The Power of Learning

LTehae Pronweirnofg

Building Blocks of Knowledge

Amazing Brains at Every Age • The Science of Memory
Learning in the Real World

PLUS

How
Animals

Learn

•••



The Power of

Learning

Building Blocks of Knowledge

Amazing Brains at Every Age • The Science of Memory
Learning in the Real World

Contents

2 THE POWER OF LEARNING

4 28

All We Do Is Learn 40

8 66

CHAPTER ONE 3

The Ways We Learn

10 Harnessing a Universe

of Knowledge

16 The Secret Brainpower of Babies
24 Food for Thought

28 Forgetting Can Be a Friend to Learning
36 When Learners Stumble

40 What We Know About What

Animals Know

48

CHAPTER TWO

Shaping Education

50 The Art and Science

of Teaching

56 The Lessons of History
66 Addressing Bias in

the Classroom

70 Education Around the World

80

CHAPTER THREE

Modern Learning

82 The New (Virtual) Reality
86 How to Raise a (Successful) Failure

90 Learning in a Brave New World

96 Learned Words

Parts of this special edition were previously published in Real Simple.

INTRODUCTION

ALL WE DO
IS LEARN

By observation, by practice, by conscious
studying and by subconscious imitation, human
beings are multifaceted learning machines
from our first days to our last

BY RICHARD JEROME

Y OU MAY NOT realize observed knowledge to their advan-
it, but you’ve tage, a strategy thought unique
got something to Homo sapiens. “Nine-spined
sticklebacks may be the geniuses
wonderful in of the fish world,” study co-author
Kevin Laland, an evolutionary
common with biologist at St. Andrews University,
in Scotland, has said. “It’s remark-
the nine-spined stickleback. That able that a form of learning found
to be optimal in humans is exactly
would be a species of freshwater what these fish do.”

fish, scarcely more than two inches Within limits, of course. Thanks
to that ineffably complex neuro-
long, named for a row of spiky logical supercomputer housed in
our skulls, humans are still the
protrusions from its backboness. only species that can learn to, say,
sequence genes, bake ziti, write
Apart from that distinguishing Ulysses or (perhaps) parallel park.
Whether intentionally, by accident,
characteristic, the stickleback might through osmosis or otherwise, we
hoover up data, ideas, behaviors,
at first blush seem inconsequential. and all manner of stimuli from day
one through day last. We learn at
But there’s more to it than meets the wildly varying rates and levels—
but whatever our personal intel-
eye—hidden depths, so to speak. A lectual capacity, we never really
stop taking in information, however
2009 study, published in the journal complicated or quotidian. We
learn consciously and by design—
Behavioral Ecology, revealed that through education or study—
and we learn when we’re not even
this diminutive creature displays

an uncanny—indeed downright

human—ability to learn. The fish

scrutinizes the feeding behavior

of its fellow sticklebacks, discerns

which ones are the best foragers and

mimics them in order to improve its

own feeding success. Other species

are known to engage in this “social

learning,” as it’s known, typically

when young animals imitate adults

in their group. But the sticklebacks

in the study showed a stunningly

sophisticated knack for applying

4 THE POWER OF LEARNING

5

INTRODUCTION

aware we’re learning. figuratively, as a kind of rhetorical life. Another unschooled savant,
Deconstruct your daily flourish used for effect, and not to the sculptor Alonzo Clemons, 63,
suggest that my mom dabbled in can glance at an animal for a few
existence—all that you do, see, hear, medieval mysticism. (Though she seconds, and mold a clay replica
feel and experience, your cache of was kind of magical, at that.) that is essentially exact in every
general knowledge. You learned to detail, down to the last muscle and
walk, talk and know right from left. Over time we flesh out our tendon. The late psychiatrist Darold
You learned that if you stick your rudimentary baseline knowledge Treffert, a specialist in autism and
hand into a flame it burns—and with data and details. By rote, we savant syndrome who knew both
you catalogued that sensation for commit to memory raw numbers men, suggested that such savants
future reference. You learned how and factoids to regurgitate on possess “genetic memory,” a kind of
to recognize people and distinguish demand (baseball statistics, in chip in their brains that gives them
them (when appropriate) from my case). But as we grow into not only natural skills and abili-
barnyard animals. You learned that adolescence and adulthood, if ties but “innate access to the vast
dark clouds can bring rain, and all goes well, our learning takes syntax and rules of art, mathemat-
you learned that if you run with on a new depth. We don’t simply ics, music and even language, in the
scissors “you could put your eye stockpile raw knowledge, we also absence of any formal training and
out.” Sometimes you were taught enrich it with understanding. We in the presence of major disability.”
by elders; other times, like a nine- retrieve memorized material and For Lemke and Clemons, this chip
spined stickleback, you learned apply reason to solve problems or of sophisticated knowledge comes
through observation. Or, perhaps, adapt to environmental changes “factory installed.”
you learned by just doing it. and challenges. We learn to grasp
shades of meaning, appreciate The vast majority of us don’t
LEARNING IS LAYERING. We collect nuance, recognize subtext, differ- roll off the assembly line with such
and accumulate information like entiate between seriousness and built-in advantages. We have to
the rings of an ancient tree. As sarcasm. We learn to read a room as acquire skills and information the
small children we learn count- well as a book, to develop emotional old-fashioned way, by learning
less elementary skills and lessons, intelligence and empathy. All them. How humans learn—and
and we learn them so completely of this learning unfolds inside how best to teach them—is a vast
that today we can’t remember not the brain and involves an elabo- field of study, comprising a range
knowing them. Before I entered rate biochemical choreography, of theories and approaches. Some
kindergarten, my mother taught performed by neurons, synapses people, for example, may be more
me to read, an experience so vivid and neurotransmitters—a process responsive to didactic, lecture-
I can still see it, all these decades that remains largely mysterious. centered instruction. For others,
later. We’d snuggle up on her bed, a kinesthetic approach, involving
my cheek pressed against her faintly How, for example, does one hands-on projects, might work best.
freckled arm, one of those Grosset account for someone such as Leslie A relatively new field called educa-
& Dunlap children’s books open Lemke? The blind Wisconsin tional neuroscience probes the
on the spread, light streaming in pianist, who has performed all enigmatic brain chemistry of learn-
through the dormer window, a soft over the world, is what’s known ing, in hopes that an understanding
breeze rustling the eyelet curtains. as an autistic savant. He has a low of those biological processes can
Indeed, I remember almost every verbal IQ of 58 and suffers from be applied to the classroom. (In a
detail about learning to read— cerebral palsy. Yet Lemke, now characteristic experiment, research-
except actually learning to read. But 69, can listen to a piece of music ers at Carnegie Mellon University
I did learn, as most of us do, so that once through, and no matter how hooked up students to MRI
one day, by some strange alchemy, I intricate the work, play it back machines throughout a physics
could glance at the phrase “by some with unerring precision; not only course.) Meanwhile, many educators
strange alchemy” and recognize not that, he can improvise exquisitely champion cognitive and behavioral
only each word and its meaning, crafted variations—and, if the mood psychology as the more useful tools
but also the entire sequence and strikes him, make up compositions to maximize learning potential.
its context—that it was meant of his own on the spot. Lemke has
never taken a music lesson in his Of course, learning is subject

6 THE POWER OF LEARNING

Once charged with heresy for his teachings, the polymath Galileo is now regarded as the father of modern science.

to a range of socioeconomic and torture or execution, allowing him satisfied, lights up the reward
cultural factors that have nothing to to spend the last nine years of his centers of our brains. Sometimes
do with brain science or pedagogy. life under house arrest. In America that leads to the discovery of a new
Family dynamics, wealth, poverty, less than a century ago Tennessee vaccine. Other times it’s searching
privilege, systemic racism, religious schoolteacher John Scopes was IMDb to find out who played the
doctrine, politics and mass infamously tried, convicted and pickpocket in Casablanca (German
media—all affect the acquisition fined for allegedly discussing actor Curt Bois, if you’re scoring).
and retention of knowledge. And in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolu- “More often than not,” wrote the
many instances, they are a profound tion in his classroom. British psychologist Tom Stafford
hinderance to human enlighten- of the University of Sheffield on
ment. Throughout history, learn- Nevertheless, we persist. Today BBC.com, “our curiosity has us
ing has waged a battle against the Galileo is revered as the “father doing utterly unproductive things
entrenched forces of ignorance, of modern science.” Learning like reading news about people we
repression, superstition and marches on—and evolution, in fact, will never meet, learning topics we
tradition. Recall Galileo, who was has much to do with it. Humans will never have use for, or exploring
tried by the Inquisition in 1633 for developed into a uniquely curious places we will never come back to.
advocating the Copernican theory animal, a trait partly rooted in We just love to know the answers
of heliocentrism—that the Earth what’s known as neoteny, or the to things, even if there's no obvious
and planets revolve around the retention of juvenile characteris- benefit. . . . And thank goodness—
stationary sun, at the center of what tics. We are more childlike than otherwise we would have evolved to
was then the known universe. This other species, reflected in our be a deadly-boring species which . . .
heresy flew in the face of biblical lifelong, insatiable desire to poke never tried things to just see what
scripture, which placed Earth at the into things. If this innate curiosity happened or did things for the hell
center of all things. Only a report- originated as a survival strategy, of it.” Learning is not only the most
edly insincere recantation saved it evolved into something else: important part of life, it can also be
Galileo—then nearly 70—from a persistent urge just to find stuff the best.
out, however trivial, that, when

7

Chapter One THE WAYS
WE LEARN

We spend our lifetimes
experiencing the world around
us and converting information
into knowledge that we put to
use in our daily lives

8 THE POWER OF LEARNING

ILLUSTRATION BY HARRY CAMPBELL

T H E WAYS W E L E A R N
10 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

Harnessing
a Universe of
Knowledge

Research shows that a variety of factors—
biological, emotional and environmental—
help drive our ability to learn

BY MARKHAM HEID

I N HIS 1974 best himself, on later reflection, views
seller, Zen and the the experience as a cautionary
Art of Motorcycle tale about the dangers of assump-
tion. The lesson he took from that
Maintenance, the day and tries to apply to future
dilemmas—many of which have
author Robert M. nothing to do with motorcycles—is
that jumping to conclusions or
Pirsig describes an occasion when, working hastily leads to silly
mistakes and unnecessary trials.
in the middle of a rainstorm, his
The blunder that Pirsig
titular bike sputters to a stop and describes and the knowledge
that he hopes to glean from it
won’t restart. help illustrate the complexity of
human learning—much of which is
Pirsig rocks the motorcycle from experience-based. How can people
both lock away useful knowledge
side to side and, hearing the sound or wisdom and, just as important,
summon it at the appropriate
of sloshing liquid, assumes there moment? These are the sorts of
questions that challenge experts
is gas in the tank. He spends time who study the science of learning.

examining the bike’s components— “Learning is a very active
process—not one of ‘ingesting
its plugs, points and carburetor—in and retaining’ like a squirrel
ingests nuts or a file drawer stores
a fruitless effort to identify the information,” says Mary Helen
Immordino-Yang, a professor
issue, which he assumes has to do of education, psychology and
neuroscience at the University
with the rain. Eventually he gives of Southern California’s Rossier
School of Education. Life exposes
up and hauls his bike home on a

trailer. Weeks later while reexamin-

ing the bike, he starts to take the

engine apart and realizes that the

gas tank is empty, which was the

problem all along. The sloshing

sound he’d heard was the gas in

the reserve tank, which he’d never

switched on.

What Pirsig describes is a

quintessential learning experience.

But what’s the lesson? Some might

say, “Always double-check the gas

tank.” And that’s true. But Pirsig

11

Games and puzzles can help build an aptitude for finding solutions to complex problems.

the brain to a limitless ocean of mistake—such as the one Pirsig characteristics that facilitate learn-
information. Even if a person describes—that teaches a person to ing in a range of contexts. What
manages to memorize a portion of be patient and deliberate. tools does the brain require to do
it—to squirrel it away—it does them the work of learning? While the list
little good unless they can access As the saying goes, “Live and is long, experts say some are clearly
it at the right moment and apply it learn.” But life’s teachings are often more essential than others.
in real-world contexts. “The task of nested inside one another. How
learning is to transform some of that does the brain sort through and “Motivation, or a willingness to
information into knowledge that can soak up these coincident lessons? learn, is one of the basic elements,”
be used and acted upon,” she says. Why do some people thrive in says Eva Kyndt, an associate profes-
certain learning contexts while sor at the University of Antwerp, in
Learning is among the brain’s others flounder? And what are the Belgium, and Swinburne University
fundamental functions. The factors, both internal and external, of Technology, in Melbourne,
question “How does the brain that help people retain and recall Australia. Kyndt says that motiva-
learn?” is roughly analogous to knowledge in ways that will be tion often comes when the brain
“How does the brain work?” There most helpful to them? Researchers takes note of a “discrepancy”—a
is no simple answer. Learning could say some of those questions have disconnect between the knowledge
mean sitting down with a textbook clear answers. Others remain it has and the knowledge it wants.
to study algebra or the law. But the clouded in debate. This discrepancy may be positive
rush of dopamine-fueled pleasure or negative. “It could be, ‘Damn it, I
that the brain experiences when a Learning: The Necessary have a problem to solve and I don’t
person takes a bite of ice cream or Ingredients have the skills to solve it,’” she says.
taps one of the candy-colored icons “Or it could be, ‘That’s really inter-
on a smartphone is also a form of One of the simplest ways to esting, and I want to know more
learning. So is the memory of a approach the science of learn- about that.’” The brain doesn’t hold
ing is to examine the skills or

12 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

on to information arbitrarily; it Minimalism. “And that stretch Nelson III, a professor of pediat-
keeps what it believes it can use. requires unbroken concentration.” rics and neuroscience at Harvard
He says that the amount of concen- Medical School and a professor of
One way to motivate the brain tration a person requires to learn education at Harvard University.
is to expose it to something new something new depends in part on
and unfamiliar. Kyndt’s current the complexity of the material. The Setting aside the role of genet-
area of research concerns profes- more complex something is, the ics, Nelson says that a more useful
sional development and continu- more sustained focus a person will question—and one that researchers
ing education. She says that when likely need to grasp it. are closer to answering—pertains
people start a new job, their lack to the childhood environments
of knowledge is so apparent to There are other skills or “habits and relationships that set people
them that motivation often arises of mind” that facilitate learning, up for a lifetime of learning. “The
naturally. But as people spend such as curiosity and diligence. home environment seems to
years or decades in a role, their And the published scholarship on matter,” he says. “Children who
motivation to learn often falls. For learning is packed with papers that grow up in cognitively stimulating
companies hoping to encourage explore the ways in which a person and linguistically rich environ-
these less-motivated employees, can cultivate or corrupt these ments tend to be more sophisti-
showing them the holes in their skills. But where do these capabili- cated in their knowledge of the
knowledge can be helpful. “It used ties come from to begin with? Why world and their ability to grasp
to be that you’d train people and do some people seem to possess things.” What does “cognitively
then test them on their knowledge,” a large measure of them innately stimulating” mean in this context?
says Kyndt. “Now some organiza- while others do not? Experts say “Playing games with kids,” he
tions are starting with testing to a person’s experience, age and says. “Interacting with them and
show people the discrepancy that environment help explain why challenging them intellectually.”
exists and the value they’d get out learning comes easily to some and This kind of challenging inter-
of [addressing] it.” not to others. action could be as simple as asking
children thoughtful questions,
Another aspect of learning— Teaching a Mind to Learn pushing them to solve their
one that goes hand in hand with own problems or teaching them
motivation—is opportunity. “If Is an ability to learn written into numbers and letters. “The contrast
you’re very highly motivated, a person’s genetic code? Maybe, at to this,” he says, “would be plopping
you’ll create your own oppor- least a little bit. Research from the the kid in front of a screen or a TV
tunities,” Kyndt says. “But if the University of Texas at Austin has and not talking to them.” Screens
opportunities are there and easy, found evidence that genes play a are fine in small doses, he adds, but
you may need less motivation.” For part in shaping a person’s charac- human interaction seems to be the
example, a young person who has ter traits, including some—such best fertilizer for growing a healthy,
access to private tutoring or other as intellectual curiosity—that inquisitive and capable mind.
educational resources may require are associated with academic
less motivation to learn than the achievement. While many parents rightly
student who lacks access to such focus on the quality of their
tools and aids. But researchers have thus far children’s schools, experts say that
identified more than 800 genes early childhood may matter just
Along with motivation and that are associated with cognitive as much—or even more—when
opportunity, sustained attention is functioning. How clusters of these it comes to shaping the kinds
another important learning skill. genes interact with one another of brains that learn best. “We’ve
“The ability to learn new things— and are expressed and how all that known for years that there’s this
whether that’s calculus or hitting promotes or inhibits learning in a explosion of brain development
a fastball—requires stretching given individual or situation are during the first three years [of
your brain past the point of what’s puzzles that science is unlikely to childhood], but as a society we
familiar or comfortable,” says Cal solve. “Genes may explain some don’t invest much in these years
Newport, an associate professor of percentage of a person’s ability in relation to what we spend on
computer science at Georgetown to learn, but the work there is kindergarten through 12th grade,”
University and the author of Digital very unsatisfying,” says Charles

13

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

says Doug Knecht, a former teacher engage more of young people’s says the University of Antwerp’s
and current vice president of mental faculties, rather than just Kyndt. “But it’s not dramatic. It’s
Bank Street College of Education, their ability to ingest and regurgi- not to the extent that if you were a
a higher-education institution tate information. good learner as a kid, you’re inept
in New York City. Unlike most as an adult.”
other developed countries, the U.S. There’s the old saw that people
allocates very little money to the never remember what they learn Kyndt says that the bigger
subsidy of high-quality day-care in school. Immordino-Yang says learning hurdle for adults may be
and preschool services—a situation this mostly misses the point of an a lack of what Stanford University
that Knecht calls “shameful” and education, which is not primarily psychologist Carol Dweck has
counterproductive. about hammering facts, procedures termed a “growth mindset”—or
and information into a person’s a belief that one’s abilities and
There has been—and continues memory; it’s about building mental knowledge are capable of evolving.
to be—a tremendous amount of skills and dispositions that will “Learning is often hard, and it takes
attention paid to K–12 education help people learn and succeed time and effort,” Kyndt says. “Those
and the different teaching styles, throughout life. A 2020 study who believe everything is set in
curricula and school environments that she co-authored found that
that best support learning. There children educated in Montessori
is not broad expert consensus on schools—which is one of several
these topics, but some say change is progressive approaches to educa-
needed. “There’s a lot of evidence tion that prioritize independent
that project-based learning has a exploration and problem-solving—
better impact on student learning had different patterns of behavior
and readiness for life after high and brain activity than kids
school,” Knecht says. He’s refer- educated in traditional schools.
ring to a program of education that “Montessori students were more
eschews traditional teach-and-test effective at directing their own
methods in favor of immersive learning, and by adolescence
lessons that challenge students were much faster and more likely
with problems or scenarios that to correct their own mistakes,”
promote self-directed investiga- she says. When they got things
tion, critical thinking, creativity wrong, the Montessori kids also
and teamwork. seemed less distressed and more
curious to figure out why. “They
Others agree that the ways in seemed more comfortable with not
which traditional schools engage knowing things—with uncertainty
young minds are not ideal. “Schools and ambiguity,” she says. These
should not be about memorizing are characteristics that seem to
information, because that’s really correlate with improved learning at
not how people learn,” says USC’s any age, she adds.
Immordino-Yang. Much of her
work has focused on the ways that While it’s often said that the
different methods of teaching build older people get, the more they
up and strengthen the connections struggle to learn—you can’t teach
among the brain networks that are an old dog new tricks—the capacity
involved in learning. She says that to build new skills and knowledge
her research points to the benefits tends to persist even as a person
of educational programs that ages. “There’s a certain tipping
emphasize immersive and interest- point around age 40 and 45 when
driven learning experiences—the some cognitive capacities—like
kind that present information in working memory and attention
rich, real-life contexts and that span—slowly start to diminish,”

14 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

Even as we age, we can
develop new areas of
expertise, especially with
an open-minded attitude.

stone are less likely to undertake styles of gardening and use, a exercise—affects brain function-
learning activities or to put in that person’s brain develops differently ing and learning. So does the
time and effort.” In other words, depending on age, predisposi- presence or absence of trauma in
the ability to learn is often still tions, priorities, experiences and a person’s life. “The quality of our
there, assuming a person had it as a environment.” social relationships also matters,”
youngster; it’s the self-confidence Immordino-Yang says. “And having
that falters. Development and learning are a sense of purpose across the life
inextricably knotted, she says. span matters.”
What’s Next And there is not a single formula
or recipe that produces the sort She and others in her field
In a 2018 report for the Aspen of brain that is optimized for all are identifying what seem to be
Institute, a nonprofit think types of learning in all contexts. some of the core ingredients that,
tank, Immordino-Yang and her In addition to the many variables especially early in life, promote
co-authors write, “Just as a garden mentioned above, a person’s a durable willingness and ability
grows differently in different overall health—a proper diet, as to learn. But there’s a lot left to
climates and with different plants, well as adequate sleep and regular be discovered.

15

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

The Secret
Brainpower of Babies

Almost immediately after birth, infants
have the capacity to begin understanding
the world around them

BY STANISLAS DEHAENE

O N THE SURFACE, does not show in babies’ primitive
behavior. It therefore took cogni-
who would be tive scientists much ingenuity
more destitute and significant methodological
advances in order to expose the
of knowledge vast repertoire of abilities all babies
are born with. Objects, numbers,
than a newborn? probabilities, faces, language . . . the
scope of babies’ prior knowledge
What could be more reasonable is extensive.

than to think, as Locke did, that The Object Concept

the infant’s mind is a “blank slate” We all have the intuition that the
world is made of rigid objects. In
simply waiting for the environ- reality, it is made up of atoms, but
at the scale on which we live, these
ment to fill its empty pages? atoms are often packed together
into coherent entities that move as
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) a single blob and sometimes collide
without losing their cohesive-
strove to drive this point home in ness. These large bundles of atoms
are what we call “objects.” The
his treatise Emile, or On Education existence of objects is a fundamen-
tal property of our environment.
(1762): “We are born capable of Is this something that we need
to learn? No. Millions of years of
learning, but knowing nothing, evolution seem to have engraved
this knowledge into the very core of
perceiving nothing.” Almost two our brains. As early as a few months
of age, a baby already knows that
centuries later, Alan Turing, the the world is made up of objects that
move coherently, occupy space,
father of contemporary computer do not vanish without reason and
cannot be in two different places
science, took up the hypothesis:

“Presumably the child brain is

something like a notebook as one

buys it from the stationer’s. Rather

little mechanism, and lots of

blank sheets.”

We now know that this

view is dead wrong—nothing

could be further from the truth.

Appearances can be deceiving:

despite its immaturity, the nascent

brain already possesses consider-

able knowledge inherited from its

long evolutionary history. For the

most part, however, this knowl-

edge remains invisible, because it

16 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

Babies quickly comprehend
the laws of physics, and
they’re fascinated by
objects that defy those laws
(like floating balloons).

17

As early as a few
months of age, babies
understand that the world
is made up of objects
with predictable behaviors.

18 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

at the same time. In a sense, babies’ other. At first, they don’t know
brains already know the laws of that an object falls when you drop
physics: they expect the trajec- it. Only very gradually do they
tory of an object to be continuous become aware of all the factors
in space as in time, without any that make an object fall or stay put.
sudden jump or disappearance. First, they realize that objects fall
when they lose their support, but
How do we know this? Because they think that any sort of contact
babies act surprised in certain suffices to keep an object still—for
experimental situations that example, when a toy is placed at the
violate the laws of physics. In edge of a table. Progressively, they
today’s cognitive-science labora- realize that the toy must not only
tories, experimenters have become be in contact with the table, but
magicians. In small theaters on top of it, not under or against
specially designed for babies, they it. Finally, it takes them a few more
play all sorts of tricks: on the stage, months to figure out that this rule
objects appear, disappear, multi- is not enough: in the end, it’s the
ply, pass through walls. Hidden center of gravity of the object that
cameras monitor the babies’ gazes, must remain above the table.
and the results are clear-cut: even
babies a few weeks old are sensitive Keep this in mind the next time
to magic. They already possess deep your baby drops his or her spoon
intuitions of the physical world from the table for the 10th time, to
and, like all of us, are stunned your great despair: they are only
when their expectations turn out experimenting!
to be false. By zooming in on the
children’s eyes—to determine This experimental attitude
where they look and for how continues all the way into adult-
long—cognitive scientists manage hood. We are all fascinated with
to accurately measure their degree gadgets that seem to violate the
of surprise and infer what they usual laws of physics (helium
expected to see. balloons, mobiles in equilibrium,
roly-poly toys with a displaced
Hide an object behind a book, center of gravity), and we all
then suddenly crush it flat, as if enjoy magic shows where rabbits
the hidden object no longer existed disappear in a hat and people are
(in reality, it escaped through a sawed in two. These situations
trapdoor): babies are flabbergasted! entertain us because they violate
They fail to understand that a the intuitions that our brains have
solid object can vanish into thin held since birth and refined in the
air. They appear dumbfounded first year of life. Josh Tenenbaum,
when an object disappears behind a professor of artificial intelligence
one screen and reappears behind and cognitive science at MIT,
another, without ever being seen hypothesizes that babies’ brains
in the empty space between the host a game engine, a mental
two screens. simulation of the typical behavior
of objects similar to the ones
Babies therefore possess a vast that video games use in order to
knowledge of the world, but they simulate different virtual reali-
don’t know everything from the ties. By running these simulations
start, far from it. It takes a few in their heads and by comparing
months for babies to understand simulations with reality, babies
how two objects can support each

19

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

discover very early on what is a brief moment. This behavior of continue to exist when they are no
physically possible or probable. “cognitive surprise,” in reaction to longer seen—until the end of the
the violation of a mental calcula- first year of life. He also thought
The Number Sense tion, shows that, as early as a few that the abstract concept of number
months of age, children understand was beyond children’s grasp for the
Let’s take a second example: that 1 + 1 should make 2. They build first few years of life, and that they
arithmetic. What could be more an internal model of the hidden slowly learned it by progressively
obvious than that babies have scene and know how to manipulate abstracting away from the more
no understanding of mathemat- it by adding or removing objects. concrete measures of size, length
ics? And yet, since the 1980s, And such experiments work not and density. In reality, the opposite
experiments have shown quite only for 1 + 1 and 2 – 1, but also for is true. Concepts of objects and
the opposite. In one experiment, 5 + 5 and 10 – 5. Provided that the numbers are fundamental features
babies are repeatedly presented error is big enough, 9-month-old of our thoughts; they are part of
with slides showing two objects. babies are surprised whenever a the “core knowledge” with which
After a while, they get bored . . . concrete display hints at a wrong we come into the world, and when
until they are shown a picture with calculation: they can tell that 5 + 5 combined, they enable us to formu-
three objects: suddenly, they stare cannot be 5, and that 10 – 5 cannot late more complex thoughts.
longer at this new scene, indicat- be 10.
ing that they detected the change. Number sense is only one
By manipulating the nature, size Is this really an innate skill? example of what I call infants’
and density of objects, one can Could the first months of life invisible knowledge: the intuitions
prove that children are genuinely suffice for a child to learn the that they possess from birth and
sensitive to the number itself, i.e., behavior of sets of objects? While that guide their subsequent learn-
the cardinal of the whole set, not children undoubtedly refine the ing. Here are more examples of the
another physical parameter. The accuracy with which they perceive skills researchers have demon-
best proof that infants possess an numbers over the first months of strated in babies as young as a few
abstract “number sense” is that life, the data show, equally clearly, weeks old.
they generalize from sounds to that the starting point for children
images: if they hear tu tu tu tu—that is not a blank slate. Newborns The Intuition of
is, four sounds—they are more perceive numbers within a few Probabilities
interested in a picture that has a hours of life—and so do monkeys,
matching number of four objects in pigeons, ravens, chicks, fish and Going from numbers to probabili-
it than in a picture that has 12, and even salamanders. And with ties takes only one step . . . a step
vice versa. Well-controlled experi- the chicks, the experimenters that researchers have recently
ments of this sort abound and controlled all the sensory inputs, taken by wondering if babies a
convincingly show that, at birth, making sure that the baby chicks few months old could predict
babies already possess the intuitive did not see even a single object the outcome of a lottery draw. In
ability to recognize an approximate after they hatched . . . yet the chicks this experiment, babies are first
number without counting, regard- recognized numbers. presented with a transparent box
less of whether the information is containing balls that move around
heard or seen. Such experiments show that randomly. There are four balls:
arithmetic is one of the innate three red and one green. At the
Can babies calculate too? skills that evolution bestows unto bottom, there is an exit. At some
Suppose that children see an object us, as well as many other species. point, the container is occluded,
hide behind a screen, followed and then either a green ball or a
by a second one. The screen then Incidentally, these results red ball comes out the bottom.
lowers—lo and behold, only one overturn several tenets of a central Remarkably, the child’s surprise
object is there! Babies manifest theory of child development, is directly related to the improb-
their surprise in a prolonged inves- that of the great Swiss psycholo- ability of what she sees: if a red ball
tigation of the unexpected scene. If, gist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). comes out—the most likely event,
however, they see the two expected Piaget thought that young infants since the majority of the balls in
objects, they look at them for only were not endowed with “object the box are red—the baby looks at it
permanence”—the fact that objects

20 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

Even just a few hours after birth, a baby can recognize and react to a smiling face.

for only a brief moment . . . whereas number of objects involved. and people have a specific behavior:
if the more improbable outcome From birth on, thus, our brain is they are autonomous and driven by
occurs, that is, a green ball that their own movements. Therefore,
had only one chance in four to already endowed with an intuitive they do not have to wait for another
come out, the baby looks at it for logic. There are now many varia- object to bump into them, like a
much longer. tions of those basic experiments. pool ball, in order to move around.
They all demonstrate the extent Their movement is motivated
Subsequent controls confirm to which children behave like from within, not caused from
that babies run, in their little heads, budding scientists who reason the outside.
a detailed mental simulation of like good statisticians, eliminating
the situation and the associated the least likely hypotheses and Babies are therefore not
probabilities. Thus, if we introduce searching for the hidden causes of surprised to see animals move by
a partition that blocks the balls, various phenomena. themselves. In fact, for them, any
or if we move the balls closer to object that moves by itself, even if
or farther away from the exit, or if Knowledge of Animals it is in the shape of a triangle or a
we vary the time before the balls and People square, is immediately labeled as
exit the box, we find that infants an “animal,” and from that moment
integrate all these parameters While babies have a good model on, everything changes. A small
into their mental calculation of of the behavior of inanimate child knows that living beings
probability. The duration of their objects, they also know that there do not have to move according to
gaze always reflects the improbabil- is another category of entities that the laws of physics but that their
ity of the observed situation, which behave entirely differently: animate movements are governed by their
they seem to compute based on the things. From the first year of life, intentions and beliefs.
babies understand that animals

21

T H E WAYS W E L E A R N

Let us take an example: if we jumping—this is simply the best only the goals and intentions of
show babies a sphere that moves way to attain its goal. On the other those around them, but also their
in a straight line, jumps over a hand, babies open their eyes wide beliefs, abilities and preferences.
wall, then heads to the right, little if the sphere continues to jump in
by little, they will get bored of it. the air for no particular reason, Face Perception
Are they simply getting used to since the wall has vanished! In the
this peculiar motion? No, in fact, absence of a wall, the same trajec- One of the earliest manifestations
they understand much more. They tory as in the first scenario leaves of infants’ social skills is the
deduce that this is an animate the babies surprised, because they perception of faces. For adults, the
being with a specific intention: do not understand what strange slightest hint suffices to trigger the
it wants to move to the right! intention the sphere might have. perception of a face: a cartoon, a
Moreover, they can tell the object Other experiments show that smiley, a mask. Some people even
is highly motivated, because it children routinely infer people’s detect the face of Jesus Christ
jumps over a high wall in order intentions and preferences. In in the snow or on burnt toast!
to get there. Now let’s remove the particular, they understand that Remarkably, this hypersensitivity
wall. In this scenario, babies are the higher the wall is, the greater to faces is already present at birth: a
not surprised if they see the sphere the person’s motivation must be in baby a few hours old turns its head
change its motion and move to the order to jump over it. From their more quickly to a smiley face than
right in a straight line, without observations, babies can infer not to a similar image turned upside
down (even if the experimenter
During the third ensures that the newborn has never
trimester of pregnancy, had the chance to see a face).
a fetus not only can
hear but can also Many researchers believe that
recognize language. this magnetic attraction to faces
plays an essential role in the early
development of attachment—
especially since one of the earliest
symptoms of autism is avoiding
eye contact. By attracting our eyes
to faces, an innate bias would force
us to learn to recognize them—
and indeed, as early as a couple
of months after birth, a region
of the visual cortex of the right
hemisphere begins to respond to
faces more than to other images,
such as places. The specialization
for faces is one of the best examples
of the harmonious collaboration
between nature and nurture. In
this domain, babies exhibit strictly
innate skills (a magnetic attrac-
tion to face-like pictures), but also
an extraordinary instinct to learn
the specifics of face perception.
It is precisely the combination of
these two factors that allows babies,
in a little less than a year, to go
beyond naively reacting to the mere
presence of two eyes and a mouth
and to start preferring human faces

22 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

to those of other primates, such as language acquisition does not and so forth. These words become
monkeys and chimpanzees. begin until one or two years of age. engraved in their memory to such
Why? Because—as its Latin name, an extent that, as adults, they
The Language Instinct infans [“one who does not speak”], continue to hold a special status
suggests—a newborn child does and are processed more effectively
The social skills of small children not speak and therefore hides than other words of comparable
are manifest not only in vision, its talents. And yet, in terms of meaning, sound and frequency
but also in the auditory domain— language comprehension, a baby’s acquired later in life.
spoken language comes to them brain is a true statistical genius. To
just as easily as face perception. As show this, scientists had to deploy a By the time they blow out their
Steven Pinker famously noted in whole panoply of original methods, first candle, they have already laid
his best-selling book The Language including the measurement of down the foundation for the main
Instinct (1994), “Humans are so infants’ preferences for speech and rules of their native language at
innately hardwired for language non-speech stimuli, their responses several levels, from elementary
that they can no more suppress to change, the recording of their sounds (phonemes) to melody
their ability to learn and use brain signals. These studies gave (prosody), vocabulary (lexicon) and
language than they can suppress converging results and revealed how grammar rules (syntax).
the instinct to pull a hand back much infants already know about
from a hot surface.” This statement language. Right at birth, babies can No other primate species is
should not be misunderstood: tell the difference between most capable of such abilities. This very
obviously, babies are not born with vowels and consonants in every experiment has been attempted
a full-blown lexicon and grammar, language in the world. many times: several scientists
but they possess a remarkable tried adopting baby chimpan-
capacity to acquire them in record But that’s not all: babies quickly zees, treating them like family
time. What is hardwired in them is start to learn their first words. members, speaking to them in
not so much language itself as the How do they go about identifying English or sign language or with
ability to acquire it. them? First, babies rely on prosody, visual symbols, only to find out, a
the rhythm and intonation of few years later, that none of these
Much evidence now confirms speech—the way our voices rise, fall animals mastered a language
this early insight. Right from birth, or stop, thus marking the boundar- worthy of the name: they knew, at
babies already prefer listening to ies between words and sentences. most, a few hundred words. The
their native language rather than Another mechanism identifies linguist Noam Chomsky, therefore,
to a foreign one—a truly extraor- which speech sounds follow each was probably right in postulat-
dinary finding which implies that other. Again, babies behave like ing that our species is born with
language learning starts in utero. budding statisticians. They realize, a “language acquisition device,” a
In fact, by the third trimester of for example, that the syllable /bo/ specialized system that is automati-
pregnancy, the fetus is already able is often followed by /t^l/. A quick cally triggered in the first years of
to hear. The melody of language, calculation of probabilities tells life. As Darwin said in The Descent
filtered through the uterine wall, them that this cannot be due to of Man (1871), language “certainly
passes on to babies, and they begin chance: /t^l/ follows /bo/ with too is not a true instinct, for every
to memorize it. “As soon as the high a probability; these syllables language has to be learnt,” but it is
sound of your greeting reached my must form a word, “bottle”—and “an instinctive tendency to acquire
ears, the baby in my womb leaped this is how this word is added to an art.” What is innate in us is the
for joy,” said the pregnant Elizabeth the child’s vocabulary and can later instinct to learn any language—
when Mary visited her (as told in be related to a specific object or an instinct so irrepressible that
Luke 1:44). The Evangelist was not concept. As early as six months of language appears spontane-
mistaken: in the last few months age, children have already extracted ously within a few generations in
of pregnancy, the growing fetus’s the words that recur with a high humans deprived of it.
brain already recognizes certain frequency in their environment,
auditory patterns and melodies, such as “baby,” “daddy,” “mommy,” EXCERPTED FROM HOW WE LEARN BY STANISLAS
probably unconsciously. “bottle,” “foot,” “drink,” “diaper” DEHAENE, PUBLISHED BY VIKING, AN IMPRINT
OF PENGUIN PUBLISHING GROUP, AN IMPRINT OF
It was long thought that PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC. COPYRIGHT © 2020
BY STANISLAS DEHAENE.

23

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

Food for
Thought

Sticking to a healthy, nutrient-rich diet
helps give the brain a much-needed boost
for cognitive function and memory

BY E M I LY J O S H U

A LONG WITH BLUE ‘imported’ from the food we eat,”
Mosconi says. “No other organs in
books and freshly the body have the same strict rules.”
sharpened pencils, This includes foods that impact
inflammation, brain shrinkage and
a staple often oxidative stress. (Oxidative stress is
an imbalance between free radicals
found at standard- and antioxidants, which fight
infection and chronic disease risk;
ized tests is peppermint candies. without antioxidants, free radicals
can go haywire and increase the
And that’s not just for their crisp risk of disease.) “Those are going to
be three main things that we look
taste. Some research has indicated at in terms of cognitive decline
and mental health,” says Kristin
that the sweet treats may enhance Kirkpatrick, a registered dietitian at
the Cleveland Clinic and the author
our ability to retain information. of Skinny Liver. A 2019 study of
dementia-free elders in the journal
That’s part of a growing emphasis NeuroImage found that distinct
nutrient biomarker patterns were
on using diet to nurture brain associated with cognitive health
and functional brain network
health. “As a society, we are comfort- efficiency. Mosconi participated
in two 2018 studies that found
able with the idea that we feed that patients who followed a
Mediterranean diet exhibited fewer
our bodies and much less aware Alzheimer’s-related changes to
their brains than those who ate
that we’re feeding our brains too,” a Western-style diet, character-
ized by high intake of red meat,
says Lisa Mosconi, the director of saturated fats and refined carbs.

the Weill Cornell Women’s Brain A so-called brain-healthy diet
includes nutrient-rich foods
Initiative and author of The XX

Brain. “Parts of the foods we eat

will end up being the very fabric of

our brains. Brain-focused nourish-

ment needs to be part of the larger

conversation around cognition and

mental health. What we eat directly

affects our thoughts, our moods

and our mental capacities.”

To function best, Mosconi says,

the brain requires approximately

45 distinct nutrients. Though the

brain produces many of these on

its own, others come only from

diet. “Everything in the brain that

isn’t made by the brain itself is

24 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

25

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

such as arugula, which is packed Cookbook, its origins date as toward reducing dementia and the
with vital nutrients like calcium, far back as the Middle Ages. overall decline in brain health that
potassium, folate and vitamin C (as Prioritizing omega-3 fatty acids, accompanies aging. In addition to
opposed to iceberg lettuce, which whole grains and vitamins found fish, healthy fats and leafy greens,
contains much smaller amounts of historically throughout the region, the MIND diet encourages a high
healthy components). Raspberries the diet is bolstered by an array of intake of fruit. Berries, for example,
are filled with vitamin C and superfoods. These include leafy were associated with significantly
potassium, while spinach is rich in greens such as kale; foods high in lower rates of cognitive decline
antioxidants. “Specific nutrients healthy fats, including olive oil among older women in a recent
impact specific cognitive abili- and avocados; protein-packed fish, study published in Annals of
ties due to their effects on brain like salmon; and nuts. In a 2019 U.S. Neurology. A 2015 Alzheimer’s &
chemistry,” Mosconi says. “For News and World Report evaluation Dementia study found that adher-
example, an amino acid called of 41 of the most renowned diets, ing to the MIND diet was linked to
tryptophan is needed for the brain the Mediterranean diet ranked as lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease.
to make serotonin, the feel-good the healthiest overall. Typically, Another 2015 study in the same
neurotransmitter. If your diet is
too low on tryptophan, that can The nutrient choline, which can
negatively impact your brain’s be obtained from foods such as
ability to make serotonin, with eggs, fresh cod, salmon and broccoli, is
negative effects on your mood.” crucial to memory formation.
Leafy greens are also high in
vitamin E, which Mosconi calls “an foods found in the diet are a single publication found that the diet
antioxidant brain essential nutri- ingredient and unprocessed, and correlates with a slower decline in
ent.” Half a cup of boiled spinach the foods have been found to cognitive abilities.
contains about 1.9 milligrams improve cognitive functioning, as
of vitamin E, or 10% of the daily well as lower the risk of diseases The Mediterranean and MIND
recommended intake. Additionally, such as type 2 diabetes and heart diets are also consistent with the
the nutrient choline, which is disease. A study published this recommendations of the Dietary
produced in small amounts by year in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Guidelines for Americans from the
the liver but is primarily obtained the journal of the Alzheimer’s U.S. Departments of Health and
from foods such as eggs, fresh Association, found that adhering to Human Services and Agriculture,
cod, salmon and broccoli, is a Mediterranean diet was associ- which call for a diet filled with
crucial to memory formation. The ated with a lower risk of cognitive an array of leafy greens, legumes,
brain needs choline to make the impairment and higher scores fruits, whole grains, dairy, lean
neurotransmitter acetylcholine, on tests of cognitive functioning. meats, eggs and seafood. Both
which impacts muscle movement, However, there was not evidence plans caution against added
thinking and working memory. that the diet would slow an already sugars, refined grains (such as
Low acetylcholine levels have been present decline in cognitive white bread), margarine and red
linked to learning and memory function. or processed meats. Additionally,
impairments, as well as Alzheimer’s the MIND diet discourages high
and dementia. The MIND diet—inspired by the consumption of cheese, advising
Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary that it should be consumed only
Brain-healthy nutrients are Approaches to Stop Hypertension) about once per week.
consistent with foods found in diets—stands for Mediterranean-
the Mediterranean and MIND DASH Intervention for Neuro- Benefits have also been observed
diets, which focus on colorful, degenerative Delay. This eating from specific foods. A 2018 study
varied plates of whole foods. pattern is specifically geared in the Journal of Nutrition, Health
Though the Mediterranean diet & Aging of nearly 5,000 Chinese
has been recently popularized by
mainstream media and books such
as The Complete Mediterranean

26 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

individuals over age 55, for example, Research suggests that the aroma of peppermint
found that the long-term high can improve cognition and mood.
consumption of nuts, including
peanuts (which are actually 2008 study in the International healthy eating pattern doesn’t have
legumes), was associated with a Journal of Neuroscience found that to mean immediately replacing all
lower likelihood of poor cognitive participants who were exposed weekly staples with fish and salad,
function. Peanuts are rich in to peppermint oil experienced however. Consider simple swaps
unsaturated fats, folate, vitamin E, enhanced memory and process- and gradually adding more color
magnesium and potassium, which ing speeds, Kirkpatrick says that to the plate. “The deeper the hue
provide anti-inflammatory, antioxi- more research is still needed to of any plant, the more benefits
dant and lipid-lowering benefits. determine how effective pepper- you get, because you have more
mint and peppermint oil can be for phytonutrients,” Kirkpatrick says.
These foods and eating patterns brain health. In a 2017 study from These natural compounds are
have additional perks beyond Chicago’s Rush University Medical produced by plants and have anti-
keeping the brain sharp. The Center published in the Journal inflammatory and antioxidant
anti-inflammatory properties of of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, properties. For a simple swap,
omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D researchers studied the effect of consider replacing white bread
and folate can positively impact cinnamon on mice that had previ- with whole-grain bread to cut back
those with depression and ously been determined to have on refined grains. Snacking on a
anxiety, according to Kirkpatrick. a lower learning capacity. Mice handful of mixed nuts rather than
Additionally, following these diets who consumed cinnamon for one potato chips or replacing potatoes
is associated with reduced risks of month were able to memorize more with sweet potatoes is a mindful,
chronic diseases, certain cancers quickly and effectively than before. gradual adjustment. Nurturing
and type 2 diabetes, since excess However, similar to peppermint, brain health is a long-term strategy
body fat can increase inflamma- more research is still needed to that does not have to take place
tion. “Inflammation is the base examine the potential cognitive overnight. “Start really slow,”
of any disease,” Kirkpatrick says, effects in humans. Kirkpatrick says. “You don’t have to
adding that the impact is especially aim for perfection.”
significant in the brain. Getting started on a brain-

On the opposite side of the
spectrum are foods such as sugary
drinks, refined or highly processed
grains (including white breads and
white pastas), trans fats, sodium
and highly processed foods, which
contribute to inflammation in the
brain and connected organs and
which are detrimental to long-term
cognitive health. “It’s foolish for
us to think that what we choose
to put in our body through food
is not going to have an impact on
our brain health today but also
tomorrow,” Kirkpatrick says. “This
isn’t something that improves
overnight. This is something to
make a lifestyle.”

In this vein, what about the idea
that eating peppermint candies
boosts memory and cognitive
retention? While a widely cited

27

28 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

Forgetting Can Be a
Friend to Learning

As with muscle-building, some memory
breakdown can help strengthen subsequent
learning. Also, forgetting trivial things may
help us retain key information more clearly

BY BENEDICT CAREY

T HE RELATIONSHIP forgetting—that passive decay we
so often bemoan—is also helpful
between learning for subsequent learning. I think
and forgetting is of this as the muscle-building
property of forgetting: Some
not so simple and “breakdown” must occur for us
to strengthen learning when we
in certain impor- revisit the material. Without a
little forgetting, you get no benefit
tant respects is quite the opposite of from further study. It is what
allows learning to build, like an
what people assume,” Robert Bjork, exercised muscle.

a psychologist at the University of This system is far from perfect.
We have instantaneous and
California, Los Angeles, told me. flawless recall of many isolated
facts, it’s true: Seoul is the capital of
“We assume it’s all bad, a failure of South Korea, 3 is the square root
of 9, and J. K. Rowling is the author
the system. But more often, forget- of the Harry Potter books. Yet
no complex memory comes back
ting is a friend to learning.” exactly the same way twice, in part
because the forgetting filter blocks
For example “losers” in memory some relevant details along with
many irrelevant ones. Features
or spelling competitions, research that previously were blocked or
forgotten often reemerge. This drift
suggests, stumble not because they in memory is perhaps most obvious
when it comes to the sort of child-
remember too little. They have hood tales we all tell and embellish.
The time we borrowed the family
studied tens or perhaps hundreds car at age fourteen; the time we
got lost on the metro the first time
of thousands of words, and often we visited the city. After rolling
out those yarns enough times, it
they are familiar with the word

they ultimately misspell. In many

cases, they stumble because they

remember too much. If recollect-

ing is just that—a recollection

of perceptions, facts, and ideas

scattered in intertwining neural

networks in the dark storm of the

brain—then forgetting acts to block

the background noise, the static, so

that the right signals stand out. The

sharpness of the one depends on

the strength of the other.

Another large upside of forget-

ting has nothing to do with its

active filtering property. Normal

29

Retention THE FORGETTING CURVE Okay, now put this aside and
make a cup of coffee, take a walk,
100% listen to the news. Distract yourself
80% for about five minutes, the same
60% amount of time you took to study it.
40% Then, sit and write down as much
20% of the poem as you can. Save the
result (you’ll need it later if you
1 2345 67 want to measure your recall).

Days This is exactly the test that an
English teacher and researcher
Though limited and flawed, Ebbinghaus’s curve remains a revelation in the field. named Philip Boswood Ballard
began administering to school-
can be tough to tell what’s true deficits, or a faulty character. On children in the early 1900s in
and what’s not. the contrary, it is a sign that the London’s working-class East End.
brain is working as it should. The children were thought to be
The point is not that memory is poor learners, and Ballard was
nothing more than a pile of loose HERE’S A SIMPLE exercise, painless, curious to find out why. Was it a
facts and a catalog of tall tales. and full of literary nutrition. Take deficit of initial learning? Or did
It’s that retrieving any memory five minutes and study the verse something happen later that inter-
alters its accessibility, and often its below. Read it carefully and try fered with recall? To find out, he
content. to commit it to memory. It’s from had them study various material,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s including ballads like Longfellow’s,
There is an emerging theory “The Wreck of the Hesperus.” to see if he could pinpoint the
that accounts for these and related source of their learning problems.
ideas. It’s called the New Theory At daybreak, on the bleak
of Disuse, to distinguish it from an sea-beach, Only the children had no
older, outdated principle stating, obvious learning deficits that
simply, that memories evaporate A fisherman stood aghast, Ballard could find. On the contrary.
entirely from the brain over time if To see the form of a maiden fair,
they’re not used. The new theory is Lashed close to a drifting mast. Their scores five minutes after
an overhaul, recasting forgetting as The salt sea was frozen on studying were nothing special.
the best friend of learning, rather Some did well and others didn’t.
than its rival. her breast, Ballard wasn’t finished, however.
The salt tears in her eyes; He wanted to know what happened
A better name for it, then, might And he saw her hair, like the to the studied verse over time. Did
be the Forget to Learn theory. memory somehow falter in the days
That phrase captures its literal brown sea-weed, after these children studied? To
implications and its general spirit, On the billows fall and rise. find out, he gave them another test,
its reassuring voice. One implica- Such was the wreck of the two days later. The students were
tion, for instance, is that forgetting not expecting to be retested and yet
a huge chunk of what we’ve just Hesperus, their scores improved by an average
learned, especially when it’s a In the midnight and the of 10 percent. Ballard tested them
brand-new topic, is not necessar- once more, again unannounced,
ily evidence of laziness, attention snow! days later.
Christ save us all from a death
“J.T. improved from fifteen to
like this, twenty-one lines in three days,” he
On the reef of Norman’s Woe! wrote of one student. “Imagined
she saw the lines in front of her.” Of
another, who improved from three
to eleven lines in seven days, he
remarked: “Pictured the words on

30 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

the blackboard (the poetry in this large these letter trios are meaning- IN THE DECADES after Ballard
case was learnt from the black- less and the brain has no place to published his findings, there
board).” A third, who recalled nine “put” them. They’re not related to was a modest flare of interest in
lines on the first test and, days later, one another or to anything else; “spontaneous improvement.”
thirteen, told Ballard, “as I began they’re not part of a structured The effect should be easy to find,
to write it, I could picture it on the language or pattern. The brain scientists reasoned, in all kinds of
paper before me.” doesn’t hold on to nonsense learning. Yet it wasn’t. Researchers
syllables for long, then, because ran scores of experiments, and the
Ballard ran hundreds of they are nonsense. Ebbinghaus results were all over the place. In
additional tests, with more than acknowledged as much himself, one huge 1924 trial, for instance,
10,000 subjects, over the next writing that his famous curve people studied a word list and took
several years. The results were the might not apply to anything more a test immediately afterward. They
same: Memory improved in the than what he had studied directly. were then given a follow-up test,
first few days without any further after varying delays: eight minutes,
study, and only began to taper off Forgetting, remember, is not sixteen minutes, three days, a
after day four or so, on average. only a passive process of decay but week. They did worse over time, on
also an active one, of filtering. It average, not better.
Ballard reported his findings in works to block distracting informa-
1913, in a paper that seems to have tion, to clear away useless clutter. In a 1937 experiment, subjects
caused mostly confusion. Few Nonsense syllables are clutter; who studied nonsense syllables
scientists appreciated what he’d Longfellow’s “The Wreck of the showed some spontaneous
done, and even today he is little Hesperus” is not. The poem may improvement after an initial
more than a footnote in psychology. or may not become useful in our exam—but only for about five
Still, Ballard knew what he had. daily life, but at least it is nested in minutes, after which their scores
“We not only tend to forget what
we have once remembered,” he The brain doesn’t hold on to
wrote, “but we also tend to remem- nonsense syllables for long
ber what we have once forgotten.” because they are nonsense—not part
of a structured language or pattern.
Memory does not have just one
tendency over time, toward decay. a mesh of neural networks repre- plunged. A widely cited 1940 study
It has two. senting words and patterns we found that people’s recall of a set of
recognize. That could account for words, a set of brief sentences, and a
The other—“reminiscence,” why there would be a difference paragraph of prose all declined over
Ballard called it—is a kind of in how well we remember a twenty-four-hour period. Even
growth, a bubbling up of facts or nonsense syllables versus a poem, when researchers found improve-
words that we don’t recall having a short story, or other material ment for one kind of material, like
learned in the first place. Both that makes sense. Yet it does not poetry, they’d find the opposite
tendencies occur in the days after explain the increase in clarity after result for something else, like
we’ve tried to memorize a poem or two days without rehearsal, the vocabulary lists. “Experimental
a list of words. “salt tears” and “hair like brown psychologists began to tinker
sea-weed” floating up from the with Ballard’s approach and, as if
What could possibly be going on? neural deep. Those “slow” East struggling in quicksand, became
One clue comes from Hermann Enders showed Ballard that progressively mired in confusion
Ebbinghaus, who in the 1880s remembering and forgetting are and doubt,” wrote Matthew Hugh
created the Forgetting Curve, a not related to each other in the Erdelyi, of Brooklyn College, in
representation of how memory way everyone assumed. his history of the era, The Recovery
worsens over time—days and
weeks—that remains a seminal
work in the field. Ebbinghaus had
tested memory using nonsense
syllables—a series of single sylla-
bles formed by sticking a vowel
between two consonants. RUR,
HAL, MEK, BES, SOK, DUS. By and

31

of Unconscious Memories. other words, a phantom. It wasn’t he claimed. It could change lives.
The mixed findings inevitably long before many scientists If those were phantoms, they were
followed Buxton’s lead and begged far more lifelike than a heap of
led to questions about Ballard’s off the hunt. There were far better recited poetry.
methods. Were the children he things to do with the tools of
tested really recalling more over psychology than chase phantoms, Besides, the real juice in learn-
time, or was their improvement and certainly more culturally ing science by the middle of the
due to some flaw in the experimen- fashionable ones. century was in reinforcement. It
tal design? It wasn’t a rhetorical was the high summer of behavior-
question. What if, for example, the Freudian therapy was on the ism. The American psychologist
children had rehearsed the poem rise, and its ideas of recovered B. F. Skinner showed how rewards
on their own time, between tests? memories easily trumped Ballard’s and punishments could alter
In that case, Ballard had nothing. scraps of Longfellow for sex appeal. behavior, and accelerate learning
The two men’s conceptions of in many circumstances. Skinner
In an influential review of all recovery were virtually identical, tested various reward schedules
published research up through except that Freud was talking against one another and got strik-
1943, one British learning theorist, about repressed emotional trauma. ing results: An automatic reward
C. E. Buxton, concluded that Excavating those memories and for a correct answer leads to little
Ballard’s spontaneous improve- “working through” them could learning; occasional, periodic
ment effect was a “now-you-see-it- relieve chronic, disabling anxiety, rewards are much more effec-
now-you-don’t phenomenon”—in tive. Skinner’s work, which was
enormously influential among
educators, focused on improv-
ing teaching, rather than on the
peculiarities of memory.

Yet Ballard’s findings didn’t
disappear completely. They
continued to marinate in the minds
of a small group of psychologists
who couldn’t shake the idea that
something consequential might be
slipping through the cracks. In the
1960s and 1970s, these curious few
began to separate the poetry from
the nonsense.

The Ballard effect was, and is,
real. It was not due to an experi-
mental design flaw; the children
in his studies could not have
rehearsed lines that they did not
remember after the first test. You
can’t practice what you don’t
remember. The reason researchers
had had so much trouble isolat-
ing Ballard’s “reminiscence” was
because the strength of this effect is
highly dependent on the material
being used. For nonsense syllables,
and for most lists of vocabulary
words or random sentences, it’s
zero: There’s no spontaneous

32 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

improvement on test scores after presented on slides, improved from our heads in grade school, and
a day or two. By contrast, reminis- twenty-seven to thirty in the first we use it continually throughout
cence is strong for imagery, for ten hours—and no more. Their life, in a wide variety of situations,
photographs, drawings, paintings— scores slipped slightly over the next from balancing the bank account
and poetry, with its word-pictures. several days. Soon it was beyond to calculating tips to helping our
And it takes time to happen. Ballard dispute that memory, as Erdelyi put fourth grader with homework. Its
had identified the “bubbling up” of it in a recent paper, “is a heteroge- storage strength is enormous.
new verse in the first few days after neous, mottled system that both
study, when it’s strongest. Other improves and declines over time.” According to the Bjorks’ theory,
researchers had looked for it too storage strength can increase but it
early, minutes afterward, or too late, Which left theorists with never decreases.
after a week or more. a larger riddle. Why does recall of
pictures improve while recall of This does not mean that every-
Matthew Erdelyi was one of word lists does not? thing we see, hear or say is stored
those who was instrumental in forever, until we die. More than
clarifying reminiscence, and he Scientists had speculated about 99 percent of experience is fleeting,
began by testing a junior colleague, the answers all along. Maybe it was here and gone. The brain holds on
Jeff Kleinbard, then at Stanford a matter of having more time to to only what’s relevant, useful, or
University. Erdelyi gave Kleinbard search memory (two tests versus interesting—or may be so in the
a group of forty pictures to study one). Or perhaps the delay between future. It does mean that every-
in a single sitting, on the pretext tests relaxed the mind, eased thing we have deliberately commit-
that he “should have the experience fatigue. Yet it wasn’t until the 1980s ted to memory—the multiplication
of being a subject” before conduct- that psychologists had enough table, a childhood phone number,
ing experiments of his own. In hard evidence to begin building the combination to our first
fact, he was a subject, and Erdelyi a more complete model that locker—is all there, and for good.
tested him repeatedly, without accounts for the Ballard effect and This seems beyond belief at first,
warning, over the following week. other peculiarities of memory. The given the sheer volume of informa-
The results were so clear and theory that emerged is less a grand tion we absorb and how mundane
reliable—Kleinbard remembered blueprint for how the mind works so much of it is. But biologically
increasingly more on tests over than a set of principles based on speaking there’s space to burn: In
the first two days—that the two of research, a theory that encom- digital terms, we have storage space
them set up larger studies. In one, passes Ebbinghaus and Ballard, for three million TV shows. That is
they had a group of young adults as well as many other seemingly more than enough to record every
try to memorize a series of sixty opposed ideas and characters. The second of a long life, cradle to grave.
sketches. The participants saw the scientists who have shepherded Volume is not an issue.
sketches one at a time, projected the theory along and characterized
on a screen, five seconds apart: it most clearly are Robert Bjork As for the mundane, it’s impos-
simple drawings of things like a of UCLA and his wife, Elizabeth sible to prove that it’s all there,
boot, a chair, a television. Ligon Bjork, also at UCLA. The every meaningless detail. Still,
new theory of disuse (“Forget to every once in a while the brain
The group took a test right after Learn,” as we’re calling it) is largely sends up a whisper of dumbfound-
and tried to recall all sixty, in seven their baby. ing trivia—the recollection of a fact
minutes, writing down a word to or detail or event that was at one
describe each sketch recalled (the The first principle theory is this: time useful to know. It happens
sketches had no accompanying Any memory has two strengths, to everyone throughout life. The
words). The average score was a storage strength and a retrieval Forget to Learn theory says: If I
twenty-seven. Ten hours later, strength. stored it, it’s in there for good. That
however, their average was thirty- is, no memory is ever “lost” in the
two; a day later, thirty-four; by Storage strength is just that, sense that it’s faded away, that it’s
four days, it was up to thirty-eight, a measure of how well learned gone. Rather, it is not currently
where it plateaued. A comparison something is. It builds up steadily accessible. Its retrieval strength is
group, who studied sixty words with studying, and more sharply low, or near zero.
with use. The multiplication table
is a good example. It’s drilled into Retrieval strength is a measure

33

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

of how easily a nugget of informa- low). Tomorrow morning, their In its nomadic hominid youth, the
tion comes to mind. It too increases names will be harder to recall. brain was continually refreshing
with studying, and with use. As for the driver’s-ed guy, the its mental map to adapt to chang-
Without reinforcement, however, name’s not coming back, and he ing weather, terrain, and preda-
retrieval strength drops off quickly, wouldn’t be so easy to pick out tors. Retrieval strength evolved
and its capacity is relatively small of a lineup, either. The class was to update information quickly,
(compared to storage). At any given only two months long (retrieval keeping the most relevant details
time, we can pull up only a limited low, storage low). handy. It lives for the day. Storage
number of items in connection strength, on the other hand,
with any given cue or reminder. The act of finding and naming evolved so that old tricks could
each person increases both be relearned, and fast, if needed.
For example, a quack-quack cell strengths, remember. The first grade Seasons pass, but they repeat; so
phone ring overheard on the bus teacher—once she’s reintroduced— do weather and terrain. Storage
might bring to mind the name of is now highly retrievable. This is strength plans for the future.
a friend who has the same ring, due to the passive side of forgetting,
as well as several people who are the fading of retrieval strength over This combination of flighty
owed calls. It may also trigger time. The theory says that this drop retrieval and steady storage—the
an older vision of the family dog facilitates deeper learning once tortoise and the hare—is no
belly-flopping into a lake to pursue the fact or memory is found again. less important to modern-day
a flotilla of ducks; or your first Again, think of this aspect of the survival. Kids who grow up in
raincoat, bright yellow with a Forget to Learn theory in terms North American households, for
duckbill on the hood. Thousands of building muscle. Doing pull- example, learn to look people in
of other quack associations, some ups induces tissue breakdown in the eye when speaking, especially a
meaningful at the time they muscles that, after a day’s rest, leads teacher or parent. Kids in Japanese
formed, are entirely off the radar.
The harder we have to work to
Compared to storage, retrieval retrieve a memory, the better
strength is fickle. It can build we are able to store it and the quicker
quickly but also weaken quickly. we can retrieve it next time.

One way to think of storage and to more strength the next time you homes learn the opposite: Keep
retrieval is to picture a huge party do the exercise. your gaze down, especially when
in which everyone you ever met is speaking to an authority figure.
in attendance (at the age when you That’s not all. The harder we To move successfully from one
last saw them). Mom and Dad; your have to work to retrieve a memory, culture to the other, people must
first grade teacher; the brand-new the greater the subsequent spike block—or forget—their native
neighbors next door; the guy who in retrieval and storage strength customs to quickly absorb and
taught driver’s-ed in sophomore (learning). The Bjorks call this practice the new ones. The native
year: They’re all here, mingling. principle desirable difficulty. ways are hardly forgotten; their
Retrieval is a matter of how quickly That driver’s-ed teacher, once he’s storage strength is high. But
a person’s name comes to mind. spotted, is now way more familiar blocking them to transition to a
Storage, by contrast, is a matter of than he was before, and you may new culture drives down their
how familiar the person is. Mom remember things about him you retrieval strength.
and Dad, there’s no escaping them forgot you knew: not just his name
(retrieval high, storage high). The and nickname but his crooked Being able to do this can be
first grade teacher, her name isn’t smile, his favorite phrases. a matter of life or death. An
jumping to mind (retrieval low), Australian who moves to the
but that’s definitely her right there The brain developed this system United States, for instance, must
over by the door (storage high). for a good reason, the Bjorks argue.
The new neighbors, by contrast,
just introduced themselves (“Justin
and Maria”—retrieval high), but
they’re not familiar yet (storage

34 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

learn to drive on the right side of and quickly—and as a result line or two with each exam. Will it
the road instead of the left, upend- their brains had time to scrounge all come back, with enough testing,
ing almost every driving instinct for more words, using the remem- even if only half was remembered
he has. There’s little room for error; bered verse as a skeleton guide, the first time? Not likely. You get
one Melbourne daydream and he a partially completed jigsaw something back, not everything.
wakes up in a ditch. Here again, the puzzle, a packet of cues to shake
memory system forgets all the old loose extra lines. This is a poem, Using memory changes
instincts to make room for the new after all, swollen with imagery and memory—and for the better.
ones. And that’s not all. If twenty meaning, precisely the material Forgetting enables and deepens
years later he gets homesick and that shows the strongest “reminis- learning, by filtering out distract-
moves back to Australia, he will cence” effect of all. ing information and by allow-
have to switch to driving on the ing some breakdown that, after
left again. That change will come Voilà! They do better. reuse, drives retrieval and storage
much more easily than the first one Yes, the Hesperus poem will strengths higher than they were
did. The old instincts are still there, eventually sink if the brain stops originally. Those are the basic
and their storage strength is still thinking about it, and its retrieval principles that emerge from brain
high. The old dog quickly relearns strength will inch toward zero. But biology and cognitive science, and
old tricks. a third test, and a fourth, would they underlie—and will help us
anchor the poem in memory more understand—the various learning
“Compared to some kind of richly still, as the brain—now techniques yet to come.
system in which out-of-date being called on to use the poem
memories were to be overwritten regularly—would continue its FROM THE BOOK HOW WE LEARN: THE SURPRISING
or erased,” Bjork writes, “having search for patterns within the poem, TRUTH ABOUT WHEN, WHERE, AND WHY IT HAPPENS
such memories become inacces- perhaps pulling up another half BY BENEDICT CAREY. COPYRIGHT © 2014 BY BENEDICT
sible but remain in storage has CAREY. PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE, AN IMPRINT
important advantages. Because AND DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC.
those memories are inaccessible,
they don’t interfere with current
information and procedures. But
because they remain in memory
they can—at least under certain
circumstances—be relearned.”

Thus, forgetting is critical to the
learning of new skills and to the
preservation and reacquisition of
old ones.

LET’S RETURN TO our friend Philip
Ballard. The first test his students
took not only measured how
much of the “Hesperus” poem they
remembered. It also increased
the storage and retrieval strengths
of the verse they did remember,
making it more firmly anchored
in memory and more easily
accessible than it was before the
test. Hit unexpectedly with
the same test two days later, most
of the lines they recalled on
test number one came back clearly

35

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

When Learners
Stumble

Researchers know more than ever about the
obstacles to learning, but it’s still not enough
to solve issues that affect millions

BY DAVID BJERKLIE

W E TAKE IT for resources for children who face
granted that these challenges.
children are born
to learn. Until, But what exactly is a learning
that is, a parent, disorder or disability? Definitions
doctor or teacher notes that a are also less than straightforward.
child isn’t meeting milestones on Learning problems exist across a
schedule or seems out of step with wide spectrum. Some affect specific
other children in the classroom. competencies, in reading, writing
Suddenly, ordinary expectations are or understanding math; some affect
clouded with fear. the ability to focus or concentrate;
and some affect broader measures
Learning disorders cause of cognitive capacity.
distress for millions of children and
their parents. In recent decades, A correspondingly wide range
however, major advances have been of factors underlies such problems.
made in understanding many of There are learning problems
the factors that can make it difficult influenced by genetics or by
for children to learn. Problems environment, including exposure to
that complicate typical learning toxins, lead and other heavy metals.
in children are now recognized as Exposure to alcohol or certain
being far more common than previ- medicines during pregnancy has
ously thought. Advocacy groups been linked to learning disorders, as
cite statistics that suggest learning has anesthesia in infancy. Chronic
and attention issues could affect as stress, caused by abuse, racism or
many as one in five. poverty, can also be a factor.

Even though such numbers The reality of so many contrib-
are less than straightforward, the uting factors makes it difficult
recognition that learning disorders to determine single causes.
affect huge numbers of children is Nonetheless, there are ongoing
a powerful driver of research and attempts to define disabilities and
education policy. The sheer number disorders, sometimes by what a
of kids affected has provided condition is, but also by what it is
additional momentum for parents not. Such categorization of learning
and educators to demand more problems is necessary in order to
best determine what sort of support

36 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

37

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

to offer students. Not all learning autopsies of adults with dyslexia, as whom people “expect” to be poor
problems are equal, and not all are well as from neural imaging studies, learners are left by the wayside.
amenable to the same treatment. and we can see definite differences The intent of the DSM-5’s distinc-
in certain brain structures—and tion, however, is to rule out cases
There are also psychological and we now know that the structural in which difficulties are better
emotional dimensions to the defini- disruption will lead to different explained by developmental,
tions of learning disability, says capacity to function.” neurological, sensory or motor
Matthew Cruger, the senior director disorders, or by psychosocial
of the Learning and Development But that doesn’t mean the adversity or a lack of educational
Center at the Child Mind Institute, disorder will have the same impact opportunity. And thereby
in New York City. “People talk on all individuals. “One person more effectively addressed with
about learning disorders versus might have tools to overcome it, to other support.
learning disabilities. And a third compensate for it, and therefore are
category they talk about is learn- not really disabled by it,” Cruger It is natural to want to know
ing differences. . . . Each catches a notes. “But another individual will which part of a learning problem
different meaning, but most people struggle in a profound way and comes from genes or neurology and
use the terms interchangeably,” he therefore experience a handicap. which arises from nonbiological
says. Which term they use reflects For them, the ‘disorder’ can also be sources. But most experts agree that
a range of issues. “Many people seen, technically, as a ‘disability,’ it is impossible to separate biology
don’t want to think of themselves as a disabling condition.” from environment or experience.
having a disorder. But for research- It’s always an interaction, always
ers, a learning disorder can carry an The bible of psychiatric and dynamic. There is also an interac-
important scientific distinction. It psychological diagnoses, the tion between the study of general
captures the fact that we recognize Diagnostic and Statistical Manual learning in children and the study
there are individuals who struggle of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), of learning disorders, says Cruger:
because, in purely a scientific way, emphasizes an even finer point. “Part of the beauty of what we do
neural processing is ‘disordered’ According to the DSM-5, to qualify is this dynamic between general
compared to typical processing.” as a learning disability, the difficul- education models and the subsets
ties in learning and underachieve- of struggling students that special-
The best example of that may ment must be “unexpected” given ists are focused on.” An example of
be dyslexia, says Cruger: “We the child’s profile. This can appear this can be seen in the promise of
have a large amount of data, from harsh, suggesting that children an ambitious effort spearheaded
by the Child Mind Institute called
the Healthy Brain Network. The
effort will aim to collect data from
a very large sample, 10,000 partici-
pants, and make the data open to
other researchers. It will serve as
a resource for researchers who
are studying patterns in child and
adolescent mental health, as well
as those developing biomarkers to
identify psychiatric and psycho-
logical conditions.

That doesn’t mean, however, that
this project or others like it will
necessarily translate into effective
school policies. Science alone can’t
do that; that has to be driven by our
values and commitment to educa-
tion and opportunity.

38 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

A C C O M M O D AT I N G
S P E C I A L- N E E D S
STUDENTS

Federal and local education
programs help children with learning
disabilities succeed in school

BY KATHRYN SATTERFIELD

THE DIAGNOSIS of a learning Pop Its and other fidget toys may help soothe students with ADHD.
disability is a crucial first step
toward academic success for a instruction and measurable goals. learning disability in the area of
struggling student. Research has Educators track how the child reading, such as dyslexia, there
shown that children with learning is progressing weekly or daily, is science to back up how to go
and attention issues are as smart depending on the severity of the about reading instruction. Schools
as their peers and, with the right learning problems. have access to different liter-
support, can achieve at high levels. acy programs and other teach-
According to advocacy groups, ing tools. Assistive technology,
“Early intervention matters,” says 1 in 16 public school students including alternative keyboards,
Kit Savage, a special-education have IEPs. Within that group, audiobooks, talking calculators
adviser and executive-functioning specific learning disabilities such and electronic worksheets, also
coach at Savage Advocates and as dyslexia represent the larg- address learning issues. “With
True North Educational Advisors. est disability category, account- appropriate intervention,” says
“We don’t want a child to be diag- ing for nearly 39%. Other health Savage, “all children can learn.”
nosed in sixth grade,” because impairments, a disability category
they will have fallen so far behind. that covers ADHD and dyspraxia, New research has increased
While most learning issues are which affects motor skills and our understanding of the way
spotted first by parents or care- sometimes speech, make up 15% learning and attention issues affect
givers, diagnosis involves com- of students receiving IEPs. brain function. The more we know,
prehensive testing by learning the better we’ve become at iden-
specialists. “We see chronic failure Not all students with a learn- tifying and supporting children
in not identifying students early ing disability will receive special- with ADHD, dyslexia, executive-
enough,” says Savage. education services through an IEP. functioning deficits and other dis-
A child with ADHD, for example, abilities. But we still have a long
Several laws protect the might not meet all the criteria way to go. “There are many schools
rights of children with disabili- outlined by IDEA. In this case, a of thought as to what would be the
ties and guarantee support and 504 Accommodation Plan, under best approach to teach each child,”
services. One such support is an Section 504 of the Rehabilitation says Richard Douglas, a founder of
Individualized Education Plan Act, can be implemented. While Bridge Partnership, an educational
(IEP), part of the Individuals with a 504 Plan doesn’t allow for spe- consulting firm that specializes in
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), cialized instruction, it can provide developing programs for children
which guarantees every child with accommodations like frequent with autism and related disorders.
a disability access to a free appro- breaks, fidget spinners and modi- “What I have found over the years
priate public education in the least fied homework assignments. is that the best programs are ones
restrictive environment. Parents that take a multidisciplinary team
and educators work together to So what is the right education approach, one where providers in
create the plan, which can include plan when dealing with diverse all settings are on board with the
services such as speech and learners? Instruction needs to program in place.”
occupational therapies, social be evidence-based and indi-
work and placement in a resource vidualized. For a student with a
room. A student’s IEP addresses
the areas of need with specialized

39

What We Know DOGS CAN SIT, lie down, roll over
About What and respond to their own names,
Animals Know but what else can our canine
companions learn? Chaser the
It turns out you really can teach an border collie—known by many as
old (or young) dog new tricks. Not the smartest dog in the world—
to mention ducks, chimps, squirrels learned to identify more than
and other creatures 1,000 nouns throughout her
lifetime (she died in 2019,
BY COURTNEY MIFSUD at age 15). Chaser belonged to
John Pilley, a professor emeritus
40 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G of psychology at Wofford College
in South Carolina, who sought to
teach her human language and
explore what the canine brain
could learn. When Chaser was
2 months old, Pilley, who died in

Birds (including ducks)
instinctively imprint on their
mothers but will develop this
attachment to the first living
thing they see after hatching.

2018, began to teach her proper comprehend larger concepts. The as their counterparts in the wild,
nouns, the first being “Blue,” for a pup realized that when Pilley said demonstrate that behavior is
blue ball. “He would name it, show “This is,” he was about to name not fixed and can change based
it to her, say ‘Catch Blue’ and throw something. “She began learning on experience. Through trial and
it to her,” Pilley’s daughter Pilley names in one trial,” Bianchi noted. error, conditioning and social
Bianchi explained to the American “Teaching her concepts was development, animals are able
Kennel Club after Chaser’s death. infinitely greater than teaching her to build on and exceed their
“He’d put it in front of her and say 100 rote behaviors, because once hardwired skills to maximize the
‘Find Blue.’ On the third day, when she learned a concept, she was able chance of survival.
she could retrieve the ball from to use her brain and start to learn
another room, he knew it was time by inference, which is the way BEHAVIOR IS DIVIDED into two
to move on to another object. At children learn.” categories: innate and learned.
the end of the fifth month, she had Innate behaviors are genetically
learned 40 words and kept them in The animal kingdom includes hardwired into an animal and
her long-term memory.” myriad creatures figuring out how can be performed without any
to survive and thrive. Even animals prior knowledge or training.
Not only was Chaser able to in captivity, who don’t face the Learned behaviors are developed
memorize words, she could also same life-threatening challenges

41

T H E WAY S W E L E A R N

from experience—such as LEARNED BEHAVIORS can also include Chaser could identify
Chaser’s grasping a new word or conditioned behaviors, in which more than 1,000
command—and range from the animals learn by association. These objects by name.
simple to the complex, with more behavior styles take two forms:
sophisticated learning happening classical conditioning and operant
through cognitive reasoning. conditioning. Classical condition-
ing is most famously connected to
Habituation is a simple form of Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with dogs.
learning in which, after repeated During the 1890s, the Russian physi-
exposure to a stimulus or cue, ologist was researching salivation in
the animal stops responding. dogs in response to food. No surprise
This often occurs in parks when to pet owners, dogs drool at the sight
squirrels encounter human or smell of food. This behavior is
visitors. At first the animals will innate and requires no additional
scamper away in response to learning. This stimulus and response
hearing human steps, which may is known as the unconditioned
be a sign of a large and possibly stimulus (the presence of food) and
dangerous predator. But over time, the unconditioned response (the
as the squirrels are exposed to drooling). Pavlov paired a second
more human visitors, the animals stimulus with the unconditioned
gradually become habituated to the stimulus. Specifically, he rang a bell
presence of humans and no longer at the same time the dog was fed.
fear them. The ringing of the bell in conjunc-
tion with the food is an example of
Imprinting is another simple a conditioning stimulus, in which
type of learning, occurring during a new stimulus is present with the
the developmental life stage for already existing unconditioned
certain animals, such as geese and stimulus (food).
ducks. When a duckling hatches
from the egg, it imprints on the Over time, Pavlov’s subjects
mother, the first adult animal that learned to associate the ringing
it sees. The sight of the mother bell with food, and they responded
subsequently cues the duckling by drooling. Eventually, the dogs
to follow her around and imitate would salivate when the bell was
behaviors crucial for the duckling’s rung, even if no food was present.
survival. This new stimulus-response pair
now included the conditioned
Researchers know that imprint- stimulus (the bell ringing) and the
ing is a learned process as opposed conditioned response (drooling).
to an innate behavior because if
newborn ducklings see a human If you’ve ever seen a dog sit to
before they see the mother duck, earn a treat, or happily receive a
they will imprint on the human “good dog” comment in response to
instead. Researchers are mindful rolling over, then you’ve witnessed
of imprinting in their efforts operant conditioning in action.
to rehabilitate the endangered This method of learning is the basis
whooping crane through raising for most animal training, to both
chicks in captivity. The biologists encourage and discourage types
who care for these birds wear crane of behavior. The same method
costumes to prevent the young is applied when a dog in a shock
birds from imprinting on them collar brushes past an electric
before the cranes are old enough to fence. After repeated attempts,
be taught to fly away.

42 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

43

The chimpanzee Nim Chimpsky (here with student teacher Joyce Butler) learned sign language.

the dog will learn to avoid that wrote in his 1953 book, Science putting Chaser in scenarios where
area—although this can create a and Human Behavior. “In operant she could not fail. “As we worked
negative emotional response, and conditioning, we ‘strengthen’ an on ‘to Sugar take Decoy’ and ‘to
many behaviorists lean on positive operant in the sense of making Decoy take Sugar’ type sentences,
reinforcement over punishment. a response more probable or, in there was less need to recall Chaser
actual fact, more frequent.” Skinner and repeat instructions. If she
The psychologist B.F. Skinner also tested the result of a negative hesitated, I said, ‘Do it, girl. Do it!’”
was an early researcher of operant stimulus. In similar experiments, Pilley wrote in Chaser: Unlocking
conditioning and invented what he crafted a metal grid that could the Genius of the Dog Who Knows
became known as the Skinner box, deliver an electric shock. When the a Thousand Words. “Enthusiastic
a chamber in which lab rats would rat performed a certain action, it encouragement usually embold-
encounter a lever. When the lever would receive a shock and quickly ened her to make a choice, and
was pushed, food entered the box. learn to stop that behavior. usually it was the right one. If
At first, the rats moved the lever she kept hesitating, I recalled her
accidentally. But after repeatedly PILLEY STUDIED the work of both without correction and gave her
pressing the lever and receiving Skinner and Pavlov and leaned the ‘to A take B’ instruction again.
food, the rats learned that this action on classical conditioning to teach Her comfort with that gave me the
led to being fed. “The strengthen- Chaser a wide vocabulary. He impression that hesitating became
ing of behavior which results from employed a strategy called error- her way of saying, ‘Could you
reinforcement is appropriately less learning, which involved please repeat that sentence?’”
called ‘conditioning,’” Skinner

44 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov experimented to condition dogs.

BUT THERE’S a major difference other physical rewards,” Terrace found that chimpanzees could
between learning words and wrote in his 1979 report, Nim: A solve problems through abstract
learning language, as a decades-old Chimpanzee Who Learned Sign thought, which was contrary to
high-profile experiment clarified. Language. However, when he made the beliefs of theorists like Pavlov.
In 1973 Herbert Terrace, a profes- combinations of two or more signs, In one experiment, Köhler hung a
sor of psychology at Columbia it could not be considered actual banana high in the chimpanzees’
University and the director of sentences. “Nim often got the signs enclosure, too high for them to
the Primate Cognition Lab in the right, but that was because his reach. There were also several
university’s department of psychol- teachers inadvertently prompted boxes and some sticks of varying
ogy, set out to teach a chimpanzee him by making appropriate signs a thickness placed randomly on the
to use simple language elements. fraction of a second before he did. floor of the enclosure. The chimps
Over three years, Terrace worked Nim’s signing wasn’t spontaneous,” had two options to get that banana:
with an infant chimpanzee named Terrace said. “He was unable to use either stack the boxes so that
Nim Chimpsky—an allusion to words conversationally, let alone they could climb high enough, or
Noam Chomsky, the groundbreak- form sentences.” insert a thinner stick into a thicker
ing MIT linguist who posited that stick to create a longer tool that
language is unique to humans—to Nim’s failure to truly learn could unhinge the banana. Sultan,
express his thoughts in American sign language does not mean that Köhler’s star chimp, took only
Sign Language. “Nim learned to animals aren’t capable of sophis- an hour to figure out how to put
sign to obtain food, drink, hugs and ticated learning. The German two sticks together to retrieve his
psychologist Wolfgang Köhler

45

Endangered whooping cranes
are being brought back from the
verge of extinction thanks to
costume-clad biologists. These
researchers donned crane
costumes to prevent the young
hatchlings from imprinting
on humans. If the biologists
don’t take such measures, the
chicks will be unfit to return
to the wild. Not only do they
mask their faces, but as seen
above and at left, they also use
a crane-head puppet with a
movable beak for feeding. Once
the cranes are old enough,
they are taught how to fly by
glider-riding scientists before
being released into the wild.

46 T H E P O W E R O F L E A R N I N G

lunch. Other chimpanzees, after a
few missed attempts, figured out
how to stack the boxes. The behav-
iors of Sultan and the other chimps
showed that the primates were able
to visualize the result of the stack-
ing or the tool creation before they
actually carried out the task.

HUMANS DON’T LEARN in a vacuum. Birds learn many behaviors, including nest-building and
Unlike the experiments previously singing, through observation.
mentioned, which show trial-and-
error learning, humans acquire and little learning, but, where it points to research from Frans de
knowledge that is passed down or happens, assume individual learn- Waal and Denise Johanowicz from
spread from other humans. The ing,” Van Schaik wrote. “Whereas the Wisconsin National Primate
latest research in animal learning those who study humans automati- Research Center at the University
shows that our furry and feathered cally expect cultural processes to of Wisconsin, who had some
friends are learning in similar underlie our cognitive abilities.” young rhesus macaques—a species
ways. Birds build their nests in of monkey that doesn’t usually
processes unique and adapted to Fortunately, captive animals engage in reconciliation following
their species, carefully crafting provide useful information to a conflict with a fellow monkey—
a shelter with sticks, droppings, help clarify how animals learn. In spend five months of their juvenile
mud and spiderwebs. But while his 2018 Psychology Today article lives with stump-tailed macaques, a
many researchers point to this as “Social Learning in Animals: different species prone to peaceful
being an innate and hardwired Implications for the Evolution conflict resolution. The fostered
process, other researchers believe of Human Intelligence,” Nathan rhesus macaques learned how to
that birds learn how to build their H. Lents, a professor of molecu- reconcile amicably.
nests as part of a social practice, lar biology at John Jay College,
something the birds observed from of the City University of New Animals may lack the sophis-
other birds. In a 2018 article in the York, noted that “cross-fostering ticated capabilities for learning
Spanish Journal of Psychology titled experiments, in which animals that humans have, but through
“The Ecology of Social Learning are raised by members of a differ- thousands of years of evolution,
in Animals and Its Link with ent species, have also revealed the they’ve developed their own unique
Intelligence,” Carel van Schaik and effects of social learning.” Lents ways to build knowledge.
his colleagues at the University
of Zurich examined how exist-
ing conclusions of how animals
learn vary widely by sector of
study. Field biologists regard the
skill-based accomplishments of
animals as being largely innate in
nature. Comparative psycholo-
gists focus on how the individual
animal learned to do it (e.g., a bird
builds its nest through a process
of trial and error). And anthro-
pologists think more about how
animals learn behaviors socially.
“Those who study animals tend to
expect strong genetic foundations

47

Chapter Two SHAPING
E D U C AT I O N

For thousands of years,
formal teaching has guided
the way we learn, evolving
(and sometimes struggling)
to fit the changing needs
of society

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