Human thinking and the ability to learn are extremely complex matters; however, for practical purposes, it is important to realise that from a scientific point of view a number of myths exist in this area. Here are the top ten you should know before setting up or changing anything:
We use only 10% of our brain
This is nonsense because we use almost our entire brain. This myth may have arisen because most people actually use only about 10% of the POTENTIAL of their mind.
Some people use more or less of the brain
This is complete nonsense. We all use both hemispheres all the time. For example, the ability to think creatively includes the whole brain, not just the right hemisphere, as many believe. Professional musicians have been shown to use the left "analytical" side of the brain more than the right "creative" side of the brain when composing music.
10,000 hours: that's how long you need to become an expert in your field
Yes, even this myth appears in various sources. Sometimes it's 10,000 hours, other times less or more. But it is not so much about time as the approach you choose towards learning. You must be able to break down complex issues into small parts and understand every single such piece and its relationship to the other parts. If you can make the most of this approach, time plays no role.
The more time you spend learning, the more effective it will be
No. In many areas there is very clear evidence that "cross-training" across other disciplines that are not directly focused on the target issue improves your performance in the chosen discipline.
Some people are more of a visual or auditory type of student
You may prefer one of your senses but, in general, the more senses you use in training, the more effectively you learn.
There are "learning windows" where we feel we know nothing even though we have studied it
Not true. We cultivate our abilities throughout life and the brain stores knowledge carefully.
Under pressure, our "reptile" brain takes over
Nonsense: there is no reptile brain, only complex biology. If your brain is facing chaos and stress that affects the prefrontal cortex, it turns off our complex rational thinking and focuses on the basic impulses. Fortunately, you can learn to work with this.
Stress disrupts learning
This is only a partial truth. Different people have different levels of stress tolerance. A limited amount of stress supports learning, too much disrupts it. In general, the more you struggle with understanding a topic, the longer you will remember the issue.
The human mind sometimes thinks "fast" and sometimes "slowly"
Reducing the beauty and complexity of the human mind, and especially the concept of such a binary position, significantly impoverishes us. Rational analysis certainly takes longer than intuitive or instinctive processes but they are not stand-alone systems. Rationality does not exist without emotions, and our minds are much more subtle, receptive and complex than presented.
Memories are stored in our brain
No, they are distributed across the neural network throughout our body, and when we remember something, the brain helps bring it to the fore. But the brain is not a cabinet for storing memories.
The second part of the article will focus on how to create a truly effective L&D programme thanks to knowledge from neuroscience.
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