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Chapter 1 - Acquire an overview of Memletics

Memletics draws together much of what we know about effective learning into an easy-to-apply system. This chapter provides you with an overview before you start learning about the individual parts of Memletics. This helps you learn Memletics faster. Having this overview also helps you understand links between the different parts of Memletics. You will soon begin to see the power of Memletics comes from both the individual parts and the whole system.

This chapter outlines the five parts of Memletics. These parts are the Memletic State, Memletic Process, Memletic Techniques, Memletic Styles and Memletic Approach:

• The Memletic State. How to make sure your brain cells, physical systems and mental systems are in the best state for learning.
• The Memletic Process. The steps you take to LEARN the knowledge needed for your goal.
• The Memletic Techniques. These techniques improve the speed and quality of your learning.
• The Memletic Styles. Use your stronger and secondary learning preferences to improve your overall learning.
• The Memletic Approach. Manage the overall learning journey by prior planning and then tracking along the way.

Don’t worry too much about the details of each part at this point. In this chapter I just provide an overview of each part of Memletics. This is because there are many interrelationships between the five parts of the system. Having a broad understanding first helps you recognize those linkages as they arise in the following chapters.

You don’t have to read the chapters in a sequential order. Read this overview chapter first, and then read the rest of the chapters in an order that suits you. If you prefer high-level detail first, progressively getting down into the details, read Approach, Styles, State, Process, and then Techniques. If you want the juicy details first, read Techniques, Process, State, Styles and Approach. Or, just read them as presented. It’s up to you.

Memletic State is the right state for learning

Memletic State helps you ensure your cell state, physical state and mental state are in good condition for learning. It’s harder to learn if your cells, body and mind do not perform well.

Cell state refers to the state of the cells, primarily neurons, which make up the brain. Physical state involves the different bodily systems that support life, such as breathing, blood circulation, sleep and general bodily health. Mental state involves mental processes that predominately occur in the mind, such as motivation, concentration, awareness and attitude.

Good learning state supports the building of the networks of neurons for the material you learn. At the same time, positive learning experiences build neural networks that improve how you learn.

What is “good condition?” Let’s look at some examples:

• Cell state. The brain is a cell-based system and relies on essential materials such as oxygen, water, food and nutrients. These materials are essential for the proper functioning of neurons and other key brain cells (see text box page below). Good cell state requires a good supply of all these during learning.
• Physical state: Your physical environment has a big impact on your body, so fresh air, right temperature, good light and correct furniture are important. Controlling your breathing and stress helps good state, as does getting enough rest and sleep. Longer term, good diet and exercise also have positive effects. Some dietary supplements can also increase brain performance.
• Mental state: Clearly defined goals and defined steps for achieving those goals are essential for motivation. Attention and concentration are critical for learning. Longer term, good mental health and “mental exercise” also improve your overall learning.

There are also some negative impacts on state, and I discuss these as well. For example, excess stress and tension are enemies of good state.

Memletic Process—the steps to LEARN

The Memletic Process provides steps to follow when learning new material. You use this process at varying levels of detail throughout your learning. For example, you first use this process at a high level to understand the overall organization of your material. You then repeat the process at lower levels of detail until you are learning individual chunks of knowledge, such as a particular skill or fact. This approach provides a repeatable process you can refine to improve your overall learning performance.

The diagram above shows the five activities of the Memletic Process. These are:

• Locate. Firstly you find and prepare content for your learning goal. This may involve using standard books and manuals, however it could also involve getting notes from lectures, one-on-one tutoring sessions, the Internet and other references.
• Explore. Here you work through and understand your content. There are some general principles to follow, such as learning to a level deeper than needed. There are also some approaches relevant to particular learning styles that you may want to try.
• Arrange. Next you select which material you want to memorize, and prepare it for memorization. You select Memletic Techniques based on the type of knowledge you want to learn. This book has over twenty different techniques you can apply to various forms of content. You then prepare your content for use with those techniques.
• Reinforce. You then use those techniques to reinforce knowledge, skills and behaviors. Further reinforcing techniques help you lock in that material for the long term.
• eNquire. Lastly, you review both how well you learned your content, as well how well you applied Memletics along the way.

Notice how the first letters of these steps spell out LEARN (eNquire starts with the ‘N’ sound).

Don’t feel like you have to stick rigidly to these activities. They sometimes overlap. For example, when you explore content you start to form ideas on the techniques to use to memorize it. You start to reinforce material when you explore and arrange it. You may need to rearrange some material during the reinforcing process, as it may not be suitable for the particular technique you chose. Your mind naturally connects topics, associates information and does its own reviews as you progress. Letting it do so helps the whole memorizing process.

Memletic Techniques lock in knowledge

You mainly use the Memletic Techniques during the reinforcing activity of the Memletic Process. The techniques are the primary methods of reinforcing the knowledge you need to remember for the long term.

You can use many techniques in your learning activities. I’ve grouped these into six main categories, based on the underlying principles of how the techniques work.

These categories are:

• Associate. Associate new knowledge with knowledge that’s already in your memory. These techniques are great for facts and procedures.
• Visualize. Use your “mind’s eye” to recreate sensory abilities, experiences, ideas and views in your mind. Visualization can be creative, for example for experiences that have not happened yet. You can use it to rehearse new procedures and skills, and as well use it to strengthen other techniques.
• Verbalize. Your internal self-talk influences your behavior. Using verbal techniques such as assertions (or assertions), scripting and a “mental firewall” you can alter your internal self-talk to align with your learning objectives.
• Simulate. Simulation reinforces a behavior or skill using external tools. Basic simulation can involve just cardboard cutouts or household items, while PC based simulation is becoming more and more advanced. Role-playing is also another form of simulation.
• Perform. There are specific techniques to improve skill performance. Some of these techniques involve understanding the theory behind learning and performing skills. Other Perform techniques help change existing behaviors, as well as improve performance of already learned skills.
• Repeat. While Memletics aims to reduce rote repetition, rote learning is still a common and sometimes useful technique. Flashcards are also useful, however some newer software can significantly improve the way you learn and retain new material.

I’ve listed the techniques in each of these categories in the following table:

As well as the techniques, I also discuss some common reasons why techniques may not work as well as you expect at the end of the techniques chapter.

An Overview of Neurons – Basic Brain Cells Neurons are the fundamental cells that support memory. The majority of memory is represented via large networks of neurons within the brain, sometimes called neural networks. The neurons connect to other neurons via synapses. Synapses are like a tiny telephone exchange between two or more neurons. There are four main components of the typical neuron: The dendrites. These receive signals from other neurons. The cell body. This manages the overall cell function and maintenance. The axon. This transmits the signal to another area. This other area may be as close as a hair-width away, or sometimes up to three feet (one meter) away. The pre-synaptic terminal. This is the bulge at the tip of the axon. It passes the neuron signal on to the dendrites of other neurons. The signals that flow through the neurons and axons are very small changes in the electrical charge of cell components. The changes are achieved via the flow of various molecules and chemical compounds into and out of the cells. In the synapse, the pre-synaptic terminal of the transmitting neuron and the dendrite of the receiving neuron do not touch. The signal passes from one neuron to another by the release of certain chemicals called neurotransmitters. The amount of neurotransmitter released depends on the strength of the signal received at the pre-synaptic terminal, as well as the number of times it’s been triggered recently. Therefore, the overall strength of the signal passed from one neuron to another depends on the strength of the first trigger, moderated by how often the same signal has passed through that synapse. Now, I’ve simplified the structure of the neural network to give you an idea of the basics. If you want an idea of how complex the brain is, consider these statistics. Researchers estimate there are up to roughly 1011 neurons in your brain alone (not considering the rest of the nervous system). That’s perhaps 100,000,000,000, or one hundred billion neurons. If each neuron just stored a 1 or 0 like a computer, you would have around 93 gigabits of storage. But that’s not all. Each neuron typically has between 1,000 and 10,000 synapses. The combinations of the synapses control whether a signal is passed on or not. Multiply out those numbers, and you have purely staggering storage and processing abilities all within the space the size of your head.

Memletic Styles personalize your learning

The Memletic Styles recognize that each of us prefers to learn in different ways. There are many variations on this theme and different ways to describe these preferences, however the Memletic Styles uses the seven shown in the diagram as its basis. These seven Learning Styles are:

• Visual. You use pictures, images, visualization, and spatial arrangements.
• Aural. You use voice, sounds and music.
• Verbal. You use words and writing.
• Physical. You use your body, hands, and sense of touch.
• Logical. You use logic, reasoning and systems.
• Social. You prefer to learn with groups or other people.
• Solitary. You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

All of these styles are effective learning styles. Your favored use of particular styles does not make you a more or less effective learner. Current school approaches tend to focus on only two of these. This bias may have influenced how you view your own learning abilities. I’ll talk more about this in the Memletic Styles chapter when we discuss learning styles in detail.

Memletic Approach—the path to your goals

The Memletic Approach is a series of tasks that you can use to approach and manage any learning journey. The time you spend in this activity varies according to the length and importance of your goals.

The four tasks of the Memletic Approach are:

• Target. Choose and clarify your goal. Targeting your goal involves understanding your reasons, exploring your goal and setting your objectives.
• Plan. Decide your approach. Do prior research, plan your course map, and work out time and cost estimates.
• Track. Track your progress. This involves regularly (but not too regularly) checking your progress and adjusting where necessary.
• Do it. Enjoy it for life. This one is self-explanatory!

How can you apply Memletics?

I mentioned in the preface that Memletics grew from my flight training experiences. Memletics is now a system you can apply to a wide range of learning activities. In this section I outline my thoughts on some of those activities. I do this for two reasons:

• If you are already do some of these activities, to encourage you to see ways you can apply Memletics to your current goals.
• If you are looking for a new goal, to give you ideas of what activities you may want to try.

Let’s look at how you can apply Memletics during major life phases, as well as some specific activities.

Using Memletics during major life phases

Here are a few points on using Memletics during major life phases—early years, formal education, employment and later years.

• Early years. Your children can benefit from your understanding and use of Memletics. Children find many of the techniques such as association and visualization easier than adults. This can give them a good head start in their schooling and life education.
• Formal education. School, college, and university are great places to apply Memletics. Often applying some structure to study can make a big difference. Understanding and using these techniques can help you learn faster. This could allow you to spend more time increasing the quality of your education through extra study, or allow you to spend more time outside school. Your choice!
• Employment. You may not realize just how many opportunities for better learning there are in the workplace. Examples include job hunting skills, learning new roles and skills, and continuing training. You may want to consider using Memletics to help you change your career or learn new skills after redundancy or a layoff. I list some more specific examples below.
• Later years. One of the major concerns of older individuals is the onset of age-related mental decline or dementia, and potential diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Good Memletic fitness helps keep your mind and body active, helping to ward off or reduce the impact of these brain problems. Also, as retirees typically live longer, they have more time available for recreational activities. Memletics can also help here. See further below for examples.

Specific activities

Let’s look at more specific examples of where you can apply Memletics. I’ve listed four types of activities: personal skill development, professional training, recreational activities, and sports. I’m sure there are others out there as well. If you think of more, feel free to post them on the website.

Personal skill development

Regardless of your occupation, you are likely to benefit from improved personal skills. You can apply many of the techniques to develop your skills in areas such as:

If you are looking for a topic to start learning Memletics, these are often good places to start. Even if your work role does not need these skills directly, you can still gain many benefits from developing these skills. Consider selling and consulting. When you are searching for a job, you are selling your time. Or, when taking on an assignment from your boss, consulting skills can help you better understand your assignment and deliver to requirements. This results in you being more valuable, and hopefully more rewarded (if not, use your selling skills to find another buyer of your time)!

Professional training

There are a wide range of professions that can benefit from Memletic training. These include the flight, medical and legal professions.

• Flight training. One reason I started flight training was to understand and develop my skills using various memory and learning techniques I’d read about. I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I believe flying is a great activity in which to develop your Memletic fitness.
• Medicine. There are many parallels between the medical and flight professions. The key one is that you are often solely responsible for the lives of others. Whether you are a doctor, nurse, physiotherapist or psychologist, your use of Memletics can help you learn and refine skills and as well help pass on useful knowledge to others. Indeed, some of the research for this book came directly from the medical fields. For example, the effectiveness of various relaxation techniques and the impact on anxiety has been researched for use in many medical contexts. One area is pain control.
• Law. While law may not involve the responsibility for a human life, it often involves the responsibility for the livelihood of clients. The win or loss of a case may depend on the good functioning of your memory, the ability to learn key skills such as communication and persuasion, and the ability to resolve challenges quickly (such as managing false assumptions). There are also parallels between flight training and law. For example, I know of an experienced flight training author and ex-accident investigator who helps legal organizations reduce their insurance costs by applying the same principles of pilot error management in a legal context.

Recreational activities

If you are looking for a new activity outside work, why not try some recreational activities. These are another way to learn more about Memletics, while developing your skills at something not directly related to your occupation. Some examples include:

These are just a sample. There are more out there. These activities are also conducive to higher motivation as they have direct benefits for you (and potentially your family) rather than your employer!

Sports and competition

Many of the techniques in this book have already been applied in a sporting context. Visualization, relaxation, concentration and modeling can lead to superior sporting performance. Books like “The Inner Game of Tennis” and “The Inner Game of Golf” helped launch visualization into mainstream sports as well as wider use. While you may not be aiming to compete on an international level, sports and other competitive activities are a great way to also develop your Memletic fitness. Here are just a few examples:

Others

Here are a few others applications that don’t fit into the categories above.

• Driving. You may already know how to drive. Why not try a more advanced driving course. Are you comfortable you could handle a loss of control in wet weather? You may also want to try some of the principles of Memletics while teaching your son, daughter or others to drive.
• Dating. Yes, dating. While I haven’t specifically tried it myself, I’m sure that many of the principles of Memletics could help you out in the dating game. Keep in mind that just being in Memletic State (healthy, fit, active mind etc.) may be more likely to help you along than learning specific “pickup lines” or other similar techniques.
• General living. Whether it’s learning to be a better domestic partner, or developing other life skills not mentioned here, Memletics can help you along.

Chapter summary

In this overview you’ve started to develop an understanding of Memletics. You’ve seen that Memletic State helps you develop the best condition for learning. You now know the Memletic Process is five steps to faster LEARNing. You’ve seen the broad categories of the Memletic Techniques. You realize the Memletic Styles adapt how you use Memletics according to your learning styles. You know about the Memletic Approach and that it helps you tackle any learning goal.

As Memletics is a practical system, rather than theory, I’ve also given you some examples of where you can apply Memletics. We looked at how you can apply Memletics in various life phases. We also looked at specific applications in careers, education, recreation, sport and more.

I’ve taken you through this overview of Memletics because there are many links between the individual parts of Memletics. Having this broad understanding helps you recognize those links as you start learning Memletics in depth. This is exactly what you are about to do in the next five chapters. We begin with Memletic State.

While Memletics may seem overwhelming at first, you don’t need to use every part to have the system start working for you. You can choose the techniques and adapt Memletics to what feels right for you. Later in the book I’ll give you some more suggestions on how to start learning Memletics. For now, just read, absorb and enjoy!

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