Lawsagna

If you want to increase your intelligence, train your working memory

If you want to sharpen your mental ability to solve new problems outside your area of expertise, you should train your working memory, according to The New York Times article “Memory Training Shown to Turn Up Brainpower” by Nicholas Bakalar.  

Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to reason and solve new problems independently of previously acquired knowledge:

"Until now, it had been widely assumed that the kind of mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previous experience — what psychologists call fluid intelligence — is innate and cannot be taught (though people can raise their grades on tests of it by practicing).

But in the new study, researchers describe a method for improving this skill, along with experiments to prove it works."

This method was a structured training in working memory:

"The four groups underwent a half-hour of training daily for 8, 12, 17 and 19 days, respectively. At the end of each training, researchers tested the participants’ fluid intelligence again. To make sure they were not just improving their test-taking skills, the researchers compared them with control groups that took the tests without the training.

The results … were striking. Although the control groups also made gains, presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests, improvement in the trained groups was substantially greater. Moreover, the longer they trained, the higher their scores were. All performers, from the weakest to the strongest, showed significant improvement.

...

The authors suggest several aspects of the exercise relevant to solving new problems: ignoring irrelevant items, monitoring ongoing performance, managing two tasks simultaneously and connecting related items to one another in space and time."

Shorten your learning curve!

Cognitive Fitness

From "Cognitive Fitness" by Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts, Harvard Business Review (need subscription, you can preview the summary of the article on the order page):

…advances in neuroscience suggest that there is no reason why your brain at 60 can’t be as competent as it was at 25. That would not have been news to thinkers such as Socrates, Copernicus, and Galileo, who were all still at the peak of their intellectual powers in their sixties and seventies. Nor would it surprise business leaders such as Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffett, and Sumner Redstone. These icons and others like them have intuitively understood that the brain’s alertness is the result of what we call cognitive fitness—a state of optimized ability to reason, remember, learn, plan, and adapt that is enhanced by certain attitudes, lifestyle choices, and exercises. The more cognitively fit you are, the better you will be able to make decisions, solve problems, and deal with stress and change. Cognitive fitness will allow you to be more open to new ideas and alternative perspectives. It will give you the capacity to change your behaviors and forecast their outcomes in order to realize your goals. You can become the kind of person your company values most. Perhaps more important, you can delay senescence for years and even enjoy a second career.

The article goes on to suggest steps you can take to stay cognitively fit and discusses some implications of the brain research to learning.  For example, the study of mirror neurons, which "aid the speed and accuracy of our perception by mentally simulating objects and actions in our environment," helps us understand how we can learn better through observation and indirect experience. 

The authors encourage play at work because play "engages the prefrontal cortex…nourishing our highest-level cognitive functions – those related to incentive and reward processing, goal and skill representation, mental imagery, self-knowledge, and memory, just to name a few."  They suggest playing games, such as bridge, chess, sudoku, solving challenging crossword puzzles, doing improvisation, reading funny books.

Searching for patterns is another way to maintain your cognitive fitness:  "First and foremost, challenge your existing mind-set, enlarge it, and make it more complex."  The authors encourage executives to "[l]isten to different viewpoints, read new kinds of articles and books, and visit places with a focused set of learning objectives."

Those who seek novelty and innovation through continuous learning benefit from neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change and enhance its performance.  The article suggests learning a new language, musical instrument, or new technology.

Achieve sustainable personal efficiency!

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 16:  Memorizing

Even in this day and age when a lot of information is at your fingertips, memorization is still an essential component of learning.  We just have to remember certain things, there is no way around it.  The memory acts like a glue allowing us to put various pieces of information together and transform them into usable knowledge.  So it is only appropriate to review various techniques that may help us remember things better.   Some of them are well-known, others are more unique and often overlooked. 

1. Mnemonics are easy-to-remember combinations of letters or images that can help you memorize concepts and lists.  For example, the letters of a catchy word, phrase, or rhyme can represent the items in the list you need to memorize.  If you remember the mnemonic, you can then reconstruct the list.    
2. An effective way to aid your memory is to look for associations and metaphors that help you peg the new information to something you already know.  For example, you can create memorable hypotheticals by associating a concept you are trying to learn with a scenario from a well-known book or movie.  Here’s how – with the story of the Crow.
3. Use the “Memory Palace” visualization technique when you need to memorize a sequence of items.  First, you choose your “memory palace”, which can be any place or route that you remember well.  Next, you place your thoughts or images that you want to remember next to the distinctive points in the rooms of your palace or along your route. Those points serve as memory hooks.  When you need to recall the material, you mentally walk through the palace and “collect” the pieces of information that you left at each distinctive point. 
4. Create crossword puzzles for the subject matter you study. Crossword puzzles help memory by presenting the material in both visual and verbal formats.  You can use a crossword to connect related items that you need to remember together.  It is a good way to brush up on terminology.  And it is a fun activity for a study group.  Best of all, with a variety of free crossword puzzle making software available, it is really easy, just search for a “crossword maker.”  All you need is to come up with the words and their clues, and the software will generate a crossword puzzle for you.
5. PQ4R is a popular method of working with text to remember it better.  PQ4R stands for Preview, Question, and four R's: Read, Reflect, Recite, Review.  You begin with a preview of the text to get an idea of how the material is organized and what it is about.  Next, you come up with questions about the text. Then, you read the text with your questions in mind and reflect on it, looking to connect the new material with what you already know.  Later, you put away the text and recite the main points out loud in your own words.  The final step is to review.  Summarize the main points and test your comprehension with more questions.
6. If you need to memorize a complex concept, try creating a memory collage.  Pick the key elements and relationships that describe the concept.  Then, find images that you associate with those elements and arrange them in a collage trying to reflect the relationships among the underlying elements.  A memory collage allows you to see the concept as a whole while the verbal description can only be sequential.
7. Use the smell-coding technique to evoke associative learning – a process by which you link one item, in this case the subject matter you are studying, to another item – a particular aroma.  For example, as you study, you can use certain performance-enhancing essential oils, such as citrus smells (orange or lemon oil), which promote mental awareness and concentration, or peppermint, which improves the performance of clerical tasks by increasing attention.  Later, when you need to recall the material you were studying, you help your memory by smelling the aroma associated with that subject matter. 
8. Study in multiple sessions with longer breaks.   If you space out your review sessions a month apart, you may find that you will remember the material longer, according to a study done by Doug Rohrer and Harold Paschler that measured how well the participating students remembered the material tested at different times depending on their studying patterns (reported by Wray Herbert at We’re Only Human…). 
9. Manage your stress because it affects your memory.  Short-term, acute stress can help you concentrate and remember things better.  The adrenal glands respond to the initial dose of stress by immediately releasing adrenalin, which can help your performance.  Long-term stress, however, has the opposite effect.  If the stress is severe or persistent, the adrenals release cortisol, which damages the neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that is central to memory and learning.
10. Last but not least, take afternoon naps as they help to absorb large quantities of information and improve memory.

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge

Claim your best life now!

What would it take to bring more energy and well-being into your life?  To adopt a healthier lifestyle? To nurture your Self?  Let’s explore it together.  Don’t give in to churn and burn.  Email me at support@buddy-in-law.com to sign up for a free coaching session.

Mnemonics for Concurrent Estates

Question:
Oliver conveys Mountainacre to Jane and Todd as joint tenants with right of survivorship and not as “tenants in common”.  What estate has been created as a result of this transaction? Describe the “four unities” test at common law.

Answer:
The language of this conveyance created the joint tenancy with right of survivorship.  To create the joint tenancy with right of survivorship, the “four unities” test must be met. The four unities are “time,” “title,” “interest,” and “possession,” meaning that the cotenants had to acquire their interests at the same time, under the same instrument and be entitled to the equal interest and possession of the entire estate.
REMEMBER:
Jane and Todd are climbing the mountain joined by a rope weaving the four unities of time, title, interest, and possession.  Jane and Todd must be joint to survive and not to fall into the PITT . They have JITTERS (Joint Tenants with Right of Survivorship).
P = Possession
I = Interest
T = Time
T = Title

Gone Fishing

I am on vacation this week, so I won’t be able to post as frequently.   To make sure you  have enough to read (I know…couldn’t resist), here are a few links to various resources on learning skills.

How to manage time better:
Time Management Pretest:  How Efficiently Do I Manage My Time?
Time management tips and resources from Academic Skills Center at Dartmouth College
Time Management Schedules to download form Academic Skills Center at CalPoly
21 Ways to Add More Hours to the Day at Lifehack.org

How to process information better:
10 Essential Mind Mapping Links at Codswallop
Improving Note Taking with Concept Maps at Mind Tools
Memory Principles:  Quick Reference Guide for Brain Compatible Learning Principles

What resources help you study better?

Studying in multiple sessions with longer breaks may help you remember the material longer

Is it possible to “overlearn”?  How often do you need to take study breaks and how long should those breaks be?  Wray Herbert at We’re Only Human… reports on a study by Doug Rohrer and Harold Paschler that measured how well the participating students remembered the material tested at different times depending on their studying patterns:

University of South Florida psychologist Doug Rohrer decided to explore this question scientifically. Working with Harold Pashler of the University of California, San Diego, he had two groups of students study new vocabulary in different ways. One group drilled themselves five times; these students got a perfect score no more than once. The others kept drilling, for a total of ten trials; with this extra effort, the students had at least three perfect run-throughs. Then the psychologists quizzed all the students, once one week later and again three weeks after that.

The results were interesting. When the students took the test a week later, those who had done the extra drilling performed better…. But whatever edge the more effortful students had at one week had completely disappeared by four weeks.

The scientists also researched the effect of the study breaks on memory:

Rohrer and Pashler also wanted to see if the scheduling of study breaks might make a difference in learning. It did. When the students took breaks ranging from five minutes to two weeks, those who had taken a one-day break performed best when they were tested ten days later. But if they were tested six months later (the laboratory equivalent of long-term learning), the optimal break time was a full month. In other words, as reported in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, “massing” all the study on a single topic together diminishes learning. It’s better to leave it alone for a while and then return to it, and indeed the longer you want new learning to endure, the longer the optimal break between study sessions.

Remember better what you read with PQ4R

PQ4R is a popular method of working with text to remember it better.  PQ4R stands for Preview, Question, and four R's: Read, Reflect, Recite, Review. 

Preview: 
You begin with a preview, in other words, you skim the table of contents, headings, subheadings, graphs and pictures to get an idea of how the material is organized and what it is about. 

Question: 
Next, you come up with questions about the text.  Look at the headings and decide what information you want to know.

Read: 
The next step is to read the text with your questions in mind.  Did you get the answers? 

Reflect: 
Reflect on what you just read.  How is the new information related to what you already know?  Think of the ways to test and apply your new knowledge.  What kinds of problems could you solve with this information? 

Recite: 
Next, put away the text and recite the main points, talk out loud about the material, try to use your own words to explain things and at the same time, incorporate new terms and definitions. 

Review: 
The final step is to review.  Summarize the main points and test your comprehension with more questions and hypotheticals. 

The PQ4R method is not a quick trick, but the benefit may be well worth the invested time.

Take the Working Memory Challenge

About Working Memory is a web site that provides information and resources about working memory, just like its title suggests.  The term “working memory” refers to our ability to hold information in memory temporarily (for a few seconds) while we are solving a problem or performing a task.  The site has a challenge that allows you to test your working memory capacity.  You do two exercises with progressively increasing levels of difficulty.  The first exercise tests your ability to remember visual patterns.  The second exercise focuses on the auditory information.  Once you are done, you can compare your score with other people’s scores on similar working memory exercises.  Are you ready to push your working memory to the limits?

Tip bit #27: On memory collages

If you need to memorize a complex concept, try creating a memory collage.  Here’s how  it works.  Pick the key elements and relationships that describe the concept.  Then, find images that you associate with those elements.  You can browse magazines if you want to make it low tech or find images on the web if you want to create your collage in a digital format, or maybe, you can sketch them yourself.  After you are done collecting your visuals, arrange them in a collage trying to reflect the relationships among the underlying elements.  The benefit of a memory collage is that it allows you to see the concept as a whole whereas the verbal description can only be sequential. 

Visit Creativity Portal to explore various collage resources on the internet or play with Art Zone interactive tools to create your own collage online. 

Mnemonics to remember the future estates

Here are a few mnemonics to help you remember the future estates: 

Reversionary interest:
1) Possibility of Reverter:  PORE
2) Right of Entry / Power of Termination:  RE-POT
3) Reversion:  REVERSE
Remainders:
1) Indefeasibly Vested Remainder: INVEST
2) Vested Remainder Subject to Open: STOP
3) Contingent Remainder: CORE
4) Vested Remainder Subject to Complete Defeasance: CD
Executory Interests: EXECs
1) Shifting Executory Interest:  Shifty Exec
2) Springing Executory Interest:  Springy Exec

The following interests may violate the Rule Against Perpetuities (RAP):
1) vested remainders subject to open;
2) contingent remainders;
3) executory interests
To remember them, use RAP STOPS CORE EXECS

The Rule of Hopeful Hare

For those of you taking the bar exam. 

Question:
The Fox conveys the Foxacre “to the Hare with the hope that he wins the race with the Tortoise”.  Determine the interests conveyed and retained in this transaction. 

Answer:
The Hare has a fee simple absolute. 

Remember The Rule of Hopeful Hare:
Defeasible fees require a determinate durational language.  The words of mere desire, expectation or hope are not enough to create a defeasible fee. 

This rule of construction exists because courts disfavor restrictions of the use of land. 

On stress and memory

Here’s good news and bad news about stress and memory delivered by SharpBrains.  Bar candidates, listen in.  Short-term, acute stress can help you concentrate and remember things better.   That’s because the adrenal glands respond to the initial dose of stress by immediately releasing adrenalin, which can help your performance.  However, long-term stress has the opposite effect.  If the stress is severe or persistent, the adrenals release cortisol, which damages the neurons in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that is central to memory and learning.  Make sure you take this quick test to measure your stress levels.   

To find out more about how your brain responds to various stressful situations, check out Stress on the Brain  from The Franklin Institute Resources for Science Learning.

How do you manage your stress levels?  These 52 Proven Stress Reducers are a good place to start.   

How to create memorable flashcards

You have probably seen popular character names used in legal fact patterns.  Most of them are there for pure entertainment.  But fictional characters can do work for your memory as well.  Here’s how – with the story of the Crow. 

Hypothetical: 
One day, the Fox was sleuthing around the Foxacre when he saw the Raven perched in a tree with a piece of cheese in his beak.  The Fox was hungry and came up with a plan to get the cheese from the Raven.  The Fox deeded the Foxacre “to the Raven so long as the Raven does not sing in his ugly voice on the Foxacre.”  The Raven, anxious to refute the criticism of his voice, set up a loud caw and dropped the cheese.  Determine the types of interest conveyed and retained in the transaction. Who owns the Foxacre now?   

Answer:
The Fox conveyed a fee simple determinable to the Raven and retained a possibility of reverter.  When the Raven began to caw, the limitation stated in the conveyance occurred and the estate automatically reverted back to the Fox. 

The following phrase will help you remember the estate and the corresponding future interest:
Fox Simply Deceived Poor Raven.
Fee Simple Determinable and Possibility of Reverter. 

If you are familiar with the Aesop fable “The Fox and the Crow,” this hypothetical can do a few things for you:

The familiar scenario when the Crow (Raven in my hypo because the letter “R” stands for “Reverter”) caws and drops the cheese, which the Fox immediately gets, reinforces the idea that the fee simple determinable is automatically terminated once the stated condition is broken.  The sneaky Fox gets both the cheese and the estate in my hypo. 

An additional benefit is the phrase that helps you to memorize the estate and the future interest. 

Can you think of any scenarios from books or movies that inspire you to create your own memorable hypothetical for a flashcard? 

**Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while (thank you, thank you!) know that I have done a number of such memory aids throughout my posts.  If you find them helpful, please let me know because I may be able to work on more of those to have a study aid product.  I’d greatly appreciate your feedback, so leave a comment or send me an email.

Train you brain

So you want to be smarter, remember better and preserve your mental faculty as you age?  Train you brain!  The following articles and sites will help you do just that:

Mary Carmichael explores how exercise boosts brain power in the Newsweek article “Stronger, Faster, Smarter”:

…in a landmark paper, researchers announced that they had coaxed the human brain into growing new nerve cells, a process that for decades had been thought impossible, simply by putting subjects on a three-month aerobic-workout regimen. Other scientists have found that vigorous exercise can cause older nerve cells to form dense, interconnected webs that make the brain run faster and more efficiently. And there are clues that physical activity can stave off the beginnings of Alzheimer's disease, ADHD and other cognitive disorders. No matter your age, it seems, a strong, active body is crucial for building a strong, active mind.

Just like with the body fitness, you have to work on your mind fitness regularly.  If you don’t have time for a full workout at the gym, try “An ‘Exercise Snack’ Plan” devised by Howard Hartley, M.D., I-Min Lee, SC.D., and Nancy Ferrari.  Or pretend that you are a fitness buff, and you may just act your way to a healthier mind, as Stephanie West Allen of Idealawg explains in her post "Limber-brained lawyer thespians: An antidote for dimming, dulling, and dawdling?"

SharpBrains blog brings you a puzzle that challenges your ability to uncover a pattern.  Also, check out their advice on how to improve concentration and memory: 

In fact, many memory complaints have nothing to do with the actual ability of the brain to remember things. They come from a failure to focus properly on the task at hand, many times due to emotional and stress-related distractions. If you want to learn or remember something, concentrate on just that one thing. The harder the task, the more important it is to tune out distractions. Make more of an effort not to let yourself get distracted until you’ve finished what you have to do.

And don’t miss what’s under your nose.  Derik Bownds of MindBlog reports that "Odor cues during sleep stimulate memory."

8 times smarter : learning with multiple intelligences

Today I offer yet another approach to reviewing – I’ll call it “transformations.”  The idea is to transform the material presented in one format into a different format and engage your multiple intelligences in the process.  Here are some examples:

Linguistic intelligence.  Make a list of the most challenging concepts and then write a coherent paragraph on each of them as if you are explaining the concept in an article.  Find the most efficient ways to describe legal tests, rules, standards, so that you don’t have to waste time and words when you take an essay exam. 

Logical-mathematical intelligence.  Play with fact patterns and causalities.  Start by analyzing a hypothetical, and once you have your solution, change the facts.   Ask “what if” and observe how the changes in the fact pattern influence the outcome.  List all the assumption you make as you are analyzing the situation.  Verbalize every step in your argument. 

Musical intelligence.  Create musical jingles or rhymes to aid your memory.  Record yourself speaking on the subject:  your voice will reinforce the retention.

Spatial intelligence.  Pick a topic in your outline and rearrange it into a flow chart or a table.  Create a mind-map of what you have read. 

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.  Listen to legal opinions while walking around campus.  Do some repetitive movements as you study: you can juggle, do squats, pace around your room.  If you feel creative, try molding a piece of clay as you are learning a concept.  Here are more tips for kinesthetic learners.

Interpersonal intelligence.  Participate in a study group.  Explain the concept you are learning to somebody who has never studied law, answer their questions. 

Intrapersonal intelligence.  Be a reflective learner.  Take time to figure out what works best for you and capitalize on your strengths.  Ask yourself:

• On the scale 1 to 10, how well do I understand this topic?
• What are the most challenging aspects of the material?
• What can I do to learn it better?
• What resources help me most?
• How do I know that I have done enough?

Naturalistic intelligence.  Are there any similar laws, principles or categories that you can observe in the natural world?

Memory techniques

Do you need memory boost?  Here are a few suggestions of memory techniques that you can use as you review for the finals and, for some of you, for the upcoming bar exam, with the links to my earlier posts.

• Create crossword puzzles to memorize legal terms and concepts.  Puzzle your brain tells you how to do it with the example of the crossword puzzle on the rights and duties of cotenants.   
• Create mnemonics to aid your memory.  Memorize this provides an illustration from Property, Rights of Founders Against the Owners of Land.  And here’s a mnemonic to help with the Rule Against Perpetuities.
• Branch out:  use mind-mapping to create additional study aids.
• Metaphors and associations are great tools to incorporate the new material into your existing knowledge base. Here’s an example from the landlord and tenant law.
• If you find it hard to remember how and when certain rules apply in a sequence, peg the application of those rules to a system that is more memorable and familiar to you.  Here’s an example of a memory peg to remember the interaction between the Rule in Shelley’s Case and the Doctrine of Merger.
• Visit the “memory palace”: 
  First, you choose your “memory palace”, which can be any place or route that you remember well.  Next, you place your thoughts or images that you want to remember next to distinctive points in the rooms of your palace or along your route. Those points serve as memory hooks.  When you need to recall the material, you mentally walk through the palace and “collect” the pieces of information that you left at each distinctive point. 

For more learning techniques, check out the Project Renaissance web site.   

Strike a pose to remember

The works of memory fascinate me.  I’ve already talked about how smells, associations,  images, sounds, and emotions can bring memories back.  Now I can add body postures to the list.  Cognitive Daily describes a new study suggesting that “just holding your body in the right position means you'll have faster, more accurate access to certain memories.”  The subjects were able to remember certain events in their lives faster when they assumed the same positions that their bodies were in when those memories occurred. 

I personally don’t like to sit still for a long period of time.  Now I have a legitimate excuse to move around.  So, next time you need to learn res ipsa loquitur, stand on your head, imagine an ER unit, and reinforce the image with a smell of ether and the sound of ambulance.  Later, when you need to recall the "scalpel left behind," just assume the head-stand position again.      

Holistic learning

In his thought-provoking post How to Ace Finals Without Studying and the follow-up, Scott Young describes holistic learning and its benefits:

Learning holistically is not done by trying to remember information by using repetition and force. Holistic learners instead organize their minds like spider webs. Every piece of information is a single point. That point is then consciously related to tons of other points on the web. There are no boxes with this form of learning. Science becomes literature which becomes economics. Subject distinctions may help when going to class, but a holistic learner never sees things in a box.

The interconnectedness of ideas, concepts, experiences, disciplines is at the heart of holistic learning.  Whether or not you practice holistic learning regularly, I think you are likely to experience the “magic” of holistic learning when you research and write a paper, work on a case in a clinic, or work on a project as an intern.  You don’t try to memorize the material, but the engagement and thinking involved in the process will cause you to remember it even years later.   

Holistic learning is synthesis on steroids.  You establish connections not only between the legal concepts you study, but also link to other disciplines and areas of life in general.  Law is fertile ground for this as it permeates almost everything around us.  In addition, law is constantly evolving, so to understand where a legal standard stands in relation to other rules and doctrines on the grand scheme of things is more important than to know its current interpretation (that doesn’t apply to the bar exam).  It is like star gazing when you identify the stars by their relative positions in the constellation.  Issue-spotting is another context where the holistic approach will serve you well because you have to take the characteristics of the familiar pattern and extend it to a new situation.   

So how do you approach the study of law holistically?  Next time when you struggle to understand a legal concept, consider the following questions:

• What is this concept like?  Think of any association that comes to mind.  Go further and analyze the essential characteristics that make this association work.  Is there a point where the association breaks down? 
• What does this concept remind you of?  Think of what you already know and how it can help you understand this concept better.  Does it involve a process similar to “X”?   Can it be applied just like “Y”?  Does it produce outcomes much like “Z”?   
• How does this concept relate to the previous material?  Here you engage in synthesis. 
• How do you think the doctrine will develop from this point on?  Make some predictions about what’s to come. 
• Do you know of any concrete, real-life scenarios where you can practice applying the theory?  When you encounter or read about various controversies, think of what you know and how it applies to the situation in question. 
• What other disciplines influence the evolution of this concept?  For example, technological developments affect patent law.  Ethics come into play in the regulation of biomedical research.  As you read papers and listen to the news, think of the ways the law may change in the future.
• What areas of life are affected by this concept?  Think of the results and consequences.  Do you like them? 

Mind-mapping can be a great tool to visualize these multiple levels of connections. 

What do you think of holistic learning?  Is it worth the time and effort?  Does it really eliminate the need for the traditional cramming right before the exam?  Have you experienced those "Aha! moments" when
things just "clicked" for you?  How did you get there?

The Name Game in the Memory Palace

If you were to compete in the USA National Memory Championship, you would first have to memorize 99 names and faces in 15 minutes and recall them in 20 minutes. Next, you would memorize an unpublished 50-line poem in 15 minutes, followed by a series of random digits, an arbitrary list of words and a shuffled deck of playing cards.  How do you think you would do?  It turns out that best competitors in the world can memorize a deck of cards in less than a minute.  Joshua Foer describes these exciting memory battles in Forget Me Not: How to Win the U.S. Memory Championship.

Some of the methods used by the competitors originated in the ancient Greece.  In his historic overview of the "science of memory" in Mappa.Mundi Magazine, Carl Malamud tells the story of the poet Simonides of Ceos, who witnessed the destruction of the banquet hall where he sang his poem just minutes before the collapse.   Simonides was able to reconstruct the guest list by visualizing the exact location of every guest at the table.  This visualization technique became known as the “memory palace.”  First, you choose your “memory palace”, which can be any place or route that you remember well.  Next, you place your thoughts or images that you want to remember next to the distinctive points in the rooms of your palace or along your route. Those points serve as memory hooks.  When you need to recall the material, you mentally walk through the palace and “collect” the pieces of information that you left at each distinctive point.  You can use this technique to memorize a presentation or a legal argument, for example. 

What if you have trouble memorizing people’s names?  Play The Name Game and learn 8 tips on how to remember people’s names from memory expert Frank Felberbaum.  Then test his advice at the next networking event. 

What memory techniques do you like to use? 

What advertising can teach us about outlining

Have you ever wondered why a line of a TV commercial can be stuck in your head for years without any effort on your part to memorize it, but an important legal rule may elude you right when you need it most?  Can legal concepts be presented like ads in a magazine?  Consider how certain notions applicable to advertising can be used to make the content of your outline more memorable.

• Function.  Ads inform, persuade and call for action.  What are the objectives of your outline?  Your entries must inform:  state a rule, accurately describe a legal test, provide a holding in a case, etc.   The persuasion part translates into legal reasoning.  Your outline must reflect the reasoning behind the laws.  Finally, it should address the application of the rules and standards.  What can you do with this rule?  That’s your “call for action.”
• Positioning.  In advertising, positioning means identifying the right target audience for your message.   When applied to outlining, positioning signifies the “big picture.”  When you outline, think about how each of your entries relates to other entries.
• Message.  Memorable ads usually convey a single clear message.  When you outline, make sure you break down complex concepts into smaller components.  Take time to distill the main idea from the legal mumbo-jumbo.
• Truthfulness.  Ads must not mislead the customers.  The same is true for the outlines.  The content must be accurate.
• Language.  Advertising phrases are short and punchy, but they remain coherent.  Coherence allows you to reconstruct the full meaning despite the simplified syntactic structures and lack of connectives, such as "and," "so," "therefore," which mark relationships between sentences.  When you outline, get rid of needless words.  At the same time, whatever is left must be sufficient to bring back the full concept. 
• Sings and symbols.  Ads often use signs and symbols that are commonly recognized by the audience, like McDonald’s Golden Arches.  One of the interesting things about sings is that the relationship between the sign and the object it signifies is arbitrary.  Common signs are a matter of convention.  The good news is that you can be creative and invent your own symbols and signs to remember the information better. 
  For example, to remember the charity-to-charity exception to the Rule Against Perpetuities (acronym “RAP”), which applies when both the present and the future estates are created in favor of charities, I use the following phrase:  “Red Cross does not RAP, but it takes two to tango.”  This saying is my memory clue.
• Layout.   The elements of an ad, such as text and images, are organized in a certain way to reinforce the message.  Most students’ outlines are bland.  While adding pictures and colors may seem like extra work, it pays off when you need to recall the information.  You’ve probably heard that the process of outlining is more beneficial than the final result.  You aid your memory when you engage your multiple senses and intelligences while creating the outline.

Do you want your outline to work like an ad?

Smart bites

Today I am serving up a few brainy diet suggestions along with a story of how you can turn a dinner plate into a memory peg. 

For an appetizer, choose among The 29 Healthiest Foods on the Planet, as recommended by Belly Bites (via Lifehack).  How about some crab cakes for vitamin B12 and zinc to boost your immunity?  Or steamed artichokes with zesty lemon juice on top to give you a nice dose of antioxidants?  Plus, the smell of a lemon will invigorate you.

For the main course, fish curry looks good, according to Eat Smart by Christen Brownlee in Science News Online.  The foods you eat affect not only your body, but your brain as well.  You probably already know that fish is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for your brain.  What you may not know is that curcumin  -  a component of the curry spice turmeric -  may reduce the amount of beta-amyloid, a protein that can aggregate into waxy deposits that have been associated with Alzheimer's symptoms.

You can finish your dinner with a choice of Top 10 Foods for a Good Night’s Sleep, suggested by Yahoo! Food.  Sleep allows us to consolidate our memories so that we can learn new things.  Did you know that March 5 – 11 is 2007 National Sleep Awareness Week?  To catch some Z’s, drizzle a little honey in your warm milk or treat yourself to one of the low-fat lullaby muffins, made with whole-wheat flour and bananas (the Yahoo! Food article has the recipe). 

But before you doze off, check out the Waffle House grill cook cheat sheet via information aesthetics.  It illustrates the way in which a cook marks the orders.  For example, a tub of jelly placed upside down at the 6 o'clock position on a dinner plate indicates scrambled eggs and a wheat toast.  It made me wonder if a dinner plate could be used to memorize, let’s say, the filing deadlines for pleadings in the civil procedure rules.  One minute of a clock can represent one day so to remember the deadlines, you would need to visualize the positions of the clock hands.  Then, you can come up with foods for different stages of the process, and you are ready to arrange your “action-plate.”  Is it too much work for what it’s worth?  I don’t know.  Sleep on it. 

8 things that kill learning

Do you know what stands in the way of your learning?  There are many barriers to learning.  Difference people face different challenges.  As you are trying to identify yours, consider the following common enemies of learning:

1. Prolonged stress or depression can affect your memory.  People who are under a lot of stress or suffer from depression show elevated levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that appears to shrink the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with memory and other cognitive functions.   
2. Lack of sleep can also impair memory and alertness.  Sleep allows us to consolidate memories, find creative solutions to problems, re-energize.  Don’t sacrifice sleep if you want to learn.
3. Negative attitude towards learning can sabotage your efforts.  Maybe, school was hard for you and you convinced yourself that you were not up to the task.  Perhaps, you study only for external recognition, such as a degree, certification, or promotion, and you don’t value the process itself.  Or you feel guilty that you have been a student for far too long instead of making money in the real world.  What are your mental roadblocks to learning? 
4. Irrelevance derails the learning process.  Would you rather learn one hundred made-up words that have no use in real life or one hundred words of Italian if you know that you will go to Italy in a month?   There are lots of things that compete for our attention at any given moment.  The information that is relevant to us and that we can apply in the real world has a higher chance of making it into our long-term memory.  Sometimes, the trick is to figure out how to make the material that you are studying relevant to your goals. 
5. Too much explanation or too little explanation can inhibit learning.  Learning happens in stages.  When you are given lots of detail up front when you have not had a change to get the basics, you are likely to feel overwhelmed.  In addition, our brains are wired to solve problems.  We tend to remember things better if we have struggled to find the answer ourselves.  That’s why it may be counterproductive to start reading treatises and outlines before you have had a chance to grapple with the issues on your own.  On the other hand, the lack of explanation can leave us confused because we haven’t found a way to link the new information to what we already know.   As many things in life, it is a matter of balance. 
6. Poor time management jeopardizes your learning objectives.  Learning requires the time commitment not only to acquire new information, but also to review regularly the old material.  You must develop a studying schedule and stick to it. 
7. Lack of feedback hinders learning.  If you don’t get feedback, you can’t learn from your past actions and you can’t measure your progress. 
8. Lack of support creates anxiety that’s not good for learning.  We learn better in collaborative environments than in highly competitive ones.  If you are afraid of making a mistake or being ridiculed, you won’t take risks and you won’t learn.

What kills your learning? 

Take a nap

Continuous self-improvement requires discipline and sacrifice.  At least, that’s what performance gurus and self-help books tell us.  Is there a lazy way to perfection?  The answer may be a surprising “yes,” according to Dr. Sara Mednick.  Dr. Mednick studies how napping can improve human performance.  In our busy, sleep-deprived world, taking a nap in the middle of the day sounds like a luxury we don’t have time for.   But Dr. Mednick says that in reality, it is wasteful not to nap because we rob ourselves of such essential elements of productivity as endurance, alertness, attention, energy, creativity.  I first heard an interview with Dr. Mednick through The Theater of the Mind podcast, in which she described her research and her recent book Take a Nap! Change you life.  Her studies show that you can target different aspects of performance by varying the time and duration of your naps.  Morning naps can boost creativity, while afternoon naps help to absorb large quantities of information and improve memory.  You can learn more about the power of napping and read sample chapters at Dr. Mednick’s website.  A Nap Wheel on the website will help you design your customized nap schedule for optimum results.  Mine is showing that it’s time for my nap.  Efficient napping requires practice, so I better go.  Wouldn’t you like to be good at napping?   

Do you smell success?

Matthew Stibbe of Bad Language shares great tips on How to learn things.  He must know a thing or two about learning:  he used the techniques to learn Dutch, prepare for a test in medieval history, and study for his commercial pilot’s license.  Many thanks to Raymond Ward for letting me know about this site.  Smell-coding intrigued me so much that I decided to visit The Sense of Smell Institute to investigate the olfactory function further. 

It turns out that the smell-coding technique involves associative learning – a process by which you link one item, in this case the subject matter you are studying, to another item – a particular aroma.  Later, when you need to recall the material you were studying, you help your memory by smelling the aroma associated with that material. 

I've also found out that people form strong associations between odors and emotions that they experience when they are exposed to the odors.  The odor can elicit the corresponding emotion, so be aware of the effect of aromas on your mood.  This effect can be either positive or negative.  For example, if you experienced frustration while learning how to swim in a swimming pool, you may have associated the smell of chlorine in the water with the emotion of frustration.  Later, if you are exposed to chlorinated water, the smell can make you feel frustrated.  On the other hand, if you have personally meaningful smells that make you happy, relaxed, focused, etc., you can use those smells to trigger the desired emotions. 

Essential oils can also enhance performance.  For instance, citrus smells promote mental awareness and concentration, so try using orange or lemon oil when you study.  Peppermint improves the performance of clerical tasks by increasing attention.  Lavender will calm your nerves, smell it when you need to make a presentation in front of a large group.  The perfume of cacao activates the production of endorphins that make us happy, so we can pass on that chocolate bar (well…I am not sure about that, the more the merrier).  Rose essence gives the sense of harmony and security. Check out the Alphabet of Smell to find out more about the meaning of various aromas.

Have you had any experience with aromatherapy?  Does it help you to work, learn, relax?  Share your comments!

A peg memory technique

If you find it hard to remember how and when certain legal rules apply in a sequence, you can try pegging the application of those rules to a system that is more memorable and familiar to you.  Here is an example from the area of trusts and estates.   Let’s say that I want to remember that the Rule in Shelley’s Case and the Doctrine of Merger can apply sequentially in certain conveyances.  I will illustrate it with the following hypothetical:

O deeds the property to A for life, then to A’s heirs.  Describe the interests conveyed and retained in this transaction in a jurisdiction where the Rule in Shelley’s Case applies. (Most states have abolished the Rule in Shelley’s case by statute.)

Answer:
In form, O intended to create a life estate in A and a contingent remainder in A’s heirs (it is contingent because living persons have no heirs).  However, under the Rule in Shelley’s Case, the remainder interest that is created in favor of A’s heirs is deemed to be limited in favor of A.  Therefore, A has both the life estate and the next vested remainder.  At this juncture, the Doctrine of Merger applies, merging the life estate and the next vested estate to give A a fee simple absolute.

To help me remember the application of the Rule in Shelley’s Case and the Doctrine of Merger, I am going to invoke a traffic theme.   Since the letter ‘A’ is often used in hypotheticals to refer to a grantee, I will call the application of the Doctrine of Merger after the operation of the Rule in Shelley’s Case the ‘AAA Rule’ after the well-known emergency road service: 
A’s life estate + A’s vested remainder = A’s fee simple absolute.

I will also use the merging traffic sign to reinforce my recall of the  Merger Doctrine and the fact that the Merger Doctrine applies only when A has both the life estate and the vested remainder that immediately follows the life estate (only two roads next to each other can merge). 

Continuing with my traffic theme, I will also remember that the Rule in Shelley’s case is a rule of law just like a rule of the road, and not a rule of construction, and therefore, it applies even if the grantor intended otherwise. 

In this example, I pegged less memorable legal rules and applications to familiar traffic concepts to assist my memory.

Related posts:
Healthy Bites
How to use metaphors and associations to aid your memory
Branch out:  mind-mapping
Memorize this
Puzzle your brain

Ready to use or ready to lose?

Have you noticed how well items are packaged these days?  I can’t open anything without cutting my fingers.  Yesterday, I fought a plastic wrap on a tea box for much longer than such a simple task should take.  Do you know that they sell CD and DVD openers now?  I expect to see the following message on a box soon:  “Batteries included.  Box opener sold separately to prevent tampering.”   Then again, maybe I should look for the clues more carefully:  a red string to pull or a scissor line to tear.  I am afraid, I am too impatient for that.

It got me thinking about how information is packaged these days.  In our fast-pace life, how much time and effort are we willing to spend on acquiring knowledge we need?  Internet makes it very easy to access information.  We are accustomed to punching in a few words into a search engine and getting hundreds of pages of stuff.  Wealth of information is at our fingertips. But does it make us more impatient and less inclined to dig deeper in our search for meaning?  Are we relying too much on the sources whose credibility we cannot verify?

The other side of the spectrum is the knowledge that we have to struggle to receive.  You can’t become a lawyer just by surfing the net.  You have to read cases, brief them, endure the Socratic questioning, outline.  Sometimes, it seems easier to pick up a study aid instead.  There is an abundance of commercial outlines, hornbooks, nutshells.  Even students’ briefs and outlines are available online.  The thing is, though, that even if you read all of them, it won’t make you a lawyer.  Don’t get me wrong, I think study aids have their place and purpose in legal education.  I have personally used some.  But their purpose is to aid, not to substitute for the real work.  Our brains don’t like to be spoon-fed information.  We are wired to solve problems.  Our brains like challenges even if it feels like your head is about to split.  We remember things better if we had to struggle to understand them.  We have to own the material to turn it into the ready-to-use knowledge.  Otherwise, we lose it.   I guess, sometimes, we just have to fight through the bubble wrap because it is there for a purpose.   

How to jazz up your notes

I don’t know about you, but I like to give some texture to my text.  A simple change in the layout or format of the text can boost comprehension and recall.   It's like providing your brain with navigation tools.  I don’t like the densely-typed sameness that goes on and on for pages.  I get lost in such notes like in certain suburban neighborhoods where every house looks alike. A few days ago, I read an interesting article on How Users Read on the Web.  It turns out they don’t.  Most people just scan websites, looking for key words and ideas.  I see some similarities with student notes.  Students diligently take notes, but they don’t really want to read them again.  Perhaps, the following tips for web writing can be applied to note-taking to improve readability and retention:

• Highlight keywords.
• Use meaningful subheadings.
• Use bullet points or numbers to list items.
• Start a new paragraph for each new idea.
• Be concise. 

For note-takers, I would add:

• Develop a system of abbreviations and symbols for frequently used words and concepts.
• Use visuals, such as tables, time lines, concept trees, mind maps whenever you can.

Perhaps, if you jazz up your notes, you are more likely to go back and review them after all.  What do you think?

Related posts:
Branch out:  mind-mapping
A few notes on note-taking

Get excited!

You’ve probably heard the saying: if you don’t like the results, do something different.  Well… sometimes, things that you least expect to help you produce surprisingly positive outcomes.  I’ve recently read two posts that seem to support this phenomenon. 

Lifehack featured the post How to Get Started on Anything from Smart Graduate School Applications.   It discusses how sipping coffee motivates the author to begin a task that is not very appealing otherwise.  The positive emotion generated by the coffee spills over to the project at hand.  So, next time you need to start on something boring, trick your brain first by doing something that gets you excited. Your attitude towards the task may improve as a result.   

The second post deals with the effect of emotional words on memory.  According to ScienceBlogs,  If You Want Someone to Remember What You Said, Cuss.  Experiments show that we remember swear and taboo words better than neutral words.  More importantly, the emotional words enhance memory of the context in which they are used, so it appears that we remember the boring stuff better if it is sprinkled with words that trigger shock or surprise.  If there is any study group out there that decides to try this one out, let me know if it works. 

Do you have similar tricks that enhance your learning?  I’d love to hear them.

Healthy bites

Did you know that your brain uses 20 to 25 percent of the total energy  you consume?  The better nourishment you provide for you brain, the better it works for you. But do you want to waste your mental power on planning healthy meals in the midst of studying for exams? Probably not, that’s why I’ve decided to share with you one of my favorite quick brain-friendly snacks – my hot pita sandwich. 

Preheat the over to 350F.  Place a whole-wheat pita on a baking sheet, you don’t need to cut or open the pita.  Put a few slices of the red bell pepper on top, spice it up with salt and pepper.  Next, add some deli turkey and top it off with a slice of mozzarella cheese.  Put the sandwich in the oven until the cheese melts and turns golden brown in spots.  Enjoy!  If you don’t eat meat, a nice substitute combination would be a plum tomato, fresh basil leaves, and mozzarella cheese.  And have a cup of green tea instead of a sugar- or aspartame-laden soda.  It contains caffeine, so it will give you an energy boost.  In addition, the polyphenols and tannins found in green tea have been shown to improve the brain function. 

I also have a dessert for your memory.  Do you remember which interests can be potentially affected by the Rule Against Perpetuities?

The following interests may violate the Rule Against Perpetuities:

1) vested remainders subject to open;

2) contingent remainders;

3) executory interests.

You can remember them by the mnemonic: 

RAP STOPS CORE EXECS.

RAP = Rule Against Perpetuities

STOP = Vested Remained Subject T