Notes on Learning How to Learn

These are the notes I took when completing the Learning How to Learn course, available here. 

I got a lot out of this course. Prior to completing it, I had always viewed learning difficult subjects as something intimately related to someone's intelligence, and thus an implicit value judgment (my attitude toward that has changed too!). After completing it, I viewed learning as much more formulaic - a process that most people can go through and perform well at, provided they do so in a logical way. Through completing the course I learned much more about how the brain actually works to learn and retain new concepts and information, as well as lots of techniques to help be a more effective learner in future. 

Frankly, I wish I'd had access to this in high school - it would have made high school and undergrad far easier and far less stressful. 

These are just quick notes I took at the time, they'll be more useful as a refresher to someone who has taken the course before than as a full introduction. There should be something for everyone in here though. 

Good reddit thread - make self directed learning work.

Focused / Diffuse mode

• Need both
• Focus - helps build chunks
• Diffuse - mental break + allows you to view chunks in context
• Need to take breaks to allow diffuse mode to work
• Basically need to reflect on what you've learned
• Einstellung, when you focus on one solution and don't see alternatives. Another reason to alternate focused / diffuse
• Study in groups, recheck your answers with friends, act like a larger diffuse mode to understand context

Memory

• Short term - four slots. 'Octopus of attention'. Like a fuzzy blackboard.
• Long term - like a warehouse
• Hippocampus
• Exercise, healthy diet and sleep are vital to learning
• Don't try to cram - build up knowledge gradually so you retain it better. Like building a wall; brick by brick.
• Sleep
  • Eliminates toxins in brain
  • Strengthens neural connections, eliminates unneeded ones
  • Super diffuse mode, ie makes broad connections and helps you understand context

Hormones

• Dopamine - reward system, surprise rewards
• Seratonin - related to social status, maybe confidence?
• Acetylcholine - related to how 'important' your brain views the information

Create Chunks of Memory

• Practice doesn't make perfect - it makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
• Use recall in your studying - similarly test yourself constantly. Flash cards etc.
• Flip through each chapter before reading it, review at end and try to recall main points
• FUD - focus, understanding, deliberate practice of most difficult parts
• Focus - don't allow yourself to be distracted
• Transfer - how well you can apply chunks in different contexts
• Use metaphor / analogy to create understanding
• Memory tricks
  • Memory palace
  • Pnemonics - dirtier and more memorable the better
  • Meaningful groups / number items to memorize
• Use strong spatial / verbal memory to aid you.
  • Relate to specific well known geographical places
  • Create vivid imagery, also include other senses, to memorize concepts
• Spaced repetition / avoiding overlearning is best way to memorize something
• Each chunk frees up working memory by abstracting a concept
• Use interleaving to learn what chunk is appropriate for what context
• Interleaving is important as it allows you to understand how chunks relate to each other
• Context, how chunks relate to each other

Procrastination

• Don't procrastinate, learn gradually so that the neural scaffolding is sound
• Can be viewed as a habit where brain turns away from aversive stimuli - thought of doing poorly on a test etc.
• Pomodoro - short, 25min sessions of focused activity with a reward and break at the end
• Often painful to start studying but that soon goes away
• Just get started!
• Focus on process of studying not the solution, this removes pressure
• Create a log of habits and techniques that work
• Create a daily to-do list that you review before bed
• Have a designated stopping time
• Habits consist of Cue, Routine, Reward, Belief. Remove cue or resist straight after cue to eliminate bad ones
• Eat your frogs first, preferably in the morning. Allows guilt free leisure time
• Make a mental contrast - excellent motivator

Renaissance Learning

• You will always have time pressure, deadlines etc. You must make your own time for process improvement.
• Take responsibility for your own learning
• Be actively engaged in the process
• Like a MG #2
• Persistence outweighs raw intelligence
• People can be competitive as well as cooperative and seek to sabotage your efforts
• Lots of brilliant autodidacts
• Understand even brilliant people make missteps and mistakes. Persistence is key.
• People learn by trying to make sense of the information they perceive - rarely by having other people spoon feed it.

Test Strategy

• Good sleep
• Hard first then switch to easy
• Be sure to check your answers. Check from back to front. Take a short break first. Defeat einstellung!