John Medina: Brain Rules. Remember to repeat. Long-term memory

John Medina

Brain rules

12 Principles of Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School

Published by permission of BASIC BOOKS, an imprint of PEPSEUS BOOKS, INC. (USA) with the participation of the Alexander Korzhenevsky Agency (Russia)

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet and corporate networks, for private and public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by law firm"Vegas-Lex"

This book is well complemented by:

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Carol Dweck

Lee LeFever

Daniel Goleman

Dedicated to Joshua and Noah.

My dear boys, thank you for the constant reminder that age does not matter unless you are cheese

Introduction

Try multiplying the number 8,388,628 by 2 in your head. Can you calculate the result in a few seconds? And one young man is able to multiply such numbers by two 24 times within a few seconds. And give the correct result every time. Another can name exact time at any time, even if you wake him up at night. And one girl accurately determines the size of any object at a distance of six meters. Another six-year-old child paints such realistic and vivid paintings that they were even exhibited in a gallery on Madison Avenue. But none of them can be taught to tie their shoelaces. Their IQ is no higher than 50.

The brain is something amazing.

Your brain may not be as extraordinary as these kids', but it is still amazing. The human brain easily copes with the most sophisticated information transmission system on Earth, reading small black symbols on a canvas of bleached wood and understanding their meaning. To create this miracle, he sends an electrical impulse along hundreds of kilometers of wires to brain cells so tiny that thousands of them could fit into a single line. And all this happens so quickly that you don’t even have time to blink. By the way, you just did this. And the most incredible thing is that most people have no idea how the brain works.

This ignorance leads to strange consequences. We're trying to talk mobile phone and still drive a car, although the human brain is not designed to multitask when it comes to attention. We have created a stressful work environment in offices, but in such conditions, brain productivity decreases. System school education built in such a way that O Most of the learning process takes place at home. Perhaps this would be funny if it were not so harmful to humanity. Unfortunately, brain scientists rarely communicate with teachers, professional workers, the top of the education system, accountants and company executives. You have no information unless you read Neuroscience magazine over a cup of coffee.

This book is designed to get you up to speed.

12 rules of the brain

My goal is to tell you twelve facts about how the brain works. I call them brain rules and provide scientific evidence to back them up, as well as ideas for how each rule can be applied to your brain. everyday life, especially at work and school. The brain is very complex, so I'm only providing a small portion of each aspect - not comprehensive, but hopefully accessible. On the pages of the book you will become familiar with the following ideas:

Let's start with the fact that it is not necessary to sit at a school desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary point of view, our brain developed through labor and traveling over 12 miles a day. The brain still strives for activity, although modern people, which we also belong to, lead sedentary lifestyle life. Physical activity stimulates brain function (). Exercise help people glued to the couch improve long-term memory, logical thinking, attention and ability to solve assigned tasks. I'm sure that after spending eight hours at work or school, everyone will benefit from it.

As you may have noticed in the example of a simple PowerPoint presentations, people don't pay attention to boring (). You only have a few seconds to get their attention and 10 minutes to keep it. After 9 minutes 59 seconds, you need to again attract their attention with something, and the timer will start counting down again - it should be something related to emotions. Plus, your brain needs a break. That's why in the book I use large number stories to get your point across.

Do you feel tired already at three o'clock in the afternoon? Apparently your brain wants to take a nap. And it would increase your productivity. One NASA study found that a 26-minute nap increased pilot performance by 34 percent. Sufficient night rest affects mental performance the next day. Good sleep – good thinking ().

We will meet a person who, after reading two pages, is able to remember new information forever. Most of us forget more than we remember, so we need repetition to remember (). Once you learn the brain's rules for memory development, you'll understand why I'm against homework.

We will realize that children as young as two years old only appear to be rebels; in fact, they are driven by a thirst for exploration. Children do not have wide and deep knowledge about the world around them, but they know well how to acquire them. By nature, we are researchers (), and this quality will always be inherent in us, despite the artificial environment we have created.

Do not consider the ideas at the end of each chapter to be recommendations. They call for testing them in real conditions. I proceeded from what I do in life. My research involves studying mental disorders at the molecular level, but I am particularly interested in the relationship between the genome and behavior. B O I have spent most of my professional life as a consultant; I was invited to participate in research projects, when the help of a molecular biologist with a similar specialization was required. I have had the opportunity to observe endless attempts to study addiction mental activity from the set of chromosomes.

Dedicated to Joshua and Noah.

My dear boys, thank you for the constant reminder that age does not matter unless you are cheese

Introduction

Try multiplying the number 8,388,628 by 2 in your head. Can you calculate the result in a few seconds? And one young man is able to multiply such numbers by two 24 times within a few seconds. And give the correct result every time. Another can tell the exact time at any moment, even if you wake him up at night. And one girl accurately determines the size of any object at a distance of six meters. Another six-year-old child paints such realistic and vivid paintings that they were even exhibited in a gallery on Madison Avenue. But none of them can be taught to tie their shoelaces. Their IQ is no higher than 50.

The brain is something amazing.

This ignorance leads to strange consequences. We try to talk on a cell phone and drive a car at the same time, although the human brain is not designed to multitask when it comes to attention. We have created a stressful work environment in offices, but in such conditions, brain productivity decreases. The school system is structured in such a way that most of the learning process takes place at home. Perhaps this would be funny if it were not so harmful to humanity. Unfortunately, brain scientists rarely interact with teachers, professionals, educational leaders, accountants, and corporate executives. You have no information unless you read Neuroscience magazine over a cup of coffee.

This book is designed to get you up to speed.

12 rules of the brain

My goal is to tell you twelve facts about how the brain works. I call them brain rules and provide scientific evidence to back them up, as well as ideas for how each rule can be applied in everyday life, especially at work and school. The brain is very complex, so I'm only providing a small portion of each aspect - not comprehensive, but hopefully accessible. On the pages of the book you will become familiar with the following ideas:

Let's start with the fact that it is not necessary to sit at a school desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary point of view, our brain developed through labor and traveling over 12 miles a day. The brain still strives for activity, although modern people, like us, lead a sedentary lifestyle. Physical activity stimulates brain function (brain rule #1). Exercise helps people glued to the couch improve long-term memory, logical thinking, attention and problem-solving ability. I'm sure that after spending eight hours at work or school, everyone will benefit from it.

As you may have noticed from a simple PowerPoint presentation, people don't pay attention to boring things (brain rule #4). You only have a few seconds to get their attention and 10 minutes to keep it. After 9 minutes 59 seconds, you need to again attract their attention with something, and the timer will start counting down again - it should be something related to emotions. Plus, your brain needs a break. That's why I use a lot of stories in the book to get my point across.

Do you feel tired already at three o'clock in the afternoon? Apparently your brain wants to take a nap. And it would increase your productivity. One NASA study found that a 26-minute nap increased pilot performance by 34 percent. Getting enough rest at night affects mental performance the next day. Good sleep means good thinking (brain rule No. 7).

We will meet a person who, after reading two pages, is able to remember new information forever. Most of us forget more than we remember, so we need repetition to remember (brain rule #5). Once you learn the brain's rules for memory development, you'll understand why I'm against homework.

We will realize that children as young as two years old only appear to be rebels; in fact, they are driven by a thirst for exploration. Children do not have broad and deep knowledge about the world around them, but they know well how to acquire it. We are explorers by nature (brain rule #12), and this quality will always be inherent in us, despite the artificial environment we have created.

Do not consider the ideas at the end of each chapter to be recommendations. They call for testing them in real conditions. I proceeded from what I do in life. My research involves studying mental disorders at the molecular level, but I am particularly interested in the relationship between the genome and behavior. B O I have spent most of my professional life as a consultant; I have been invited to participate in research projects that require the assistance of a molecular biologist with a similar specialty. I had the opportunity to observe endless attempts to study the dependence of mental activity on the set of chromosomes.

On one of these trips, I came across articles and books that called for accelerating “progress” in brain research in order to apply the results to education and the workplace. And I was excited, believing that the authors had read literature that my radar had not picked up. I have studied several areas of brain science, but I do not know how to provide best technique training or work. Honestly, science still doesn't know why human brain able to command the body to take a glass of water in the most convenient way.

However, there was no reason to panic. One should be skeptical of any claims that brain science can directly answer the question of how to become best teacher, parent, leader or student. This book calls for widespread research in this area simply because we do not have sufficient knowledge to make recommendations. This is an attempt to vaccinate against such myths as, for example, the Mozart effect, which, by the way, refutes the idea that listening to certain audio recordings while the child is still in the womb will ensure his admission to Harvard or left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere thinking.

Back to the Jungle

Everything we know about the brain comes from the work of biologists who study brain tissue, experimental psychologists who study behavior, cognitive neuroscientists who study how the former relates to the latter, and evolutionary biologists. Although we don't know much about how the brain works, human evolution suggests that the brain is designed to solve problems and survive in an unstable environment, all the time. I call this phenomenon “the limits of the brain.”

All aspects described in the book: physical activity, survival, "wiring" (or neural connections), attention, memory, sleep, stress, feelings, vision, gender, and exploration, all relate to these extremes. Movement turns into training. Variability environment leads to special flexibility of the brain, allowing you to solve problems through cognition. By learning from our mistakes, we can survive in the world, which means we can pay attention to certain things from the example of others and create memories in a special way. Although we have been fed information in classrooms and offices for decades, the human brain is designed to survive in the jungles and steppes. And we won't change that.

I good man, but a strict scientist. To write this book, I needed to tap into what Boeing (where I also worked as a consultant) calls the “Medina Grouch Factor.” In other words, every study that supported my judgment first had to be published in a peer-reviewed journal and then successfully applied in practice. Most of the works have been checked dozens of times.

What does this study say overall? Here's the thing: If you set out to create a learning environment that was absolutely discouraging to good brain function, it would be like a classroom. If you wanted to create a work environment that would definitely hinder good brain function, you would create something like an office. But if you want to change this state of affairs, give up both and start over.

If this story had not been filmed and by all means mass media If they weren't buzzing about him, such a story would be hard to believe.

With his hands cuffed, shackled and tied with a marine rope, one man was thrown into the California Gulf in Long Beach. The other end of the rope was attached to seventy boats rocking on the waves of the bay, each with one passenger on board. Battling strong winds and currents, the man swam more than two kilometers to the Kings Bay Bridge, with seventy boats and passengers in tow. This is how Jack Lalanne celebrated his birthday. He turned 70 years old.

Jack Lalanne born 1914; in America he is called the patron saint of fitness. He was the star of one of the longest running television programs. Lalanne is also the author of many inventions: the first leg extension machine, the first traction cable machine and weight clamps - everything that now makes up the standard arsenal of any gym. It was he who came up with the exercise, named “Jumping Jack” in his honor. Now Lalanne is over ninety, and the listed facts are far from the most remarkable in the history of this bodybuilder.

In interviews with him, what is most impressive is not the strength of his muscles, but the strength of his mind. Lalanne has a surprisingly lively mind. His sense of humor is lightning fast and he is a master of improvisation. “I tell people I can’t die. After all, this will ruin my image!” – he once said to American television journalist Larry King. He often complained to the camera: “Why am I so strong? Do you know how many calories are in butter, cheese and ice cream? Do you offer your dog a cup of coffee and a donut for breakfast?” Jack lamented that he had not eaten dessert since 1929. Super-energetic, self-confident, with the activity typical of a twenty-year-old athlete.

It’s hard to resist asking: is there a relationship between physical and mental activity? The answer is obvious: definitely yes.

The one who is in shape survives

Although there is much debate about human evolution, one fact is accepted by paleoanthropologists around the world. It can be formulated in two words: we moved. And a lot.

When blessed tropical forests began to fade, which led to problems with obtaining food, people were forced to travel through mostly arid areas in search of thickets where they could hide. As the climate became drier, the cool "botanical vending machines" disappeared. Instead of moving in three dimensions in an arboreal lifestyle that required physical dexterity, humans began walking back and forth across arid savannas in two dimensions, which required endurance.

According to the famous anthropologist Richard Wrangham, “a man walked 10 to 20 kilometers a day, and a woman half as much.” Most scientists agree with the assumption that on average per day ancient man covered a distance of more than 19 kilometers. It follows from this that his brain developed not when he was idle, but when he worked.

The first marathon runner in the human race was the evil predator Homo erectus. About two million years ago, after the Homo erectus family expanded, he began to move beyond his settlement. Our direct ancestors, homo sapiens, did the same thing: starting their journey from Africa 100 thousand years ago and reaching Argentina 12 thousand years ago. Some scientists suggest that we have expanded our habitat at an incredible rate - by 40 kilometers per year. This is an impressive fact considering the habitat of our ancestors, who crossed rivers and deserts, jungles and mountains without the help of maps and often without any tools. Having no knowledge of metallurgy, they built boats, although not equipped with a steering wheel, but suitable for traveling around the world. Pacific Ocean, despite the fact that they had the most modest navigational abilities. They constantly found new sources of food, met new predators; consequently, they were constantly in physical danger. Every day, ancient people suffered from various misfortunes and strange diseases, gave birth and raised children - and all this without benefits from modern medicine.

Being relatively weak representatives of the animal kingdom (for example, hair on the human body does not protect against the coolness of the night), we had to grow up and acquire excellent physical shape - or not grow at all. These facts also indicate that the development mental abilities, that is, the brain, became the main thing in a world where forward movement was always present.

If cognitive skills were developed through physical activity, is it possible that it still influences cognition? Do human cognitive abilities differ in good physical fitness from the ability to perceive a person in bad shape? And what happens if you put yourself in good shape? The answers to these questions can be found through scientific testing. Perhaps they are directly related to why Jack Lalanne was able to joke about desserts in his nineties.

Will you grow old like Jim or like Frank?

We are convinced of positive impact physical stress on the brain using the example of the aging generation. This idea was prompted by a certain Jim and the well-known Frank. I met them while watching TV. IN documentary film about American nursing homes showed people in wheelchairs, most of them were well over eighty; although they were of sound mind, they were busy sitting in dimly lit rooms waiting for death. One of them was named Jim. He had an empty, sad, lonely look. He could burst into tears over any little thing and recent years life sat and looked into nowhere. I changed the channel and landed on a program with a very young looking Mike Wallace. The journalist interviewed eighty-year-old architect Frank Wright. I was prepared to hear something quite exciting.

“Walking through St. Patrick's Cathedral... here in New York, I feel a kind of awe,” Wallace said, lighting a cigarette.

The older man looked at Wallace.

– Are you sure that this is not an inferiority complex?

“Because the building is so huge and I’m so small, is that what you mean?”

- I think not.

- I hope not.

– Don’t you feel anything when you enter St. Patrick’s Cathedral?

“It’s sad,” Wright responded immediately, “because it doesn’t reflect the spirit of independence and individual sovereignty that, in my opinion, should be present in cultural monuments.”

I was taken aback by the subtlety of Wright's answer. In four sentences he managed to demonstrate clarity of thinking, unwavering views, and a tendency to think differently from everyone else. The continuation of the interview was as vivid, however, as everything in Wright’s life. He completed the Guggenheim Museum project in 1957 (his last job) at the age of 90 years.

Something else struck me as well. As I thought about Wright's answers, I thought about Jim from the nursing home. They were the same age as most of the other guests. And suddenly the thought came to me about two types of aging. Jim and Frank lived around the same time. But the mind of one was completely extinguished, while the other retained clarity of thought until last days. What causes such differences in the aging process between a nursing home resident and a famous architect? This question has occupied the scientific community for a long time. Scientists have long known that some people age in style, conserving energy, leading full life both at 80 and 90 years old. Others, beaten by life and broken, often do not live to see seventy. Attempts to explain these differences have led to important discoveries, which I have grouped into answers to six questions.

1. Is there a factor that determines the aging process?

Scientists have always found it difficult to answer this question. They identified many factors, from natural to those related to upbringing, that influence a person’s ability to meet old age with dignity. Therefore, the scientific community was ambivalent about the statement of a group of researchers about the strong influence of the social environment. Such a conclusion would certainly bring a smile to the face of Jack Lalanne: for him, one of the main factors determining what old age would be like was mobility or inactivity. If you're a couch potato, you'll likely end up looking like Jim in your old age, assuming you live to be eighty. If you are driving active life, you will probably look like Frank Wright and will certainly live to be 90 years old. The fact is that physical activity improves the condition cardiovascular system, which in turn reduces the risk of heart disease. Researchers are interested in the question: why do “successfully” aging people seem to be more active thinkers? In this regard, the following question arose.

2. Is this really true?

After running all kinds of tests (no matter how the result was obtained), the answer was positive: exercise throughout a lifetime leads to amazing improvements in cognitive processes, in contrast to a sedentary lifestyle. Adherents of physical education outperformed lazy people and couch potatoes in terms of long-term memory, logic, attention, problem-solving ability, and even the so-called fluid intelligence. Such tests determine the speed of thinking and the ability to think abstractly, reproduce previously acquired knowledge to solve new problem. Thus, physical activity improves a range of abilities that are highly valued both at school and at work.

John Medina

Brain rules. What you and your children should know about the brain

John Medina

Brain rules

12 Principles of Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School

Published by permission of BASIC BOOKS, an imprint of PEPSEUS BOOKS, INC. (USA) with the participation of the Alexander Korzhenevsky Agency (Russia)

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet or corporate networks, for private or public use without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by the Vegas-Lex law firm.

This book is well complemented by:

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Carol Dweck

Lee LeFever

Daniel Goleman

Dedicated to Joshua and Noah.

My dear boys, thank you for the constant reminder that age does not matter unless you are cheese

Introduction

Try multiplying the number 8,388,628 by 2 in your head. Can you calculate the result in a few seconds? And one young man is able to multiply such numbers by two 24 times within a few seconds. And give the correct result every time. Another can tell the exact time at any moment, even if you wake him up at night. And one girl accurately determines the size of any object at a distance of six meters. Another six-year-old child paints such realistic and vivid paintings that they were even exhibited in a gallery on Madison Avenue. But none of them can be taught to tie their shoelaces. Their IQ is no higher than 50.

The brain is something amazing.

This ignorance leads to strange consequences. We try to talk on a cell phone and drive a car at the same time, although the human brain is not designed to multitask when it comes to attention. We have created a stressful work environment in offices, but in such conditions, brain productivity decreases. The school education system is designed in such a way that O Most of the learning process takes place at home. Perhaps this would be funny if it were not so harmful to humanity. Unfortunately, brain scientists rarely interact with teachers, professionals, educational leaders, accountants, and corporate executives. You have no information unless you read Neuroscience magazine over a cup of coffee.

This book is designed to get you up to speed.

12 rules of the brain

Let's start with the fact that it is not necessary to sit at a school desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary point of view, our brain developed through labor and traveling over 12 miles a day. The brain still strives for activity, although modern people, like us, lead a sedentary lifestyle. Physical activity stimulates brain function (). Exercise helps people glued to the couch improve long-term memory, logical thinking, attention and problem-solving ability. I'm sure that after spending eight hours at work or school, everyone will benefit from it.

Try multiplying the number 8,388,628 by 2 in your head. Can you calculate the result in a few seconds? And one young man is able to multiply such numbers by two 24 times within a few seconds. And give the correct result every time. Another can tell the exact time at any moment, even if you wake him up at night. And one girl accurately determines the size of any object at a distance of six meters. Another six-year-old child paints such realistic and vivid paintings that they were even exhibited in a gallery on Madison Avenue. But none of them can be taught to tie their shoelaces. Their IQ is no higher than 50.

The brain is something amazing.

Your brain may not be as extraordinary as these kids', but it is still amazing. The human brain easily copes with the most sophisticated information transmission system on Earth, reading small black symbols on a canvas of bleached wood and understanding their meaning. To create this miracle, he sends an electrical impulse along wires hundreds of kilometers long to brain cells so tiny that thousands of them could fit in one line. And all this happens so quickly that you don’t even have time to blink. By the way, you just did this. And the most incredible thing is that most people have no idea how the brain works.

This ignorance leads to strange consequences. We try to talk on a cell phone and drive a car at the same time, although the human brain is not designed to multitask when it comes to attention. We have created a stressful work environment in offices, but in such conditions, brain productivity decreases. The school education system is designed in such a way that O Most of the learning process takes place at home. Perhaps this would be funny if it were not so harmful to humanity. Unfortunately, brain scientists rarely interact with teachers, professionals, educational leaders, accountants, and corporate executives. You have no information unless you read Neuroscience magazine over a cup of coffee.

This book is designed to get you up to speed.

12 rules of the brain

Let's start with the fact that it is not necessary to sit at a school desk for eight hours a day. From an evolutionary point of view, our brain developed through labor and traveling over 12 miles a day. The brain still strives for activity, although modern people, like us, lead a sedentary lifestyle. Physical activity stimulates brain function ( brain rule #1). Exercise helps people glued to the couch improve long-term memory, logical thinking, attention and problem-solving ability. I'm sure that after spending eight hours at work or school, everyone will benefit from it.
As you may have noticed from a simple PowerPoint presentation, people don't pay attention to boring things ( Brain Rule No. 4). You only have a few seconds to get their attention and 10 minutes to keep it. After 9 minutes 59 seconds, you need to attract their attention with something again, and the timer will start counting down again - it should be something related to emotions. Plus, your brain needs a break. That's why I use a lot of stories in the book to get my point across.
Do you feel tired already at three o'clock in the afternoon? Apparently your brain wants to take a nap. And it would increase your productivity. One NASA study found that a 26-minute nap increased pilot performance by 34 percent. Getting enough rest at night affects mental performance the next day. Good sleep - good thinking ( Brain Rule No. 7).
We will meet a person who, after reading two pages, is able to remember new information forever. Most of us forget more than we remember, so we need repetition to remember ( Brain Rule No. 5). Once you learn the brain's rules for memory development, you'll understand why I'm against homework.
We will realize that children as young as two years old only appear to be rebels; in fact, they are driven by a thirst for exploration. Children do not have broad and deep knowledge about the world around them, but they know well how to acquire it. By nature we are explorers ( Brain Rule No. 12), and this quality will always be inherent in us, despite the artificial environment we have created.

Do not consider the ideas at the end of each chapter to be recommendations. They call for testing them in real conditions. I proceeded from what I do in life. My research involves studying mental disorders at the molecular level, but I am particularly interested in the relationship between the genome and behavior. B O I have spent most of my professional life as a consultant; I have been invited to participate in research projects that require the assistance of a molecular biologist with a similar specialty. I had the opportunity to observe endless attempts to study the dependence of mental activity on the set of chromosomes.

On one of these trips, I came across articles and books that called for accelerating “progress” in brain research in order to apply the results to education and the workplace. And I was excited, believing that the authors had read literature that my radar had not picked up. I have studied several areas of brain science, but I do not know how to provide the best teaching or working methods. To be honest, science still doesn't know why the human brain is able to tell the body to grab a glass of water in the most convenient way possible.

However, there was no reason to panic. You should be skeptical of any claims that brain science can directly answer the question of how to become a better teacher, parent, leader, or student. This book calls for widespread research in this area simply because we do not have sufficient knowledge to make recommendations. This is an attempt to vaccinate against such myths as, for example, the Mozart effect, which, by the way, refutes the idea that listening to certain audio recordings while the child is still in the womb will ensure his admission to Harvard or left-hemisphere and right-hemisphere thinking.

Back to the Jungle

All aspects described in the book: exercise, survival, "wiring" (or neural connections), attention, memory, sleep, stress, feelings, vision, gender and exploration - relate to these extremes. Movement turns into training. Environmental variability makes the brain particularly flexible, allowing problem solving through cognition. By learning from our mistakes, we can survive in the world, which means we can pay attention to certain things from the example of others and create memories in a special way. Although we have been fed information in classrooms and offices for decades, the human brain is designed to survive in the jungles and steppes. And we won't change that.

I am a good person, but a strict scientist. To write this book, I needed to tap into what Boeing (where I also worked as a consultant) calls the “Medina Grouch Factor.” In other words, every study that supported my judgment first had to be published in a peer-reviewed journal and then successfully applied in practice. Most of the works have been checked dozens of times.

By what rules does the human brain function? How to use your brain and its power to the fullest? Biologist John Medina formulated man. Use this article for self-improvement.

John Medina's book and the rules of the brain

John Medina in his book decided in accessible form tell managers about the main developments in the field of research of the human mind. He formulated 12 Key Principles of Brain Function.

All modern research The rules of how the brain works can be reduced to two statements.

First, if you create a learning environment that interferes as much as possible with the effective functioning of the brain, you will get something like modern classrooms.
Second: if you design a business work environment that is unfriendly to the brain, you will end up with something similar to a modern office.
There is only one way out: get rid of such organization of premises and start studying and working, following the 12 rules efficient work brain

Take a brief look at the 12 rules of how the brain works from the picture before continuing carefully. interesting facts from the book by John Medina.

12 rules for working your brain to its full potential

There are many myths and legends around the brain, I have already written, now in more detail about the rules of brain training and training of any person, regardless of his gender.

BRAIN RULE 1: Movement prolongs the life of your brain.

Although there is much debate about human evolution, one fact is accepted by paleoanthropologists around the world.

It can be formulated in three words: people moved a lot. On average, ancient man covered more than 19 kilometers per day. And his brain developed not when he was idle, but when he worked. The brain still strives for activity, although modern people, like us, lead a sedentary lifestyle.

Helps people glued to the couch improve long-term memory, logical thinking, attention and problem-solving ability. Physical activity like candy for the cognitive system. A person can return to his athletic past. We just need movement. Scientists have found that it is enough to exercise twice a week. And daily twenty-minute walks will reduce the risk of an attack of angina pectoris - one of the main causes age-related disorders mental activity- by 57%.

Historical information: Pythagoras taught his followers while walking along the shores of the Aegean Sea.

Place the treadmill on slow speed, put the notebook next to you on the table - while running slowly, the right idea will come to your head much faster than lying on the sofa. I have long noticed that the most best ideas for articles come to mind during my evening walks. I use the same rule of movement when I suggest that my Clients take a walk during a psychotherapeutic session.

BRAIN RULE 2: The brain evolved along with humans

Man was able to go through a long evolutionary path, adapting to new conditions and thereby improving his brain.

Brain development goes through three main stages:

The first is the reptilian brain. This is the oldest part of our brain, responsible for unconditioned reflexes, breathing, heartbeat, sleep, awakening.
The second stage is the limbic brain. It is inherent in mammals and is responsible for everything related to survival: fighting, nutrition, reproduction, the ability to evade pursuers.
Stage three – thinking brain(neocortex), or cerebral cortex. It is unique to humans, makes up approximately 80% of the total mass of the brain matter and is responsible for processing information received from all senses. Only it allows us to think, make decisions, be creative, talk and, in general, be human.

Watch yours carefully mental state. My observations of Clients show that strong body on long-term exposure stress often reacts with outbursts of not controlled anger (limbic brain), but weakened by apathy and depression (reptilian brain).

BRAIN RULE 3: The structure of the brain is individual

Even identical twins who have identical experiences have different neural wiring. This is explained by minor differences in the mechanism for processing incoming information. For example, if you watch a movie with someone, you will have different memories of it. This is the essence of one of the rules of the brain.

What you do and learn throughout your life affects the shape and appearance of your brain—in other words, it changes its wiring. U different people different departments brain develops in varying degrees. Not even two people have the same information stored in the same places in their brains.

Use this rule of brain function to remove the limiting belief that it is not for you or that you will never master this skill. You can simply achieve anything and learn anything with your own in my own way, unlike others.

BRAIN RULE 4: We focus on interesting things.

Scientists have discovered many factors that influence attention.

Four of them have the greatest practical potential: emotions, meaning, multitasking, and time constraints.

Emotions. When the brain perceives an emotionally charged event, dopamine begins to be produced. Since this hormone is great for helping memory process information, the brain receives a strong signal: “Remember this!” This is why emotional effects are very useful for teachers, parents and leaders to use.
Meaning. Our brain is designed in such a way that we often remember only the essence of phenomena, missing out on the details. This should be used as much as possible. For example, in order to remember a large amount of information, you should not try to memorize all the details. It is important to concentrate on the meaning, try to find general patterns, and link all the details into a logical system.
Multitasking is a myth. By nature, the brain is capable of consistently focusing in certain moment time in only one lesson. Naturally, we are not talking about basic multitasking - we can walk and talk at the same time, the brain can control our heartbeat while reading. This refers to the brain's ability to concentrate.
Time frame. The brain needs breaks. We cannot perceive information continuously. Very often this rule is neglected by teachers, managers, and sellers. They try to give the interlocutor as much information as possible, forgetting that the brain can only concentrate attention for 10 minutes. Then he requires a pause and a “reboot”.

Use these 4 factors to learn and... Draw mnemonics and pictures, take plenty of breaks (by the way, it’s time to go and pour yourself some tea - you’ve been reading this article for more than 10 minutes), fill yourself with enthusiasm and work on one thing at a time.

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BRAIN RULE 8: Stress prevents the brain from learning.

The hippocampus, the fortress of human memory, is studded with receptors like a spice ham, making it highly susceptible to stress signals. If the stress is not too strong, the brain works well, and its owner is even able to remember information better.

The reason for this lies in evolutionary development. It was life-threatening events that should be retained in memory. In difficult living conditions, everything happened at lightning speed, and only the fastest individuals that could remember this experience and accurately reproduce it at the required speed survived. The results confirm this scientific research: The human brain instantly remembers experiences under stress and quickly reproduces them over time.
Medina's data shows that chronic stress can provoke heart attacks, weakened immunity, and decreased ability to learn and remember. This mental load is too costly for the economy. Analysts estimate that US companies lose about $200-300 billion annually due to employee stress.

Stress that never stops long time(constant pressure at work, tension in the family, conflicts at school) is an unnatural state for the body. The constant presence of adrenaline in the blood can lead to negative consequences. I have already written about them above. Don't run stressful situation- immediately, for example, to the author of this blog.

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You can read the rest of the brain rules from John Medina in a very brief and correct summary in the “Documents” section our VKontakte group “Women’s Self-Development System” - join us! How to develop memory? Today is a new review of a book about classical technique memory development. In the book “Development of Memory. A classic guide to […]Announcement of articles on the blog of a happiness psychologist in November 2013. I offer joint creativity in writing articles on the blog of a happiness psychologist. I post an announcement of the topics of the articles that I am going to write, you vote and […]

In today’s article, I propose to reflect on the topic of self-confidence and its connection with self-esteem. What is it based on and what does it influence in life? What are […]