Page 120 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

104 • Chapter 4

available for rapid retrieval is critical. Now that you have
strategies to get the information into your brain, you need to
develop a few strategies for getting the information back out
in a timely manner.
At one time or another, you probably tried to reach a des-
tination and encountered a roadblock. The availability of an-
other route was critical to getting there. So it is with learning.
Your brain stores information in distinct neural pathways.
The more connections you make at the moments of learning,
the more pathways are available to recover the fact when you
need it. There are several techniques for doing so.
In geography class, you learned the names of the conti-
nents. You may have learned them in a pattern. You may have
linked them by size. You may have linked them by hemi-
spheres or by bodies of water. You may have memorized their
positions on a globe. When asked to recite the list, you recalled
them in the manner you stored them and listed their names.
Suppose that you are asked to list them in order of the
number of letters in their names. Surely there is no connection
in your brain for that order! You will need to use one of your
other connections to recall all seven names and then process
the list in a separate mental activity to arrive at the answer.
One of the best ways to create and fine-tune connections
is to teach something to someone else. There is an old say-
ing: You never really understand something until you teach it.
You might want to consider using your skills and knowl-
edge to help others learn. You get the benefits of reactivating
the connections you made when you learned the material
and the benefits of the new learner’s view of the material. A
prime example of passing along information strategies is
Antonio Salazar.

Search Strategies
When a prompt for information and the connection to that
information are present simultaneously, we call the phe-
nomenon instant recall. The memory is triggered by the stim-
ulation of the connection. Suppose that you need to recall