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I thought this was pretty interesting. The specific technique looks tough to duplicate, but maybe just getting sleep and some careful use of fragrance / smells might yield an extra point or two on an exam (if nothing else from a placebo / confidence effect):
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/science/09sleep.html?ref=health
Study Uncovers Memory Aid: A Scent During Sleep
Science
A participant sleeping in a laboratory with a nasal mask attached for olfactory stimulation. Bottles on the left contain various scents.
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: March 9, 2007
Scientists studying how sleep affects memory have found that the whiff of a familiar scent can help a slumbering brain better remember things that it learned the evening before. The smell of roses — delivered to people's nostrils as they studied and, later, as they slept — improved their performance on a memory test by about 13 percent.
The new study, appearing today in the journal Science, is the first rigorous test of the effect of odor on human memory during sleep. The results, whether or not they can help students cram for tests, clarify the picture of what the sleeping brain does with newly learned material and help illuminate what it takes for this process to succeed.
Researchers have long known that sleep is crucial to laying down new memories, and studies in the 1980s and '90s showed that exposing the sleeping brain to certain cues — the sound of clicking, for instance — could enhance the process. But it is only in recent years that scientists have begun to understand how this is possible.
(read more at the link)
Even if it doesn't work, it sounds kindof fun.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/09/science/09sleep.html?ref=health
Study Uncovers Memory Aid: A Scent During Sleep
Science
A participant sleeping in a laboratory with a nasal mask attached for olfactory stimulation. Bottles on the left contain various scents.
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: March 9, 2007
Scientists studying how sleep affects memory have found that the whiff of a familiar scent can help a slumbering brain better remember things that it learned the evening before. The smell of roses — delivered to people's nostrils as they studied and, later, as they slept — improved their performance on a memory test by about 13 percent.
The new study, appearing today in the journal Science, is the first rigorous test of the effect of odor on human memory during sleep. The results, whether or not they can help students cram for tests, clarify the picture of what the sleeping brain does with newly learned material and help illuminate what it takes for this process to succeed.
Researchers have long known that sleep is crucial to laying down new memories, and studies in the 1980s and '90s showed that exposing the sleeping brain to certain cues — the sound of clicking, for instance — could enhance the process. But it is only in recent years that scientists have begun to understand how this is possible.
(read more at the link)
Even if it doesn't work, it sounds kindof fun.
