
Interleaving and varying your study location are good learning strategies (2012) - Tomte
https://www.wired.com/2012/01/everything-about-learning/
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saosebastiao
I have a (relatively poorly developed) theory that learning and intelligence
has far more to do with what and how we _forget_ than the quantity of
information we consume. It seemingly explains why sleep matters so much for
learning, and also why deep neural nets have performed so well with dropout
strategies. I'd be willing to bet this falls in line with my theory...that
changing locations and contexts facilitates with forgetting noisy information,
letting the important things stand out more once they are retrained.

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Jach
Forgetting costs energy... Human memory seems association-based, and even uses
the creative part of the brain so it can also generate details (often false)
on the fly. So learning things via mnemonics is so successful even if
counterintuitive that you're learning two things instead of one, but
eventually the mnemonic seems to fade and you can deal with the thing you were
after. But the mnemonic often seems to still be there. How do you deal with
sudden recall of a memory or fact from 10+ years ago which you haven't thought
about at all since then and that for all intents and purposes is useless and
noise? There's a lot of stuff that is still 'there' in the brain, even if you
can't recall, but may be triggered by some association, so how do you
distinguish failure to recall with actual forgetting and the information not
being there at all? The article mentions childhood phone numbers. I can
remember at least one right now, it wouldn't surprise me if I could recall
others with more careful thinking or perhaps some nostalgic browsing of old
photos.

Changing locations is barely given a blurb in the article and I don't see how
it would help that much apart from maybe motivation-related reasons (similar
to having a separate room in your home for your home office). Is there a study
on location changing? I'd bet the location trick's effects are dominated by
the fact that spaced repetition is at play, which also gets mentioned in the
article. Is there a study that tries to detect a difference between spaced
repetition in the same location and spaced repetition in other locations? If
there were a difference, then maybe it could work on the idea that you're
creating a subconscious association with the place you're studying in and the
thing you're learning, and by recalling and learning it in another location
you're adding another association and strengthening the common paths. But I
have to wonder if explicitly constructing a memory palace to create such
associations between facts and things/places is a far superior strategy and
again would dominate any effect of different location.

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ahartman00
"Changing locations is barely given a blurb in the article and I don't see how
it would help that much" "that you're creating a subconscious association with
the place you're studying in and the thing you're learning"

I think so, see state dependent memory. Mood and intoxication can play a role
here as well. [1]

"recalling and learning it in another location you're adding another
association and strengthening the common paths"

I think so, see aaachilless's sibling comment [2] about the pattern becoming
generic.

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-
dependent_memory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-dependent_memory)

2\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14455056](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14455056)

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hoodwink
_Make It Stick_ is my all-time favorite book on effective learning strategies
covering these concepts and more in scientific detail.

~~~
dnissley
Love the material, but the book is sooo long and full of filler. I much prefer
the article version:

[http://tguilfoyle.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/file/view/What_work...](http://tguilfoyle.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/file/view/What_works,_What_doesn't.pdf)

~~~
nur0n
Thanks, I read the book some time ago. This is an excellent summary.

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the_greyd
These concepts are discussed in detail in the Coursera course "Learning How to
Learn" and the accompanying book "A Mind for Numbers" by Barbara Oakley.
Spaced Repetition, Pomodoro, Chunking, Interleaving are things I'm trying to
integrate in my learning routine.

~~~
taeric
I don't remember "varying your study location" in that book.

~~~
vslira
She does mention it, something like "if you usually study in your bedroom, try
recalling in the kitchen" or something like that

~~~
taeric
Ah, from this I was expecting it to be something with a little more expansion.
I think I remember this.

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agumonkey
Every time I travel, my imagination goes wild. In a similar manner, I talk
more when moving.

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El_Oso
As a layman, I find his claim that human brains having unlimited storage
capacity dubious.

Or does he mean effectively unlimited, like a brain having 1000 YB[0] of
storage and a human never coming close to experiencing that much information
input in their lifetime?

[0] This number is made up and for illustrative purposes.

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klodolph
I think the claim as written is dubious, but the point is that our capacity to
store information _far_ exceeds our ability to recall information, and we can
effectively recall things only because we forget so much.

There are a few people with a condition called hyperthymesia, like Jill Price,
and the condition generally has a profound negative impact on their lives.

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mentos
..and I wonder for people affected by hyperthymesia if they have memories of
remembering a memory

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redipyni
I've remembered remembering things before. It's often been useful, especially
when I forget the thing I remembered.

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skizm
It is also harder to fall asleep in unfamiliar locations. Your brain is
generally more _on_ the less familiar you are with a location.

~~~
collyw
I find the opposite. I regularly get similar thought patterns going around in
my head leading to insomnia. When I change location its far easier not to get
trapped in those thought loops.

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suneilp
I suspect listening to the right music (for you) and at the right volume might
achieve similar effects. It's wild theory, but given that sound affects the
brain in various positive ways I can't help but wonder.

