68 | April• 2018
SECRETS TO A SMARTER YOU
week,allthestudentstookaquiz.
Those who both read and listened
outscored the reading-only group on
all eight quizzes.To Re m e m b e r:Faces
Tec h n i q u e:Focus on noses
While some super memorisers spe-
cialiseinassociatingnameswith
faces (one of the disciplines in the
World Memor y Championships), t he
memory-palace technique doesn’t
workaswelliftheimageoftheface
is cropped, normalised for colour, or
changed in any other way.
Rememberingfacesandrecognis-
ingthemindifferentcontextsmay
be a special skill that several studies
have linked to personality: extroverts
are much better at recognising faces
than introverts, for example. One
trickthatmaywork:ratherthanfo-
cusing on someone’s eyes, as most
peopledo,focusonthecentreorto
theleftofthenose.hetheoryisthat
doing so allows you to take in the
wholefaceatonce.To Re m e m b e r:Ashoppinglist
Tec h n i q u e:Engage your body
Howoftenhaveyouwrittenyourlist
–andthenforgottenwhereyouputit?
In this variation on the memory pal-
ace,picturetheitemsonyourshop-
ping list with diferent parts of your
body.Forinstance,imaginebalanc-
ingapackageofcheeseonyourhead,
an egg on your nose and a bottle of
milk on your shoulder.seven more times before being tested
thenextday.Buthecouldlearnthe
same number of words equally well
byrepeatingthematotalof38times
overthecourseofthreedays.
More recent research has demon-
strated optimal intervals for study
sessions: if your exam is one week
away, study today and then again
in a day or two. If it’s a month away,
studytodayandthenwaitaweekbe-
fore your second study session. hree
monthsof?Waitthreeweekstores-
tudy.Thefurtherawayyourexam,
thelongertheoptimalintervalbe-
tweenyourirsttwostudysessions.
(A inal review the day before the test
is also a good idea.)
To Re m e m b e r:Anewlanguage
Tec h n i q u e:Read and listen
InastudyconductedattheUni-
versityofPuertoRico,137Spanish-
speaking students were separated
intotwogroups.Overthecourseof
eightweeks,onegroupreadabookin
English while simultaneously listen-
ingtoanEnglishaudioversion;the
other just read the book silently. Each
REMEMBERING AND
RECOGNISING FACES
MAY BE A SPECIAL
SKILL LINKED TO
PERSONALITY