The following essay is amalgamation of readings from various books and research papers. To save you the effort of going through citations i have decided to refer them in the beginning.

How we learn

Make it stick

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5476736/

A Very short introduction Learning

Affiliate links.

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What is learning

It is the act of incorporating new facts, procedures, concepts, mental models/Heuristics and abilities into our behavioral pattern.

We mean acquiring knowledge and skills which we can summon from memory whenever we want to make sense of future problems and opportunities.

Learning is the process of acquiring mastery over a concept or skill.

While the brain is not a muscle that gets stronger with exercise, the neural pathways that make up a body of learning do get stronger, when the memory is retrieved and the learning is practiced from memory.

Strategies

1. Retrieval practice
2. Spaced repetition
3. Elaboration

Prescription

Mindset is prerequisite for learning. Mindset is the framework through which we see ourselves and the world.

The deeply held beliefs,attitudes and assumptions we create about who we are, how the world works , What we are capable of and deserve, and what is possible

– Internalise learners attitude. You must believe that you can grow and learn to learn. This not some new age hippie bullshit – Believing that you can learn can show to activate hippocampus and its associated projection. ( Learning mechanism)

I am a reader instead of i want to read

– Follow a disciplined strategy.

Minimise contextual switching. It takes around an hour for a person to engage in learning after switching from another action. Multitasking is a myth.

Retrieval practice

It means self quizzing. Retrieving the knowledge from memory should be your primary strategy.

Self quizzing is superior to re-reading

Ask questions.
– What are keys ideas/concepts ?
– What concepts are new to you ?
– How to define the term or ideas ?
– Define the concepts in your own words in your hand. Research has shown that the very act of writing stimulates thinking.

Re-reading creates an illusion of knowledge
It makes you fluent and gives to a sense of familiarity. This is not an indicator of mastery.

Quizzing is associated with discomfort
It may feel awkward and frustrating but note that learning is stronger when recall is hard.

Spaced repetition

Best tool to space repetition is ANKI

There are enough evidence based studies that prove how effective spaced repetition is for memory.

Elaboration

Elaboration is expression of the concept/underlying knowledge in your own words while connecting it with prior gained knowledge.

Reduce, build hierarchy, interconnect and integrate knowledge with what you already know. Nomenclature categorisation helps with spatial allocation of learning.

Tool that i use for this purpose is OBSIDIAN or Logseq – both are free to use.

Elaboration