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Learn While You Sleep
technologyreview.com — German researchers have found that by using the right timing and electrical stimulation, they can improve a person's ability to remember facts.
Alexius- 563 diggs
- digg it
- CarolFil, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Here is the original article in the online version of Nature
http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061030/full/444133a.html - thomasprebble, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Yeah but that still dosn't mean you can teach someone arbitrary facts in their sleep. When will people realise you still need to THINK to learn.
- weasel75, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Thinking is for nerds!
s/Think/Writ/
- weasel75, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Thinking is for nerds!
- monkeymagix, on 10/12/2007, -19/+0George W Bush was one the first patients this was tested on and look what happened to him AND THE WORLD!!!
I say ban zee germans and their Nazi technology- kilps, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8this election is really getting to you Americans isn't it? I'd advise sitting down for a moment
Oh and just so you know Germany isn't Nazi any more - i'm pretty sure they'd take offence at your twisted humour - decades, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2@kilps
"Oh and just so you know Germany isn't Nazi any more - i'm pretty sure they'd take offense at your twisted humour"
I have a German friend, and this reminds me of a conversation we had at university; basically, somebody, quite arrogantly, asked if Germany was still 'nazi'. My German friend was honest and blunt; most Germans, if not all but a small minority, are deeply ashamed of their countries past and don't take lightly to insinuations that they still live in this way.
Good point kilps =)
- kilps, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8this election is really getting to you Americans isn't it? I'd advise sitting down for a moment
- hornfinger, on 10/12/2007, -25/+0Using electricity on people while they are asleep? Isn't that what they used in on the jews WW2?
George W could learn athing or two from the Nazis!- madchemst, on 10/12/2007, -6/+15***** off.
- stottsinator, on 10/12/2007, -11/+1Hey! He's working on it. If he gets his party re-elected today, I'm sure he will have some new detainee interrogation tactics.
- decades, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I imagine your comment was simply the most your childish mind could conjure...
- awm4, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I heard that they use electronic impulses to force you to dream about Jeopardy reruns.
- dep01, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"What's more, the improvement, although small (8 percent), was only seen on the word-pair task, suggesting a link between non-REM sleep and fact-based, or declarative, memory."
8% is small!? you're freaking SLEEPING for crying out loud. 8% sounds damned good to me! - JorgeGT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5 "The principle of sleep-teaching, or hypnopædia, had been discovered." The D.H.C. made an impressive pause.
The principle had been discovered; but many, many years were to elapse before that principle was usefully applied.
"The case of Little Reuben occurred only twenty-three years after Our Ford's first T-Model was put on the market." (Here the Director made a sign of the T on his stomach and all the students reverently followed suit.) "And yet …"
Furiously the students scribbled. "Hypnopædia, first used officially in A.F. 214. Why not before? Two reasons. (a) …"
"These early experimenters," the D.H.C. was saying, "were on the wrong track. They thought that hypnopædia could be made an instrument of intellectual education …"
(A small boy asleep on his right side, the right arm stuck out, the right hand hanging limp over the edge of the bed. Through a round grating in the side of a box a voice speaks softly.
"The Nile is the longest river in Africa and the second in length of all the rivers of the globe. Although falling short of the length of the Mississippi-Missouri, the Nile is at the head of all rivers as regards the length of its basin, which extends through 35 degrees of latitude …"
At breakfast the next morning, "Tommy," some one says, "do you know which is the longest river in Africa?" A shaking of the head. "But don't you remember something that begins: The Nile is the …"
"The - Nile - is - the - longest - river - in - Africa - and - the - second - in - length - of - all - the - rivers - of - the - globe …" The words come rushing out. "Although - falling - short - of …"
"Well now, which is the longest river in Africa?"
The eyes are blank. "I don't know."
"But the Nile, Tommy."
"The - Nile - is - the - longest - river - in - Africa - and - second …"
"Then which river is the longest, Tommy?"
Tommy burst into tears. "I don't know," he howls.)
That howl, the Director made it plain, discouraged the earliest investigators. The experiments were abandoned. No further attempt was made to teach children the length of the Nile in their sleep. Quite rightly. You can't learn a science unless you know what it's all about.
"Whereas, if they'd only started on moral education," said the Director, leading the way towards the door. The students followed him, desperately scribbling as they walked and all the way up in the lift. "Moral education, which ought never, in any circumstances, to be rational."
--Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
http://www.huxley.net/bnw/two.html- tjmasco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2hahahaha I honesty just finished Brave New World yesterday, oh the timing.
- surlygrad, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2those wacky germans! what will they think of next?
- CoolWind, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1These researchers have an agenda - electrical stimulation during sleep. They may be overlooking the obvious. If it's true that non-rem sleep helps consolidate and fix (as in fixative) recently learned material, then it suggests that taking short naps (or mental rest periods with the eyes closed) during the morning, afternoon and evening would lead to improved memory without any new technologies.
- Fatality, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Taserings will continue until IQ improves.
- Dracos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1When are the short sighted, sheep producing self-proclaimed "educators" of the world going to realize that memorizing facts is a small part or learning?
"WHY" is the most important question. Every child should be able to tackle any topic with it by the time they graduate. "HOW" is a close second. These are the critical thinking questions.
"WHO", "WHAT" "WHEN", and "WHERE" are the incidental questions, but comprise the majority of "education". It is more important to know why asomething was done, than to know what it was, by whom, when, or where.
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Wise words, often quoted, and just as often conveniently misunderstoof in order to support the farcical "who/what/when/where" model of teaching history. - Pedlya, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0If this is from the germans, the messages will most likely contain hidden neo nazi brainwashing.
- diggdong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Try listening to coast to coast am. Now that is worth the dreams.
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