Taking Tiny Breaks Is Key To Learning New Skills

Brain activity associated with learning of left-handed key-presses during rest periods, via Bönstrup et al 2019 By Matthew Warren A wealth of research has shown that taking breaks is an important part of learning. Resting straight after acquiring new information seems to improve memory of that information, for example, and sleep is particularly important for consolidating what we have just learned.  Now it seems that even miniscule breaks, just seconds long, are also vital for learning new skills. A study published recently in Current Biology has found that most of the improvement while learning a motor task comes not while actually practicing, but instead during the breaks between practice sessions. To look at the benefits of short breaks during learning, Marlene Bönstrup and colleagues recruited 27 participants to learn a short sequence of key presses. Across 36 trials, each 10 seconds long, the participants repeatedly tapped out the sequence 4-1-3-2-4 as quickly as possible, using four fingers of their left hand. A 10-second rest period separated each trial. The participants improved drastically across the first 11 trials, increasing their speed from just over 1 key per second to more than 3.5 keys per second. After that their performance plateaued. But when the researchers looked at how performance improved during these 11 trials, they found that, on average, participants were no faster at the end of each trial than they were at the beginning of that same trial. Inste...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Cognition Educational Source Type: blogs