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How Do We Learn?

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Re: How Do We Learn?

#21

Post by sodafountan »

atticusberg wrote: post #2

Any suggestions for further reading? In particular a book geared towards people who aren’t domain experts would be great

Might not be exactly what you're looking for but I recommend two books: "Peak" by Eric Anderson and "Mastery" by Robert Greene. Both of these books are really about getting to the top of your field but are both directly centered around how we learn. Mastery takes more of a macro approach to becoming the best by providing lots of real world anecdotal stories (like that of Leonardo Divinci, and Paul Graham) Peak goes a little bit deeper on the science of how we learn if I remember correctly, but both are definitely worth a read.

Re: How Do We Learn?

#22

Post by modernerd »

et15 wrote: post #8

I took a Coursera course titled Learning How to Learn[0] and found it really helpful as an intro class to this "field". It was also very practical. [0] https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

I've also taken this course, but would recommend those new to it just read the post here, which is a good summary: https://www.reddit.com/r/GetMotivated/comments/5950tm/text_i....

Re: How Do We Learn?

#24

Post by modernerd »

ausjke wrote: post #23

how did they do the artistic fonts etc? Do they hand-write first, or is there some special fonts available?

It's handwritten. Sketchnotes is a good resource for trying this and developing your own style:

http://rohdesign.com/sketchnotes/

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/sketchnotes-a-guide-to-visual-n...

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/11/how-to-get-started-...

Re: How Do We Learn?

#25

Post by closed »

GolDDranks wrote: post #19
closed wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been reading the book Becoming Fluent, and it seems like a great introduction to the field. It's about how cognitive psychology can help adults learn a new language. However, from another angle, it's basically about using the idea of language learning to teach basic cognitive psychology. (My phd was in human memory, and I can't stop thinking about ways this book could be used as part of a cool learning course).

It should be noted, however, that learning a language is very different from many other kinds of learning (understanding complex systems, learning history, etc.) in that it engages very different patterns in declarative and procedural memory and possibly involves some specialised networks. I know some very frustrated scholars of second language acquisition that lament the over-applying of the general science of human…

I am probably in what they would consider the over-applying camp ;). When it comes down to it, I think there's a tendency in many different fields to cast within-field learning problems as distinct from others, but in general, researchers in those fields often don't have a ton of experience on learning in other domains.

RE networks, I agree that there is likely evidence for distinct patterns of activation in various neuroimaging studies, but having worked in memory + neuroimaging, I think there's a serious risk that people will take something like "statistically significant difference in brain activity" and use it as a substitute for "substantial differences in learning behavior / retention". (this is a well known problem in imaging).

I'm not too familiar to L2 acquisition research, though, but those are my impressions from thumbing through some of the field. Would def love to hear some study recommendations :).

Re: How Do We Learn?

#26

Post by ausjke »

modernerd wrote: post #24
ausjke wrote: post #23

how did they do the artistic fonts etc? Do they hand-write first, or is there some special fonts available?

It's handwritten. Sketchnotes is a good resource for trying this and developing your own style: http://rohdesign.com/sketchnotes/ https://www.jetpens.com/blog/sketchnotes-a-guide-to-visual-n... https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/11/how-to-get-started-...

very helpful links, will practice with it, thanks!

Re: How Do We Learn?

#27

Post by calebm »

Asdfbla wrote: post #12

I never got Zines. Beyond their cutesy art style, they generally don't seem particularly effective at conveying information in a somewhat concise manner. And if you don't want to be concise, why use such a very visual medium then and not just write an article?

Since we're on the topic of learning... https://hbr.org/2012/03/hard-to-read-fonts-promote-better-re...

Re: How Do We Learn?

#28

Post by calebm »

This mirrors my own experiences very well. I always look for analogies to understand new ideas (or to explain them).

Also, if I'm driving to a relatively new destination that I've been to before and think I'll go to more times, I try to remember the way without looking at the GPS, because I've found that if I look at the GPS every time, I don't end up remembering the route as well.

Re: How Do We Learn?

#29

Post by giardini »

This seems more like "How Do We Memorize?", as is taught and performed (poorly) in American schools.

In contrast we learn by doing, by manipulating things or concepts.

Re: How Do We Learn?

#30

Post by mmjaa »

Asdfbla wrote: post #12

I never got Zines. Beyond their cutesy art style, they generally don't seem particularly effective at conveying information in a somewhat concise manner. And if you don't want to be concise, why use such a very visual medium then and not just write an article?

Sir and/or Madam,

I feel the need to inform you that you are, more than likely, quite ill-informed. Zines are a spectacular human achievement, worthy of your attention and respect. Or, were it otherwise, how do you explain this godamn amazing piece of work:

https://www.alchemistowl.org/pocorgtfo/

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