Ulrich Boser: People underestimate how much they forget

Interview about effective memorization in adulthoodthe Person begins to forget the information still in the process of remembering: some parts immediately escape from us, while others gradually fade, until not evaporate.

Present an interview with education researcher Ulrich Bosera about the nature of memory: is it possible to remember something once and for all, how to prevent forgetting and what does "learn" something.





— What does it mean to learn something? Does it remember something? How to understand that something you learned?

In fact, we want to learn to think in a certain way to develop our ability of comprehension of anything. If we want to be mechanics, so we want to learn how to think like mechanics. My favorite example of what it means to be an expert — it's the guys from the radio program Car Talk. Because the strange thing: people who have problems with the machines, call them up, but hosts of the show don't see the car itself. Someone calls and says, "I Have this problem with my "Buick", it is making a funny noise," and they help to solve the issue.

They think about their own "Buick", about their own problems with cars to help you to solve your. You want to know about the systems or their counterparts, about the relationship between the elements in a certain area, their interaction. So in the end you get this knowledge to speed up your thought process and efficiently tackle new challenges.

— You mentioned technology, which does not give a result, e.g. a marker or reviewing the records before the meeting. What's wrong with them?

— Rereading or underlining — particularly inefficient ways of remembering. This is a passive action: you just flick through the material. You are targeting, but don't know it. To learn something better, to do something more complex, requiring the establishment of communication between you and the text. You can explain something to yourself or just to arrange a survey. If you are preparing for a meeting, it would be much better if you put the material and will ask questions of myself. A simple reading gives you a false sense of security.

— Why teaching others is an effective way to learn something yourself?

Is not so different from explaining himself. When you explain yourself, you cite a lot of evidence. You explain why these things are, why they are important, and indicate significant differences between them. What else is useful in the process of teaching others is the fact that you have to think about the most difficult aspects of the issue and how they can be easier to explain; because of this change your thoughts on this topic.

— In your opinion, it is necessary that the memorization process was really difficult. Why inconvenience plays such an important role?

Today we hear from everywhere: "Learning should be easy, learning should be fun!" What if I asked you to name the capital of Australia? Do you know her?

— Sydney? I'm not sure. Probably not.

— No, not Sydney. Try again?

— Melbourne?

—No. Can we try again?

— God, I can't believe I don't know. What else can be... Brisbane? I have no idea, sorry.

Is Canberra!

What?

— Yes!

Oh, my God.

— I went through a similar dialogue with the researcher. I was in your place, and I was like, "I'm so ashamed. I should know, it's a big country". The complexity will help you to remember Canberra. I can't promise that you will remember the name of the capital of Australia ten years after this conversation, but now it is much more remarkable information. It has to you a little more value.

We both, probably, once faced with this fact, but then it didn't matter for us, and it certainly was not humiliating situation. I was so: the person asked me: "do You know this?" and I think, "I went to a fancy school, I should know these things." And it's always stuck with me. Studies should be heavy or at least a little difficult, because the memory is running a bit more.

Another plus a serious study is that, when we are a little out of our comfort zone, we will have a small test, and it helps us to develop our skills. We often see that in games. Part of the appeal, even toys-shooters is that they gradually become more complex and we can pump some skill.





— What are your observations and comments help to learn better?

It is important that feedback is received almost simultaneously with the execution of the job and person required. You don't have to tell him the answer, because this information will not be important to him. First, you are forced to do all these incorrect assumptions [about Australia], so when you hear the right answer, he became more significant.

— Why is it useful to allocate study time?

— The point is that we forget, and forget constantly. People underestimate how much they forget and those who regularly refers to studies, in the end know a lot more.

There are good programs that can help. For example, the program Anki: the developers chose, I think, a very successful model in which the level of your study depends on your speed of forgetting. If we know that you will forget facts like the capital of France three months later, the repetition of this material will have precisely this period.

Surprisingly, this is not a new idea. Such practices were used in the nineteenth century, but we still don't use them in schools and colleges, although we know that many people forget, and forget regularly.

— I was interested in the "Week of reflection" bill gates, which he spends reading reports in a secluded cottage. What he is doing and what he can learn?

— He just cleans up and uses these quiet moments to work on new skills. I think we really underestimate the role that thinking and rethinking play in the learning process. As far as we know, that's why you often meditate in the shower or just before sleep.

Everyone there are moments when the brain carefully analyzes what happened during the day and builds the connection between the events; I think in order to learn more effectively, you need to allocate certain time. We know that in some schools students are more reflective on their learning. There are even a couple of studies indicating that meditation can be more important than practices.

— How to better remember people's names?

— To remember important emotions. You will never forget the name of the person you first kissed. Of course, I don't think this is a very practical solution to the problem.

Another way you can use it to tie the facts on any other. For example, you need to remember the names of the daughters of your boss. Need to see if we can wrap this information in the already known. For example, if you root for the Knicks, and his daughters, Kelly and Neely, you can think, "Oh, it's the first two letters of the Knicks". This is another way to make the information meaningful to you.published

 

P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! ©

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