The authors start the chapter talking about the famous marshmellow test that’s done to children. Here are some YouTube videos where you can watch this happen. WARNING: It’s extremely cute, funny and entertaining. Here is video of the psychologist, Walter Mischel, who began the experiments talking about correlations between the behaviour, social and cognitive abilities of the children who could delay gratification later in life.
Then the authors told a story of James Paterson, who is very much interested in mnemonics and how powerful a memory tool it is. Reading his story made me very interested to learn mnemonics and memory palaces and I had bought an audio book series on Udemy that had many reviews and had worked for many people.
The authors then talk about a section of Neuroplasticity of the brain, which basically explains how the brain is able to heal itself and develop itself when humans are from the infancy to child stages as well as when people get brain damage and yet their brains accommodates itself and, in a way, ‘rewires’ itself to ensure the working of the senses. Additionally, there is a study of habit formation that provides interesting light on neuroplasticity and this is one of the subjects that very much interests me. Interestingly enough, when we do something frequently enough, our brain actually creates certain pathways so that it does not require much energy for the action or habit to take place. This means that the opposite is also true: breaking a habit is very possible thing. (6 years since I’ve stopped smoking is evidence of this.)
The next minor section of neuroplasticity, called neurogenesis, which to me is so extremely fascinating, is about how the brain generates new neurons when it consolidates learning and memory. Relatively a new field of inquiry, findings tell us that this creation of new neurons actually happen before learning takes place and continues to generate new neurons after learning has taken place. This finding actually supports the idea of the beneficial effects of interleaving, spacing out learning and effortful retrieval practices on long term knowledge and memory retention.
The next section talks about IQ and how several factors actually influence IQ. When pregnant women were given dietary supplements of fatty acids, it has actually increased IQ by anywhere from 3.5 to 6.4 points. Additionally, when mothers from low-income homes were given means to provide their children with resources and training to teach their children, children showed IQ gains. Reading to a child at the age of four raises his or her IQ, especially if the child is an active participant in the reading, encouraged by the parent to elaborate. Preschool boosts a child’s IQ by more than four points, and if the school provides language support learning, it increases by more than seven points. However, there have been no evidence to support the claim that early education boosted IQ gain when they are already in education rich environment, which goes on to show the importance of training and appropriate resources for the mothers who are taking care of their children at home.
In the next section, the authors discussed brain games and whether there is sufficient evidence to support their claim that brain games actually increase cognitive abilities. However, studies went on to show that participants only improved in learning how to focus and persist at practice, encouraged by a belief that the brain or mental training has helped his or her mental abilities.
The next section talks about Growth Mindset and the work of Carol Dweck, with regards to how people become helpless when they encounter challenges and fail, while other people respond to challenges by trying out new solutions and increasing their effort by two-fold. (If you are interested in this, you can also read Dr. Martin E. Seligman’s book Learned Optimism which shows how one can increase one’s own optimism towards challenges and difficulty). The section goes on to talk about how learning objectives should point towards learning goals rather than performance goals; in other words, it should highlight how much and hard a person has committed effort to learning rather than highlighting the end product or the performance.
It goes on to talk about how Dweck’s work has gone into the realm of praise and the amazing effect it has on shaping the way people respond to challenges and adversities. Paul Tough, who had written a book called How Children Succeed, focused on Dweck’s work to show that it is not IQ that makes one successful but more about persistence and perseverance. Discipline, grit and a growth mindset provides a person with the sense of possibility, creativity and persistence required for higher learning and success, and in many of life’s challenges ahead. I also love this sentence: “The active ingredient is the simple but nonetheless profound realization that the power to increase your abilities lies largely within your control”.
Next, the authors discuss deliberate practice and how those who succeed usually drown themselves in deliberate practice. However, most people would require a coach or trainer to provide them with corrective feedback (dynamic testing) despite the fact that many experts have deliberately practiced so many times in order to master their craftsmanship and skill. And this can only come about with discipline and persistence.
The next section discusses memory cues, mnemonics and memory palaces. The authors gave several interesting stories about Mark Twain and other people who have succeeded at creating these mental models and imagery of these memory palaces. However, there was a very importance prerequisite before starting on these memory cues: “The value of mnemonics to raise intellectual abilities comes after mastery of new material”. It’s main task is to link main ideas in pockets to vivid memory cues so that one can readily and immediately bring them to mind and retrieve the associated information.
What I have understood from this chapter is that continued retrieval through interleaving and retrieval practices actually trumps over using memory cues. One of the people the authors mentioned at the beginning, James Patterson, who took up mnemonics as a means of studying, who also happens to be a rising figure in world memory championships, had discovered that despite being able to recall complex number and combinations so quickly is that he didn’t have mastery of concepts and ideas, relationships and rules or principles of what he had memorized. To quote the authors, “He had the mountaintops but not the mountain range, valleys, rivers, or the flora and fauna that compose the filled-in picture that constitutes knowledge.”
In the takeaway section of the chapter, the authors summarized it in a sentence: “It comes down to the simple but no less profound truth that effortful learning changes the brain“, as shown in what I felt was a plethora of examples in this chapter, as well as its ability to “build new connections and capability”. The authors posit that some people make the attempt and put in the effort simply because “the effort itself extends the boundaries of our abilities“.
- The more we do, the more it shapes who we become and what we are competent at
- By cultivating and achieving a growth mindset, we can sustainably reap its advantages and benefits
- Complex mastery and expert performances do not come from here genes but it carries with it attributes: self-discipline, grit, persistence, curiosity
- Conscious mnemonic devices can help organize and cue the learning for ready retrieval
- Sustained, deliberate, purposeful practice and repeated use of the mnemonic devices (along with persistence and self-discipline) will eventually form deeper encoding and subconscious mastery that is essential for expert performance
If it means anything, I took two IQ tests (free online). One I scored 130 and the other 147. Average is would be about 138. Interesting. Although I wouldn’t dare say it’s carved in stone since it’s a test online. Do you know a reliable IQ test? Preferably free. 🙂
The Million In My Head 