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From Stephen Elliott
A new scientific study has demonstrated that learning to write by hand before learning to type helps in developing children’s brains, and the benefits stretch from childhood to adulthood memory-wise. Psychologist (and Rumpus interviewee) Maria Konnikova explains on the New York Times:
...moreCursive or not, the benefits of writing by hand extend beyond childhood.
...moreThese days, memorization, like corporal punishment, is something our culture has largely evolved beyond. We might all know the first verse of Jane Taylor’s “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” but beyond that it’s hit and miss. In the age of search engines, perfect recall is no longer prized—just remember a couple key search terms and we’re good to go.
The New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium is a weekly forum for discussing the tradition and future of text/image work. Open to the public, it meets Monday nights 7-9 p.m. EST in New York City.
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Rick Moody talks to novelist and musician Wesley Stace about his career-defining, game-changing new album Self-Titled.
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I’m a student, I say. My teacher has told me to go to a cemetery and find a stone, any stone, that speaks to me. I chose Kenda’s because hers gave more information, more anything, than any other stone I saw in the one cemetery I visited.
...more![davisschneidermann[1]](http://therumpus.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/davisschneidermann1-200x200.jpg)
When the author discovers that even his “favorite color” isn’t safe from reinvention, he sets out to explore what it means to maintain a fixed identity over time.
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The dictionary defines memory as “the ability to recall.” For a computer, it’s an exact science when regurgitating programs, data, and facts, but for humans, that process can be ephemeral, flawed, and selective.
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I was stronger. By far I was the stronger of us both. A ballerina’s punch could’ve broken your nose, but I held back. We danced around the room like two tiny sparrows pecking at a fresh worm.
...moreGuernica examines the intersections of science, emotion, and memory by way of an exchange between novelist Rivka Galchen and neuroscience professor David Linden, featured in the Rubin Museum’s Brainwave series.
“As Linden explains in his book, ‘memory retrieval is an active and dynamic process.’ Thus recollecting past experiences—reliving them again and again or retelling them to others—subtly modifies the memories we keep.
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Memory is a protean thing.
There is an eerie room of memories at the current exhibit at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Walk into it and all the signposts of a collective nostalgia are there but the room is more than the recognizable objects therein.
...moreThis might seem obvious to many, but apparently there is now research behind the idea that smart phones, computers and the Internet are weakening our memories.
According to this article, the phenomena is called the “Google effect” (which you can surely google for effect).
...moreWhat does luck have to do with memory?
The connection is drawn in this Millions essay, which tackles the role of memory in the life of the reader–a rather comforting discussion for those of use who feel the anxious tug to remember or the frustration of forgetting.
...more“In America, we tend to think belief trumps knowledge. To tease out the truth from the fabric of lies that surrounds us requires a certain degree of intelligence. Which is bad news for us, alas.
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