学会如何学习学习笔记——1. 5 什么是学习——记忆概论、睡眠在学习中的重要性

记忆概论

When I look back on my childhood or I remember some words from Spanish, or Russian, or bring to mind one of Maxwell's equations, I'm drawing on portions of my brain involved in long-term memory, but when I'm trying to hold a few ideas in mind to connect them together so I can understand a concept or solve a problem, I'm using my working memory. Obviously, sometimes I'll bring something from my long-term memory into my working memory so I can think about it. So the two types of memory are related. There are lots of different ways to slice our understanding of memory, but for this course on learning, we're going to talk about only these two major memory systems; working memory and long-term memory.

Working memory is the part of memory that has to do with what you're immediately and consciously processing in your mind. Your working memory is centered out of the prefrontal cortex although as we'll see later, there are also connections to other parts of your brain so you can access long-term memories. Researchers used to think that our working memory could hold around seven items or chunks, but now it's widely believed that the working memory holds only about four chunks of information. We tend to automatically group memory items into chunks so it seems our working memory is bigger than it actually is.

Although your working memory is like a blackboard, it's not a very good blackboard. You often need to keep repeating what you're trying to work with so it stays in your working memory. For example, you'll sometimes repeat a phone number to yourself until you have a chance to write it down. Repetitions needed so that your metabolic vampires that is natural dissipating processes don't suck those memories away. You may find yourself shutting your eyes to keep any other items from intruding into the limited slots of your working memory as you concentrate. So, we know that short-term memory is something like an inefficient mental blackboard.

The other form of memory, long term memory is like a storage warehouse, and just like a warehouse, it's distributed over a big area. Different kinds of long-term memories are stored in different regions of the brain. Research has shown that when you first try to put an item of information in long-term memory, you need to revisit it at least a few times to increase the chances that you'll be able to find it later when you might need it. The long-term memory storage warehouse is immense, it's got room for billions of items. In fact there can be so many items they can bury each other. So it can be difficult for you to find the information you need unless you practice and repeat at least a few times. Long-term memory is important because it's where you store fundamental concepts and techniques that are often involved in whatever you're learning about.

When you encounter something new, you often use your working memory to handle it. If you want to move that information into your long-term memory, it often takes time and practice. To help with this process, use a technique called spaced repetition. This technique involves repeating what you're trying to retain, but what you want to do is a space this repetition out. Repeating a new vocabulary word or a problem solving technique for example over a number of days. Extending your practice over several days does make a difference. Research has shown that if you try to glue things into your memory by repeating something 20 times in one evening for example, it won't stick nearly as well as if you practice it the same number of times over several days. This is like building the brick wall we saw earlier, if you don't leave time for the mortar to dry, that is time for the synaptic connections to form and strengthen, you won't have a very good structure, and talk about lasting structure, look at this part of the Acropolis here. Thanks for learning about learning. 

当我回顾我的童年，或者回忆起一些西班牙语、俄语的单词，或者想起麦克斯韦方程组中的一个方程时，我正在使用我大脑中参与长期记忆的部分。但是当我试图在脑海中记住几个想法并将它们联系起来以便我理解一个概念或解决问题时，我正在使用我的工作记忆。显然，有时我会从我的长期记忆中提取一些东西到我的工作记忆中，这样我就可以进行思考。因此，这两种类型的记忆是相关的。有许多不同的方式来理解记忆，但对于这门关于学习的课程，我们将只讨论这两个主要的记忆系统：工作记忆和长期记忆。

工作记忆是与您立即和有意识地在脑海中处理的内容有关的记忆部分。您的工作记忆以前额叶皮层为中心，尽管正如我们稍后将看到的，它与其他大脑部分也有连接，这样您就可以访问长期记忆。研究人员曾经认为我们的工作记忆可以容纳大约七个项目或块，但现在人们普遍认为工作记忆只能容纳大约四个信息块。我们倾向于自动将记忆项目分组为块，所以看起来我们的工作记忆比实际的大。

虽然您的工作记忆就像一个黑板，但它并不是一个非常好的黑板。您经常需要重复您正在尝试处理的内容，以便它保持在您的工作记忆中。例如，您有时会反复念一个电话号码，直到有机会把它写下来。重复是必要的，因为您的新陈代谢过程会自然地消耗这些记忆。当您集中注意力时，您可能会发现自己闭上眼睛，以防止其他项目侵入您的工作记忆中有限的插槽。因此，我们知道短期记忆就像是一个效率低下的心理黑板。

另一种形式的内存，长期记忆就像一个存储仓库，就像一个仓库一样，它是分布在一个大区域中的。不同类型的长期记忆存储在大脑的不同区域。研究表明，当您第一次尝试将一个信息项放入长期记忆中时，您需要至少重新访问它几次，以增加以后需要找到它的可能性。长期记忆存储仓库是巨大的，它可以容纳数十亿个项目。事实上，可能有这么多的项目以至于它们可以相互覆盖。因此，除非您至少练习和重复几次，否则很难找到您需要的信息。长期记忆很重要，因为它是您存储基本概念和技巧的地方，这些概念和技巧通常涉及到您正在学习的任何内容。

当您遇到新事物时，您通常会使用您的工作记忆来处理它。如果您想将这些信息转移到您的长期记忆中，通常需要时间和练习。为了帮助这个过程，可以使用一种叫做间隔重复的技术。这种技术涉及重复您想要保留的内容，但您想做的是将这些重复间隔开来。例如，在几天内重复一个新的词汇或一个问题解决技巧。将您的练习延长几天确实会产生差异。研究表明，如果您试图通过在一个晚上重复某件事20次来将其粘在记忆中，那么效果不会像在几天内进行相同次数的练习那样好。这就像我们之前看到的建造砖墙一样，如果您不给砂浆干燥的时间（这是突触连接形成和加强的时间），那么您就不会有一个很好的结构，更不用说持久的结构了，看看这里的雅典卫城的一部分吧。感谢您学习关于学习的知识。

睡眠在学习中的重要性

You might be surprised to learn that just plain being awake creates toxic products in your brain. How does the brain get rid of these poisons?

Turns out that when you sleep, your brain cells shrink. This causes an increase in the space between your brain cells. It's like unblocking a stream. Fluid can flow past these cells and wash the toxins out. So, sleep which can sometimes seem like such a waste of time is actually your brain's way of keeping itself clean and healthy.

So, let's get right to a critical idea. Taking a test without getting enough sleep means you're operating with a brain that got little metabolic toxins floating around in it, poisons, and make it so you can't think very clearly. It's kind of like trying to drive a car that's got sugar in its gas tank, doesn't work too well. In fact, getting too little sleep doesn't just make you do worse on tests.

Too little sleep over too long of a time can also be associated with all sorts of nasty conditions including headaches, depression, heart disease, diabetes and just plain dying earlier. But sleep does more than just allow your brain to wash away toxins. It's actually an important part of the memory and learning process. It seems that during sleep, your brain tidies up ideas and concepts you're thinking about and learning. It erases the less important parts of memories and simultaneously strengthens areas that you need or want to remember. During sleep, your brain also rehearses some of the tougher parts of whatever you're trying to learn, going over and over neural patterns to deepen and strengthen them. Sleep has also been shown to make a remarkable difference in your ability to figure out difficult problems and to understand what you're trying to learn. It's as if the complete deactivation of the conscious you in the prefrontal cortex at the forefront of your brain helps other areas of your brain start talking more easily to one another allowing them to put together the neural solution to your learning task while you're sleeping.

Of course, you must also plant the seed for your diffuse mode by first doing focused mode work. If you're going over what you're learning right before you take a nap or going to sleep for the evening, you have an increased chance of dreaming about it. If you go even further and set it in mind that you want to dream about the material it seems to improve your chances of dreaming about it, still further. Dreaming about what you're studying can substantially enhance your ability to understand. It somehow consolidate your memories into easier to grasp chunks, and now, time for a little sleep.

你可能会惊讶地发现，仅仅是清醒状态就会产生有毒物质在你的大脑中。那么，大脑如何摆脱这些毒素呢？

事实证明，当你睡觉时，你的脑细胞会收缩。这会导致你的脑细胞之间的空间增加。就像疏通一条溪流一样。液体可以流过这些细胞并冲走毒素。所以，睡眠虽然有时看起来像是浪费时间，但实际上是你大脑保持自己清洁和健康的方式。

因此，让我们来谈谈一个关键的想法。在没有得到足够睡眠的情况下参加考试意味着你的大脑中漂浮着少量的代谢毒素、毒药，使你无法清晰地思考。这有点像试图驾驶一辆油箱里有糖的汽车，效果不会很好。事实上，睡眠不足不仅会让你在考试中表现更差。

长时间的睡眠不足还可能与各种讨厌的状况有关，包括头痛、抑郁、心脏病、糖尿病以及过早死亡。但睡眠不仅仅是让你的大脑冲走毒素。它实际上是记忆和学习过程中的重要组成部分。似乎在睡眠期间，你的大脑整理了你正在思考和学习的想法和概念。它抹去了记忆中不太重要的部分，同时加强了你需要或想要记住的区域。在睡眠期间，你的大脑还会反复练习你所要学习的困难部分，一遍又一遍地重复神经模式以加深和加强它们。睡眠还被证明可以在解决难题和理解你要学习的内容方面产生显著的差异。就好像在你大脑前沿的前额叶皮层中的有意识的自我完全失活有助于你大脑的其他区域更容易地相互交流，从而在你睡觉时将神经解决方案组合在一起来完成你的学习任务。

当然，你还必须首先进行专注模式的工作，才能为你的扩散模式播下种子。如果你在小睡之前或晚上入睡前复习你正在学习的内容，你就有更大的机会梦到它。如果你更进一步地将其牢记在心，希望梦见这些内容，那么你梦见它们的机会就会更大。梦见你所学习的内容可以极大地提高你的理解能力。它以某种方式将你的记忆整合成更容易掌握的部分，现在是时候稍微睡一会儿了。