Mental gymnastics for a winning brain: exercise number 6. A memory booster

Brain beats Pc 300 to 10. The brain has a capacity to store approx 300 billion Gigabytes, unlike a good one computer which contains approximately 10 thousand Gigabytes! It's the same difference between having 300 billion euros in your current account or having only 10 thousand. Yet, sometimes it seems to us that memory is not efficient enough. It's not that maybe we don't use the right strategies?

We are at sixth episode of the column a “winning brain”, the result of FIRSTonline's collaboration with the professor Giuseppe Alfredo Iannoccari, neuropsychologist, professor at the State University of Milan and president of Assomensana, the association for the development and enhancement of mental activities. Every Sunday an exercise is proposed on FIRSTonline mental gymnastics which stimulates a different mental ability. In the banner on the right of our home page all the exercises already published are grouped together, which have stimulated a different part of our brain each time.

" the memory it is fundamental for collecting information pertinent to our private and professional lives” says the professor Iannoccari. “Therefore it must always be efficient, activating the right strategies. In this case, with the exercise of mental gymnastics, the Concentration, Short-term memory , Long-term memory.

Memory-act 1: the sequel to 5 strategies is underway

But to make the action even more effective, starting from this week and for the following five weeks, Professor Iannoccari will present one by one the five 'natural' strategies which uses memory for remember better.

Here today is the use of the first of the five strategies: the Associations. “The associations are very effective when we want to remember specific information, hooking them up to something we already know” observes Iannoccari. “For example, I meet a person called Marisa and I associate her name with that of an acquaintance of mine called Marisa”. (For more information: Strategic-Mind: Instructions and practical exercises for a winning brain at all ages" by Nicoletta Carbone and Giuseppe Alfredo Iannoccari, published by Il Sole 24 Ore, 2022).

Basic rules

For each exercise you will be shown:

• which cognitive functions it stimulates
• what purpose does it serve in everyday life
• delivery to carry out the exercise
• how long should the execution time be?
• how to calculate the score
• the finish line for an optimal score
• how to make it more empowering
• which variations to adopt to continue doing so.

Delivery: memorize the 14 words indicated below and associate them coherently two by two.
For example: Pen/Table. PEN – MILE – SEA – ROAD – GIULIO – SNOW – CAR - GLASS – CHAIR – WATER – TABLE – MONTI – FOGLIO – MARTA

Execution time: 120 seconds

Score: 70 points if all words are matched. 30 more points if you remember the seven pairs correctly by heart.

Traguardo: Score at least 100 points in the given time.

Strengthening: repeat the exercise finding new associations between the words.

variants

Repeat the exercise in different ways:

• 1-associations the words in groups of 3 + one of 2 (total 14 words)
• 2 - write other lists of words, associate them two by two and memorize them.

Call

Write in the comments the pairs of words you remember by heart