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Paolo  Fabiani
  • Florence, Toscana, Italy
This book is a retrospective view of modern philosophical anthropology through the works of two of its greatest exponents. the author demonstrates how mythology, the philosophy of history and language and Vico's concept of man had as a... more
This book is a retrospective view of modern philosophical anthropology through the works of two of its greatest exponents. the author demonstrates how mythology, the philosophy of history and language and Vico's concept of man had as a constant referral point Malebranche's psychology with its Cartesian formulation. The idolatrous and mythopoietic imagination that is described in La Scienza Nuova (New Science) has much in common with the "pagan" mind (that is to say the mind subjugated to passions, sensitivity and fantasy that is described in La Recherche (The Search after Truth). Some of the themes discussed here are myth, the metaphoric nature of thought, idolatry, the formation of mentality, the relationships which bind passions and representations and the association of ideas through iconic images. Also discussed are other themes such as the structure of society and imagination, imitation, persuasion and social relationships, communication within society between illustrious imaginations. Moreover in Malebranche has been found a complex and complete theory of imaginative universals (universali fantastici).
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Saggio sulle strutture semantiche, i processi di apprendimento e studio in relazione all'arte della memoria, all'immaginazione e alla metafora
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Il libro Trois études sur la philosophie de Malebranche, Bayle, Vico è una raccolta di tre interventi scritti da Paolo Fabiani in occasione di due convegni, a Parigi e a Napoli, e una relazione/conferenza tenuta presso l’Università di... more
Il libro Trois études sur la philosophie de Malebranche, Bayle, Vico è una raccolta di tre interventi scritti da Paolo Fabiani in occasione di due convegni, a Parigi e a Napoli, e una relazione/conferenza tenuta presso l’Università di Toulouse. Il primo articolo, Vico et Malebranche - L'ancien art de la mémoire et la science nouvelle de l'imagination, è la relazione che l’Autore ha presentato al convegno internazionale The power of imagination in the 16th-18th Centuries 6-8 Décembre 2010, Paris/Versailles. Il secondo, intitolato Considérations sur L'article de Zénon d'Élée dans le Dictionnaire historique et Critique de Pierre Bayle, recupera una relazione esposta a l'Université de Toulouse “Le Mirail” nel 1998. L’ultimo articolo, Malebranche en Italie, è stato scritto in occasione del convegno organizzato dal Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche italiano (ISPF: Istituto per la storia del pensiero filosofico e scientifico moderno di Napoli) e dall’Università Federico II di Napoli. Tutti e tre gli interventi sono stati pubblicati su internet nella rivista ex Wall Street International adesso Meer.
This book is a retrospective view of modern philosophical anthropology through the works of two of its greatest exponents. the author demonstrates how mythology, the philosophy of history and language and Vico's concept of man had as a... more
This book is a retrospective view of modern philosophical anthropology through the works of two of its greatest exponents. the author demonstrates how mythology, the philosophy of history and language and Vico's concept of man had as a constant referral point Malebranche's psychology with its Cartesian formulation. The idolatrous and mythopoietic imagination that is described in La Scienza Nuova (New Science) has much in common with the "pagan" mind (that is to say the mind subjugated to passions, sensitivity and fantasy that is described in La Recherche (The Search after Truth). Some of the themes discussed here are myth, the metaphoric nature of thought, idolatry, the formation of mentality, the relationships which bind passions and representations and the association of ideas through iconic images. Also discussed are other themes such as the structure of society and imagination, imitation, persuasion and social relationships, communication within society between illustrious imaginations. Moreover in Malebranche has been found a complex and complete theory of imaginative universals (universali fantastici).
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L’esperienza del “rammentare”, quella che ognuno di noi fa ininterrottamente, costituisce il cerchio delle illusioni, il “perimetro della coscienza” da cui ricavare l’ineffabilità dell’esistenza individuale. Tutta la nostra realtà e, per... more
L’esperienza del “rammentare”, quella che ognuno di noi fa ininterrottamente, costituisce il cerchio delle illusioni, il “perimetro della coscienza” da cui ricavare l’ineffabilità dell’esistenza individuale. Tutta la nostra realtà e, per contro, ogni particolare aspetto della nostra storia dipendono unicamente dalla gestione dei ricordi che la mente in continuazione effettua durante tutto l’arco della vita. Immaginazione, memoria, attenzione, stati di coscienza, alienazione, astrazione, il condizionamento della società tecnologica sul costituirsi e fissarsi delle conoscenze nel pensiero individuale e collettivo: questi sono alcuni dei temi da cui parte l’argomentazione di Paolo Fabiani. Egli affronta poi problemi relativi a questioni di più ampio respiro, a carattere sociologico e pedagogico.
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Studies published on Meer (ex  The Wall Street International magazine) about the cognitive psychology of learning, pedagogy, didactics and the contemporaries mnemotechnics
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In un mondo quanto mai complesso e competitivo, saper far fronte a impegni scolastici e lavorativi sempre più gravosi, richiede necessariamente di migliorare le capacità intellettive e affinare le competenze cognitive. Oggi è vitale... more
In un mondo quanto mai complesso e competitivo, saper far fronte a impegni scolastici e lavorativi sempre più gravosi, richiede necessariamente di migliorare le capacità intellettive e affinare le competenze cognitive. Oggi è vitale pensare con efficacia e velocemente, saper gestire, analizzare e comprendere una sempre crescente quantità di informazioni. La scuola, l’università e i corsi di formazione aziendali spesso non sono in grado di fornire gli strumenti adeguati, ecco il perché di un “Master sui metodi di studio e le tecniche di memorizzazione”.
Barbiana è un romanzo psicologico e di formazione scritto da Paolo Fabiani. È un'attenta descrizione della vita e delle sue problematicità. La storia narra le vicende di un pittore disadattato, soprannominato Barbiana, che vive in un... more
Barbiana è un romanzo psicologico e di formazione scritto da Paolo Fabiani. È un'attenta descrizione della vita e delle sue problematicità. La storia narra le vicende di un pittore disadattato, soprannominato Barbiana, che vive in un paese di campagna. La trama si sviluppa in una serie di fatti-in parte comici, in parte tragici e a volte ridicoli-che conducono il Protagonista a una sempre maggiore consapevolezza di sé stesso. Pagina dopo pagina, alternando in maniera divertente ed ironica analisi intimistiche a molti fatti assurdi, si sviluppano temi quali la solitudine, la depressione, la difficoltà di integrarsi e adeguarsi a una società sempre più alienante e distante dalle esigenze dei singoli. Nel libro si elabora e completa una vera e propria psicologia del profondo per immagini, arrivando così a un finale che fa veramente pensare. Qui puoi trovare il libro: https://www.youcanprint.it/fiction-psicologico/barbiana-9788831698863.html
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Paolo Fabiani curriculum vitae et studiorum
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Este artículo responde a una invitación expresa por parte de la Dirección de la Revista para este volumen especial por el 350º Aniversario del nacimiento de G. Vico, habiendo superado los criterios de valoración y del proceso de... more
Este artículo responde a una invitación expresa por parte de la Dirección de la Revista para este volumen especial por el 350º Aniversario del nacimiento de G. Vico, habiendo superado los criterios de valoración y del proceso de aceptación. 111 © Cuadernos sobre Vico 32 (2018) Sevilla (España, UE). RESUMEN: Este artículo está idealmente dirigido a aquellos que ya conocen un poco la filosofía y están decidiendo en qué sector de la misma profundizar, o, por el contrario, a eruditos expertos que decidan cambiar de sector y acercarse a la filosofía de Giambattista Vico. Según este filósofo, el pensamiento humano nació como pensar por mitos, a través de mitos. Al principio, el pensamiento humano era exclusivamente un pensamiento mitológico sin ningún término de comparación, confrontación o contrapeso con el pensamiento "racional" y abstracto que, de hecho, aún no existía. El mito lo llenaba todo o, mejor aún, la imaginación primitiva lo llenaba todo con el mito. Este es un principio, pero también un presupuesto de la filosofía contenida en la Scienza nuova. En mi opinión, el estudio de Vico debería partir de este concepto fundamental. PALABRAS CLAVE: Vico, 350º Aniversario, mito, imaginación, P. Fabiani. Some considerations about the educational importance of Vico's thought for students that encounter his philosophy for the first time ABSTRACT: This article is ideally aimed at those who already know a little about philosophy and are deciding which part of it to focus on, or, on the contrary, expert scholars who are considering whether to change their area, and to approach the philosophy of Giambattista Vico. According to this philosopher, human thought was born thinking by myths, through myths. At first, human thought was exclusively mythological, and not in contrast, confrontation or counterweight with any kind of "rational" or abstract thought, which, in fact, did not yet exist. The myth filled everything-or shall we rather say, the primitive imagination filled everything with myth. This is a principle, but also a presupposition of the philosophy contained in the Scienza nuova. In my opinion, Vico's study should start from this fundamental concept. Alcune considerazioni sull'importanza formativa del pensiero di Vico per gli studenti che si avvicinano per la prima volta allo studio della filosofia RIASSUNTO: Questo articolo è idealmente rivolto a chi ha già una qualche conoscenza di filosofia e deve decidere quale set-tore approfondire di essa, o, al contrario, a studiosi eruditi che decidono di cambiare settore e avvicinarsi alla filosofia di Giambattista Vico. Secondo questo filosofo, il pensiero umano nasce come pensiero dai miti, attraverso i miti. All'inizio, il pensiero umano era esclusivamente un pensiero mitologico senza alcun termine di paragone, confronto o contrappeso con il pensiero "razionale" e astratto che, di fatto, non esisteva ancora. Il mito riempiva tutto o, meglio ancora, l'immagi-nazione primitiva riempiva tutto di miti. Questo è un principio, ma anche un presupposto della filosofia contenuta nella Scienza nuova. A mio parere, lo studio di Vico dovrebbe partire da questo concetto fondamentale. PAROLE CHIAVE: Vico, 350º Anniversario, mito, imaginazione, P. Fabiani.
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Mental Calculation and Memorization. A conversation with the world record holder Paolo Fabiani. This article is freely available on the Wall Street International
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From the Art of the Imagination to the Science of the Mind. Some Considerations on the Concept of Memory in Malebranche and Vico. The topic of the psychology of memory is rather marginal in the contemporary debate about the imagination in... more
From the Art of the Imagination to the Science of the Mind. Some Considerations on the Concept of Memory in Malebranche and Vico. The topic of the psychology of memory is rather marginal in the contemporary debate about the imagination in early modern philosophy, despite the evident fact that without memory imagining is impossible. This question moves from the rhetoric domain to the “scientific” analysis of the mind, and occurs both in Malebranche and Vico, but via different paths in each of the two thinkers: Vico studies the mythological thought, whereas Malebranche builds a new psychology and a new critique of the Aristotelian mentality, that is to say the mentality of every man who is not enlightened by divine grace and who has not read and understood Descartes. But they both share the rejection of the art of memory – which was the most thorough knowledge about memory until then – and more generally they formulate many congruent analyzes on the subject of memory.
This article is freely available on the Wall Street International here: https://wsimag.com/culture/56903-images-in-the-art-of-memory
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Some remarks on the memory span. A brief comparative history of mnemonics. Part five
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Some Effective Studying Techniques Le fasi preliminari dello studio Strategie di apprendimento e di ragionamento This article is freely available on the Wall Street International to the following URL:... more
Some Effective Studying Techniques Le fasi preliminari dello studio Strategie di apprendimento e di ragionamento This article is freely available on the Wall Street International to the following URL: https://wsimag.com/it/scienza-e-tecnologia/63220-le-fasi-preliminari-dello-studio This article is in Italian.
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Come fare calcoli a mente velocemente - I fondamenti dell’aritmetica mentale e perché questa disciplina è utile a sviluppare molte abilità cognitive
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È utile saper fare calcoli a mente? Alcune considerazioni sull'importanza di fare calcoli aritmetici a mente nell'era dell'intelligenza artificiale.
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Mental math to better understand working memory and image schemata
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Sei semplici strategie per memorizzare qualsiasi parola e idea
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Internet non è fatto di clorofilla (The internet is not made of chlorophyll) Alienazione e memoria nel terzo millennio (Alienation and memory in the third millennium)
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Alcune considerazioni sull'istruzione scolastica in Italia
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The goal of this page is to give daily information on how to learn and, specifically, to study and memorize profitably and without excessive effort. I also hope to clarify these issues since there are so many wrong, exaggerated and... more
The goal of this page is to give daily information on how to learn and, specifically, to study and memorize profitably and without excessive effort. I also hope to clarify these issues since there are so many wrong, exaggerated and misleading news on the internet.
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The images are easier to remember than words that recall abstract concepts because, unlike the latter (which only make use of verbal encoding), the former has a double coding: verbal and imaginative [1]. Words such as "table", "notebook"... more
The images are easier to remember than words that recall abstract concepts because, unlike the latter (which only make use of verbal encoding), the former has a double coding: verbal and imaginative [1]. Words such as "table", "notebook" are encoded by our cognitive system, both at the verbal and imaginative level, while abstract words like "epistemology" or "notwithstanding" are mostly only recorded verbally.
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Not all mental images are suitable to be stored easily; I say “stored easily” and not simply “memorized”, since all mental images can be memorized, even if some of them with difficulty. As we have seen in a previous article the first... more
Not all mental images are suitable to be stored easily; I say “stored easily” and not simply “memorized”, since all mental images can be memorized, even if some of them with difficulty. As we have seen in a previous article the first characteristic of the mnemonic images is that they must be well defined. And we should not confuse the concept of the definition of the images with that of the resolution of the photographs. The one is not the other's metaphor. Our imagination is not a camera. Mnemonic images must have certain characteristics, the main of which we will examine in this article: emotion, exaggeration, eccentricity, movement; they should also be parameterisable and configurable.
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In the first part of the article, The art of memory, I exposed the theory of loci, perhaps the oldest complex mnemo-technique that we know. We have to say that loci – “places” where the images need to be placed – are well defined spaces.... more
In the first part of the article, The art of memory, I exposed the theory of loci, perhaps the oldest complex mnemo-technique that we know. We have to say that loci – “places” where the images need to be placed – are well defined spaces. However, they are spaces that we must build only in our mind. They are images, and that of “images of memory” is a pivotal concept for us.
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In this article the adjective “comparative” simply means that I want to establish a comparison between the history of memory and the psychological implications which it involves. Too many times the art of memory has been studied only from... more
In this article the adjective “comparative” simply means that I want to establish a comparison between the history of memory and the psychological implications which it involves. Too many times the art of memory has been studied only from a historical and cultural point of view without considering the psychological and – above all – the strategic value of its findings.
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Neither technique nor skill, but rather developing the ability to use techniques This article is freely available on the Wall Street International to the following URL: http://wsimag.com/culture/27083-understanding-the-best-way-to-memorize
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Association is the most important (but not the only) pillar of memory. Talking about individual associations of ideas is an abstraction (which, however, we have to do if we want to discuss in this regard) because, in reality, there is... more
Association is the most important (but not the only) pillar of memory. Talking about individual associations of ideas is an abstraction (which, however, we have to do if we want to discuss in this regard) because, in reality, there is almost never a single bond between two thoughts. There is an undetermined number of links between ideas. The concept of mental association in fact is extremely broad.
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Association is at the root of all types of learning, even the simplest. Without the association between things already known present in the memory and the comparison with new experiences, human thought would not be possible.
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In this article, I consider the concept of memory simply as a set of information that must be managed for a determined and/or indeterminate period of time. The memory must not be overly complex, but should be integrated with other... more
In this article, I consider the concept of memory simply as a set of information that must be managed for a determined and/or indeterminate period of time. The memory must not be overly complex, but should be integrated with other memories that are to it ‘contiguous’ by likeness, or by meaning, or by accident. It is the overall pattern of all these details that then, to the recovery of any of them, will pull back the full picture. What follows should be regarded also in relation to the rote repetition, as a list of accounts useful to turn a monotonous repetition of notions gradually into an active process of comprehension.
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Is rote learning useful or not? The answer is yes. But rote repetition is also the worst way to learn something. It is repetitive, tedious and requires only a minimal semantic encoding. The simple repetition, also when it leads to memory,... more
Is rote learning useful or not? The answer is yes. But rote repetition is also the worst way to learn something. It is repetitive, tedious and requires only a minimal semantic encoding. The simple repetition, also when it leads to memory, does not facilitate the regeneration of the concepts by the subject, it does not allow the reworking of the content and, above all, it does not allow correcting the errors of memory that are made at the beginning and that tend to remain. The feedback we get from testing instead is useful for correcting errors and not only to aid memory retrieval. But the strategy to combine the practice of testing with that of the generation effect (that is produced by an autonomous effort by the subject) could be further improved if, before, in the coding phase and then in the revision, we identify some key concepts around which to spin all the others.
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How to encode, store and retrieve information
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How to organize your study
Building the foundations of a correct learning
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Everyone learns from himself.
How to understand when we are not understanding
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My aim is not to explain to the teachers how to teach, but introduce (and in future articles show) some good strategies for learning. This article serves precisely for this purpose. As an extreme hypothetical case we can take one of the... more
My aim is not to explain to the teachers how to teach, but introduce (and in future articles show) some good strategies for learning. This article serves precisely for this purpose. As an extreme hypothetical case we can take one of the autodidacts, in which, the two figures of the teacher and the student are overlapped in the same person.
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The learning style models proceed from the widespread belief that people differ in how they learn. The assumption of individualized learning styles developed in the second half of the 20th century and it has had a big impact on pedagogy... more
The learning style models proceed from the widespread belief that people differ in how they learn. The assumption of individualized learning styles developed in the second half of the 20th century and it has had a big impact on pedagogy and didactics despite the strong criticism that some scholars have advanced. In this article I analyze the main thesis about learning styles.
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According to Malebranche and Vico, it is with the imagination that the human being attributes value to things and all material objects. For these authors the individual person produces its own logic of values and ideas modeled by fantasy... more
According to Malebranche and Vico, it is with the imagination that the human being attributes value to things and all material objects. For these authors the individual person produces its own logic of values and ideas modeled by fantasy and by some other fundamental sentiments, according to the external nature of things. Malebranche defines it “pagan mentality” and Vico describes it as “poetic logic”. Since ancient times, the mnemonic arts have always considered the power of the imagination as the driving engine of memory. Modern thinkers like Vico and Malebranche have made this “acting truth” a metaphysical and scientific axiom of their system of thought.
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Cet article a pour but la mise en évidence d'un aspect particulier de l'article de Zénon d'Élée, c'est-à-dire la critique du concept de substance. Cet article reprend une rapport que je présentai à l'Université de Toulouse “Le Mirail” en... more
Cet article a pour but la mise en évidence d'un aspect particulier de l'article de Zénon d'Élée, c'est-à-dire la critique du concept de substance.
Cet article reprend une rapport que je présentai à l'Université de Toulouse “Le Mirail” en 1998
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Nicolas Malebranche est né à Paris le 5 août 1638 où il est mort le 13 octobre 1715, et pour célébrer l'anniversaire de sa disparition des événements et des conférences ont été organisés par la communauté scientifique. Parmi les... more
Nicolas Malebranche est né à Paris le 5 août 1638 où il est mort le 13 octobre 1715, et pour célébrer l'anniversaire de sa disparition des événements et des conférences ont été organisés par la communauté scientifique. Parmi les événements le plus importants en Italie il faut signaler un colloque organisé par le Conseil national de recherche (CNR)-Institut pour l'histoire de la pensée philosophique et scientifique moderne (ISPF: Istituto per la storia del pensiero filosofico e scientifico moderno) de Naples et par l’Université Federico II de Naples Ce colloque porte sur Malebranche et ses contemporains et a pour but de mettre en évidence, pour la première fois dans le contexte napolitain, l'importance de ce philosophe pour comprendre la propagation des idées et la formation des grands systèmes métaphysiques entre la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle et la première moitié du XVIIIe siècle
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This book is a treasure house of Italian philosophy. Narrating and explaining the history of Italian philosophers from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, the author identifies the specificity, peculiarity, originality, and novelty... more
This book is a treasure house of Italian philosophy. Narrating and explaining the history of Italian philosophers from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, the author identifies the specificity, peculiarity, originality, and novelty of Italian philosophical thought in the men and women of the Renaissance. The vast intellectual output of the Renaissance can be traced back to a single philosophical stream beginning in Florence and fed by numerous converging human factors. This work offers historians and philosophers a vast survey and penetrating analysis of an intellectual tradition which has heretofore remained virtually unknown to the Anglophonic world of scholarship.
(source: https://brill.com/view/package/9789042023215?lang=en )
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The theory of categories today 
The paper is in Italian, original title:
La teoria delle categorie oggi - Intervista ad Alberto Peruzzi su una delle principali questioni filosofiche
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This interview to Giorgio Pinton is an overview of contemporary Italian philosophy. I discuss with him about some of the most important philosophers in the history of Italian thought.
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COME FARE CALCOLI A MENTE VELOCEMENTE
esercizio utile anche per la lettura e la
concentrazione
HOW TO DO MENTAL CALCULATIONS QUICKLY
Exercise useful also for reading and concentration
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In un mondo quanto mai complesso e competitivo, saper far fronte a impegni scolastici e lavorativi sempre più gravosi, richiede necessariamente di migliorare le capacità intellettive e affinare le competenze cognitive. Oggi è vitale... more
In un mondo quanto mai complesso e competitivo, saper far fronte a impegni scolastici e lavorativi sempre più gravosi, richiede necessariamente di migliorare le capacità intellettive e affinare le competenze cognitive. Oggi è vitale pensare con efficacia e velocemente, saper gestire, analizzare e comprendere una sempre crescente quantità di informazioni. La scuola, l’università e i corsi di formazione aziendali spesso non sono in grado di fornire gli strumenti adeguati, ecco il perché di un “Master sui metodi di studio e le tecniche di memorizzazione”.
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