How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why It Happens

by Benedict Carey

I was driven more by a fear of falling than by anything like curiosity or wonder.

effort is the single most important factor in academic success.

I never let go of my studies—just allowed them to become part of my life, rather than its central purpose. And somewhere in that tangle of good living and bad, I became a student. Not just any student, either, but one who wore the burden lightly, in math and physics, and was willing to risk failure in some very difficult courses.

It doesn’t take orders so well, either, as we all know—forgetting precious facts needed for an exam while somehow remembering entire scenes from The Godfather or the lineup of the 1986 Boston Red Sox.

If the brain is a learning machine, then it’s an eccentric one. And it performs best when its quirks are exploited.

Yet we work more effectively, scientists have found, when we continually alter our study routines and abandon any “dedicated space” in favor of varied locations. Sticking to one learning ritual, in other words, slows us down.

Studies find that the brain picks up patterns more efficiently when presented with a mixed bag of related tasks than when it’s force-fed just one, no matter the age of the student or the subject area, whether Italian phrases or chemical bonds.

it is not that there is a right way and wrong way to learn. It’s that there are different strategies, each uniquely suited to capturing a particular type of information. A good hunter tailors the trap to the prey.

using our memories changes our memories.

retrieving any memory alters its accessibility, and often its content.

Any memory has two strengths, a storage strength and a retrieval strength.

Storage strength is just that, a measure of how well learned something is. It builds up steadily with studying, and more sharply with use. The multiplication table is a good example. It’s drilled into our heads in grade school, and we use it continually throughout life, in a wide variety of situations, from balancing the bank account to calculating tips to helping our fourth grader with homework. Its storage strength is enormous.

According to the Bjorks’ theory, storage strength can increase bu...

does mean that everything we have deliberately committed to memory—the multiplication table, a childhood phone number, the combination to our first locker—is all there, and for good.

That is, no memory is ever “lost” in the sense that it’s faded away, that it’s gone. Rather, it is not currently accessible. Its retrieval strength is low, or near zero.

Retrieval strength, on the other hand, is a measure of how easily a nugget of information comes to mind. It, too, increases with studying, and with use. Without reinforcement, however, retrieval strength drops off quickly, and its capacity is relatively small (compared to storage). At any given time, we can pull up only a limited number of items in connection with any given cue or reminder.

Compared to storage, retrieval strength is fickle. It can build quickly but also weaken quickly.

Using memory changes memory—and for the better. Forgetting enables and deepens learning, by filtering out distracting information and by allowing some breakdown that, after reuse, drives retrieval and storage strength higher than they were originally.

spacing study time is the most powerful and reliable technique scientists know of to deepen and extend memory.

the brain can sharpen a memory only after some forgetting has occurred. In this way, memory is like a muscle: A little “breakdown” allows it to subsequently build greater strength. Cramming, by definition, prevents this from happening.

Spaced rehearsal or study (see previous question) or self-examination (see next question) are far more effective ways to prepare.

If you must cram, do so in courses that are not central to your main area of focus.

Self-testing is one of the strongest study techniques there is.

The best self-quizzes do two things: They force you to choose the right answer from several possibilities; and they give you immediate feedback, right or wrong.

As teachers often say, “You don’t fully understand a topic until you have to teach it.” Exactly right.