Maximize Your Mind's Performance by Distracting Yourself


	Maximize Your Mind's Performance by Distracting Yourself

nohobot

4-29-2008 9:47 PM

317 views

tags:

wired.com, intelligence, research, school, learning, knowledge

nohobot says:

Well, I'm majoring in Biological Sciences despite being good at English and History; am I just engaging in a long-term validation of this study?

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4-30-2008 8:28 AM

Antara

I love studying while taking breaks and surfing the net....many people I know think I am just a net junkie (which I am, lol) but the truth is I find I learn better when I can "distract" myself for periods by reading stuff here on clipmarks, or whatever...

Works for me

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/2d86b9cb-b577-409f-8cc7-bfdc1ea3b198/D48F2EF3-85FB-4674-9B0B-D95FB39F4FD3/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/gs_01distract" href="http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/gs_01distract" style="font-size: 11px;">www.wired.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/gs_01distract"><P><STRONG>Desperate to memorize</STRONG> a crucial fact? Look over there! (Kidding.) The trick is to distract yourself by studying stuff that's slightly different from whatever you're trying to learn. Your brain will then work harder to permanently store the original information. It's a tricky concept, but here's an example: In 2007, researchers asked UCLA students to try to memorize a set of 48 word pairs (country: Russia, fruit: lemon, flower: lily, etc.). After studying the list, some students then had to sit through a slide show and view closely related material (flower: rose). Guess what? The distracted students performed better on subsequent recall tests. "Distraction forces you to engage in processing," says Benjamin Storm, a UCLA researcher who oversaw the study. Hey, up in the sky — is that a blimp?</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/16-05/gs_01distract"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.wired.com/img/E49CB6BB-9A5C-4D18-9E19-5708858A830B" alt="" /></div></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D48F2EF3-85FB-4674-9B0B-D95FB39F4FD3/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>