Get Smarter While You Sleep
There might be a new way to learn a foreign language: go to bed and start sleeping. Recent research from Northwestern University is helping us better understand the role of sleep in processing memory. The study showed that using audio cues during sleep could help people better retain information they learned prior to falling asleep. Let’s take a look at this recent (and interesting) research . . .
Details of the StudyThe study worked by showing participants 50 pictures, each associated with a correct location on a computer screen. Half of the pictures were shown were associated with a particular related sound, like a cat’s meow, or the whirling of a helicopter, or the whistle of a teapot. Participants then slept, during which time the sounds were repeated as they slept.
After the nap, subjects reported no memory of the sounds, nor could they guess which sounds had been played. However, they had very high recall of the correct locations for the 25 pictures that were shown with sounds, and less recall for the other 25 pictures.
In addition to adding one more reason to get a good night’s sleep, the study points out that the brain actually works during sleep to process the memories and learnigns of the day. The research could be helpful in developing learning aids for any number of subjects, from foreign languages to math to history.
The study was reported in
Science magazine,...
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