Treceți la conținutul principal

Learn Languages Better With This Psychological Tip

Using gestures while trying to learn a new language can help boost memory, a new study finds.

The motor system, the part of the brain controlling movements, seems to be particularly important in language learning.

While many language learning systems already incorporate pictures to help people learn, this is one of the first studies to show the importance of gesture.

In the experiment, published in the journal Current Biology, participants tried to learn a made-up language called ‘Vimmish’, chosen so that people would never have heard it before (Mayer et al., 2015).

Groups were taught Vimmish, which sounds a bit like Italian, in a variety of ways to test which promoted the best recall.

Dr Katja Mayer, the study’s first author, explained the results:
“The subjects’ recollection was best in relation to terms they themselves had expressed using gestures.

When they heard the term and its translation and also observed a corresponding image, they were also better able to remember the translation.

By contrast, however, tracing a term or observing a gesture was no better than just hearing the term,”
The researchers found that gestures were slightly more helpful than images in helping people learn vocabulary.

The multisensory theory, which is supported by this study, is that the more senses are stimulated during learning, the better recall will be.

Professor Katharina von Kriegstein, who led the study, said
“If we’re on the phone with someone we know, for example, the areas of the brain responsible for facial recognition are active during the phone call.

It seems that the brain simulates the information not being captured by the eyes and creates it for itself,”
It may be that when different areas of the brain are recruited during learning, this helps memory.

Professor von Kriegstein said:
“That could well be so, but we don’t know how much the learning outcomes improve with the addition of more senses.

Ideally, however, the individual sensory impressions should match one another.

In other words, to learn the Spanish word for apple, the subject should make an apple gesture, taste an apple or look at a picture of an apple.
autor:Dr Jeremy Dean
About the author: Dr Jeremy Dean is a psychologist and the author of PsyBlog. His latest book is "Making Habits, Breaking Habits: How to Make Changes That Stick". You can follow PsyBlog by email, by RSS feed, on Twitter and Google+.

sursa
foto
Etichete:

Postări populare de pe acest blog

Subway Performer Mike Yung - Unchained Melody (23rd Street Viral Sensation)

Citiți mai multe

Is this The end? Australian inventor creates a special character - Ћ - to replace English language's most common word

It is the most commonly used word in the English language. But, if an Australian restaurateur has his way, our use of 'the' could be about to change forever. Paul Mathis, from Melbourne, has designed the letter 'Ћ' as a replacement for 'the'. Idea: Paul Mathis, from Melbourne, has designed the symbol above as a replacement for 'the'. This is a scene from a promotional video   The businessman is now lobbying Apple asking to promote his app, which features the character in its iTunes store. In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, he said: 'The word "and" is only the fifth-most used word in English and it has its own symbol – the ampersand. 'Isn’t it time we accorded the same respect to "the"?' As reported by The Telegraph, Mr Mathis, who has opened more than 20 restaurants and hotels across Australia, has invested AUS $38,000 (£23,500) in the new app. But despite his optimism, it has s...
Citiți mai multe

Engleza și franceza în dialect oltenesc. Greșeli monumentale pentru străinii care vin la Brâncuși

Foto: Radu Ciocoiu/Facebook via adevarul.ro Turiștii străini care ajung în Gorj ar face bine să citească Wikipedia  înainte. Și asta pentru că panourile informative și cărțile poștale despre Ansamblul Monumental „Constantin Brâncuși” conțin mari greșeli de traducere. În Târgu Jiu, turiștii pot cumpăra de la Centrul de Informare Turistică Brâncuși vederi cu marile opere ale sculptorului român: Coloana Infinitului, Poarta Sărutului, Aleea Scaunelor, Masa Tăcerii. Numai că traducătorii gorjeni au reușit teribila „performanță” de a greși două dintre numele acestor monumente: – numele în franceză al Coloanei Infinitului este „LA COLO N E SANS FIN” (varianta corectă este „LA COLO NN E SANS FIN” ); – numele în franceză al Mesei Tăcerii este „LA TABLE DU SIL A NCE” (varianta corectă este „LA TABLE DU SIL E NCE” . „Este foarte probabil ca denumirile să fi fost traduse de oameni slab pregătiţi, care nu au consultat nici măcar un dicţionar şi s-au grăbit. ...
Citiți mai multe