Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

In a recent discussion about human brains ... with Gus Gustavus at Montgomery College-Rockville ... I was reminded of several memory myths it pays to forget.

Fall for these fables … and you’ll likely limit your brain’s basal ganglia operations ... which hold long term memories. The myths also shortchange the brain’s working memory from yielding its extravagant dividends. Have you seen it happen?

Recent research is yielding magic keys about how to remember more. How so?

In this month’s cover story The Brain at Work at HR Magazine we’re reminded how scientists once believed that the brain was “hard-wired” early in life. They now know that the brain of a 71-year-old is the same as the brain of a 17-year-old in its ability to make new connections. Unfortunately, most people stop learning meaningful new concepts around age 30, and the brain’s ability to learn and remember begins to shrink. It doesn’t need to be that way.

To benefit from new research about memory … is first to abandon several commonly held myths:

1. A stroke destroys memories – while strokes can wipe out memories … it’s also true that memory will return at times. Watch the brief video story  of a brain scientist who reported how this happened during her own stroke.

2. Younger leaders have better recall than their older counterparts. Newer and younger managers at times sideline older workers unfairly … which is in sharp contrast with research about how to rejuvenate older remembrance neurons. If age holds you back you’d enjoy watching a brain’s MRI.

3. The more memory the better at work. It’s not always so. When he scored 125 on an IQ test a man was refused the job of police officer. The reason? He remembers too much and officers in charge decided he’d be bored on the job.

4. Men and women remember similarly. In reality men’s and women’s brains are wired to recall different events in very different ways … and what they remember also differs. Watch this hilarious video … that reflects core contrasts between genders.

5. We need alarm clocks to recall when to wake up. Truth is that people who retire at about the same time … and in the same setting remember when to awaken. Their internal brain clocks often need no alarm clock to help. All is disrupted however when the clock changes its routines and your internal clock races to keep up.

6. Music and violent recollections are unrelated.  Music alters brain waves. It adds to focus and can increase memories for  peaceful benefits ... often forgotten when violence dominates.

7. Listen harder to remember more. Research suggests that we learn and remember 90% more by teaching than by listening. That’s why it’s better to teach your dog than to listen to a lecture.

8. Alzheimer’s disease inevitably robs memory.  A great deal is written lately about nuns who learned to beat the pathology of aging and then worked to reduce the damage of memory loss by ratcheting up their mental functions. Research is still showing the amazing results from these nuns, many of whom are now in their late 80s and 90s.

9. Memory capacity is fixed. We each possess multiple intelligences … each with its own memory … and these develop and grow with use. Research shows how people can boost their business intelligence and working memory in ways that benefit career growth.  It’s simply a matter of inserting one new practice that rolls out reminiscence from different areas of the brain.

10. Human memory is always superior to animal recall. Not always so … according to test scores for working memory competitions between chimps and college students. Overall the chimps won.

New research on memory appears weekly … and up-to-date facts help to dispel  myths about memory … that are best forgotten. Not that these discoveries will impact workplaces immediately though. Why not?

Who’d believe … for instance … that higher education leads to memory loss in later years? That memory reshapes nightly  sleep? That the human brain deliberately forgets names for a good reason? Lunch can spike or squash memory? Stress shrinks the brain and shuts down memory? What you smell triggers what you remember?

What have you observed lately ... that sheds new light on some magical element of memory?

Additional posts on this topic:

http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0308/0308fox.asp

http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2008/03/brain_scientist_reports_on_her.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2006/10/does_age_hold_you_back_watch_a.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2008/02/the_tale_of_mens_and_womens_br.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2008/03/do_brains_spring_forward_with.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2008/02/north_korea_wired_on_music.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/12/higher_education_shifts_brainp.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/11/reshape_your_brain_while_you_s.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/10/why_your_brain_fights_to_forge.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/10/10_mental_problems_or_power_pa.html
http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/09/another_look_inside_your_brain.html