What is learning? That fundamental question, at a neural level, is about strengthening the relationships between patterns of activation. However, those patterns are activated at the cognitive level, and as such, our learning designs are really cognitive (and above), not neural. Skill development, then, is about activating patterns so that they’ll trigger appropriate actions. 

At the neural level, we strengthen the activation of patterns together. That is, we activate all relevant ones, and by that activation they’re strengthened. Of course, only so much strengthening happens at any one time, so we literally need rest before more strengthening can occur, which is why learning takes time. 

At the cognitive level, the way we activate patterns matters. We can use words, or images, or both, static or dynamic. For instance, we present and talk through (limited) models of how the world works to explain why you should do things a certain way. Then you should see an example of how that model is used, before you take a turn. 

For the initial learning, we might use simple patterns, so for education, we might associate the word “dog” with an image of a dog. We might then show a cat with “cat”, to assist differentiating between them. At the org level, we might introduce a safety protocol by talking about why it’s safer one way, showing it,  then have folks identify safe and unsafe ways of doing things before having them do things the safe way. 

Technically, we build patterns on top of previous learning - language, analogies, metaphors, diagrams - gradually accumulating the necessary levels of understanding. Practice in activating the patterns, with feedback on improvements or success help refine the patterns triggering other patterns to achieve actions. 

Instruction, then, is necessary when we move from what we’re wired (biologically primary) to learn to things that we need support (secondary) to acquire. What matters is activating patterns in ways that we can control the complexity and gradually build the patterns of activation that trigger the necessary outcomes. In short, we prompt to trigger patterns, and ask about the outcomes from simulated to real application. That’s a learning journey. 

This is the next in a series of posts that reflect the Liftology videos we also did on this topic. This post itself is a prompt, and the series of posts are a course in learning science. We invite you to follow along as we go through the background of effective learning experiences.