Stringlearning
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!