Strategies: 🧮

Brains are like Forests 🌲🧠🌲

Learning is deeper & more durable with effort, and self-testing through active retrieval is one of the best strategies - backed by empirical evidence. When studying a topic or learning a new skill we are encoding that into memory. After the first or second time going over a topic, additional efforts rereading are no longer very helpful. Why, because when we want to remember something we must recall it from memory which is an entirely different process. Also, the increased familiarity of the topic creates an illusion of competency.

Active Retrieval, considered a desirable difficulty, is the practice of retrieving the information from memory & works to strengthen the synaptic connections of that information or skill.

Memories are paths through the Forest

In advice she gives her students, Dr. Mary Pat Wenderoth, Biology professor from the University of Washington provides one of the most intuitive examples I came across on the importance of using Active Retrieval & self-testing.

“Our brains are like a forest and your memory is in there somewhere. You’re here & the memory is over there. The more times you make a path to that memory the better the path is. So, the next time you need the memory it’s going to be easier to find it, but as soon as you get your notes out, you have short-circuited the path. You are not exploring for the path anymore, someone has told you the way.” -Mike C. Brown Chapter 8 Make it Stick: the Science of Successful Learning

The brain needs time to build memories 🦾🧠

Space out your practice. Simple enough, but why does it work?

Similar to working out, the brain needs time to build & strengthen neural connections. As an example of a desirable difficulty, spacing out the practice to the edge of forgetting, requires more effort to retrieve the information. That effort helps to form stronger connections to that information in your brain.

Add Randomness

Interleaving is the practice of varying or mixing up the concepts you’re studying. In the short-term this strategy doesn’t feel as effective as block practice where you study one type of problem or practice a specific skill until you feel comfortable before moving on. Randomly interleaving the topics or activity can seem more “chaotic”, but better mirrors in real life. It allows the brain to contrast the differences between them to build connections for improving your pattern recognition skills.

It’s another way to utlize a desirable difficulty.

“Work through the initial feelings of frustrations and you’ll find yourself learning things much faster”

-Dr. Barbara Oakley, Learn Like a Pro: Science-Based Tools to Become Better at Anything.

Elaboration

Explain the topic in your own words, why you’re doing each step, or relate it back to something you're already familiar with. This can also take the form of an analogy or metaphor.

Reflection

Combination of Retrival Practice & Elaboration. Taking a few moments to reflect on what went well and where any gaps in knowledge are.

Calibration

This gives a clear picture of what we do and don't know. It's done through self-testing, flashcards, or some other object measure where you discover what you know and what you just have an illusion of knowing. This can happen when we have a familiarity with a topic, we think we know it, but we might not. The only way to know for sure is to calibrate & test ourselves.

Generation

This is priming your brain, warming up the engine, prior to learning. You may skim through a chapter prior to reading, try working on solving some problem prior to getting instruction. Let’s just call it the warm-up & stretching for our brain. 🏃‍♂️