How to Learn: Ideas on Thinking, Brain Plasticity, Memory, Procrastination and Sleep
This article is a summary of some of the articles that have been posted so far on the How to Learn series. 1. How Your Brain Switches Between Two Modes When You Think Our brains have two different thinking modes known as the focused and diffuse modes of thinking. Each of these modes helps us learn in different ways but the …
This article is a summary of some of the articles that have been posted so far on the How to Learn series.
1. How Your Brain Switches Between Two Modes When You Think
Our brains have two different thinking modes known as the focused and diffuse modes of thinking. Each of these modes helps us learn in different ways but the brain can think in only one of the modes at a time, but not both, more like two sides of a coin.
Photo: Science Friday
Main Idea
Effective learning takes advantage of both the focused and diffuse modes of learning. Whenever you’re studying or working on a problem, it is advisable to go as far as you can in the focused mode, and when you get stuck, switch to the diffuse mode so that you can give your brain some time to analyze the information in the background and change the way you are looking at the problem.
2. Brain Plasticity: How Your Brain Changes With Learning and Experience
The human brain has this amazing ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections between brain cells otherwise known as neurons and contrary to what was once thought, your brain continues to make more of these brain cells throughout life in response to mental activity.
Main Idea
Effective learning takes advantage of the brain’s plasticity. When you continuously practice a new skill you’re learning or repeatedly access a memory associated with a new subject you’re learning, your neural networks (groups of neurons that fire together, creating electrochemical pathways) shape themselves according to that activity or memory.
3. How Daydreaming Might Help You Become a More Creative Learner
Daydreaming is agreed by many to be the mind’s normal state and according to research, our minds wander naturally forty-seven percent of the time we are awake.
Photo: Getty Images
Main Idea
If you often catch yourself daydreaming, it’s important for you to know that this is characteristic of a healthy and active human mind. Healthy daydreaming and mind wandering is crucial to developing the kind of creativity that a lot of people agree should be a focal point of our educational system.
4. How to Procrastinate Better to Get the Important Things Done
Procrastination simply means putting off doing something and in fact, no matter what you choose to do with your time, you are also choosing not to do something else, in other words, you’re procrastinating. What this entails is that we might as well be more productive when we learn how to procrastinate well.
Photo: Hubrecruiting.com
Main Idea
Procrastination is not necessarily some kind of disease that we should be seeking a cure for, considering it is simply the act of putting off something, perhaps for a later time. We might want to actually get better at procrastinating — at putting off less important tasks and doing the most important ones instead.
5. How Does Our Memory Really Work and Why Do We Forget?
Most often, we talk about memory as if it were something we have, like bad eyesight or beautiful hair, but your memory doesn’t exist in the way a part of your body does — it’s not something you can see or touch, rather according to Richard C. Mohs, it is a concept that refers to the process of remembering.
Main Idea
We forget most times because we probably haven’t paid enough attention when getting the new information or experience. Other times, we forget because we probably haven’t consolidated and strengthened the memory through repeated use. In other words, you play the leading role in maintaining a healthy memory and keeping yourself from forgetting things.
6. How Sleep And Dreams Might Help You Learn And Remember Better
Sleep often feels like a perfect waste of time especially when we consider that we spend close to one-third of our lives sleeping. However, medical research has shown that the effects of consistently getting less than the recommended 7 to 8 hours sleep a night for adults and 9 to 10 hours sleep for adolescents are quite significant.
Photo Credit: TED-Ed
Main Idea
The quantity and quality of your sleep directly affects the quality of your waking life including your productivity, learning, creativity, emotional balance and physical vitality. No other activity delivers so many benefits with so little effort.
