The Science of Learning: How to Turn Information into Intelligence | Barbara Oakley | Big Think
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 มิ.ย. 2017
- The Science of Learning: How to Turn Information into Intelligence
New videos DAILY: bigth.ink
Join Big Think Edge for exclusive video lessons from top thinkers and doers: bigth.ink/Edge
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cramming for a test and having a hard time understanding something? Might be best to go away and come back after a while. Your brain is constantly fluctuating between a "learning" mode and an "understanding" mode. When you're sitting there reading (and re-reading!) a textbook, unable to make sense of it, your brain is actually learning. It just takes the decompressing part of your brain for it to all be unpacked. It's called the neural chunk theory and you can learn to utilize it to your advantage by learning how to study differently; small bursts of inactivity and breaks can really make a big difference in how to memorize seemingly difficult information by combining bigger and bigger "chunks" of information until you understand the big picture. It's fascinating stuff.
Barbara Oakley's most recent book is Mindshift
Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BARBARA OAKLEY:
Barbara Oakley, PhD, is a professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning at McMaster University. Her research involves bioengineering with an emphasis on neuroscience and cognitive psychology. Alongside legendary neuroscientist Terrence Sejnowski, Dr. Oakley teaches two massive open online courses (MOOCs), 'Learning How to Learn,' the world's most popular course, and 'Mindshift,' the companion course to her most recent book of the same title.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:
BARBARA OAKLEY: A very important idea that people are often unaware of is the fact that we have two completely different ways of seeing the world, two different neural networks we access when we’re perceiving things.
So what this means is when we first sit down to learn something-for example, we’re going to study math. You sit down and you focus on it. So you focus and you’re activating task-positive networks. And then what happens is you’re working away and then you start to get frustrated. You can’t figure out what’s going on. What’s happening is you’re focusing and you’re using one small area of your brain to analyze the material. But it isn’t the right circuit to actually understand and comprehend the material. So you get frustrated. You finally give up, and then when you give up and get your attention off it it turns out that you activate a completely different type of or set of neural circuits. That’s the default mode network and the related neural circuits. So what happens is you stop thinking about it, you relax, you go off for a walk, you take a shower. You’re doing something different. And in the background this default mode network is doing some sort of neural processing on the side. And then what happens is you come back and voila, suddenly the information makes sense. And, in fact, it can suddenly seem so easy that you can’t figure out why you didn’t understand it before. So learning often involves going back and forth between these two different neural modes - focus mode and what I often call diffuse mode which involves **** resting states. You can only be in one mode at the same time
So you might wonder, is there a certain task that is more appropriate for focus mode or diffuse mode? The reality is that learning involves going back and forth between these two modes. You often have to focus at first in order to sort of load that information into your brain and then you do something different, get your attention off it and that’s when that background processing occurs. And this happens no matter what you’re learning. Whether you’re learning something in math and science, you’re learning a new language, learning music, a dance. Even learning to back up a car. And think about it this way. Here’s a very important related idea and that is that when you’re learning something new you want to create a well practiced neural pattern that you can easily draw to mind when you need it. So this is called a neural chunk and chunking theory is incredibly important in learning. So, for example, if you are trying to learn to back up a car when you first begin it’s crazy, right. You’re looking all around. Do you look in this mirror or this mirror or do you look behind you? What do you do? It’s this crazy set of information. But after you’ve practiced a while you develop this very nice sort of pattern that’s well practiced. So all you have to do is think I’m going to back up a car...
Read the full transcript at bigthink.com/videos/barbara-o...
As a music teacher, I can confirm these theories. We see this phenomenon constantly. Students routinely seem confused by what we teachers perceive as simple ideas in music theory. Yet after students practice many times over a few days, the ideas become second nature.
I am amazed at how accurately this describes my experience with learning mathematics.
I'd be spinning my wheels, then all of a sudden, something clicks and I shoot forward.
that's what a pomodoro is for :)
This woman is making a lot of sense out of learning theory. Good video.
Phaedrus G funny...I've been studying learning theory for finals all day, with breaks in between. was taking a break , came upon this. 😝😝😝🤓
Her book, A Mind for Numbers, is well written too.
She has a course on Coursera titled, "Learning How to Learn." It goes really well with the book.
Reaper Out Thanks
“Thinking Fast and Slow”:by Daniel Kahneman
This happens when play video games.
When playing a video game, gamers might get stuck on a certain part and in the mind of a gamer they might feel it's Impossible so they might turn the game off.
However when you come back later or the maybe even next day they will often times overcome the part they were stuck on easily to the point were it almost feels like you beat it instinctively.
son of mann exactly!
son of mann sometimes I even dreamed on how to beat the level
I started driving a little later than most people. I was 26. However, I was a seasoned video game player. My time playing Hard Drivin' a simulator like game definitely contributed to my ease and comfort behind the wheel once I drove a real car. I had already learned those "chunks" and was able to drive pretty well right at the beginning. The parts I had to learn was looking at blind spots and using my mirrors. The scary thing is, I was so good at the game, I could "win" the game and have plenty of time left over to mess around. Driving at "regular" speed (1-80 mph) in the game is actually dead on. It feels real. Now I have a couple of decades behind me driving for real, I can say that they did an excellent job. The truly scary thing is you get a car going up to a scary speed in the game and I think it is very close to reality, but I've never gone as fast as I did in the game. I wonder how much my "stunt driving" would translate to the real world. If it models as close as it feels with regular driving, I could do a lot with a real car that I've never even tried (for obvious reasons)
Oh and do background on the game, the guy who did physics on the game is well known for doing physics on real race cars. So it isn't a hokey driving game, it is actually based on a real car.
so true, works on portal 2, the turing test, talo's principle and more
Literally my experience with hard games like Ninja Gaiden black, 2 and Bloodborne.
I've always suspected something like this happened but I don't think I could have ever put it forth this elegantly.
the true nature of writer's block
This is amazing, Alan Watts also told that when someone stop trying to force something, they finally get it. This knowledge has been here for long.
My grandmother would always say you found things when you stopped looking for them. And now we now there neurological reasons for it. Science is amazing
6:37 Good advice. However, when you're in school you may not always have 3 or 4 days to get the homework problems right. You often have to hand it all in the next day. School literally punishes you for making assignment mistakes and failing to learn a concept quickly enough.
which is exactly the right way to gauch intelligence
+nyx211 Thats why the current educationsystems are not very well made. You know... this educationsystem which in many cases only produces pressure on the pupils, actually is derived from our economic-system where everything has to be fast and efficient.
I dont think that was what she was saying. She's referring to actually learning a concept well enough to be able to do it on a test, which is probably NOT the next day.
This is the main issue I have with people criticizing education; they expect a teacher to magically teach you everything, while what theyre actually doing is get you on the right path to LEARN YOURSELF!
If you dont put any non-assigned effort into your education, you won't be very well educated. Simple as that.
Besides that, the education system doesn't punish you for not being quick or efficient enough. It only advances to you the information required for you to learn/memorize and offers the instruction and tutelage of teachers and fellow pupils who are willing to help you along if and as you struggle...
Whether you learn the material for everything it's worth, or you simply get skilled at memorizing and regurgitating it on tests is as much up to you as it has anything to do with the quality or quantity of outside instruction.
The tests are there for the education system to rate your performance along with that of every other student in the system, be it the school, the district, the state, or even the federal scope... And it records those ratings for "experts" to study and debate around how to improve any facet of the system... There's really no punishment for doing poorly, only for outright insubordination and/or the willful sabotage of your own or others' chances to learn... (bullying, or lighting the assignments on fire in the hallway for example)
It's your parents (berating you for low test scores or grade points at home) who have seen fit to judge and execute any punitive accounts for poor performance. They may have valid points in that you probably won't get a full scholarship to a great and world recognized school for failing out of half your classes. But no one goes to jail just for being incapable of reciting the detailed strategy for the Battle of New Orleans in 1814, nor do they get prison time for not being able to resolve a quadratic formula off the top of their head.
The only real problem with education in general involves outdated resource materials, or the lack of enthusiasm from the students to put real effort toward learning something useful instead of screwing around and finding every available excuse to get out of learning anything.
gnarth d'arkanen YES EXACTLY THE LAST PARAGRAPH, I was sitting infront of these two girls in chemistry and they were discussing how they didnt care about their failing grades, its pathetic, they beg the teacher to give extra credit but they treat education like its a joke
She wrote a book that is well written on the subject, it's called: A mind for numbers
It's really on learning, not only maths and science.
One of the best Big Think videos. Her learning course on Coursera is also very helpful, you guys should check it out.
Marshall David Colin I agree. I did that course and after I flew through my exams. The preparation was tough but her methods of making it stick in the brain made me able to call back the much needed information under exam stress.
Any chance of a link to that course?
30/45 minutes of focused attention on whatever topic you're learning, then 15 min mindfulness meditation will have that (new info) sticking Like Glue. 👍
I've had many experiences in my life like this person describes; I felt like I was beating my head against a wall trying to understand something and then one day when I wasn't really thinking about it, it just "clicked".
The best example I can think of about this for me is in high-school band class. I'd been playing brass instruments (trumpet, cornet, french horn) for about 6 years at that point and my instructor was explaining the "Circle of Flats" (music theory stuff), and I simply did not get it. I wracked my brain trying to understand how a "middle-C" on a trumpet could produce the exact same tonal note as an "F" played on a french horn. And then, one day sitting in music class while the various sections were "tuning up" in turn, and my thoughts were wandering out of boredom, it hit me like a flash of lightning from a clear blue sky and I understood the "circle of flats".
Same thing seems to go for when you're actively looking for something you've misplaced. When you're looking for it you can't find it; the moment you let your mind wander and stop focusing on the goal you find the item you were looking for, and a lot of the time by accident.
RantingRamsay the best thing is the same thing goes for nearly any problem you have. including the pain of a girlfriend lost, your winter depression, the death of your father... that's why I used it so extensively in psychotherapy
Azrael Exlibris : That makes a lot of sense.
I used to get winter depression a lot, until one day something clicked in my mind, and I realized that I reveled in the quiet, serene scene of a leaf-less forest covered in snow.
I used to look at it as "everything around me is dead or hibernating, how depressing...", and when it clicked for me I now look at it as "everything is biding its time, waiting for that perfect moment..." (and yes, that is actually the end of the thought, it never goes further than "that perfect moment" for me). I feel that thought is encouraging because if I'm struggling with something in my life, I look at myself as a tree in winter; just waiting for that perfect moment to pull through and do my thing.
My grandfather often warned that there was never too big a problem to just walk away...
He didn't mean to drop it and f--- off forever. All my life I've just taken a break whenever something frustrated the hell out of me. It's not just that I believed in the "chunk theory" either. It was a simpler math. If you're working on something difficult, you're already reaching toward your limits as it is (in whatever skill is concerned). Once you're starting to come up short, you're going to get frustrated... And with the frustration comes a dose of anger (at least some) which paralyzes regular rational thought. Essentially, when you're already at the limit of your ability, and then you're angry, you end up being less capable than when you just started "cold"... Stop it, before you wreck it. Just take a short break (short being a relative term) Get your mind back under control and chill a little. Just don't forget to come back to it. It's worth nothing if you don't at least make the effort to finish what you started.
So the principle works out for just about anything. As long as you still have the discipline to get back with a fresh mind and fresh eyes... :o)
RantingRamsay use those moments of waiting (you got nothing better to do anyway do you? ^^) to just sit and breath. Let go of the thoughts don't push them away just let the gently flow their way, let go of the tension in your muscles, especially your face.
If you do that deliberately and with regularity you will come to the same point that tree is in, a state of just beeing without any rational thoughtfilter that keeps your attention in one place like in the math problem.
And there you will see that the perfect moment is already there.
Like the tree you wait for a time where your environment allows you to spend more energy and that you now need to preserve it, but that gives you the possibility to not have to do anything except beeing, so everything is good.
Do that with patience and regularity, without frustration and force and you will find peace and joy in the cold stillness of winter through the same quietness of the mind.
RantingRamsay What use does Music Theory have? Does it help you make better music? It seems like rappers can get a good beat box going and start rapping, no Music Theory needed to make a good song, so it just seems weird to me. I'm sure there's a reason, I just need to learn it. XD
imagine having her as a tutor.. so easy to follow and learn from. could listen to her all day long! never heard so much information put so well :)
im glad I watched this video.
this channel is a gem to students,because schools don’t teach you how to think.this lady thought us how to and make learning less stressful.
Barbara Oakley! I'm reading A Mind for Number and she explained it so eloquent verbally! It can be said that I'm developing the neural chunk of her learning method, so meta lmao!
Wow, she explained such deep material in such an easy-to-understand way. Her students are very lucky.
Knowledge learned is better than knowledge taught.
mimicry > braindead
knowledge > mimicry
intelligence > knowledge
understanding > intelligence
wisdom > understanding
love > wisdom
garet claborn why love as primitive feeling beat intellingence
yeah because knowledge learned is always learned, but knowledge taught isn't always learned. Basically this is a quote about intrinsic motivation. Personal investment = attention which is required for learning.
So how do I learn writing well?
@@damianpos8832 I think it's about the love for whatever subject which is driving everything else... It's not that love beats intelligence, more like love creates it. Or at least that's how I see it, I donno
Love it! What Barbara just said added another dimension to how I look at the DMN and it's relationship to the focussed mind. Thank you Barbara!!
It makes total sense, and I believe the fundamental concept of this video is learning through constantly practicing.
I could listen to her explain all day
i remember cheating all through high school and all the exerted energy and anxiety it use to cause me to not get caught until in chemistry i decided to learn and i actually saw how simply complicated it was. on the test i felt like i was still cheating because i had the answers in my head.
Excellent video...excellent advice! What I like best about intelligent information she delivers is that her advice is to everyone about learning, not just to minors in the elementary, junior or high school setting. Her wisdom on learning "chunks" could apply to anything someone wanted to learn, from beginning to cook a meal to mastering planetary movement and the black hole theory. She also speaks to her audience very well and makes you want to hear more about this subject! I feel like I am ready to add some "chunks" to a few folders in my file cabinet that I keep inside this brain of mine! ;)
the technique she outlined in the last several minutes actually has a name. it's called Spaced Repetition - a time consuming but extremely powerful technique for learning.
Wow that's indeed interesting to know
Her explanation was so simple to understand and follow! She’s a really excellent and knowledgeable communicator!
wow she's really smart and a very good communicator
Thanks！I've bought your book “A mind for numbers” and I'm glad to see you in the helpful video！Once I read something similar to your theory in a Russian language learning book，the author expressed the same concept using a nice example of a basketball player，and thus he said：“you get the ball in the net once, does that mean you can stop throwing the ball? That you need something more complicated? Of course not! Top players train and repeat the fundamental moves over and over.
--It’s the same with native speakers. After uttering some simple phrase, they don’t magically start making things complicated.”
You have helped me so much, Mrs. Oakley. :( Your legacy will go on long after you're gone. Thank you!
In which career she helped you?
She had written a book on this "a (MIND) for NUMBERS" Highly recommended. it was a great help to me to understand learning process.
This was actually helpful. I tried this while learning g scale on a guitar. I got frustrated, took a small break, then went back and it went a lot smoother than before.
I Know this woman from the "learn how to learn" Course from coursera.org...
She is amazing ...
Practice.
Brilliant! I can relate to it so well. Thanks for putting it so eloquently.
ha - yeah experienced this as a small child - nobody ever taught me how to tell time - remember my dad being really angry (not AT me - that nobody had taught me, assumed would learn at kindergarten or school - nope) - remember I couldn't understand what he was saying - I was exhausted & confused - he was getting a bit frustrated - went to sleep - next morning woke up - completely understood what he had been explaining night before, of course - made perfect sense - obvious, simple
It always amused me when I was learning some poem by heart at school and only after a night sleep I managed to recite it.
Because of this it was almost impossible to learn the poem in one day, just before the lesson of course :)
thanks for putting the transcript in the description I love when check channels do that!
Thank you so much I appreciate these valuable insights. I can't wait to apply this technique in the future!!
thank you for this. trying to get started on reviewing for my exam abd can't seem to start to. it's just the right scientific motivation i need.
Beautiful, very good!
thanks for your time sharing with us.
I usually do 2-3 10 minute walks during the day, It really does make solving problems easier.
you are a great instructor !! thank you.
Thank you il use this on when I'm learning something new :)
She's right. When I come across a challenging physics problem, I first attempt it on my own. When I am stuck I ask my friend for help. He gives me clues and hints for finding the answer. Once I have gotten to the answer, I do the problem again. This time I don't need as much help as a previously had. After doing the problem a few times, I finally am able to do the problem on my own. And the process of completing the problem on my own helps me to complete other problems as well.
This is one of the the most useful big think videos
There are two different nural circuits. Default mode network and focus mode.
You can only stay in one mode at a time.
Focus mode is for feeding the information in the brain and default network is for understanding and making sense of that information.
- Feed information, detach and focus on something else so that your default nural network mode do it's work to convert that information into wisdom.
I am impressed by your channel that I plan to revolutionaise my life of learning.
Wow. Very inspiring! Thank you a lot for sharing your knowledge ❤
There's a certain mysticism to how smart people think. I think much of that is caused by the uncertainty that is associated with the mind and the uncertainty that is associated with the clear description of ones thought. Barbara does an awesome job of demystifying.
Amazing, just what I needed!
This is great! I learned something new here that I didn't expect.
Interesting. When we moved to a new location and were unfamiliar with the area, my husband would very quickly build a map in his head of the entire area as a whole. In fact, he used to amaze me by having almost a 6th sense about how things were laid out. I, on the other hand, had to learn where things were by creating mental strip maps between one location and another. My husband would wonder why I took deliberate but indirect, often inefficient, routes. I would explain that that was how I knew to get there. As I learned to go more places and created more strip maps, I would eventually arrive at a point where my mental maps began connecting to each other. My routes could begin to be more direct, and I would not get lost as often going to unfamiliar destinations. Maybe those strip maps were like your "chunks."
Very useful thanks. I intuitively figured this out and I think a lot of successful people do this intuitively
A balance of Focus and Relaxation creates a comfortablity for long-term/ long-period learning intervals . The relaxation of the brain energy makes it easier for memory retention as well . Patterns colors pictures numbers and Correlations also help learning and memory too
Great talk.what a soothing voice and personality .enjoyed listening; thank you.
I figured out this "background processing in the '70's when I was a teenager. I called it "the hopper". I would choose a hard idea, choice or task ,,,think about it really hard for awhile, then, "put it in the hopper' I would consciously imagine I was giving the whole problem to a deeper, unconscious part of my brain to work on. Usually after 2 or 3 days, something "pops out". This confirms what I thought,
Whoa! So relatable and helpful.
Thanks! This was helpful
Explain... beautifully
That was amazing information. I'm going to use that for the rest of my life now.
I like this woman. More of her!!
These are true. My everyday approach with learning is that if I ever reach a threshold(moment in which I can no longer keep up with what I'm studying) then I either take a bath, wash the dishes or clean the dogs. These are passive activities that lasts for around 15 mins to finish and requires no active thought at all.
These activities somehow makes my brain more relax and spontaneous and a stretch of body as well. My brain also passively adapta to the information I got from studying and if I'm gonna describe it, it feels like the brain is naturally sorting out the things I've studied and put aside information that doesn't seem important.
Basically, learning something like it's a muscle memory. The more your brain gets used to being fed with same topics over and over again, the more the brain will adapt to those knowledge and considers those information as essential or necessary for you to remember therefore you eventually memorize or gain muscle memory once you try to think of the topic, the other minor details just keep on stemming out just from a single thought.
1. Take breaks on learning blocks, your brain does some shit in the background and you get better at it
2. the more you do this the more your brain does stuff that makes it easy for you in a chunk
3. combined chunks. your brain can combine chunks you learned together when faced with learning or problem.
The info given in this video was intuitively known by me. Besides the information she has a nice and soothing voice
Just came to mind, writing it down.
While recalling stuff, I should recall and try to explain it to myself as I am explaining it to a 3 yr old kid. Like imagine how much creativity one will put in to make a 3yr old understand what you understood. Removing the Einstellung, and bringing in the more creative mind to work.
Chatgpt can do this.
Clear and intuitive.
This makes me so mad yet happy at the same time; mad because growing up i was taught if i couldn't get it without peeking after learning about it then i wasn't smart and it caused me to waste years....happy because i know the way i had slowly been teaching myself after periods of discouragement really works...i won't feel so bad in the future 😊😊
thanks..she speaks a lot of sense.
Thanks. I'm going to apply this to my golf swing.
Thank you
i love every bit of this
Three weeks of roller skating every Monday for two hours.
First week I fell so many times, everyone avoided me. Haha!
Second week I fell twice. Was able to flow past people swiftly.
Third week fell at least four times due to some little ones.
I know how to roller skate now!
thank you
6:40 Brilliant 🙏🙏🙏
6:36 a good thing to do when learning something difficult
This video is the most useful one i've ever seen
This has been me through all my physics courses.
She has an awesome course at Coursera too.
Do recommend!
Very helpful!
useful, thanks
Brilliant!
É assim que eu penso. Obrigado
Figured this out a while ago.
i like this. i always tell people ima tell you something. im going to confuse you at first. but if you let it marinate for a while and come back to me later we can then begin to discuss it. first lets give you the information then lets let your brain do its job.
Summary.. practice makes perfect.. 😁
Wish I knew this earlier in life. I always thought there should be a class on how to learn/study in school instead of figuring it out derivatively. I remember studying for the CPA a chunk of my time was learning how to really study/learn. Here’s a free tip- don’t do a shot of whiskey every time you finish a page as a reward.
this is true of how we learn anything... and everything..
I have her book! "And Mind for Numbers" I wondered why her name sounded familiar and everything made sense when I went through my bookcase and found her book :D
"PRACTISE MAKES A MAN PERFECT.." tats what she wanted to make us understand the whole video
Read her book A mind for numbers...Truly a gamechanger
Good approach!
As a technician, I can agree with this. Another example would be the next day attempt, which is almost twice as good.
Great video!
GENIUS.
Instead of building a house solely by hand bring tools and before you use your hammer know how to handle the hammer.
And building it together with someone that also uses tools correctly will ease/speed the building of the house.
I love that!
Is this in more than one channel? I feel like I've seen, liked, and commented this recently before
she might said that practice is what enables learning and problem solving. And all that of creating neural chunks to be able to take on what im doing.
Good distinction between literal and lateral thinking
amazing simply amazing
exactly what happens to programmer :) that s why it is important to take break to solve an issue in 5min instead of 6 days struggling
Programmer here. Always finding solutions tu bugs while washing the dishes, cleaning the house, walking the dog or taking a bath.
awesome...!!
Really helpful. :D
Excellent presentation. It makes wonder how meditation and default mode network can work together. Meditation can actually weaken the default mode network: this makes me wary of it.
I'm thinking that if I meditate and perform a balancing practice, like Alain De Botton's "Philosophical Meditation", then I will be able to cultivate my DMN while reaping the benefits of meditation. A meditator who thinks unthought thoughts.