Ages
Ages
Dr. Lila Davachi, Dr. Tobias Kiefer, Dr. David Rock and Lisa Rock
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This article was published in the NeuroLeadership journal. The attached copy is furnished to the author for non-commercial
research and education use, including for instruction at the author’s institution, sharing with colleagues and providing to
institutional administration.
Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third-
party websites are prohibited.
In most cases authors are permitted to post a version of the article to the personal website or institutional repository. Authors
requiring further information regarding the NeuroLeadership journal’s archiving and management policies are encouraged
to send inquiries to: [email protected]
RESEARCH
in their leaders to serve as trainers report good results A number of surprises have emerged from this thread
(Bethof, 2009). Other organizations, noting the impact of of research. It turns out that some of our long-held
follow-through on learning (Bersin & Associates 2011, assumptions about learning, such as the importance of
Zenger & Folkmann, 2005), are creating internal coaches repetition, are incorrect. We have also begun to recognize
to drive embedding of insights: one study of 358 companies the importance of overlooked factors in learning, such as the
about their use of coaching, found that 67 perecent of significant impact of spacing out a learning activity.
organizations were now using internal coaches (Rule, Rock
This paper draws together recent findings about memory
& Donde, 2011). formation into one easy-to-remember model, called AGES.
In summary, learning managers are attempting to evolve This stands for Attention, Generation, Emotion, and Spacing.
their learning offerings to meet the changed environment and These four variables may be the key to maximizing learning
needs. Yet, by and large, they are doing so based on guesswork, interventions. With just the right amount of attention,
without a good theory to inform their experimentation. generation, emotion, and spacing, learners intensely activate
their hippocampus, which creates deep circuits for easy
Learning means retrieving easily retrieval. This model can help learning designers improve
their learning initiatives by focusing on, and experimenting
In the workplace much learning is declarative, or explicit with, the key variables to effective learning.
learning, meaning information that needs to be recalled
(Davachi & Dobbins, 2008). This kind of learning involves
encoding information in the brain sufficiently well for easy
retrieval. In any learning experience, whether learning a new
product description or organizational chart, a key outcome
ION GENER
NT
of the experience is that information is remembered and can
be recalled easily.
AT
ATTE
With just the
ION EM
right amount
G
of attention,
IN
OT HIPPOCAMPUS
generation,
IONS SPAC
emotion, and
spacing, learners Figure 1: The AGES model for lasting learning impact.
intensely Attention
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activate their
For the hippocampus to activate sufficiently for learning to
occur, the learner needs to be paying full attention to the
hippocampus…
topic being learned. In a world with so many distractions
(e.g. phones and other devices), this is easier said than done.
Dividing attention between two tasks significantly decreases
the quality of attention, and the likely sustainability of
Neuroscientists have discovered that the level of activation any learning, because the hippocampus is not engaged
of a brain region called the hippocampus during an encoding when attention is divided (Kensinger et al., 2003). This has
task plays a significant role in whether people can recall been shown to occur with even small levels of distraction.
what they learned (Davachi & Wagner, 2002). Many studies Focusing on multiple streams of information, including
(e.g., Davachi & Wagner, 2002; Lepage, Habib & Tulving, trying to multi-task in the learning environment also results
1998) have since been undertaken that explore the types of in neurons decreasing their firing, and, hence, learning
activities that do and don’t activate the hippocampus. This decreases significantly (Arnsten, 1998/2003). Thus one of
new understanding of the biology of learning is providing the foundational ideas for learning is ensuring you have
rich insights into how we can more efficiently create long- ‘undivided attention’ – that people are focused closely on the
term memories as part of a learning experience. learning task at hand.
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RESEARCH
In a classroom, this is easier to manage through activities of observations (attention paid) to a particular idea per unit
that focus people’s thinking in one direction. In online of time. Each time we activate a circuit this further wires
learning, with the possibility of distraction from other devices together that circuit (Hebb, 1949).
being ‘on’, or distractions inherent in the technology itself,
Taking this idea we could, in theory and in time, be able to
attention can be harder to focus. The quality of attention
measure the quality of attention paid to specific circuits by
paid, and how to ensure maximum attention during online
measuring the level of activation of brain regions. While this
learning, is an area for further research.
would be cumbersome in a training room, it is technically
In order to pay close attention to something, the brain needs feasible. For now, we could at least measure how long,
just the right amount of two important neurochemicals perhaps in seconds, an idea is held in mind in the laboratory.
called catecholamines – specifically dopamine and
Varying learning
norepinephrine, placed at huge numbers of synapses
(Vijayraghavan et al., 2007). Dopamine is involved in a feeling
techniques
of reward, of relevance, and is also released through novelty.
It is released in the ‘toward’ state (Rock, 2008), when we are
provides additional
open, curious, in a goal-focused state, and/or working to
gain something.
Learners may gain greater value if they are presented with repetition or listening, then we can increase this by simply
data and then asked to formulate, organise, or add their getting people talking to each other about ideas, versus just
personal experience to the learning content (Jensen, 2002). listening to presentations. We could measure the amount of
For example, doing the final development of a leadership ‘listening’ versus ‘generating’ in a classroom this way. Or we
model within the training session instead of being presented could encourage participants to invent their own terms and
with a pre-defined model. approaches based on the content learned and collect their
ideas in order to measure the ‘degree of generation’.
If we work on the assumption that each brain is unique, and
that people need to generate associations to learn, then Emotions
all learning should be, to some extent, self-directed. Each
Learning happens in many complex layers, with emotion
individual must map new learning to their existing knowledge
being one of the more important regulators of learning and
and experiences and generate their own meaning and ways
memory formation. Studies show that the correlation of
to apply the new knowledge.
vividness of a memory, and the emotionality of the original
event is around 0.9 (Jensen, 2005).
learner triggers
is twofold. First, emotional content is thought to grab
the attention of the individual, and, hence, help to focus
retrieval of the
attention on the emotional event or stimulus (LeDoux, 1994;
Damasio, 1994). Second, it is known that emotion leads to
recently learned
activation of a brain structure called the amygdala which sits
directly in front of the hippocampus and can help to signal
information and
to the hippocampus that a particular event is salient, and,
thus, increase the effectiveness of encoding (Ochsner, 2000;
improves long-
Cahill et al., 1994). When looking into current professional
training design, emotions are a common tool used in
term retention.
behavioral change programs, such as leadership trainings
(Kiefer, 2009).
For example many sales, presentation and negotiation to connect deeply with others and experience emotional
programs are based on videotaped sessions, which focus ‘resonance’ (Boyatsis, 2001), where they experience a sense
on the negatives of the presenter instead of their strengths. of connectedness with others.
However, there are difficulties with using strong negative
It may also be useful to have a training structure that
emotions to burn in memories: negative emotions also
includes novelty and entertainment, as this may be the way
reduce creativity and innovation (Subramaniam et al., 2009);
to stimulate positive emotions in the learner. There is also
so while people may learn, they are less likely to innovate.
strong evidence that positive anticipation has an impact on
Also, the brain’s organizing principle is to minimize threat
the formation of new learning positively (Bradley & Lang,
and maximize reward (Gordon, 2000). As a result, people
2000), so a good aim is to make learning enjoyable instead of
are not going to be inclined to turn up for training when the
a mandatory event.
experience continues to use negative emotions, and they are
likely to warn their colleagues to stay away too. However, if a
learning experience is fun, they are likely to want to do more
learning, and tell others about the positive event.
…positive
anticipation has
Based on the an impact on the
SCARF model… formation of new
there are ways learning positively
to generate …so a good aim is
strong rewards to make learning
by increasing enjoyable instead of
people’s sense of a mandatory event.
status, certainty,
autonomy,
In terms of measuring emotions, we can use self-report
to measure the level of intensity of emotions, whether
relatedness,
positive or negative. We can also use devices to measure
heart rate, skin conductance and other biological markers
or fairness.
for emotional arousal. For increasing emotions, as a
general statement, social issues are the experiences we
feel strongest about. Thus, clearly we should incorporate
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…repeated testing
Spacing information over time leads to higher retrieval rates
of new information and seems to build stronger long-term
is superior to
memory (Litman & Davachi, 2008).
learning event, will be minutes, hours, or days) is better than no spacing at all.
Cepeda et al., (2008) examined the effect of this and suggest
further drive the that the longer the gap between the first and second
learning session (‘the gap’), the higher the retrieval rate
building of long- (1-5 years) after the learning event. In a recent study with
1,354 subjects the optimum gap lengths were examined
term memory… in order to test subjects’ recognition and recall rate. The
project consisted of multiple combinations of gap lengths
and RI (Retention Interval) lengths to examine the impact
The positive attitude by learners to massing may result of the gap lengths on long-term memory foundation. For
from experience with cramming for exams. Cramming each RI, the recall and recognition performance rose with
information is a successful strategy for exams where an increasing gap length and then decreased as the gap
minimal retrieval is required in the future. Learning in the lengths further increased.
workplace has a different aim, with participants needing to
One question
build contextual understanding of the information presented
as well as learning how to apply the information in the
that is difficult to
future. Spacing also leads to forgetting and this can make
the learning feel ‘harder’. However, the more difficult the
Figure 3: Spacing effect and learning improvement (recall improvement in % and days after initial learning).1
Figure 4: Spaced repetition (learning journey) and expansion of memory and associations.
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1. The RI gap: depending on the estimated recall date, 1994). However, repetition of new information, in a spaced
the gap length first increases and then decreases since manner, plays a role in building long-term memory. Taking
forgetting learned content comes into play. the power of forgetting, and the power of transformational
2. As RI increases, the ratio of optimum gap to RI should learning into account, we follow Jensen’s (2005) approach
decline. in using a variety of techniques to leverage repetition as a
learning instrument. Incorporating this lesson, we suggest a
However, the data also suggest that it might be wise to avoid
‘spaced repetition’, which combines spacing and generating
defining the ‘one’ optimum gap between learning events,
of learning over time.
since it significantly depends on the RI. In other words: the
definition of how long you want to remember newly learned Repetition itself is minimized since the content itself does
content determines the optimum timing of the learning gap not simply get repeated. Repetition happens through various
and the time studying new content. techniques like priming, reviewing, or testing the content
during new learning generation (Figure 4).
Many studies have been published on optimization of learning
intervals (number of repetitions and spacing) to ensure
learning. As mentioned earlier, repetition itself has a limited 1
The optimum learning gap defined as d=1 for 7 day recall test; d = 7
impact on creating lasting learning (Woiniak & Gorzelanczyk, for 35 day recall test and d = 21 for 70 day recall test.
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RESEARCH
Priming allows the brain to build the new concept into a larger protein in the neurons, which is crucial for building long-
contextual and semantic structure, increasing efficiency in term memory (Bodizs et al., 2002; Schroth, 2002).
learning (Martin & Van Turenout, 2002; Cave, 1997). Studies • The ‘digestion-time’ needed for the brain to reorganize,
demonstrate that the use of priming as a repetition technique distribute and consolidate new content through the
increases verbal fluency significantly (Mack & Rock, 1998). hippocampus (Piegneux et al., 2001; Stickgold, 1998;
Siapas & Wilson, 1994; Walker & Stickgold 2006) and
brain to build the taught and learned in a specific amount of time. However
the indicators and data points are clear – building learning
and semantic
There are many areas that deserve significant further
investigation. Questions to explore about learning from
structure…
the brain perspective include: which of the AGES variables
is most significant, and what are the interactions between
the variables? How much can people learn or digest at one
time? What is the optimum interval period for spacing to
Most training programs mass information in one or two maximize learning? What is the impact of positive versus
days, without much attention to follow up. This brings up the negative emotions in learning events? Answering these
question of how much we should be breaking up learning questions and more will go a long way toward enabling us to
and instead delivering smaller bites of learning over time. improve the impact of learning experiences in organizations.
There is no Summary
current recipe of
Adult learning is highly complex. How do we ensure people
are interested in learning what is presented, and how then
can be taught
contextual ways?
of time.
learning experiences.
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