本课程将介绍各领域专家所使用的学习方法，他们包括艺术家、文学家、数学家、科学家、运动员和很多其他领域专家。我们将学习如何使用两种不同的大脑模式，以及大脑如何封装（“chunks”）信息。我们还将介绍能力错觉（illusions of learning），记忆技巧，对付拖延症的方法，以及研究表明能帮助我们掌握困难科目的方法。
无论您在所学领域是专家还是菜鸟，您都可以使用这些方法，改变自己的思维模式，重塑自己的人生。如果您是所学领域的专家，通过学习大脑认知的底层知识，您可以进一步提高自己的学习能力，您将了解反直觉的考试技巧和见解，从而能够更高效地完成作业和习题。如果您在学习中遇到困难，系统有效的学习技巧将帮助您将走上正轨。无论您希望学习什么内容，这门课程都可以作为您的指南。
Ramón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning, McMaster University Professor of Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering, Oakland University
Dr. Terrence Sejnowski
Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies Computational Neurobiology Laboratory
Hong Chee Joo
Welcome back to Learning How to Learn.
Today we're going to talk about how to become a better learner.
As we learn more about the brain we can become better learners, and
here are two tips for how to learn better.
Tip number one, the best gift that you can give your brain is Physical Exercise.
We once thought that all of the neurons in your brain were already present at birth,
but we now know that in a few places, new neurons are born every day.
One of these places is in your Hippocampus, a brain area that is very
important for learning new things that we already discussed earlier in the course.
In this experiment, a rat is shown,
learning how to distinguish a picture of a flower from a picture of an airplane.
In the background is a photo of neurons in the hippocampus,
with the old neurons shown in blue and newly generated neurons in red.
As the rat learns the task, these new neurons are recruited to help
perform better pattern separation between the two pictures.
These new neurons help you learn new things but
they will die if you don't use them.
New experiences will rescue them.
Exercise, interestingly, also helps new neurons survive.
Exercise is by far,
more effective than any drug on the market today to help you learn better.
It benefits all of your vital organisms, not just your brain.
It is unfortunate that schools are dropping gym and
recess to make room for more instruction.
Gym and recess are by far the most important parts of the curriculum.
Here's another tip and this has to do with practice making perfect, but
only when your brain is prepared.
There are certain critical periods in the development of your brain.
When sudden improvements occur in specific abilities, expect them to happen and
prepare your brain for them.
The critical period for first language acquisition extends up to puberty.
One of the best studied critical periods in the brain is when binocular depth
perception or stereopsis matures during the first two years of life.
Stereopsis is the magic behind Magic Eye pictures like the one shown here.
If you stare at this image and
slightly cross your eyes, you will see staircases pop out of the page.
There is a slight shift between the images in the two eyes and
your brain interprets this slight shift as difference in depth.
Not everyone, however, can see this.
Over 5% of the population is stereo blind.
If the two eyes are not properly aligned during the first two years of development,
the neurons in your visual cortex will fail to properly strengthen the inputs
from the two eyes and depth perception is permanently impaired.
Well, that's the dogma.
But Sue Barry, a friend of mine from graduate school at Princeton,
was able to recover stereo vision through eye exercises.
And wrote a book about it,
entitled Fixing My Gaze, a scientist's journey into seeing in three dimensions.
Practice can repair, as well as train the brain.
But this takes much longer, past the critical period.
This brings us to zombies.
Zombies can't learn.
It is also clear from their behavior that they have brain damage.
Especially in the front of their cortex,
which is the part that makes plans, as well as in their language areas.
Learning, Planning, Language, these are the skills that make us human.
The prefrontal cortex is also involved in complex analysis in social behaviors,
as well as decision making and planning.
It is the last part of the cortex to mature, so until this happens,
there may be a little bit of zombie in you.
Another patient, EVR, suffered a stroke in the social parts of his prefrontal cortex.
EVR had a high IQ and seemed normal, but
he was ruined by making bad financial decisions and bad social interactions.
He lost both his home and his family.
Good judgement takes a long time, and a lot of experience to acquire.
Learning, is too important to be left behind in the classroom.
Learning to learn is a skill you can master.
And you can use it to improve every part of your life.
You'll be learning even more learning tips this week, and
can follow up on them at brainfacts.org.
I'm Terry Sejnowski, happy learning to you until we meet again.
Dr. Barbara OakleyRamón y Cajal Distinguished Scholar of Global Digital Learning, McMaster University
Dr. Terrence SejnowskiFrancis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Hong Chee Joo
