Are People's Judgments Rational And Stable or What?

Are People’s Judgments Rational And Stable or What?

21st Century Science: If you are a lifelong learner and want a healthy mind-body connection and longevity, you have to consistently and persistently use your brain to keep learning.
What does that really mean? How?

Did you know up to half of folks over 80-years old either have Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia? You are going to live into your nineties so a healthy brain and longevity matter to you, right?

Read everything in sight includes labels. Get an Amazon Electronic Reader (Kindle), and read a minimum of one-hour daily. Read what? Grab an exciting novel or a great How-to textbook, but read. Why? All reading and new learning has a cumulative effect in your brain and produces Cognitive Reserve.

Cognitive Reserve

What’s that and why should we care? Cognitive Reserve is a protective shield in your brain to reduce the incidence of ALZ and dementia up to 80%. It comes from years of active thinking, learning and reading.

In November 2008 the first scientific research was published in the Archives of Neurology. So what?

You and I care because the heart of this research using brain scanning concluded: the greater our Cognitive Reserve from learning and reading, the less damage from Beta Amyloid Plaques – causing reduced loss of mind-power from Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.

How

Learn the rules of New board games, play Bridge, teach something you know to kids or adults, engage in Jeopardy TV questions, and don’t laugh, study the vocabulary of a new language. Thinking, reading and learning is your Silver Bullet to mental health success.

Who says so? Google: Yaacov Stern, professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is the international expert on avoiding ALZ through Cognitive Reserve. Wait - only Google him if you want to live into your nineties with a healthy brain.

Remember Stupid Stuff, But Use Your Long-Term Memory

What is the population of the U.S. on 3.11.11? Answer: 310 million folks.

What is the population on the planet Earth? Answer: 7 Billion people.

Can you remember that to win a PRIZE? Well the prize is your healthy brain and longevity.

How many people in the world are LEFT-HANDED? Answer: 11 percent of the population.

How Do We Remember Stuff

There are three-ways to feed information into your long-term memory: the most common is repetition. Start by repeating the new idea, word or name silently or out-loud to yourself 10x. Now test yourself to see if you really own the new knowledge.

If you repeat this new stuff up to 10 times today, and test yourself, and another 10 more times tomorrow, you almost got it. Test yourself again a week from now – repeat it another 10x, and you own it permanently in long-term memory. Just remember – do it like you mean it, not as a boring chore.

Association Strategy

The second strategy for long-term memory is Association. It means connecting something NEW with information already located in your long-term memory. Ask yourself questions like - what does this new idea or word remind me of? What does it sound like?

Link (connect) the new idea, name or a word with old-stuff you already know and own. Example:

I met a new friend named Dennis Kennedy, and normally I would forget his name in sixty-seconds, just like you.

I remembered the old TV show – Dennis-the-Menace, and I will never forget his name because of the law of association. Kennedy was easy; I pictured him in the White House. An association is a Link from one new idea, word or name - to an old one I already know, right? Your brain and everybody else’s love images (pictures). That is your easy LINK to long-term memory. We remember in pictures.

Listen: we remember in mental images (pictures or mental-movies). I can see (imagine) that bratty TV kid – Dennis-the-Menace. I will always identify my friend with that mental image. Never will I forget his name because I associate it with a picture in my long-term memory having emotional relevance.
And I know John Kennedy was the 35th President. Dennis Kennedy – locked into my long-term memory.

Third Strategy

Third, go to Radio Shack and get a Digital Electronic Recorder. Speak what you want to remember into your recorder. Now make it a habit to review your new ideas, words or names for just five-minutes toward the end of your day. Really, we use the high-tech recorder and capture (remember) tons of new interesting stuff. Why bother?

Fact: Cognitive Reserve is your brain’s resiliency (bounce-back) to damage from ALZ and other forms of dementia, right? Thinking, learning and reading produce positive rewards. Choose to win the Prize of an active and protected brain. You will absolutely live better and longer. Yes, really.

Oh yeah, it is absolutely today’s Science, not mere superstition. Do you care about your brain? Improve your mental-resiliency – give your brain bounce-back power through fun learning games.

Right-Handed

About 90% of us are right-handed, but so what? Listen up: we associate the right side of space with all things good, and the left-side with lousy stuff. Concepts of good and bad are locked into our bodily experiences. Our dominant hand creates how we decide what to choose.

Science

When folks who were right-hand were asked what to buy either the item on their right-side or their left, guess which one they consistently and repeatedly chose? Wait. When asked which person to hire in a Job interview, the person on their right or left – they always went with the applicant on their right.

One more – when asked which person appeared to be more intelligent, the woman on their right or their left – predict which one they decided was smarter? They identified all things good with their dominant hand. Lefties did just the opposite. The key point is that it was all on auto-pilot, deciding and choosing without having any conscious knowledge of WHY they loved all things – on the right.

Who Says

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania offer the evidence, and their work was published in the journal Psychological Science, March 9, 2011. The lead author was Professor Daniel Casasanto, and even he was surprised by the power of our dominant hand.

Think of ordinary English – we love to be “in-the-right”, and hate to be “out-in-left-field”. Lefties see the exact opposite. The professor says, “People can act more fluently (flowing – smoothly and easily) using their dominant-hand. We come to identify – unconsciously associate good-things - with our fluent side of space.”

The scientists clinched their argument by putting a large glove on the dominant hand, and righties changed to lefties after a short while of using their now dominant left-hand. Your fluent, dominant hand changes how you make decisions and choose.

Now think of how you want to arrange things because the world is 89% righties? This is practical stuff and can help you win promotions, raises, and more profits. Knowledge is power. More knowledge is greater power than your peers. Maybe you want to specialize in promoting to lefties. How?

See ya,

Copyright 2011 H. Bernard Wechsler

P.S. We have about two-dozen free, no strings attached, excellent reports on how to be a speed reader. We have many experiences that those who learn speed reading win more promotions, raises and profits. Ask us for a free copy. The author wrote the best-seller, Speed Reading For Professionals, published by Barron’s – the financial magazine.
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