21 Metacognition – The Neuroscience of Learning

Learning Objectives

In this section you will learn to:

• Understand the biology of learning
• Understand the science of memory
• Analyze the barriers to learning
• Analyze and evaluate how to manage your attention
• Apply evidence-based learning strategies

Introduction

How effectively do you use your time as an individual and student? Which note-taking technique works best for you? How does the biology of the mind affect your studying? And how can you store information in your long-term memory? All these questions (and more) are answered in this chapter.

“Learning is not an event, but rather a process that unfolds over time” (Stahl et al., 2010).

The world is not static. It is dynamic and uncertain. Learning enables us to adapt to our uncertain environments, and to succeed in a competitive environment. In this chapter, we define learning as a process rather than a product that can lead to significant change over time. This change is influenced by three interrelated areas: (1) Motivation (2) Emotion and (3) Cognition (Figure 1).

Let us look at the words motivation and emotion. What do they mean? Both of these words have the same underlying Latin root, meaning “to move.” Because they involve arousal, emotions and motivations are “hot” — they “charge,” “drive,” or “move” our behavior. When we experience emotions or strong motivations, we feel the experiences (Stangor & Walinga, 2014). Motivation and emotion are essential to learning because together they ensure that you are able to acquire new knowledge and skills in a meaningful way ( Boekaerts, 2010).

Motivation itself is rather complex. Think about why you are currently in college. Are you here because you enjoy learning and want to pursue an education to make yourself a more well-rounded individual? If so, then you are intrinsically motivated. However, if you are here because you want to get a college degree to make yourself more marketable for a high-paying career or to satisfy the demands of your parents, then your motivation is more extrinsic in nature. In reality however our motivations are often a mix of both intrinsic (example: love for what you do) and extrinsic factors (example: getting paid), but the nature of the mix of these factors might change over time (Lazzara, 2020).

 Now let’s dive deep into the cognitive aspects of learning. So, what is cognition?

Upon waking each morning, you begin thinking and contemplating the tasks that you must complete within the day. In what order should you run your errands? Should you go to the gym, work, or the grocery store first? Can you get these things done before you head to class, or will they need to wait until class is done? These thoughts are one example of cognition at work. Simply put, cognition is thinking, and it encompasses the processes associated with perception, knowledge, problem solving, judgment, language, and memory. Since cognitive processes vary between individuals, students have different preferences within learning styles. Researchers have identified three different types of learning styles based on student-preference. For example:

• Is it easier for you to learn by reading the instructions or by studying charts, Powerpoint slides, or graphs? This indicates that you may be a visual learner.
• Do you do better by hearing someone explain something or by listening to a video presentation? This might indicate that you may be an auditory or aural learner.
• Does it help you to actually “get your hands on” whatever the task is, whether writing a paper, mixing chemicals, using models, or organizing a softball game? Then you may be a kinesthetic learner.

You do not have to fall into one of these categories. You could be all three, for example. But we usually tend to have a dominant learning style. Click on the hyperlink to take the Learning Style Inventory to capture your “best practices” when it comes to the basic three learning styles (Nissila, n.d).

Let us now focus on learning and memory to see how it works biologically. We will also practice evidence-based learning strategies!

The Biology of Learning and Memory

Neuroplasticity: Learning physically changes the brain

In the “Grit, Perseverance and Growth Mindset” section of this textbook we read about the difference between growth mindset and fixed mindset. Research from Carol Dweck has shown that intelligence is not fixed but rather malleable (Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016), hence students who adopt a growth mindset perform significantly better on quizzes, exams and tests compared to students with a fixed mindset. One reason for this is because of how neural networks form in the brain when adopting a growth mindset. From a biological perspective, learning involves connections. Making new connections, altering existing ones (strengthening or weakening), and deleting unnecessary ones. The brain’s ability to learn in this manner is called neuroplasticity. Neuroscientists have shown evidence of how “cells that fire together, wire together” since the late 1990s, meaning that if you perform a task or recall some information that causes different neurons to fire in concert, it strengthens the connections between those cells. Like in a system of freeways connecting various cities, the more cars going to a certain destination, the wider the road that carries them needs to be. The fewer cars traveling that way, however, the fewer lanes are needed. When people stop practicing new things, the brain will eventually eliminate, or “prune,” the connecting cells that formed the pathways (Bernard, 2010). To learn more about how our brains change throughout our lives watch this video, Neuroplasticity in the Sentis Brain Animation Series.

There are four key mechanisms related to neuroplasticity that support learning in the brain. They are synaptogenesis, long-term potentiation, myelination, and sleep.

1. Synaptogenesis is your ability to make connections between brain cells (i.e. neurons). These connections between neurons are called synapses. Neurons that are turned on together form and strengthen their connections. This is particularly useful to know when we learn something new, like the first time you learned how to ride a bike, for example. There might have been some falls and scrapes, but persevering through enabled you to build neural connections and forge new pathways in your brain to learn and remember how to pedal and balance the wheels. This repetition ultimately results in long-term potentiation.
2. Long-term potentiation (LTP) refers to making connections more permanent. Learning is reflected by changes in the connections between our brain cells but not all connections are the same. Some connections are rapid and temporary and support short-term memory (STM). Others are more durable and can last hours, days, or even a lifetime like long-term memory (LTM). The example above of learning how to ride a bike is an example of LTM. In order for a memory to be turned into LTM, your neurons need to follow a specific pattern of activation much like a recipe (Fields, 2005). From animal studies and from studies that involved brain cells in petri dishes, a pattern was discovered: 3 x 2. Three ‘activations’ separated by two 10-minute gaps. What was critical is that the breaks were at least 10-minutes. At 10-minutes, it is believed that each activation is treated as a unique experience by the brain. This knowledge is what underlies the Spaced Learning strategy (Kelley & Whatson, 2013), explained in the evidence-based learning strategies section.
3. Myelination refers to making connections more efficient. Your myelin sheath is the layer of fat and protein that’s wrapped around your nerves. It not only protects your nerves, but also speeds the communication signal along your nerve cells. Therefore, myelin acts as excellent insulation on superhighways for information transport in your brain. Recent research in mice has shown that an increase in myelin also enables LTP (Pan et al., 2020). Another study (Yoon, H. et al., 2016) has found correlations between a high fat diet with exercise training and an increase in myelination. Another reason to ensure you eat good high-quality fats and have a regular 120 min/ week exercise regimen!
4. Finally, more recent research revealed the critical role sleep plays in learning (Tamaki & Sasaki, 2022). An important discovery showed a mechanism during sleep where the activity of neurons related to what had been learned during the day. When we go through deep sleep (rapid eye movement or REM sleep), we ‘replay’ what we have learned in the brain areas of the hippocampus and the neocortex. This replay has been shown to play an important role in memory consolidation (Ji & Wilson, 2007; Breton & Robertson, 2013). Memory consolidation is where a temporary memory is transformed into an LTM. These findings show the importance of good sleep health to memory consolidation and learning. Moreover, while we don’t necessarily have to sleep during the day, we do need to give our brains a break – as breaks provide an opportunity to practice memory consolidation. Examples of taking “brain breaks” include: exercise, taking a short (15 min nap), meditate and unplug (from all devices and distractions).

Fact or Myth: Are there specific periods in childhood after which certain things can no longer be learned?

This is a neuromyth. Research indicates that there is a high level of synaptogenesis between 0-3 years. That said, learning something new like language can be be lifelong, and at the level of synaptogenesis, we now know that synaptic connections are plastic – meaning we can rewire our brains to learn new hard things even as we age.

Barriers to learning

Reconstructing experiences in our brain (learning) uses a lot of resources including energy (from food) and biological material (neurons themselves). However, these resources are limited, including the space available for the brain in the skull. Thus, our brains must prioritize what we learn and what we store in our memory. As a result, most information our brain encounters is filtered out and lost. For example, have you had an experience where you feel motivated to learn and make an effort but you are unable to because you don’t have the energy or the bandwidth? This means that you have limited resources – less energy from food and less neurons to fire and make connections. Scientists have isolated a mechanism to remember the main barriers to learning, and by doing so, we can learn of mechanisms to combat these barriers. The acronym used to combat the main barriers to learning is WARP.

• Working Memory – is our ability to hold a small amount of information in a readily accessible form. Recent work suggests that working memory, on average, can only hold 4 chunks of information. We can think of it as having only 4 available slots (plus or minus one). And it can only hold information for 10-15 seconds unless that information is actively being rehearsed or applied. For example, the act of just listening to a 20 min lecture (without active note taking) would involve a working memory.

• Attention – can become distracted or depleted. If we’re not paying attention, the information does not enter our memory system in a retrievable manner, or it is encoded in a deficient manner. In the example above, whilst listening during a lecture if there is a lack of focus and attention the working memory, short-term memory and therefore long-term memory is compromised. In the next section, we will discuss specific ways to practice attention.
• Retrieval – is accessing the information stored from our memory. If you do not practice recalling your stored information, your long-term memories become inaccessible as the routes you made to creating new information become buried. Think of it as erasing and deleting old music on a hard drive. In the next section of this chapter we will discuss specific ways to practice retrieval.
• Prior Knowledge – can be thought of “as stored knowledge and beliefs about the world that have been acquired by an individual.” As our learning builds on what is already there, our pre-existing or prior knowledge is one of the most significant determinants of subsequent learning. In the example above, before attending a lecture on a topic, having read the chapter addressing the topic and completing any assigned reading will only enhance the amount of slots that you can hold for your working memory!

Managing your attention

We can think of attention as a spotlight. Unlike working memory, we do not have four available slots /spotlights for attention. There is only one, single spotlight of attention – a single beam of light. What we shine it on – internally or externally –is what we pay attention to. We cannot encode information that we do not pay attention to! It is important to pay attention to what you pay attention to – as this is what you encode into your brain’s memory.

Hari (2021) interviewed experts about managing your attention:

Professor Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, explains ‘your brain can only produce one or two thoughts’ in your conscious mind at once. That’s it. ‘We’re very, very single-minded.’ We have ‘very limited cognitive capacity’. But we have fallen for an enormous delusion. The average teenager now believes they can follow six forms of media at the same time. When neuroscientists studied this, they found that when people believe they are doing several things at once, they are juggling. ‘They’re switching back and forth. They don’t notice the switching because their brain sort of papers it over to give a seamless experience of consciousness, but what they’re actually doing is switching and reconfiguring their brain moment-to-moment, task-to-task – and that comes with a cost.’ There is a name for this: it’s called the switch-cost effect! For example, let’s say you are working on a homework assignment, and you receive a text, you glance over it for three seconds – and then you go back to your assignment. In that moment, your brain must remember what you were doing before, and you have to remember what you thought about it. When this happens, the evidence shows that ‘your performance drops. You’re slower. All as a result of the switching.’ (par. 10)

Are you a visual learner? Here is a great video that explains the same concept of why multitasking is a myth.

What is multitasking and are there any advantages or disadvantages while practicing multitasking? Can we really do many things at the same time? How effective is it to do many things at the same time? This video will help you develop a clear understanding of what multitasking is.

Evidence-based learning strategies

What does evidence-based mean? This indicates, that there is a lot of research and repeated findings to back up this science! This section is about smart learning versus hard learning. Smart learning uses scientific evidence to spend less time, effectively sending information into Long Term Memory.

Retrieval Learning or Active Recall

From a cognitive perspective, we can place learning activities into two broad categories: encoding activities and retrieval activities. Encoding related activities focus more on “putting information in” to long-term memory (memorization). Retrieval related activities focus more on “taking information out” of memory – i.e. practicing the extraction of information from our long-term memory. For example, when you listen to a professor, read articles, watch videos, create concept maps or write essays while looking at your notes, you perform encoding activities. On the other hand, when you complete practice tests, write learning journals, teach peers, create concept maps or write essays from memory without referring to your notes – you perform retrieval activities. In short, when you complete activities without referring to your notes or the textbook, you are required to retrieve the information from your memory system. When you reconstruct memory systems, you automatically strengthen retrieval routes! Now most students practice retrieval for the first time during their first quiz or exam. However, active recall should be practiced several times before an actual test, quiz or exam in order to be successful.

How can YOU incorporate active recall?

Active recall can be easily incorporated into your current study in several ways. One method involves taking whatever learning resource you use—whether it be lecture slides, classroom notes, or the textbook and making a list of concise questions based upon the content and lecture objectives for the course. The next time you revise the topic, instead of re-reading your notes or textbook, go straight to the questions and answer as many as you can without reading your notes. If there are questions that you get wrong, refer to your notes and answer the question correctly. Color-coding the questions based on whether you got them right (green) or wrong (red) is a helpful way of tracking progress. Integrating spaced repetition into your topics and questions is another scientifically validated way to boost memory retention (Butler, 2010). Try and make use of online question-based resources such as Kahoot!, practice quizzes at Khan Academy, Quizlet and your professor’s previous quizzes or exams (ask them if they have any!) before, during and after a study session.

Here is a sample active recall strategy for a given topic/lecture:

• 10 min – Take a short quiz on the topic in order to determine what you already know (Prior Knowledge)
• 20-30 min – Review and study lecture / notes / textbook.
• 10-15 min – Write down from memory all that you read in the form of short points.
• 5-10 min – Break
• 10-15 min – Take a practice quiz on the topic without referring to notes or textbook.
• 5 min – Check answers. See how much you got right. Go over answers that you got wrong. Take a break and repeat!

Interested in more? Check out this video on 12 ways to practice Active Recall.

Being a college student will require you to frequently recall information. But what are some ways to improve your recall? This video introduces the following ways of recall” Pre-Test, Stop and Recite, In-Class Questions, Immediate Review, Toggles, Mind Maps, Teaching, Flashcards, Enumeration, Occlusions, Problem sets, and Practice tests.

Spaced Learning

Remember when we read about long-term potentiation? How we schedule learning activities matters. Research shows that if you would like to move content into LTM, then distributing the practice of this content and learning is critical. Rather than intensively cramming right before the exam, a more effective strategy is to distribute your exam preparation over multiple sessions. This is known as spaced practice or spaced learning.

How can YOU incorporate spaced learning?

Here is a sample schedule for a given topic/lecture:

• Day 1: Initial study session followed by an active recall strategy.
• Next day: Revisit & Review with a practice test
• After 3 days: Revisit & Review with a practice test
• After 1 week: Revisit & Review with a practice test
• After 2 weeks: Revisit & Review with a practice test

Congratulations! By this point, the topic/lecture that you are trying to learn will be in LTM!

Want to learn more? Watch this video on spaced learning techniques.

Studying last minute is never beneficial. The best way to learn effectively is to space out your studying sessions.

Teach what you learn

Finally, the learning-by-teaching effect has been demonstrated in several research studies. Students who spend time teaching what they’ve learned go on to show better understanding and knowledge retention than students who simply spend the same time re-studying. This is because teaching is a form of retrieval practice (active recall) and usually employs spaced learning. In this way, you succeed in practicing all three of the evidence-based strategies!

How can YOU teach what you learn?

1. Learn the material as if you’re going to teach it to others.
2. Pretend that you’re teaching the material to someone (Active Recall)
3. Check if your teaching is accurate!
4. Teach the material to other people/students (Spaced Learning)
5. As you get better at this, work on-campus at one of the several tutoring centers to get paid whilst you learn yourself and help others.

Watch this video about studying for exams to review these evidence-based learning techniques as a summary!

Summary

• Learning is a process that unfolds over time.
• Cognition encompasses the processes associated with perception, knowledge, problem solving, judgment, language, and memory.
• There are three basic types of learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.
• Neuroplasticity is making new connections, altering existing ones (strengthening or weakening), and deleting unnecessary ones.
• Synaptogenesis is your ability to make connections between brain cells (i.e. neurons). These connections between neurons are called synapses.
• Long-term potentiation (LTP) refers to making connections more permanent.
• Myelination refers to making connections more efficient.
• Sleep plays a critical role in learning.
• The acronym used to combat the main barriers to learning is WARP (working memory, attention, retrieval, and prior knowledge).
• You cannot encode information that you do not pay attention to.
• There is no such thing as multitasking. Your brain switches its attention based on how many tasks you perform at one time. This increases the likelihood of you not retaining much information.
• Key evidence-based learning strategies include: active recall, spaced learning and teaching what you learn.

Key Terms

• Learning
• Cognition
• Neuroplasticity
• Synaptogenesis
• Long-term potentiation
• Myelination
• WARP
• Active Recall
• Spaced Learning

Suggested Resources

Read How to learn like a Pro.

Watch Neuroscience of Learning.

Watch this TED talk on the brain changing benefits of exercise.

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