| ortance of involving our physical bodies and senses | | | | many parts of the world, we no longer depend on |
| into practical learning strategies has long been | | | | our bodies and senses to survive. |
| underestimated or even ignored. Find out why | | | | Nonetheless, our physical bodies and our minds are |
| working with visual association techniques can boost | | | | still innately prepared to perform these functions, |
| your ability to recall information. | | | | possibly because the step from hunting and gathering |
| Human beings lived as hunters-gatherers until only a | | | | to our current lifestyles is a recent event in the |
| few thousand years ago. The expression | | | | development of the human race. We are still much |
| hunter-gatherer describes a lifestyle in which | | | | more hunters-gatherers than we would usually like to |
| the food supply focused on hunting and gathering | | | | think. I propose, then, that our talent to work with |
| food in the wild rather than cultivating crops and | | | | visual information is part of our inheritance from the |
| raising animals in captivity. Before humans developed | | | | days of the hunter-gatherer and that this is also the |
| these techniques (and managed to safeguard their | | | | reason why most people find it easier to remember |
| water supplies), life was a constant struggle for | | | | sequences of images, or physical items that we can |
| survival. One of the characteristics of the | | | | smell and touch, than information that is primarily |
| hunter-gatherer lifestyle was that community groups | | | | abstract, like much of the information in a textbook. |
| frequently had to relocate to find water and to | | | | Unfortunately, the importance of involving our |
| renew the available food supply. This nomadic lifestyle | | | | physical bodies and senses into practical learning |
| was extremely demanding. In fact, instead of using | | | | strategies has long been underestimated or even |
| the word lifestyle, the term struggle for | | | | ignored. For example, looking back at my formal |
| survival might be more appropriate. | | | | education in schools and universities, we were never |
| The keys to survival revolved around the use of the | | | | showed how to use associations for the learning |
| body and application of the senses. Humans would | | | | process. In fact, too often, learning has been |
| not have survived if they had not become good at | | | | organized contrary to the inbuilt physiological needs |
| running, smelling and tasting; using their eyes and | | | | of our bodies and our minds, wasting an enormous |
| working with their hands; and learning to orient their | | | | potential. Yet, this potential still waits to be used |
| position in space. In other words, the body and the | | | | and for free. So, why not hunt and gather |
| senses were the main instruments our ancestors had | | | | information instead of food and animals? Why not |
| to rely on in order to survive. In contrast, they did | | | | work with your body and your mind instead of |
| not have to rely on their capacity to understand | | | | working against it? |
| math, law or history. | | | | Involving our bodies and senses in the process of |
| These days, our brains and the ability to apply | | | | studying and learning gives us the chance to make |
| learned knowledge have reduced our dependency on | | | | use of an innate system that has helped our species |
| our bodies and our senses. We invent and make use | | | | survive hundreds of thousands of years. Involving our |
| of technology, thereby delegating all kinds of | | | | bodies and senses in the process of studying will |
| activities to machines and intelligent devices. We | | | | make it easier to store and recall information. For |
| don’t have to run any more, because we | | | | example, working with visual association techniques is |
| have learned to construct and use bicycles, cars, | | | | one very simple but highly effective and successful |
| buses and planes. We don’t have to detect | | | | strategy that can help you to recall information on |
| dangerous plants by smelling and touching them, as | | | | demand. |
| supermarkets only sell food that is not poisonous. In | | | | |