lawnmower man

[rayview]

Any one remember that movie? Well it was on the other day. I remember when I first saw it... I was really young, and thought the whole accelerated learning idea was pretty cool (although I didn't really buy into the horror story side to it) So I figured why not ask a question here.

Is there any type of VR devise/ method to imput information of any kind directly into the subconscience faster than normal? I highly doubt that there is anything that really works otherwise we would have heard about it, but I have heard of people who say that they do hypnosis before tests, some have even made tape recordings of important terms that they want to remember and play them at a very soft volume while they sleep. I kinda think thats crazy, but who knows.

Also, and probably the better thing to talk ask, is assuming there will be a way to do this sort of thing, how will it be done?

 

[spacemanspiff]

some have even made tape recordings of important terms that they want to remember and play them at a very soft volume while they sleep.

i think the word on the street is that this doesn't improve memory significantly. though you may be able to process some sounds while asleep, you can't really do much with it.

 

[Capibara]

well ... I think you might memorize the sound ... words you hear ... not if you're in a very deep sleep though , but you can't LEARN something while sleeping , I can't speack for others but when I learn about something I usually make alot of connections with things I already know and I use the newly gathered knowledge to imagine new things ... ask myself questions and basically I get alot of brain activity going on ... so I don't think you could learn during sleep ... you could remember how a math formula sounds ... I guess , I've never tried it

 

[AntonK]

I've also heard reports that it doesn't work. HOWEVER, I have heard that after some sort of vigorous learning session (read: cramming for finals) sleeping immediately after that can increase how much you remember by 50%.

-AntonK

 

[rayview]

the guy said that he would study the terms over and over, so he might have learned say 90% most of them pretty well. The sleeping part directly afterward with tape playing was supposed to reenforce his memory. But perhaps, as you just have said, it was just the sleeping directly after studing part that really was doing the job for him. That's pretty funny!

 

[Automan]

When I was in college I wrote a simple piece of software known as a 'serial reader'.
This takes a text file and prints it on centre of the screen, one BIG WORD at a time. Instead of scanning across lines, you stare a fixed point with your eyes open. Commas for pauses, stops for longer ones. Naturally, I set up the cursor keys to control flow as desired (An Intellimouse wheel is better these days).

I could easily comprehend a book at 900 - 1400 wpm and get the gist at 1800+.

When using this method, its as if you visually 'hear' the text. The large clear fonts allow for a stronger mnemonic imprint.

This system reduces the 'white noise' of scanning the line poorly with your eye, picking up visual artifacts from the page etc. The congition system of the brain has less work to do and memory imprinting is improved.

Formatting mixed text is a pain but easily solved.

It will never be practical until most publishers allow books to be distributed digitally. Check out http://gutenberg.net/index.html

 

[kmguru]

Re: lawnmower man

It depends on how fast the neuronal configuration takes place. Just like physical muscles, it takes time for reconfiguration, growth and reconnection.

Someday if we have a transporter device as in StarTrek, we may be able to completely redo the molecular map to the new set on the fly...

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

Originally posted by Automan
When I was in college I wrote a simple piece of software known as a 'serial reader'. When using this method, its as if you visually 'hear' the text.

There's something else going on. The maximum speed that most people can understand spoken English is about 200 wpm. Most people who like to read and have trained themselves to read fast can outdo that. You've gotten a whole order of magnitude beyond it. So whatever you're doing, it's not a visual simulation of hearing.

As for learning during sleep, that's another counterintuitive claim. After all, what's one of the basic mechanisms of the sleep state? The brain shuts down our sense of hearing. If it didn't, we'd be constantly awakened by only moderately loud noises. In reality it takes quite a loud noise, like an alarm clock, to awaken most people. Most of us can sleep through a phone ringing or a dog barking or a car screeching to a halt in front of our house, sounds that would normally grab our full attention during a waking state. So a tape of human speech at low volume? There's no way we can possibly be hearing that while we're asleep. Our brains deliberately block it out.

 

[Automan]

Originally posted by Fraggle Rocker
You've gotten a whole order of magnitude beyond it. So whatever you're doing, it's not a visual simulation of hearing.
.

Bugger. My sincere apols Fraggle Rocker & Rayview, I was shattered & fumbled my paste, leaving out the second paragraph (below). BTW I agree with FR, sleep learning is a bit hippie. If you want to remember more (and not make supid mistakes!), concentrate on quality sleep. My girlfriend in college was doing her D.Psych, specialising in human intelligence. She often commented my IQ went up a bit if she let me sleep!!

Fill in the blank...

I found this useful for the literature bits in my studies. I love books, but did not appreciate many of the classics much (unless they were proto sci/fan - Lillith, by George McDonald is a good one..). I can speed read normally, but I found my reader helped me remember much more come exam time. Due to persistence of vision (threshold varies between people) and the limitations of the monitor's phosphors, 'super speed reading' requires a bit of code. This real-time, pre-processes the text and takes out many/most of the words! The brain has a remarkable ability to fill in the missing bits later. If you are not very relaxed first, smoke will come out your ears.. See http://www.freedomcandle.com/quick_eye_exam.htm for BASIC idea of how this works (yeah, I got all of them the first time too, but its amazing how many people do not). 'Lawnmower man' warp speed is NOT recommended if you are studying technical data. Rubbish-in-rubbish-out. For light reading however, I could easily comprehend a book at 900 - 1400 wpm and get the gist at 1800+.