The Brain as a Learning Machine

During the high school years, or even earlier in the middle school years, students should gain an understanding of the human body, whether that be in biology, life science, human anatomy or otherwise. As with anything we learn, the objectives for learning systems in the body should not simply be for achieving good scores on tests, but to gain highly practical and actionable understanding for living well. For instance, a student learning how the Krebs cycle is the way the body generates energy at a cellular level through a series of chemical reactions that release energy from the oxidation of acetate that comes from carbohydrates, fats and proteins. The Krebs cycle is way more complex than the sentence I just wrote. But even in this sentence, one can hear highly practical insights a student can gain about nutrition (understanding macronutrients), breathing (injecting oxygen into the system), and exercise (aerobic efficiency).

When it comes to the brain, a student learning how neurons send electrical information along axons within systems of circuits can begin to understand that the human brain hungers to gather as much of this electrical information as possible in order to reason, plan and solve problems. Feeding our brains good “food” enables it to process this electrical information more efficiently and in more reliable ways. In other words, the brain is a learning machine. A student who conceptualizes this has actually captured the central idea of lifelong learning.

Delving deeper into the intricate workings of the human brain can shed light on the mechanisms that underpin the learning process. As we’ve already seen, neural activity consists of specialized cells transmitting electrical signals throughout the body. Learning occurs as neurons fire together, forming the circuits where information gets stored. The authors of Make It Stick describe how neurocircuitry develops in humans:

“Our neural circuitry does not mature as early as our physical development and instead continues to change and grow through our forties, fifties and sixties. Part of the maturation of these connections is the gradual thickening of the myelin coating of the axons. Myelination generally starts at the backs of our brains and moves towards the front, reaching the frontal lobes as we grow into adulthood.”

Peter Brown, Henry Roediger & Mark McDaniel, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Belknap, 2014), 170.

This means that the insulation provided by myelin sheaths surrounding neurons plays a crucial role in the learning process not only for students in their teens, but throughout their lives. They mention the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for higher-order cognitive functions, including problem-solving, decision-making, and the ability to adapt to novel situations. This area of the brain is still in development throughout the teen years. This goes some way towards explaining why the adolescent years are associated with a lack of impulse control and, at times, poor decision making.

The hippocampus, often referred to as the “memory center” of the brain, is instrumental in the formation of new memories and the consolidation of learned information. Again, the authors of Make It Stick give us wonderful news about this brain center:

“The hippocampus, where we consolidate learning and memory, is able to generate new neurons throughout life. The phenomenon, called neurogenesis, is thought to play a central role in the brain’s ability to recover from physical injury and in humans’ lifelong ability to learn. . . . Already scientists have shown that the activity of associative learning (that is, of learning and remembering the relationship between unrelated items, such as names and faces) stimulates an increase in the creation of new neurons in the hippocampus.”

Make it Stick, 172.

Neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons, is still an emerging area of brain study in human subjects. But there is evidence that the hippocampus produces new neurons throughout the lifespan of healthy adults. These new neurons enable learners to continue to maintain and create neural connections, supporting the notion that we can and do learn throughout our lives. These new neuros contribute to what is known as neuroplasticity, the brain’s remarkable capacity to reorganize and form new connections between neurons. This dynamic process allows the brain to continuously adapt and evolve in response to new experiences and environmental stimuli, facilitating the acquisition of knowledge and the development of new skills.

Understanding the neuroscience behind learning can inform educational practices and help individuals optimize their cognitive abilities, ultimately empowering learners to reach their full potential. Here we’ll explore a few practical objectives that should become part of how all high schoolers are coached. These are the key skills that should be learned before leaving for college.

Three Essential Skills for College-Bound High Schoolers

From the first semester of freshman year and throughout their high school career, both teachers and students should talk about and highlight strategies related to three key skills that should operate in all subject areas. Too often we focus on content knowledge, grade-point average, or meeting college entrance requirements. While these are necessary and in some ways decent measures of core competencies, they don’t actually get at the transferable skills that enable students to manage their learning and take stock of themselves along the way as learners. In other words, these skills provide a feedback loop for students to learn how to manage their learning and eventually set goals in their learning.

The first skill is deliberate practice. This is a systematic approach to learning that has been shown to promote significant improvements in performance across a wide range of domains. At its core, deliberate practice involves focused, effortful activities designed to target specific weaknesses and push the limits of one’s current abilities.

From a neurological perspective, deliberate practice triggers key changes in the brain that facilitate learning. Repeated engagement in challenging tasks leads to the strengthening of neural pathways and the formation of new connections between neurons. This process allows the brain to adapt and improve performance over time.

Importantly, deliberate practice is distinguished from mere repetition or passive learning. It requires a high degree of concentration, feedback from a skilled coach, and a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. By embracing this approach, individuals can systematically enhance their skills and expertise in a given area, ultimately achieving a level of mastery that would be difficult to attain through more casual or unfocused learning methods.

One of the leading voices advocating deliberate practice is Cal Newport. His thesis that “the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable” is founded on the notion that one learns how to perform deep work through deliberate practice. The core components of deliberate practice consist of:

“(1) your attention is focused tightly on a specific skill you’re trying to improve or an idea you’re trying to master; (2) you receive feedback so you can correct your approach to keep your attention exactly where it’s most productive.”

Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Grand Central, 2016), 35.

Consider how a student in math or writing can be coached in specific skills and given feedback to improve their competency. This entails an atmosphere of intentional effort while also celebrating mistakes and errors so that there is ample materials with which to coach students.

The next skill is metacognition. This consists in the ability to think about one’s own learning. By monitoring their own cognitive activities, individuals can develop a deeper understanding of how they learn best and make adjustments to their study strategies accordingly. When individuals actively reflect on their learning, they are able to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement, allowing them to allocate their cognitive resources more efficiently.

Metacognition is actually a bundle of skills. These include planning, self-monitoring, and reflection, among others. With planning, students approach a problem – a math problem or an essay prompt – by formulating a plan for how to solve the problem. Notice that this is a shift in focus away from the specific answer towards the approach that is most appropriate for the kind of problem it is. In other words, students will often get fixated on producing correct answers, but not step back to consider strategies that help them think about their thinking. With self-monitoring, students can ask themselves questions like, “Do I understand what I have just read?” Then, they can answer this question by providing a narration or producing information from the reading. This moves a student away from reading a text and then assuming that by reading it, they understand it. Finally, by reflecting, students can consider whether they grew in skill during an exercise set, or they can evaluate sticking points in their writing process, or they can articulate skills that helped them complete the assignment.

Metacognitive practices get students to think about what they are learning. They need practice shifting into a mode where they become active learners, instead of passively taking in information. These practices can lead to enhanced long-term retention and the ability to transfer knowledge to new contexts. By cultivating metacognitive skills, learners can become more self-directed, adaptable, and ultimately, more successful in their academic and professional pursuits.

The last skill is self-advocacy. This skill promotes deeper learning and skill development through the process of actively identifying one’s needs and communicating them effectively. Most often this occurs by the student connecting with the teacher to address an area where there’s a lack of understanding or the need for support in project management. For example, a student might struggle to recall formulas in a physics class. They know how to do the math work. They simply never remember which formula goes with which problem. This student could approach the teacher to ask for help in knowing better the best way to remember how to associate formulas with problems. In a different scenario, a student has to manage a long-term essay assignment. They are struggling to break it down into manageable steps. So this student emails her teacher to schedule an appointment during office hours to map out the project in logical steps. In both of these examples, the student is advocating for themselves by articulating the issue they are facing and drawing upon the teacher to assist them in solving the issue.

When we advocate for ourselves, we activate executive function skills like planning, organization, and self-monitoring. This skills goes hand in hand with metacognition. A student who is grasping their self-understanding as a learner can begin to equip themselves by reaching out to others for help. The effort required to self-advocate cultivates a growth mindset. Individuals who take responsibility for their learning demonstrate an understanding that improvement requires sustained work. This perspective enables them to persist through challenges and maximize the benefits of educational opportunities. Ironically, by getting help from a parent or teacher, the student actually finds that effort can be matched by support. They receive the coaching and encouragement to continue on an effortful pathway.

High schoolers need practice self-advocating. It does not come naturally to most students to seek out help. So, one policy you can put in place is to require every student to ask a self-advocacy question. Or you can require a certain number of office visits per semester. By making self-advocacy an assignment, you give students the practice they need to learn how to formulate a question and how to approach a grown up for help. It can be intimidating to reach out to a teacher, so by making it an assignment, you are forcing the student to overcome their barriers to accessing help.

Imagine how a student equipped with these skills will feel when stepping onto a college campus after graduating from high school. A student who has learned what it takes to engage in deliberate practice will be able to tackle their coursework with diligence. A student who has learned to think about their thinking will be able to assess the kinds of study skills that will most effectively work in different kinds of courses. A student who has learned to self-advocate with their high school teachers will be better prepared to approach their college professors with their questions and issues.

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The information flowing into our working memory at any given moment is called our “cognitive load.” When the load exceeds our mind’s ability to store and process the information—when the water overflows the thimble—we’re unable to retain the information or to draw connections with the information already stored in our long-term memory. We can’t translate the new information into schemas. Our ability to learn suffers, and our understanding remains shallow. Because our ability to maintain our attention also depends on our working memory—”we have to remember what it is we are to concentrate on,” as Torkel Klingberg says—a high cognitive load amplifies the distractedness we experience. When our brain is overtaxed, we find “distractions more distracting.” (Some studies link attention deficit disorder, or ADD, to the overloading of working memory.) Experiments indicate that as we reach the limits of our working memory, it becomes harder to distinguish relevant information from irrelevant information, signal from noise. We become mindless consumers of data.

Carr, The Shallows, 125, emphasis added

Carr’s criticism of the internet’s effects on our minds is one of many to have emerged since he first published The Shallows in 2009. What makes Carr’s take on the impact of the internet so poignant is the way he connects his evaluation to brain neurology and habit formation.

I am returning once again to the topic of habit formation as I continue to work on the forthcoming eBook “A Guide to Implementing Habit Training”. We can pull at some of the strands Carr uses to make his point in order to deepen our understanding of how habits are formed and how this relates to the nature of our minds.

Meet Hebb and Zeno

In their book You Are Not Your Brain, Schwartz and Gladding spell out the connection between Hebb’s Law and the Quantum Zeno Effect in the formation of habits. The Hebb of Hebb’s Law is Donald Hebb who wrote The Organization of Behavior in 1949. This is how Hebb expresses the key idea:

When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A‘s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased.

D. O. Hebb, The Organization of Behavior, 62

This process induces “lasting cellular changes that add to [the] stability” of persistent or repeated actions. Popular literature summarizes this law by saying that “cells that fire together wire together.” In other words, if you have an action that you want to make a persistent or repeated action, you can connect it to another action so that they occur with one another. For example, if I want to make my bed every day, but fail to do so, I could potentially connect making my bed with a regularly occurring action, such as putting on my shoes, to strengthen my ability to regularly and persistently make my bed every day. Hebb’s Law is a fundamental building block for habit formation. The neurons in our brains like to work together.

The Zeno of the Quantum Zeno Effect is Zeno of Elea, a Greek philosopher who posited a number of paradoxes, many of which have come down to us through the writings of Aristotle. The Quantum Zeno Effect as it relates to neuroscience applies Zeno’s paradoxical thinking to the mind-brain problem. This is a field of philosophical, psychological and scientific exploration too wide for the modest aims of this blog post.

To summarize the matter succinctly, the physical matter of our brains is different than the metaphysical reality of our minds. Does the brain cause the mind? Does the mind control the brain? The application of quantum physics poses a solution by suggesting that while the mind is dependent upon the physical properties of the brain, the mind simultaneously has the ability to augment the brain. (The quantum mechanics of the event means that one cannot observe a single instance of one operation occurring before the other in a linear sequence.) If you’re like me, your brain might get sore and your mind might be blown thinking through these concepts. Putting the cookies on the bottom shelf, the Quantum Zeno Effect implies that we can change our brains through the work of our minds.

Schwartz and Gladding combine Hebb and Zeno to tell us that we can make new habits by self-consciously focusing our attention repeatedly on a preferred action—a good habit. Neuroplasticity (the concept that the physical neural networks in our brain are ever changing) means that our brains can indeed change. The Zeno effect means our minds can be used to change those neurons. Hebb’s Law means we can build neuron structures upon one another. If we establish a set of good reps to build a habit, our neurons will capture that network structure, making it stick in our physical brain structure. That’s the good news. That route you take home from work is automatic now, isn’t it? That’s your brain creating a neural network to assist you so that you don’t have to figure out how to get home every day. Your brain would rather think about other things during the drive, so it automates the route home. Good news, huh?

Carr highlights the bad news, though. Bad habits also have sticking power too. Without any effort on our parts, neural networks are forming all the time. We often have little control over the habits that get formed, good or bad. The power of habit formation is at the same time the problem of habit formation. Our brains are constantly figuring out ways to efficiently automate processes to cope with our environment. What Carr points out is that our environment has been inundated with the internet and the devices with which we access the internet.

Internet Brain

The subtitle of Carr’s book is What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. Critics of The Shallows point out that the internet has been unfairly vilified. The internet hasn’t really done anything. The critics are actually correct. It’s our brains that have done all the work. We need to reverse the subject and object of the subtitle: perhaps something like, What Our Brains Have Done because of the Internet. We could nitpick the subtitle, but the material point of the book stands, the internet is a major factor in our environments now and our brains are responding to it in shocking new ways.

If you wanted to invent a device that optimized our ability to create new habits, you would want something that focused your attention repeatedly, pampered your brain with rewards, and was constantly in your environment. The internet is that device. Carr writes:

One thing is very clear: if, knowing what we know today about the brain’s plasticity, you were to set out to invent a medium that would rewire our mental circuits as quickly and thoroughly as possible, you would probably end up designing something that looks and works a lot like the Internet. It’s not just that we tend to use the Net regularly, even obsessively. It’s that the Net delivers precisely the kind of sensory and cognitive stimuli—repetitive, intensive, interactive, addictive—that have been shown to result in strong and rapid alterations in brain circuits and functions. With the exception of alphabets and number systems, the Net may well be the single most powerful mind-altering technology that has ever come into general use. At the very least, it’s the most powerful that has come along since the book.

Carr, The Shallows, 116

The mind-altering ability of the internet is stunning. Certainly not all of the alterations have been bad. With infinite access to information, people can learn anything, potentially bettering their lives by creating new possibilities through knowledge and skills that were previously inaccessible to the masses. However, the alteration of our minds due to the internet has had some devastating impacts on us that should give us pause as to the overall evaluation of the internet’s benefits.

In a webinar Jason and I produced recently, we talked about the impact of the internet in the home, touching briefly on the detrimental impact internet devices can bring. Many parents are deeply concerned about social detriments such as cyber bullying, hypersexualization, unwanted advertisements and spam that target impressionable children. Internet users of all ages are aware of security threats posed by hackers. Identity theft is a nightmare that requires constant vigilance. 

There certainly are danger “out there” when it comes to the internet. Carr’s book, though, highlights the dangers within. We have already alluded to the addictive nature of the internet: “The Net delivers precisely the kind of sensory and cognitive stimuli—repetitive, intensive, interactive, addictive—that have been shown to result in strong and rapid alterations in brain circuits and functions” (166). Just evaluate yourself the next time a little, red, numbered badge pops up on your iPhone. How long does it take you to click on your message or social media app? It’s hard to resist. Why? Because your brain really likes the release of chemical neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, that occur when you click on one of these. Our minds are constantly programming themselves, and our devices are great habit training tools, just more often than not they are training habits we would likely rather not have. Nobody likes the empty feeling after binging YouTube for an hour. But the addictive habit got set, so more likely than not a binge will happen again. This feels really shallow.

As the addictive behaviors associated with the internet increase, so our attention decreases. Let me quickly correct myself. It’s not exactly that our attention decreases, it’s actually that our ability to focus our attention on work that really matters decreases. Meaningful, complex and important work requires the kind of attention that can cut through distraction. Work of this nature requires the mind to hold together nuanced and complex pieces of information in the memory. Carr notes that despite its promise to store lots and lots of information so that we don’t need to store it in our memory, the internet is actually “a technology of forgetfulness”:

What determines what we remember and what we forget? The key to memory consolidation is attentiveness. Storing explicit memories, and equally important, forming connections between them requires strong mental concentration, amplified by repetition or by intense intellectual or emotional engagement. The sharper the attention, the sharper the memory. . . . If we’re unable to attend to the information in our working memory, the information lasts only as long as the neurons that hold it maintain their electric charge—a few seconds at best. Then it’s gone, leaving little or no trace in the mind.”

Carr, The Shallows, 193

Watching a sequence of unrelated YouTube videos, clicking through a variety of Wikipedia pages or scrolling through items in a news feed feels an awful lot like we learned lots of great information. We feel informed. But the information tickled a neuron and then left a second later, never to be thought of again. That feeling of being informed is a self-deception that contributes to our general lack of attention, or should I say the kind of attention that is satisfied with a quick neurological fix. Habit training is always going on. The internet does a great job of training the habit of shallow attention.

Analogue Habits

To cultivate a new mind, one that has a strong attention span, we need to train the mind using habits. Yes, the very same habits that the internet uses so well can be used to counteract these effects. Let me suggest three great habits—analogue habits—to incorporate into your day (or your children’s/students’ day).

First, build the habit of disconnecting from the internet. Establish a time when you completely disengage from the internet, your devices, any screens that keep you from doing something truly meaningful. Most of us have to connect to the internet to do our work on a daily basis. But that doesn’t mean you can’t wrest control of some portion of your life back from the ever-present internet. Ironically, you can use your phone to set reminders to not use your phone. You can use your phone to set a timer to spend 30 minutes not on your phone. But perhaps you need a complete separation just to get deliverance. Ask a friend or a spouse to help you follow through on a daily commitment to spend 30 minutes device free, doing something meaningful.

Second, find something—anything really—to invest in that will build your attention span. Read books, practice the piano, draw in a sketchbook, write fiction, or tend to a garden. Whatever it is, make sure it has no connection to the internet and invest yourself in it for a good span of time. Your brain will begin to lay down neural pathways that produce strong mental concentration. You can feel yourself becoming less shallow the more you invest yourself in a deep activity.

Third, build the habit of an extended conversation with someone. Invest yourself in actually sitting down, face-to-face, making eye contact and talk with them. It’s amazing how awkward this feels when you first start to listen and share. But as extended conversation becomes more of a habit, that desire for human connection grows. Make rules for yourself. Talking with someone during a commute doesn’t count. Reviewing the calendar for the week ahead doesn’t count. Retelling the forty memes I saw this morning doesn’t count.

I conclude by admitting that the internet is a fantastic tool. This article was written using the internet. I did some of my research for it using the internet. You will be reading it using the internet. But there is an inherent danger in many tools. (I, for one, have avoided using chainsaws because the inherent danger has put me off trying to use it as a tool.) One of my favorite comedians, David Mitchell, recently published a book entitled Dishonesty is the Second-Best Policy. One of the points he makes is that the internet is a more dangerous invention than nuclear weapons. How’s that for a provocative warning? I also just came across an article, written by Tony Stubblebine, who has numerous suggestions for how to configure your iPhone to minimize it’s addictive features and make it a better tool.

If we are to see a Renaissance in education, cultivating habits of deep thinking and long attention spans will be essential. Is there a place for the internet in education? Sure there is. But the dangers inherent in the internet as an educational tools should caution us against a wholesale adoption of it as the means to a better education. Instead, training students to have strong minds and focused attention will make them better users of the internet as a tool.

Download Patrick’s eBook “A Guide to Implementing Habit Training” now.

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