Learning concept: Repetition (and Temple Grandin on “exposing your brain to the data”)

Some months ago, a Youtube trawl led me to an interview with Temple Grandin which shifted my perspective on learning. 

For those not familiar, Temple Grandin is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and a spokesperson for those with Autism. As a proponent for the humane treatment of animals, her work has transformed the way that livestock are treated.

Watch any of Grandin’s interviews and you will surely be mesmerised by her ability to distil complex ideas into digestible nuggets of wisdom and introduce sharp new perspectives to everyday phenomena. 

The perspective-change she delivered in this interview was her characteristically frank answer to the question of how she had learned something new (I forget what specifically):

“I learned how I learn anything – I exposed my brain to the data”.

This statement left an impact because it dawned on me that viewing learning from this perspective can relieve some of the pressure that learners fall prey to – that is, the expectation that they should learn quickly. A close cousin of perfectionism, this expectation can quickly result in frustration and demotivation and therefore block learning. 

Fixed vs growth mindset

Viewing learning from this perspective aligns with the psychologist Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset. In brief, Dweck’s studies have found that those who believe abilities can be developed over time (growth mindset learners), tend to outperform those who believe that abilities are innate or fixed (fixed mindset learners).

Learning how brains learn

Grandin’s frank articulation of the process of learning highlights this natural part of our biology – brains need time to be “exposed to the data” in order to plant the schemas and build the neural pathways required to integrate a new concept . If this weren’t the case, we might find ourselves changing our minds all the time and generally feeling quite confused.

This underlies the routinely cited finding that repetition is key to learning. It too highlights the power of metaphor in learning, as metaphors allow us to integrate new knowledge by activating existing knowledge schemas. 

Learning how we learn like this can potentially help to manage expectations, reduce anxiety and prevent disengagement.

Thinking hurts – so let’s help to reduce the mental load 

Further to this, a recent article on Science Daily, “Sometimes It Hurts To Think”, detailed the results of a meta-analysis that found that people generally experience negative affect in relation to mental effort (David, Vassena, & Bijleveld, 2024). Thinking is hard, which means learning can be hard. 

But learning materials should aim to facilitate less mental load and this is something that Creative Listening, through concept development and scriptwriting, try to build into the learning-first content we produce.

The role of sleep in learning

Have you ever found that concepts or skills that at one point had you close to tears, seem, as if by magic, after a decent night’s sleep, to suddenly make sense or fall into place? 

Well after watching Grandin’s interview, I was reminded of Matthew Walker’s book, Why We Sleep, which explains that while sleeping our brains are consolidating memories, linking new information to what we already know and generally busily determining where “the data” we’ve been exposed to in the daytime should slot into our web of, on average, 86 billion neurons and their neuronal connections. 

In fact, one of the key findings from sleep research over the years is that sleep is essential to consolidate learning.

Stick with it

Of course, there is nuance to this concept. Our brains are subject to variation across the population with dyslexia, dyscalculia, autism and ADHD posing different types of challenges and opportunities for learners in different areas. According to Grandin’s own theory, she believes that some brains are wired towards maths and music whilst others are more predisposed to visual thinking etc. 

Nonetheless, it can be comforting for learners to know that, in general, even if you feel you aren’t “getting it” – your brain is likely trying to, even without your conscious awareness. Even while you’re sleeping. So stick with it.

Resistance is a necessary component of learning and repetition is its antidote. Perhaps learners would benefit from being reminded of that from time to time.

In summary – just keep exposing your brain to the data.

As specialists in learning-first content, we continually strive to integrate our knowledge of the latest learning science into the projects that we produce.

If you’d like to discuss how Creative Listening’s learning-first film, animation and sound content can support the repetition of your learning materials, get in touch today: hello@creativelistening.co.uk

References:

Books by Temple Grandin | https://uk.bookshop.org/search?keywords=temple+grandin

Mindset by Carol Dweck | https://www.waterstones.com/author/carol-dweck/1113997

Louise David, Eliana Vassena, Erik Bijleveld. The unpleasantness of thinking: A meta-analytic review of the association between mental effort and negative affect.. Psychological Bulletin, 2024; DOI: 10.1037/bul0000443

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker | https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/295665/why-we-sleep-by-walker-matthew/9780141983769