We're getting to that point in the history of our planet, when computers and software will help us with our personal brain power.

Did you know that when you "forget" something, it only means you're unable to retrieve it from the hard disk that is your brain. It doesn't mean that it's not on that hard disk.

Okay, here's another weird fact - and then we'll put these two weird items together to make sense out of them: If you're trying to learn something, say a language, there is a specific time to review your studies that will cause you to remember more. And if you know when that time is, you'll learn your language with much more ease and staying power than if you study at other times.

To keep something new in your mind, the perfect time to practice it is the moment before you're about to forget it.

This is a theory put forth by Polish psychologist Piotr Wozniak. He has experimented (on people, evidently, hopefully, not on animals) for years and documented individual learning patterns to come up with an algorhythm which can determine when your optimal study time should be. He's made it into a computer program called SuperMemo.

"SuperMemo," says Wozniak on his website (www.supermemo.com), "is a learning method that makes it possible to learn fast and retain memories for years."

He's got lots of enthusiastic followers all over the world. "By understanding your memory, SuperMemo finds the optimum timing for review of the learned material. Each fact stored in your collection will have a unique pattern of review and repetition," the website explains.

According to Gary Wolf, who wrote about SuperMemo in the 4/21/08 online version of Wired Magazine *, Piotr Wozniak's mission is "to turn people into geniuses."

Copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved.

Photo courtesy of Julia Freeman-Woolpert.