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Learning how to Learn

What is Learning?

https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/home/week/1

Card Challenge:

Spend 25 minutes each day programming. Remember to rest and have space repetition.

Alejo
Alejo completed this card.
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The premise: Understand how your brain works so that you can learn more effectively.

We have two different thinking modes: Focused and Diffuse. Focused, we know about. Diffuse is when your mind gets really relaxed (close to falling a sleep) and you let thoughts flow.

Dali and Edison would sit in a chair and think until they fell asleep. They would hold a metal object in their hands so that at the moment they fell asleep, they could wake up and write down all the thoughts they had while in diffuse mode.

Learn more effectively by combining both modes.

Procrastination, Memory, and Sleep

Procrastination: Fight procrastination, use the Pomodoro technique. When we feel uneasy about what we're about to tackle, we look for comfort (i.e. a small reward, web surfing, Youtube), which alleviates the unease in the short term. This is called... Procrastination.

Memory: Practice makes permanent. The best way to study something is focusing intently, relaxing for a bit, and coming back to focusing intently.

Sleep: When you're trying to learn something, make sure you sleep well. It's when your brain makes all of the connections. It works especially well if you focus on what you're learning right before going to be, or if you set your mind to dreaming about it while you sleep.

Edit: The most brilliant thing happened today. I was programming and couldn't solve a problem – it was my first Pomodoro session. After it ended, I read a book for 5 min, and when I came back to the problem, I immediately thought of the answer :)

Isabel
Isabel completed this card.
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  1. It helps to have time to rest when you're learning something.
  2. It's better to repeat something a few times over a long time. Than many times in a short period of time. You learn it better. 
  3.  Use metaphors and analogies. 
  4. You can get over procrastination with the pomodoro technique. 
  5. requires focus. 
Stefy
Stefy completed this card.
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  • Researchers have found that we have two

    fundamentally different modes of thinking. The Focused and the
    Diffuse modes. We're familiar with focusing (when you concentrate intently on something you're trying to learn or to understand). But we're not so familiar with diffuse thinking.


  • In the pinball analogy, the diffuse mode of thinking is represented by widely spaced rubber bumpers. In this diffuse mode of thinking, you can look at things broadly from a very different,

    big-pictiure perspective. You can make new neural connections

    traveling along new pathways. You can't focus in as tightly as you often need to, to finalize any kind of problem solving.


  • To build a neuro-structure, you need to do a little work every day. Just like athletes do. The trick is a little bit every day. 


Procrastination, Memory and Sleep


  • Procrastination is common practice because of the opportunity cost of not doing other things.


  • Pomodoro technique  --> Setting a timer for 25 minutes and turning off all interruptions. When you're done, give yourself a little reward.


  • The more abstract something is, the more important it is to practice  in order to bring those ideas into reality. 


  • Practice makes permanent


  • When you're learning, what you want to do is study something. Study it hard by focusing intently. Then take a break or at least change your focus to something different for awhile. During this time of seeming relaxation, your brain's diffuse mode has a chance to work away in the background and help you out with your conceptual understanding. Your, your neural mortar in some sense has

    a chance to dry. If you don't do this, if instead you learn by cramming, your knowledge base will look like a jumble with everything confused, a poor foundation.


Long Term Memory and Working Memory


  • Hold a few ideas and connecting them together is involved with the working memory. 


  • Working memory is the part of memory that has to do with what you're immediately and consciously processing in your mind. 


  • Researchers used to think that our working memory could hold around seven items or chunks, but now it's widely believed that the working memory is holds only about four chunks of

    information.


  • Although your working memory is like a blackboard, it's not a very good blackboard. You often need to keep repeating what you are trying to work with so it's stays in your working memory.


  • Short term memory     is something like an inefficient mental blackboard. The other form of memory, long term memory, is like a storage warehouse. And just like a warehouse, it's distributed over a big area. 


  • Different kinds of long term memories are stored in different regions of the brain. Research has shown when you first try to put a short term memory in long term memory, you need to revisit it at least a few times to increase the chances that you'll be able to find later when you

    might need it.


  • When you encounter something new, you often use your working memory to handle it. If you want to move that information into your long term memory, it often takes time and practice. To help with this process, use a technique called spaced repetition. -->  This technique involves repeating what you're trying to retain, but what you want to do is space this repetition out. 


  • Extending your practice over several days does make a difference.


  • If you try to glue things into your memory by repeating something 20

    times in one evening, for example, it won't stick nearly as well as if you practice it the same number of times over several days.


The Importance of Sleep in Learning


  • When you sleep, your brain cells shrink. This causes an increase in the space between your brain cells. It's like unblocking a stream. Fluid can flow past these cells and wash the toxins out.


  • Sleep does more than just allow your brain to wash away toxins. It's actually important part of the memory and learning process. It's seems that during sleep your brain tidies up ideas and concepts your thinking about and learning.


  • During sleep your brain also rehearses some of the tougher parts of whatever you're trying to learn, going over and over neural patterns to deepen and strengthen them. 


  • Sleep has also been shown to make a remarkable difference in your ability to figure out difficult problems and to understand what you're trying to learn.


  • Dreaming about what you're studying can substantially enhance your ability to understand. It somehow consolidates your memories into easier to grasp chunks.