hyponymous :: A Learning Map
This is the fifth post in the Gregory Bateson sequence (one, two, three, four), in which I explore the possibility of learning more than you ever thought you could faster than you ever thought possible.
A modern parable: in the late ’70s everyone knew that there were fundamental limits to human memory and learning. It was impossible, for example, when memorizing sequences of spoken numbers – given one digit per second – to go beyond 10 digits at a time. When Carnegie Mellon researcher K. Anders Ericsson found an old, neglected study that suggested it was possible to push past this limit, if only marginally and with intense practice, he set out to replicate the result and understand how it could be done.
Steve, the undergraduate Ericsson had recruited to the study, struggled with the challenge for several days and made little progress. At the end of the fourth session Steve felt that he’d hit a wall at nine digits. Yet in the fifth session of steady, focused practice that Ericsson made sure was neither too easy nor too hard, Steve pushed past nine digits and successfully recalled 11. Two years later at the end of the study Steve reached 82 digits, many times more than anyone had thought possible.
Steve’s achievement is remarkable, to be sure. But the lesson I take from the parable is a prosaic one: that we are often mistaken about limits to human performance, both in general and in our own lives.
