Learning How To Learn

This is my learning note for a Coursera course Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects. I'm sorry that the note is not polished but you get the idea. I would suggest you try the course by yourself too, it's free, short, easy and basically give you some more tools in your learning toolkit.

If you're looking for exam tips, scroll to the end for the Testing Checklists.

First, some quick links:

• https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/ (opens in a new tab)
• https://www.brainfacts.org/ (opens in a new tab)

W1 - What is learning?

• 2 thinking modes:
  • Focused
  • Diffuse
  • ⇒ best to switch and use both 2 modes of thinking to learn sth
• Procrastination → Pomodoro technique
• Memory:
  • Long-term memory: like a storage warehouse
  • Working memory: at prefrontal cortex, in chunks of max 4
  • Need repetition to write memory from working → long-term ⇒ Spaced Repetition technique → time for synapse connections to form and strengthen
• Sleep:
  • While sleep: brain cells shrink → more space between → fluid can flow and wash away toxins
  • While sleep: also tidy up + erase less important memories + rehearse what’s learnt during awake
• Hippocampus → create new neurons → help by:
  • Enriched env, eg. surrounding creative people to stimulate the brain
  • Exercise
• Readings: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/supplement/uWQyM/reading-focused-versus-diffuse-thinking (opens in a new tab)

W2 - Chunking

• Chunking
  • What is a chunk?
    • Chunking is the mental leap that helps you unite bits of information together through meaning
    • Chunks are pieces of information, neuroscientifically speaking, through bound together through meaning or use
  • How to form a chunk?
    • Pattern
    • Steps:
      1. Focused attention: Use full focused thinking model & working memory
      2. Understand: like a glue to hold the underlying memory traces together → create a stronger chunk
         • Need to practice to gain expertise → also to get context
      3. Practice: Gaining context
         • Not just how, but also when to use a solution for certain problem
         • By getting the context → big picture (top-down learning)
         • Context is where top-down meets bottom-up learning (chunking)
  • Illusions of competence
    • Recall
      • Mental retrieval of the key ideas ⇒ help forming chunks
      • More effective than eg. reading the book multiple times or drawing concept maps etc
    • Illusions of competence
      • Understanding w/o recalling (practice), spending more times ≠ grasping the concepts fully
    • Mini-testing, eg. force yourself to recall → correct small mistakes
    • Value of making mistakes
  • Retrieval practice
    • Flashcard
• Bigger picture
  • Motivation → Neuromodulators (chemicals that influence how a neuron responds to other neurons)
    • Acetylcholine → affects focused learning and attention
    • Dopamine → signals in relation to unexpected rewards
    • Serotonin → affects social life and risk taking behavior
  • Library of chunks
    • Compaction:
    • Transfer: 1 chunk can help learning a new similar chunk in even different fields
    • 2 ways of solving problems:
      1. Sequential → focused mode
      2. Holistic intuition → diffused mode to link seemingly different focused mode thoughts
         • Usually for new hard stuffs but need verify → not always correct
    • Law of Serendipity
  • Overlearning, Choking, Einstellung, Chunking, and Interleaving
    • Overlearning:
      • Not effective
      • Can lead to illusion of competence or Einstellung
      • Deliberate practice → balance your studies by deliberately focusing on more difficult stuffs, instead of just practicing already-learnt stuffs (easy)
    • Einstellung → blocked thoughts due to preceding training → prevent a better idea or solution from being found
    • Interleaving: → flexibility & creativity
      • learning how to select & use different chunks by:
      • practicing jumping back and forth between problems or situations that require different techniques or strategies
• Readings: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/supplement/fWyi5/reading-chunking (opens in a new tab)

W3 - Procrastination & Memory

• Procrastination
  • Cognitive psychology:
    • task creates unhappy feeling → brain shift to more pleasant tasks (short-term) → feel more happy ⇒ “habitual avoidance”
    • similar to addiction
  • Habit → 4 parts:
    • the cue
    • the routine = habitual response to cue
    • the reward → why easy to procrastinate
    • the belief
  • To avoid: mental tools & tricks to inspire and motivate yourself
  • Focus on Process over Product
    • Process: eg. just coding for 25 mins
    • Product: finish the whole feature ⇒ causes friction on the brain (feel unhappy) → easy to procrastinate
  • How to juggle:
    • Weekly list of key tasks
    • Daily to-do list → write the night before, before going to sleep
      • Help let the subconscious part of the brain to wire it up
    • Plan the daily quitting time → as important as planning the working time
• Memory
  • Hand-writing and saying also helps memory
  • Outstanding visual and spatial memory system
    • Utilise this to help improve memory → by imagine
  • Long-term memory
    • hippocampus → help memory consolidation
    • Everytimes we recall a memory → it’s changed → reconsolidation
  • Astrocyte → help with learning/creativity
  • Working memory
  • Create meaningful groups: associate things to memorise with other events, visuals, senses etc
  • Memory Palace technique

W4 - Renaissance learning & unlocking potential

• Use analogies and metarphors
• Myelin sheath - the fatty insulation that helps signals move quickly along neurons
  • Built by using neural circuits
  • ⇒ Practice strengthens & reinforces connections between different brain regions → like creating highways between brain control center & knowledge store
  • Enhance development of neural circuits by practicing thoughts that use those neurons ⇒ changing how we think changes our brains ⇒ “change your thoughts. change your life”
• Value of teamwork
  • Broad-perspective perceptual disorder of the right hemisphere
  • Right-brain vs left-brain
    • Right hemisphere → devil’s advocate → help us step back and put our work into big picture perspective → *reality check → step out of status quo and find inconsistency
    • Left hemisphere → try to cling to the way things are
  • Need friends/team ~ large scale diffuse mode to help catch
• Testing checklists
  • Did you make a serious effort to understand the text?
  • Did you work with classmates on homework problems?
  • Did you attempt to outline each homework question before discussing it with classmates?
  • Did you participate actively in homework group discussions?
  • Did you consult with the instructor/teach assistants when you were having trouble?
  • Did you understand all of your homework problem solutions before the assignment was handed in?
  • Did you ask in class for explanations of homework problems that were unclear to you?
  • If you had a study guide, did you carefully go through it before the test and convince yourself you understood all of thematerial?
  • Did you attempt to outline lots of problem solutions quickly without spending time doing the algebra?
  • Did you go over the study guide and problems with classmates and quiz one another?
  • If there was a review session, did you attend and ask questions about any concepts or ideas that you were unsure of?
  • Did you get a reasonable night’s sleep before the test?
• Hard start - jump to easy techniques
  • Load hard problems first to the brain (focus mode) → switch to easy one → hard problem moved to diffused mode (when stuck for 1-2 mins)
  • To avoid einstellung → look at the problem from different perspective
• Other tips:
  • Shift your thinking: test made me afraid → test made me excited
  • Turn attention to breathing momentarily → calm you down
    • Sit or stand up straight, place your hand on your stomach and practice breathing into your stomach. Practice this breathing for at least 90 seconds. Do you find yourself becoming calmer?
  • Try relax
  • “Good worry” → help performance
• Readings: https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/supplement/bJW5V/reading-renaissance-learning-and-unlocking-your-potential (opens in a new tab)