MAKE IT STICK: THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESSFUL LEARNING

Summary of Make It Stick: Throughout our academic journey, the educational system has introduced us to various learning techniques. However, none of them have been found to be truly effective. According to experts in cognitive science, the only method that has been proven to work is memory retrieval. The authors, who themselves are psychologists and experts in the relevant field, have outlined how to apply this technique and achieve success in comprehending and learning at a faster pace.

By Peter C. Brown, Mark A. McDaniel, Henry L. Roediger III, 2016, 340 pages.

Note: This review is a guest review written by Guilhem Delachapelle of the blog delachpl.com, dealing with self-study, stoicism, and productivity.

Review and Summary of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning:

Learning Is Misunderstood

In the first chapter of the book, the authors provide a clear definition of learning. According to them, learning involves acquiring knowledge and skills to use when we encounter problems in the future. 

Learning is a continuous process that begins at birth with basic knowledge, continues throughout one’s career with the acquisition of expertise, and persists into retirement with the exploration of new interests. 

Learning is a skill that can be improved by using effective strategies, which may seem counter-intuitive at first.

Key Concepts of Successful Learning

Many individuals believe that their intellectual capabilities are determined at birth. They think that their struggles in comprehending or learning a new subject are directly related to their intellectual abilities. However, they tend to overlook the concept of brain plasticity. With every learning experience, our brains change physically.

Most of our beliefs about learning are based on intuition, rather than empirical research. Additionally, our continuous submission to the idea of knowledge and expertise leads us to adopt ineffective learning strategies.

Fortunately, we now have a better understanding of what works, based on various forms of memory retrieval. These include quizzes, self-assessment of competence, spacing out practice, interweaving different forms of learning, and attempting problem-solving before having obtained the necessary course.

The authors of the book start by presenting certain facts that they encourage us to accept. By reading the book, we gain a better understanding of these principles and learn how to apply them in practice. Here are the book’s postulates:

1. Learning is most effective and lasting when the act requires intense mental effort.
2. Re-reading and massed practice, i.e. intense practice delivered over a short period of time, are the least effective learning methods.
3. Recalling and even attempting to recall facts or concepts, through a quiz, for example, is far more effective than intensive re-reading.
4. Spacing out the time between two learning sessions, or spacing out by exercising several subjects in succession, is more difficult. It gives the impression of poorer memorization but guarantees greater, longer-lasting, more plastic learning in the long term.
5. Visual or auditory forms of learning have never been demonstrated by any serious empirical study.
6. We are subject to the illusion of mastery and knowledge, all the more so when we learn intensively and over a short period of time.

To learn, Retrieve

The most important concept in the book is memory retrieval. This technique is the most formidable form of learning, involving the retrieval of information from the mind. It is the opposite of traditional practices such as rereading. Let’s take a look at its various applications.

Reflection

The authors highlight the reflective practice of a surgeon named Ebersold. Every evening, he sits at his desk to reflect on his day’s operations, annotating a notebook and listing them. This practice helps him analyze his performance and identify areas of improvement.

It also helps him recall the information he has learned, such as how to suture a wound. By actively reflecting on his techniques, he revisits his lessons and retrieves them from memory. 

By applying this information to his past experiences, Ebersold frames it in a new context. This helps him strengthen his ability to apply this information and continuously learn.

Reflective practice also presents an opportunity to identify new ways of practicing one’s craft. Reconsidering emergency situations, for instance, can lead to better solutions. Formalizing these new actions on paper can help train, memorize, and practice them, transforming them into automatism.

The effects of the test

Empirical studies have proven that practicing memory retrieval is far more effective than repeatedly exposing oneself to teaching material for memorization. However, the most potent form of memory retrieval is testing. The effects of a test are multiplied tenfold when repeated several times over, with the repetitions spaced further apart over time. 

Studies conducted in 1917 and again in 1939 indicate that testing is the point at which natural forgetting ends in students. In 2006, the authors of a book conducted an investigation in a school in Columbia, Illinois [1], to confirm these analyses.

The results were indisputable: the simple act of introducing regular testing in class significantly increased student performance on end-of-year exams. Regular testing also offers the advantage of feedback, which helps prevent the memorization of misunderstood information.

What is a test? 

Any practice or activity requiring an effort to generate a response of any kind. The form of tests is, therefore, wide-ranging. The authors highlight the results of empirical studies over the last century. From fill-in-the-blank texts to more sophisticated assessments involving the application of complex concepts, problem-solving techniques, or motor skills, all these forms of assessment work.

Better still, the longer we space out the tests, the more difficulty we experience in solving the problem, and the better the retention of information. That’s why it’s better to test yourself once and then wait. Wait until you forget before retesting. Spaced repetition of memory retrieval makes memorization more durable and facilitates the projection of learned information into different contexts.

Mix Up Your Practice

The authors compare the learning process in sports and cognitive learning. In sports, practicing repeatedly and consistently is crucial for improvement. For instance, if you want to run longer, you need to practice over an extended period repeatedly. Although this approach works well in sports, it is not necessarily the best technique for memory learning. However, we tend to apply this same approach to memory learning intuitively.

The myth of massed practice

Massed practice involves repeating a certain task multiple times in a row, which makes it easier to memorize the material in the short term. However, the downside is that the forgetting curve is steep, which means that the information is quickly forgotten over time.  

Interchanging and spacing practices

In a study conducted by D. Rohrer and K. Taylor, two groups of middle-school students were invited to solve geometric problems. One group worked intensively on each problem, while the other varied the exercises before mastering them. The experts in cognitive science found that the latter group showed improvement in learning thanks to the variation and spacing of practice.

Spaced practice, when interspersed with other forms of practice or learning subjects, is far better for long-term retention of information and greater versatility of application.

However, this practice comes with a cost – it is more difficult and frustrating than massed practice.

Please note: this difficulty is essential for effective learning, and it is always beneficial to include it in the process. This concept will be further discussed later in this review.

Different forms of alternating practices 

The authors propose three solutions for spacing practices. First, there is time spacing, then spacing by interleaving practices, and finally, spacing by varying the type of exercise.

• The authors conducted a study on medical students with respect to the spacing of learning sessions. Some of the students were taught using the classic curriculum, which involved four surgical courses in a single day. The others were taught the same four courses but with a one-week interval between them. The latter group performed much better than the former. This is because spaced-out learning reinforces memory consolidation. When we learn something new, it enters our short-term memory and forms neural pathways that are associated with existing knowledge. This process takes time. With each repetition, we attempt to “retrieve” the previously formed neural pathways and then consolidate them.
• Interleaving consists of alternating our learning sessions between several skills or subjects. This form of learning is often neglected by students and teachers alike because it encourages them to leave the material when they finally begin to grasp it. In fact, interleaving is much slower. And yet, as cognitive science studies have shown, working on several subjects in alternation will greatly enhance their learning over the long term.
• Varying the type of exercise is an interesting way to comprehend a subject as a whole. Alternating exercises helps in mastering a subject’s projection, which is an essential component. By varying practices, we improve our ability to project knowledge into different frameworks. This variation offers versatility to our learning and helps in developing related skills, such as identifying the type of problem and selecting the best solution.

Cognitive science differentiates between factual and conceptual knowledge.

• Factual knowledge is often limited to a framework and consists in recalling and recognizing information.
• Conceptual knowledge, on the other hand, is of a higher order: it consists of understanding the relationships between each piece of learned information and its integration with all other information structures. As you develop your conceptual knowledge of a subject, you make progress in its future application, particularly in settings that are yet unknown.

Achieving mastery takes time and practice. A doctor can only become a master after treating thousands of patients. Each patient encounter is an opportunity for the doctor to learn and improve. The consultations are interleaved with a wide range of topics and are often complex. The appointments are spaced out over time, but with each one, the doctor gains more knowledge and experience. The road to mastery is long, but the best way to achieve it is by learning through practical experience.

Embrace Difficulties

Setting ideas straight

The authors discuss two important ideas. Firstly, feeling confident about our knowledge is not the same as actually mastering a subject.

Secondly, testing ourselves regularly is a powerful tool for uncovering illusions of knowledge. By regularly testing ourselves, we can gain a more accurate understanding of our true level of knowledge and identify areas for improvement. This can help us avoid overestimating or underestimating ourselves. Ultimately, testing is an essential step in achieving true mastery.

How learning works

To understand the importance of difficulty in the learning process, it is helpful to examine how the brain works when assimilating new information. 

The brain translates sensory perception into a chemical and electrical mixture, which builds mental patterns among our neurons and synapses. This is called the encoding process.

Essentially, each new element we learn and understand creates mental grooves in our brain. After this initial encoding, there comes a consolidation phase. During this phase, the mental image takes the form of faint grooves that can be easily modified or replaced by new information. A few hours after the first grooves have been encoded, we can consolidate the links by recalling the memory during a new study session. This means that our brain recognizes the previously constructed form and reinforces it by digging deeper grooves. 

Scientists believe that the brain is not capable of creating mental models but can only recognize them. The most probable hypotheses suggest that the brain tries to connect new information to past knowledge by making sense of it in relation to what it already knows. Therefore, past grooves are essential to the solid construction of new ones. 

Consolidation reinforces the grooves and creates new links with old knowledge, making it easier for the brain to access the information it needs. By creating these new links, the brain makes previously stored information malleable again.

What is difficulty in learning?

If you experience difficulty in recalling information, it may indicate that your brain is not able to discover it easily. The classical method of learning, which involves repeating information rapidly, helps to create a new groove in your brain.  

However, if you allow your brain to forget slightly by reinstating the difficulty of recalling, it can create new pathways to the information. The best way to learn is through a three-stage process that involves exposure to information, retrieval of that information, and then forgetting it.  

By learning through memory retrieval, we can enable the information to pass from short-term to long-term memory. By intelligently repeating this process, we can provide clues that make it easier for our brain to retrieve information later on.

The importance of context in learning

Our minds are capable of memorizing any information we encounter. However, our ability to retrieve it at the right moment is limited. This ability depends on the context in which the information is used. It is our ability to recover them that is not unlimited.

Context serves as the backdrop to our mental map, which is formed by a network of linked pieces of information. Each part of this network is marked by its overall context. 

It is not the knowledge itself that is forgotten, but the clues that help us find and retrieve it.

To illustrate this, let’s consider the example of remembering past addresses. If you have moved around a lot, it is unlikely that you will remember the number and street name of a house you lived in 20 years ago. However, if this address is given to you in a multiple-choice question, you will likely find the right answer immediately. This is because you have not forgotten the address itself, but rather the clues that lead you to it.  

If you are asked to tell the story of a particular period of your life, you may be surprised by the number of memories, places, and emotions that resurface. By placing a context around a piece of knowledge, you can recover the clues to your mental map.

Context can unlock memories, just like the right key can open an old lock.

How does difficulty help you learn better?

If you have a good understanding of past neurological explanations, you will be able to appreciate the significance of difficulty in retaining information. Psychologists have brought to light an interesting fact: the easier it is for you to recall a piece of knowledge or skill from memory, the less beneficial the retrieval exercise will be for you in retaining that information. The opposite is also true. 

This phenomenon is known as the learning paradox. The more challenging it is to retrieve information, the more you feel like you’re forgetting it, and the more you lose track of the clues that lead to the place where the information is stored. Paradoxically, it is precisely at this point that the memory retrieval session is most effective. You rediscover your past clues and create new ones.

What are the advantages of difficulty in memory retrieval?

The difficulty involved in memory retrieval offers two capabilities: memory reconsolidation and the creation of mental models.

• By varying, spacing, and interleaving your study sessions, you can reconsolidate your memory. This requires additional effort as you retrieve information from long-term memory. The process of retrieval makes the stored information malleable again, which provides you with the opportunity to strengthen your understanding of the subject, create new links with old information, and develop new retrieval cues. Simply rehearsing without re-establishing difficulty can create an illusion of knowledge and mastery through easy access to short-term memory. However, this approach doesn’t promote long-term retention or understanding.
• Mental models can be considered the highest level of learning. They are like brain apps – mental representations of a particular knowledge or skill that you can launch whenever you need to use it. For instance, Rafael Nadal’s forehand is a mental model. These models are deep-rooted skills or knowledge that can be adapted and applied in various contexts.

Why don’t we want difficulty?

The culture of Western success and psychological theories from the 1950s have led to a fear of making mistakes, especially when it comes to learning. This fear is instilled in the minds of teachers who believe that students will learn only if they do not make mistakes. 

This fear of error also affects students. A French study of sixth-graders found that students who were told that mistakes are a natural part of learning were able to make better use of their working memory.[2]

The psychologists behind this study believe that the fear of making mistakes paralyzes students and slows down their cognitive abilities. Students who worry about making mistakes use a large part of their working memory to measure their performance instead of focusing on learning.

Carol Dweck, a psychology researcher from New York, has conducted research on the Growth Mindset, which the authors highlight. She has shown that some people believe that their skills and intellectual abilities are predetermined at birth. On the other hand, others believe that their skills can evolve, and that they can learn anything and improve continuously. Those who believe in continuous improvement see difficulties as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Avoid Illusions of Knowing

In this new chapter, the authors introduce two systems of thought. They base their introduction on the work of Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economics psychologist (Kahneman’s book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” is a well-known reference in behavioral psychology and is discussed in this chapter here.)

• System 1 is our fundamental, automatic way of thinking. We use it most of the time because it’s easy and intuitive, but it can lead us to make errors of interpretation.
• System 2 is a system of conscious control. It arises when we take the time to think about something. It is slower and relies on our analytical or reasoning skills.

System 1 is a powerful mechanism that relies on our years of experience to identify external information from our senses and respond to it physically, intellectually, or emotionally. It is this system that enables us to flee spontaneously in the event of danger.

Unfortunately, System 1 can sometimes malfunction if it has not been nourished enough in the past. To ensure the proper functioning of System 1, System 2 can feed it properly. By repeatedly bringing awareness and thought to a subject, we can react more quickly without thinking about it. Remember the first few times you rode a two-wheeled bike? It was difficult. But with practice and repetition, it became automatic: you don’t think when you pedal.

The malleability of memory and our cognitive biases

Our past experiences play a significant role in shaping our behavior and reactions. This is because we tend to prefer logical and causal narratives, and our memory works in a certain way.

Psychologists Larry Jacoby, Bob Bjork, and Colleen Kelley have conducted research that shows how our memory can be distorted, leading to illusions of understanding.

We tend to interpret information based on our personal knowledge, interest in causal stories, and emotional attachment to the information.

These illusions of understanding can hinder our learning process. The authors provide a non-exhaustive list of these illusions:

• Imagination inflation, or our tendency to think that an imaginary event may be true some time later.
• The learning curse: when we know a subject or topic, we almost systematically underestimate how long it will take another person to learn it. It’s this bias that often leads us to overestimate the predictability of an event in hindsight.
• The fluency illusion: particularly harmful to learning, this illusion encourages us to think that we have mastered a subject, even a complex one, if we have mastered its form. Repeatedly working with or trying to memorize a text gives us a sense of familiarity and cognitive ease. This ease leads us to believe that we have mastered the subject, whereas a new text or a different form of practice would prove us wrong.
• Social influence: when those around us think that a piece of information is right, we’re more likely to think it’s true. This is the problem with conspiracy theories on social networks and repeated exposure to them.
• The false consensus effect: we generally fail to recognize the personal nature of our understanding of the world and believe we hold the truth, shared by all.

The Dunning–Kruger effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a well-known cognitive bias that affects our System 1. It suggests that the less competent we are, the less capable we are of recognizing our true competence. This is because we lack knowledge about the subject and our potential level of competence. As a result, we tend to overestimate our skills, which can lead to problems. The Dunning-Kruger effect shows that people who are incompetent are more likely to overestimate their abilities. 

To overcome this effect, psychologists Dunning and Kruger suggest using metacognition and feedback techniques. These methods can help us develop self-awareness and improve our ability to recognize our true level of competence. 

Chapter 3 of this review discusses the Dunning-Kruger effect. The authors argue that conventional forms of learning can lead to illusions of knowledge and contribute to the problem. Studies show that students who learn through these methods are more likely to overestimate their skills and settle into a false sense of security.

Avoiding errors of judgment

The authors provide a helpful list of techniques for avoiding illusions of knowledge and understanding. First, they remind us to analyze the signals we use to make judgments.

The feelings of familiarity or ease induced by System 1 are not reliable indicators. Instead, they suggest that we build inferences based on our existing mental models. Inference is the process of linking our existing mental models with new ideas or linking different new ideas together. 

A good indicator of mastery is the ability to retrieve key information from memory, explain its concept, and link it to the overall subject.  

To avoid misjudging our real skills, here are a few ways to proceed:

• Testing: there’s only one really effective way of dispelling any ambiguity about our actual skills: testing. Testing helps us to differentiate between what we think we know and what we actually know.
• Peer instruction: the aim here is to receive feedback from an outsider, more or less advanced than ourselves. By exchanging, confronting, and debating ideas, the feedback loops are rapid. This is essentially a working method used by technical professions such as law.
• Mentoring instruction: mentoring is a powerful learning technique. By learning with a mentor, a guide, you are certain to avoid the illusion of knowledge. Having faced your own problems, he or she can put you through your paces, and test your real understanding and skills. Mentoring is particularly useful for highly technical professions, such as airplane pilots.

Get Beyond Learning Styles

The authors of the book bring to our attention what Francis Bacon, Darwin’s cousin, said about different learning styles. This concept has existed for a very long time and is so deeply rooted in our society that every teacher believes in it.

However, the authors highlight that there is no empirical study in cognitive science that supports this idea, although they do not prohibit us from believing it. 

The only learning style supported by scientific evidence is the structure-based learning style. Some people have developed a habit of extracting the fundamental principles of a new idea when they confront it. These individuals can more efficiently differentiate between crucial and irrelevant information and connect new information with a larger whole. As a result, they learn much more effectively.

Structure-based learning

The marker of ease of learning can be seen in the ability to learn by constructing informational structures. This involves extracting key ideas and using them to model information into a solid, usable framework.

This form of learning allows students to sort through the input and feed their mental model with interesting information while ignoring the rest. These structures can take various forms, such as a mental model or a concise story that gets straight to the point. 

For example, if we consider a surgeon reflecting on his medical practice, he may construct a narrative structure around the surgical act. Reflection is an example of “structure building” that enables us to isolate key points from unimportant elements in our history.

Learning by example

The alternative to learning by structure is learning by example. Not everyone is capable of identifying the essential elements of a piece of information. The authors suggest learning by example.

By studying a number of real-life cases and examples, and committing them to memory, you can develop the ability to recognize the similarities and differences between each instance. This is crucial for gaining a solid grasp of the underlying structure of knowledge.

Forms of intelligence

Psychologists today agree on two forms of intelligence that everyone possesses and that constitute our capacity to learn: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence.

• Fluid intelligence is presented as the ability to reason, to see relationships between things, to think abstractly, and to retain information in memory while we work on solving a problem.
• Crystallized intelligence, on the other hand, is the ability to retain information to create mental representations of a subject based on past learning and experience.

Some psychologists are questioning the significance of IQ. They argue that IQ does not measure our ability to reason in complex, real-world situations.

Instead, psychologist Robert Sternberg has proposed the concept of “successful intelligence,” which suggests that intelligence is not fixed and can be developed over time.

Sternberg’s theory includes three types of intelligence (which you will discover below), going beyond the traditional measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence. Each one of us has varying degrees of these forms of intelligence.

• Firstly, analytical intelligence, or the ability to solve problems.
• Secondly, creative intelligence, or the ability to adapt to a new environment by applying information in a new context.
• Finally, practical intelligence, or the ability to adapt to everyday life, to our direct environment. 

We all have strengths and weaknesses in our ability to learn. These characteristics are linked to our life history, to the knowledge we have managed to accumulate, to our learning automatisms or to the story we have invented for ourselves, based on our beliefs.

Dynamic testing, the only true measure of intelligence

Robert Sternberg and Elena Grigorenko have introduced the concept of dynamic testing, which focuses on measuring progress rather than competence at a particular point in time. The idea behind dynamic testing is that we are always moving from a lower level of competence to a higher one.

This testing method aims to identify a person’s weak points and suggest areas for improvement. After identifying the weaknesses, tests based on the concept of memory retrieval are designed to improve lower-level skills. Instead of marking a general state, dynamic testing tracks progress by highlighting weaknesses and observing potential progress. This approach is different from the usual testing methods because it is designed to correct weaknesses rather than simply assess a person’s overall ability.

Things to remember

It is important to overcome the notion of intelligence style and the ability to learn a particular subject. Firstly, set a goal and identify the element that needs to be learned. Break down the overall knowledge into its component skills and use your skills to work on examples or try to identify your visualization abilities in structure. 

Active learning methods like reflection, memory retrieval, and dynamic testing should be adopted. We should avoid what makes us feel good and instead look for failure. Identify our shortcomings through tests and analysis by a peer or mentor. We need to break our errors of judgment and face up to the reality of our current skills. 

Try to look for the big picture, even if you are not a structure builder. Attempt to find the underlying principles behind the information, take examples, and identify similarities and differences. If you had to test yourself, how would you describe them?

Increase Your Abilities

In this chapter, the authors explore the fundamental concepts of mental enhancement. Specifically, in this section, we examine the most recent developments in neuroscience regarding the brain’s capacity to improve through cognitive principles such as brain plasticity and curiosity, as well as through various techniques like the growth mindset, deliberate practice, and mnemonics.

Brain plasticity

The structure of our brain is determined by our genes, but the neuronal relationships and fine structures are built up through experience, which means they can change over time.

Myelin, a substance that surrounds axons, is responsible for the speed at which information is transmitted in our brain. It thickens or thins with practice, which is why pianists have a high degree of myelination in the nerve fibers responsible for finger movement and cognitive processes involved in “playing music.” 

Our habits and actions, as a result of practice, use different circuits in our brain than conventional actions. These actions originate in the basal ganglia, which is deeply embedded in our brain.

The brain records sequences of physical or cognitive actions, creating “macros” that can be thought of as the series of body movements required for Nadal’s forehand or the series of actions required in a game of chess, depending on the positioning of the pieces. 

Neurogenesis, the ability of the hippocampus, a memory consolidation zone, to create new neurons over the course of our lives, also supports the brain’s cerebral plasticity. Neurogenesis begins when the brain intends to learn and continues after learning. This may explain neurogenesis’s involvement in memory consolidation and justify the results obtained through the difficult memory retrieval achieved by spacing.

IQ and curiosity

In their work, the authors discuss the findings of James R. Flynn and Richard Nisbett. Flynn argues that IQ has been on the rise over the last 60 years. Meanwhile, Nisbett attributes this increase to external factors such as our society and environment. He suggests that children who exhibit curiosity and engage in skill-building activities tend to have a higher IQ than those who do not. 

Another external factor that can impact IQ is social class. Children from affluent families often have access to more enriching environments and resources that contribute to higher IQ. 

However, unlike physical skills, myelination of neural pathways is specific to a particular skill and doesn’t transfer to others. Therefore, the brain is not like a muscle. 

While it’s not possible to increase one’s IQ overnight, the authors suggest that certain habits can act as cognitive multipliers, such as adopting a growth mindset, practicing like an expert, and using memory cues.

The growth mindset

The growth mindset is a concept that explains the strength of our convictions regarding our ability to learn. It was created by Carol Dweck, who explains that people with a growth mindset firmly believe that their learning is within their own control. On the other hand, the fixed mindset is held by people who believe that their abilities are predetermined at birth.

This concept is crucial for learning, as it determines how we respond to failure. People with a fixed mindset often make excuses for their failures, using phrases such as “I’m not intelligent.” In contrast, those with a growth mindset attribute their failures to a lack of effort, hard work, or poor methodology.

Deliberate practice

Deliberate practice is a learning approach that focuses on performance measurement. It stands in contrast to classical, haphazard, and intuitive practice. To engage in deliberate practice, an individual must possess mental strength to pursue specific objectives. This form of practice entails systematically measuring one’s own performance, identifying areas of failure, and developing strategies to improve. The process involves re-testing and re-measuring, much like an athlete who reviews their match footage to identify areas for improvement.

Memory cues

To facilitate memory retention, the authors suggest a number of techniques that can help us improve our performance.

• Memory palace: This concept helps in retaining a large amount of information by structuring your thoughts visually.  It involves imagining a place where you can live such as a palace, a house or an apartment. Then, you visualize a scenario in which you wander through the rooms of the house. Each piece of information to be remembered is arranged in a piece of furniture in a room or a drawer, and so on. This technique works because the human brain retains images more easily than sounds or text. By organizing information visually, it becomes easier to recall later.
• Rhyme: This is a technique that helps in remembering long lists of information. In this technique, you associate the number in the list with a word that rhymes with the item that you need to remember. For example, the word “four” rhymes with the word “store.” Memory champions use this technique to memorize numbers of more than 10 digits. They also associate numbers with mental images to remember them. For instance, Patterson, who is a world memory champion, associates each number from 000 to 999 with an image. 

However, the authors caution that the use of mnemonic devices only helps in retaining information and not in mastering it. Mastery of a subject comes from deliberate, repeated practice over hundreds or even thousands of hours.

It is not just about the ability to recall information but also about applying it in situations with unknown factors.

Conclusion to Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Mark A. McDaniel, Henry L. Roediger III

This book was truly eye-opening for me. As I was self-teaching myself computer development, I often faced difficulties and sometimes found the exercises impossible to complete. I felt discouraged and thought that I was not capable of succeeding when others could. However, after reading this book, I realized that difficulty is actually an indicator of possible progress. I also learned about different learning methods and was able to restructure my learning process accordingly. By testing and searching for systematic difficulties, I was able to learn much faster, even though this method was more frustrating. 

What I appreciate about this book is that it debunks the myths of traditional learning methods and presents the latest advances in cognitive science. It provides practical tips and techniques that anyone can apply, saving time and allowing us to focus on what’s important: learning the subject we want to learn.  While the book has plenty of examples, some readers may find it lacking in concrete applications of the various learning methods.

However, I would recommend it to anyone who is self-teaching a subject, starting a new business, or being a student or teacher. Those who are already familiar with brain function and learning techniques may find it redundant. Overall, this book is like the Personal MBA of learning and brain function.

Guilhem Delachapelle of the delachpl.com blog,

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Strong points:

• Provides an understanding of the Growth Mindset concept and its importance in learning.
• Identifies the illusion of knowledge and its detrimental effect on our own learning.
• Debunks the myth of geniuses and highlights the necessity of learning through difficulty.
• Is didactic and follows a very simple approach.

Weak points:

• The book could benefit from more practical applications and less reliance on specific examples.
• The book does not revolve around learning methods but focuses on the difficulties of creating effective reading notes for future use.