The document discusses the key topics covered in a conference on learning and the brain given by Professor Lili Saghafi. It discusses how learning changes the structure of the brain through forming new connections between neurons. It describes the focused and diffuse modes of thinking the brain uses and techniques to improve learning like chunking, testing oneself, exercising, getting enough sleep, and using metaphors and visualization. Brain imaging shows areas that are more active during focused attention versus the default resting state. The document also discusses memory formation and how memories are stored in the brain through strengthening synapses over multiple exposures and during sleep.

1. The Way We Learn
Professor Lili Saghafi
Conference Learning & The Brain ,
Feb. 2015

2. Key Topics
• learning changes the structure of the brain
• Focused and diffuse modes of thinking
• Key techniques proven by research to help
students learn most efficiently
• Memory
• Chunking
• Procrastination
• Sleep, Recalling , Exercise , Task List
• Metaphor, story, and visualization in learning

4. Learning
• Neuroscientists have been making profound
advances in understanding the two different
types of networks that the brain switches
between—highly attentive states and more
relaxed default mode networks.
• We’ll call the thinking processes related to
these networks the focused mode and diffuse
mode, respectively—these modes are highly
important for learning.

5. Brain and How we learn
• Neurons in brain keeps everything you know
• Brains evolved to help us navigate complex environments.
And most of the heavy lifting is done below our level of
consciousness.
• And we don't need to know how it's done in order to
survive.
• Psychologists who study the unconscious mind have found
that influences include thought processes, memory,
emotions, and motivation.
• We are very know little about the brain function
• We're only aware of a very small fraction of all the activity
in the brain, so we need to rely on brain imaging
techniques to guide us.

6. activity map of someone's brain who was asked
to lie still, at rest in a brain imaging scanner.

7. Brain and How we learn
• Here is the activity map of someone's brain
who was asked to lie still, at rest in a brain
imaging scanner.
• On the left is the side view of the brain and on
the right is the view from the mid-line.

8. Brain and How we learn
• The colors indicate brain areas whose activities
were highly correlated, as shown by the time
courses below, color coded to the brain areas.
• The blue areas are highly activity when the
subject interacts with the world, but turn-off in
the resting state.
• The red orange areas are most active in the
resting state. And are called the default mode
network.
• The default mode network is a leading candidate
for what we call the focus mode.

9. Brain and How we learn
• When you are quietly studying.
• The diffuse mode, which occurs when you are not
concentrating, may be, not easy to identify
anatomically, but it is likely to be a shift in the
resting pattern of activity towards a more
coherent global pattern.
• Other brightened areas are also more active
when you are resting, and these areas can be
further divided into groups of areas that have
common patterns of activity.

10. Brain and How we learn
• This is a new and intense area of research, and it
will take time to sort out all the resting states,
and their functions.
• There are a million, billion synapses in your brain,
where memories are stored.
• The old view of the brain is that once it matures,
the strengths of synapses can be adjusted by
learning, but the pattern of cognitively does not
change much unless there is brain damage.

11. Brain and How we learn
• single connections between neurons called
synapses, we can see constant turnover with
new synapses being formed and others
disappearing.
• In the face of so much churn-over, how do
memories stay stable over so many years?

12. Brain and How we learn
• Million Billion of Synapse exist in brain where
memory stores

13. dendritic branch on a neuron

14. dendritic branch on a neuron
• This is a picture of one dendritic branch on a neuron
which receives inputs from other neurons.
• The synapses are the spiny knobs coming off the
dendrite.
• On the top the dendrite was imaged before learning.
• The same dendrite is shown below after learning, and
after sleep.
• Multiple synapses that are newly formed together on
the same branch are indicated by the white arrow
heads.

15. learning changes the structure of the
brain
• Synapses are less than a micron in diameter.
• In comparison a human hair is around 20
microns in diameter.
• This new technique allows us to see how
learning changes the structure of the brain
with a resolution that is near the limit of light
microscopy.

17. Diffuse Mode
• It seems you frequently switch back and forth
between these two modes in your day-to-day
activities.
• We are in either one mode or the other—not
consciously in both at the same time.
• The diffuse mode does seem to be able to
work quietly in the background on something
you are not actively focusing on.

18. Focused Mode
• The focused mode is associated with the
concentrating abilities of the brain’s prefrontal
cortex, located right behind your forehead.

21. Diffuse-mode thinking
• Diffuse-mode thinking allows us to suddenly gain a
new insight on a problem we’ve been struggling with,
and is associated with “big picture” perspectives.
• Diffuse-mode thinking is what happens when you relax
your attention and just let your mind wander.
• This relaxation can allow different areas of the brain to
hook up and return valuable insights.
• Unlike the focused mode, the diffuse mode is not
affiliated with any one area of the brain—you can think
of it as being “diffused” throughout the brain.
• Diffuse-mode insights often flow out of preliminary
thinking that’s been done in the focused mode.

23. pinball
• To understand focused and diffuse mental
processes, we’re going to play some pinball.
• In the old game of pinball, you pull back on a
spring-loaded plunger and it whacks a ball,
which ends up bouncing randomly around the
circular rubber bumpers.
•

25. pinball
• When you focus your attention on a problem,
your mind pulls back the mental plunger and
releases a thought.
• That thought takes off, bumping around like
the pinball in the head on the left.
• This is the focused mode of thinking.

26. pinball

27. pinball
• When you focus on something, what automatically
happens is that the consciously attentive prefrontal
cortex sends out signals along neural pathways.
• These signals link different areas of your brain related
to what you’re thinking about.
• This process is a little like an octopus that sends its
tentacles to different areas of its surroundings to fiddle
with whatever it’s working on.
• The octopus has only so many tentacles to make
connections, just like your working memory has only so
many things it can hold at once.
•

29. Memory

30. Sensory memory
• Sensory memory takes the information
provided by the senses and retains it
accurately but very briefly. Sensory memory
lasts such a short time (from a few hundred
milliseconds to one or two seconds) that it is
often considered part of the process of
perception. Nevertheless, it represents an
essential step for storing information in short-
term memory.

31. Short-term memory
• Short-term memory temporarily records the
succession of events in our lives. It may register a
face that we see in the street, or a telephone
number that we overhear someone giving out,
but this information will quickly disappear forever
unless we make a conscious effort to retain it.
Short-term memory has a storage capacity of
only about seven items and lasts only a few
dozen seconds. Just as sensory memory is a
necessary step for short-term memory, short-
term memory is a necessary step toward the next
stage of retention, long-term memory.

32. Long-term memory
• Long-term memory not only stores all the
significant events that mark our lives, it lets us
retain the meanings of words and the physical
skills that we have learned. Its capacity seems
unlimited, and it can last days, months, years,
or even an entire lifetime! But it is far from
infallible. It sometimes distorts the facts, and
it tends to become less reliable as we age.

33. Memory and The Chunking Technique
• Most of us are able to store only about four to
seven different items in our short-term memory.
• One way to get past this limit is to use a
technique called chunking.
• By grouping several items into one larger whole,
you'll be able to remember much more.

35. Chunking Technique
• Most of us are able to store only about four to
seven different items in our short-term
memory.
• One way to get past this limit is to use a
technique called chunking.
• By grouping several items into one larger
whole, you'll be able to remember much
more.

37. The Most Effective Training Strategies
to memorize better
• Chunking Technique

39. Chunking
• Chunking involves creating something more
meaningful—and therefore memorable—from
seemingly random bits of information.
• if you need to remember a list of things—such
as buying figs, lettuce, oranges, apples, and
tomatoes—you can create a word out of the
first letters (e.g., "FLOAT"), which is easier to
remember than the individual items.

40. Chunking
• We naturally seek to create and find patterns and
connect disparate things together.
• Try to see the connections and make something
more meaningful out of the parts you're trying to
remember, and practice pattern-recognition to
feed your creativity and boost your brain.

41. Chunking
• Spaced repetition and deliberate practice to
make the chunks permanently ingrained to
the brain.
• Interleaving to create chunks in many different
parts of the brain, so that it can boost one's
creativity when using diffuse mode of
thinking.

43. Procrastination
• Dictionary define Procrastination the action of
delaying or postponing something.
• When we learn our mind often wants to jump
to Procrastination.

44. Procrastination

45. In order to prevent Procrastination
1. Make more specific plans.
– Just setting a date and a time when you’re going
to do something makes you more likely to follow
through.
– Or just write down the steps necessary to do the
work.

46. Procrastination

47. In order to prevent Procrastination
2. Use short, painless dashes of effort.
• Just have at it for five minutes and feel free to
watch the clock.
• Chances are you’ll realize it’s not so bad.
• Pomodoro Technique can help
• The Pomodoro Technique is a time management
method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late
1980s. The ( Usually 25 minutes) technique uses
a timer to break down work

48. Pomodoro Technique

49. Pomodoro Technique
• Pomodoro Technique - It is easy and very
comfortable to use...
– –Only 25 minutes with strong concentration will
help you to learn!
– –Forget cell phones and any other
distractions...Turn off them!!!

50. Pomodoro Technique
• After 25 minutes, studying in focused mode:
–Take a break...
–Breathe deeply..
• Give for yourself a reward...

51. In order to prevent Procrastination
3. Rewarding yourself for doing things you don’t
want to do can be a powerful motivator.

55. Go to sleep...
• –It is very important to clean your brain and
retain what you learning!!!

56. sleep
• Shakespeare, the great
English poet, already
knew this.

57. Here is Macbeth lamenting his
insomnia.
"Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of
care. "The death of each day's life, sore
labour's bath. "Balm of hurt minds, great nature's
second course. "Chief nourisher in life's feast."
• Here, Shakespeare is making an analogy between
knitted clothes and sleep that knits up the loose
Threads of experience and concerns during the
day and weaves them into the tapestry of your
lifestory.

58. Sleep
• As we discussed earlier when you sleep after
learning new synopses will create in your
brain
• So , you are not the same person you were
after a night's sleep or even a nap.
• It is if you went to bed with one brain and
woke up with an upgrade.

59. RECALLING
• Remember to recall what are you learning, it
is very important!!!
• To improve your memory...

60. Exercise
• Exercise helps memory and thinking through both direct
and indirect means.
• The benefits of exercise come directly from its ability to
reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, and
stimulate the release of growth factors—chemicals in the
brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of
new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance
and survival of new brain cells.
• Whatever exercise and motivators you choose, commit to
establishing exercise as a habit, almost like taking a
prescription medication. After all, they say that exercise is
medicine, and that can go on the top of anyone’s list of
reasons to work out.

61. CREATE TASK LIST
• Daily tasks
•Organize your time and study!
•Have clear goals (and achievable, be honest with
yourself)!
•Sets the time to finish!

62. Test Yourself
• Repeated studying after learning had no effect
on delayed recall, but repeated testing
produced a large positive effect. In addition,
students' predictions of their performance
were uncorrelated with actual performance.
The results demonstrate the critical role of
retrieval practice in consolidating learning and
show that even university students seem
unaware of this fact. Jeffrey D. Karpicke and
Henry L. Roediger III

63. Test yourself
• When you reinforce your memories by testing
them, they get much stronger than if you
simply re-read a passage. Don't waste your
time trying to re-read rules or textbooks in
order to memorize them.
• Test yourself to bolster your memory

65. Use visual metaphor to improve
memorization
• The representation of a person, place, thing,
or idea by way of a visual image that suggests
a particular association or point of similarity.
• Example: "He was eager to help but his legs
were rubber . . . "
• See how writer crafts metaphors that not only
create an image in our minds, but also support
the novel's themes.

67. Memory Palace
• While a memory palace can be a purely imagined
place, it is easier to base it upon a place that
exists in the real world and that you are familiar
with.
• A basic palace could be your bedroom, for
example. Larger memory palaces can be based on
your house, a cathedral, a walk to the corner
store, or your whole town.
• The larger or more detailed the real place, the
more information you can store in the
corresponding mental space.

68. Memory Palace
• For your memory palace to be effective, you need to
commit it to memory perfectly.
• The best way to do this is to actually draw out a blueprint
(or a map, if the palace is a route) which shows the
landmarks or storage locations you have chosen.
• Try visualizing the palace when you are not there, and then
check your mental image against the map to make sure you
have remembered every location and put them in the
correct order.
• Picture the landmarks in as much detail as possible: make
sure your mental image includes their colors, sizes, smells,
and any other defining characteristics.

69. visual metaphor to improve
memorization

70. References/ Image Credits
• Science Friday Publishing
• Time Magazine
• Brain Facts, Society for Neuroscience
• Boost Your Memory by Testing Yourself, Not Re-Reading http://lifehacker.com/
• http://fictionwriting.about.com
• Brain http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain
• Oxford Journals http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/
• Brain from top to bottom http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/
• http://zergnet.about.com
• Excerpted from A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even if You Flunked
Algebra), by Barbara Oakley.
• http://greedforilm.com/barbara-oakley-a-mind-for-numbers/
• Learning How to Learn University of UC San Diego
• Alzheimer's Association
• Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus ...
• Jerry Fodor · Diary: why the brain?
• Secrets of the Brain
• Harvard Health Publication http://www.health.harvard.edu
• www.Brainfacts.org
• http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Memory-Palace

71. proflilisaghafi2006@yahoo.ca