Chapter 4

Question 1

What Happens When You Focus Your Attention?

Answer 1

Focusing your attention to connect parts of the brain is an important part of the focused mode of learning.

Question 2

When you are angry, stressed or afraid what happens?

Answer 2

when you are stressed, your attentional octopus begins to lose the ability to make some of those connections in your brain and impedes learning.

Question 3

What is a chunk?

Answer 3

Chunks are pieces of information that are bound together through meaning.

Question 4

What are conceptual chunks? Why are they useful?

Answer 4

mental leaps that unite separate bits of information through meaning.

one of the first steps toward gaining expertise in math and science is to create conceptual chunks.

Question 5

What are the 3 basic steps to form a chunk?

Answer 5

1. focus your attention on the information you want to chunk.
2. The second step in chunking is to understand the basic idea you are trying to chunk.
3. The third step to chunking is gaining context so you see not just how, but also when to use this chunk.

Question 6

What is the value of concept chunks?

Answer 6

Understanding the underlying concept makes it easier to detect errors when you make them.

It also makes it much easier to apply your knowledge to novel problems, a phenomenon called transfer.

Question 7

What does practice help you do?

Answer 7

Ultimately, practice helps you broaden the networks of neurons connected to your chunk, ensuring that it is not only firm, but also accessible from many different paths.

Question 8

Learning takes place in two ways. What are they?

Answer 8

Top-down

top-down “big picture” process that allows you to see where what you are learning fits in.

Bottom-up

bottom-up chunking process where practice and repetition can help you both build and strengthen each chunk, so you can easily gain access to it when needed.

Question 9

What must you do before you go to sleep?

Answer 9

Before going to sleep, repeat what you want to remember the other day.

Question 10

What is more effective than re-reading?

Answer 10

Recall.

Question 11

When should re-reading be used?

Answer 11

In spaced repetition.

Question 12

What must you do when underlying text?

Answer 12

Look for main ideas and keep underlying to a minimum.

Words or notes in a margin that synthesize key concepts are a good idea.

Question 13

How should you work through your homework?

Answer 13

always work through homework problems in math and science on your own.

Question 14

What should you do if there’s something new you are learning?

Answer 14

Touch it again within the day.

Rewrite your notes in the evening.

Question 15

How long can you expand the “upkeep” repetitions once you have something down?

Answer 15

To weeks or months.

Question 16

How long should you work with a concept?

Answer 16

work with the concept until it becomes second nature, so you can begin to use it like a tool.

Question 17

What can you do to improve the understanding of a concept?

Answer 17

Read it over, then look away and see what you can recall—working toward understanding what you are recalling at the same time. Then glance back, reread the concept, and try it again.

Question 18

Law of Serendipity?

Answer 18

Just focus on whatever section you are studying. You’ll find that once you put the first problem or concept in your library, whatever it is, then the second concept will go in a bit more easily. And the third more easily still. Not that all of this is a snap, but it does get easier.

Question 19

How should you practice regarding the context?

Answer 19

when learning any new skill or discipline, you need plenty of varied practice with different contexts.

Question 20

How can you use different places to strengthen your memory?

Answer 20

recalling material when you are outside your usual place of study helps you strengthen your grasp of the material by viewing it from a different perspective.

Question 21

What is interleaving?

Answer 21

Interleaving means practice by doing a mixture of different kinds of problems requiring different strategies.

Question 22

Should we over learn?

Answer 22

Overlearning can have its place—it can help produce an automaticity that is important when you are executing a serve in tennis or playing a perfect piano concerto.
But be wary of repetitive overlearning during a single session in math and science learning—research has shown it can be a waste of valuable learning time.

Question 23

How should we combine interleaving with index cards?

Answer 23

Consider creating index cards with the problem question on one side, and the question and solution steps on the other. That way you can easily shuffle the cards and be faced with a random variety of techniques you must call to mind.

Question 24

How can you get the most bang for your buck regarding over learning?

Answer 24

To get the most bank for the buck, Once they understand ‘X,’ they should move on to something else and return to ‘X’ on another day.”

Question 25

How can you make your knowledge stick in your mind?

Answer 25

There’s evidence that writing by hand helps get the ideas into mind more easily than if you type the answer.

Question 26

Paul’s technique of studying with limited time?

Answer 26

1. prime my mental pump.
2. Review lecture notes. I review my notes the following day while the subjects are still fresh in my mind. I’ve also found that thirty minutes with a professor asking questions is easily worth three hours reading the book.
3. Rework example problems presented in lecture notes.
4. Work assigned homework and practice exam/ quiz questions. This builds “muscle memory” chunks for the mind in solving certain types of problems.