Phrases like, “Third times the charm!” or, “If at first you don’t succeed, try again” imply that no matter how many times you fail, you will succeed if you keep on trying. I can think of many instances where I was new at something, and I would continue to make mistakes until I improved. Or maybe, I would find myself making the same silly mistakes over and over again.
Throughout my life, I’ve been told to learn from my mistakes. But like me, many of you may have found that this can sometimes be easier said than done. Science suggests there may be a reason for that.
Through a series of studies conducted by researchers at MIT, the results showed that our brains learn more readily from successful experiences than from failures. A study done in monkeys shows that brain neurons were able to remember current successes and failures during a learning exercise. After the monkeys made a correct effort, neural signals were sustained and continued to be stimulated until the next action. This leads to a better chance of success in subsequent learning trials. If the monkeys were to make an incorrect action, there was little neural activity.
Professor Howard Eichenbaum from the Centre for Memory and Brain at Boston University makes this statement about the result of the research: “The findings suggest that learning may not require the changing of connections of neurons on each trial, as several other studies have suggested, and instead suggest that information about outcomes on each trial are held in a sort of buffer for guidance in the next attempt,”
In other words, the monkeys were able to improve on their behavior after successfully completing tasks, more so than after a failure. We as humans can relate to this, because our minds, fundamentally, work in the same way. So for me, a better motto for learning situations might be that, “practice makes perfect!”
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/08/04/learn-from-our-mistakes-right-wrong/
This is a very intriguing post. The first thing that came to my mind as I was reading this is all the common phrases we use that are actually lies. But other than that and the actual science behind not learning from our mistakes, I think a lot of it could be easily fixed. Thinking back on the past 14 years of my education, a lot of the time I was told I was wrong but not told WHY I was wrong or WHAT the correcxt answer is, and I think this is where the problem lies. How many times have you taken a test, saw your grade, and flat out didn’t care what you miscomprehended or blatently did not get. I think we would be lying if we did not say we’ve all done this at least a few times. It’s usually because we simply don’t care. However, some teachers actually go over the correct answers with you, which may help if you pay close attention to those you got wrong. But after looking into this topic, if the same question was on the final, chances are you will get it wrong again.