Brainpower isn’t just about winning at logic puzzles. The things we learn from studying, understanding and having deep conversations with others give us a tangible advantage when it comes to things like remembering people’s names, and remembering things people have told us.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to reap the benefits of a healthy brain. Below are 10 signs that you’re smarter than most people.
1. You “Think In Flash”
When you’re reading a news article or watching a video clip, it may take a few seconds for the information you’re getting from the text to register. But when it does, you know something just got your attention.
This is called visual rehearsal, and it’s how your brain uses visual imagery to recall information, or “think in flash”, just like a magician.
What’s even more impressive is that our brains are capable of learning to think in this way all on their own. The quality of your thinking improves when you look at things in just the right way.
A simple way to practice thinking in flash is to think about a single word or object – like a colored pen, or a book. Rather than trying to remember the object, think about what color it is, what it looks like, what the object is made of, and where you saw it before. Doing this will help you to memorize objects much faster.
“When you see your own reflection in a mirror, for instance, your brain shows you what your face looks like in a flash, allowing you to snap a photo of yourself with just a glance” – Scientific American
2. You Live In A Dreamworld
One of the things that makes you smarter than other people is that you have an incredible imagination. Even if it isn’t always good at visualizing.
This includes everything from dreamscapes to daydreams to movies. In fact, this ability is thought to be the key to creative thinking.
A lot of research has been done to determine why people who have great imagination are more likely to be more intelligent. According to the above example, your brain is capable of constructing images that are only half-remembered. This means that when you use your imagination to try and recall what you saw in a dream, your brain is able to make connections between images it has seen previously.
This is a process called mental construction. If you think about it, the relationship between mental construction and imagination is a little like the relationship between a carpenter and a hammer. It’s all the same process, but the brain uses tools like a hammer to build, while it uses a carpenter’s tools to build a house.
3. You Make Mind-Boggling Symbolic and Pattern Combinations
Some of the best ways to remember and use information are through pictures and symbols. Take for instance this Wikipedia article. It took me around three minutes to read through the text and understand its meaning. That’s because I know that the image I’m looking at represents a certain part of the world.
If I didn’t know what the image meant, it would have taken me a lot longer to make the connection. Picture-based memory is a key component of creative thinking and has been studied since the 1950s, showing that it’s capable of processing and storing information at twice the speed of raw data.
Think about an object and how many different ways you can think of using it. While the connections you make may be very different than what the picture shows, they’ll all come together eventually.
4. You Use Imagery To Recall Words
Most people that have trouble remembering things prefer not to memorize anything at all, but you probably know lots of people who keep extensive lists of daily reminders, and consider each to be a single memory. This is called the memristor.
The memristor is a device that stores information in the form of an electrical resistance. If you remove some of the material from its bottom, or show it light, it becomes weaker. Just like an analog sensor that shows how much power has been used by an analog watch, the memristor shows how much energy is in the material by how much it changes its resistance.
An easy way to remember names and other abstract ideas is to use your imagination. Try to visualize a person, or a memory, or an object and then try to remember it. You’ll be amazed how much easier it is to recall your ideas after doing this exercise.
5. You Use The Interwebs As A Resource
Anyone who’s a student in college can tell you that having access to the internet can increase your productivity by a lot. By just typing in a few keywords you’re able to access a huge amount of information.
Of course, you’re also able to see a ton of crap as well, and most of it has been picked up from sites like, Wikipedia, Wikipedia, YouTube, and Wikipedia. If you’re interested in knowing more about “skiing” or “steampunk,” but there’s no actual articles on the internet, it’s probably time to try searching Google.
Our brains are extremely good at creating associations between information and other things. So what do you get if you combine Wikipedia, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Carl Sagan? The movie Contact.
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