.:i think i thought a thought:.

Travel, late nights and lazy sundays account for majority of my printed-on-paper-touch-and-feel-me kind of reading in these socially busy and internet dominated times. I remember seeing a few people at work sitting around at lunch times with books in their hands, but somehow as I’ve grown I’ve taken a liking for human company over books. So if I have the option of catching up with a mate for dinner, I’d surely prefer that than come home and read a book right? Now books claim to be my best friend (well I’m a man and they are every man’s best friend for that matter). I’m starting to realize the truism in that. That’s precisely what they are. Dependable, reliable, patiently sitting behind my desk in a bookshelf, sometimes going without my attention for days, but always there when I want them. As Rembrandt sang in the F.R.I.E.N.D.S theme, that’s what my book shelf says to me - ‘I’ll be there for you’. So much for an emotional digression. My book shelf has many kinds of books. Books I’ve read once. Books I’ve never read. Books I wish I will read someday (that just look cool sitting there). Reference books. Books I regret buying. Books I started but never finished. Books that are no longer on the shelf, but someone ‘borrowed’ forever. Books I borrowed from someone but haven’t yet finished. But I wonder - is the right place for a book on a bookshelf? Should they not all be in my head? The current books I’m reading should either be on the desk, in the bag or on the bed side stool. Well, a counter argument is that books are there in your shelf so you can come back to them. Surely there are such books that you want to come back to. Just browse through, and recap. But there surely aren’t enough of those to fill up my 6 shelf book shelf. So here’s an idea… For new books: Read the book. Blog my thoughts on the book. Shelve the book on to the bottom shelf. For books already on the shelf: Pick an unblogged book. Read/Revise/Recap the book. Blog it. Shelve it again. Repeat until all blogged. So as a first step I’m starting a new blog today. By the same title - ‘Read it. Blog it. Shelve it’ Blogs should help provide these books a more permanent home in my long term memory.

[Read scientific explanation on distinction between recall and recognition below]

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“Two main ways we access memory:

recognition and recall.

Recognition: * when provided with the information in memory, * just double check that we’ve seen it before. * includes: feeling of familiarity, matching, multiple. choice, True/False on exams, recognizing someone you know…

Recall: * coming up with the information from memory yourself. * Includes: coming up with the name for person you recognized, recalling where you were when Kennedy assassinated, fill-in-the-blank on exams. Recognition involves a process of comparison of info with memory. Recall involves a search of memory and then the comparison process once something is found. Not just different amounts of the same memory - not just a diff. in strength. Qualit. different. Example: rare words are almost always better recognized than common ones, but usually less well recalled. Recognition has 2 mechanisms: familiarity and retrieval. We can recognize. an uncommon item just because it seems familiar. For a more common item, will need to retrieve additional information, such as where the item was encountered. Usually, recognition is better than recall.”

source: intelegen

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