Learning How to Learn: Flash Cards

Researchers have found that we have two fundamentally different modes of thinking. Here, I'll call them the Focused and the Diffuse modes.

Diffuse

But most people don't really connect those dots, and that impact will be diffuse, over time.

We're familiar with focusing. It's when you concentrate intently on something you're trying to learn or to understand. But we're not so familiar with diffuse thinking. Turns out that this more relaxed thinking style is related to a set of neural resting states.

Incidentally, both metaphor and analogy are really helpful when you're trying to learn something new.

Metaphor

Analogy

I see no analogy between your problem and mine.

In the diffuse mode of thinking, you can look at things broadly from a very different, big-picture perspective. You can make new neural connections travelling along new pathways.

Now as far as neuroscientists know right now, you're either in the focused mode or the diffuse mode of thinking. It seems you can't be in both thinking modes at the same time. It's kind of like a coin.

We can see either one side or the other side of the coin. But not both sides at the same time. Being in one mode seems to limit your access to the other mode's way of thinking.

Mindfulness

You'll hear experts from a variety of different disciplines talking about their best tips for learning more effectively.

Some human brain weighs three pounds, but it consumes ten times more energy by weight than the rest of the body, a very expensive organ. It is the most complex device in the known universe. All of your thoughts, your hopes, your fears are in the neurones.

Neurones

Working memory

Long term memory

Creative thinkers throughout history, whatever their discipline, have found ways to access the diffuse mode, often more directly and quickly. But we all access this mode quite naturally when we do things like go for a walk or take a shower or even just drift off to sleep.

The focused mode involves a direct approach to solving problems using rational, sequential, analytical approaches. It is associated with the concentrating abilities of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, located right behind your forehead.

Some speed reading claims can be tossed aside immediately. Claims that you can read a book as fast as you can flip through a phone book are completely impossible on anatomical and neurological levels.

Anatomy

Neurology

[noo-rol-uh-jee, nyoo-]

In some cases, the strategies discussed have limited applicability or benefit.

Demeanor

[dih-mee-ner]

It was very clear from his demeanor that he was not going to discuss it.

If you have a library of concepts and solutions internalized as chunked patterns, you can think of it as a collection or a library of neural patterns. When you're trying to figure something out, if you have a good library of these chunks, you can more easily skip to the right solution by metaphorically speaking, listening to whispers from your diffuse mode.

Serendipity

[ser-uh n-dip-i-tee]

Laws of Serendipity

Chunks can help you understand new concepts through a process called______?

Einstellung

The German word "Einstellung" means.....

Understanding how to obtain real solutions is important in learning and in life.

Mastering a new subject means learning not only the basic chunks but also learning how to select and use different chunks. The best way to learn that is by practicing jumping back and forth between problems or situations that require different techniques or strategies. This is called interleaving.

Interleaving

When you interleave within one subject or one discipline, you begin to develop your creative power within that discipline.

When you interleave between several subjects or disciplines, you can more easily make interesting new connections between chunks in the different fields, which can enhance your creativity even further.

Commonality

[kom-uh-nal-i-tee]