Markus Hofmann

Last updated
Markus Hofmann
Nationality German
OccupationProfessional Memory Trainer
EmployerMEMO-MIND
Known forMemory training, Keynote Speaker, Author, Lecturer
Board member ofGlobal Speakers Federation, German Speakers Association, Steinbeis-Transfer-Institut “Professional Speaker GSA”
Website http://www.unvergesslich.de

Markus Hofmann (born 5 April 1975 in Nabburg) is a professional memory trainer, a Keynote Speaker having received a manifold of achievement awards, associate lecturer and author concerning the topics Memory Training and the Brain. He is actively engaged as a lecturer at the Steinbeis Hochschule Berlin as well as the Management Universität St.Gallen. He holds lectures concentrating on this subject at the ZfU International Business School in Switzerland. He is, among others, a member of the Global Speakers Federation (GSF) as well as a member of the Board of the German Speakers Association (GSA). Hofmann also is a director of the STI – Steinbeis-Transfer-Institut “Professional Speaker GSA”. In 2009 he wrote the bestseller “Brain in Top Form” focused on the topic Memory Training. Since 2010 he has been one of the Top-100 Speakers in Germany.

Contents

Memory trainer

After the completion of a trainee-ship as a bank clerk, Markus Hofmann started his professional career as a speaker for Public Relations at a Sparkasse (savings bank) in the county of Schwandorf, following that he worked at Sparkassenverband Bayern in the field of advertising and communication. Later on he studied at Bayerische Akademie für Werbung und Marketing and qualified as a marketing expert (BAW). He became a memory trainer after finalizing his studies in 2002. He expanded his scope of activities by training as a MAT Trainer (Mental Activation Training) at the Gesellschaft für Gehirntraining as well as by his studies as a European Business Trainer at the Köppel Akademie. [1] Markus Hofmann currently has a close cooperation with Mega-Memory and he is a partner of Gregor Staub.

Markus Hofmann calls his own method MEMO-MIND. The basis of the special Hofmann style of training is the ancient Greek Mnemotechnique. Consequently, the well-known Loci-Method as well as the Figure-Symbol-Technique are among the techniques he applies. These are based on pictures, imagination and creativity. [2] Hofmann combines antique techniques with modern findings referring to the brain and the memory. His uniqueness rests upon the particular way the techniques and the knowledge as such are being communicated by him. [3] Positive motivation as well as positive feedback during learning processes are crucial for him – so are special learning cycles to transport the just learned from the short-term memory to the long-term memory. [4] Markus Hofmann calls the special memory training communicated by him infotainment. According to him, learning has got to be fun because an interactively and positively focused knowledge transfer, enhanced by experiences, supports the memorizing processes. [5] As a consequence Markus Hofmann is of the opinion that the particular way knowledge and techniques are communicated are path breaking for the success of the learning processes of special as well as general knowledge. This, he is convinced, applies to adults as well as to children. [6]

Furthermore, Markus Hofmann is an advocator of brain jogging by means of which the different parts of the brain are trained and which are allocated to numerous tasks (among others the ability of creating word formations, logical thinking, visual and mathematical imagination and concentration). He continuously works out his own brain jogging exercises. An additional purpose of this training is the increase of memory potential. [7]

As a memory trainer Markus Hofmann became well known by his training activities for the “Schottenwette” ("Scots Bet") [8] of a German TV show called “Wetten, dass..?” ("I’ll bet you").

Keynote speaker

Markus Hofmann is not only a memory trainer, he is also an internationally operating Keynote Speaker. He got a lot of publicity in Germany by numerous expert forums such as e.g. “Die Erfolgsmacher” ("The Makers of Success") of the News Magazine FOCUS, which rates him among the “10 Success Makers” in Germany. [9] In the year 2006 he was awarded with the Excellence Award for Trainers and Lecturers. Added to that he works as an assistant lecturer at schools and renowned universities such as the Steinbeis Hochschule Berlin as well as the Management Universität St. Gallen. He holds lectures about that subject [10] at the ZfU, International Business School in Switzerland. He has been a director at the STI Steinbeis Transfer Institut “Professional Speaker GSA” since 2010. In July 2010 he was the first European to receive the CPS (Certified Speaking Professional) certification [11] in Orlando.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forgetting curve</span> Decline of memory retention in time

The forgetting curve hypothesizes the decline of memory retention in time. This curve shows how information is lost over time when there is no attempt to retain it. A related concept is the strength of memory that refers to the durability that memory traces in the brain. The stronger the memory, the longer period of time that a person is able to recall it. A typical graph of the forgetting curve purports to show that humans tend to halve their memory of newly learned knowledge in a matter of days or weeks unless they consciously review the learned material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Learning theory (education)</span> Theory that describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning

Learning theory describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or changed and knowledge and skills retained.

Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers with the main benefit of searchability. It is also known as automatic speech recognition (ASR), computer speech recognition or speech to text (STT). It incorporates knowledge and research in the computer science, linguistics and computer engineering fields. The reverse process is speech synthesis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Learning</span> Process of acquiring new knowledge

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. Some learning is immediate, induced by a single event, but much skill and knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences. The changes induced by learning often last a lifetime, and it is hard to distinguish learned material that seems to be "lost" from that which cannot be retrieved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machine learning</span> Study of algorithms that improve automatically through experience

Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cognitivism (psychology)</span> Theoretical framework for understanding the mind

In psychology, cognitivism is a theoretical framework for understanding the mind that gained credence in the 1950s. The movement was a response to behaviorism, which cognitivists said neglected to explain cognition. Cognitive psychology derived its name from the Latin cognoscere, referring to knowing and information, thus cognitive psychology is an information-processing psychology derived in part from earlier traditions of the investigation of thought and problem solving.

In neurology, anterograde amnesia is the inability to create new memories after the event that caused amnesia, leading to a partial or complete inability to recall the recent past, while long-term memories from before the event remain intact. This is in contrast to retrograde amnesia, where memories created prior to the event are lost while new memories can still be created. Both can occur together in the same patient. To a large degree, anterograde amnesia remains a mysterious ailment because the precise mechanism of storing memories is not yet well understood, although it is known that the regions of the brain involved are certain sites in the temporal cortex, especially in the hippocampus and nearby subcortical regions.

Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition, which has been used synonymously with motor learning. When a movement is repeated over time, the brain creates a long-term muscle memory for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed with little to no conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems. Muscle memory is found in many everyday activities that become automatic and improve with practice, such as riding bikes, driving motor vehicles, playing ball sports, typing on keyboards, entering PINs, playing musical instruments, poker, martial arts, and dancing.

Kinesthetic learning, kinaesthetic learning, or tactile learning is learning that involves physical activity. As cited by Favre (2009), Dunn and Dunn define kinesthetic learners as students who prefer whole-body movement to process new and difficult information. However, scientific studies do not support the claim that using kinesthetic modality improves learning in students identified as kinesthetic learning as their preferred learning style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Method of loci</span> Memory techniques adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises

The method of loci is a strategy for memory enhancement, which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, journey method, memory spaces, or mind palace technique. This method is a mnemonic device adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises. Many memory contest champions report using this technique to recall faces, digits, and lists of words.

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A neural network is a network or circuit of biological neurons, or, in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus, a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up of biological neurons, or an artificial neural network, used for solving artificial intelligence (AI) problems. The connections of the biological neuron are modeled in artificial neural networks as weights between nodes. A positive weight reflects an excitatory connection, while negative values mean inhibitory connections. All inputs are modified by a weight and summed. This activity is referred to as a linear combination. Finally, an activation function controls the amplitude of the output. For example, an acceptable range of output is usually between 0 and 1, or it could be −1 and 1.

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References

  1. See: Especially successful students of the Köppel-Akademie [ permanent dead link ]. (retrieved: 25. August 2010)
  2. “If a pineapple get stuck in the throat” WELT ONLINE, 21 January 2009 (retrieved: 25. August 2010)
  3. "Learning with fun and passion" from: "Brain in top form – That’s the way your brain works". (Verlag Carl Ueberreuter / Wien, 2009) ISBN   978-3-8000-7391-7, p.49-106
  4. "The bendable brain" from: "Brain in top form – That’s the way your brain works". (Verlag Carl Ueberreuter / Wien, 2009) ISBN   978-3-8000-7391-7, p.153-186
  5. Teachers Platform "When examination stress blocks the brain" Archived 2012-09-18 at archive.today TeachersNews 2 Juli 2009 (retrieved: 25. August 2010)
  6. “Simplified Learning” SÜDWEST PRESSE, 5 September 2009 (retrieved: 25. August 2010) “Markus Hofmann shapes up the brain” DER WESTEN, 24 March 2009 (retrieved: 25. August 2010)
  7. Management Seminars – Know-how managerSeminare.de (retrieved: 25. August 2010)
  8. Website about the "Scots Bet" (retrieved: 25. August 2010)
  9. “Imitate the whizkids” FOCUS Success Makers 2009 (retrieved: 25. August 2010)
  10. “Advance by knowledge – Memory Training with Markus Hofmann” International Business School ZfU (retrieved: 25. August 2010
  11. CPS Certification German Speakers Association (GSA) (retrieved: 25. August 2010)