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

by Benedict Carey

Quitting before a project is done: not all bad, as an almost done project lingers in memory far longer than one that is completed.

Taking a test on a subject before you know anything about it improves subsequent learning.

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

The brain has some quirks, take advantage of them

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.

using our memories changes our memories.

The first principle theory is this: Any memory has two strengths, a storage strength and a retrieval strength.

There are two parts to memory, storage and retrieval.