LillyPip4d ago

[YSK] You will learn much faster if you engage more of your brain at once

https://lemmy.ca/post/62706474

[YSK] You will learn much faster if you engage more of your brain at once - Lemmy.ca

If you’re assigned something to read, read it aloud to yourself. This engages not just your brain, but speaking and hearing, and your brain makes stronger pathways when more senses are engaged. Don’t buy flash cards, draw them yourself. This engages sight and abstraction., plus motor skill areas. Write your own notes, then read them aloud and highlight them yourself. So many parts of your brain make connections by doing this. Don’t just read. That’s not very helpful, you don’t have to study long if you study well, I think there’s a name for this, but I’m tired and will rely on Cunningham’s whatever.

Show threadWimopy3d ago

I’m seeing this post a bit late, but I feel like I have to weigh in slightly, though it’s not my research area.

Note that my information extends more to academic studying, don’t know if it’s quite as true for learning more physical skills.

The main concept for learning is deeper learning. Which basically just means actually using your brain to think about the material. Things like connecting it to other ideas, pondering different implications, that sort of thing.

The reason flashcards work is because you think about what questions you could ask about the material. The reason you write by hand vs type is because it’s slower and you have to think about what’s more important or how you’d summarise the information.

I believe reading aloud typically works because it forces you to be slower and more deliberate, giving you time to actually process what you’re reading.

That said what you’ve written is helpful and mostly correct, I’m just not so certain about the framing. It could mislead some people into just rewriting notes while reading them out, for example, which is inefficient and not very helpful for learning.

A very easy-to-read source with practical tips:

  • Optimizing Learning in College by Putnam et al. (2016) (Look it up on Google scholar for a free pdf)

Also as a final tip, my favourite exam prep technique: do a past paper without having looked at any notes or done any prep. Answer as much as you can just thinking about what you remember. Then go through with notes. It primes your brain for processing and storing the information.

Show threadOmgpwnies3d ago

Also, do the assignments, and start them the day they’re assigned so you’re working with the information that’s still fresh in your short-term memory. If the prof is working through an example, work through it yourself at the same time.

If the prof gives homework that’s not graded, work through as much of it as you have time to the same day. I don’t know how many times fellow students struggled with assignments or had to cram for tests because they didn’t do the homework right away and the lessons faded from their short-term memory, so they basically forgot everything.

Show threadWimopy

There’s a bit of a counterpoint to that: spaced/distributed learning contributes to long term memory encoding. Revisit something a week or two later and a year down the line you’ll remember it more than if you did it the next day.

So depends on your goals a bit. That said, if you can, don’t leave stuff last minute because stress is definitely not good for memory if nothing else.

Apr 2 at 9:30pmWeb
Show threadOmgpwnies2d ago

In the context of school structured learning, that’s often baked-in. Concepts are either continually expanded on, or re-visited throughout the course.

Which I guess leads to a corollary suggestion: If you want to learn something and have the means… Take a Course! One that’s well-made is structured to have reinforcing points, and scheduled by someone who knows the material, so can plan the lessons to be cohesive and additive in a way that a newbie wouldn’t necessarily think to do.