Davdi Silverrock wrote: >On 1/31/06, Jon_Lincicum wrote: > > >>Of course, one might well ask (and I have) why it takes Dragaerans so long >>to study things? I can only conclude that the same factors that give >>Dragaerans a long lifespan also result in them being very slow learners, >>at least by our standards. >> >> >This is something I've been pondering for a while, and while I don't >have a good answer, here's a wildly pararectal handwave: > >Consider that there is more than one type of memory, event memory, and >skill memory. Event memory is broken down into short-term and >long-term memory, and skill memory is built from long-term memories. >Now, if you have really, really long lived entities, it would make >sense for them to be able to retain strong, long-term memories >throughout their lifetime. However, it ought not be *too* easy to >form strong, long-term memories, because brain capacity is finite. So >it therefore makes sense that it takes a lot longer for strong, >long-term skill memories to form in beings that have a lifespan of >2000-3000 years. > > There's some merit in what you say--at the same time, we have examples in some cases (Morrolan's study of sorcery, for one) in which Dragaeran's seem to learn very rapidly. Now, since Morrolan thought he was a short-lived Easterner while he was growing up, he may be more used to learning at a faster pace than other Dragaerans. However, this might suggest that the slow pace of learning is more a cultural factor than a biological one. There's an example in /Dzur/ (or at least in KwH) that seems appropriate, but since not everyone's read it yet (and details may change before publication anyway), I will refrain from citing it. Remind me in August, I guess. ;-) >Hm. This is a more scientific breakdown of the different types of memory: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory > >Fortunately for my handwave, many aspects of how memory works are >still not well understood. > > Well, that's what makes it such a good area for speculation, I guess. ;-) >But perhaps a 34- or 51-, or maybe even 68-year curriculum would be >more appropriate for Dragaerans. Hm. 4 years (as in a 4-year >college) is 4% of a human lifespan. 4% of, say, 2500, is a century or >so. > Again, it likely depends mostly on the subject being studied. (And, of course, on how specialized the curriculum is). For example, there are plenty of simple subjects that we study that could be covered from top to bottom in a single 6-month course. Whereas training for an entire vocation is typically a 2-year, 4-year, or (in the case of an MD) 12-18 year process. But this point should be pretty obvious, I suppose. Majikjon