The Medical Daily – Susan Scutti
“Are you someone who is considered smart but struggles when trying to learn a new language? New research from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences may help you solve this problem. We learn best, the results of a new study suggest, when our brains can link new information with other sensory perceptions. This means any language learning method that involves several senses, and especially gestures, will help you to learn more and faster than a method based solely on listening or reading. “If for example we follow a new term with a gesture, we create additional input that facilitates the brain’s learning,” Dr. Katharina von Kriegstein, head of the study, said in a release. The study began with the scientists digging up a language called Vimmish — it is an artificial language they created especially for experiments. (Using Vimmish, instead of an existing language, means every word will be equally new to all the participants in any given study.) Over the course of a week, young women and men memorized the meaning of both abstract and concrete Vimmi-nouns under two different experimental conditions.”(more)