Preliminaries 19
(as noted above)in your sleep. Sleep deprivationprevents the formation of long term memory.
Being rendered unconscious for a long period often producesshort term amnesiaas the brain
loses short term memory before it gets put into long term memory. The hippocampus shows
evidence of plasticity – taxi drivers who have to learn to navigate large cities actually have
larger than normal hippocampi, with a size proportional to the length of time they’ve been
driving. This suggests (once again) that it is possible todeliberately increase the capacityof
yourownhippocampus through the exercise of its functions, and consequentlyincrease your
ability to store and retrieve information, which is an important component (although not the
only component) of intelligence!- Memory is improved byincreasing the supply of oxygen to the brain, which is best accom-
plished byexercise. Unsurprisingly. Indeed, as noted above, having good general health, good
nutrition, good oxygenation and perfusion – having all the biomechanism in tip-top running
order – is perfectly reasonably linked to being able to perform at your best in anything, mental
activity included. - Finally, theamygdala^22 is a brain organ in ourlimbic system(part of our “old”, reptile brain).
The amygdala is an important part of ouremotionalsystem. It is associated with primitive
survival responses, with sexual response, and appears to play akey rolein modulating (filtering)
the process of turning short term memory into long term memory. Basically, any sort term
memory associated with a powerful emotion is much more likely to makeit into long term
memory.
There are clear evolutionary advantages to this. If you narrowly escape being killed by a
saber-toothed tiger at a particular pool in the forest, and then forget that this happened by
the next day and return again to drink there, chances are decentthat the saber-tooth is still
there and you’ll get eaten. On the other hand, if you come upon a particular fruit tree in that
same forest and get a free meal of high quality food and forget about the tree a day later, you
might starve.
We see that both negative and positive emotional experiences are strongly correlated with
learning! Powerfulexperiences, especially, are correlated with learning. This translates into
learning strategies in two ways, one for the instructor and one forthe student. For the in-
structor, there are two general strategies open to helping students learn. One is to create an
atmosphere offear, hatred, disgust, anger– powerful negative emotions. The other is to create
an atmosphere oflove, security, humor, joy– powerful positive emotions. In between there is
a great wasteland of bo-ring, bo-ring, bo-ring where students plod along, struggling to form
memories because there is nothing “exciting” about the course in either a positive or negative
way and so their amygdala degrades the memory formation processin favor of other more
“interesting” experiences.
Now, in my opinion, negative experiences in the classroom do indeed promote the formation
of long term memories, but they aren’t the memories the instructorintended. The student is
likely to remember, and loath, the instructor for the rest of their life but isnotmore likely to
remember the material except sporadically in association with particularly traumatic episodes.
They may well belesslikely, as we naturally avoid negative experiences and will study less
and work less hard on things we can’t stand doing.
For the instructor, then, positive is the way to go. Creating a warm, nurturing classroom
environment, ensuring that the students know that youcareabout their learning and about
them as individuals helps to promote learning. Making your lectures and teaching processes
fun– andfunny– helps as well. Many successful lecturers make a powerfulpositiveimpression
on the students, creating an atmosphere of amazement or surprise. A classroom experience
should really be ajoyin order to optimize learning in so many ways.
(^22) Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/amygdala.