Category Archives: Brain

Multiplication Exercise And Lumosity

Brain, Education, Exercise, ,

Multiplication table, 20 by 18 When I printed out the form on yesterday’s post, it was missing the last two columns on the right, and since there was exactly room for them, I manually added them by ruler.  Then I filled out the multiplication table, by multiply  the number on the top by the number on the left, and writing the result in the box where the columns and rows intersect.

 

DSC03809 The upper left quadrant is what my father had me fill out when I was six.  The upper right quadrant is less familiar territory, where I multiplied the larger numbers along the top by the smaller number on the left.  I did these in my head.  If it did not come easily, and I wasn’t sure I checked myself by calculator.  Write-overs mostly indicate that I had more difficulty performing that calculation in my head, and had to correct a number that I had written down.

The work fell into four quadrants:

Quadrant                                         Number of write-overs

  1. Upper Left                                         0
  2. Upper Right                                      9
  3. Lower Left                                       14
  4. Lower Right                                    30

This is a surprisingly good exercise to refresh one’s practice of multiplication.

Observations during this exercise:

In Quadrant 1, it came easier to multiply the larger number by the smaller number in reciprocal pairs.   For example it came easier to multiply 3 X 8 than 8 x 3, both of which are 24.   The order in which you multiply numbers does not change the outcome.  This is called the commutative law, and it applies to both addition and multiplication.

Quadrant 2 has the same multipliers as Quadrant 3,  only Quadrant 2 multiplies the larger number by the smaller number, and Quadrant 3 multiplies the smaller number by the larger number.  As you can see from the larger number of write-overs in Quadrant 3, 14 as opposed to nine in Quadrant 2, it was a little harder to multiply the smaller number by the larger one

Quadrant 4, with its 30 write-overs, multiplied two larger than accustomed numbers, and so it is not surprising that mental calculations were more than twice the other write-overs combined.

DSC03808 My Lumosity performance results over time show that after a few months of steady improvement, I have more or less leveled off in over all, and I want to see if this multiplication practice will improve my performance in any of the categories, and permit renewed increasing Lumosity performance.

 

Grief Revisited

Brain, Feeling, Health, Mind, Words,

DSC03768 Dr. Victor Sierpina is one of the excellent columnists of the Galveston County Daily News.    His description of the grief process, based in part on Good Grief by Granger Westfield, goes beyond a shorter list of stages.   The first four stages, shock, discussed in his first  column on this subject, are:

  • Shock
  • Emotional pain
  • Depression and loneliness,
  • Physical distress

DSC03769

The next six include the possibility of :

  1.  Panic
  2. Guilt
  3. Anger
  4. Resistance to life without the lost person
  5. Gradually becoming hopeful again
  6. Struggle to affirm reality

This was illuminating to me as I come upon the 50th anniversary of my mother’s death.    I consider all that pertains to her to be in a special set of connections in my brain.   It took me at least three and a half decades to not break into tears when I mentioned her, or somebody else mentioned her to me, even though I did not feel sad in general, and would quickly recover my composure.

 

 

Brain, The Complete Mind by Michael S Sweeney

Books, Brain, Mind, Personal Qualities, , , ,

A National Geographic Book. DSC03644 This book, Brain, The Complete Mind, How It Develops, How It Works, and How To Keep It Sharp, by Michael S Sweeney, covers some of the new neuroscience discoveries, and includes, among much more information, the following. DSC03645 It describes some of the major neurotransmitters.  According to an online search of “How many neurotransmitters are there?”  there may be from at least 60 to over 110 neurotransmitters. DSC03646  On this page we learn something about how Helen Keller managed, and the thoughts of St. Thomas Aquinas on aspects of the working mind. DSC03647 Scattered throughout the book are these sections on “Staying Sharp”.  This book has many other helpful features. DSC03648 Near this sections is one describing how people think, in order to, for example, follow a recipe. DSC03649 This page describes how nuns age. DSC03650  This nicely illustrated book does indeed give “you greater insight into how your mind operates and how you can keep it sharp”.