Which could train your brain better?

Back in 2001, Dr. Ryuya Kawashima, a neurophysiologist pondered on a very simple question; Which would require more brain power, playing video games or doing meaningless repetitive mathematics exercises? To answer this question, Dr. Kawashima set up two experimental groups. One group was to play video games and the other group was instructed to do mathematical exercises. A control group was also set-up to provide a base line for the two comparison groups. Then Dr. Kawashima conducted the experiment using precise imaging techniques that measured brain response.

Which group do you think had better the better response? Most would probably say that the video games stimulated the mind better than doing mathematical operations because  video games require fine-motor skills, eye-hand coordination, and quick reflexes so it must simulate the mind more. Lo and behold, the math problem group did better! According to brain imaging data, it proved that mathematical exercises stimulated the brain far better than the video games. This means that if we want to train our brains, it could be done simply by doing quick mathematical operations on our heads. Brain training is literally as simple as 1-2-3!

With these findings, Dr. Kawashima became more interested in brain training and its applications. With the information from his research, he postulated that  by doing mathematical operations and similar brain exercises, young children, old people, and even those who are undergoing rehabilitation could boost their brain power further. Figuratively speaking, brain training builds your brain muscles. This is quite interesting for doing something as simple as adding and subtracting.

How to train your brain

If you’re familiar with the Nintendo DS portable gaming console, you’ve probably heard of one of the offshoots of Dr. Kawashima’s research: Brain Age. It’s one of the most best-selling games ever on a console and in effect quadrupled the market for brain training games. What the game does is to provide you with exercises similar to Dr. Kawashima’s experiment. It also includes ways to chart your progress. It’s an instant you have a brain gym on the palm of your hand.

Of course, we don’t need to buy a DS just to train our brains. We could apply the same principles by doing the following during our daily tasks:

1. When doing simple arithmetic, don’t reach for the calculator – do it in your head instead.
2. When buying from a store, add up your purchases before you go to the counter. (Mentally, of course.)
3. Estimate the number of people in a room, then try to calculate the maximum capacity of the area.
4. Do exercises that calculate an outcome: when the next bus will arrive, the next turning of the stop light, etc.
5. Teach math or do math tutoring.

The list is obviously not exhaustive and there are plenty more brain exercises out there. Just be mindful that among all these, there’s only one principle to follow, if your brain is stimulated, i.e. not bored nor anxious, then you’re doing great brain training. Stay young and stay sharp. Train your brain at any age.

Now if we think about it, if we naturally learn anything that interests us, then it follows that if we make something interesting, then we could probably learn it and master it many times over, right?

Take, for examples, attending lectures. We could have great exam preparation habits, or have excellent  memorization techniques, but it will all be in vain if we can’t make good lecture notes. Now we all know that lectures can be a hit or miss affair depending on the one who is speaking in front. But what if we make taking lectures notes more interesting? Here are five ways to do it:

Think like a teacher and ponder on how to deliver a better lecture. Try to figure out what makes his lecture boring, and come up with ways to liven it up. Note down the things that you could have done. Ask yourself if it’s the content – is there something that’s amiss with what he’s talking about? What activities could you have done instead to make the class more interesting? Take note of all these things during the lecture, and you’d probably realize that you’ve learned more content than you did before.

Write a review of the lecture. We’ve probably read (and may have written) a lot of reviews about the movies we’ve watched, the movies we’ve read, and whole lot of stuff, but it would be interesting to review a lecture. Rate the lecture, then point out its strong and weak points. Write down where it could have improved. If you liked the lecture, write down everything that made it a lecture worth listening to. Thinking about the lecture in this way makes one more interested in anything that has been said. You could even post your review online, if that’s something that interests you.

Figure out the ending. Good movies keep us on our toes – is he really the killer? Will they ever make it in time? We get hooked by something that keeps under suspense because it just kills us to not know – which is the reason why we try to guess what will happen next. We could apply the same principle to lectures, actually, and try to fast-forward and figure out what the speaker will be talking about next. Write your theories down, and try to give explanations as to why they are probable “endings” to the lecture. Lecture notes that try to predict the next topics would probably interest the student more.

Think like the expert. If we could try to predict the outcome of the lecture in advance, we could also try to figure out the history and the reasons behind the topics that were being discussed. If the lecture is about the binary system of numbers, we could write down lecture notes that ask questions about its history (Why did we develop the binary system?), its inception (How could one develop a binary system of numbers?), and so on. This would essentially bolster the quality of one’s lecture notes, and become starting points for study outside of class.

Read ahead. Of course, reading ahead will always be a good tactic to make lecture notes more interesting. Odds are, lectures become boring because we actually don’t know anything that’s being spoken in front. Doing a little bit of advanced reading goes a long way to make lectures more interesting.

These are just some things that we could do to make our lectures notes (and listening to lectures) more interesting. Now, it’s your turn: How do you make your lecture notes more interesting? Write down your favorite note taking tips in the comments section.

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