Huberman Lab Official Page – Optimal Protocols for Studying & Learning
Check out Huberman’s book – Protocols : An Operating Manual for Human Body
In fact, most of what we believe about the best ways to study are absolutely false. Fortunately, today, you will learn the best ways to study.
I really need just one help from you which is please leave a review or all your complaints and feedback on [email protected] , I’d love that .
I will be posting more popular podcast notes from now on, continue to check on my website.
If you want the notes of your favourite episode, just send me the details of the episode on my mail. I’ll let you know when I have completed its notes.
Enjoy the silence reading.
Offsetting Forgetting
- People often think they learn best in specific ways—whether by reading, studying in groups, or through auditory/visual methods.
- But guess what? Research shows that these learning preferences don’t actually matter much when it comes to real learning.
- The best way to learn isn’t about the format (auditory, visual, slides, videos, or textbooks). Instead, it’s about offsetting the natural process of forgetting.
- When learning something new—whether it’s cognitive (like math) or motor-based (like music)—your goal should be to fight forgetting.
- The secret to mastering information is to constantly inoculate yourself against forgetting. I’ll show you how to do that, based on solid data from peer-reviewed research.
Learning & Neuroplasticity
- Learning is linked to neuroplasticity—your brain and spinal cord’s ability to adapt and change in response to experiences.
- This process, called neuroplasticity, is at the heart of how we absorb new information and skills.
- Neuroplasticity, often written as one word or two, is the foundation of all learning. It refers to how your brain changes at the cellular level—specifically how neurons, or nerve cells, adapt.
- Three Key Mechanisms of Neuroplasticity:
- Strengthening Synaptic Connections: Neurons communicate through gaps called synapses. Strengthening these connections allows neurons to better send and receive signals.
- Weakening Synaptic Connections: Equally important, some connections between neurons weaken, which helps fine-tune learning.
- Neurogenesis (Adding New Neurons): This gets a lot of media attention but plays a very minor role in adult human neuroplasticity.
- While neurogenesis does happen in areas like the olfactory bulb (responsible for smell) and the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus (linked to memory), it’s not the main driver of learning.
- The major way we learn is through strengthening, weakening, and forming new connections between existing neurons—not creating new neurons.
- Weakening certain connections between neurons is just as important for learning as strengthening others. This process helps refine and adapt how the brain functions.
- When we hear about weakening neural connections, we often think of forgetting or decline. However, removing connections is essential for skills like motor learning. It’s not just about adding new connections.
- No value judgment should be placed on whether connections are strengthened or weakened. Both are crucial mechanisms of Neuroplasticity.
- Neuroplasticity involves both the strengthening and weakening of connections, and neither directly maps to the formation or removal of memories. These changes are part of how the nervous system adapts and learns.
- As babies grow, their motor skills improve, not just from gaining new connections, but mainly from removing unnecessary ones. The neural connections that remain become more robust and reliable, allowing for better coordination as they grow.
- This process of refining neural connections sets the stage for all types of learning. The key to learning and memory is not just acquiring new information but offsetting the natural forgetting process.
- To dive into this, the speaker introduces a quiz to help frame today’s theme: how to study and learn effectively.
Periodic Testing
- Hearing the word quiz often triggers stress, but don’t worry—this one is for self-assessment.
- Question 1: How many mechanisms of Neuroplasticity exist? One, two, three, four, or five?
- Question 2: Can you name two of the three major changes that reflect Neuroplasticity?
- The three mechanisms of Neuroplasticity are: Strengthening of neural connections , Weakening of neural connections, Neurogenesis (the addition of new neurons).
- Self-testing is crucial. Even if you got the answer wrong, recognizing what you don’t know helps you retain more information. Research shows that periodically testing yourself is one of the best ways to offset forgetting.
- This episode applies optimal studying strategies while discussing them, and encourages you to self-test throughout. There will be no formal test at the end, but feel free to quiz yourself for better retention.
- Neuroplasticity and learning involve a two-step process:
- Active Engagement: Fully focusing on the material.
- Retention: Converting that focus into lasting knowledge.
Focus & Alertness, Sleep, Tool: Active Engagement
- Alertness is a prerequisite for focus; you can’t focus without being alert. Being focused and attentive signals your nervous system that the information you’re encountering is important.
- When you focus on information, your nervous system receives signals to alter neural connections. These changes could involve strengthening or weakening connections, ensuring you can retain and use the information later.
- Optimal studying strategies often start with the basics:
- Good sleep the night before.
- Limited external stress (though some stress can enhance alertness and memory).
- Sleep is the most important factor in ensuring you’re alert and focused.
- A nootropic is a substance that enhances cognitive function (like a “smart drug”). Instead of relying on external substances, sleep is the best natural nootropic. Sleep enables focus, creativity, and flexibility with ideas.
- Huberman Lab offers resources on optimizing sleep for better learning. These can be found on the Huberman Lab website by searching for “sleep.”
- While studying, use a silent script to enhance focus. Mentally repeat to yourself, “I need to learn this,” to consciously increase your alertness. Avoid being a passive learner—actively engage with the material.
- Engage your attention and focus voluntarily, expecting the information to be interesting enough to draw you in. This active engagement is essential for effective learning.
- People with ADHD can focus intensely on topics they find interesting. They struggle with maintaining attention and alertness when the material is unengaging. The ability to voluntarily direct attention is a hallmark of effective learners.
- Actively bring your mind back to the material you are trying to learn; this requires effort and can feel challenging. This process of focusing might involve external cues, like wearing a hoodie or hat to minimize distractions.
- The strain felt while trying to focus indicates the release of neuromodulators (e.g., epinephrine, adrenaline) in the brain and body. This release cues the neural circuits that will need to change later, promoting neuroplasticity.
- Experiencing strain during learning signifies that your nervous system is adapting and changing. If learning felt effortless, it would indicate that no significant changes are needed in your neural circuits.
- Some individuals may struggle with maintaining focus, for which there are pharmacologic tools available.
Tool: Improve Focus, Mindfulness Meditation, Perception Exercise
- Individuals with clinically diagnosed ADHD should consult their doctor about prescription medications and alternative methods. Great sleep is essential for attention and focus, especially for those with ADHD.
- Non-Pharmacologic Approaches:
- Hydration: Staying well-hydrated supports cognitive function.
- Caffeine: Consuming the right amount helps maintain alertness without causing jitters.
- Mindfulness Meditation:
- Research from Wendy Suzuki’s lab at NYU highlights benefits of a brief daily mindfulness meditation (5-10 minutes):
- Sit or lie down, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing.
- When your attention drifts, gently bring it back to your breath.
- Regular practice improves focus, memory, and recall abilities.
- Research from Wendy Suzuki’s lab at NYU highlights benefits of a brief daily mindfulness meditation (5-10 minutes):
- Mindfulness meditation is a zero-cost tool for enhancing focus, missing a day is okay; resume the next day. Timing is flexible; however, avoid late-night sessions if they disrupt sleep.
- Perceptual Exercises:
- Meditation can be viewed as a perceptual exercise focused on training attention. This can also be practiced with eyes open, focusing on a visual target.
- Repeatedly bringing your attention back to a specific location enhances focus.
- For more information on focus, ADHD, and neuroplasticity, visit HubermanLab.com and search for relevant topics.
Sleep & Neuroplasticity, Tool: Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR)
- Neuroplastic changes, like strengthening or weakening neuronal connections, occur not during learning but during deep sleep and sleep-like states.
- The reordering of connections and strengthening of neuron connections that support learning occurs during sleep, especially during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in the latter half of the night.
- Aim for adequate sleep—some people need six hours, while others may need eight.
- First Night Effect:
- The first night effect indicates that information learned on a given day is mostly consolidated during the sleep of the first night after learning.
- Poor sleep on that first night doesn’t mean you will forget the information forever, but strive to get the best sleep possible afterward.
- Impact of Caffeine and All-Nighters:
- Caffeine consumption late in the day and pulling all-nighters can hinder your learning.
- Structure your schedule to prioritize focus, attention, and sleep to enhance learning.
- Optimizing sleep is crucial for your mental health, physical health, and learning performance. It’s worth the effort to get your sleep right, especially for those with stress or young kids.
- To further enhance your learning and studying, explore NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest), often referred to as yoga nidra, involves a 10 to 20-minute practice that helps restore mental and physical vigor.
- Perform NSDR in the morning, afternoon, or evening, especially if sleep was inadequate. This practice can help offset any sleep loss you may have experienced.
- Incorporate NSDR into your routine to enhance neuroplasticity and support learning. The timing of NSDR is less important than the consistency of practice.
Tools: Study Habits of Successful Students
- Best students schedule dedicated study time: They set aside specific blocks of time for studying, ensuring they prioritize it in their daily routine.
- They eliminate distractions: They are very intentional about removing distractions, especially their phone, and they inform friends and family that they won’t be available during study time.
- They study alone: The top-performing students often study by themselves, allowing them to focus more deeply. While group study can work for some, these students achieve better results by focusing solo.
- Study in multiple sessions: Rather than studying for long, uninterrupted periods, they break up their study time into two or three shorter sessions. This helps maintain focus and energy throughout their study period.
- Consistency matters: They make studying a regular habit, typically studying at least five days a week, which helps them retain and build on their knowledge over time.
- Focus on habits, not just hours: While these students study for three or four hours a day, it’s not necessarily the total time but the quality of their habits—like time management and isolation from distractions—that makes the biggest difference in their success.
- Top Students Teach Their Peers:
- After learning in isolation, the best students make an effort to teach their peers. Teaching helps solidify knowledge and enhances Mastery of the material.
- Students who teach their peers perform exceedingly well compared to others. This method is an effective way to test and develop proficiency.
- Watch One, Do One, Teach One: A principle used in labs: first, you observe, then you try, and finally, you teach. This process accelerates learning, leading to Mastery, and even Virtuosity.
- Focus and attention are limited but renewable resources in the human brain. The best students designate study time without distractions, anchoring their focus.
- Structured Study Time: They study alone without distractions, enhancing focus and concentration. These habits reinforce their ability to maintain attention and achieve better results.
- Adenosine and Sleep:
- The longer you’re awake, the more adenosine builds up, making you sleepy and harder to focus.
- Sleep reduces adenosine levels, allowing you to feel more alert and focused again. Think of adenosine as limiting your attentional budget.
- Importance of Scheduling Study Time:
- Scheduling regular study times is crucial for improving focus and attention.
- If possible, set study blocks at consistent times, such as one early in the day and another later. This regularity helps your brain entrain to focusing at specific times.
- Challenges of Course Timing:
- While you can’t control course schedules, you can control when you study. Consistency in study times allows your brain to adapt to focusing at particular times.
- Entrainment of Brain and Body:
- Similar to sleep-wake cycles, your brain and body adjust to regular study schedules over a few days. After two or three days, you’ll find it easier to focus at those regular times.
- Minimizing Distractions:
- Turn off your phone, limit distractions, and create an environment conducive to studying. If needed, turn off Wi-Fi to eliminate distractions, depending on whether you require it for studying.
- Focus as a Skill:
- Focusing on studying is a learnable skill, which can be developed through regular practice.
- By sticking to a regular study schedule for a few days, you train your nervous system to be at its best during those times.
- Adapting to Schedules:
- Give yourself two or three days to adapt to a new study schedule, and try to maintain it even on weekends.
- Regular study times help your brain optimize learning.
Studying & Aspiration Goals
- Offsetting Forgetting vs. Learning:
- The focus here is on strategies to maximally offset forgetting, not just learning material.
- The goal is to achieve stable learning, ensuring that information is retained long-term.
- Top-performing medical students have a long-term view of how success will impact their family and life arc. Their motivation is often broad, abstract, and aspirational, rather than specific or narrowly focused.
- The study evaluated around 700 students, bridging both the practical aspects of studying and the underlying psychological motivations. It examined study habits like duration, timing, and distraction management, along with the motivational drivers that helped students push through fatigue or loss of desire.
- The best-performing students held a strong aspirational vision of success, helping them stay motivated despite challenges.
- This motivational outlook was especially significant given that medical education in the studied country is highly selective, with only a few top students able to achieve entry.
- A unique challenge for these students was that they had to learn and study in a second language, adding an extra layer of difficulty. An inspiring example is PhD students who had to complete their thesis and defense in English, even though it was not their first language.
- Aspirational Goals and Studying:
- High-performing students don’t constantly dwell on how their efforts will transform them or their families, but they clearly know what they are aspiring toward beyond just excelling in medical school.
- Having personal aspirations creates a balance between daily study routines and long-term goals.
- Your aspirations are highly individual and provide motivation alongside the daily effort of studying. These aspirations guide the specific actions you take to learn daily, pulling you towards your goals.
- Loving the Material vs. Aspiration:
- If you’re passionate about the subject, you may not need an aspirational component to keep going.
- Personal experiences, like fascination with topics such as circadian rhythms or dopamine, drove excitement and focus in my studies.
- Some subjects may be more difficult to engage with, either due to the teaching method or the content itself. In these cases, connecting your study to broader aspirations can help you stay motivated.
- Struggles Leading to Growth:
- “However, I will say that at least in my experience, some of the courses that I look back on most fondly are the courses that I struggled with the most.”
- Difficulty in learning is a key theme in research on effective studying—learning is more effective when it feels challenging.
- Effort is Essential for Learning:
- Learning by osmosis (Garfield Cartoon)—simply absorbing information effortlessly—is a myth. While it’s a cute idea, real learning requires effort.
- Although there may be a desire for studying to be easy, effort is and has always been the cornerstone of learning.
Tool: Testing as a Learning Tool
- Engaging in quizzes can reinforce learning without needing to share answers. Let’s take another quiz.
- First Question: When does the remodeling of neural connections occur?
- Answer: During sleep.
- Second Question: What is one behavioral tool to improve focus?
- Answer: Mindfulness Meditation.
- Conceptualized as a perceptual exercise. Instructions:
- Sit or lie down, close your eyes, and focus on your breath.
- If your mind drifts, gently bring your attention back to your breath.
- Alternatively, practice with eyes open by focusing on a visual target at a comfortable distance for 1-10 minutes.
- The circuits for focus and attention are subject to neuroplasticity.
- Third Question: Can you name three tools used by effective students?
- Answers:
- Limit distractions: Put away phones and inform others you’re unavailable.
- Isolate study: Study alone to enhance focus.
- Teach others: Teaching peers reinforces your own understanding.
- Answers:
- Testing is a strongly supported tool for enhancing knowledge retention. While tests are often seen as evaluations, they are also effective for building and retaining knowledge, to remember information better and offset forgetting through regular quizzing.
- Testing is not just a way to evaluate knowledge but a highly effective method for learning and retaining information. The concept of testing as a learning tool has been studied for over 100 years, beginning with a classic 1917 study involving school children.
- 1917 Study on Testing:
- Children were asked to read biographies and divided into two groups:
- One group read and re-read the biographies multiple times.
- The other group read once and then tested themselves by recalling the information from memory.
- The group that read the biographies once and tested themselves by recalling information performed better than the group that re-read the material.
- Self-testing proved to be more effective for retention and accuracy of recall, compared to passive re-reading.
- Testing yourself requires more effort, but this is crucial for deeper learning.
- Effortful studying—like recalling information from memory—leads to better incorporation of knowledge into neural circuits.
- Benefits of Self-Testing:
- Self-testing not only helps you remember more material but also ensures you recall it with greater accuracy.
- Testing is one of the best tools to enhance both long-term retention and understanding.
Self-Testing, Repeated Testing
- Although the nervous system hasn’t changed in thousands of years, recent studies provide more modern insights on effective learning methods. One key study examined different approaches to studying and their impact on retention and flexible use of knowledge.
Study Groups and Methods:
- The study compared three groups that were tasked with reading passages about animals, biology, and other topics.
- Group 1 (SSSS): Studied the material four times (study, study, study, study) before taking a final test.
- Group 2 (SSST): Studied the material three times and then took one test (study, study, study, test) before the final test.
- Group 3 (STTT): Studied the material once and then took three tests (study, test, test, test) before the final test.
- Each group was evaluated based on their performance on a final test, which was administered either: A few days later, A few weeks later, Or even months to a year later, depending on the experiment.
- The purpose of the study was to compare the groups’ performance on this final test to see which study method led to better retention and flexibility in using the information.
- Based on previous discussions, it’s expected that the group that tested themselves more (Group 3, STTT) would perform better on the final test, especially over longer periods.
- Performance on the final test is directly proportional to the number of tests taken on the material beforehand.
- Testing serves as a powerful tool to offset forgetting—the more tests you take, the better you will perform when recalling the material later.
- Initial Exposure to Material: While initial exposure to new material is necessary, it’s the repeated self-testing or formal testing that leads to long-term retention.
- Even if initial test performance is poor, seeing the correct answers and comparing them to your responses still significantly enhances learning.
- It’s not about the number of times you study or read the material, but about focusing, attending to it, and testing yourself multiple times afterward. Testing reinforces neural encoding, which leads to a more durable retention of the material in your neural circuits.
- Some may worry about consolidating incorrect information, but as long as you eventually learn the correct answers, testing is still more effective than rereading. Even if you score as low as 40-50% on early tests, the strategy of testing still outperforms repeated reading.
Confidence vs. Actual Knowledge:
- Interestingly, many students are often overconfident about how well they know the material. When asked how well they think they’d perform on a test, their confidence may not match their actual retention.
- When students are exposed to the material four times, they think they’re going to perform best on the final exam. But students who study once and test themselves three times often believe they will perform the worst.
- When asked, “How well do you think you’d perform in two weeks, six months, or even tomorrow?”, the test group reports much lower confidence in their ability compared to the study-only group.
The Surprising Reality:
- Here’s what’s surprising—confidence increases with each exposure to the material, but you haven’t actually learned as much as you think.
- In contrast, when you test yourself—even if you get things wrong—you’re learning far more than you realize.
- I know, it’s counterintuitive, but the more you reread the material, the more you feel like you’ve mastered it. Yet, that’s just an illusion.
- Testing yourself, even when you don’t do well at first, is the best way to ensure that the material is really locked into your neural circuits.
Best Strategy for Long-Term Retention:
- So, here’s the key: Testing yourself one, two, or even three times on the material will always outperform simply rereading it.
- And yes, it might feel harder, but it’s that effort that leads to the best retention and strongest learning.
Testing Yourself & Knowledge Gaps
Personal Example of Self-Testing:
- I wish I had known this method as a student, though I did use a form of self-testing in one course. I took Biosciences 169L, Neuroanatomy Laboratory, taught by Ben Reese, who had a reputation for being extremely challenging—not in his personality, but in his high expectations. The course involved lectures, microscope work, and a textbook full of brain sections and stains from different species.
- The course was intense, requiring us to identify brain structures from microscope slides. We worked with various stains, each revealing different parts of the brain—neurons, axons, etc. There was a lot of new terminology: terms like rostral, caudal, dorsal, and ventral.
My Study Method:
- Faced with the sheer amount of information, I came up with my own way to study. I would lie on my bed, close my eyes, and mentally fly through the nervous system.
- I’d imagine traveling through different parts of the brain—through the ear to review cochlear anatomy, through the eye to review retinal anatomy, and across the brain’s surface to review sulci and gyri.
- This helped me visualize and think deeply about the material in my own way.
Result of Mental Review:
- While I wouldn’t claim to be a neuroanatomy expert, this method gave me a deep understanding of the subject.
- Reviewing the material in my mind was a form of self-testing—helping me internalize the concepts better than just re-reading or listening to lectures.
Testing Myself with Visualization:
- When I encountered gaps in my knowledge during my mental walkthrough of the brain—say, while imagining the neural tract between the hippocampus and another structure—I’d stop.
- If I didn’t know what came next, I’d go to the textbook, look it up, and then return to my mental visualization. It wasn’t really studying in the traditional sense—it was self-testing.
The Key to Self-Testing:
- The point of testing isn’t just about counting what you get right or wrong. It’s about recognizing where your knowledge ends and pinpointing exactly what you don’t know.
- Testing yourself means hitting those moments where you say, “I don’t remember this” or “I think this is the fimbria,” only to realize, after checking, that it’s not.
- Once, I couldn’t remember the insula’s exact location. After looking it up, I never forgot it.
- Interesting fact: at that time, we didn’t even know the insula’s function. Now, research shows it’s involved in depression circuits—and sunlight exposure in the morning can suppress its activity.
The Learning Process:
- I hope this neuroanatomy example taught you something, but more importantly, it shows how personal self-testing can be.
- It might sound like I’m contradicting the idea that there are different learning styles (auditory, visual, etc.), but research has mixed findings on that. What really matters is using self-testing to identify gaps in your knowledge—whether through traditional testing or, like me, by visualizing the material in your mind.
- Even now, when I read scientific papers, I often go for a walk afterward and mentally review the key components of the study, especially the important graphs.
New Material & Self-Test Timing
The Importance of Testing for Learning:
- So far, we’ve established that testing yourself (or being tested by others) is the most effective way to offset forgetting. Let’s dive into the research that backs this up, especially in studies comparing different testing methods.
The Study-Test Experiment:
- In this experiment, students were exposed to new material for the first time. For simplicity, the process of being exposed to the material is called studying in the research, even though the real emphasis is on testing as the key component of learning.
Three Groups of Students:
- Group 1: They studied the material and took a test immediately afterward. They were told what they got right, what they got wrong, and the correct answers. After a delay, they took the same test again.
- Group 2: They studied the material and then waited (delay could be days or weeks). After the delay, they took a test, followed by another delay before taking the final test.
- Group 3: They studied the material, waited for a long delay, took a test, and then took the final test.
Which Group Performed Best?
- All groups took the final test at the same time, but the structure of their prior studying and testing varied.
- Now, imagine you’re in the third group: you study the material, wait a long time without seeing it, and then get tested a day or two before the final exam. You review what you got wrong, take the test again the next day, and you’d expect this group to perform best, right? But here’s the surprise: they perform the worst.
- The group that performed best was the one that studied the material and took a test soon after (either the same day or the next). Then, after a long delay, they took the test again.
- The takeaway? Test yourself very soon after being exposed to new material, even if it’s just the next day.
- The worst-performing group faced a long delay between studying and testing. Even though they were given feedback and tested again soon after, their performance was weaker.
- The group that had spaced tests (study → gap → test → gap → final test) performed somewhere in the middle.
What Does This Mean for Learning?
- This experiment shows how critical early testing is for locking in new knowledge. The key is Testing yourself soon after learning offsets the brain’s natural tendency to forget.
- This concept is rooted in neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt and retain new information. Early testing not only reveals what you know or don’t know but helps consolidate information in your neural circuits. It’s more than evaluation—it’s active learning.
Self-Testing & Offsetting Forgetting
- At this point, it’s clear how valuable testing—especially self-testing—is after being exposed to new material. So, here’s a question: How much improvement do you think you get by testing yourself just once after learning something new? 10%? 20%?
- The improvement is around 50%. This is based on studies across various fields like music, math, language, and motor learning.
- When people are exposed to new material and don’t test themselves, the amount they forget is substantial.
- Information fades quickly if you’re only exposed to it once without any self-testing or practice. Even if you test yourself just once, the amount of forgetting is cut in half compared to not testing at all.
- Whether it’s learning a musical scale, historical facts, or a mathematical concept, self-testing right after the initial exposure is key to minimizing forgetting.
The Reality of Forgetting:
- Here’s an important fact: Most of the information that enters our nervous system is forgotten.
- Even neuroscientists are taught that after being exposed to new material, we focus on it, and then during sleep, connections in the brain remodel. While that’s true, forgetting is a natural part of how the brain works.
- Some people have rare conditions where they remember everything, and it turns out to be more of a burden than a blessing. They struggle because recalling every detail disrupts their daily life. Having a good memory for the right things is key.
The Power of Self-Testing:
- When you self-test, you reduce the amount of forgetting that would normally occur. Reflecting on this made me realize how much time I could’ve saved if I had tested myself on material instead of rereading it over and over again.
- I used to have a complicated study process in college and grad school—reading, highlighting, and writing notes, which probably mimicked some aspects of self-testing. But if I had known that testing myself soon after being exposed to the material would improve my long-term retention, I would have approached studying very differently.
- If I had known that self-testing can reduce forgetting even a year later, I could’ve saved myself a lot of time and effort, while still maintaining mastery of the material.
Best Type of Self-Tests; Phone & Post-Learning Distractions
- Open-Ended Tests: The most effective self-testing involves open-ended, short-answer questions, requiring active recall.
- Multiple choice relies on familiarity (recognizing correct answers) rather than mastery. Open-ended questions demand deeper understanding and recall.
- Writing answers forces greater mastery than simply picking options. This kind of testing taps into deeper memory recall, which is crucial for long-term learning.
- Standardized tests like the GRE and LSAT include tricky questions that challenge deeper thinking, presenting seemingly correct answers that are actually wrong. These questions can enhance critical thinking skills.
- Some multiple-choice tests require deeper mastery beyond simple familiarity, particularly in subjects like music theory. However, this is rare in standard exams.
- Engaging in open-ended self-testing encourages deeper thinking and comprehension, enhancing learning rather than just evaluation.
- Students typically dislike pop quizzes, which can negatively impact teaching evaluations. They can be valuable, but informing students at the start of the course about scheduled quizzes enhances their effectiveness.
- Self-Testing After Learning: Testing oneself immediately after learning is crucial. Avoid distractions, like jumping onto your phone, as they can increase forgetting. Take a few moments after class to reflect on and test your understanding of the material.
- If you find confusion or difficulty, it signals a need to learn the material better, promoting neuroplasticity. By repeatedly testing yourself and addressing gaps, you minimize forgetting and reinforce your understanding.
Tool: Gap Effects; Testing as Studying vs. Evaluation
- Gap Effects: These are fascinating phenomena where taking brief pauses (5-30 seconds) during learning enhances memory retention. During these gaps, your hippocampus processes and repeats newly learned information at a much (20 to 30 times) faster rate, similar to what occurs during REM(rapid eye movement) sleep.
- Implementation for Teachers and Learners: Incorporate periodic pauses during lessons or practice sessions to allow the hippocampus to reinforce material, enhancing overall learning.
- Terms like “test” and “quiz” can trigger stress and uncomfortable memories related to evaluations. However, it’s important to view testing not just as a grading tool but as a valuable learning strategy, whether self-directed or instructor-led.
- Testing isn’t just about evaluation; it’s about revealing your knowledge and understanding what you don’t know. This process should ideally happen soon after exposure to the material.
Shift in Educational Approach:
- The perception of testing has changed, especially in the United States over the last 30 years. There’s been a move away from formal evaluation.
- Many believe that learning can occur in various contexts, whether through formal education, YouTube, podcasts, or life experiences.
- However, as a university professor, I emphasize that formal coursework remains one of the best ways to learn, especially in fields like science, medicine, and health.
- Regardless of the medium, testing is a crucial component of effective studying.
- There’s a wealth of research on the effectiveness of testing. I’ll link several studies, including a review titled “Testing Enhances Learning: A Review of the Literature,” and an engaging article called “Test-Enhanced Learning” both exploring this topic.
Tool: Emotion & Learning, PTSD, Deliberate Cold Exposure, Caffeine
- Before we wrap up, let’s discuss crucial elements of learning unrelated to testing: emotion, story, and interleaving.
The Role of Emotion:
- Emotionally charged experiences are remembered better; this is the foundation of conditions like PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
- One-trial learning occurs with experiences that have strong negative emotional significance. For instance, witnessing a traumatic event can create lasting memories due to how our nervous system processes stress.
- Stressful experiences, aided by adrenaline and other neuromodulators, rapidly strengthen neural connections, making certain memories unforgettable.
- While emotional memories can linger, therapies like systematic exposure therapy help detach the emotional weight from those memories. Techniques such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and various pharmacological approaches can also aid in this process, often combined with therapeutic support.
- I’ve covered stress and PTSD extensively in previous episodes; you can find them at HubermanLab.com by searching for “stress PTSD.”
- The same neuromodulators—primarily epinephrine and norepinephrine—are released during stressful moments. These substances help lock in the neural circuits associated with the stressful event and related visual or auditory stimuli.
Memory Formation:
- Negative experiences are typically remembered better and more durably than positive ones. While peak experiences (like the birth of a child or a wedding) can also create strong memories, most experiences are not as extreme.
- Any story or emotional emphasis in the delivery or perception of material enhances memory retention. Getting excited about something or perceiving it as negative significantly increases the likelihood of remembering it.
- Neuromodulators like epinephrine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, and dopamine can influence mood, focus, and attention. They can operate subtly or cause significant shifts, depending on their levels and timing.
- For both teachers and learners, being aware of your internal state while learning is crucial. If you encounter a dull lecture, you may need to consciously enhance your attention to add emotional salience to the material.
Historical Insight on Memory:
- In a fascinating review by James McGaugh, a leading figure in memory neuroscience, he discussed a medieval practice where learners were thrown into cold water after studying to trigger adrenaline release, thereby consolidating memory.
- While I’m not suggesting you take a cold plunge after studying, the historical practice reflects the relationship between emotional arousal and memory formation.
- If you want to take a cold shower or do mental testing while in cold water, feel free—but use best practices. For best practices on Deliberate Cold Exposure, check out the zero-cost newsletter at HubermanLab.com.
- Understanding neuroplasticity and neuromodulators is crucial. Drinking caffeine can mildly elevate epinephrine levels, potentially aiding learning.
- The key components for effective learning are being alert to pay attention to the material and testing yourself later. Additionally, getting sufficient quality sleep each night is vital, along with practices like Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR).
Tool: Interleaving Information; Unskilled, Mastery & Virtuosity
- A tool for studying that’s not discussed enough is interleaving information. It involves occasionally introducing unrelated anecdotes during learning, like mentioning the Olympics while studying neuroscience or piano. This might seem counterintuitive, but it enhances learning.
- Interleaving isn’t like Gap Effects, where pauses help your brain solidify what you just learned. Instead, these random bits of information seem to help your brain incorporate new knowledge with existing or distantly related knowledge.
How It Helps:
- Does this mean you should study math and history together? Probably not— that’s overwhelming. The idea is to mix challenging material with unrelated but less challenging anecdotes, which can boost retention.
- I often throw in anecdotes about my bulldog or neuroanatomy during lectures. These are not just breaks, but examples related to the material, making it easier to absorb the main concepts.
Mastering Information:
- We all have information we want to remember and master. Earlier, I promised to explain the difference between Unskilled, Skilled, Mastery, and Virtuosity:
- Unskilled: Limited understanding or ability to use information.
- Skilled: Basic or advanced recognition and use of information.
- Mastery: Deep knowledge that allows flexible use of information.
- Virtuosity: Mastery so complete that you can inject spontaneity and uncertainty into your use of information, sometimes surprising even yourself.
- Great musicians, athletes, and performers often exhibit virtuosity. They know all the moves or plays, but they actively invite the X factor of uncertainty, leading to performances that are surprising even to them.
- For most of us, skill and mastery in areas we care about are enough. If we reach virtuosity, that’s a bonus.
Neuroplasticity and Testing:
- A key takeaway today is that testing isn’t just for evaluating knowledge. It’s one of the best tools for building and reinforcing knowledge. Testing helps offset the forgetting process.
- Testing allows us to probe what we know and what we don’t. It aligns with our understanding of neuroplasticity and is a free tool anyone can use—whether you’re in the classroom or learning independently.
