New research in neuroscience shows that by purposefully creating challenges for ourselves, we learn much more effectively.
If you set yourself the goal of learning a new skill in 2020, then it is quite possible that at some point you will lose heart. Whether you're learning a new language, a musical instrument, or trying to change careers, your initial enthusiasm grips you, but further progress can seem frustratingly slow.
Therefore, you might think that you just lack a natural gift - compared to those lucky ones who can learn any new skill with apparent ease.
However, this is not necessarily the case. Many gifted individuals, including Charles Darwin and Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, have argued that they lacked exceptional natural intelligence. Most of us have more than enough mental faculties to master a new discipline, we just need to apply them correctly. And new discoveries in neuroscience are offering many strategies for how to do this.
Much of the research in this area builds on the idea of "desirable difficulties" pioneered by Robert and Elizabeth Bjork of the University of California, Los Angeles. The goal is to consciously create a mild sense of frustration during learning, which forces the brain to process the material more deeply, creating longer lasting memories. It's like exercising: it takes a little resistance to achieve significant long-term results.
Unfortunately, many common teaching methods, such as reading textbooks and highlighting key messages or drawing colorful mind maps, do not involve enough mental effort to retain information, with frustrating results. “Our thinking about learning often shifts towards strategies that seem simple and easy,” says Caroline Kepper-Tetzel, a psychologist at the University of Glasgow and contributor to Learning Scientists. "But they don't translate into long-term knowledge."
The following strategies will help you overcome these bad habits. Whatever you plan to study, they will make others jealous of your memory.
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Productive failure
Let's start with a preliminary test - a strategy that is perhaps best explained with an example.
How do you say thank you in Finnish?
The answer is "kiitos" - and I guess most of the readers who are not originally from Finland did not even hope to answer this question correctly. But thanks to this preliminary attempt, you are now more likely to remember the answer in the future. Psychological research shows that taking a test before you have even studied the material forces the brain to absorb information afterwards, even if you have not been able to answer any of the questions correctly.
This works both when memorizing simple little things, and for a deeper understanding of complex material. In one study, participants were asked questions about the neuroscience of vision before they read an essay by Oliver Sachs on the topic. As a result, they remembered 10-15% more than students who were given extra time to read the text. Whatever you study, try to check your current understanding of the topic - even if it is zero.
Teach it to someone else
After the preliminary test, you can check what you just learned. Psychologists believe that this is one of the most reliable ways to create stronger memory traces. In carefully controlled research, it is vastly superior to other strategies, such as mind mapping of the material being studied.
As Kepper-Tetzel explains: “Testing is usually seen as a way of assessing knowledge. However, testing itself is a powerful learning strategy that has proven to increase the long-term strength of knowledge.”
This may be one of the reasons why flashcards - a common form of self-testing - don't work as well as they could. If you think that self-testing is just a means of assessing memories, you may look too quickly at the answer, when in fact you need to really strain your brain before giving up if you want to form a stronger memory. “The more difficult it is for the brain, the more the memory for information expands,” says Professor Mirjam Ebersbach of the University of Kassel in Germany.
If you are preparing for exams, try to come up with your own questions instead of relying on the ones available. Ebersbach found that the question-generating process itself can improve memorization as it forces you to phrase the material in new ways.
Perhaps the most effective method is to teach the material to another person, as you need to demonstrate a deep conceptual understanding to do this. If you don't have a volunteer, you might pretend you're explaining the subject to someone, or write an email detailing what you've learned.
Alternate
Try not to spend too much time on any one topic - it's better to switch between them regularly. For example, if you're learning a new language, switch between two or three vocabulary topics or different verb tenses, instead of taking turns learning them in blocks. This strategy is called interleaving, and like pre-testing, it can be frustrating because you can't really dive into the material before moving on. But that's why it works. Numerous studies have shown that this short-term confusion significantly improves long-term memory.
In addition to speeding up actual learning, alternation can also speed up the acquisition of motor skills. For example, if you are learning to play a musical instrument, you can alternate scales with the pieces of music you are learning.
Move
Contrary to the sedentary nerd stereotype, the best students are usually the most physically active. Cardiovascular exercise is known to trigger the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and adrenaline, which are essential for memory formation. This means that the mind works especially well after a morning run or hitting the gym. Therefore, try to plan your studies based on your physical activity plan, and this will help improve memory.
Change your environment
Have you ever noticed that when you return to your hometown, memories of distant events suddenly return? This is because our memory is context sensitive, meaning it is heavily influenced by environmental cues.
While context-sensitive memory can trigger waves of pleasant nostalgia, it can also lead to blocking actual learning. If we learn something or practice a skill in only one place, our memories are tied to the sight, sounds and smells of that place. This makes it harder to recall the same material in a new setting - in an exam room, in a quiz show studio, in a Parisian restaurant - without these prompts.
In order not to depend on them, try to study in different places. One experiment by Robert Bjork and colleagues showed that simply changing rooms between study sessions improved learning outcomes by 21%.
Do nothing
After your brain is faced with all these desirable difficulties, give it time to recover. This means not just watching TV, but literally doing nothing. Professor Michaela Dewar of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh found that "waking rest" - without any external stimulation - allows the brain to consolidate the memories of what it has learned.
So sit back, close your eyes and let your thoughts go where they want - knowing that your mind at this time anchors knowledge for the long term.