You Can Learn A New Language While You Sleep, Study Finds (M)

Swiss study finds memory for new words reinforced by listening again during sleep.

Swiss study finds memory for new words reinforced by listening again during sleep.


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This Way Of Reading Leads To 8 Times Better Understanding (M)

The study’s results are particularly important for children, but probably hold for those of us now past the first flush of youth.

The study's results are particularly important for children, but probably hold for those of us now past the first flush of youth.


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Resting And Reflecting Improves Memory For New Learning (M)

“When you are learning something new, you bring to mind all of the things you know that are related to that new information.” — Dr Alison Preston

"When you are learning something new, you bring to mind all of the things you know that are related to that new information." -- Dr Alison Preston


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The Psychology Of Learning: 8 Curious And Surprising Findings

Do people learn from their mistakes? Do ‘smart’ drugs really work? How can learning speed be doubled? Is a little knowledge a dangerous thing — or just the reverse?

Do people learn from their mistakes? Do ‘smart’ drugs really work? How can learning speed be doubled? Is a little knowledge a dangerous thing — or just the reverse?

Learning something new and intriguing is one of the finest intellectual experiences in life.

Psychology, of course, provides us with endless jolts of this type of pleasure as we try to satisfy our intense curiosity about ourselves and each other.

The psychology of learning is no less of a mystery, making us wonder things like:

  • Do people really learn more from their mistakes? (the answer is people do NOT learn from their mistakes, but the interesting bit is why.)
  • Can smart drugs really help people learn?
  • Are some people too old to learn like teenagers again?

Find out the answers to these question and more in these 8 psychology studies from the members-only section of PsyBlog.

(If you are not already, find out how to become a PsyBlog member here.)

  1. The Most Effective Learning Technique Is The Oldest
  2. Surprises Are Key To Enhanced Learning
  3. The Ironic Effect Of ‘Smart Drugs’ On Productivity
  4. Brainwaves Reveal When Students Are Learning From Their Teacher
  5. This Type Of Learning Makes Old Brains Young Again
  6. How To Learn Information At Double Speed
  7. The Type Of Breaks That Boost Skill Learning
  8. One Simple Tip To Enhance Learning Motivation

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The Type Of Films And Stories That Make You Smarter

An unsettling feeling, like the absurdity of life, can engender the desired state.

An unsettling feeling, like the absurdity of life, can engender the desired state.

Surreal books and films could make you smarter, research finds.

Stories by Franz Kafka or films by master of the absurd David Lynch could boost learning.

Even an unsettling feeling, like the absurdity of life, can engender the desired state.

The reason is that surreal or nonsensical things put our mind into overdrive looking for meaning.

When people are more motivated to search for meaning, they learn better, the psychologists found.

Dr Travis Proulx, the study’s first author, explained:

“The idea is that when you’re exposed to a meaning threat –– something that fundamentally does not make sense –– your brain is going to respond by looking for some other kind of structure within your environment.

And, it turns out, that structure can be completely unrelated to the meaning threat.”

For the study, people read a Franz Kafka’s short story called ‘The Country Doctor’ — which involves a nonsensical series of events.

A version of the story was rewritten to make more sense and read by a control group.

Afterwards, both groups were given an unconscious learning task that involved spotting strings of letters.

Dr Proulx said:

“People who read the nonsensical story checked off more letter strings –– clearly they were motivated to find structure.

But what’s more important is that they were actually more accurate than those who read the more normal version of the story.

They really did learn the pattern better than the other participants did.”

In a second study, people were made to feel their own lives didn’t make sense.

This was done by pointing out the contradictory decisions they had made.

Dr Proulx said:

“You get the same pattern of effects whether you’re reading Kafka or experiencing a breakdown in your sense of identity.

People feel uncomfortable when their expected associations are violated, and that creates an unconscious desire to make sense of their surroundings.

That feeling of discomfort may come from a surreal story, or from contemplating their own contradictory behaviors, but either way, people want to get rid of it.

So they’re motivated to learn new patterns.”

The study only tested unconscious learning, it doesn’t tell us whether you would be able to use this trick intentionally.

Dr Proulx said:

“It’s important to note that sitting down with a Kafka story before exam time probably wouldn’t boost your performance on a test.

What is critical here is that our participants were not expecting to encounter this bizarre story.

If you expect that you’ll encounter something strange or out of the ordinary, you won’t experience the same sense of alienation.

You may be disturbed by it, but you won’t show the same learning ability.

The key to our study is that our participants were surprised by the series of unexpected events, and they had no way to make sense of them.

Hence, they strived to make sense of something else.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Proulx & Heine, 2009).

The Ironic Effect Of ‘Smart Drugs’ On Productivity (M)

The evidence that neurotypicals might benefit from smart drugs has come from studies testing relatively simple tasks.

The evidence that neurotypicals might benefit from smart drugs has come from studies testing relatively simple tasks.


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