Press

Novelty improves learning

When you study or learn, try to introduce some new facts. Scientist have found out that this is more effective than learning by repeating information. “This study shows that revising is more effective if you mix new facts in with the old,” said study author Dr. Emrah Duzel of University College London and the Department of Neurology and Center for Advanced Imaging, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. The study was published in Neuron (03 Aug 2006).

Here you find some selected links to media and press coverage:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5240058.stm

http://foxnews.webmd.com/content/article/125/116119.htm

http://www.news-medical.net/print_article.asp?id=19186

http://www.pressetext.ch/pteprint.mc?pte=060804026

Reward During Learning Improves Memory

Measurements of brain activity show: Positive incentives assist the brain.

The role of reward during learning was investigated in an experiment conducted at the University of Magdeburg by the research team of Emrah Düzel and Bianca Wittmann. The investigators promised money as a reward to one group of subjects if they could correctly perform a task involving the presentation of images. During the experiment, the research team measured the brain activities of the subjects, who were lying inside a magnetic resonance scanner.

Three weeks later the students were tested to determine the extent to which they could remember the images. It was found that those who had connected the images with an expectation of a monetary reward were more likely to retain those images in detail in long-term memory.

The scientists were able to map out the mechanism of this improvement from patterns of brain activity. At the time the learning was occurring, a release of Dopamine was triggered in the brain by the rewarding stimulus, and this promoted the storage of information in the Hippocampus, a brain structure which plays a central role in the management of memory processes.

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