Ethan's Notes

    Learning

    #Psychology

    Topics

    How to Learn

    1. Health
      1. Sleep
        1. 8+ hours a day
        2. Expose yourself to sunlight outside as soon as possible for at least 10 minutes
      2. Exercise
        1. 3+ times per week
      3. Diet
        1. Eat plenty of greens
    2. Environment
      1. Time
        1. Set out chunk of time to study
      2. Space
        1. Designate one place for studying, one for eating, one for sleeping, and one for relaxing
    3. Focus/Attention
      1. Breaks every 25 minutes for 5 minutes
        1. If you find yourself dropping off in focus, take breaks every so often (average is every 25 minutes for 5 minutes)
      2. Flow can often bypass the need for breaks
    4. Cognitive Load
      1. Priming
        1. Read lecture for about 15 minutes to build a map of information that'll allow you to connect with previous lectures
      2. Post review
        1. Spend 10 minutes consolidating notes in Obsidian by connecting to more concepts
      3. Jigsaw
        1. Learning is like solving a jigsaw: facts/concepts fit into what you already know (this is like elaborative recall). This idea is sort of filled by Obsidian
    5. Learning Debt
      1. Value Judgement
        1. Determine how useful this piece of information is to you and your use case for the future (I intend to be able to be able to answer any question that has ever been thrown at me if I had access to the internet/this wiki)
    6. Techniques
      1. Reading
        1. SQ3R
        2. Scan (400+ wpm)
        3. Query (ask Q's about each section)
        4. Read (200+ wpm)
        5. Recall (answer questions)
        6. Review (connect to other concepts/write summary in Obsidian)
      2. Mnemonics
        1. Method of Loci
          1. Rote memorization technique
        2. Acronyms/phrases
          1. Useful for memorizing things that require $\displaystyle O(1)$ retrieval time
      3. Spaced Repetition
        1. Useful for rote memorization
          1. Can help with improving retrieval time to $\displaystyle O(1)$ time for instance
        2. A good app is Anki, although it shouldn't be abused (don't go through 1000 card decks daily)
      4. Teaching
        1. Teach to people who don't know your subject

    Cognitive Load

    Types of Cognitive Load

    • Intrinsic
      • Dependent on the material (e.g. Calculus has a higher intrinsic cognitive load than biology)
    • Germane
      • Dependent on integrating content into existing knowledge schema (e.g. asking how the content relates to other fields, utilizing creativity, building as many associations between the new content and past learned content such as by linking it into a Second Brain with Obsidian)
    • Extrinsic
      • Dependent on factors unrelated to the content (e.g. lecturer's hard-to-understand accent)

    Techniques

    Priming
    • Review lecture slides for at least 10 minutes before class
    What to Think During Lecture
    • How is this content relevant to me/what I already know?
    • How will this content be tested/used?
    • How will the lecture end/what is the overall message?
    Active Recall
    • Review the lecture content afterward (~ an hour after), doing problems or reviewing notes

    Types of Learning

    Associative Learning

    Observational Learning