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March 16 - April 6, 2022
The brain does not store facts, ideas, and experiences like a computer does,
forgetting is a friend to learning.”
no complex memory comes back exactly the same way twice,
Forgetting, remember, is not only a passive process of decay but also an active one, of filtering.
Any memory has two strengths, a storage strength and a retrieval strength.
Without reinforcement, however, retrieval strength drops off quickly, and its capacity is relatively small (compared to storage).
The harder we have to work to retrieve a memory, the greater the subsequent spike in retrieval and storage strength (learning).
Retrieval strength evolved to update information quickly, keeping the most relevant details handy. It lives for the day. Storage strength, on the other hand, evolved so that old tricks could be relearned, and fast, if needed.
Moods color everything we do, and when they’re extreme they can determine what we remember.
Internal and external cues can be good reminders, but they pale next to strong hints.
People learn at least as much, and retain it much longer, when they distribute—or “space”—their study time than when they concentrate it.
Studying a new concept right after you learn it doesn’t deepen the memory much, if at all; studying it an hour later, or a day later, does.
far better in spaced sessions than in a single class.
Again, cramming works fine in a pinch. It just doesn’t last. Spacing does.
The harder your brain has to work to dig out a memory, the greater the increase in learning (retrieval and storage strength).
Repeating facts right after you’ve studied them gives you nothing, no added memory benefit.
Testing is studying, of a different and powerful kind.
Achievement tests or examinations are learning devices and should not be considered only as tools for measuring achievement of pupils.”
testing > studying, and by a country mile, on delayed tests.
Using our memory changes our memory in ways we don’t anticipate.
You work a little harder by guessing first than by studying directly.
Preparation includes not only understanding the specific problem that needs solving and the clues or instructions at hand; it means working to a point where you’ve exhausted all your ideas.
The second stage is incubation, which begins when you put aside a problem.
The third stage of control is called illumination. This is the aha! moment, the moment when the clouds part and the solution appears all at once.
The fourth and final stage in the paradigm is verification, checking to make sure those results, indeed, work.
incubation is a break that begins at the moment we hit an impasse and stop working on a problem directly, and ends with a breakthrough, the aha! insight.
people don’t benefit from an incubation break unless they have reached an impasse. Their
Was it possible, she wondered, that the “shock” of being interrupted makes an experience more memorable?
being interrupted at the “worst” time seemed to extend memory the longest.
Once people become absorbed in an assignment, they feel an urge to finish, and that urge builds as the job moves closer to completion.
interrupting yourself when absorbed in an assignment extends its life in memory and—according to her experiments—pushes it to the top of your mental to-do list.
Having a goal foremost in mind (in this case, a drink), tunes our perceptions to fulfilling
What we “hear” depends on the demands, distractions, or anxieties of the moment.
It suggests that we should start work on large projects as soon as possible and stop when we get stuck, with the confidence that we are initiating percolation, not quitting.
I see percolation as a means of using procrastination in my favor. When I’m engrossed in a complex assignment, I try to do a little each day, and if I get some momentum in one session, I ride it for a while—and then stop, in the middle of some section, when I’m stalled. I return and complete it the next workday.
Similar to the pomodoro method
“It has generally been understood that any variation in practice that makes the information more immediate, more accurate, more frequent, or more useful will contribute to learning,”
Breaking up study time is a form of interference,
Mixing up study locations, taking the books outside or to a coffee shop, boosts retention.
To solve a problem, you first have to identify what kind of problem it is.
Interleaving is not just about review but also discriminating between types of problems, moves, or concepts.
interleaving is, essentially, about preparing the brain for the unexpected.
Mixed-up practice doesn’t just build overall dexterity and prompt active discrimination. It helps prepare us for life’s curveballs, literal and figurative.
Expertise is a matter of learning—of accumulating knowledge, of studying and careful thinking, of creating. It’s built, not born.
sleep improves retention and comprehension of what was studied the day before,
Walker describes REM as “a nighttime therapy session.”
Starve people of deep slumber, and it doesn’t just dim their beauty; they don’t get the full benefit of sleep-aided recall of newly learned facts, studied vocabulary, names, dates, and formulas.
I wonder how technology harms sleep for students.
every last component of what we call education, is a recent invention in the larger scheme of things.
Concentration may, in fact, include any number of breaks, diversions, and random thoughts.
