Learning how to learn
Introduction
Learning never stops and ideally, it never should. Life will put you in unexpected situations every now and then where you need to learn new and seemingly impossible things.
What if you had a template for learning new things? A set of mental tools that you can use for learning anything faster and better. I recently came across this incredible course called Learning how to learn on Coursera that explains how your brain processes and retains information and how you can use this knowledge to learn better. This article is an attempt to summarize some key concepts from the course.
Before we get into the details, it is always a good idea to have a high-level hierarchy of what we aim to learn. So attached below is a mindmap of topics discussed in this article. Feel free to download it here.
How do you learn?
Let’s understand it with an analogy. Consider your brain is a dense forest with billions of trees(neurons). To learn something, information should pass from one tree to another and form a road. When you learn something new a weak path is formed, like a trail from one tree to another. When you repeat this pathway again and again by practising this trail slowly converts to a dirt road, then a paved road, then a highway and finally a super fast expressway. At this point, you don't need to think before doing that task, it just gets into your muscle memory. In this analogy, the forest is the cortex, the tree is brain cell called neuron and the path is called neural pathway. That’s how you learn anything in the world by forming strong neural pathways.
Getting Started
Even getting started can be the hardest part for some and procrastination is one of the main reasons for that.
- Beating Procrastination
When we are faced with something undesirable, the area in the brain meant for handling pain gets activated. But researches have shown that if we start the task anyway and stick with it then it is not as deadly as it seemed to be.
To avoid procrastination-
a. Avoid focusing on the product and start focusing on the process(like time and actions associated with the task). Thinking about the product is what causes the feeling of displeasure, so instead focus on the process.
b. Making a weekly task list and then dividing it into daily tasks helps your subconscious, structure what needs to be done tomorrow and make plans for it.
c. Use Pomodoro technique- 25 Mins of focused work, followed by 5 mins break.
2. Focused and Diffused modes of thinking
Researchers have found that we have two fundamentally different modes of thinking. Our brain can be in one mode only at a time and keeps switching between the 2 modes.
Focused Mode- Focused mode is used when you are trying to concentrate intently on something or do something that you are already familiar with and neural patterns for it are already available in your brain. It is also used when we you are intently trying to learn something new.
Diffused Mode- To think of completely new ideas, approaches and concepts that you haven't thought about before, your brain needs to be in a more relaxed style of thinking called the diffused mode. Diffuse mode allows you to see in a new big-picture perspective. It allows you to see things that you did not intend to learn.
Thomas Edison and famous surrealist painter Salvador Dali used the diffused mode of thinking to come up with new inventions or wildly creative ideas. They would sit and relax in a chair, allowing their mind to go free, still vaguely thinking about what they were previously focusing on. To allow themselves to gather their diffused mode thoughts before they fell asleep, they would hold a bunch of keys or ball bearings that would wake them up.
So, to learn something effectively, you should learn small parts of the material every day and allow the brain some time to alternate between the two modes so that it can grapple and assimilate the new information.
Learning for long term
- Chunking
What happens when we eat? For us, it's like a single task eating, but underneath a set of complex activities are going on that we don't notice. All the actions like using utensils, filling them up with food, chewing, swallowing happens without you even noticing. We can do it so well and smoothly because we have “chunked” the process of eating.
A chunk means a network of neurons that are used to firing together so you can think a thought or perform an action smoothly and effectively. Best ingrained chunks are the ones that you dont have to consciously think about performing. Chunking is the mental leap that helps you unite bits of information together through meaning. The new logical whole makes the chunk easier to remember, and also makes it easier to fit the chunk into the larger picture of what you’re learning.
2. How to form chunks
There are essentially 3 important aspects of forming a chunk.
STEP 1: Focus
In learning something new we are first creating little chunks and then we knit those little chunks to create larger chunks. Focus your undivided attention on chunking the new info, turn off all the internal and external distractions.
STEP 2: Understanding
Understanding is like a super glue that holds the underlying memory traces together, it helps in connecting with other chunks. Can you create a chunk if you don’t understand? Yes, but it’s often a useless chunk that won’t fit in with or relate to other material you’re learning.
STEP 3: Get Context through Practice
Just seeing and understanding is not sufficient, you have to do it yourself. You won't learn anything new effectively unless you do it yourself. Context means going beyond the initial problem and seeing more broadly, repeating and practising with both related and unrelated problems, so that you can see not only when to use the chunk but when not to use it. This helps you see how your newly formed chunk fits into the bigger picture. Practising a lot ensures that your chunk gets connected to many neurons so that it is not only held firm but also accessible from different paths.
3. Interleaving
Mastering a new subject means learning not only forming the basic chunks but also learning how to select and use different chunks. The best way to learn that is by practising jumping back and forth between problems or situations that require different techniques or strategies. This is called interleaving. Solve problems of different types, read different concepts, mix up learning. Interleaving is important for being creative, it enables you to form connections between varied concepts across disciplines and subjects
4. Illusions of competence
These are illusions that make you feel that you have understood the concept when in reality you haven’t. Examples including excessive highlighting and underlining text, re-reading, directly looking at the solution manual without giving it a try yourself etc. To escape such illusions try to test yourself by actively trying to recall what you just learned. Recalling can also initiate chunk formation in the brain.
Retaining what you learned
Now that we know how to get started and how to learn for the long term, it's important to understand how to retain what we have learnt. That brings us to the final topic of retaining.
Long term vs short term(working) memory
Long term Memory
Consider long term memory as a storage warehouse. You need to practice and repeat in order to help store items in long-term memory so you can retrieve them more easily. Practicing and repeating all in one day is a bad idea, you want to extend your practice to several days.
Short Term or Working Memory
Working memory is like a blackboard that quickly fades. You can only hold about four items in your working memory. When you master a technique or concept in some sense, it compacts the ideas so they can occupy less space in your working memory when you do bring them to mind. This frees your mental thinking space so that they can more easily grapple with other ideas.
To move a thought or idea from short term working memory to long term memory 2 things should happen- the idea/thought should be memorable and it should be repeated.
a. Spaced Repetition
It is a technique by which we repeat the stuff we want to learn over a spaced interval. If you want to study something for an hour, you will retain it longer if you spend 10 minutes each month over a semester than an hour on one day. Memories are living breating parts of your brain that change all the time by a process called reconsolidation.
b. Memory Palace Technique
To make the idea/concept more memorable and easy to retrieve later you can use a technique called the memory palace. It is a particularly powerful way of grouping things you want to remember. It involves calling to mind a familiar place like the layout of your house and using it as a visual notepad where you can deposit the concept images that you want to remember. For example, lets say you want to remeber a list of grocery items that you want to bring from the market, you can imagine the grocery items laid over your living room.
A big pack of bread is lying on the sofa, a gigantic egg is kept on the table. Remember the more shocking the image, the more memorable it will be.
Conclusion
Having a clear objective and a genuine curiosity on what and why you want to learn often keeps you motivated when the going is tough. I took this course because I was genuinely interested in knowing how our brain learns. If you liked the summary you should definitely go and checkout the complete course on coursera.
About the author
Anmol Agarwal is a Product Associate at Toppr. He loves to talk about user behaviour, actions and motivations and how can they be simplified. Contact him anytime for a candid chat on product, technology, history and politics.
Email- anmol3478.agarwal@gmail.com
