Thinking books · Learning how to learn · Benedict Carey, 2014

How We Learn — the big ideas

A survey of learning and memory research, much of which contradicts standard study advice.

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The big ideas

Context varies what you recall — changing where and how you study gives memory more routes back to the same material, which is the opposite of the usual advice about a fixed study spot.

Forgetting is not purely loss; some forgetting is what makes the next retrieval strengthen the memory. A little decay before review is useful.

Interrupting work before it is finished keeps it active in the mind, which is why stopping mid-problem sometimes produces the solution later.

Practise it — no need to have read it

Take something you are learning. Deliberately study it somewhere new, and mix it with a different topic in the same session. Note how much worse it feels.

A hint: Then test yourself a week later and compare with material you studied the usual way.

Where it shows up in real life

• Study habits
• Training design
• Anything you need to recall outside the room you learned it in

Described in our own words with the source named — never quoted, and not a substitute for reading the book.