Hello from Bluefield, Virginia!
In the previous newsletter, I discussed the “Sensing and Focusing” part of the Model for Learning. Sensing and focusing brings information into your brain — then you use the information with previously-stored information. This mixing of old and new information is the focus of this newsletter!
Here is Belcher’s Model for Learning (yes, I’m continuing to send this image in every email — returning to the same image with more information is how we create strong memories!)
Ideas
Your brain has two memory systems:
- Working memory (used to be known as short-term memory)
- Long-term memory
Most people have roughly the same amount of physical ability for working memory and long-term memory. There are factors — food, water, and sleep, to name a few — that affect your working memory and long-term memory in the moment-to-moment level of using your brain; for now, I will say that people who are novices and experts have the same amount of physical ability.
Working memory is your brain’s mental scratchpad.
Working memory mixes information from two pathways — sometimes only one and sometimes both together:
- Externally, through the sensing-and-focusing process.
- Internally, from long-term memory.
Working memory holds a small amount of information for a short amount of time.
This statement leads to two questions.
Question 1: What is “a small amount of information?”
Answer 1: Between four and seven chunks.
Question 2: How long is “a short amount of time?”
Answer 2: Somewhere between 10 and 30 seconds, depending on a bunch of factors.
I’m guessing that the second question and answer make sense; we have all experienced repeating information to make sure we do not forget. However, the first question and answer probably needs more explanation — what is a “chunk”?
The proper name for a “chunk” is “schema,” which comes from the theoretical ideas of Jean Piaget (1920s) and Frederic Bartlett (1930s). A schema is defined by Piaget as the “basic unit of knowledge that relates to all aspects of the world.” Every type of knowledge and skills can be broken into small parts; these small parts are encoded in our brain as a schema.
When we first learn knowledge and skills for a topic, we hold each schema individually in our working memory. This means we cannot hold much about the topic — only four to seven schema — so we have a hard time putting ideas together. As we become more fluent with the knowledge and skills, we attach schema to each other.
Attaching schema to each other makes bigger schema, so we can hold more information for the knowledge and skills in our working memory.
Going back to the beginning of this section, people who are novices or experts typically have the same amount of physical ability for their working memory and long-term memory. However, one of the major differences between novices and experts is the size and connections for their schema:
- Novices have schema with little information and weak connections.
- Experts have schema with massive amounts of information and extremely strong connections.
The ideas in working memory, long-term memory, and schema lead to a definition for learning, which I will discuss next week!
Stories
We have all experienced times of being extremely overwhelmed, which I think about as flooding the working memory with too much information. Here are a couple of stories of when I have been overwhelmed.
Story 1: When I was age 15 I learned to drive, first getting my learner’s permit then my full driver’s license. My family had taken many long car road trips, so I was familiar with riding in a car on highways; however, I did not have much experience as the driver. During one trip to see my grandparents in Michigan, I took the wheel of our family sedan and drove on I-75 in central Michigan. I was driving faster than I had ever driven before — 75 to 80 mph — but still getting passed often! This became an extremely stressful situation for me, getting to the point where I became overwhelmed and had to stop driving. I could not even wait for an exit, instead pulling off the side of the road and parking in the grass. My father took over the driving so we could continue; I also remember shaking for a bit as my body processed the emotions. I believe the whole experience lasted about 15 minutes total — and made a lasting impression on my driving experience.
Story 2: Many people think they can “multitask,” but this is actually a myth. If you are an expert in one domain, you can do typical actions in that domain without really focusing. This allows you to do actions in other domains, giving you the impression that you are multitasking. Returning to driving, you can drive on a nice day with little traffic easily which gives you space to have a deep conversation. However, if the driving conditions are challenging — bad weather, a bunch of traffic, or other reasons — you will have to focus much more on the driving, reducing your ability to have a deep conversation. In challenging conditions your working memory is focusing on the driving instead of the conversation, causing you to forget parts of the conversation.
Story 3: Another one on multitasking — interruptions cause you to dump the contents of your working memory, which you then have to reset. The dumping of contents in your working memory is why many of the productivity recommendations include turning off your notifications; by reducing the number of interruptions, you will be able to sustain your thoughts and make real progress!
Questions
- What is a time in your life where your working memory has been overwhelmed?
- How do create time to think hard about a topic?
- One analogy for creating schema of knowledge and skills is building a structure. By adding knowledge and skills to schema and connecting schema, you are creating a beautiful, soaring cathedral. In what domains have you built soaring cathedrals of knowledge and skills?
Learning happens best when we share what we are thinking, so I would love to hear your answers! Also, you can use these questions as conversations starters with friends and family — hearing their answers would be great!
The plan for this newsletter is to continue discussing each part of the Model for Learning; I do not yet know how many emails that will be (haha). I’m also going to try different sections for the newsletter — the “Questions” section is new! — and formatting, so there will be some changes over time. I read a bunch of newsletters and have some ideas for how I want this newsletter to look and feel, though I am always open to suggestions.
If this newsletter resonated with you please share — I would greatly appreciate your help!
