Memory and Teaching.

So this post has nothing to do with any of our readings or observations and I will probably post about one of those in the next few days but I was thinking about something and I wanted to share it with everyone. So a few days ago I was watching some TedTalks and I came across the one I posted above. (I will post a link to it as well just in case it doesn't work or something) and it got me thinking about how it could potentially relate to teaching.

I think it would work best to summarize it first just in case someone can't watch it, though I highly recommend it, it is very interesting. So this guy Joshua Foer was researching a memory competition for a quirky events piece. Turns out these people could remember crazy amounts of information in very small amounts of time (like a few hours) and the winner gets some kind of prize. The technique is called the "memory palace." Now some might remember hearing about this in small detail in CEP. Basically the technique involves picturing your house, or another familiar pathway, and populating it with strange symbols you've related to what you need to remember. He uses a nude bicycle race to remember the memory competition, Brittany Spears dancing in his living room to remember an anecdote involving her, and a few more as weird as that. Doing some scientific research he found that, after using brain scans, the people using this form of memory were using different parts of their brain than normal. Not only that they were using more of their brain and were able to recall more efficiently the things they remembered. It had do do with the visual section of their brain. It turns out that is where longer kept memories are formed.

Now I don't want to go too much into detail about it but what I was thinking was why not use this in class? He brings up a point about working more to remember and using your imagination. I was thinking as an English teacher I could use this to prompt my students to say visualize Hamlet. Maybe have them cast each character in the play and have them act them out in their heads. Maybe have them visualize a scene as we read. Often I worry that people read the wrong way. People read the words on the page but never let them come to life. I find I recall what I read better if I think about the passage as I'm reading it. If I really use my imagination to add another dimension to it.

So what do you think? Is there anyway something like this could be used in your content area?

Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_foer_feats_of_memory_anyone_can_do.html