This early advantage, Geary insists, arises not from genetic difference or different teaching strategies. Methods here and in China appear pretty much the same. Rather, what gives the Chinese kids an edge is repeated practice of basic skills. They practice and practice their math. That makes automatic certain processes. "They don't have to think about the little stuff," says Geary. "This frees them to manage and integrate more sophisticated material."
The advantage endures. By the third grade, the American kids are way behind, with no hope of catching up.
In another study, older folks—who presumably mastered their basic mathematical skills way back in elementary school—were compared with latter-day college students. The elderly outwitted the young, Geary reports. That's not to say that math training will make you smarter overall. But then again...
Although practice can't improve global memory, reports psychologist Douglas Herrmann, Ph.D., author of Super Memory, it sure can boost retrieval ability in targeted areas. Practice at specific memory tasks can produce damn near spectacular results. For example, people who attempt to learn a long string of digits that is read to them normally remember only about seven of the digits correctly. But, after practicing for several months, many people can recall large series. One student learned to remember 80 digits in correct order.
The same holds true for many other types of information. Most people can normally recall only about a third of what they know. However, after a month of daily practicing to recall items from the specific category—say, state capitals or types of fruit—you could likely recall nearly all the items you have ever known, and recall them faster than ever before. The task becomes automatic. "So, if you want information at your fingertips", advises Herrmann, "practice remembering it."
At Least Take A Deep Breath
If you want to maximize your ability to take in information then find a way to minimize chronic stress.
Some stress is essential to good performance—it equips you with the oomph you need to face everyday challenges. Under the influence of hormones produced by the body when put under stress, blood is pumped faster and oxygen delivery to the brain is stepped up. That sets you up for quicker responses, sharper answers. But chronic stress, unremitting pressure for two or more years, can block learning—even kill brain cells.
Neurobiologist Richard Thompson, Ph.D., of the University of Southern California, recently demonstrated that stress can create learning deficits by disrupting long-term potential (LTP), a mechanism believed to be a component of associative memory formation. LTP is a sign of efficiency of synaptic communication, the carving of a quick path along which information can travel through the brain.
Thompson measured the capacity for LTP in brain cells taken from three groups of rats. One group was put under chronic stress for seven days by exposure to inescapable shocks. Another group experienced the same amount of shock but was trained to escape. The third group was left alone.
Later, in each set of animals, the researcher stimulated cells in the brain's hippocampus that are primary to memory, and found that LTP was blocked in the shock group that was helpless to control the stress. The rats that learned to short-circuit the negative stimulus retained LTP, but it was reduced. Not only does stress appear to affect learning, Thompson concludes, but the degree of control we have over it may determine how much learning disruption occurs.
Animal studies also suggest that chemicals produced naturally in response to stress—glucocorticoids, released by the adrenal glands—can actually damage our brains. In fact, when healthy rats were subjected to high levels of the stress chemicals for three months, parts of their hippocampus were so wrecked they looked like the brains of senile old rats.
Neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky, Ph.D., of Stanford University, pinpointed how the brain system breaks down. It turns out that stress hormones do not kill neurons directly. Instead, they disrupt their function, leaving them "queasy," as Sapolsky puts it.
When stressed, the body diverts energy to power muscles for fight or flight. Glucocorticoids suppress the uptake of glucose, the main energy source. Neurons lose about 20% to 30% of their energy. This is good for body muscles, but makes it tough for neurons to regulate incoming signals and chemicals. Neuro-toxicity results. The brain cell essentially dies of excitement.
Indeed, says research psychologist Douglas J. Hermann, Ph.D., people who complain about stressed lives often report slowed learning and memory failure. He reports that nurses who work in hospital intensive care wards have more memory failure than those who work in routine units.
In contrast, many studies have shown that people who exercise, meditate, or otherwise manage pressure, are whizzes at short-term memory, are more creative and have faster reaction times. For temporary relief, take slow, deep breaths. This delivers oxygen to the brain, clears carbon dioxide from the body, and short-circuits the stress response.
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