask your volunteers to do for ten minutes.

2. Collect a few popular board games and set up the tables and chairs. Place the items for the each memory test on a table and cover each set with a towel.

3. Explain the overall procedures to your volunteers.

4. Have them take the initial memory test with the first set of items.

1. Remove the towel and let the volunteers study the table for one minute.

2. Cover the items again and ask each volunteer to write down as many of the items as they can remember in three minutes.

3. Collect the answer sheets so you can tally the correct scores for each volunteer.

5. Randomly assign each volunteer to one of two equal-sized experimental groups: one exercise group, and one board games group A good way to do this is to have your test subjects blindly select marked pieces of paper from a hat or bowl.

6. Each group should perform their assigned activity for ten minutes. Be sure to record the start and stop times.

7. Have the groups quickly gather and repeat the memory test with the second set of household items.

8. Collect the answer sheets and total the number of correct items on each sheet to record scores for each person in the first and second memory tests.

Analyze Your Data

Make a table to show how each volunteer's score may have changed before and after their activity.

1. You can also compute the average score for each group for memory tests one and two, and the average score change.

2. Make bar graphs showing the individual participant's scores as well as each group's average.

3. Questions to consider:

1. Do you see any differences in scores before and after each person did their assigned activity for ten minutes?

2. Do the group averages indicate that exercise may have had an effect on memory scores?

Ask an Expert

Variations

Repeat the experiment and have the teams switch roles before doing a third memory test. In other words, the group that played board games gets to try a fresh memory test after ten minutes of exercise, and the group that exercised gets to sit down and play board games before another memory test.

Repeat the study on a second day in case some of the participants were just extra tired or not feeling too great the day they were tested. Compare the results of the two days to see if they are the same or different.

One of the participants in a previous version of this study claimed that she didn't do as well as she could on the memory test because she was still thinking about the board game she had been playing. How about trying a more restful or less mentally challenging activity than playing board games. Can you think of more calming or less strenuous things they could do for ten minutes besides playing board games?

Do you think more exercise time would have a greater impact on memory? Try the experiment with activity times greater than ten minutes. How about 20 or 30 minutes? Is there a maximum time that exercise should be done before the memory test? Design experiments to test these ideas.

How about an experiment to look at the effects of long-term exercise over several weeks or months? You could chart your or your volunteers' physical activity over time and compare the results of memory tests taken every few weeks.

Are there other mental activities you could test for besides memory? Consider mood, math or reading skills, reaction times, video game scores, etc.

Does the age of the volunteer make any difference? You might try a similar study with volunteers who are much older (55+) and then compare the results with those you obtained with your friends.

Are there other factors than exercise that might contribute to a good memory? Would diet, hours of sleep each night, or music influence how well someone's brain may function? Design an experiment to find out.

Does background noise influence how well people study and remember what they are learning? Do students complete assignments better in a silent room or when music is playing or the TV is on? Design an experiment to find out.

For a related experiment on exercise and heart health, see Science Buddies project Heart Health: How Does Heart Rate Change with Exercise?

Careers

If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:

Each time your heart beats, or you breathe, think, dream, smell, see, move, laugh, read, remember, write, or feel something, you are using your nervous system. The nervous system includes your brain, spinal cord, and a huge network of nerves that make electrical connections all over your body. Neurologists are the medical doctors who diagnose and treat problems with the nervous system. They work to restore health to an essential system in the body. Read more

Physicians work to ease physical and mental suffering due to injury and disease. They diagnose medical conditions and then prescribe or administer appropriate treatments. Physicians also seek to prevent medical problems in their patients by advising preventative care. Ultimately, physicians try to help people live and feel better at every age. Read more

Would you like to sew up a bad cut after fall? Order and interpret X-rays? Help with surgery? Conduct physicals? Prescribe medications? Physician assistants have many of the same duties as physicians, only they practice medicine under the supervision of a physician or a surgeon. In rural or inner-city areas, physician assistants might have considerable independence, since they might be the only healthcare provider available to these communities. Physician assistants can choose to study... Read more

News Feed on This Topic

Note: A computerized matching algorithm suggests the above articles. It's not as smart as you are, and it may occasionally give humorous, ridiculous, or even annoying results! Learn more about the News Feed

Cite This Page

General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.

MLA Style

Science Buddies Staff. "The Brain-Body Connection: Can Exercise Really Make Our Brains Work Better?" Science Buddies, 20 Nov. 2020, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Sports_p011/sports-science/exercise-brain-body-connection. Accessed 15 May 2022.

APA Style

Science Buddies Staff. (2020, November 20). The Brain-Body Connection: Can Exercise Really Make Our Brains Work Better? Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Sports_p011/sports-science/exercise-brain-body-connection

Explore Our Science Videos

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Brain-Body Connection: Can Exercise Really Make Our Brains Work Better? | Science Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Use it or lose it!" Sure, we all know physical exercise is important to keeping our bodies fit. But how important is physical exercise to your brain? In other words, is there any connection between an active body and increased brain power?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Inside your body's control centre...

There's a mass of wrinkly material in your head, weighing around 1.3kg, which controls every single thing you will ever do. It enables you to think, learn, create and feel emotions, as well as controlling every blink, breath and heartbeat. This fantastic organ is your brain! It's so amazing that famous scientist James D. Watson once called the brain "the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe." Here's why!

Your brain is faster and more powerful than a supercomputer!

Your kitten is in the kitchen. She's about to step on the hot cooker. You have only seconds to act. Accessing the signals coming from your eyes, your brain quickly calculates when, where, and at what speed you will need to leap to stop her. Then it orders your muscles to spring into action. Your timing is perfect, and she's safe! No computer can come close to your brain's amazing ability to download, process, and react to the flood of information coming from your eyes, ears and other sensory organs. Cool!

Your brain generates enough electricity to power a lightbulb

Your brain contains about 100 billion microscopic cells called neurons. There are so many, it would take you over 3,000 years to count them all! Whenever you dream, laugh, think, see or move, it's because minute chemical and electrical signals are racing between these neurons along billions of tiny neuron pathways. Incredibly, the activity in your brain never stops. Countless messages zip around inside it every second - just like a supercharged pinball machine. Your neurons create and send more messages than all the phones in the entire world. And while a single neuron generates only a very small amount of electricity, all your neurons together can produce enough energy to power a low-wattage light bulb. Imagine that!

Neurons send information to your brain at more than 240kmph!

A bee lands on your bare foot. Eek! Sensory neurons in your skin relay this information to your spinal cord and brain at a speed of more than 240kmph. Your brain then uses motor neurons to transmit the message back through your spinal cord to your foot - to shake the bee off quickly! Motor neurons can relay this message at more than 320kmph. Wow!

When you learn, you change the structure of your brain

Riding a bike seems impossible at first, but soon you master it. How? As you practise, your brain sends 'bike riding' messages along pathways of neurons again and again, forming new connections. In fact, the structure of your brain changes every time you learn, as well as whenever you have a new thought or memory. Now that's clever!

Exercise helps make you smarter

It's well known that any exercise that makes your heart beat faster - like running or playing a sport - is great for your body and can even help improve your mood. But scientists have recently learned that for a period of time after you've exercised, your body produces a chemical that makes your brain more willing to learn. So, if you're stuck on some tricky homework, go out and run around for a while, then tackle the problem again. You might discover that you're much more able to solve it!

Main picture © Ism / Phototake / All rights reserved
Diagram: Robert J. Demarest
Words: Douglas E. Richards

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Your Amazing Brain! - National Geographic Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There's a mass of wrinkly material in your head, weighing around 1.3kg, which controls every single thing you will ever do. It enables you to think, learn, create and feel emotions, as well as controlling every blink, breath and heartbeat. This fantastic organ is your brain! It's so amazing that famous scientist James D.

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5 Minute Mindfulness Meditation "Open Field" Guided Middle High School Students Calm Classroom Break