In the tradition of The Power of Habit and Thinking Fast and Slow comes a practical playful
and endlessly fascinating guide to what we really know about learning and memory today-and how
we can apply it to our own lives. From an early age it is drilled into our heads:
Restlessness distraction and ignorance are the enemies of success. We're told that learning
is all self-discipline that we must confine ourselves to designated study areas turn off the
music and maintain a strict ritual if we want to ace that test memorize that presentation or
nail that piano recital. But what if almost everything we were told about learning is wrong?
And what if there was a way to achieve more with less effort? In How We Learn award-winning
science reporter Benedict Carey sifts through decades of education research and landmark
studies to uncover the truth about how our brains absorb and retain information. What he
discovers is that from the moment we are born we are all learning quickly efficiently and
automatically but in our zeal to systematize the process we have ignored valuable naturally
enjoyable learning tools like forgetting sleeping and daydreaming. Is a dedicated desk in a
quiet room really the best way to study? Can altering your routine improve your recall? Are
there times when distraction is good? Is repetition necessary? Carey's search for answers to
these questions yields a wealth of strategies that make learning more a part of our everyday
lives-and less of a chore. By road testing many of the counterintuitive techniques described
in this book Carey shows how we can flex the neural muscles that make deep learning possible.
Along the way he reveals why teachers should give final exams on the first day of class why
it's wise to interleave subjects and concepts when learning any new skill and when it's
smarter to stay up late prepping for that presentation than to rise early for one last cram
session. And if this requires some suspension of disbelief that's because the research defies
what we've been told throughout our lives about how best to learn. The brain is not like a
muscle at least not in any straightforward sense. It is something else altogether sensitive
to mood to timing to circadian rhythms as well as to location and environment. It doesn't
take orders well to put it mildly. If the brain is a learning machine then it is an eccentric
one. In How We Learn Benedict Carey shows us how to exploit its quirks to our advantage.
