Developing and improving your memory power (course I attended on 25 July, 2008)

Three processes of memory: experience / learn, store & recall

Two types of memory: 
Type 1: Short-term memory: phone number, prices, menu
Type 2: Long-term memory: information you try to remember
- Episodic memories （情景的记忆）: personal memories, experiences at specific time
- Semantic memories（语义的记忆）: factual data, not bound to time or place
- Procedural memories（程序性的记忆）: skills and routes that you perform regularly; require no conscious recall

Three steps to memory:
Step 1. Acquisition:
- New information enters the brain.
- Key is concentration
- Avoid "in one ear and out the other"

Step 2. Consolidation:
- Concentration; encodes the information

Step 3. Retrieval:
- Brain activates the same pattern of nerve cells.

Rule of Five: Immediately > 24 hours > 7 days > 4 weeks > 3 months

Engaging means interesting to read

I attended a training on how to engage readers. Herewith three core elements:

1. Unity: deals with only ONE objective / idea

2. Coherence: linkage between one sentence to another and then one paragraph to another.

3. Connection to readers:
- Intellectual connection
- Emotional connection: how do I feel about this text?