• Cognitive Ergonomist:  I believe that one of my core strength is "synthesizing & presenting complex multiple viewpoints in an easily consumable fashion" particularly as mental models.  I came across this interesting term Cognitive Ergonomist - "one who specializes in information design—the best way to present complex information".  Fascinating stuff...I am going to find out more about this.   
• TIME MAG - Inside The Autistic Mind: TIME magazine, May 15, 2006 - is featuring a cover story Inside the Autistic Mind (needs subscription). A fascinating read on latest research, facts and reasoning behind this condition.  I am glad to see that there is increasing awareness and sense of appreciation for Autistic people.
• Stroop Effect: Don't read the words (below), try say the color of these words as fast as you can
       RED BLUE GREEN YELLOW PINK ORANGE
  faciniated with the results? checkout Reading Color Names  
• Distractions ease Dread: Recent brain study suggests that distraction can help ease dread.

 ~ Srinath

• Remote Viewing: I came across this procedure in the Suspect Zero. This technique (ability to describe a remote location) was developed by parapsychologists at Standford Research Institue for CIA in 1972.  This program was declassified in 2003 and today there are books & community around this controvertial psychic phenomena.
• Sigmund Freud: Newsweek's honored the father of psychoanalysis on his 150th B'Day by running a cover page article.
• Mind and Brain Portal: Recently Wikipedia launched the Mind and Brain portal.  Covering a broad range of articles on this subject. Good Stuff!

~ Srinath

• Speed Reading: For those who are interested in increasing their ability to read faster and gain better comprehension eyeQ is an interesting product to explore. Try their free online demo (turn off your pop-up blockers to watch the demo).
• Self Psychological tests: Psychology Today provides a broad category of self tests.
• Hypnosis scripts: HypnosisDownloads provides 170+ professional-hypnosis downloadable audio & scripts for subscribers.
• All in the Mind:  ABC Radio National podcast on mind, brain & behavior is worth subscribing.
• Mind Mapping: Mind maps helps capture your ideas & thinking in a manner that you can understand and recall.  There are many software tools to help you create mind maps; here is one that I have tried - freemind.
• Vedic Math Tutorial: Based on ancient Indian system of mathematics to perform complex mental math problems. Here is a tutorial on this subject.
• Misc:  Beatcalc ; International Mental Calculation Forum ; Logic Tutorial ; memorize scripture ; index of articles from supermemo site

~ Srinath

• Jaw: During my regular annual dental clean-up my dental hygienist said that Jaw joint is the only structure in human body that can move forwards & sideward...that was just fascinating.
• Cross Consistency Assessment:  Using the technique of cross consistency assessment (CCA) (Ritchey, 2002), the system however does allow for reduction, not by reducing the number of variables involved, but by reducing the number of possible solutions through the elimination of the illogical solution combinations in a grid box. [Source: Wikipedia > Morphological Analysis]
• RAT Test: Does it pass the Relevancy, Accuracy & Timely Test?
• SORP: Situation, Opportunity, Recommendation & Proposal -- I recently used this frame for presenting a biz proposal PPT to our VP

Srinath

You present an argument in successive steps. That is,

- The 1st idea makes a statement about a situation that exists in the world today.
- The 2nd idea comments on the subject or the predicate
- And the, 3rd idea states the implications of those two situation existing in the world at the same time.
- Your summary rests heavily on the final point: "Because Socrates is a man he is moral"

INDUCTIVE example
  - French tanks are at the Polish border
  - German tanks are at the Polish border
  - Russian tanks are at the Polish border
  - Poland is about to be invaded by tanks

To Move upward, you draw an inference based on your assessment of what is the same about the points -- i.e., they are all warlike movements against Poland. Thus, your inference would be something like 'Poland is about to be invaded by tanks'

[source: Pyramid Principle, by Barbara Minto]

• Unreflective Thinker – we are unaware of significant problems in our thinking
• Challenged Thinker – We become aware of problems in our thinking
• Beginning Thinker – We try to improve but without regular practice
• Practicing Thinker – We recognize the necessity of regular practice
• Advance Thinker – We advance in accordance with our practice
• Master Thinker – Skilled and insightful thinking become second nature to us

• Can you describe the role thinkingis playing in your life? (Be clear & detailed as you can)
• What was a recent assumption you made (that you should not have made)?
• What is a recent concept you formed (that you previously lacked)?
• List 5 inferences you made in the last hour?
• Name and explain a point of view that you sometimes use to guide your thinking
• Briefly describe how you analyze & assess thinking
• Name some intellectual standards you use. Explain how you apply them

At this stage we have no useful conception of what thinking entails. We don't notice that we are continously making & justifying assumptions, forming concepts, drawing inferences, and thinking within points of view. At this stage many problems in our lives are caused by poor thinking, we think our beliefs are true, we think our decisions are sound & we lack intellectual traits.

[Watchout for Updates]

• Which Congnitive functions are most vulnerable to aging? functions that are prone to age-related difficulties:
• Working memory. Ability to hold & manipulate info in mind is reduced.  For ex. remembering a phone number & then dialing, comparing the price per ounce of 2 items
• Processing speed. Speed of processing is slowed, this is one of the major theory of age-related cognitive change, called the processing speed theory. For ex. ability to keep pace in conversation or other communications that need to be processed on the spot.
• Attention to detail. When you learn new info, you may take in the big picture, or gist, as well as someone half your age, but you might not absorb as many details.
• Declarative memory. Trouble forming declarative memory, specifically finding it harder to remember verbal facts (names of people, places or objects) & spatial info (directions & locations)
• Source memory. It becomes harder to recall when & where a specific event occurred, a type of memory referred to as a source memory. For ex. you may remember parking your car, but not recall precisely where. you remember eating at your favourite restaurant, but you may be unable to recall if you went 2 months ago or 4 months ago.
• Multitasking. It becomes more difficult to multitask--talking on phone, while working on computer.
• Visuospatial processing. Complex visual & construction tasks, such as assembling 3D puzzles & drawing intricate geometric designs are more of a challenge.
• Which Congnitive functions are Age-Resistant?  There are many domains of thinking that are resilient to aging:
• Attention.  The ability to focus & sustain attention is relatively unchanged by the aging process
• Language. We retain a rich knowlege of words, its meaning & maintain the ingrained rules for how to combine workds into meaningful linguistic structures as we age.
• Procedural memory. The skills & procedures for doing certain things. For ex. riding a bicycle.
• Reasoning. Aging has no effect on your ability to make sense of what you know, to form reasonable judgement, & to construct solid arguments.
• Willpower. Your drive to accomplish is undimished by changes in the brain. With extra effort to concentrate & learn -- you will be able to recall it as well as a younger person can
• Creativity. You retain the drive to express yourself through art, communication or by trying new ways of doing things.
• Wisdom. There's is a reason that we oftne associate wisdom with advancing years: the capacityh to extract meaning from information & knowledge from experience & to offer insights remains unscatherd & may in fact improve with the passage of time.

~ Srinath

• Transience.  Information stored in short-term memory is transient. This is the info that you forget as soon as you acquire it.  For ex. forgetting names in a meeting within couple of minutes/seconds.
• Absentmindedness. Information that didn't sufficiently register in the first place. For ex. forgetting where you put your keys; however, never forgetting something significant as turning off the ignition before getting out of your car.
• Blocking. Information that is at the tip-of-your-tongue, but you just can't think of it. For ex. Unable to recall a song/music/actor-name from a movie.
• Misattribution. This refers to mistaking the source of a specific memory. For ex. You might have heard a store is closing in your neighborhood and you may believe you saw a sign on the window; however, in reality there was no such sign, rather, a neighbor told you the news.
• Suggestibility. This refers to the vulerability of 'latecomer'. For ex. you thinks the goal should'nt count because the football player touched the ball, but later when you see the replay you now see that hand didn't touch the football.
• Bias. This refers to the distortion of memory by the unique prespective of the rememberer. For ex. If you ask a friend of what he/she remembers of high school graduation, chances are two won't remember it in the same way.
• Persistence. This refers to continously revisit a memory. For ex. something midly annoying like a song that sticks in your head.

[update:8/30/2005] Krishnan asked for remedies for overcoming the 7 memory impairments.  I returned the book to the library so I don’t have specifics from the author; however, here are few basic suggestions from top of my head

• Remedies for Transience - Sharpen you short-term memory. One of the best books that I have seen dedicated on improving your short-term memory is Intelligent Memory by Dr. Gary Gorden.  The book has ton of samples to exercise you scratch pad memory (another term for short-term memory).  In essence it boils down to: Enhance Attention – focusing, building memory patterns so your recognition becomes lightning fast,   author says the issue is ‘not forgetting’ the issue is ‘not paying attention’ so pay attention. Then he talks about techniques such as Chunking, elaboration, Mnemonics, Repeating & Rehearsing.  The goal is move info that is important to next level…here is the Order of committing: Temporary memory -> ordinary memory -> permanent memory
• Remedies for Absentmindedness - simple solution is to use a to-do-list.
• Remedies for Blocking – read my previous entry on Tips to Overcome Mental Blocks
• Remedies for Misattribution – one strategy is when you are focusing on new info, ask yourself five Ws: Who told me this? What was the content of the info? When did this happen? Where was I when I encountered this info? Why is this important to remember?
• Remedies for Suggestibility – therapy
• Remedies for Bias – you memory is not a video recorder to objectively memorize, having an open mind would be a starting point
• Remedies for Persistence – let it run its course, don’t resist until it finally recedes. The more you try to resist the more you it keeps coming.

Srinath