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

by Benedict Carey

brain is not like a muscle, at least not in any straightforward sense. It is something else altogether, sensitive to mood, to timing, to circadian rhythms, as well as to location, environment. It registers far more than we’re conscious of and often adds previously unnoticed details when revisiting a memory or learned fact. It works hard at night, during sleep, searching for hidden links and deeper significance in the day’s events. It has a strong preference for meaning over randomness, and finds nonsense offensive. 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.

they are all small alterations, alterations in how we study or practice that we can apply individually, in our own lives, right now. The hardest part in doing so may be trusting that they work. That requires some suspension of disbelief because this research defies everything we’ve been told about how best to learn.

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.

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.

integrating learning into the more random demands of life can improve recall in many circumstances—and

In short, 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.

Dyslexia improves pattern recognition.

The book unfolds in four sections,

what scientists know about how brain cells form and hold on to new information.

clarifies how remembering, forgetting, and learning are related.

that strengthen our hold on facts,

players of the Velvet Revolution. Retention tools.

third section will focus on comprehension techniques, the kind we need to solve problems in math and science, as well as work our way through long, complex assignments, like term papers, work presentations, blueprints, and compositions.

finally, section four will explore two ways to co-opt the subconscious mind to amplify the techniques we’ve just described. I think of this as the “learning without thinking” part of the story, and it’s

a reassuring one to hear—and to tell.

How to integrate the exotica of new subjects into daily life, in a way that makes them seep under our skin. How to make learning more a part of living and less an isolated chore.