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Wednesday
Dec022015

How we learn - what does scientific research say?

 

Last month, when I drove all the way from San Francisco to somewhere in very rural Oregon, I listened to Benedict Carey’s excellent book, How we Learn, on CD. This one’s a keeper (yes, read it). Carey reviewed a long list of studies on how people learn, and managed to surprise me in just about every chapter with research results that were unexpected, or at least not obvious.

The following are eight notes, based on his book and the research behind it, that may encourage you to revisit how you learn or how you teach.


1.        Is it a good idea to always study in the same place? Apparently not. Most people do better by varying the environment: location, what you hear in the background, time of day, and how you engage with the material (read, discuss, recite, type etc.) Since the goal is to be able to perform well in every condition, you don’t want to be dependent on a particular environment to succeed. I’m thinking of my guitarring buddies who just about always claim “it sounded so much better when I practiced in my bedroom!” – practice on the porch next time, my friend. So take your laptop to a café, listen to music while you study. The different environments allow you to store the material in different ways, and that’s a good thing when you try to recall it.
2.       Sleep helps consolidate learning, and here’s the more interesting part: the early part of the night, when sleep is deep, is important for retaining facts (names, dates, vocabulary, formulas, concepts). The consolidation of motor skills and creative thinking happens in the morning hours, before waking. So if you’re pushing yourself in preparation for an exam or a performance, think which part of your sleep you don’t want to miss.
3.       Break up study time. Space it out. An hour today and an hour tomorrow, or even the day after that, is better than two hours in one long session. You give yourself an opportunity to recall, review and re-store what you’d learned. Spacing study time is the most powerful and reliable technique to extend and deepen your memory. Think of two important elements of memorization – storing and recalling. When you break up your study time you practice recalling what you’ve already learned. When we cram (yes, we’ve probably all used it as a last resort before an exam) we remember much less on the long run. Spaced rehearsal and self-examination allow us to remember twice as much as cramming. The brain can sharpen a memory only after some forgetting has occurred.
4.       Self testing is one of the best techniques to learn. Whether you like using flashcards, or have a friend/classmate help you test yourself, this improves comprehension and retention much more than continued review, which is a more passive activity. Best is a multiple choice test, in which you choose the right answer and get immediate feedback. Can you explain what you’ve learned to someone else? A lot of learning happens when you teach.
5.       Does it help to review notes from a lesson? I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use the word “Meh”, so perhaps this is my chance. Just because you’ve highlighted something or you’ve looked at your highlights doesn’t mean your brain has engaged in the material more deeply. Copying it isn’t as powerful as we would like it to be. However, studying your highlighted notes and then trying to write them down without looking is a much better way to learn because it works your memory harder and shows you what you really don’t know yet. What you want to watch out for is the “fluency illusion”, the feeling that you’re fluent just because reading the notes made everything look so self-evident. This feeling, which develops automatically and subconsciously, is the most common reason for doing poorly in exams that you felt you were prepared for.
6.       Smart phones and gadgets and social media are so distracting… how bad is that? Distraction is a real problem if you need to be focused continually during a lecture, but study breaks for 5-20 minutes are the most effective way to solve a problem if you’re stuck. Distracting yourself from the task (yes, go check your emails or play a computer game) allows you to let go of your mistaken assumptions, re-examine the clues and return to your desk fresh (yes, returning to the desk is part of the deal). If you’re motivated to solve the problem your brain will continue to work on it during your break without being fixated on the unproductive ideas you were stuck with earlier.  
7.       What is an effective strategy to improve performance on long term creative projects? Start them as early as possible and deliberately interrupt them. Walk away from your project, because this activates it in your mind. You’ll pick up more relevant ideas and get more in tune with your thinking. This is called “percolation” and it’s working in your favor.   
8.       Is it best to practice one skill at a time or alternate between working on a different skills? (I’m thinking about learning a new musical piece, but you may be thinking about your training as a HANDLE provider or your kid’s math homework). When you work on one skill at a time, you quickly see tangible improvements. But it is actually better to interleave different skills when you practice because that sharpens your grasp of all of them. If it’s the math homework your kid is struggling with, for example, the varying of math problems trains her to match the problem type with the appropriate strategies.  

 

Would you share what study strategies work for you (whether scientifically based or not)?

 

 

 

Reader Comments (1)

This was a really good post.

--- (I have removed the rest of Brian's comment which seemed like spam. Dror)

Cheers

September 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterBrian

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