Dendrite - Schooled for Life

$neuron fractal 1$: neuron fractal 1 (Photo credit: Anthony Mattox)

Today we continue from the previous post on revision. Last post we looked at the factors that can influence how you implement your revision program. Today we are going to look at how to put together a revision program.

Neuronal dendrite formation (Photo credit: TheJCB)

We have already established that our minds can only handle between 5 and 9 connected facts at any one time, and that it is a good idea to study those number of facts in one sitting, with a break between each study session. Now that we have confirmed these points, let's now look at some of the theory behind revision.

When we learn a chunk of facts, our neurons immediately build new dendrites in a region of the brain where it can connect the new information with old information. The research that showed us that information also showed us that if we leave that information as is and don't revise it soon, those dendrites will disintegrate. But, frequents bouts of brief rest during your study sessions are important to replenish the stores of neurotransmitters in the gaps between your neurons. Even more important though, is that the most amount of build-up of these chemicals takes place during sleep - and especially during your deep sleep, rather than during "dream sleep" (or Rapid Eye Movement or REM Sleep). So, that is why it is absolutely essential that you get at least seven hours sleep a night, and that there is no such thing as "catching up on your sleep" from a studying point of view. So, let's look at some guiding principles that you can follow when drawing up your own revision timetable. 1. Your first revision must be immediately after the rest period that follows the study session itself. So, if you have just learned a chunk of information related to Acute Myocardial Infarction and have just had a three minute rest, revise that same information, but... 2. The first revision must be done in a totally different way to the way you studied the material to begin with. This is where creativity comes in handy! If your study session has employed mainly drawing and talking, when you revise, use singing and acting. This first revision session may end up being longer than your original study session, but don't stress! All your subsequent revision sessions will be much shorter! 3. Try and do a second revision the same day before you go to sleep. As mentioned above, your dream sleep is the critical time during which the brain transforms that newly imbibed information into long-term memories by building and extending the dendritic branches.

Photo by Bob Jacobs, Laboratory of Quantitative Neuromorphology Department of Psychology Colorado College http://www.ColoradoCollege.edu/IDProg/Neuroscience/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

4. Revise the next day. 5. Revise the next week. 6. Revise a month later. 7. Revise a week before a test or exam. 8. Revise the day before the test or exam. Easy? Good. Now start getting creative with a calender!

The Single Most Important Study Fact You Will Ever Learn(schooledforlife.com)

Complete neuron cell diagram. Neurons (also known as neurones and nerve cells) are electrically excitable cells in the nervous system that process and transmit information. In vertebrate animals, neurons are the core components of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is, perhaps, the single most important fact you will ever have to know about studying. When you read it you will probably go, "Huh?", but it really is revolutionary. Here it is :

The more ways you learn a fact, the better your chances are at remembering it."

Let me back-track a little bit. I do apologize a little bit if this gets a little technical. In her brilliant book Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning Judy Willis explains that while we may stop growing neurons in our brain, we don't stop growing dendrites. Now, dendrites are outgrowths from neurons that grow as new things are learned. The more we learn, the more dendrites our brain grows.

Line art drawing of a Neuron 1. Dendrites 2. Cell Body 3. Nucleus 4. Axon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If we are learning a particular fact, it has been shown that the more ways we learn that fact, the more dendrites are created to enable us to remember that fact. So, let us take a rudimentary example of a language student learning a new word. Let's say you are learning Greek. First, you prime the process by writing the word out. Then you hear yourself say it a few times, and you hear a few different classmates say it a few times, and you hear your lecturer say it a few times. And you hear the word being used in an mp3 file that your lecturer plays for your - perhaps a reading of a Greek New Testament verse that contains that word. Then, later that day, while you are sitting around the lunch table, each of you and your friends practice saying the word in a sentence again. So, you have written it, heard it, and read it repeatedly. This results in more successful long-term memory storage and retrieval than just memorizing the definition of the word. If the word happens to be an object, then practice handling the object whilst talking about it. Maybe create a crazy story about the object as well and tell your friends about it. I promise you that you will all remember it easily! So, remember : The more ways you learn a fact, the better your chances are at remembering it!