January 29th, 2010
The Three Coolest Ways to Learn Stuff
The human brain is mind-blowing. The fact that I’m even able to say something like that is evidence of just how advanced that gray matter really is. Think about that, about thinking, and you’re showing off your capacity for metacognition, something uniquely human. The brain has plenty of other features that keep us from dying, tipping over, and over heating, among other things. Perhaps the most useful feature of the human brain, though, is our capacity for learning.
When we’re born into this world, we’ve got a brain, but it doesn’t know how to do much. Think of a brand new computer with a bunch of peripherals plugged into it. Our arms, legs, eyes, ears, nerves, and taste buds are sending our undeveloped young brains all sorts of interesting information. Gradually, we figure all of it out. There’s no pre-installed software; our brains learn how to use the data, work the limbs, and–this one’s really neat–communicate with other humans by making sounds. Most of us don’t remember this period of our lives; we were very young at the time. What happens in those first few, critical years affects the rest of our lives. The amount of new pathways that the brain is forming when we’re young is positively staggering. Until recently, it was thought the brain stops this neurogenesis around age 20. New studies suggest that we keep making new pathways well into old age, which is good news for those of us who like to learn new things.
When it comes to actually sitting down and doing it, learning isn’t always fun. There are a few things that you can do to change that, though, and I don’t just mean by making dirty mnemonic devices.
The Three Coolest Ways to Learn New Things
#1–Go to sleep. Bringing into question all of those all-nighters I pulled in college, a new study shows that our brains are still learning when we’re at rest. It’s relatively well known that naps are awesome. Less well known is the fact that if you take a nap after learning a new task, you’ll remember it better than your caffeinated classmates. The new study from the lab of New York University cognitive neuroscientist Lila Davachi shows that we also remember things better with a moment’s rest. From the Time Magazine article on the study:
The 16 participants who served as Davachi’s guinea pigs in the study were each scanned, while at rest, before the experiment began. Then, each volunteer was asked to lie flat on the bed of an fMRI [functional magnetic resonance imaging] machine, outside the magnet, while shown a series of paired images. First they looked at pairs of faces and objects, and were instructed to imagine the person pictured interacting with the object (such as a beach ball). Then they got a few minutes’ rest, before being rolled into the magnet for another scan. The experiment was repeated with pairs of new faces and scenes. Afterward, the participants took a pop quiz to measure their recognition of the faces, objects and scenes they had previously seen.
Keep this little tidbit in mind the next time your boss catches you goofing off–you’re actually resting to improve your memory consolidation abilities.
#2–Rock out with your Bach out. Classical music is good for lots of things. Having even an elementary knowledge of your likes and dislikes in the genre makes you more appealing to prospective dates, for example. Listening to classical music has also been linked to increased IQs, lower blood pressure, and greater retention of material learned.
A new report suggests that learning an instrument in elementary school can actually give a child’s confidence a shot in the arm and help with learning in other areas. As a reformed band geek and someone who likes to see extracurricular activities getting funding, I’m excited by this news. For those of us not in elementary school, other studies have shown that learning an instrument later in life helps with memory and brain function.
If you’re planning on heading back to school, start by learning how to play guitar. Not only will it help you out on the learning front, but you’ll be the coolest nontrad student around.
#3–Play on the computer. As I’ve noted in a few other blogs recently, educational videogames are gaining popularity. There are actually full-on schools using videogames to augment the learning process. Instead of rote memorization, students are immersed in worlds that trick them into learning. Imagine being a spy sent to gather information on the Spartans–in a game, of course–and report back; doesn’t that sound more fun than reading a book or sitting through a lecture?
Gaming isn’t the only fun way to learn on a computer, but it certainly helps. Language programs have started incorporating crossword puzzles, among other language-learning games, and situational, interactive conservation tools to make learning a new language on the computer more fun–and it’s working. These tools help keep learning a new language novel, fighting the boredom that shuts most people down.
