When was the last time you sat down and tried to learn something? How did you approach it? Did you make flashcards for hard-to-remember terms and concepts, ask a friend to quiz you on the subject or simply jump into the deep end with a new project?
New research from Northeastern University psychology professor Aaron Seitz suggests that whenever we learn something new — if we’re successful — what we’ve actually done is tricked our brains into a learnable state. He calls this “incidental learning.”
“‘Incidental learning’ typically refers to what we learn without explicit intention,” Seitz says. A good example of this comes from “statistical regularity” in one’s surroundings, he says.
Read more at Northeastern Global News.
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