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How to Retain Knowledge Effectively

Learning requires significant amounts of time invested and even then, what was learnt may not stick.

This necessitates more time invested to review and sometimes completely relearn what was learnt previously.

For those with a hectic schedule, this is not possible, not to mention ineffective.

In this article, we will investigate how to effectively retain knowledge. We will briefly explore how does the brain respond to learning. Then, we will consider how that understanding can is flawed and thus, create better strategies to overcome them. By understanding what approach results in better retainment and understanding the limitation of that approach, we can build a foundation for new strategies. Finally, we will discuss some strategies that apply what was discovered to better keep what we learn in our heads.

Neuroplasticity is a trait of our brain that responds to learning.

It does so by inducing changes in the neural network of our brain.

Based on research, these neural changes may happen in four ways, namely, synaptic plasticity, synaptogenesis, axonal remapping and neurogenesis.

Before explaining how each of these changes occur, the following is a brief primer of what a neuron is and what components it has. For those familiar with the concept, you may skip this section entirely.

A neuron is a cell responsible for communications within our body (Crash Course, 2015; Sapolsky, 2017). This is achieved either through electrical signal transmission or by neurotransmitters.

A neuron contains a soma (also known as cell body) which holds all the life functions of the cell, dendrites which acts as the ears of the cell and axons which acts as the mouth of the cell.

The neurons in our brain which communicates with each other using neurotransmitter across a synapse, a microscopic gap between a transmitting neuron’s axon (also known as pre-synaptic neuron) and a receiving neuron’s dendrite (also known as post-synaptic neuron).

With that the neuron primer ends here. Moving onto explaining how our brain changes its neural network.

Synaptic plasticity is the change in connection strength connection at the synapse between two neuron cells (Brains Explained, 2014; Sapolsky, 2017). In the hippocampus, the memory center of our brain, this happens when the post-synaptic neuron is repetitively stimulated, and the NMDA receptor of the neuron is activated when said stimulation reaches a threshold. This is followed by either long-term potentiation (LTP) or long-term depression (LTD) depending on when the pre-synaptic neuron fires, known as Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (STPD).

Synaptogenesis is the creation of new synapses (Sapolsky, 2017; Wong RO and Ghosh A, 2002). This is achieved by increasing the number of dendrite branches of a neuron. This allows the new dendrites to form new synapses with other pre-synaptic neurons. Synaptogenesis usually occurs during LTP.

Axon plasticity is the extension of axon to project its signal to a different dendrite (Ferreira et al., 2017; Wan and Schlaug, 2010). This usually occurs in response to either neural damage such as loss of sight or repetitive practice. For our case, repetitive practice is more important. This involves an experiment by Alvaro Pascual-Leone’s five finger piano practice (Sapolsky, 2017). This practice involves non-musicians doing daily exercises of the five-finger piano. When this exercise is done repetitively for four weeks, more axons sprouted. The same result occurs even when the exercise was imagined, or in other words, not done physically.

Neurogenesis is the growth of new neuron cells from precursor stem cells (Richards et al., 1992; Spalding et al., 2013). This happens most during the infant stages and declines gradually as a person age. It is promoted by learning (Blackmore et al., 2012).

Do you see a pattern?

From synaptic plasticity, synaptogenesis and axon remapping, a consistent theme of continuous stimulation of neurons and repetitive exercise keeps showing up.

However, there are some contradictions to consider.

Repetition may be the key to learning, however not all repetitions are equal.

One such technique is rote memorization.

I found that rote memorization takes too much effort and lasts for a short period of time. Not to mention, a very boring way of learning.

Why was this the case?

Rote memorizing uses working or short-term memory to hold information temporarily (Betterhelp, 2018). It is useful for getting quick answers but not effective at retaining knowledge (Holmes and McGregor, 2007).

To retain knowledge effectively, long-term memory is needed.

This type of memory is created when the hippocampus processes short-term memory and transfers it into the brain’s vast neural networks.

Besides that, if learning from repetition works, any mistakes learnt would stick.

This leads to mistakes being repeated in the future, which completely negates all the effort we put into learning in the first place.

Knowing how our brain responds to learning and understanding how to best use that response, we can develop better strategies that we can use to best retain what we learnt.

The following are three examples of strategies I personally used in one way or another.

I found that ‘playing’ with what I learnt resulted in being able to remember it much longer.

This ‘playing’ comes in the form of either mental exercises or actively using what was learnt.

An example of mental exercise I did was when I was learning about aerodynamics of flight, I considered what would happen if I sent one of our airplanes to space. Would it work? If not, why? Hint: It would not.

In doing so, I indirectly repeated what was learnt by applying it in different scenarios and while doing so, having fun.

An example of active usage of knowledge is this essay. This is, after all, my first public essay. There were multiple editions that came before this one and from every edition I was setting into stone what I learnt or correcting mistakes.

‘Playing’ with what I know can be extended into other fields, albeit with a bit of adaptation.

This strategy requires the understanding of fundamental concepts and noticing how these concepts can be applied in other fields.

In doing so, I gain a head-start in learning when I go from one field to another.

For example, by learning about human cognition, I learnt about humans limited attention span and what designs best attract our eye.

These concepts can be applied into improving the user experience of an app by designing more attractive fonts and images.

Or I could apply this concept into writing by changing the length of sentences.

Like I had done just now.

Cool isn’t it?

I found this strategy very effective when dealing with subjects that require memorizing lots of facts such as History.

While learning, I would ask, ‘Why does this happen?’ or ‘What led to it?’.

These questions would then guide me through the topic, creating a story as I go. This way I could look for missing pieces of information that I need to build a better picture of the story.

By doing this, I made my studies much easier as I can reason my way up or down the story which was more effective than memorizing each point individually.

In this article, we explored how does the brain respond to learning, discovering a pattern of repetition being essential to ensure proper retainment of knowledge. Also, we explored how this pattern can be made more effective by discovering how repetition fails. Finally, I explained three examples of strategies I used as references for more strategies to be developed.

With this information, I hope you can build new strategies or use the examples to better retain knowledge and thus achieve more in life.

Sapolsky, R.M., 2017. Behave : the biology of humans at our best and worst, Paperback. ed. Penguin Books, New York.

Wong RO, Ghosh A, 2002. Activity-dependent regulation of dendritic growth and patterning. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 3, 803–812.

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