This post will be “an easy one”, basically a quick recap or a recap by professor Andrew Huberman on what “science” (that means: according to studies’ results, so far) tell about what’s good to better learn. You can find his video and reference here on his website. For more specific details, I suggest you Barbara Oakley’s course “How to learn”. As you read, please keep in mind that what you’ll find between parenthesis is not what Prof. Huberman told, but my considerations. Let’s get started.
Concepts/findings apply to almost any kind of learning, despite of its application, whether you’re a student preparing for the next exam or just someone learning for pleasure, for learning’s sake. Often reality and techniques are counter-intuitive and in contrast with our beliefs, but the core idea is: we tend to forget, so the best way of learning is more about offsetting the natural way we forget info (you may be familiar with this way of thinking, if you know the “Inversion” mental model I described in The Great Mental Models – General Thinking Concepts).
Neuroplasticity
- Brain changes in response of learning
- 3 major methods/mechanisms involved
- Strengthening of synaptic connections
- Weakening of other synaptic connections
- (You can also see some differences in pruning in presence of neuro-divergence)
- Not always bad, e.g.: in acquiring a motor skill, we may need to weak connections related to “bad” or not needed anymore movements
- Same it happens when children learn to move as an adult (if you’re interested in evolution, you can read what I wrote in Think of the children (development))
- Neurogenesis
- More rare for adults, trivial amount
Key factors
- Focus
- You need to pay attention, you can “raise the level” of awareness
- (you can explore more concepts like “savoring” in La scienza dello stare bene)
- (note that not paying attention is often claimed as the main reason why we can’t recall names of new people just met)
- It can be actually difficult, require training/exercise to improve and maintain for longer periods
- You need to pay attention, you can “raise the level” of awareness
- Sleep
- (you can read the key points I summarized in Why we Sleep (and how to do it better))
- Specially first night after learning
- Meditation
- (I wrote benefits in Perché meditare – pro e contro)
- Non-Sleep Deep Rest
- (Please note that “real” rest is not for example doomscrolling or binge watching, that are something that actually do the opposite, draining your energy and lowering the overall quality of your life)
Habits
- Schedule/set a specific time to study
- You create regular habits for your brain, teaching it when to stay awake and when to relax, same for other habits/routines
- Isolate yourself, including putting the smartphone away
- (I strongly suggest you to read Cal Newport’s “Digital Minimalism” and other books like the one by Anna Lembke I summarized here: Dopamine Nation)
- Study alone (company is good, but for real and effective learning, learn to do it alone)
- Tell your contacts you won’t be reachable during these periods
- Study 3-4 hours per day, divided in a couple of sessions
- (here you should know yourself and experimenting with different duration, with techniques like “Pomodoro” and similar ones)
- Consider to study 5 days per week, allowing yourself time for break during the week, e.g.: weekends.
- Teach others
- (you may be familiar with that if you listened to Feynman and other masters of deep, real, learning)
- Also good for others listening, don’t be afraid of “competition” like you’re creating advantages for others
- Practice, specially in labs
Motivation / aspiration goals
- (compare with the “high levels” in David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”)
- Psychological useful against study fatigue
- (You can practice “Visualization”, but with moderation: please stay far far away from pseudoscience and “law of attraction”)
- More important specially in cases in which you don’t particularly love a specific course
- When you love what you’re studying, it’s easier even without long-term motivation
Testing
- Not only as a tool to evaluate knowledge, but also to build knowledge
- (as some teachers and professors told me, it’s even a great result if you learn something during a test, not only before, specially for technical written exams)
- Conducted several studies, including comparing groups with different patterns: let be S=study and T=test, the compared 3 groups with patterns like SSSS vs SSST vs STTT and then a final test, so ending with SSSS-T, SSST-T, STTT-T. It turned out that best results in the final test are in those tested more, so STTT; of course, you also need focus when thinking/looking at the wrong/correct answers.
- There’s also a side effect: students more exposed to the materials, like SSSS, felt more confident compared to STTT, but the reality – against self-perception! – was quite the opposite, since the more prepared were the ones exposed once and tested more.
- Remember that “familiarity” != mastery
- You can also try other ways, like closing your eyes and visualizing what you learned: it’s another way of testing ourselves, recognizing what we know and what we’re not sure
- It works particularly well with matters like neuroanatomy
- (also for mechanisms and models like in engineering and STEM in general)
- It works particularly well with matters like neuroanatomy
- Another parameter studied is the delay in spaced testing, with results showing that it’s better to be tested soon, right after the first exposure to info, more powerful than putting tests only closer to the final exam
- (that’s why Coursera and many MOOC platforms put tests/questions right after the new explained material)
- Spend some time right after the new acquired concept to focus and recall it
- Best kind of test consists of:
- open-ended
- they force you to recall info
- short-answers
- short promptly asked
- open-ended
- Multiple choice questions are sometimes the worst since they may enhance only “familiarity” and confidence
- But when there are “trick questions” and similar answers, it’s much better, it’s a way to fight familiarity mechanism
Gap effects
- Spaced repetitions
- (Here there’s a world, don’t be afraid and start exploration by entering the rabbit hole starting with Wikipedia’s voice Spacing effect)
Other
- Emotions
- When exposed to stress and strong emotions, neuroplasticity is stronger, like known in extreme cases like PTSD
- In the past, someone tried to suddenly expose to cold shower to fix better memories
- Story
- Emotional emphasis can help in stronger neuroplasticity, both if the teacher is more “dynamic” or if we ourselves try to create stories
- Caffeine
- Not so huge impact, but may help a little if right after learning a concept, but basically because it can increase attention/focus
- Interleaving information
- Associating anecdotes
- Trying to interleave with “extreme” distant concepts/matters
Hope you’ll be able to apply these concepts, turned into practice and routine, starting right now, if you’re not already doing it.
And now… let’s go learn!
