I’m sure you all came from school days, or are still in school days.

When I was a student, have you ever seen some students work very hard, listen to class very carefully, take notes very carefully, and draw books with various colors and marks, but it seems that their exam results are not so ideal. However, some students, almost do not take notes, the book is almost clean, also do not see how hard, but the exam is good.

Why is that? Recently, I have read some contents of the book cognitive Nature, which makes sense. I would like to write down some of my feelings here.

Efforts that don’t work

First of all, we cannot deny that some students are indeed intelligent, which is more obvious in mathematics and physics. But in some subjects that emphasize memory, the above situation also has a lot of. For example, the same memory of some knowledge points, back English words and so on, some students very hard to recite and read aloud, but the effect is not ideal, but some students actually simply read a few times, and then remember very firmly behind.

One point I want to make with this example is that painstaking learning is deeper and more lasting. Effortless learning is like writing in the sand.

Teachers often taught us that we should recite words aloud, read them several times, spell them several times, and use both hands, mouth and ears. When we learn a knowledge point, we should watch and read repeatedly, and do some concentrated practice. But in fact, these do not capture the essence, and may be the least efficient way to learn. Because the word or knowledge point is just read aloud, spelling, this behavior can be classified as a kind of efforless learning, the learning process does not pose any challenge to the brain, this kind of memory efficiency is often not ideal, and even if it is remembered at the moment, it is quickly forgotten.

In fact, I used to use the mode of learning. For example, when I recite words, I repeatedly spell many times and read many times, and seldom take the initiative to write silently, to associate memory, to do self-testing and so on. So, most of the time, WHAT I did was I mechanically fed reinforcement information into my brain, and as a result, it took me a long time to memorize a lot of words and points, and then I forgot most of them very quickly.

How did MY impressive knowledge come from

But I also recall, it seems that some knowledge points I have learned before I still remember, and remember very firmly.

For example, I remember a few geography points, the boundary between Asia and North America is the Bering Strait, the boundary between North and South America is the Panama Canal, etc.

Why do I remember these points so well? Because when I was memorizing these points, my sister happened to come to my house, and I asked her to question me about these points. At the beginning of the question, I did not record how fast, racking my brains did not think out, resulting in several wrong answers, after the mistake I went to remember again, and then let my sister to ask me questions. After what seemed like three or four years, I finally got all the questions right, and then I was very impressed with the knowledge points.

Just because of this process, my brain went through several challenging tasks repeatedly. When my sister asked me questions, my brain triggered some active thinking and association, and then carried out more targeted memory of knowledge points not remembered. After repeated questions, brain thinking and knowledge retrieval, these knowledge points become more impressive in my mind.

Therefore, painstaking and brain-challenging learning is deep and often accompanied by the brain’s active retrieval of information, and the results are better.

What is effective learning

So, in many cases, to learn effectively, we need to do things that are challenging for the brain. Here are a few examples:

  • A knowledge such as memory or memorizing words, the effect of repeated reading is often poorly, we can try to let oneself don’t look at books read or write out, bring some challenges on the brain, such memory again will be more profound, also let others to their questions or write also is pretty good is the effective means to strengthen the memory.

  • For example, when we read a book, we think we have finished it, but in fact we have just experienced a process of extensive reading. We have an impression at the time, but after some time we almost forget it. We can take out a piece of paper or punch out an empty mind map and let the brain sort out the whole thought process and core content. This is of course a very difficult process, and it may be difficult for us to complete it all at once, but that’s ok, if you can’t remember, just open the book and read it again, and then continue to write silently. Try two or three more times, and the whole book will form a more profound impression in our mind.

  • For example, after watching a lecture or learning a class, the most effective means of learning and memory is often to write out the reading impression or summary, or to do it again, because this process is accompanied by a lot of context combing and the process of the brain to actively retrieve the content. It is said that we can only remember a small part of a story when we read it once, but if we can tell the whole story, we can remember almost the vast majority. For example, today I read the first chapter of the book “Cognitive Nature”, and I tried to write down my own impressions, which is the article you are reading now. I believe I will understand and remember this part more deeply in the future. For example, when I learn a new knowledge point, I will try to sort it out into an article of my own. During the process of sorting, I have experienced various processes such as thinking, searching and memorizing, and finally I will have a more comprehensive and profound understanding.

Human nature is lazy, in the process of learning, the brain along with lazy, to mechanically learning is often not desirable. So, in general, we don’t rigid when learning to read again and again, can try to give the brain some challenging work, such as try to write, retelling, thinking and comb and so on, let the brain active to retrieve and memory, if found that can’t think of it, that we know which part need to focus on learning content. Only in this way is the correct way to learn and remember.

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