How your brain learns – if you let it

Why do you need to know how your brain learns? Because, without this information it can take you months or years to discover that you are learning inefficiently and ineffectively. This post will help you identify, in advance, the study techniques that will help you learn well.

First, we will cover generative learning, the type of learning needed for most university and senior secondary courses, then we will look at the parts of the brain that create and store memories. Next, we will look at what goes on in your brain during the three steps involved in generative learning:

1. Process new information and form a memory
2. Strengthen the memory
3. Remember what you have learned

Transfer of learning

Before you learn about the brain, you need to know about the right type of learning for your course. Most, if not all, courses at senior secondary school, and university are teaching and assessing for transfer. So, what is transfer?

Transfer is the ability to apply your learning to a range of different situations that you haven’t learnt about. For example, most people can learn to drive a Corolla, then, with no further teaching, switch to driving a Yaris. That is an example of near transfer. Another example of transfer is learning to solve the equation, v = s/t, where v = velocity, s = distance and t = time, then solving the problem “How fast does grass grow?”  

Many jobs require transfer. A doctor must transfer skills when they see a patient with symptoms they’ve never seen before. Lawyers employ transfer when they encounter a case that is different to any others. Scientists use transfer when they develop and test new theories. Whatever job you will end up with, the chances are that you will need to remember what you have learned and transfer it to a new situation.

So, how can you learn for transfer?

Generative learning

Generative learning involves selecting the appropriate material, making sense of it and organising it and connecting it to the things you already know. Done properly, it results in transfer. You also have to put in plenty of practice in different contexts. This kind of learning can last a long time. The downside is that it takes a lot of effort.

Parts of the brain important for learning

Your brain is incredibly complicated. It contains millions of neurons connected to each other and forming modules, each with different jobs. In this post, we will concentrate on three modules that are important for learning that involves vision and hearing. They are sensory memory, working memory and long-term memory.

Sensory memory holds sounds and images that are as clear as if you have recorded them on your phone, but it only stores them for a few seconds. During that time, you need to pay attention, select the important bits of information and send them to your working memory.

Long term memory holds all the things you have learned: concepts, procedures, images, feelings, joy, trauma, experiences… To understand how learning works, you can think of the long-term memory as holding your own personal internet that contains writing, images, procedures, and mental models all linked together. A mental model is a bit like a model car: it shows how the components of a concept work, and what happens if there are changes.

Learning Step 1: Process new information and form a memory

When you decide to learn something new, information comes in through your eyes or ears and is held in the sensory memory for a few seconds. You need to be paying attention and decide what parts are relevant. This moves the relevant information into your working memory, ready for processing. If you aren’t paying attention, learning won’t happen.

As mentioned before, working memory is your consciousness and holds the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that you are aware of while you are awake. To learn new material, you need to

• organise the new material so it makes sense to you, and
• connect it to relevant concepts that you have already learned.

This stores the information in your long-term memory.

However, there are a few potential problems.

Problem solved by chunking

The first problem is that your working memory has very limited space for the new material you want to learn. It can handle large amounts of material you have already learned but can only handle about four pieces of new verbal information at one time. Here is the good news: it can handle four single letters, or four single words, or four larger chunks of organised information.

Try memorising the following: AKOROARUBK. Now try KOOKABURRA. Both words have the same 10 letters, which is too much for your working memory. However, one word is a chunk of letters that make sense (at least to Australians.)   Even if you don’t know that a kookaburra is a bird that makes a noise like a person laughing, you will find the word KOOKABURRA easier to remember than the same ten letters arranged randomly.

If you can’t cope with a whole new concept, divide it into four small chunks and learn each chunk individually.

Overwhelmed working memory

The second problem is that if the information is coming in too fast, you won’t have time to get it organised, connected to existing memories and stored in long term memory before it is obliterated by newer information.

If this happens while you are learning from an academic paper or textbook, you need to read more slowly. If you become overwhelmed while you are learning from a video, slow it down, or stop it and replay the last few minutes. If you can’t keep up with a lecture, take notes, selecting only the most important items to remember, then use your notes to build memories.

You can also effectively increase your working memory capacity by using images at the same time as words. Everyone can hold about four new verbal concepts in working memory at any time, but images don’t count towards this limitation. Try memorising the words “Emu, ostrich, cassowary, kiwi.” Is it easier if you visualise some of them? If you find it easier to remember pictures than words, you might want to investigate sketch-noting.

The priming solution

The third potential problem is where you can’t quickly find any existing memories to link to the new one. This is a problem because finding memories is like finding pages on the internet: you follow the links. If there are no links to at least a search engine, the page can’t be found. Similarly, if there are no links to a memory, recalling it will be difficult.

The solution is to prime the relevant memories. If you recall a memory once, it will be easier to recall again. So, before each class, quickly review your notes and memories of the previous lesson. Before starting a new subject, review notes and memories from previous relevant subjects. This gives you an idea of where to search for memories and, as you will discover soon, the more you retrieve a memory, the easier it is to retrieve next time.  Unfortunately, if you crammed before the exams in previous, relevant subjects, you may be unable to recall anything relevant.

Some people face a different but related problem: too many links. This can happen if you have an enormous store of relevant information, possible gained at work or in previous education. Instead of making two or three links, you can make twenty, or even a hundred links. Of course, some of that old material is out of date, so you need to spend time updating it. Learning will be slower than if you had a smaller store of knowledge, but the end result will be better.

Organising new information

You probably already know many of the organising methods appropriate for your subject area. They may include:

• Maps: Mind maps, concept maps,
• Summaries
• Lists
• Drawings and diagrams, such as Root Cause Diagrams
• Tables
• Charts
• Reports

Learning Step 2: Strengthen the memory.

The second step involved in learning is to strengthen the memory. If you don’t actively strengthen it, the memory will fade – and quickly. However, some of the learning doesn’t require active intention.

Sleep, eat and exercise to learn.

Part of the learning process happens while you are asleep. The memories are stored in brain neurons, which link together to store the new memory and connect it to existing memories. This can involve growing new links, connecting to nearby, existing memories or even moving the new memories to another part of your brain where the older memories are. You need adequate sleep, adequate nutrition, and adequate exercise to ensure this can all go smoothly. An adequate amount of sleep is seven to nine hours and much of the learning occurs during the last two hours. If you can’t get a good night’s sleep, try catnaps during the day.

Consolidation of memories

It takes about 24 hours for your memories to consolidate, and if, after the 24-hour period, you don’t use them, they can fade away instead of growing stronger. It may seem odd, but even trying and failing to remember will help you to remember better eventually (though you should check your notes for the information you have almost forgotten). In fact, trying to remember works better than repeating your original study.

Your brain continues to reorganise and consolidate memories throughout your life, and it can play tricks on you. For example, it can combine two concepts, especially if they seem similar. You can also update memories as you grow older or gain a different perspective.

Why cramming doesn’t work

I’ve seen a lot of students rely on cramming. They don’t do any revision until the day before the exam, when they discover they can’t remember most of the details of the course. At this point, they start studying, all day and all night. Over this period, several things happen. After the first hour or so, of cramming, their working memories are worn out and need rest, which they don’t get. Sleep is necessary for memories to be consolidated – but sleep doesn’t happen either.

Meanwhile, memories are being forgotten. There are often enough memories left to allow them to scrape through the exam. Now the real damage happens – they don’t practise retrieval of memories, so the rest of the memories fade away. The next semester they walk into a new course that depends on the prior learning done in the course they crammed for. Because they can’t recall what they studied, the crammers have much more difficulty learning.

Learning Step 3: Remember what you have learned.

To be sure you will access a memory when you need it, you must practice retrieving it and using it. If you don’t practice retrieval, you can expect to lose about half of the new memories within 24 hours. However, every time you retrieve a memory, it gets easier to remember next time.

Ensure the memory is correct

When you remember it, you need to make sure you are correctly recalling a memory. You do not want to thoroughly learn an incorrect concept or procedure, because it is difficult to unlearn these things.

Use the memory

Don’t just rely on flashcards or rereading your notes. If you are remembering a procedure, carry out the procedure. If you are remembering a historical event, try to visualise it, or teach it to someone else. Testing yourself is also a good way of strengthening memories. Just make sure that if you can’t immediately recall a memory, you wait a few minutes before checking your notes for the answer. Writing good test questions is time-consuming but sharing the load with fellow students would save time.

Should you mimic exam conditions?

If you study in similar conditions to the exam, you might find the memories easier to recall during the exam. So, should you study in a silent room, where you sit at a desk for two or three hours writing as fast as you can? (With or without a computer?) The answer is complicated. If the exam requires you to hand-write the answers, you need to practise beforehand writing legibly and quickly for an extended period. It’s a bit like training for a marathon – you don’t leave it until the last minute.

Playing music while studying

Music can be used to drown out distracting sounds, though you need to choose music that doesn’t distract you instead. Alternatively, a good set of noise cancelling headphones will do the job.

Massed practise – why it doesn’t work!

Massed practise is when you spend several hours on one subject. For example, you might study Maths on Monday, English on Tuesday, Chemistry on Wednesday etc. This doesn’t work, for the same reasons cramming doesn’t work. First, your working memory wears out, and your study get less and less effective. Secondly, you don’t try to recall your study within 24 hours, so you forget even more. You keep forgetting each day that you don’t study that subject.

Spaced practise – why it does work

Spaced practise involves studying a subject far more often, and it involves using what you have learned rather than rereading notes. So, let’s assume that in Maths you are learning matrices. On Monday you learn to add matrices, and on Monday night you solve 4 matrix addition problems. On Tuesday, you solve more, without looking at your notes or textbook, though you do check you have the right answers. On Wednesday night, you review it again, quickly because there are other things to review. You don’t have time to keep reviewing it because you need to review other things. Next Monday there is a spot quiz, and you get 90% correct. Your friend, who prefers to cram, only scored 2%.

The “Forgetting curve” (in the diagram) shows, the situation I have described above. The first curve in red, shows what happens if you don’t review your learning over the next few days. By Day 6, most of it is gone. However, if you review your learning for the three days after the initial learning, most of it is still there after Day six. This even works for rote learning but will work much better if you are engaging in generative learning.

In summary, you should be aiming for generative learning, which you will be able to transfer into a range of different contexts in future years. The steps in learning are

• Process new information and form a memory
• Strengthen the memory
• Practise remembering what you have learned

You use working memory to organise new material and connect it to existing memories. Working memory is limited but you can manage this by using chunking and using images as well as chunks of words. Memories in long-term memory are consolidated while you sleep, as well as while you are awake. If you practice using these memories, they will grow stronger and so will the links between them. If you don’t practice recall, the memories will quickly fade. Cramming and mass practise don’t work but spaced practise does.

Challenge

Try using the word cloud below to recall the concepts covered in this post.

Further reading

• Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. (2015). Learning as a Generative Activity: Eight Learning Strategies that Promote Understanding.

• Mayer, R. E. (2019). How to be a successful student: 20 study habits based on the science of learning. Routledge.

See also

• Study techniques

• Summarising in your own words

• You are studying hard but are you doing the right type of learning?

References

• Baddeley, A., Eysenck, M. W., & Anderson, M. C. (2020). Memory (3rd edition). Routledge.

• Doyle, T., Zakrajsek, T., & Loeb, J. H. (2013). The New Science of Learning: How to Learn in Harmony with Your Brain. Stylus Publishing.

• Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. (2015). Learning as a Generative Activity: Eight Learning Strategies that Promote Understanding.

• Mayer, R. E. (2019). How to be a successful student: 20 study habits based on the science of learning. Routledge.

• Mayer, R. (2020). Multimedia Learning (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

• Mayer, R. E., & Fiorella, L. (Eds.). (2021). The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (3rd edition). Cambridge University Press.