Research Hit: Learn Better with Variety
Variety is the spice of life they say - and it is in learning too according to this research
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Shouldn’t we be really focused on learning specific things - to not clutter the mind?
That always sounds like a good idea, known as specificity, but we know in many areas in life, focusing too early is not so good. I write in more detail on this in my section on the Knowledgable Brain in the Handbook of Your Brain in Business.
For example, you may think that children who focus early on a specific sport and train, train, and train, then become champions. Not true. Various studies have shown that champions later in life generally train less in a larger variety of sports before focusing on a specific sport (to a dramatic degree it should be noted - 90-95% of Olympic gold medallists!). The same applies to Nobel laureates, and I also reported on business success also previously.
So the rule is generalise first, and then focus.
But does this apply to general learning?
Well, that is precisely the question that Elizbeth Stine-Morrow and colleagues wanted to find out. And also whether this applies later in life - for oldies like you and me!
Oh, now I’m interested, tell me more…
They recruited adults between the ages of 60 and 87 with a view to training them on working memory because this is one aspect of cognitive performance that dramatically drops with age - for example remembering a string of numbers, lists, or full sentences.
These were given a reading span task - basically seeing how much you can remember from text. They then went through one of four different learning regimes for two weeks:
Practicing the reading span task (i.e. the specificity group)
Practicing another working memory task (related group)
Practicing a range of working memory tasks (the variety group)
Practicing something else (control group)
Then they practised again on the reading span task for two weeks and after four weeks the results were compared.
What happened?
Well, at the start of the two weeks specific training, the specificity group performed best - logical they have been practising that precise task for two weeks already. But they were then overtaken by the variety group who ended up achieving higher performances on average.
So variety improves learning over time?
Yes, if you want to learn quickly focus on a specific task - if you want to learn better over time, focus on general related practice with variety.
Interesting to see that this applies to many areas in life: sports, academia, business, and memory in age.
Variety is indeed the spice of life
The spice of learning - and ability even.
Elizabeth A.L. Stine-Morrow, Ilber E. Manavbasi, Shukhan Ng, Giavanna S. McCall, Aron K. Barbey, Daniel G. Morrow.
Looking for transfer in all the wrong places: How intellectual abilities can be enhanced through diverse experience among older adults.
Intelligence, 2024; 104: 101829
DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2024.101829