Maintaining proficiency is having the ability to keep practicing a task even if you already perfected it. Relatively, over learning is a term that refers to continuously drilling yourself on a skill past the point of improvement. The human brain is flexible and remarkable at learning new things.
Watanabe (2017) and his team of researchers observed the process of “over learning” and suggested that the process may enhance overall functioning by changing chemicals in the brain necessary to conceal newly obtained ideas (Pierre-Louis, K., 2017). A recent study analyzed how to activate a diverse learning response in your brain.
Watanabe (2017) began this experiment by splitting the participants into two groups – Group 1 will not over learn, whereas Group 2 will over learn a specific task. The two groups were given the identical visual learning exercises to do. The visual task is described as orienting lines on a screen, called Gabor Patches (Pierre-Louis, K., 2017). The first group did much better on a post-test for the second task (because it was the most recent information their brain was capable of recalling), and they did not prove to be successful on the first test. Additionally, their overall improvement between the two tasks was low compared to group two. Furthermore, group two completed eight additional blocks relevant to the first group (group 1 finished eight-blocks, while group 2 completed sixteen-blocks). During the post test, the second group performed much better on the first task compared to the first group who did not over learn.
Relatively, over learning has shown to improvise lasting improvements after learning new material. Brain activity proceeding the initial task did not result in any of their memory getting written over or deleted. Overall, group 2 learned the first task much more efficiently, but the participants learned the second task half as well as those who did not over learn the material. The first group failed to continue training while their brain was stuck in the plastic-stage, meaning that brain functioning wrote over the implied knowledge before their mind was capable of completely recalling and mastering learned concepts from the first exercise.
Part two of the experiment implemented the same study design with the exception of two alterations that were justified prior to beginning the study. First, the groups were trained on EITHER the normal 8-block standard (not over learning), or they over learned on the 16-block design and did not receive a second coaching class. The major change incorporated into part two was the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The device is capable of identifying which neurochemicals are currently in the brain by detecting carbon and nitrogen (because those two chemicals are present in the brain’s neurons). Both groups utilized the MRS to scan the brain prior to beginning the exercise, thirty minutes after the activity, and one last time occurring three-and-a-half hours after the study ended.
Over learning diminishes glutamate levels, and increases the amount of GABA (a chemical that stabilizes the brain). Watanabe and his colleagues proposed that when you do not over learn, the brain reveals heightened levels of “glutamate-dominate excitatory” which makes your brain exceptionally skilled at learning new concepts (Pierre-Louis, K., 2017). Contrarily, your brain fluctuates from being competent to secure when you do over learn a skill, meaning that your brain has more time to conceal newly acquired material and have a greater chance of preventing it from getting lost from our memory file. Watanabe (2017) claims that over learning is most likely useful, but it is the most beneficial if combined with other learning strategies. He also recommended allowing time between learning new information (study breaks), and scrambling study topics until they are mismatched in order to benefit learning processing. In addition, he explains that over learning implicates functions to process much smoother, as well as it may quicken your response times.
Conclusively, Watanabe’s Research (2017) indicates that if you stop investing in improving a skill right after you nailed it, then the brain may replace that knowledge with different obtained information. Additionally, Watanabe (2017) proposes the idea of “retrograde inference,” meaning if you move onto a second task while your brain is still trying to learn the first task, then it will forget any previous obtained information as if you never learned it. In conclusion, the process of over learning stabilizes the brain and implements smoother brain functioning. The brain always wants to learn new information, but be careful not to move on from topics too quickly because your mind may write over and forget any freshly obtained knowledge from a previous task.
Pierre-Louis, K., (2017, January 31). How to activate your brain’s ability to learn. Retrieved from
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