The Gold List method and age
rambles2003
Today I came across a New Scientist article on the development and
degeneration of the brain as life progresses. It can be found at:
http://www.newscientist.com/special/five-ages-of-the-brain
I'm wondering what difference a person's age makes to the use of the
Gold List learning method.
In my own case, I've just turned 62, so perhaps I can expect my short-
term memory to be in decline. Does this mean that I could reduce the
14 day minimum period between distillations, because my short-term
memory is emptied sooner, and would there be any benefit in doing so?
Peter Maughan
Viktor D. Huliganov
I don't know the answer to that, but I would advise you not to take
seriously anything that tells you in some popular science mag that
your brain function is decreasing. In many people's cases there is no
decline until much later. I resent reading things that insinuate that
people past a certain age should expect bad things to happen to them -
sure I understand you need to take precautions to avoid the sorts of
physical injuries that would have healed quicker in youth, but your
brain is up to you, the healthiness of your lifestyle and the use you
make of it.
I assume you take omega 3 and vitamin D3. If not, there is something
you can do to combat the effect of our modern environment on your
brain.
IF you should notice that short term memory is getting weaker, then
the flipside to this is that long-term memory may be able to gain and
advantage and the progression of distillation in gold lists could go
faster. This would bear out the hypothesis, which in fact goes a
little beyond Ebbinghaus and is a hypothesis only, but one which I
personally find makes sense, that in those functions of your body,
such as breathing, which happen both unconsciously and also
consciously for a while when you want them to, you cannot do both at
once. We switch to short-term memory by making the effort,
consciously, to memorise, and so language learners who do this have a
worse time learning to long-term memory than those who are either
learning by fun with no drills and no forced memorisation, or
following a staged presentation algorithm with their lexical stock,
such as the gold list system or some computerised vocab systems that
exist out there.
However, I wouldn't write off your short term memory yet, if I were
you.
VDH
rambles2003
That's a very encouraging answer. I had heard about Omega-3 and
Vitamin D but not in relation to brain health. Researching via Google
has brought up lots of information about foods for the brain. It
applies to all ages, not just old people. I also found out that we
should all drink plenty of water to keep the brain fully hydrated.
And Vitamin D3 is made in the skin by the action of sunlight, so that
will encourage me to get the recommended 20 minutes a day exposure; I
enjoy going to the beach in any case.
I like your emphasis on learning by fun. Not for me the "grumpy old
man".
Best wishes,
Peter
On Jan 30, 9:36 pm, "Viktor D. Huliganov" <jerzy.jakubow...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> VDH- Hide quoted text -
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