September 16th, 2009 → 12:56 am @ andre // No Comments
“Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand.” – Confucious
Though Confucious was aware of how humans best learn new information it wasn’t until quite recently that we understand the science behind what he’s saying.
Did you know that as you learning causes
These improvements that your brain experiences when you learn is crucial to mental health. As you age, neurons die and synapses break down. People who stop learning for a prolonged period of time does not stay the same. They don’t possess the knowledge they once had forever.
Instead, they degrade. They experience memory loss and lose the ability to learn. Yet most of us just don’t have the time to learn anything new. We’re so busy nowadays that we barely have the time to sleep, let alone learn.
My aim in this article is to show you how the brain works and how you can take advantage of that information to improve your learning capability. That’s what separates human brain to computers – we can learn how to learn! Let’s get started.
There are two ways you learn.
When you learn from someone else’s experience, you’re said to develop semantic memory. Semantic memory is, for most of the time, short term memory. To turn semantic memory into long term memory, constant attention is required to move that piece of information to the neocortex. When this information is moved to the neocortex (your consciousness), you’ll then be able to recall and retrieve that information freely.
An example of semantic learning is studying for exams. The student pays intense attention on the information that will be in the exam and thus they learn. The key ingredient in semantic learning is attention.
No attention = no learning. Michael Merzenich of University of California, San Francisco, observed through brain scans that neural connections happens only when attention is paid to the stimulus. This discovery shows it is imperative you pay close attention into whatever you want learn.
Don’t turn on the audio course in the background, while you’re also reading a book. Don’t multi-task by listening to music, chat with your friends and study all at the same time.
If you haven’t noticed already, learning is a tedious task for the brain. By doing other tasks while you’re learning, you’re “fighting multiple battles”. The resources that your brain possesses are divided and as a result, you couldn’t achieve anything of consequence. You’ll not master what you want to learn, you’ll not enjoy the music you’re listening to as much and neither will you have a conservation as meaningful as it CAN be.
The good news is, contrary to popular belief, focusing on one task at a time increases your productivity. And it makes whatever you better at what you do. In fact, a study by Mike Adams showed that multitasking lowers IQ by 10 points – which is more than smoking marijuana would. Watch this video about the subject:
When attention is paid, neural networks are then created in your neocortex to store the semantic information you’ve learned. Unfortunately, the synapses that link these neural networks break down if you don’t keep firing these neurons. This is part of the brain’s ability to evolve and adapt.
If you don’t use a particular skill, the brain diverts resources away from it to supplement the skills that you DO use. Thus if you don’t keep revising what you’ve learned, the neural network you’ve built are broken down to assist with functions such as… watching TV and “hanging”. This is why most students forget what they’ve studied for in exam periods within days of the holidays.
By paying intense attention on a subject for a short period of time, they’ve built neural networks that store those semantic information. But these neural networks are weak at best. To strengthen a neural network, neurons in that network have to repeatedly fire. This is why a more consistent approach, such as 2 hours a day of revision or practice, is a far better approach to learning than a blitz approach.
The other way you can learn is by going through an experience. This is how humans originally learn before the written word is invented, which is probably why learning through an experience is far easier than would through a book.
When you learn through an experience, it is said that you have an “episodic memory”. Episodic memories are mostly long term memory because they are reinforced by the neurotransmitters released during that experience. Different neurotransmitters result in different feelings. Thus we can remember an episodic memory better because we can remember how it felt.
In addition, an experience requires our full participation and involves our five senses. This participation (which also mean your full attention) results in a larger network of neurons firing, thus the more links are built.
This is why you probably still remember the first date with your spouse. You can still “see” your nervousness, your sweaty palms, perhaps your dry lips and your heart pumping. And as you recall this moment, you’re feeling exactly like you did all those years ago.
Experience is, of course, required in mastering any skill. You can’t learn to ride a bike by reading about it. This is because when you semantically learn, the information is stored in your neocortex. The neocortex is your conscious mind – or what we come to call “free will”. It’s what makes a human – human. It’s the most advanced of all our brains and it’s what separates us from other animals.
But when you ride a bike, or play a piano, or swim, or do anything else for that matter, do you consciously do it? Professional athletes would readily tell you that if they were to interfere with their conscious mind, they wouldn’t perform as well as they could. Some people call this “muscle memory”. For some reason or another, they could swing that club (or racket) perfectly without their conscious participation.
This is because the lessons of an experience is stored elsewhere in the brain – your subconscious. As you practice by doing, instead of reading, you strengthen the neural networks in this part of your brain and increase your chances of “hitting that perfect ball” without your conscious participation (most of the lessons you learn through an experience is subconscious anyway).
But it is important to note that semantic learning is often a prerequisite of great experiential learning. If you jump into an experience unprepared, then you wouldn’t know what to do in that experience to get any meaningful lessons out of it. For example, hitting the piano keys randomly probably will not get you anywhere. You’ll first have to learn the theories of music.
But this does not mean the more semantic information you have, the better. Just like IQ, you only need a certain amount of semantic information to get the most out of an experience. How much exactly is “enough”, no one knows. (Personally, I use my gut feeling to judge if I’m ready.) Thus a book worm who studied persuasion for years may not be able to persuade better than a negotiation expert who has been doing it for a year.
Tags: learn fast, learn faster, learning skills, Learning Techniques, learning tips
