Learning and memory: 5 things to keep in mind

February 04, 2023

Article last edited on July 22, 2019 by Admin

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How does memory work? How to improve it and learn without special efforts? Here are 5 simple things to keep in mind.

 4. Our brain loves to move or… think about moving

School learning requires a lot of explicit memory, which allows us to retain the meaning of words or the function of things. It is in explicit memory that we store our knowledge of the world, that which we can express verbally.

But there is another very important type of learning, that of new movements, which relies on a distinct memory system called procedural memory. When we learn to tie our shoes, to ride a bicycle or to play tennis, we call on our procedural memory.

This makes it possible to gradually automate complex movements, so that after a while, they become unconscious. It is this freedom of thought that allows us, for example, to drive our car downtown while explaining something complicated to someone.

As with explicit memory, it is repetition that will allow gestures to automate and pass into procedural memory. This is commonly referred to as training or practice.

But once the general gesture has been memorized, there seems to be another way to improve the execution of a movement and that is simply to think about the gesture in question! Indeed, the simple mental repetition of the movement, a process called “mental imagery”, is commonly used by top athletes to get the precious fractions of seconds at the finish line. Downhill skiers thus mentally rehearse the entire course of their race before beginning their descent. They imagine each turn, mentally make the appropriate weight transfers and try to feel the contact of their ski with the snow. In fact, for it to be effective, mental imagery must integrate the maximum number of sensory characteristics relevant to the action to be perfected.

Numerous studies have shown that when we imagine an action or when we actually perform the same action, the brain regions involved are very similar. Only the regions involved in the motor control of the action do not activate when we only imagine it.

Mentally visualizing a movement will therefore stimulate a majority of the brain regions required when actually performing the movement. This stimulation will make it possible, when we have to actually execute the movement, to solicit the corresponding assemblies of neurons more easily, and therefore to increase the efficiency of the movement.

But mental imagery is only one tool among others to improve motor performance and procedural memory. Good old-fashioned repetition in physical education classes and sports in general is important for another simple reason: exercise, because it increases brain oxygenation, also improves its operation. And this is confirmed not only by better reaction times and better scores in spatial or mathematical tasks, but also at the neural level, with an increase in the creation of new neurons, their survival and their resistance to damage and stress.

5. Sleep well to think well

We now know that sleep is more than just passive brain rest. Thus, during REM sleep, which occupies 20 to 25% of each of our nights, our brain is practically as active as when we are awake. That said, it is still very difficult to explain precisely why sleep is essential to our cognitive functions.

Looking at our many faculties affected by the lack of sleephowever, we immediately grasp its crucial importance: attention, concentration, logical reasoning, mathematical skills, working memory, mood and motor dexterity are all disrupted when we do not get enough sleep.Regarding the role of sleep in learning, we do not yet know very well which of our two main types of sleep, REM or slow (the other 75 to 80% of the night), which participates the most. . Some tasks like spatial orientation seem to be further consolidated by slow wave sleep.

Conversely, paradoxical sleep deprivation more particularly impairs the acquisition of new visual and motor skills. When an athlete learns a new sequence of movements, for example a serve in tennis, the duration of REM sleep increases significantly during the following night. If we systematically wake him during his REM sleep, we prevent the storage of new know-how much more effectively than when we only disturb the slow-wave sleep phases outside the REM sleep phases.Many think that the two types of sleep could contribute to memory in a complementary way and that it is their sequence during a night’s sleep that makes it possible to correctly sort the information accumulated during the day. But everything is not so simple since people who have taken drugs for years to suppress REM sleep have not seen their memory capacity disturbed.

If the specific role sleep in learning is far from being elucidated, its beneficial effects on health and even safety are confirmed day after day. For example, the curve of fatal accidents in Canada jumps by 7% the day after the transition to summer time (which shortens the night by 60 minutes of sleep), to return to normal the following days. And the phenomenon is reversed in the fall: the day after the return to normal time (which gives 60 additional minutes of sleep), the number of fatal accidents decreases by 7%, then slowly rises to its average level!

Not recommended for insomniacs since it can jeopardize their next night’s sleep, the nap remains the simplest and most recommended way for people who have a sleep debt. A 20-minute nap would even be beneficial for most people, as it would make them more alert and improve their ability to concentrate. But be careful: a nap that is too long, one hour for example, will be followed by a period of inertia, because you will have fallen into too deep a sleep.

Last tip: apart from the evening, it is in the middle of the afternoon that our natural circadian cycle makes us the most sleepy. So don’t schedule important appointments or intellectually challenging tasks at this time. Take a nap instead…

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File / Text: Bruno Dubuc The brain at all levels

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