What is the Einstein Link System?

What is the Einstein Link (Chain Method) System?

Example: Cheese & Giraffe

“Please DON’T think of a Pink, Striped GIRAFFE - riding on a wheel of CHEESE.”

Your brain goes into long-term autopilot when it hears Giraffe and ignores the word – “don’t”. It pulls from our sensory memory the image, odor and shape of a Giraffe riding on a wheel of Cheese.

Your brain decodes the word Giraffe using your (V-A-K-G-O) - Visual-Auditory- Kinesthetic (touch)-Gustatory-Olfactory senses. Your hippocampus loads it from old movies, visits to the zoo, and a kindergarten book you read. That is called the law of Association; it is activated by your thinking.

Einstein

a) Create an Association – how one idea CONNECTS to another in your imagination.
Synonyms for ‘associate’ are: join, relate, blend, unite, and lump together.

b) Ask a questions about this association – “Well, what happened to it?

Now you have a Link (connection) between the two words that sticks in your Primary Visual Cortex as long-term memory. Why? You encode the two words, and can decode them when you come across the associated words again.

Story to Improve Your Brainpower is Called Visualization

Ten Links: 1. Cheese 2. Giraffe 3. Battery 4. Water 5. Space-Shuttle 6. Rose (not the flower)
7. Tire 8. Saw 9. Grass. 10. Telescope. Use creative imagery to ask & answer the following questions.

1. What happened to the Cheese? The Cheese wheel was ridden by a Giraffe.

2. What happened to the Giraffe? It ran out of Battery life. It’s a toy Giraffe.

3. What happened to the Battery? Short-circuited by Water.

4. What happened to the Water? Blasted by a Space Shuttle

5. What happened to the Space Shuttle? It Rose 10,000 feet into the sky.

6. What happened to the Rose? It is run-over by a 15’ Firestone Tire.

7. What happened to the Tire? It is cut-up into rubber bands by a Saw.

8. What happened to the Saw? It was used to cut the Grass into the perfect lawn.

9. What happened to the Grass? It is examined under a Telescope. (Not a microscope?)

10. What happened to the Telescope? I don’t remember!

Absurd, Ridiculous and Stupid
You brain remembers best the unusual, unique and weird. Which will you remember seeing – a cars driving on the highway or a twenty (20) vehicle collision with bodies lying all over the road?
Whatever looks, sounds, feels, tastes or smells – unnatural, eerie, unearthly – is Weird and sticks in your brain like chewing gum on your shoe.
We said the ‘space shuttle’ Rose 10,000 feet, and in the next breath that the Rose was run-over by 15’ tire. See how you remember the weirdness of the contradiction. It will stick in your 3-pound coconut forever.
Auto Didactic (self-taught)
Did you know that whatever you learn at a lecture, you forget 95% of that knowledge or skill in about 24-hours. After reading a book or an article on the Internet, say good-bye to 90% of information within one- day. Wait! After seeing an Audio-Visual presentation your recall is a high 80% after 1-5 days. Why? You are using multiple senses to remember.
Now, if you learn something new, and TEACH your new knowledge or skill to others, you will
retain 90% of that knowledge and skill, for up to one-year. Why? Doing-is-Everything.
The secret to maintaining your long-term memory is testing-yourself after one-day, a week, and
one-month. Now it is locked into long-term memory – permanently.
Google: RETENTION of Information: National Training Laboratories

You don’t remember much because you heard it at lecture by a professor or expert. You do recall
because you continue to use that knowledge or skill. All learning is auto-didactic, (self-taught).

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, and testing yourself.
REMEMBER, listening to learn knowledge or skills brings you a lousy 5% retention; reading text for
retention retains only 10%. Audio-Visual retention is a low 20% recall. You need a Group
Discussion to break the cycle and retain 50% of what you learned. Practice-practice-practice
reaches 75% retention, and finally, teaching others hits the 90% retention mark.

OTHER Applications For The LINK System

The next time we meet ask me to recite the Presidents of the U.S. from George to
Barach in 60-seconds. I used the link-system to remember them in order from one to forty-four.

Why Bother?

Lincoln is the sixteenth president, and the Civil War was from 1861 to 1865. It gives me a historical
prospective to judge today’s politics. The Link System works to remember chemical elements,
anatomy (body parts), and math equations. How about the 50 U.S. State capitals? Infinity.
Endwords

Most folks who are told about the Link System are not impressed. It seems like too much work.
“It sounds hard, and so far I have done fine without it.” If you want to ace school and your career,
win promotions and raises – for the rest of your life – take the time to learn the Link System.
It exercises your brain like most of us exercise our muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Do it to discover how to be creative and imaginative. Do it to earn Cognitive Reserve, brain-
power, and to reduce the odds of Alzheimer’s up to fifty-percent.
Google: Yaacov Stern, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
See ya,
Copyright © 2011 H. Bernard Wechsler
P.S. We have a few copies of an excellent How-to report on Speed Reading. Ask us for it.
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