Kids Cube/7_Science.iso/memmstr/mm.doc

Text File | 1990-07-11 | 11KB | 254 lines

                             MEMORY MASTER
                             *************


    1. The Importance of a Good Memory
       -------------------------------

    How important is a good memory ? to answer that question, let's
    consider two imaginary people, Bill and Ben.  they are the same age,
    of the same intelligence, and have similar abilities in most areas.


    One difference between them is that Bill has what is called a 'good'
    memory.  He finds facts, figures, jokes, stories, names and faces easy
    to remember, and never forgets appointments or things he is supposed to
    do.


    Ben, on the other hand, has always said that he 'suffers' from a poor
    memory.  He remembers little of what he reads or hears on most subjects,
    and is generally absentminded.  He constantly forgets things he is
    supposed to do, and can never remember a joke or anecdote, even though
    he has heard hundreds.


    At school and college, Bill sails through his examinations with flying
    colours.  He finds it easy to learn facts, figures, dates, formulas,
    etc.  for exams, and consistently gets high marks.


    Ben, however, struggles with his studies.  He spends hours repeating
    information to himself over and over again.  He writes out his notes
    several times in the hope that the information will 'stick' in his
    memory.  After a lot of very hard, repetitive studying he manages to
    pass most of his exams.


    Later in life, Bill and Ben both work for the same company.  Bill's
    office is a model of efficiency.  He has facts at his finger tips, and
    can find any information he needs quickly and efficiently.  He knows the
    names of all the memebers of staff, as well as something about them and
    what their capabilities are.  He can assimilate any information he hears
    or reads quickly and effectively.  He remembers appointments, dates, and
    where he has met people before.


    Ben's office is in a state of constant chaos.  His desk is covered with
    scraps of paper on which which he has written notes to himself.  He
    chews a pencil frantically as he stares in desperation at a noticeboard
    plastered with more notes and reminders.  The telephone rings, and a
    name is mentioned.  He is desperately trying to remember where he has
    heard the name before when a colleague comes in to inform him that he
    should have been in a meeting ten minutes ago.

    Ben finishes his phone call, still in a state of confusion, and the
    phone rings again.  This time it's his wife, asking him if he'd
    remembered to contact the Electricity Board about their cooker, which
    is on the blink.  As he frantically hunts for his notes for the
    meeting he has to attend, another colleague comes in demanding to know
    what he has done about a project which was due yesterday...

    If you were told that one of these two had become Chairman of the
    company, could you guess which?

    Bill's memory also helps him socially. He never forgets a name or face,
    and always remembers appointments and things he has promised to do. He
    remembers most of the jokes and anecdotes he hears, making him popular
    at parties and functions.  He easily recalls fact about current news
    items and topical affairs. His memory skills help him to excell at bridge
    and other card games.

    In short, a good memory can be a great asset, and a bad memory can be
    hampering at school, work, and in social life.

    Fortunately, everyone has the capacity for developing a better memory,
    and Memory Master will show you how to improve your memory to a degree
    you never believed possible.


    2. The Memory Master System
       ------------------------

    The aim of the Memory Master package is to teach you how to improve your
    memory.  You will be introduced to several well-proven Memory Training
    techniques, and shown many practical applications of those techniquea.

    By the time you have completed the Memory Master course, you should be
    able to memorise any new piece of information you want to quickly and
    easily, and perform memory stunts that will amaze your friends and
    colleagues.

    Memory Master aims to present information to you in a clear, concise
    form. Where possible the lessons have been made interactive, for you to
    test your progress as you work through the course.

    The Memory Master course is divided into thirteen training sessions,
    labelled A to M.  Each session has been designed to teach you either a
    specific Memory Training technique - e.g.  the Peg System - or a
    practical application of one or more of the techniques - e.g.  How to
    Remember Foreign Vocabulary.

    Each training session contains an Introduction plus one or more
    Tutorials.  The Introduction defines the aim of the session, together
    with some background information on the topic.  The Tutorials present
    the subject matter of the session in detail, together with some mental
    exercises for you to work through.

    Many of the sessions also contain an Additional Exercises section,
    which suggests some further mental exercises you can try to help you
    practice the techniques discussed.

    You should work through each of the sessions IN SEQUENCE, without
    missing any - the Tutorials are designed to be progressive.  The
    training sessions are as follows :

    Session A - introduces the principle of Association of Ideas, which is
                the basis of all Memory Training systems.

    Session B - deals with the Link System, and shows you how to remember
                any list of items in sequence, both forwards and
                backwards.

    Session C - introduces the concept of Substitute Words or Phrases, a
                basic technique for memorising information which is at all
                abstract or intangible.

    Session D - demonstrates how the Substitute Word and Association
                techniques can be applied to help you remember people's
                names.

    Session E - demonstrates another practical application of the
                Substitute Word technique - memorising foreign vocabulary.

    Session F - introduces an important Memory Training concept, the
                Phonetic Alphabet, and shows how it can be practically
                applied to memorising numbers.

    Session G - deals with or the most powerful and flexinle of all Memory
                Training techniques - the Peg System.

    Session H - discusses the problems of Absentmindedness, and how to
                overcome them.

    Session I - teaches you some methods to improve your skill at giving
                speeches and presentations.

    Session J - shows how the techniques introduced in sessions A, B and C
                can be applied to remembering Jokes and Stories.

    Session K - shows you how to improve your reading, studying and
                learning skills,

    Session L - teaches you some techniques to improve your skill at
                playing cards.

    Session M - teaches you some impressive memory stunts using all the
                Memory Training techniques you have learned.



    3. How to Run Memory Master
       ------------------------

    To run Memory Master from floppy disk, insert the diskette into Drive
    'A', and type :

    A:\>MM

    To run Memory Master from hard disk, you should first create a new
    directory called 'MM', insert the diskette into drive 'A', then copy the
    Memory Master files to drive 'C' by entering the Dos command :

    A:\>COPY A:*.* C:\MM\*.*

    Memory Master can then be run from drive 'C' by typing :

    C:\MM>MM

    When the program has loaded into memory, the Main Menu will be displayed.


    3.1 Menus

    The Memory Master program is driven via a Main Menu and a series of
    sub-menus, one for each training session.

    To select an option from any of the menus, move the menu selector to
    your required selection and then press <Enter>.  The menu selector may
    be moved up and down with the Up-arrow, Down-arrow, Home and End keys.
    On each of the sub-menus, selections may also be made by pressing one
    of the keys listed down the left hand side of the menu.  - If your PC
    has a mouse, you can also move the selector up and down with the
    mouse, and make your selection by pressing button 1 on the mouse (i.e.
    the left button).


    3.2 Text Screens

    All the Memory Master text screens have the same format, consisting of
    twenty-two text lines with a border line at the top and bottom.  The
    bottom line if the screen is always reserved for status information,
    telling you which key options are available.

    You can 'page' through each of the text screen sections using the
    following keys :

    Page Down - Next Text Page
    Page Up   - Previous Text Page (on the 1st Page this key is ignored)
    Home      - Go to First Page   ("   "   "   "    "    "   "    "   )
    End       - Go to Last Page    (on the last page this key is ignored)

    The mouse left hand and right hand buttons perform the same functions
    as Page Down and Page Up respectively.

    The <ESC> key usually takes you back to the last menu displayed.


    3.3 Input Screens

    Many of the Memory Master screens are interactive, requiring you to
    respond to questions which you will be asked.  All the text you enter
    can be edited using the following keys :

    Home     - Go to beginning of line
    End      - Go to end of line
    Ins      - Toggle Insert/Overstrike mode
    Del      - Delete character under the cursor


    3.4 Input Checker

    Every answer which you type in response to a Memory Master question is
    checked against the correct answer for possible typing and/or spelling
    mistakes.  If such a mistake is detected, you will be given two
    opportunities to re-edit the data before Memory Master accepts it as
    your answer to the question.

    For example, supposing the correct answer to a question asked was
    'England'.  If you typed any of the following answers, the program
    would detect that you had made a typing mistake, rather than got the
    answer completely wrong :

      Englan  Englad  Englnd  Engand  Enland  Egland  ngland

      nEgland  Egnland  Enlgand  Engalnd  Englnad  Engladn

      Enngland  Exngland  Englandq  KEngland


    This avoids the frustrating experience of having to completely
    re-enter entire lines of data every time you make a simple spelling
    mistake.