How memory research can help you learn a new language | Hacker News Reader

How memory research can help you learn a new language

aeon.co

63 pointsjonbaer18 comments

I was excited to read this article because I am trying to learn a new language... but I found it quite lacking. What was the advice? Just to sleep more?

Figure out which works better for you: Immersion or Paired-Word Association. Then hammer home whichever you need to, and ignore the other as much as possible.

The gist of his advice, by my reading, is this: "Immersive contexts are generally helpful because they activate different neural centers in the brain -- which leads to what researchers call 'integrated' memories, which are more durable and easier to recall."

Many, many people have advocated immersive contexts for second language learning, of course. But what the author seems to be saying is that researchers are starting to find specific neural mechanisms that would support such learning approaches, based on fMRI measurements and other data.

> say that you bought a pair of brand Y shoes. If someone then compliments you on the shoes, you are more likely to buy brand Y again, even if the compliment had nothing to do with brand Y.

What? Isn't that perfectly expected and reasonable?

If I buy a pair of Merrell boots and get complimented on them, it doesn't follow that I should also buy Merrell running shoes, but per the article I'm more likely to. The brand is irrelevant to the compliment: I'm not being complimented on my Merrell's, I'm being complimented on my boots. The rational and reasonable thing would be to identify what about the boots is worth complimenting and aim to mimic that in future purchases. It could be the brand, but likely it's the cut, the shape, or some other visual quality.

OTOH, sometimes it is the brand that gets complimented.

If you like what you know of someone's work (the boots), it makes sense to try more of it (the shoes).

Yes. You're correct.

BUT

What the study revealed was that people would buy more of a brand based on compliments not how the product by the brand actually functioned for themselves.

I have very, very blue eyes, and a generally well-shaped face (attractive, not movie star handsome, but good looking when I'm fit). But my eyes get the most compliments and notice from women. I bought a shirt from Joseph A. Banks, it happened to be blue-dominated in its coloring (checkered/plaid pattern), that quality of the shirt makes it very well liked by my girlfriend. The rational thing to do is to buy other shirts with blue in them (which may be Jos. A. Banks). The irrational thing, which people seemed to do per the study, was to buy more shirts from Jos. A. Banks. If I go back and buy a red plaid shirt, it won't get the same reaction as the original because it doesn't have the same quality that got the original compliments.

In that specific example, yes, but compliments are often given because of the design, and in those cases it makes sense to give credit to the designer.

    What? Isn't that perfectly expected and reasonable?

Indeed - the article explores the underlying process behind this effect.

>Tell me if this sounds familiar: you just turned off the light, your head is on the pillow, your eyes are closed, and yet, instead of drifting off to dreamland, you find yourself thinking about something that happened earlier in the day.

Hmmm no, doesn't sound familiar to me. I fall asleep quickly and it has always been this way. My sleep tracker says my average time to sleep is seven minutes. I always wondered how common this is?

Since this is the internet, I am free to reply with hearsay... I read that if you fall asleep that fast, you might not be getting enough sleep the previous night.

I've heard the same thing from doctors; falling asleep in less than 10 minutes is generally considered indicative of sleep issues of one sort or another.

OTOH, ~90% of the population uses caffeine regularly, and given that it takes ~48 hours to completely purge your body of caffeine, I think that saying is only relevant to caffeine drinkers.

Coffee or no coffee, 10h sleep or 4h, it's all the same for me.

Since this is the internet, I am free to reply with anecdata. I get 7.5 hours of sleep just about every night, and I fall asleep in less than 15 minutes more than 90% of the time. I am a coffee addict, but I keep it to 2-3 cups per day (usually). Even the occasional after-dinner cup doesn't usually keep me up.

I wish I was like this. It takes me at least an hour to actually fall asleep, even if I'm so tired that I can't stay up to actually do anything.

I have been at both extremes. For as long as I can remember I have had insomnia. It is a miserable disorder. At night I would endlessly ruminate about personal relationships, how I could help others, and the occasional work problems.

Recently I moved to the Bay Area. I work alone and have few friends. With few relationships, for the first time in my life I started falling asleep in under 10 minutes. It's a gift but it comes with a price. When I started mentoring at-risk high-school students, I found the insomnia returned, so I quit being a mentor after a few months.

Perhaps with more conditioning, insomnia won't relapse so easily.

Edit: grammar

I started learning Vim a couple days ago, it feels like a new language to me also

Vim can be adventurous. [0]

[0] http://vim-adventures.com/

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