All language subtitles for 0102 - Metacognition and Mindset - How Learning Works-en

- What happens in our brains when we learn something new?

How do we go from zero understanding

to being able to use a concept

or skill in our daily lives?

I'm gonna introduce you to a three-step process

through which learning happens.

This is not the whole exhaustive picture,

but it gives the big idea and it offers

a framework that we can use to build strategies

for how to make our brains work better

for us in the classroom.

When it comes to learning something new,

the process of what happens in our brains

is a lot like the process of building a library.

Say I'm building my own private library

and someone gives me a book about car repair.

The first step I'm gonna take is to figure out

what I'm holding, to look at the back cover,

to read the Table of Contents,

to skim the chapters to see what this book is about.

That step of reading the book for the first time

is what's called encoding.

Encoding means forming an impression of something.

Taking sensory input and forming

a representation, or what's called

a memory trace in the brain.

It happens in our short-term memory,

and it's happening all the time.

Every new experience we have,

every new impression that's made

on us builds a new memory trace.

And because we're forming memory

traces all the time, not every memory trace gets kept.

Not everything gets moved from short-term

to long-term memory.

Think of my library.

Anyone who's ever collected anything knows

that once people know you're collecting,

they start giving you things all the time.

And as a collector, it's your job

to decide what to keep and what to give away.

Once my friends and family know

that I'm building my library, they're gonna start

giving me books left right and center

and I'm gonna have to figure out what's useful

and what maybe I'm gonna give back.

The way I do that is by figuring out

how each new book or each new memory trace

helps me in my daily life and how

it fits with what's already in my library.

As someone who drives cars, knowing how

to do things like check tire pressure

or change the oil would be helpful,

so having a book about how to do those things

in my library is going to be useful to me.

And to make it as useful as possible,

I am gonna want to put it somewhere

that makes sense where I can find

it easily in the future, if and when I need it.

That step of figuring out where

in my library this book belongs

is what's called consolidation.

Consolidation reorganizes and stabilizes memory traces,

gives them meaning, and makes connections

to past experiences and to other knowledge already stored

in long-term memory.

To put that another way, consolidation takes

the new information we've taken in

and connects it with other ideas

that we already have to what we already know

drawing on our prior knowledge.

For my library, it means taking

the book that I've just decided to keep

on car repair and recognizing that it probably belongs

over there with my old driver's ed manual

that I have from high school.

And maybe next to the book of maps

that I've got ready for my next car trip.

It also means separating the book

from what it isn't, say from my collection

of cookbooks or my books on art and photography.

If step one was reading the book,

step two is taking the book and finding a good home.

Step three then is finding the book

later on, using my library.

Say I wake up one morning and the car won't start.

If all I had is a huge building full

of books piled at random, it would

be impossible to find that car repair

manual when I needed it.

Even if I had taken the time

to organize my library, if that book

is in a dark, dusty corner that I haven't

visited in years, I'm not necessarily

gonna know that I have it, let alone where it is

the morning that my car won't turn on.

That last step in the learning process

is what's called retrieval, finding and using memories.

It turns out that the more regularly

we retrieve information, the more regularly

we circulate the books in our libraries,

the faster we'll be able to find

the information in the future,

and the more deeply we'll understand it.

When you think about it, that makes sense.

The more frequently I visit each section

in my library, the better I'm gonna

be able to know what books are on the shelf.

Likewise, the more regularly we recall

and use information we've learned,

the better we'll be able to find

it and apply it in the future.

So, the basic learning process:

encoding, or taking in new information,

consolidating or organizing it and making connections

with what we already know, and retrieving,

or using information in practice.

Understanding how this process works

can give us some practical steps

to take in learning and more deeply

by letting us choose strategies that work

with our brains and what our brains

are already wired to be doing.