Feats Of Memory Research Articles

Characterizing mature human intelligence: Expertise development

Results from a study of 263 male players at 48 levels of expertise in the game of GO, and ranging from 18 to 78 years of age, suggest a need to revise the extended theory of fluid (Gf) and crystallized (Gc) intelligence to take account of continued development of intelligence throughout adulthood. The extended theory of Gf–Gc is based on evidence that Gf, short-term apprehension and retrieval (SAR) and cognitive speed (Gs), decline with age over adulthood. Results from a number of studies, however, suggest that within the domains of expertise, high levels of reasoning, feats of memory and speeded thinking similar to Gf are displayed by older adults. To explore this hypothesis, measures of reasoning, memory and cognitive speed were constructed within the domain of expertise related to playing the complex game of GO. Analysis of the structure of the GO-embedded measures and standard measures of Gf (SAR and Gs) indicated a form of short-term memory — labeled expertise working memory (EWM) — that had substantially wider span than the short-term working memory (STWM) of SAR. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that long-term working memory is built up during the course of developing high levels of expertise. The results also suggest that a form of expertise deductive reasoning (EDR), utilizing EWM and incorporating large stores of knowledge, is distinct from Gf. Expertise cognitive speed (ECS), however, was not found to be reliably distinct from the Gs factor. Analyses of cross-sectional age differences indicate an age-related decline in both EDR and EWM, but as higher levels of expertise are reached, age-related decline does not occur. To the extent that there is continued press to advance expertise throughout adulthood, there may be improvement, not decline, in the EDR and EWM forms of intelligence.

Star wars and strategic defense initiatives: work activity and health symptoms of unionized bank tellers during work reorganization.

Work activity and health symptoms of bank tellers whose work was undergoing reorganization were examined during a university-union study of the health effects of work in women's traditional jobs. Data were gathered through collective and individual interviews, analysis of work activity, and a questionnaire administered to 305 tellers. Employees worked in a standing posture over 80 percent of the time. More than two-thirds frequently suffered pain in back, legs, and feet. The average teller had been involved in 3.7 robberies as a direct victim and six as a witness. Work required feats of memory and concentration. In order to meet job demands, tellers engaged in supportive activities and teamwork. The introduction of individualized objectives threatened the employees' ability to collaborate and induced distress. More than twice as many tellers as other female workers in Québec experience psychological distress (Ilfeld scale), related to: robbery during the past two years (odds ratio = 1.7; confidence interval = 1.0-2.9); difficult relations with superiors (O.R. = 2.6; C.I. = 1.3-5.3); and full-time work (O.R. = 2.3; C.I. = 1.3-3.9). Diverse methods enriched the analysis, and union participation allowed the proposal of concrete correction measures.

Teaching the prototype differential equation of physics

It is suggested that the second-order ordinary inhomogeneous differential equation with constant coefficients, which is sufficient for virtually all problems that confront the first-year physics undergraduate should be solved, at least at some stage, by a rigorous method. The proposed method automatically includes all special cases naturally and obviously and requires no feats of memory. This contrasts with the traditional panoply of largely unjustified and sometimes dubious tricks and strategems. The method also has the advantage, of more recent significance, that the solution is in a form such that, if analytically intractable, it can be immediately computed.

Fragments of genius: the strange feats of idiots savants

Some remarkable individuals explaining feats of memory the independence of human skills calendar calculating mentally handicapped artists.

The way we teach: topographical anatomy.

The topographical anatomy of the human body is a necessary study for medical students. It is often regarded by them as a ‘difficult’ subject, whether taught as a pre-clinical discipline or as part of an integrated undergraduate course. In October 1984 the teaching of Anatomy at Sheffield University Medical School was radically changed. Consideration of fundamental educational principles led to us moving the emphasis away from dissection and phenomenal feats of memory, towards acquisition of more efficient and exciting learning skills and cognitive patterns. This paper aims to give an account of the background to our changes, going on to describe both theories and practices. Ongoing plans for objective evaluation of curriculum change are reported, and a critical discussion of our achievement so far is included.

Surveying Deep-Draught Routes

Before the war it would have been comparatively easy for anyone interested to quote the names of all the really large ships afloat, if not some of their vital statistics. To do so today would require a considerable feat of memory as the number of vessels in the 50,000 ton and upwards class has reached almost 200 with, in recent years, a growing emphasis on those of over 100,000 tons. In the last few years no less than 51 of these monsters of over 100,000 tons have appeared at sea representing about 1/10th of the total world tonnage completed during that period. There are several 326,000 tonners ploughing the seas; 350–375,000 tonners are on the slips, with 750,000 tonners on the drawing boards and the possibility of topping the 1 million mark in the future.

ESP: A Scientific Evaluation

Over the last years, extrasensory perception has been increasingly accepted by the scientific community. Its special interest to physicians probably centers around communication, since ESP implies that unspoken feelings or ideas can directly influence others. An evaluative review of ESP, with emphasis on its probable limitations and potentialities, would be welcome. This book serves a different purpose. It is essentially a debater's clever argument for the negative; interesting and important to the ESP specialist but too slanted for an introductory survey. The core of the book is a detailed procedural examination of three classic ESP experiments. For each, the author demonstrates how the participants could have cheated if they chose. Suggested methods of cheating seem far-fetched: they demand the collusion of three investigators of unblemished reputation, or feats of memory, or a hypothetical, invisible accomplice. The book gives no evidence for fraud in two experiments and debatable evidence in the

THE IDIOT SAVANT

Amazing feats of memory have always attracted attention. A few musicians, mathematicians, chess players, and stage performers have taken advantage of this talent, and are still remembered for their astounding performances (Scholes, 1950; Pritchard, 1940). More remarkable still are the special talents which have been reported in persons who are otherwise backward, and who have been described as Idiots Savant. With the emphasis on accurate etiological diagnosis in mental deficiency, the idiot savant is passing into limbo; yet we believe these patients will always be remembered as a group apart, and that the term is useful as a theoretical abstraction. The rarity of the idiot savant does not minimize his importance, for by its very exaggeration an abnormal phenomenon, on investigation, may lead to new insights into normal mechanisms-in this case the acquisition of skills.

The idiot savant.

Amazing feats of memory have always attracted attention. A few musicians, mathematicians, chess players, and stage performers have taken advantage of this talent, and are still remembered for their astounding performances (Scholes, 1950; Pritchard, 1940). More remarkable still are the special talents which have been reported in persons who are otherwise backward, and who have been described as Idiots Savant. With the emphasis on accurate etiological diagnosis in mental deficiency, the idiot savant is passing into limbo; yet we believe these patients will always be remembered as a group apart, and that the term is useful as a theoretical abstraction. The rarity of the idiot savant does not minimize his importance, for by its very exaggeration an abnormal phenomenon, on investigation, may lead to new insights into normal mechanisms-in this case the acquisition of skills.

DISCUSSION

This ‘g’ trouble is a widespread symptom of some basic misunderstandings in mechanics. Evidently it troubles the students at the Imperial College, as Mr Francis's article in the February issue indicates, as well as those hoping to gain certificates and diplomas in the technical colleges. In certain branches of study, structures and strengths of materials and other subjects largely based on statics, it can almost be forgotten. However as soon as dynamics arises, say in mechanics of machines, we are right in the ‘g’ muddle. Even here some students, by feats of memory, get by without resolving the confusions in their concepts of force and mass. In fluid mechanics there is no such way out. Viscosity units are arbitrarily expressed in either mass or force units (M L—1 T—1 or F T L—2) and still further these may occur in f.p.s., f.s.s. or c.g.s. and, if heat transfer problems enter, then time may be in hours.

Pepys, Fuller and an Archbishop

Among young Samuel Pepys's many acquaintances was Thomas Fuller, antiquary, historian, preacher, biographer and wit. Fuller died on August 16, 1661, but he had previously appeared more than once in the Diary. On May 17, 1660, Pepys had a rapturously busy time at court: “After that, going to see the Queen of Bohemia, I met with Dr. Fuller, whom I sent to a tavern with Mr. Edw. Pickering, while I and the rest went to see the Queen. …” Early the next year (January 5, 1661), “Several people came to me about business, among others the great Tom Fuller, who came to desire a kindness for a friend of his … which I promised to do.” Later in the month (January 22) “I met with Dr. Thomas Fuller and took him to the Dog, where he tells me of his last and great book that is coming out: that is, his History of all the Families in England; and could tell me more of my own, than I knew myself.” In the same conversation Fuller talked with great complacence and detail about his own feats of memory. Twice Pepys heard Fuller preach: the first time (February 3, 1661), he commended a point made by the speaker, but on May 12, 1661, he was forced to admit, “methought it was a poor dry sermon.” He heard of Fuller's death, “of a sort of fever” then prevalent, on the day it occurred, and called him “the famous Tom Fuller.”

A Feat of Memory

THE following feat of memory seems to be worthy of record in your pages. It is new to the writer, though by no means uncommon over here.

Extraordinary Feat of memory

Extraordinary Feat of memory