Rakushun
Member
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 21
An example would be that Ive heard that studying for something right before you sleep is the best time, because that's when the most, uh...long-term brain storing memorization occurs.
Is there anything else? Certain foods or music perhaps?
Last edited by Rakushun (2007 July 10, 3:37 am)
Hi Rakushun,
There is a lot of information out there on this topic. A little research should go a long way. Anyway, here's what I consider to be important:
For foods, eat healthy! Particularly good for the brain are avocados, walnuts, and flax seed oil for the omega-3 fatty acid. Avoid greasy and sugary foods or drinks. Tea or Coffee in moderation are very helpful. As for music, classical or relaxing ambient/new age music has been widely touted as a study aid, but honestly I think it's a personal preference. I seem to perform equally well if I'm listening to classical, noise, heavy metal, electronic, silence, rap, anything!, so long as I enjoy it. One important point is that the music shouldn't take too much of your attention. Don't listening to anything you find yourself listening along to.
I personally like the idea of studying before sleep so much that I take a 20 minute nap every 4 hours and do an RTK session right before. It's working great; I wake up and am ready to absorb more kanji. Don't nap longer than 30 minutes or you'll likely have severe sleep inertia.
Last but not least, exercise! There are some really good recent web articles you can dig up on this. Basically, any sort of regular cardiovascular exercise is great for the brain. Exercise stimulates the production of new brain cells.
<plug>I've just finished reading the book "Making a good brain great" by Daniel Amen, and I think you would be very interested in it.</plug>
rich_f
Member
From: north carolina
Registered: 2007-07-12
Posts: 1708
One trick I remember from law school-- you tend to remember the first and last things you see in a list of items, so compress firsts and lasts by breaking your sessions into smaller time units. When I was in law school, I would break study into 15-20 minute sessions, with 3-5 minute breaks inbetween. Not quite sure how to make that work for this... what I usually do is review in small stacks of cards to compress firsts and lasts. The less in the middle, the better. (Yeah, my primary learning/review tool is index cards. It works for me. It's not my only way of reviewing, though.)
The other thing I remember from law school-- there's a limit to what you can learn in a day. If I remember correctly, it was 4 solid hours of studying new information. Supposedly if you try to push past the limit, it will actually start to work against you.
Lastly, I remember hearing something about blueberries supposedly improving memory and general brain function as well... can't remember where, though. 
And yeah, I do the review thing before bed every night, and I find I remember those kanji better than I thought I would. Pretty neat stuff.
Rakushun
Member
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 21
Thanks for the brain music stuff, Ill check it out later. Personally I think things like this are just a placebo effect, which doesnt work well if youre aware of it, but I hope it does.
I sometimes forget kanji that I would bet a million dollars I know by heart like I know English...thats always a little disheartening. I had great images in my head for kanji like recess, melt, and green and Ive seen the kanji 買 a million times, but I recently got them wrong in a review. Pah.
Last edited by Rakushun (2007 September 05, 12:18 pm)
RoboTact
Member
From: Russia
Registered: 2006-11-26
Posts: 108
Rakushun wrote:
Thanks for the brain music stuff, Ill check it out later. Personally I think things like this are just a placebo effect, which doesnt work well if youre aware of it, but I hope it does.
Even unintended associations get memorized and can be used as cues for recall. In particular, if you're listening to some kind of music while memorizing, you will recall easier if you listen that same kind of music. This effect has no value for memorization in itself, as you'll have to develop remembering without that music anyway, but it provides correlation between presence of music and recall.
Rakushun wrote:
I sometimes forget kanji that I would bet a million dollars I know by heart like I know English...thats always a little disheartening. I had great images in my head for kanji like recess, melt, and green and Ive seen the kanji 買 a million times, but I recently got them wrong in a review. Pah.
I sometimes forget words in my native language... Luckily, there's a En<->Ru dictionary, and it's usually possible to recall the word in at least one language!
kanjapan
Member
From: Tokyo
Registered: 2007-08-25
Posts: 24
Are you using the brainwave generator preset called "BUILTIN: Learning aid 1 (for subliminal)"?
A voice is a binaural beat pattern. Several patterns are used at the same time in this preset.
You can examine the binaral beat pattern of each voice this way:
Select "wave" -> "preset options", then click on the voice you want to examine. To see the binaural beat frequency of the voice click on the "sound" tab.
In the sound tab you can see that voice 1 has a frequency of 6 hz, voice 2 is 12 hz and voice 3 shifts between 15 and 17 hz. Every one of these beat patterns has a different function.
People who don`t want to fuss around with software and want easy proof that brainwave music really works (thoroughly scientifically proven btw by using EEG equipment) can order a demo brainwave CD for free at this page:
https://www.centerpointe.com/demo/?x=top_main
Homepage of this site for more information:
https://www.centerpointe.com/
After listening to this CD you`ll feel really relaxed and balanced. The more you are able to focus on the music the better the results.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by kanjapan (2007 September 06, 7:45 am)
Rakushun
Member
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 21
Nah, I got my brainwave thing registered so Im using the Studying Aid preset, and followed a tip and added a 6.3hz voice and pink noise.
It doesnt really make me feel any different....Im not sure if its volume or not. I can hear it fine, but I dont wanna damage my ears with this noise.
Personally I think Im immune to stuff like this, or at least resistant.
Last edited by Rakushun (2007 September 06, 1:59 pm)
Rakushun
Member
Registered: 2007-04-27
Posts: 21
From what Ive gathered, binaural beat frequencies is along the same line as hypnosis: It works on some people and does nothing for others.
Ive noticed a slight overall increase in my pass/fail rate, but thats it. I dont think it works on me.
Also its kinda of unnerving how every study preset Ive tried is completely different sounding...Im not sure which ones to trust.
Last edited by Rakushun (2007 September 15, 1:35 am)
