Of all our senses, the one with the potential to receive the most information per second is sight. According to Paul Scheele, 10 million bits per second come to us through our eyes, compared with a total of 1 million plus bits per second from the ears, skin, taste and smell combined. Out of those 11 million bits per second received, we only consciously process 70…yes, that's 70 out of 11,000,000, 40 of which come to us through our eyes.

The good news is that the brain has an almost infinite ability to retain pictures, and recent research by Win Wenger and Paul Scheele has given us a useful insight into how to store and re-access amazing amounts of detail from them.

Findings suggest that after we've made a mental picture of something we want to remember, we retain the image in our mind's eye much better if having closed our eyes we describe it to another person in as much detail as we can.

Try this out for yourself: take a look at a memory map you'd like to remember. Close your eyes and try to keep seeing the picture. Notice what happens. Now do the same again (with another map if you like), and this time once you've closed your eyes, describe what you see to a listener. Notice how much longer you are able to see the detail of the map even though you have your eyes closed.

Speaking out loud is the critical factor here because each time we respond to our own perceptions of something we reinforce our perception of it. We also reinforce our ability to be perceptive. Having another person to speak out loud to is not essential: imagining another person in the room, or speaking out loud to a tape recorder is sufficient.

Practical applications

• Try using this method to speed up transfer to long-term memory. Have learners create memory maps of what they have learned, and then experiment with getting them to take mental photos of them. Have pairs take turns to create mental images, and describe them to a partner. Get the listener to draw/write down what is described to them. Compare the drawing with the original, then switch roles and repeat the process to fill in the gaps.

• Future pace the learning into the workplace using a guided visualization. Then have learners re-create the visualization, describing it to a partner.

• After having learners walk through a new process, get them to close their eyes and do a mental walk through, with the person describing the process doing so in as much detail as they can.

This week’s FriendlyBrain Tip comes to you from Alastair Olby of Kaizen Training. Kaizen Training Limited is a well-established consulting and training firm based in the UK and offering its services to the global business community. Training for Excellence is a leading-edge Train the Trainer company based in the U.S. and providing training programs internationally. For more information, contact us at info@wetrain.biz