Shadowing Practice: Our memory - A phenomenal storage system | DW Documentary - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Memory, the vast storage system in our brain.
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We learn more easily by visualizing things in our mind's eye.
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People get so stressed at the train station, checking their ticket repeatedly, wondering, do I have to go to platform 7 now?
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Then I imagine the seven dwarves on the platform.
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Yes, that's right, there were the seven dwarves.
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You don't think, was it eight or six?
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It was seven.
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If we don't repeat something, we forget.
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If I haven't worked on the text for a long time and then I act it out again, it comes automatically when I start acting because my body has memorized it.
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Memory has a lot to do with our personality because the conscious and unconscious, what we store, influences us in our daily lives.
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I'm still searching for myself.
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It's sometimes like being two different people, except that you're in the same body.
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We remember what moved us.
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Our memory is the thread that runs through our existence.
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I'd go so far as to say that we are our memories.
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They define us.
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This invisible network in our brain is responsible for many vital functions.
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But how can we get the most out of our memory?
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I always say that the brain is like a muscle.
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If you don't use it, it atrophies.
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It can also be reactivated through training.
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Memories from the past influence how I feel in the present.
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That's a big part of my personality.
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I'm Hannah Monnier, Director of Clinical Neurobiology.
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The department is based at Heidelberg University Hospital and the DKFZ, the German Cancer Research Center.
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I'm interested in what happens in our brains when we learn, when we retrieve what we've learned, and when we store it again.
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My friends always say I have an elephant's memory.
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Elephants remember things forever.
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That's how it is for me.
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I remember a lot of things that have happened.
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I can retain texts for a long time.
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My name is Henrietta Hötze.
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I'm 31 years old from Radeboil, Dresden.
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I'm currently working at the State Theatre Dresden and studied acting in Leipzig at the University of Music and Theatre.
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For me, it's special to be able to express myself in different ways.
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I've always been interested in using my body in some way, pushing myself to extremes.
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And I find acting brings all of that together.
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Hello, have you guys finished yet?
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No, you're still going. That was so good.
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Do you really move like that?
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The memory plays an extremely important role in my profession, because I have to memorize an awful lot of text.
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Plus choreography, plus singing, dancing, all kinds of things.
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Right now I'm scheduled for say 7 to 8 productions, regular monthly productions.
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And on top of that I've got rehearsals for a new play where I have to learn my lines.
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It's really amazing the compartments you have in your brain, the little drawers you have everywhere, where you keep the texts,
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put them away, and then a few weeks later open a drawer for a certain piece, take everything out again and close another drawer instead.
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So there's always something going on in your head.
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Some people just have this gift of hearing something once and remembering it.
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Remembering it for a long time.
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And there are others who have to work very hard to memorize a poem.
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That's not directly related to intelligence.
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It's related to this gift of memory.
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I have to remember better or worse.
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I wear the traces of the one who comes to a certain hours.
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But sometimes I have these rituals where I sing a song or two while putting on my makeup or recite a text.
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.. or impfed to be.
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.. a small old frigid, without a gift.
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A small old frigid...
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A small old frigid, but ruined!
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You pull your brain out of that state when you're going around in circles.
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If you can't think of it, you pull back, think of something else.
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And sometimes it comes back because it's stored.
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I sometimes take a gamble and jump into it because I find it kind of interesting to see what's there.
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But I wouldn't do that if I hadn't often had the experience that everything is there.
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But for the monologue, for example, I always go through it beforehand,
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usually during the When I memorize a poem, when I memorize the Earl King, I have to repeat it.
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I have to train these synapses.
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And once I've done that enough, I'll keep it in my memory.
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We've all done exams and know full well that in a year's time we won't remember most of it anymore.
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But we don't need it anymore either anymore.
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But we don't need it anymore either.
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If we need it, we'll review it.
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We'll find it easier to relearn the Earl King a year later, and we'll definitely retain it for longer.
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When we learn or form a memory, the nerve cells in our brain change.
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An event or a piece of information affects the brain and activates nerve cells.
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A memory trace, an engram, is formed.
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Nerve cells communicate via synapses.
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A chemical messenger released by cell A binds to specific receptors on the downstream cell B,
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which can be measured as an electrical signal.
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In this learning process, nerve cells undergo permanent changes.
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That's the prerequisite for successful and targeted learning.
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The engrams, the memory traces, form the physiological basis that enable memories to be retrieved later.
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When we recall something, a memory trace is reactivated.
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When we store it again, it's usually saved in a modified form.
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This means that memories are not static, they They are constantly changing.
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We can't make any general statements about how many engrams we can form.
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We can certainly form a great many.
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But we don't form them all because we don't need them.
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If I don't need it, there's no point in storing a memory trace at all.
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And what I need is determined by the moment.
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It's determined by my state of mind at that moment.
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my interest, my state of alertness, my feelings.
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That means our memory is a construction of what was, where we omit some things and add others.
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Just how important these memories are, not only for my self-understanding and what I do every day, but also for how others see me,
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becomes clear when dealing with people who have lost their memory.
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I've come to realize how important our memory is, even for survival.
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We don't pay enough attention to it in everyday life because we just assume it works.
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My name is Nicole Adam, I'm 50 years old, and at the age of 49 had several strokes.
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From that point on my life changed completely from one day to the next.
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What I've been dealing with since the stroke is definitely a memory disorder.
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I'm at about 30% of what I could do before.
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When you read a book, you want to recall the information you've read, and it's just not there.
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You probably can't imagine it, but it's as if it's been cut off.
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Memory problems are like headaches.
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We're all familiar with forgetfulness.
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We've all had moments when a name slips your mind or you miss an appointment.
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But it becomes a problem when either the person themselves or their loved ones
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feel that their cognitive abilities are significantly impaired following an illness, and when this memory loss starts to affect the ability to function in everyday life.
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My name is Angelika Törner-Ottow.
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I work as a senior neuropsychologist at the Day Clinic for Cognitive Neurology at Leipzig University Hospital.
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In the case of a stroke, blood clots typically become lodged in a blood vessel, blocking it.
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As a result, the nerve cells downstream can no longer receive an adequate supply of oxygen and may die.
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Deficits become apparent, depending on where in the brain this happens.
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The most common symptoms are when patients develop a speech disorder, or when the corner of their mouth droops, or when they develop paralysis on one side.
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I basically wasn't aware of the left side at all, or rather my brain just didn't register it.
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So it was difficult for me to stay in position, partly because of this feeling of being drunk, which is still there.
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I've had that every single day for a year and a half now, from morning to night.
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Then there were simple routine things like when you leave the apartment, just remembering to take your keys, close the window, turn off the stove.
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And then it really did get a bit precarious when I'd forget to flush.
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Just things that any normal person does.
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That was actually a problem for me at first.
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So my kids lovingly put up a note in front of the toilet, reminding me not to forget to flush.
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Which actually sounds funny, but it was really bad in the beginning.
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As neuropsychologists, we study on the one hand the effects of brain damage on cognitive function, such as attention, memory or problem solving.
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On the other hand, brain disorders always have an impact on mood, self-esteem and behavior.
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So when you know yourself, you feel like you're acting weird.
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It's sometimes like being two different people, except you're in the same body.
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We are our memory.
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Our self-understanding and self-image actually depend 100% on how we see ourselves in space and time.
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Who we were, who we are, our memory is the common thread of our existence our existence.
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I am Andreas Papasotieropoulos.
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I am a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and since 2007,
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a professor of molecular neuroscience at the University of Basel in Switzerland.
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There is an upper limit to what the brain can process, both in terms of speed
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and in terms of the quantity of information a person consciously learns and then can recall at some point.
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Forgetting is a very important part of a healthy memory.
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You have to be able to forget in order to distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant.
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I sometimes feel that because my brain is so overcrowded with job-related things, it kind of filters things out.
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It sorts out things that supposedly aren't that important to me or that I can't really connect with emotionally.
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And that's why I started writing everything down.
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Because I know I forget when I'm supposed to call people.
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Or I have these memory hooks I use to remember things sometimes.
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For example, I have this scene with a dialogue and I've noted that every section begins with a W.
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Why are you getting so worked up about German honor?
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What do you think it is actually?
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Eselsbrücken are a great tool to improve memory.
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Pneumonic devices are an excellent way to improve memory.
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When information is repeated, or when I'm able to link that information to other information I already have, or thirdly, when this information evokes emotions,
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this is a signal that tells the brain.
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This information is important, and that means I have to store it for a long time.
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This information is important, that means I have to keep it for a long time.
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So, repetition, linking to existing information and emotional significance.
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These are three key factors that determine whether a piece of information
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or a sensory perception I am currently experiencing will be stored in long-term memory.
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Once I can link or associate what I'm saying to something else, or if it moves me in some way, I remember it much, much faster and much more permanently.
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And if I don't understand what I'm saying, then I don't remember it either.
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It's like in school when I learned something in biology that I didn't understand, something that might have interested me, but since I didn't understand it,
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I had a harder time remembering it than other things i got
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and could apply which made sense to me and i'm still like
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that sometimes i need a lot of peace and quiet then i'm usually here on my couch or at the table
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i also study in the evening after a rehearsal even though i can't study very well at
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that time but i do it right before going to sleep
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when i'm in bed so i've looked at it one last time
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because i feel that if it goes into my head just before my mind comes down
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and i fall asleep and everything winds down, then it's the last thing that was there and it might stick with me longer.
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In any case, to really memorize things or let them sink in, I always need a night in between.
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What I always tell my students,
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if you really want to study well, study in the evening, and then please go to bed and get some sleep while you're sleeping.
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This last bit of information gets consolidated really well.
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The synapses are stable, or stable synapses are formed.
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And the next day, anyone can try this for themselves, the next day the information is so fresh you'll be amazed.
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Wow, I really studied that well.
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The only thing you did was study and then go to sleep without any distractions in between.
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And the brain had the chance to consolidate this information as you slept.
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to consolidate these information in sleep.
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Luckily the brain isn't a muscle.
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People always say you can train your brain like a muscle.
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Then I always say, well, luckily it's not.
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You can train your brain, and of course it works very differently from muscle training.
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You can get a lot out of it, if you have the right strategies and the right motivation.
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Hello, my name is Johannes Malow.
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I live in Magdeburg and work here at the University Hospital as a research assistant.
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I'm also a memory trainer and have been teaching people for many years how to remember things better.
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Basically, it's about visualizing things with images.
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During my seminars, I usually do an experiment with the audience.
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I explain to them how to remember all 12 German presidents in the correct order.
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And our body is now our tool for remembering things.
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That might sound remarkable, and it is.
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The word itself means worthy of being noted.
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And the first word we want to remember is little house.
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Now imagine you have a little house on your head.
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It could be a bird house.
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The shoulders, and there I imagine a wheat beer, a wheat beer on my shoulders.
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Now onto the chest, then I want to note the heart.
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In the lecture I did the following.
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I took a journey along my body, my head, my eyes, my nose, my mouth, my chin, my shoulders,
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etc. And I placed various objects there that remind me of these presidents.
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Who was the first one, do you know?
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Someone said Heuss.
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Heuss was the first president.
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Sounds like Haus.
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Then onto your chest where your heart beats, we could put Herzog there.
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Then your tummy, Johannes Rau, your tummy is upset because you had a Rau.
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And that's how you memorized the 12 federal presidents without even realizing it.
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So I would say that memory techniques have nothing to do with intelligence.
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Nothing at all.
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I believe anyone can learn this.
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Regardless of whether they were good in school or not, anyone can use this method.
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It's also a bit like a memory hook.
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You associate one thing with another, and that makes it easier to recall what you've learned.
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And if the process is enjoyable, if it sparks your interest in learning more, expanding your horizons, then yes, you'll stick with it.
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So it's a kind of positive feedback loop.
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Learning leads to understanding.
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Understanding is the motivation to keep learning, which leads to understanding, and so on.
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I go to occupational therapy once a week, which helps me enormously.
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Especially mirror therapy, where you simply get the brain used to this reversed image again.
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I'm mixing.
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Three colors here in front.
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Yellow in this one, apricot here and green here in the back.
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The others don't matter.
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Your job is to sort them.
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And then I just work with different objects.
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So whatever the occupational therapist tells me to reach for and then sort, I do that with my right hand while signaling to my brain that it's the left hand.
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I'm checking.
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Yes.
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Nine.
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Twenty.
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Yes.
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Okay, then let's do ten more.
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Very good.
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That was great.
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We humans are very visually oriented.
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The visual sense is very dominant and we believe what we see.
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The idea is to stimulate the brain to believe that's the disabled hand performing the task.
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And she can do it, because the right hand isn't affected.
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Of course, the right hand does it better because it isn't damaged.
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And you try to trick the brain, so to speak.
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The idea is that the muscles relearn, meaning the brain adapts.
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She can definitely still make progress.
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She has a good prognosis because she's strong-willed and truly motivated.
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She wants to do things and make changes.
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And that's the basic prerequisite for learning something new after a stroke, motivation.
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We know today that the brain is malleable,
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which means that new connections between nerve cells or synapses can form over again.
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And that's what we try to encourage in rehabilitation.
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We train specific areas so that new synapses can form, and hopefully this will reduce or even completely eliminate disabilities.
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But the dead nerve cells cannot be replaced.
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Hello, Ms. Adam.
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Nice to see you.
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As a result of a research project, we developed tasks in which patients are basically asked to memorize the positions of objects on a table.
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Virtual reality is really helpful here.
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If in doubt, we can examine exactly how the patient turned their head and how long they looked at an object.
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Based on that, we can decide which tasks are best suited for training this function.
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I don't want to start on you, I'll turn up the volume.
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Can you see anything?
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Yes.
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Okay, can you describe it?
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A room.
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A room, okay.
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Now look at the objects for a few seconds and memorize the position of the objects on the table.
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Through the VR glasses I saw various objects on a table in specific positions.
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Then they disappeared and I had to recreate the positions of all the objects,
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which wasn't that easy for me, especially when you add the extra challenge that everything was a mirror image.
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This really helped me train my arm and as you can see today I can actually move it again, which in itself is amazing is amazing.
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So I'm really, really happy that I can move my arm like this.
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When we talk about memory, we usually mean that we can remember something specific.
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But there isn't just one type of memory.
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Scientists distinguish, for example, between explicit memory and implicit memory.
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Explicit memory, also called factual memory, stores knowledge that we learn and experience.
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This includes facts like Paris is the capital of France, but also personal experiences like the birth of a child or the car accident two years ago.
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Implicit memory, on the other hand, is responsible for storing experiences and skills that can be accessed subconsciously.
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This includes habits or motor skills like riding a bicycle.
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Once learned, we can still do it years later without having practiced.
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The automatic retrieval of this implicit knowledge saves us a lot of effort and time.
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It allows the brain to focus on more important things.
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How good or bad an individual's memory is, is determined 50% by genetic factors, individual genetic factors, and 50% by the environment.
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Where environment refers to education and socio-demographic factors, everyone is born with a genetic makeup.
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But let's not forget that it's only 50%.
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The environment is just as important.
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This allows a great deal of room for improvement or decline.
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For improvement and also for worse, through the world.
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Miklas!
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I play Barbara Bruckner in Mephisto.
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She's Mephisto's wife.
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It's adapted from the novel by Klaus Mann.
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If my man is concerned about the revolution, do we not want to give a night again?
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She's the only character in the play who understands national socialism and the fascist ideologies.
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and understanding means she can oppose it.
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She says, we can't just brush people aside and say, oh, that's all nonsense.
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But she asks instead, where does it come from?
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What is it?
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I find it very, very difficult to just memorize text and apply it immediately during a scene rehearsal, because my body first has to connect with the text.
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I first have to know what I'm doing, when, where, and how, and what I'm saying while doing it.
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And then it just flows.
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There's a kind of dynamic where my body has memorized it.
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Theater actors can memorize roles and lines in connection with the space they move in.
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The what, when and where of an incident occurs in a certain space or place.
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When we recall a memory, we know where it took place.
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So when we recall the memory of the space, the memory associated with it is also recalled.
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The memory of the space is also recalled.
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And this damn liberalism, what will happen?
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And with the damn liberalism, it will be taken away.
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Sometimes I try not to memorize the text too perfectly.
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Then you get this extra adrenaline rush, which isn't a bad thing on stage.
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It gives you a whole new sense of freedom.
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Creativity, that's a special quality of the human brain that requires a certain vagueness.
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Sometimes it's a good thing if I can't remember everything exactly, Exactly, because then I can get creative.
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I can fill those gaps with something unexpected.
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That's creativity.
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When everything's firmly stored in its place, then you're really talking about a computer, an extremely high-capacity computer.
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But it's actually mindless and leaves no room for creativity.
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So forgetting is an enormously important part of effective learning.
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There are specific molecular mechanisms that contribute to our active forgetting.
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I have a progressive muscle disease, meaning it gets progressively worse.
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And over time, my skeletal muscles have been deteriorating.
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So since I was about 30, I've been using a wheelchair full-time.
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And alongside all those things I've had to deal with, including bouts of depression because of the disease, this memory sport has always been something that's lifted me up.
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I could see, oh wow, I'm really good at this.
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I have what it takes.
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One possibility, of course, is to visualize non-spatial information spatially when storing it and storing it, and many of the memory artists,
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those who can memorize very long columns of numbers, actually use the memory palace technique.
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I'm Christian Döller, scientific director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences.
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I'm interested in the neurobiological foundations of memory and higher cognitive processes.
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I'm also vice president of the Max Planck Society.
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They visualize the different numbers in different locations and actually navigate mentally through these spaces to then link the numbers together.
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So that's a nice example of how spatial navigation and visualizing,
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visualizing space, helps to efficiently store and recall non-spatial information.
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This sequence of movements is a bit like a choreography.
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Images are stored at every station of the choreography.
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Let's say I have appointments I want to remember, so I'll take my dentist appointment first.
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I imagine my dentist at this exhibition, and he's waiting for me with the drill.
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And I walk in and think to myself, why is my dentist standing there waiting for me?
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And next, say I have an appointment at the post office because I need to drop something off there.
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Then there's a big mailbox built into this bell.
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On top of the ledge there could be a car repair service.
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Now I imagine my car is sitting on top of the ledge.
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My little car is there now on the ledge.
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And finally, I could imagine I still have to buy birthday presents presents.
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So then I'd have a whole bunch of birthday presents on this altar, on this table.
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And that would be my story.
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I'd repeat it again.
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And then it stays in my head, because if my dentist were really waiting for me there in the cathedral, if he were actually there drill in hand, I wouldn't have to strain to remember it.
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I simply wouldn't forget it anymore.
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As we move around, we rarely think about the processes taking place in our brains.
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Our brains are equipped with an internal navigation system that allows us to get from A to B.
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There are place cells which represent very specific spaces in an environment.
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Cell A, for example, fires when I'm at the window, cell B at the doorstep.
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Tens of thousands of these neurons act collectively to map out the space map out the space.
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A second type of cell, a grid cell, encodes the structure of the surroundings.
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Different grid cells generate distinct, partially overlapping hexagonal patterns.
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So with the help of a vast number of these types of neurons, the brain can measure distances and determine its own orientation in space.
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This system enables us to find our way even in unfamiliar spaces, such as an unknown supermarket or an airport.
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Once we've stored and learned the layout of a space,
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we can generalize quickly and flexibly and even find specific products in a supermarket in a foreign city.
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We assume that this system, this internal navigation system in the brain,
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is not only relevant for getting from A to B, or representing different spaces and finding our way around a building or an airport, but also for storing non-spatial information.
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We believe that successfully constructing such cognitive maps is important for good memory performance.
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I usually study well in the afternoon or in the morning.
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I start by having a cup of coffee because I can't think without coffee and maybe I'll have some breakfast too.
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And then I usually pick up my text, try to recall it and just mumble aloud to myself.
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That's exactly how I prepare.
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Sometimes I do a little exercise too or I go for a walk to get my body moving a bit.
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I do that as well.
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A wide range of interests, not just constant cramming, but music and art.
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All of that keeps our nerve cells active.
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We need a constant influx of meaningful stimuli.
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Things we find interesting.
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That's very important, because that's how the networks of nerve cells that are essential for memory formation stay active.
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and get their nourishment.
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Physical activity.
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I cannot emphasize this factor enough.
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It is extremely important to move, preferably aerobic exercise.
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That is the kind where you also consume a lot of oxygen at the same time.
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A nice walk in the woods.
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It all sounds trivial, but it's so important for maintaining a good memory.
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Why?
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Because it keeps the nerve cells in our hippocampus active.
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That's the region of the brain that's crucial for memory.
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Before the championships take place, I start practicing relatively early.
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I sit down at home and just try to do something every day.
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There are many factors that have a negative impact on memory.
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Too much alcohol, not enough sleep, stress, depression, declining attention span.
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These factors are also intertwined with one another.
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When I sit down and memorize for memory sports, I don't look at my phone.
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It's turned off and sitting in the corner.
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I don't answer it either, not even for three hours if I'm training.
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I would definitely say I'm very forgetful, but it's because I'm often distracted, because I have a lot of other things on my mind during the day.
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And that's how it often is for people.
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People get so stressed at the train station, checking their ticket repeatedly, wondering, do I have to go to platform 7 now?
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Then imagine the seven dwarves on the platform.
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And they say hello and greet you on platform 7.
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Then you won't need to check the ticket again.
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Fact is, we live in a time where everything is available, where I don't necessarily have to memorize anything, because I can save it on my phone,
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or I can even ask ChatGPT or some AI, and everything is at my disposal right away.
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But this constant availability of storage options can be problematic when you think of our memory.
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How does it affect our brain?
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Our brain needs exercise exercise, our brain has to practice seeing things, storing them and retrieving them.
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All the machinery has to be kept in shape must be kept on the run.
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What I found overwhelming were the sounds of the people around me talking as I walked down the aisles.
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The ridiculous amount of products that bombarded me, which I couldn't sort through anymore.
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Since then it's normalized a bit.
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I still carry a note with me though, because every now and then remembering things is really… it depends on the day.
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The selection isn't so overwhelming for me anymore.
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I can sort things out again.
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So shopping is more fun now.
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It's really nice to sit together again.
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A year ago it wasn't clear that we'd ever be able to sit together like this again.
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I think the first thing you made again was Kvark.
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Yeah, and you peeled potatoes.
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After a year and a half, a lot of you is coming back.
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Not overnight, of course, but it's coming.
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It's coming.
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Not overnight, of course, but it's coming, right?
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Yes, I feel like things are different now than they used to be in a positive way.
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So it's good to know that a crisis like this is also a chance for personal growth.
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Yes.
417
I'm really trying not to take anything for granted.
418
And when I can do things again, I make sure to properly celebrate it.
419
I celebrate it, saying to myself, wow, it's great that this works again.
420
The reward system plays a huge role in what we learn and how well we routine things.
421
A reward can be a kind word from a mother to her child.
422
For an actor, the reward can be the applause.
423
But a reward can also happen on a higher level.
424
I have a new insight that can be rewarding in itself, and it is.
425
Because in that moment I've understood something that no one else has.
426
I really feel like a very special person then.
427
At the German championships, like at the other championships, there's always a decathlon.
428
There are ten disciplines and you have to compete in all of them if you want to be in the top.
429
The disciplines include memorizing words, names and faces, numbers, playing cards and historical dates.
430
Historical dates is my favorite discipline.
431
I held the world record there for a long time, for 10 years.
432
You're given a list of years and a corresponding made-up event.
433
It can be anything, so that no one who's good at history has an advantage.
434
And here at the championship, I memorized 108 historical dates in 5 minutes.
435
I'm usually happy when the championship is over because it's really exhausting.
436
It's like a real sport.
437
So when you run a marathon, you'll probably cross the finish line totally exhausted but happy that you made it.
438
I am excited, but it's less of an anxious feeling and more of a joyful excitement.
439
It's not so much, I hope everything works out and I hope they're on our side, but more, Yeah, cool.
440
What's going to happen today?
441
My old...
442
...and children...
443
.. without any of this...
444
When the applause comes, everything just falls into place.
445
That's when I really feel it.
446
Something inside me just melts away.
447
And that's quite the feeling.
448
Standing ovations and people crying and laughing and everything.
449
If that's how the show affects the audience, audience, it feels like we've done it.
450
Not everyone is born with an equally good memory.
451
But we're also not helplessly at the mercy of our genes.
452
We can improve our memory, even after a serious illness like a stroke.
453
I hope that someday I'll be able to go back to work
454
and that I can live my everyday life just like I did before.
455
Then I'll be happy.
456
Targeted training, plenty of meaningful and balanced stimuli around us, sports, music and enough sleep.
457
That's how we activate the nerve cells in our brain.
458
German memory champion 2025 once again, Johannes Mallow.
459
Thank you.
460
This was my 55th championship and with at least 45 of them I've come home with a trophy.
461
When everything goes well and I perform well, I'm happy.
462
So I'm happy now to have won and got the trophy too.
463
You're welcome.
464
Continuous learning is the fuel our memory runs on.
465
If we stay on top of things, we can remain productive well into old age.
466
Learning leads to personal growth.
467
With a good memory, we can expand our understanding of the world.
468
We're interested in what's new.
469
The new then overrides what we thought we knew.
470
It's a continuous learning process, a continuous understanding that leads to new learning.
471
Because the new understanding raises new questions.
472
There is no end.
473
We learn for as long as we live.
474
I'm sorry.
475
you
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Our memory - A phenomenal storage system”. This video has 475 sentences and 5578 words to shadow. The speech runs for 42:23. The speaker talks at a steady 132 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| memorize verb | /ˈmɛm.əˌɹaɪ̯z/ | To fully learn so as to have entirely available to the memory; to learn by heart, commit to memory. |
| nerve noun | /nɝv/ | A bundle of neurons with their connective tissue sheaths, blood vessels and lymphatics. |
| synapse noun | /ˈsɪnæps/ | The junction between the terminal of a neuron and either another neuron or a muscle or gland cell, over which nerve impulses pass. |
| visualize verb | /ˈvɪʒuəˌlaɪz/ | To perceive (something) visually; to see. |
| cognitive adjective | /ˈkɑɡ.nɪ.tɪv/ | Relating to the part of mental functions that deals with logic, as opposed to affective which deals with emotions. |
| trace noun | /tɹeɪs/ | An act of tracing. |
| spatial adjective | /ˈspeɪ.ʃəl/ | Pertaining to (the dimension of) space. |
| dentist noun | /ˈdɛntɪst/ | A medical doctor who specializes in teeth. |
| choreography noun | /ˌkɔɹiˈɑɡɹəfi/ | The art of creating, arranging and recording the dance movements of a work, such as a ballet. |
| frigid adjective | /ˈfɹɪd͡ʒɪd/ | Very cold; lacking warmth; icy. |
| implicit adjective | /ɪmˈplɪsɪt/ | Suggested indirectly, without being directly expressed; Implied. |
| ledge noun | /lɛd͡ʒ/ | A narrow surface projecting horizontally from a wall, cliff, or other surface. |
| creativity noun | /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/ | The ability to use imagination to produce a novel idea or product. |
| navigation noun | /nævɪˈɡeɪʃən/ | The theory, practice and technology of charting a course for a road vehicle, ship, aircraft, or spaceship. |
| consolidate verb | /kənˈsɒl.ɪ.deɪt/ | To combine into a single unit; to group together or join. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| turn off verb | To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.). | |
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. | |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
| move around verb | To relocate to new homes repeatedly; to not live in any one place for long. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You don't think, was it eight or six?
- Do you really move like that?
- What do you think it is actually?
- Who was the first one, do you know?
- How does it affect our brain?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been dealing · have been teaching · have been deteriorating |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If we need it, we'll review |
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to this · used to be |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | haven't worked · we've learned · have happened |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 128 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: visualize /ˈvɪʒuəˌlaɪz/, spatial /ˈspeɪ.ʃəl/, navigation /nævɪˈɡeɪʃən/, occupational /ɑkjuˈpeɪʃənəl/, flush /ˈflʌʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: choreography /ˌkɔɹiˈɑɡɹəfi/, creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, navigation /nævɪˈɡeɪʃən/, consolidate /kənˈsɒl.ɪ.deɪt/, prerequisite /pɹiˈɹɛkwəzət/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like memorize, nerve, synapse.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.