About String Learning

Did you know that practice testing is proven to increase long term knowledge retention better 

than any other study method? 

Studies have shown that repeated exposure to information doesn’t always result in your 

retaining of the information.  That, just like any other habit, your brain needs practice recalling 

information for it to truly set in.  It’s called the testing effect, and is the theory from which String 

Learning was born. 

So, how does it work? 

It’s about establishing what’s called long­term potentiation (LTP) in the brain. Which basically 

means that when you stimulate a synaptic connection to a memory in the brain, the process of 

recollection becomes progressively easier the more times you exercise it.  

An analogy that might help explain how LTP happens in your brain goes like this. 

Let's say you’re in a cabin in the woods.  You’re unfamiliar with the terrain around you, but you 

know you need to go out and find water.  You have a map that tells you more or less where 

certain landmarks around you are, but it doesn’t show any trails or exact distances to these 

places.  Nevertheless you go out searching, and after several hours of zig­zagging through the 

woods, you find the river.  

The next day, you set off again to find water.  But, from your experience the day before you 

have a better sense of the direction of that river.  Within a couple of hours you’ve located the 

river again, and return directly back to your cabin having saved yourself several hours of 

walking.  

By the third day, you can see your own foot steps beating out a trail to the river which you then 

begin to follow.  Day after day, the trail becomes more pronounced and your trips to the river 

more efficient till you can practically find your way to the river with your eyes closed.  

You’re brain uses neural pathways to retrieve memories in just the same way, and it’s that 

power that we want to help you harness!