RE: The Best Way to Learn Anything
Great Post.
Years later, I wonder why I spent so much of my childhood memorizing things that now I have no idea about. That’s the problem with short term memory – here today, gone tomorrow.
I used to have a photographic memory too but it disappeared after puberty. I wonder if it has something to do with frontal lobe changes.
I also suppose that as your brain fills up with information there is less room for new information and you do flood your brain with huge amounts of new information in early adulthood.
If you haven’t heard of this framework, I would recommend checking out a book on the subject, such as “the Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High Quality Units” by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.
This coat hanger method is interesting. I will see if I can get this book and will give it a read.
That's interesting - it is so strange how the ability to memorize can change from your early adulthood. I think we need a psychologist on the scene here to comment. That coat hanger effect was something the amazing presenters at the conference used to explain the overarching basis of the book. There is a lot of free info online about the Understanding by Design framework too, so you may want to start there.
Thanks I will take a look. I think in psychology there are a number of theories to account of it. On the one hand there is the idea that as you have more experiences you develop the ability to be more selective about what information you store. This would be enhanced executive function as a result of increased frontal lobe activity which is one of the major changes that occurs in adolescence and throughout early adulthood.
There is also the issue of memories being formed and consolidated more often and more strongly for novel experiences. The older you get the fewer truly novel experiences you have and the more similarities there are in your day to day experiences.
Thanks for explaining that - and I guess this selective process of what to store is something we don't have control over - I wish we did! I would have told mine to keep selecting a variety of things. Although memorizing things still comes fairly quickly, I would love to be able to do it the way I used to.
Me too. I think it is a natural adaptation to the limits of storage. The brain must prioritise what to store and things that are novel probably have a survival benefit.
Survival benefit makes sense - that is actually stuff that still comes easiest for me, like learning new skills for work and such.