Whether you are a student, professional, parent, or retiree, all of us are learning new things every day throughout our lives. It could be anything from learning to play a musical instrument, learning to speak a new language, new math forms, or how to speak in front of an audience without losing your cool. Even if we are not immersed in an explicit learning process such as a new job or studies, our minds are constantly evolving with new information coming from our environment.
It is undeniable that learning new skills can be frustrating and time-consuming, but we can follow some tips that can help us do it more quickly and effectively. You want to know how to study by heart in a short time? In this Psychology-Online article, we tell you how to study quickly and easily, as well as the importance of meaningful learning.
If you want to study by heart in a short time, there are several ways to train your brain to memorize things faster and optimize learning.
1. Get physical exercise to clear your mind
Exercising is good for our bodies, but our brains also reap many benefits. Exercise can improve learning and memory. So if you're feeling stuck on your homework or just can't get over that difficult math problem, try walking or doing a quick workout.
Studies have shown that exercise has immediate benefits on cognition in both young adults and people. older - after a simple 15-minute exercise session, study participants showed improvement in memory and cognitive processing.
2. Write down what needs to be memorized over and over again
This is a very good technique for study and memorize. It may seem like a lot more work to continually jot down the same thing over and over, but this simple activity can do wonders for your memory. Research has shown that listing facts or problems improves the ability to memorize them rather than passively trying to learn them by rereading them. Additionally, another study found that taking class notes by hand rather than typing them on a computer helped students better remember class content.
3. Practice yoga
Yoga is an easy way to improve the gray matter in your brain, which is involved in the muscle control and sensory perceptions such as speech, memory, decision-making, and view. Research has shown that people who practice yoga show fewer cognitive failures. Surprisingly, another 2012 study found that just 20 minutes of yoga improved the brain functions of the participants of the study, which led them to perform better on tests of brain function, both in terms of speed and precision.
4. Study or practice in the afternoon
Even if you consider yourself a "morning" or "night" person, at least one study has shown that concentrating on a task in the afternoon can have a greater effect on performance.long-term memory training than at other times of the day.
5. Relate new things to what you already know
A great brain-based technique for memory retention is to relate new information to the knowledge you already have.
6. Stay away from multitasking
In our tech-driven world, we often mindlessly pick up the phone to reply to a text or to look at social media. In some situations, the ability to multitask can be helpful, but when it is about learning a new skill or memorizing information, it is better to focus on that one thing.
A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance[1] suggests that multitasking undermines our efficiency - particularly for complicated or unfamiliar tasks - as it takes extra time to change mental gears each time an individual switches between multiples homework.
7. Teach other people what you have learned
Share skills or knowledge newly learned is an efficient way to further solidify new information in your brain. The process of translating information into your own words helps your brain understand it better, and there are numerous innovative ways to break something down to teach others. It is a win-win situation.
Sometimes even if we want to study quickly, by heart and in a short time, we must bear in mind that something fundamental when we are learning is that learning is meaningful, which is that learning that involves understanding how all the pieces of a complete concept fit together. The knowledge acquired through meaningful learning is applied to new learning situations. This type of learning stays with students for life. It is active, constructive, and enduring, but most importantly, it enables students to fully participate in the learning process.
Two important goals of all types of learning are retention and transfer.
- "The retention" It is the ability to recall the material at a later time.
- "The transference" it is the ability to use prior knowledge to solve new problems.
Students achieve meaningful learning when both objectives are met.
Advantages of meaningful learning
Meaningful learning helps students succeed by:
- Encourage the understanding, not memorization
- Encourage techniques and learning strategies active
- Focus on the outcome of the learning process
- Relate new information to prior knowledge
Disadvantages of meaningful learning
Challenges associated with meaningful learning include:
- It takes longer to get
- It must be adapted to different types of students
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
