Thinking About the Thought Organ

A friend from school sent me this article on the brain and adults ability to learn new information. It is interesting and made me think…
Retention is something that plagues me with my school work. I just can’t seem to memorize facts the way I used to. I often resort to creating elaborate stories to relate information I am learning to things that are a part of my everyday life so that a person, object or event in my daily life will repeatedly make me recall something I am learning and hopefully help me internalize by test time. And along the same line, where the article states that adult brains rely on “similarity of sounds” in order to recall information, such as names, reminds me a lot of my own method of going through each letter of the alphabet mentally to recall a name. For some reason, if I focus on a particular letter and its sound, with the intention of trying to figure out a word or name I have forgotten, it helps me to remember what it starts with, then eventually I remember what it is I am trying to recall.
I have always been intrigued by the human brain. It truely is like a giant sponge, able to absorb massive amounts of information and hold it within. We know that children, especially in their earliest years are capable of absorbing and retaining even the most complex information. We also know that it seems the younger the brain that is absorbing information, the greater the retention, recall and affect that the information has. When we get older, our brain sponges are so full and heavy that information may begin to simply try to find free space where it can be stored. Maybe this is part of the problem- with limited free space left information is not able to order itself in meaningful ways; organize information according to type and use.
Several images appear when I think of this theory. The first is walking into an almost full movie theater, where available seats are scattered between groups of people because people tend to leave one or two seats between their group and others. People who arrive late often can’t find a group of seats together. Another image that conjures up is a computer that needs its files de-fragmented. The computer does not operate at an optimal speed of information recall when files are not compressed and organized efficiently, but spread out and saved only where there is free space.
Much the same as a computer, or a sponge, or the movie theater with several groups randomly spread, our brain sometimes need to be re-organized, useless info needs to be squeezed out to make space for more important things.
I think this is why journaling is such a useful tool. It allows for the brain to rid itself of things that are not important for long term retention, so that the brain can make room for important things. I notice that schools are utilizing journaling a lot these days- definitely more than it was used when I was in my primary and secondary school. I wonder if it is intentionally for this purpose- a result of research- or if it is simply a useful side effect to something that is used mostly as a literacy tool.
The psychological impact of journal writing was something that was greatly stressed when I worked in holistic health care. It was a great tool for helping people overcome somatic patterns. I also found it a useful suggestion for people with memory issues, trauma recall and emotional instability. I basically would recommend it anytime I sensed someone was not grounded.
I find it extremely interesting when I can draw correlations between my former career and teaching. Its amazing to discover how tools used for educational purpose can transcend academics and become valuable to other levels of the human experience. It’s another level of education to consider.