New Memorization Technique???

Memorizing anything has always been a challenged for me. It can be bible verses, bible references, poems, telephone numbers etc. I had always thought that is because I am a more visual rather than auditory person. For example, I cannot figure out how to pronounce a word if you were to just tell me how it's spelled. I need to write it out and look at the word. I don't know if this is an excuse and the fact is that my brains are just too lazy to process the audio information. Haha...

Anyway, I recently came across a new theory. Well, at least it is new to me!

It centers around the use of your dominant ear. The reasoning goes like this....

If you are right-handed, you should be right-eared. And if you are right-eared, you retain information better if you only listen with your right ear!!! This is because when you are listening with your dominant ear, you then process the information in your dominant side of the brain, which is supposed to be more efficient. The sub-dominant brain is seen to be "messing" up the information... at least that's how I understand it.

It carries on to say that memorization set to music, no doubt effective, actually forces you to use your sub-dominant brain. Have you ever memorized something with music and realized that you cannot recite that same information without the music? Well, the music is very much tagged along with the information whether you like it or not. So it appears that this is a rather "inefficient" method.

So what is the final take? Well, it basically recommends that you record information you want your child to memorize on tapes and just let them listen through one ear!! Sounds ridiculous isn't it?

I don't always agree with" right-brain/left-brain" type theory. However, I do see some truths in some of their reasoning. For example, I do see value in the exercises presented in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. I don't necessary think that different information is processed on different sides of the brain but I do think they could possibly be processed by different parts of the brain. If at all, we should be mindful to give equal training to all parts of our brains and aim to be an all-rounder!

But my curiosity is getting the better of me! I am off to do some experiments... ;-)

Tell me if this works for you.

You can read the full explanation here.