{"id":3920,"date":"2018-10-22T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T13:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=3920"},"modified":"2019-11-05T16:01:05","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T21:01:05","slug":"can-quiet-cognitive-breaks-help-you-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/can-quiet-cognitive-breaks-help-you-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Quiet Cognitive Breaks Help You Learn?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We write a lot on the blog about “desirable difficulties” (for example, here<\/a> and here<\/a>). Extra cognitive work<\/em> during early learning makes memories more robust.<\/p>\n

\"cognitive<\/a><\/p>\n

Retrieval practice<\/a> takes more brain power than simple review — that is, it’s harder. But, it helps students remember much more.<\/p>\n

Wouldn’t it be great if some easy<\/strong> things helped too?<\/p>\n

How about: doing nothing at all<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Cognitive Breaks: The Theory<\/h2>\n

When a memory begins to form, several thousand neurons begin connecting together. The synapses linking them get stronger.<\/p>\n

Everything we do to help strengthen those synapses, by definition, helps us remember.<\/p>\n

We know that sleep really helps in this process. In fact, researchers can see various brain regions working together during sleep. It seems that they’re “rehearsing” those memories.<\/p>\n

If sleep allows the brain to rehearse, then perhaps a short cognitive break would produce the same result.<\/p>\n

Cognitive Breaks: The Research<\/h2>\n

Michaela Dewar and colleagues have been looking into this question<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They had study participants listen to two stories. After one story, participants had to do a distracting mental task. (They compared pictures for subtle differences.)<\/p>\n

After the other, they “rest[ed] quietly with their eyes closed in the darkened testing room for ten minutes.”<\/p>\n

Sure enough, a week later, the quiet rest led to better memory. As a rough calculation, they remember 10% more than without the quiet rest.<\/p>\n

10% more learning with essentially 0% extra cognitive effort: that’s an impressive accomplishment!<\/p>\n

Classroom Questions<\/h2>\n

A finding like this raises LOTS of practical questions.<\/p>\n

Dewar’s study didn’t focus on K-12 learners. (In fact, in this study, the average age was over 70.) Do these findings apply to our students?<\/p>\n

Does this technique work for information other than stories? For instance: mathematical procedures? Dance steps? Vocabulary definitions?<\/p>\n

Does this finding explain the benefits of mindfulness<\/em>? That is: perhaps students can get these memory benefits without specific mindfulness techniques. (To be clear: some mindfulness researchers claim benefits above and beyond memory formation.)<\/p>\n

Can this finding work as a classroom technique? Can we really stop in the middle of class, turn out the lights, tell students to “rest quietly for 10 minutes,” and have them remember more?<\/p>\n

Would they instead remember more if we tried a fun fill-in-the-blank review exercise?<\/p>\n

I’ll be looking into this research pool, and getting back to you with the answers I find.<\/p>\n

Cognitive Breaks: The Neuroscience<\/h2>\n

If you’d like to understand the brain details of this research even further, check out the video at this website<\/a>. (Scroll down just a bit.) [Edit 11\/4\/19: This link no longer works; alas, I can’t find the video.]\n

The researchers explain a lot of science very quickly, so you’ll want to get settled before you watch. But: it covers this exact question with precision and clarity.<\/p>\n

(By the way: you’ll hear the researchers talk about “consolidation.” That’s the process of a memory getting stronger.)<\/p>\n

If you do watch the video, you might consider resting quietly after you do. No need to strain yourself: just let your mind wander…<\/p>\n

hat tip: Michael Wirtz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 10-minute cognitive break improves our memory for story details. If this research pans out, it might be immensely helpful in the classroom. Watch this space…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15,66,23],"class_list":["post-3920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-classroom-advice","tag-desirable-difficulty","tag-long-term-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3920"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5162,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920\/revisions\/5162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}