Boost your language learning fitness with brain science, part 1

Countdown of the top science-based protocols for learning

So many of us are health conscious and workout our bodies. But why don’t we do this with our brains? Every day, we drown in information and our lack of brain fitness makes us infobese.

We find ourselves confronted with choices about what is important and try to learn from it, whether it is for a test, new software, life hack, or language skill. And usually we fail – because we don’t really know how to learn!

This is ironic—we spend over 12 years of schooling, but we never learn how to learn. Teachers simply didn’t teach it. Because they themselves didn’t really know how to learn.

Finally, brain science has in the last 2 decades shed a lot of light on what works and what doesn’t for learning. And now we are finally learning how to learn.

A Huberman research synthesis

Fortunately, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman in his excellent Huberman Lab podcast recently shared the results of this research and gave tips and protocols to follow. He shared over 15 protocols, but I condensed this list in a top 10 that have the biggest impact on learning:

1.      Offsetting Forgetting with Testing

2.      Prioritize Sleep and Use NSDR for Recovery

3.      Enhance Focus with Mindfulness and Structured Breaks

4.      Test for Mastery, Not Just Familiarity

5.      Adopt Structured, Active Study Practices

6.      Engage in Active, Challenging Learning

7.      Interleave Information and Embrace Desirable Difficulties

8.      Set Aspirational Goals and Connect Learning to Personal Interests

9.      Minimize Distractions and Use Attention-Enhancing Tools

10. Manage Stress with Mindfulness, Cold Exposure, and Caffeine

This article will focus on the protocols 10-7, the next article on 6-4, and final article on the top 3 protocols.  I encourage you to check out Huberman’s full episode for all the protocols.  Or, wait for parts 2 and 3 of this article series on science-based protocols for improving your language and communication abilities. In a future article, I will show how these protocols can be applied in a 90-minute study session.

Protocol 10. Manage stress with mindfulness, cold exposure, and caffeine

Moderate stress can help learning, but excessive stress hurts it. Mindfulness and deliberate cold exposure like taking cold showers/baths help manage stress levels, while caffeine boosts alertness and focus when used appropriately. This is like making sure your body is well-rested and warmed up for a workout. Balancing these factors ensures that emotional and physical states enhance—and not harm—learning.

Why is it important? Managing stress can improve learning conditions, but its impact is supplementary and does not directly influence learning processes as compared to the top 5 protocols. But if you have covered the top protocols and want to optimize learning even more, then this protocol can help.

What’s the research? Research by Cahill and McGaugh (1998) showed that moderate levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol, can enhance memory formation, particularly for emotionally charged content. However, when stress levels become too high, it can impair cognitive performance and hinder learning. Additionally, mindfulness practices have been shown to reduce stress and improve overall cognitive function, while cold exposure and caffeine can be strategically used to enhance alertness and focus.

Boosting communication/language fitness [CLF]? When language learning, you can apply stress management techniques by incorporating mindfulness practices before or during your study sessions to reduce anxiety (and distractions) and enhance focus. For example, if you are a Chinese language learner, you might practice deep breathing exercises before a listening exam to calm nerves and improve concentration. You can use also caffeine to boost alertness during long study sessions, and cold exposure (such as a cold shower) might be used as a quick way to enhance wakefulness, clear thinking and a clam mind before engaging in intense language practice.

Protocol 9. Minimize distractions and use attention-enhancing tools

Distractions undermine learning effectiveness. Reducing distractions by creating a focused study environment, putting away your phone, and using tools like noise-canceling headphones or even a hoodie over your head to reduce visual distractions improves concentration. If you are at the gym and constantly on your phone or watching videos, you cannot put in the effort and focus to push your body into the difficult zone, then you will not achieve any results. So, structure your study sessions with clear goals and minimal interruptions to become more productive and stimulate your brain centers for learning.

Why is this important? Reducing distractions to help you focus is the first step to paying attention, which is the next step in memory formation.

What’s the research? A study by Cain and Mitroff (2011) on the effects of multitasking found that individuals who frequently switch between tasks are more likely to experience cognitive overload, leading to reduced focus and poorer performance. The study's design involved testing participants on tasks requiring sustained attention, with findings suggesting that a focused, distraction-free environment is critical for optimal cognitive function.

Boosting communication/language fitness [CLF]? For English or Chinese learners, minimizing distractions might involve studying in a quiet environment, using apps to block social media, or using noise-canceling headphones to maintain focus during listening exercises or reading comprehension tasks. For example, when practicing English listening skills, removing background noise can help learners better focus on the nuances of speech.

Protocol 8. Set goals and connect learning to personal interests

Without motivation, people give up on skill development, so sustaining motivation is essential for continuous learning. Getting fit in itself is too broad a goal and motivation for most people—but let’s say it is February and you have a specific goal of looking good in a pair of shorts or a swimsuit for the summer, then you can focus on what needs to be done for that goal in the time you have. Setting long-term goals and relating study material to personal interests can help you maintain motivation. Visualizing success and regularly tracking progress reinforce the value of your learning efforts and keep you engaged.

Why is this important? Long-term motivation is important for sustaining learning efforts, but its rankling is lower in the top 10 because other protocols more directly enhance memory or cognitive function.

What’s the research? Deci and Ryan's (2000) Self-Determination Theory highlights the importance of intrinsic motivation—engaging in activities for their inherent satisfaction—as a key driver of sustained effort and persistence. Their research demonstrated that individuals who set personally meaningful goals and connected their learning to their interests were more likely to maintain motivation and achieve higher levels of success.

Boosting communication/language fitness [CLF]? For language learners, setting long-term goals such as fluency in English or Chinese for a specific purpose (e.g., career advancement, travel) can help maintain sustain motivation. For example, an English learner who connects their studies to their passion for international travel may be more motivated to practice speaking and listening skills in preparation for real-world conversations abroad. In my own case, at the beginning of 2024 I created a story-making GPT in ChatGPT to help me generate Chinese sci fi detective fiction stories—which I find interesting—with topics featuring on AI—which I need to learn about for my work and research in Chinese-speaking Taiwan.

Protocol 7. Engage in active learning

Over-Reliance on Passive Learning, like reviewing notes or re-reading highlighted sections leads to forgetting. It is like watching someone workout and not really doing the workout yourself. Engaging with challenging material, testing oneself, and applying concepts to real-world scenarios lead to deeper understanding and better retention. Research supports that difficulty in learning leads to stronger memory formation.

Why is it important? Engaging with challenging material is crucial for deep learning and retention. However, because it requires more cognitive effort and can be difficult to sustain without proper motivation, it is ranked below other protocols.

What’s the research? Bjork and Bjork (2011) introduced the concept of "desirable difficulties," where introducing challenges into the learning process (e.g., varying study materials, practicing retrieval) enhances long-term retention. Their research demonstrated that learners who faced more challenging tasks retained information better than those who engaged in easier, repetitive tasks.

Boosting communication/language fitness [CLF]? You can apply this principle by challenging yourself with more complex tasks, such as 1. reading more challenging texts in English or Chinese before asking AI to translate it or explain any areas you struggle with, and 2. chatting with an AI chatbot like ChatGPT or Google Gemini.

Brain fitness

These protocols are like routines that improve physical fitness. If you want to improve your ability to learn and remember language and communication skills, you should

·         Get the right mindset be mindful,

·         be focused on your learning session and get rid of distractions,

·         set goals for each learning session and make the content interesting or useful to keep you motivated, and

·         be proactive in taking control of the content and difficulty levels in your learning session and push yourself to not just stay in your comfort zone with passive review activities.

Stay tuned for the next articles on protocols 6-4, 3-1 and a 90-minute learning session incorporating all of these protocols.

References

If you want to go deeper into the science behind these protocols, check out:

Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society, 2, 59-68.

Cahill, L., & McGaugh, J. L. (1998). Mechanisms of emotional arousal and lasting declarative memory. Trends in Neurosciences, 21(7), 294-299.

Cain, M. S., & Mitroff, S. R. (2011). Distractor filtering in media multitaskers. Perception, 40(10), 1183-1192.

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The "what" and "why" of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.