Marty Lobdell - Study Less Study Smart  ## Metadata - Author: [[YouTube]] - Full Title: Marty Lobdell - Study Less Study Smart - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [study-techniques, learning-strategies, memory] author: Marty Lobdell source: YouTube reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0 date created: 2024-12-29 15:30 --- # 🏷️ Title: Study Less Study Smart ## 🧰 Action Inbox - [H1] Implement 25-30 minute study chunks with 5-minute breaks — proven to match natural attention spans #study-technique - [H2] Create dedicated study lamp area — isolate from bedroom/eating/social spaces for environmental cues #study-environment - [H3] Practice active recall instead of highlighting — test understanding by explaining concepts aloud #active-learning ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - [Study Less Study Smart - Marty Lobdell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0) ## 📝 Summary - Psychology professor Marty Lobdell presents evidence-based study techniques to improve learning efficiency - Core finding: Most students can only study effectively for 25-30 minutes before attention degrades - Key strategies include chunked study sessions, environmental conditioning, active recall, and proper sleep - Distinguishes between learning facts versus concepts, with different approaches for each - Bottom line: Small behavioral changes in study habits can dramatically improve academic performance ## 📖 Main Content Professor Lobdell argues that telling students to "study more" often backfires because it ignores how attention and memory actually work. Research at University of Michigan found that typical college freshmen can only maintain effective focus for 25-30 minutes before comprehension drops significantly. The lecture presents a case study of "Janette," a student who went from studying very little (earning a 1.0 GPA) to studying 6 hours nightly (earning a 0.0 GPA). The problem: she was sitting at her desk for 6 hours but only actually learning for about 30 minutes, followed by 5.5 hours of frustration that created negative associations with studying. Key principles include: - **Environmental conditioning**: Create dedicated study spaces with specific lighting cues - **Active vs. passive learning**: Replace highlighting and rereading with self-testing and explanation - **Concept vs. fact distinction**: Use different strategies for understanding ideas versus memorizing details - **Sleep importance**: REM sleep is crucial for memory consolidation - **Textbook strategy**: Use SQ3R method (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review) ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:01:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=90) — [H1] Attention span research findings - Key idea: University of Michigan study found students can effectively focus for 25-30 minutes - Evidence: "They asked students to do the following thing...typically, right about 25 to 30 minutes" #### ⏱️ [00:03:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=195) — [H2] Case study: Janette's failed 6-hour study plan - Key idea: Studying longer without breaks can actually decrease performance - Evidence: "She set the following goal, to study for 6 hours a night...she failed every class" #### ⏱️ [00:06:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=405) — [H1] The break and reinforcement system - Key idea: Take 5-minute breaks every 25-30 minutes to reset attention - Evidence: "It doesn't take a half hour break to recharge your batteries. For most people about 5 minutes" #### ⏱️ [00:09:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=570) — [H2] Environmental cues and study spaces - Key idea: Studying in bedrooms/dining areas triggers competing behavioral patterns - Evidence: "Primary function of a bedroom? What's the secondary function?" #### ⏱️ [00:15:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=920) — [H1] Study lamp conditioning technique - Key idea: Use dedicated lamp only for studying to create environmental trigger - Evidence: "The students who did that were 1 grade point higher the next term" #### ⏱️ [00:18:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=1125) — [H2] Active vs passive learning principles - Key idea: Passive rereading is less effective than active recall and explanation - Evidence: "The more active you are in your learning, you're more effective" #### ⏱️ [00:22:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=1330) — [H1] Concepts vs facts distinction - Key idea: Different learning strategies needed for understanding ideas versus memorizing details - Evidence: "In most college classes, what we as professors are most concerned about is that you grasp the concept" #### ⏱️ [00:25:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=1530) — [H3] Memory demonstration with letter sequences - Key idea: Meaningful patterns dramatically improve recall over random information - Evidence: "Most of you got all 13, and you thought coming to this lecture might be nothing" #### ⏱️ [00:32:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=1935) — [H2] Deep vs shallow processing research - Key idea: Thinking about meaning doubles retention compared to surface-level processing - Evidence: "The group that's counting vowels on average remembers 5...The group that's thinking about usefulness...remembers 10" #### ⏱️ [00:40:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=2420) — [H1] Recognition vs recollection problem - Key idea: Highlighting creates false sense of knowledge through recognition, not true recall - Evidence: "You recognize it. People are incredible at confusing recognition with recollection" #### ⏱️ [00:43:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=2625) — [H2] Sleep and memory consolidation - Key idea: REM sleep is essential for transferring information to permanent memory - Evidence: "That consolidation process is dependent on rapid eye movement sleep" #### ⏱️ [00:46:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=2790) — [H3] Note-taking and immediate review - Key idea: Expand notes immediately after class while memory is fresh - Evidence: "The first moment you get after a class...you should sit down with your notes, and expand" #### ⏱️ [00:52:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=3130) — [H1] SQ3R textbook method - Key idea: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review maximizes textbook learning - Evidence: "Survey, question, read, recite, review...you retain much more from a text" #### ⏱️ [00:58:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=3525) — [H2] Mnemonic techniques for facts - Key idea: Acronyms, sayings, and visual imagery make factual recall more efficient - Evidence: "Carbohydrates...4 syllables...4 calories per gram. Car...how many wheels on a car? 4" ## 📚 References - [University of Michigan attention span study](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=90) - [University of Hawaii study lamp experiment](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=920) - [Deep vs shallow processing research](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0&t=1935) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - Students typically lose focus after 25-30 minutes, so breaking study sessions into chunks with short breaks maintains efficiency better than marathon sessions - Creating environmental cues like dedicated study spaces and lighting helps condition the brain for focused learning - Active engagement through self-testing and explanation works better than passive rereading and highlighting for long-term retention ## 📰 Newsletter **Study Smarter, Not Harder: Evidence-Based Learning Techniques** Fellow learners! Whether you're diving into WordPress development, mastering new frameworks, or staying current with web technologies, how you study matters more than how long you study. Professor Marty Lobdell's research-backed insights can revolutionize your learning approach: **The 25-30 Minute Rule**: Your brain naturally loses focus after about half an hour. Instead of forcing 4-hour coding sessions that lead to frustration, try focused 30-minute blocks with 5-minute breaks. You'll actually retain more while feeling less burned out. **Environment Matters**: Create a dedicated learning space. If you're studying in the same place you watch Netflix or scroll social media, your brain gets conflicting signals. A simple study lamp that you only use for learning can dramatically improve focus. **Test Your Understanding**: Instead of re-reading documentation, close it and explain the concept aloud. If you can't explain it simply, you don't truly understand it yet. Perfect for tackling complex topics like React hooks, PHP frameworks, or WordPress block development! Resources: [Learn WordPress](https://learn.wordpress.org/), [Developer Docs](https://developer.wordpress.org/), [WP-CLI](https://wp-cli.org/) ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Developer advocacy: Create chunked learning modules (25-30 min) for developer talks and workshops - Education: Design curricula using SQ3R method for technical documentation - Developer experience: Apply active recall principles to API documentation structure - Developer marketing: Use meaningful pattern recognition in code examples and tutorials - Community management: Implement environmental conditioning in virtual office hours setup #### OSPO - Policy & Governance: Structure policy training in focused time blocks with reinforcement breaks - License Compliance: Create active recall checklists rather than passive policy documents - Security Management: Apply mnemonic techniques to security protocol memorization - Software Inventory: Design SBOM training using concept vs fact distinction - Developer Support: Use immediate note expansion technique in consultation follow-ups - Community Engagement: Apply study group principles to maintainer collaboration sessions - Strategic Alignment: Structure OKR reviews using spaced repetition principles #### Community - Maintainers: Create governance template explanations using active teaching methods - Contributors: Design onboarding that distinguishes between conceptual understanding and factual knowledge - Sponsors: Present impact reports using meaningful pattern organization - Ecosystem: Coordinate cross-project learning using environmental conditioning principles #### WordPress - Core: Apply chunked attention principles to code review sessions and sprint planning - Core Performance: Use active recall testing for optimization technique retention - Core AI: Structure guardrail training using concept-first then fact-based approaches - Community: Design meetup formats around optimal attention spans (25-30 min segments) - Training: Restructure lesson plans using SQ3R methodology for technical content - Documentation: Replace passive reading with active recall exercises in tutorials - Accessibility: Create environmental conditioning setups for WCAG audit training ## 🧪 Hypotheses - Developers who use chunked 25-30 minute coding sessions will show better code quality and fewer bugs than those using traditional multi-hour sessions - Technical documentation structured with SQ3R principles will result in higher comprehension scores than traditional linear documentation - Study groups focused on explaining concepts aloud will demonstrate better long-term retention of programming concepts than individual study - Environmental conditioning techniques (dedicated coding spaces, specific lighting) will improve focus metrics in remote development teams ### 📊 Methodology - Controlled study comparing chunked vs marathon coding sessions measuring bug rates, completion times, and developer satisfaction - A/B testing documentation formats with comprehension assessments at 1-week and 1-month intervals - Longitudinal study tracking retention rates of developers using different learning techniques over 6-month period ### ❓ Questions - How do these attention span findings translate to pair programming and code review sessions? - Can environmental conditioning techniques be effectively applied to distributed remote development teams? - What's the optimal break activity between focused coding sessions to maintain flow state? ### 🔮 Future Research - Investigation into whether modern digital distractions have further shortened effective attention spans since the original Michigan study - Research on applying these learning principles to technical skill acquisition in rapidly changing technology stacks - Study of how sleep patterns specifically affect retention of programming concepts and debugging skills ### 💡 Implications - Practice: Development teams should restructure meeting formats and coding sessions around natural attention spans - Policy: Educational institutions teaching programming should adopt evidence-based learning techniques in curriculum design - Security: Security training programs should apply active recall rather than passive policy review to improve compliance - Education: Technical bootcamps and online courses should integrate these learning principles into their pedagogical approach - Funding: Investment in proper learning environments and techniques may yield better ROI than simply increasing study time ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment Reading level estimate: Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 8-9 #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: Attention span graphs, study efficiency diagrams, memory demonstration charts - Improve: Add flowcharts for study techniques, visual timers for break systems, environment setup diagrams #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: Full lecture video with clear audio narration - Improve: Create 5-minute audio summaries of each technique, background music recommendations for breaks #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: Detailed explanations, analogies (Siren calls, file systems), clear definitions - Improve: Add more real-world metaphors, create rhyming mnemonics, provide discussion prompts #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: Hands-on memory demonstrations, physical study space setup instructions - Improve: Add movement-based break activities, tactile memory aids, practice exercises #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: Research citations, cause-effect relationships, systematic SQ3R method - Improve: Add decision trees for choosing techniques, quantified improvement metrics #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: Study group recommendations, teaching others as learning strategy - Improve: Structured peer review formats, group accountability systems #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: Individual practice techniques, self-testing methods, personal reflection prompts - Improve: Solo study planning worksheets, private progress tracking systems #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: Brain-environment interaction concepts, natural attention rhythms - Improve: Connect learning cycles to natural circadian patterns, outdoor study options ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: Clear heading structure, descriptive section labels - Improve: Add alt text to attention span graphs, ensure timestamp links are properly labeled #### Keyboard navigation - Present: Logical tab order through content sections - Improve: Add skip links between major sections, ensure video player controls are keyboard accessible #### Contrast and readability - Present: High contrast text, clear font sizing - Improve: Verify color coding in diagrams meets WCAG standards, test in high contrast mode #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: Responsive layout design supporting zoom up to - Document Tags: [[study]] [[active]] - Summary: Marty Lobdell - Study Less Study Smart - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlU-zDU6aQ0 I wish I had enough time to cover everything, but I don't, so I'm going to pick out the most important things and make sure I get to thoseright off the bat. So, is it going? Okay, I see the red light. I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to think for a moment and tell me how long wouldyou estimate the typical college freshman can read material in their book or in their notes and effectively be learning what they're reading? Okay. Five minutes, says Chris. Twenty-five minutes? An hour? Now, let me ask, does anyone think more than an hour? How long? By the way, I had aguy, the last time I did this, who said he could do it for about six hours. And I just scoffed. Well, then I found out he was a medical resident, just finishedmedical school; his wife was in my class, and indeed, my daughter's in her 4th year of med school. Oh yeah, four to five hours, but that's not typical, I can tell you. Okay.Anybody less than five minutes? Okay. So we've got five to maybe four or five hours. A study was done, I believe at the University of Michigan. They askedstudents to do the following: when you're ready to study, you've got all your materials, you're back in your little dorm room or your placeyou live, check your watch, start working. The moment you feel that sense of "I've read it, but it's not coming through," and it's like, "Eh, I'mwasting my time," we all get that feeling. Note what time it is, record that, bring it back. They had many, many hundreds of freshmen andsophomores do this, and then somebody took the time to compile it. Typically, it was right about twenty-five to thirty minutes. By the way, it's also true oflectures, and you've all proved it to yourselves. You come into a lecture, you're really alert, check the clock at about twenty-five after, it's like...yeah. And Isee it in every class I teach, but how long do we teach? Fifty minutes. And yet probably most of learning, if it's going to happen, is in the first twenty-five to thirty. Okay. I'm going to talk about a person because I also like to teach by anecdote. A woman named Janette. I was a junior at Western, she was afreshman. Because I was a junior, I could live off campus. In those days, colleges required your parents to be absent. She had to live in a dormbecause she didn’t have a relative in town. We were dating. She got a D average in her first quarter at Western—1.0 in 15 credits of D's. She decidedshe really needed to buckle down, plus the school said, "If you don’t make it up, you’re going to be kicked out." So in the second quarter of her freshmanyear, she set the following goal: to study for six hours a night, non-stop, from six to midnight, Sunday night through Thursday night. Friday and Saturday, shecould party; the rest of the week she was going to study. Now, one would assume, my gosh, going from little study to six hours a night, five nightsa week, she should’ve aced everything. Want to guess her grade point in the second quarter? 0.0; she failed every class. This is why tellingpeople to study more is not necessarily helpful. In some cases, it might actually worsen their performance. What I want to do is show yougraphically what I’m talking about. Let’s say this is efficient studying, and I know there are no numbers there, but higher means more efficient,lower means low or no efficiency. On this axis, we’re looking at time. Here’s what happens for the average student. For her, at six o’clock inthe evening, after her supper at the residency dining hall, she plopped herself down at her little study area and started studying. Here’s whathappened. By about six-thirty, she was in a major slump. But what was her goal? To study six hours, so she continued to sit at her little desk andstare at the pages until midnight. She was at her desk six hours. How long did she actually study? About twenty to thirty minutes. Now, there’s a simpleconcept in psychology all of you are aware of: things that are reinforced we tend to do more of. Things that are punished or ignored, we tend to do less of, and we operate by those principles to a large degree. If you are sitting there for six hours, are you feeling good? No. Once you getto this point, you’re looking at your book going, "I hate geography, I hate literature, I hate psychology," all the things we're trying to get you tofall in love with, you’re hating it. And so her actual good studying was followed by five and a half hours of pain and misery. I would bet you, II don't know for a fact that as the quarter progressed, she sat down and finally she was done before she even started. She sat down and juststared at a book, and she flunked every class. Now, had she taken this little seminar or figured things out on her own, she'd know what todo. First rule: the moment you start to slide, you're shoveling against the tide. What you need to do is what? Take a break. Here's what's coolabout it. You can study for a half hour. It doesn't take a half hour break to recharge your batteries. For most people, about 5 minutes. This iswhere you go away, do something fun for 5 minutes. Call a friend, talk to a child, talk to a parent or a roommate, enjoy some music, do somethingyou enjoy, and actually say this is my treat for having studied for 30 minutes effectively. Go back, and here's what happens. Your efficiencyis nearly 100%. Study a half hour, take a break, study a half hour. Had she done that over the course of 6 hours, she would have gotten about 5 anda half hours of serious studying and about a half hour of total break time. I really don't believe she would have flunked out. Now I get studentscomplaining I don't have enough time to study. Look for a break at work. Look for a break at home. Those little 15-20 minutes can be veryefficient if you apply them efficiently. Unfortunately, sometimes it's really tough to get those moments, but you need to build them in somehow. You've got to have at least some time to study. It's not gonna happen through osmosis. I'm gonna ask you a final question. Let's say you'vestudied till midnight. What do you want to do after your last study for 20-30 minutes? No, not yet. You want to give yourself a big treat, okay? Whenever your studying time is done, plan something special. Now for most women, especially with kids, it's a Calgon bath with candles andthe bathroom door locked and the statement, "If you bother me, I will take your head off." This is where guys go, "What?" Yeah, moms have noprivacy. Kids walk in while you're using the toilet, while you're in the tub; they'll bring their friends with them, won't they? Dads don't put up withthat. When dads are in the bathroom, it's lock the door, tough luck, go elsewhere. For you guys, I'll give you mine. This is politically incorrect. I liked beer, okay? My goal was to knock out all my studying, go to the Iron Bull Tavern in Bellingham, and knock down a couple of beers for my treat. Nowmy buddies would say, "Lobdell, how are you getting straight A's?" Well, I'd studied starting about 3 in the afternoon. By 9 o'clock at night, whenpitchers went on cheap, I'd done all my studying. I went and enjoyed my beer. These yahoos started drinking in the afternoon, then went to thetavern planning to go home and study. You know that's not gonna happen. You're not gonna study, and even if you do, what's called statedependent memory, you typically only remember if you're intoxicated, and I don't recommend getting drunk before a test. It's kind of a stupidthing. If you plan your day right, you can have those little study breaks, but the coolest part is this. Because you're now reinforcing it with thoselittle breaks and something fun, you extended. And you'll find you can go 30, 40, 50, an hour, an hour and a half. This is training. Those of youwho go on to advanced degrees, you're gonna have to study incredible lengths of time without taking a break cause you've gotta get it donelike my daughter in med school. Just amazing! I've told her I couldn't do it now, or actually, I wouldn't do it. You're training yourself, and if you do itright, it becomes progressively easier. Okay, next question. How many of you have a true study or library in your place of residence? Okay. 2, 2 ofyou, if I'm seeing correctly. I've always envied that— a quiet place to actually do reading or studying, okay? I'm gonna make a prediction. Many of you study in your bedroom. Okay, how many of you study in your bedroom? We'll raise high so everybody can see. Mmhmm, that'swhere I studied a lot, especially when I did go to community college. If you don't study in your bedroom, hmm...I bet some of you study at thedining room table, kitchen table, or bar. How many of you study at the dining, kitchen, or bar? You don't have a study or library; study in the family room, rec room, or living room — the place where your TV and stereo is, your couch, or easy chair.How many of you study there? Okay. Now, some of you might actually drive to a school or library. Any do that? Go to a... okay. A few of you do.I still remember living at home and going to Highline Community College. My folks bought me a little desk; I still have it. Little desk. I'dcome home because I worked then at Albertsons, typically got off at 9, home by about 10, and I'd start studying. I still remember reading Billy Budd.I lay there, sitting there studying, and my eyes are just... and then the bed started calling to me. "Marty, come lie upon me." Now, those ofyou who've studied Greek know the idea of Sirens calling sailors to the rocks. Oh, it's real. I'd hear the bed call me and I'd finally go, "Oh, I'll just lie downfor a moment." Next thing, my mom would be yelling, "Marty, you're late for your English class." I was like, "Oh God! I didn't read Billy Budd and I'mscrewed." Let me ask you: what's the primary function of a bedroom? What's the secondary function? Good. Most groups go... and I go to takePsych 20 or 225 and learn about it. It's functional, okay? The primary function of a dining table is eating. The primary function of a living area...is recreation and socializing, right? Now, a lot of students don't realize how much we're controlled by environmental cues. How many of you havebeen to the Tacoma Mall? Funny, isn't it? Why do you raise your hand? Have you ever been to Tacoma? You answered. Why didn't you go likethis? Why? Because if I'm asking the entire class, you've been trained to do what? And you don't even think about it. How many of you have beento Tacoma Mall? Hands go up. But if I walked up to you, Chris, have you ever been to Seattle? Totally stupid, right? When you're talking face to face,you respond verbally. When you ask a group, hands come up. Now, here's what's bad... Now that I've tricked you, you won't raise yourhands. I'm not gonna raise my hand. But can you see how powerful it is? Without thinking, because we're in a classroom, how many of you havebeen to Tacoma Mall? Hands shoot up. The same is true of going into your bedroom and trying to study. You're in the bedroom. Now, a piece ofresearch was done at the University of Hawaii. Researchers asked the students: what's the biggest problem with studying? They said, "We can't get into it." The university in question had primarily dorm rooms, with very few commuter students. Most of you have seen a dormroom. Oh, okay. Most of you have seen a dorm room. They're usually rectangular; if it's a two-plex, one side has a bed, the other side has a bed, everythingkinda mirror-imaged, study area, study area, right? You've got a closet or wardrobe, so it's real interesting. In one room, you sleep, you groom,talk with people, socialize, study, snack — you're all in one room. It's a multi-purpose room, and yet you're supposed to study. Ifyour door's open, what happens? Everybody's like, "Hey Lobdell, what's up?" You know, and then they've got to come in and talk to you; very quickly you can'tget to study. Well, the professors heard that the students couldn't get into studying, but they knew what the dorms looked like. The Hawaiiandorms, all of the rooms had a gooseneck lamp, so the professors thought they'd try a little experiment. They took that lamp, made a little sign andput it on: "Study Lamp." Use it only for studying; you don't dress by it, you don't have BS sessions by it, you don't snack by it, you don’t cleanthe room by it — nothing. You use the other lights for all other functions. Here's the way it works, and it's so easy. Every one of you can do this.Get a little lamp; you probably have one already. If you don't, my gosh. Yard sale, garage sale, you can pick them up for nothing. Get that lamp and itbecomes your study lamp. So if you have to study in your bedroom, turn your desk away from the bed. That's like how many of you been tothe mall, it makes you want to go to sleep. By the way, you can't study in the bed; it’s also bad for your back if you know about posture. Turn yourYou? How many of you can futz and futz, yeah? You're ready to go, turn on the lamp and start studying. The moment you lose your edge,15, 20, 30 minutes later, turn the lamp off, get up and leave the desk. What you're training yourself to do is study while seated there, and it becomesincreasingly automatic, as did the raising of the hand. You sit, turn the lamp on, and you're ready to go. It's like magic. The students who didthat were one grade point higher the next term compared to the controlled group that didn't do it—one grade point simply by creating a study area. Now, if you study in the kitchen or dining area, remove all food cues, because I know what happens there. You start thinking turkey in the fridge,swiss cheese in the fridge, oh yeah, sandwich time. How many of you have studied and created sandwiches? It takes about a half hour to makea really good one. So damn good, what do you do? Make another one! And pretty soon, not only are you not studying, but you're getting thespread going, okay? You're really frustrated then. The living area, I'm going to tell you, you can do this experiment. You try to study in the livingroom and you're focused, and other people are listening to music, watching a movie, or watching TV; they won’t leave you alone. "HeyMarty, Marty look, look, look! It's really good." "Excuse me, I'm studying." And then they get angry at you. "Well, boo on you too." You can't studyin the living area. It's not designed for that unless you're all by yourself, and you turn off the TV, and turn down the stereo so it’s truly background. Ifyou’re singing along to your favorite song, you’re not studying; you’re singing along to a song. Your brain has to be focused to be reallystudying, not time sharing back and forth between singing and studying. So living areas are very tough to create, but if that's what you have to do,bring your little study lamp in, turn everything else off, turn on your study lamp, and create a study area. Are you getting the idea? Now, I’m going to go through a lot of suggestions. Break it up into chunks, reinforce it; simple to do. Create a study area, simple to do. And you’ll be amazedif you take these ideas and do them. I’m going to make a challenge to all of you. It’s so easy to sit through a presentation, say "Yeah, yeah, thatsounds good" and then walk away and do nothing. Technically, as a psychologist, if it doesn’t change your behavior, you haven’t learned it.It’s just in your head. To be a true learning experience, you have to behave differently. So my hope is you all make a promise to try atleast one or two of what I talk about today, and when you find out it works, say "Gosh, I’ll try a third one, maybe a fourth." I went back to grad school inthe mid-80s, second time around; I actually aced every class. PLU gives pluses, and I got pluses in all but one class. I didn’t do that the first time, okay? I was a good student, but not that good. I used the principles I learned about in teaching psychology to become a student. I wish somebody had toldme these things when I was a student the first time; it would have been a lot easier. So we got two things going. Break your study up into littlepieces with reinforcement. Create a study area, if you don’t have one. I think you said you do have a study—there you go. Okay. Next thing. Themore active you are in your learning, the more effective you are. Yet increasingly, I have students who think studying is reading it over andover, and they’re going to have some magical thing where they suddenly understand it and remember it well. When you’re reading it over and over,or saying it over and over, the term for that is rote memorization, spelled r-o-t-e. It can work. It is the way most of us were taught in elementaryschool. The way I understand it, a lot of Asian schools depend heavily on rote. Some of you may be darn good at it, and if you can memorizeand actually understand by repetition and it’s effective for you, don’t change. But for most of us, it’s not the most efficient or effective way. The way to learn efficiently in college: first, you have to decide, what am I learning? Is it a concept or a fact? A fact is the discreet little piece ofinformation: Sigmund Freud is the father of psychoanalysis; that’s a fact. Okay, but understanding what psychoanalysis is, is a concept. Okay. Understanding the name of a bone is a fact. Understanding what it does in the body gets into a concept. So, in studying, sometimes thereare a lot of facts. In fact, I use anatomy as a good example. You have to memorize bones, muscles, organs, tissues, and a lot of it. But if you simplymemorize and don’t understand the function of it, the comprehension of the actual concepts is a lot of wasted learning. Just to know aname of a bone is like, "Yeah, so what?" Okay, what does it do? How does it function? If it’s a fact or a factoid, you have to approach it one way.I’ll talk about how you do that. But in most college classes, what we as professors are most concerned about is that you grasp the concept.Because concepts, once grasped, will stay with you a lifetime. Facts can easily get confused, but that’s why we have Google and why we havereference books. If you know the concept, you can quickly look up the fact if you need to know that for a particular case. The neat thing is, I getquestions about who has more advantage, younger students or older students? It depends on what you’re talking about. Most of us, as we getolder, realize concepts are what are really important to make our lives better, to be effective in our work and personal lives. Factsthough, we realize we can look them up. We can get those if we need them. Young people actually often learn facts very quickly, but they never thinkabout the concept. I’ll give you a simple example. I’m an old guy; when I was a bit younger, I would sing along with the radio with my adolescentdaughter in the car. "Oh Dad, if you don’t know the words, don’t sing the song." I’d say, "Okay Beth, you’re right." I’m not singing exactly what he orshe is singing, but it’s conceptually the same. What? I’d say what’s the song about? I don’t know. She couldn’t tell me what the song was aboutbut she could tell me every word in the song. That’s learning facts and not seeing the concept. I, as an adult, know the concept; I justmake up my own lyrics. Because I don’t worry about the factual. Now, some of you are going, "Yeah, but my teacher does. I’ve got to knowthe facts as well as the concepts." So we’ll first deal with concepts. Here’s the question: Can you put the concept in your own words? If youcan’t, you don’t really understand it. It’s not meaningful to you. Making it meaningful is a struggle. It’s probably the biggest struggle you have asa student. But it's a struggle you need to overcome or you’re wasting your study time. Now I’m going to give you an example. Only one of you probably in thisroom will understand what I just said: "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny." I knew she would get that. How many of you know exactly what I’m talking about? Rog, you do? Cool! Two of you. Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Most of you are going, "It’s all Greek to me." It’sactually probably more Latin, but I’m not certain of that. When I was a biology student, I learned about ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny, and if you tryto learn that and you don’t understand it, it’s going to go in one ear and out the other. You can’t hold onto it. But if I take a moment to break it down, ontogenymeans your own development as a being — you as a human, for example. Recapitulates means goes back through or recaptures, retraces. Phylogeny,which is the development all the way from a single cell to a complex mammal. Now to make sense of that, how did all of you start in utero? A singlefertilized cell, an ovum that’s fertilized, and then it starts dividing. But you get a little peek, and this is what they first looked at during embryonic development,where we look like a little thing that resembles a tadpole. Right? Yeah, "tadpoleish." So we start with a single egg that’s fertilized, and then we get thislittle thing that looks kind of like a tadpole, and they thought these were gill slits. They’re not; they’re just what becomes the pharyngeal area. But there’s no legs;it looks like a little tail. We had a tail! Got the idea? Well, then we get our arm buds, and they start growing; now we get arms and legs, andgradually we start looking more like human beings. But if you take an embryo of every mammal, you probably couldn’t tell one from the other. Human, pig,it doesn’t matter; they all look very much alike, don’t they? Now, you understand ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, but if the instructor doesn’t take the time toI tell you that, and you just read it and, eh, whatever, I'll memorize it. You would forget it about as quickly as you get through it. I'm not gonna prove this; you all getto do a little memory task. Gotta find where... here we go! I'm gonna read to you 13 letters from our alphabet. You all know the alphabet, right? Should bemeaningful. As soon as I finish, I want you to say them back to me in the same sequence that I give them to you. So, I'll say them, and then I'll golike that, you say 'em back. Y-T-R-H. Don't write 'em, A-U-S-P-D-P-A-Y-H... Boy, somebody sounded like they got quite a few, but did any of you getall 13? By the way, the fact that you took notes is a good thing. It's one of the best things to help you remember. I sit in front of classes where they justgo for 50 minutes. I'm givin' them wisdom, and they're not taking a damn note, and then they wonder why they don't remember. You can't remembereverything in a lecture. I'm gonna rearrange the letters a little bit, see if you do any better. H-A-P-P-Y-T-H-U-R-S-D-A-Y. The letters in sequence. Shh... Most of you got all 13, and you thought coming to this lecture might be nothing. I've just taken your short-term memory span, which is usually 5to about 9 letters, and expanded it to 13. Can you give 'em again? What are they? Damn, you're good. Or I'm good. Now, obviously, it was a little easier. Thosewere the same 13 letters, same ones. If you're studying anything conceptual, and you're trying to memorize it, it's like Y-T-R... it doesn't make any sense.It's in one eye out the other; if it's out loud, it's one ear out the other. But if you take the time to discover the meaning, suddenly it clicks. And I could probablyask you next week what those 13 letters were, and most of you would tell me. At the end of the quarter, I could ask you, and most of you could tell me. You mightbe confused—was it happy Wednesday or Thursday?—but you'd guess probably Thursday. Now, some of you are in my intro class this quarter. I do somethingthat I wish I had time to do. I divide the class in two, using a card, so half reads one, the other half reads another card. I have one group try to estimate thenumber of vowels in a series of words that I read to them. So they're thinking about the words; we'd say that's superficial thinking. How many vowels are inmosquito? How many vowels in bottle? How many vowels in elephant? And they get to write down what they think is the number of vowels. The secondgroup is instructed; they're told they need to think about how valuable this item would be if you were stranded on a deserted island, and you then rateits value on a 5-point scale, 1 being no value, 5 being highly valuable. That's called deeper processing. You're now thinking about it in terms of itsapplication or use. By the way, I think elephant is a fun one; I'd give it a 5. Not really company, but if you got really hungry, you got a lot of food there, right? I then read, I think it's about 30 words; everybody's writing down their numbers. I then have them do a stalling exercise where they write their name,phone number, and address. That's to dump short-term memory because they might be thinking about the words I just read. If you're now writing your nameand address, it changes your focus. Short-term memory only lasts about 20-30 seconds; it's pretty brief. So I counted on the clock. After 30 seconds, I saynow write down as many words as you can recall. This one is so powerful. The group that's counting vowels, on average, remembers about 30words time and time again. The group that's thinking about usefulness on a deserted island remembers 10. It's slightly more, 5/5, 5.5 versus 10.5, but veryclose to it doubling without doing any more effort, simply by thinking about it instead of just trying to superficially think about it. And this is where, as astudent, the more you get into the understanding, the better. Now this then raises a fun question: what is the meaning? If I say something is meaningfulor meaningless, what am I really saying? Now I'm not gonna go through a big drill, which is kind of fun, of teasing it out of you, but a meaningful piece is apiece that relates to something you already know, and the best little analogy is it's like a file system that you've already got established. You add a newentry to it, so it's all neatly organized, and it's very easy. If you've got a file system to add a new entry, we do it with computers also. The other way,meaningless, is where something new doesn't fit with something already established, and so it's Greek to you. It's ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. What did you say? If it's something brand new, you can't relate to it. You have to create a new entry, so you have to grapple with it, saying, "What does thatmean?" But as I broke it down, I bet you could associate it with something you already understood. You've probably all seen little embryos; you got the ideaof an egg, the idea that it kind of recaptures our development from a primitive one cell to a very complex mammal. Get that idea? That's the meaning ofmeaningfulness. Now, as teachers, I think all of us, we all try to make things meaningful in our classes. So we give stories, we giveexamples, but sometimes our examples don't work for you. This is where you have to tease it out. So I'm going to go to a couple of things to help you there. First, study groups. We underutilize them, especially in community college. Would people get through med school without study groups? Not very many. Do we have vet tech back there? Dental hygiene, vet tech, pretty sophisticated stuff they have to learn, right? Do they do study groups? No?Oh my...I would hope they do. I would encourage them to do it. Where I've got students to form study groups, performance of the groups goes updramatically. Now, part of it is probably because they're motivated to do that, so it's a bit confounding, but I'm convinced there's also the power ofstudying with other people. I know these concepts so well I can't see how they're confusing, but another student who's just found theanswer can sometimes turn and say, "Here’s what it's about." They go, "Ah, is that what Mr. Lobdell was saying? God, so easy." But Ican't do that because I don't see where the problems lie in that particular concept. Study groups are great. I'm not going to tell you howmany of you totally hurt yourself in studying. How many of you magic-mark, highlight, whatever you call it, in textbooks? A little yellow, pink,green, glow-in-the-dark sort of thing? How many of you use the markers? Those were invented in '65, the year I started college. So Ibought one. I turned entire books ugly orange. Then I figured it out. If you color your page solid orange, you've actually highlighted nothing. Yeah, by highlighting everything, you've really highlighted zip. So I did the clever thing and you guys are way ahead of me. What do youhighlight, folks? The most important thing. When do you do it? When you first read the book, right? Or the chapter? So you read through; are youstudying? No, I'm reading for the most important things. Zip, zip, zip...some of you get out rulers to make it really neat, take hours tomake pretty little...then you go back to the start of the chapter, you read the first thing you underlined, and you go, "I remember that." No, you don't. You recognize it. People are incredible at confusing recognition with recollection. Your visual recognition threshold is so great, you can see aperson once, see 'em years later, and go, "I know you." Were you a student at Pierce College? Yeah. Did you take psych? Yeah. From Lobdell? Yeah. 36 years I run into that. Okay. Proof of this, grab a magazine in your house that you haven't looked at for a while, leaf through it; youwill get the illusion of remembering virtually every advertisement and article, but to prove that it's not recollection, it's actually recognition,before you turn to the next page, predict what's on it. There's no way you're going to be right. But as soon as you turn, you go, "Oh! I rememberthat." No, you don't; you recognize it. Now, going back to your book, you've highlighted the most important stuff. You now go back to studyit, and you say, "Oh, I remember it." So, do you study it? No. So what don't you learn? The most important part of the chapter. Then they come inthe next day all ready for the quiz. "Oh, I studied hard last night, Mr. Lobdell." Here's your quiz. I don't believe it, I can't remember a thing. How many of you have heard that? Those of you who teach, I could retire now if I had a buck for every one of those comments. I don't correctthem. I shake my head and think, "Poor baby, you think you knew it, but in fact, you recognized it. You didn't know it." Now back to this activelearning. How do you know you know it? If you can look at it, go to the next one, read it, and then stop and go back to the one before, look up. In the sky and in your own words, say what that was about. Yeah, you know it. You will not forget it overnight unless you suffer a pretty majorcerebral accident. It just doesn't happen. But while we're talking about this, most of you undo good studying by not sleeping adequately. Someof the latest work on REM sleep, we're not sure exactly how, but there's something going on that involves the hippocampus, involves the storagefrom transitory long-term memory to a permanent, what we call consolidation. That just labels it; it doesn't really say what's happening.But we're getting increasing evidence that the consolidation process is dependent on rapid eye movement sleep, which, if you're an adult,happens about every hour and a half once you fall asleep. If you're not getting a good night, typically around 8 hours, you're not getting enoughREM sleep; what you've studied doesn't become permanent. I can tell you there are studies that show that simply by getting better rest, some studentsimprove markedly in their performance because their brains now store it a lot more efficiently. By the way, if you know anybody with sleep apnea,the biggest thing they'll tell you is, "I can't remember anything, my brain's shot." It's like my memory's gone. Yeah, it is because your REM sleep isn'thappening; you wake up so often, you can't consolidate and store permanent memories. Here's the funny thing: there's no money to bemade by telling people to get more sleep. So you don't hear about it on TV. Companies aren't telling you to get better sleep because they don't makeany money. I tell students and they go, "Yeah, that’s nice," but they continue to use their time for other things. It’s kind of interesting, isn't it? The bestadvice: sleep better and most of you will do better. Most of you won't even begin to take it. I know why. You've got so many other things to do. I'dask you this: are they important? Is studying and learning the most important thing you're doing as a student? If so, maybe you need togive up some of the other activities. I have students tell me, “I don't have enough time." There are 168 hours in a week; we all have thesame amount of time. Marty has no more nor less than anybody in this room. The real question is, what do I do with my 168 hours? Am I going to use itwell or use it not so well? I'm going to give you a couple of other tips here. Taking notes is so vital, but most students who do it haven't learned avery simple rule. The first moment you get after a class, ideally right after the class, you should sit down with your notes and expand oneverything you jotted down. Give it depth. Flesh it out. If you even wait to go home and do it a couple hours later, you'll have forgotten someof your own notes. How many of you have done that? You've written beautiful notes, you get them home, and you don't know what the hell youwrote. It's like, "What is this?" Well, that's a wasted note. But if you take the moment right after class to flush it out, you now have a little more detail. Odds are, at night, you can still recollect it. That will be a powerful addition with only about a 5-minute time investment per class. That isa good trade-off. Now, the next piece: let's say you're trying to flesh out your notes. It's like, "I remember they said it or he said it, but I don'tknow what it was about." Look for a classmate; they're usually hanging around. Go up to somebody and say, "Hey, what was that about?" and theycan tell you, or flatter the heck out of us. Teachers want students to succeed. Sometimes it isn't perceived that way. We want you to dowell; it makes us happy. And any time a student comes up in the lunchroom where I always try to have my lunch and says, "Marty, Ididn't quite understand this, can you give me another example?" I love it. I'm important. It's like, "Yeah, you come to my office, not just with, 'I’m notgetting anything,' but, 'What was that about when you talked about REM sleep?'" You know, I start explaining. That's what my life's about here, okay?We love it; that's a legitimate thing. Or if you don't want to go to the instructor's office, most of us start off a class by asking, "Any questions?" Yeah,yesterday I didn’t quite understand this piece about ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny. Okay, we'll go through that quickly. OnceAgain, we like that. We want you to be successful. Let me jump back here to see where I am in my presentation. I was talking about beingactive. Activity can also take the form of recitation. How many of you know the best way to learn is to teach somebody else? Boy, if you gotfamily members or roommates, teach them geography, psychology, anatomy; they often love it. One of my dearest students two years ago,I just loved her. I finally met her parents and said, "I've heard so much about you, I hear every lecture you're given." She would comehome, sit around the dinner table, and recapitulate what I had talked about. It's powerful because it reinforces your learning, plus it tells you if youreally understood it. Because if mom or dad says, "I don't quite get that," you go, "Uh, I don't understand it either." Then very quickly, you have to go backand redo it. Teaching another person. Now, some of you may not have anybody at home to teach or they're not interested. Too bad. Teach anempty chair. There's nothing wrong with talking out loud. Thinking is internal talking to a large degree. It's also not talking; it's thinking. Talking out loud, as you know, is not abnormal. If you think it's somebody else or it's a real person in an empty chair, talk with me; I'll tryto get you lined up with someone who can help. If you have roommates or friends, say, "I'm just doing this little secretic thing where I'm gonnaexplain it to an empty chair." Dialogue with that empty chair; practice it. Now, for some of you, writing it out in your own words is a good thing.I'm lazy; I never liked to do a lot of writing, but I learned very quickly to look at it, look away, and do a little dialogue with myself because it told meif I really understood it or not. Very quickly. I would also do it with my kids, teach them as best I could. My spouse, anybody who would listen.It's a nice way of learning: active recitation. By the way, one piece of research said 80% of your study time is best spent reciting and only20% reading. This leads to...how we doing? Oooooh...I want to talk about textbooks. I brought the one I'm using in intro right now. Moststudents have not been taught how to use a textbook, and yet it's such a powerful tool. Because they haven't been taught the power of the tool, alarge percentage don't even buy the book, in part because they're getting so darn expensive. Over 100 bucks for this little puppy here, Ibelieve. These books are designed for what's called pedagogy. That's a fancy way of saying helping you learn, and they are seriously done to beat least according to the people doing it, the most effective way of teaching. But students don't know the effective way of using it. Howmany of you know SQ3R? None? One, two. I assumed all my students were still learning this until a few years ago I asked; it died out. There's also a SQ4R; there's a newer version of it which I'm not so familiar with. SQ3R: survey, that's the S. Question, that's the Q. Then you have threeR's: read, recite, review. And we were taught this because they knew pedagogically way back in those dark ages of the 60s that you retainmuch more from a text if you survey, question, read, recite, and review. So, how do you do the survey? These are not novels. In a novel, youwouldn't want to read the last page, would you? Find out who'd done it; it'd ruin the whole thing. But this is a textbook, so what you do is youactually go through the entire chapter; you look at pictures. What's this about apples? What's this about a duckbill platypus? Okay. And whatyou're doing is you survey, you ask questions. What are formal concepts? What's a superordinate concept? What are naturalconcepts and prototypes? What is a prototype? So, you raise questions as you go through. It only takes a couple of minutes to survey a chapter in anyclass. As you're surveying, you simultaneously raise questions. What you're doing then is causing you to look for answers, and this is apowerful thing. How many of you have noticed when you're looking through a newspaper for a piece of information, you can find it kind ofjumps out at you, but if you're just kind of reading it haphazardly, casually, most of what you read you don't even remember. There areSomething about it, and I can't explain it; I can only describe it. If you intend to find something, you find it. And I've got a little demonstration. I could've brought, or actually show, a placard with the words "Boston" and "London" printed on it, and I hold it up for 20 seconds. Out of a group thissize, maybe 2 or 3 of you'd see "Boston" and "London" because before I do it I tell you to look for letters, symbols, and numbers. I create what'scalled a set. You're now expecting not to see words but letters. And even though "Boston" and "London" are printed on diagonal, most peopledon't see it. Likewise, if you just kind of go through a book without asking questions first, you kind of skim over the content; you don't havea search mechanism going. The reading followed by the recitation, I've talked about that. Technically, before a test it should be review. It shouldbe in the barn; now you're just touching up to make sure you haven't lost anything or confused anything. But I know how this works, becausewe schedule tests; most students don't start studying until shortly before an exam, and much like my friend, they put so much time all massedtogether and only study for about a half hour, pull all-nighters, so they don't get the good rest, come in, and do poorly. You're undoing yourself. If you start studying early and do some of the things I've talked about, by the time you get to the test, you're just reviewing at that point, nottruly studying. Use the book correctly: SQ3R. Okay, I've got one last thing and I'm gonna... I'm gonna get it. You've got to memorize facts; how do youdo that? I love it because I get a lot of students from anatomy coming to me saying, "I can't remember." What you use are mnemonics. Inmy view, they're quicker and easier than rote memorization, and I do use them. Mnemonics come in several flavors. We have acronyms, we havecoined sayings, and interactive images. There are other types of mnemonics; technically, taking notes is a mnemonic because amnemonic is any system that facilitates recall. Most of what I've been talking about are technically mnemonics, but these are more formal. How many of you have learned that you can take letters and form a word from them, using those letters to remember certain facts? One thatcomes to my mind is "ROYGBIV." How many of you know about "ROYGBIV"? You know, those are the colors of the rainbow. Now, if you're in an art class,that can be important. If you're taking physics and you're learning about the spectrum of light when it goes through a prism, where you'rebreaking down light and anything that refracts it out, like a rainbow, you know, colors are what? Pretty easy. Now, how long would you have towork with flashcards to remember that? Now, in my intro to psych class, let’s see if anybody remembers "afferent" and "efferent." You can tell me. We bothtalk about this. Afferent neurons in the periphery, what do they do? They go from sensory receptors toward the CNS. Efferent, go from the CNS to the effectors,basically to muscles. The trouble is when you're teaching this, and this is good for you to know as students, anytime two things are highlysimilar but not the same, you get maximal interference. That's how we talk about problems with remembering. So, you memorize it withoutreally knowing it, and you're sitting there on a quiz going, "Oh yeah, it's afferent." No, it's efferent. No, it's afferent. How many of you have done those flip-flops and your brain gets... and then you tell the teacher you're tricky? It's not tricky if you know which is which; it's very easy. But if you'reconfused, it's terribly tricky, and I just once again think, "Oh, you didn't really know it." So what I tell my students, really, is that they're both the same. Sensoryare afferent, motor are efferent. Now, with that little acronym, SAME, you can study very little. They're both the same. Now, this is where I had astudent in my class say, "Okay, SAME, big deal, but I'm in anatomy and physiology." I said, "What's giving you a hard time?" He says, "We're studyingthe heart." I said, "Well, I took a really light anatomy course. What are you studying?" The left and right atrium. What is deoxygenated blood and theother one's oxygenated because one is on the way to the lungs, the other one's coming back from the lungs and she said, "I can't keep it straight."Now that’s a factoid. She understood the function of them. The concept was there, but every quiz she’d flip-flop. The right is the oxygenated, no, theleft is the oxygenated. Buh buh buh... So I said, "Okay, tell me which is which because I don’t know." She looked it up in her book, and I’ve never forgotten. She said the right atrium is the oxygenated. Am I correct? Better be. I said, "Can you remember radio?" This gal was shocked. She’s like, "That’s nothow you spell radio." I said, "You’re correct, it’s an acronym." Right atrium deoxygenated. (Gasps) Her little eyes lit up. With one little thing, shecould keep it straight. And if the right atrium is deoxygenated, the left atrium is or LATO if you like LATO. I don’t know; it's dumb. Now, this is where Iput a challenge to you. Sometimes acronyms can come up; they’re very easy. Now I’m gonna go with one, and you can help me on this. 12cranial nerves, give me the saying? No, not the... no, not that one. There are two of them. Some hops... Now, what she just gave you were the 12 cranialnerves, the first letters, in descending, right? From the top to the bottom. And I’ve never learned all of them because I didn’t take that serious, but ifyou know ON OLD, obviously O O, you’re gonna have, what are they? Factory optic, and you go right down. Old Olympus Tower Top dah duhduh duh duh. Now there’s another one: O O to touch and feel. I don’t go there. Only women instructors get away with that one. No, no, no, no, Iwon’t go there. If you can come up with an acronym, oh pardon me, a coined phrase... How about this? In 1492... there you go. How do youunscrew something? You turn it counterclockwise, you turn it clockwise. So I tried to teach my son this. He says, "No dad, it’s righty tighty, leftyloosey." That’s another saying, it’s perfectly good. It’s just one that I didn’t know. How many days in the calendar? 30 days hath September, April,June, and November. We used to learn that; they don’t do it anymore. You kids have learned knuckle counting: January, February, March, April,May. It’ll tell you long short, but it will not tell you the number of days in February nor the rule where leap year makes it 29. Little sayings canallow you to remember things very well. My very good mother just served us nine pizzas. She knows it. What are they? Planets, from thesun outward. Unfortunately, the pizza’s no more. It got degraded, right; it’s no longer a planet. Those are the sayings. Sometimes a sayingallows you to remember things. For my money though, the third one, interacting images, is the best of all. And I’m gonna draw from nutrition. How many of you’ve taken human nutrition? A-ha. You can tell me then, how many calories per gram in protein? Dang. Do you remember? Ohno. It’s 4. By the way, some books say 4.5. Calories per gram in carbs? 4. Calories per gram in fat? That’s why when you consume fats, you gettwice the package there. It’s why Eskimos eat a lot of what? Fat. They need energy. It’s why if we eat a lot of fat, we get the gut going. I had awoman come in, a sweet lady, 40 years old, crying, "I’m too old to learn." What? I said, "I’m older than you, I can still learn; come on, what is this?"She was taking human nutrition. She understood the concept of protein, the concept of carbs, the concept of fat, and says, "I can’t remember thedetails." That’s typical as we get older. I said, "Okay, you’re stuck on a fact, not the concept. What are the facts?" So she told me. I said, "Okay, let’sstart with something easy: carbohydrates, you gotta remember 4 and only 4 to car-bo-hy-drates. Car-bo-hy-drates, starting to see? Interactingimage, how many syllables in the word? Just say it, carbohydrate. 4. Now, I said, there’s an easier one. When I hear the word carbohydrate, that firstpart, C A R, is what? What’s C A R? Car. How many wheels on a car? 4. Cars have 4 wheels; carbohydrate would have 4. Now, how many of youknow about racing? You got the pro car circuit; would a pro car have 4? Just like a car. Protein, pro car, 4. Now she’s starting to see what I’mgetting at. Fat, fat. How do we remember 9 in fat? And she goes, "That’s my problem; I can’t remember." Well, let me ask you, cats, vet tech right?How many lives do they have? 9 lives. Now there’s also an expression for rich people. What do we call a rich person regarding cats? Would aFat cats definitely have 9 lives? So I picture fat cats with 9 lives. This woman was almost gleefully happy, 9 calories per gram in afat cat. Now, I've used this in classes, and I try to get people to realize interacting images work even better if they’re a little weird. The weirderthe better, actually. But if you share 'em with friends, they may go, "Oh my god, you’re sick." So you may not want to share 'em all. I have a bunchand I will not share them in this class. They keep things straight in my mind, but they would sound weird. But one gal came down, and it was socute, she says, "Marty, I have a way to remember 9." She goes, "I was stationed in Germany, I’d picture a very obese Fraulein looking at abowl of strudel, going nine, nine." I loved it because it’s a homophone, but do you think she’ll ever forget nine and fat? She’ll just picture the twotogether. Now, the more you can create those interacting images, the easier it is to remember facts. By the way, alcohol, anybody know? 7 caloriesper gram. How many letters are in the word alcohol? 7? And if you’re a bartender, what’s the classic call drink? Seagram 7 with 7 Up. They call'em Seven 7s. Sevens everywhere. So, the more you know about Seagram Seven with 7, it’s like 7 calories per gram. By the way, that’salso why if you drink a lot, you get heavy quick. It’s not very utilizable, but it is energy in your body, which we convert to fat fairly quickly. Okay, bythe way, eggnog, fat and alcohol, yeah, you can pork out almost instantly. I’ve gone beyond my time. I know that she has to be out ofhere. I think there might be another class. I thank you so much. There’s a handout up there. There’s also, god, I’m not gonna do this. I’ve beenhere long enough, I don’t have to. If you have questions, come see me. You were a great group. Thank you., Marty Lobdell - Study Less Study Smart, YouTube, 01ka7xhdtscwczdfcem74r8ykp.