How to Learn Something New
By Maureen McHugh
Learning something new is one of the most exciting and satisfying things a person can do. But it also takes time, money, effort and attention, so an accompanying question is: how can I learn in the most efficient way?
In order to limit the field somewhat, let’s think about learning a new physical skill. A common idea that comes to mind is practice. I have to find the right way to do the new technique and then do it over and over until I have it right.
This is the idea basically of drill, and many of us have experienced it in various forms of schooling. But the whole feeling of drill is so dry and dull that it is hard to believe that it could be the essence of anything so exciting as learning something new.
Perhaps
it would be interesting to think about learning in a more organic way. Coming to
our aid is a resource newly available to the English-speaking world. It is a
translation of a Russian scientific book, On Dexterity and Its Development
by Nicholai Bernstein (1896-1966).
The book is a collection of seven essays on how the body, or more exactly the central nervous system, has learned to control movement. Through studying the long history of evolution, Bernstein searched for understanding on how anyone can improve his or her learning of motor skills today.
Bernstein developed his views over nearly fifty years of intensive research. He studied the actions of manual laborers and athletes, and the brain structures that control those actions. His fundamental conclusion was that movement is not controlled by one executive center—a boss somewhere in the brain—but by a hierarchy of patterns of control. These patterns have developed incrementally both in the history of life and in the history of the individual.
Bernstein defines four levels of development of motor control. I will first describe the levels and then suggest applications to learning a new physical skill.
A characteristic of the earliest and oldest patterns is that they are deeply automated and usually operate in the background of any action. Only the newer levels regularly come into consciousness.
Level A. The Level of Tone. This is the foundation state of alertness, interest, and openness to the environment. It includes all the elementary forms of movement up to those of the fish. This level includes the responsive muscular contractions of the ameba that is able to move toward good things and away from bad things. It includes the elongated contractions of the worm, whose head leads and tail follows. (This way of moving led to the concentration of receptors in the head for sensing the environment; thus, the brain took up its home.) This level culminates in the fish, whose larger body needed more powerful muscles and internal struts for those muscles to pull against; thus, the skeleton appeared. Significantly, the rigidity of the skeleton is offset by its segmentation, giving the advantages of bending.
Level B. The Level of Muscular-Articular Links. As the first creatures left the water for dry land, they faced a new challenge: how to move a heavy body against a resistant surface. The fish, living in water, has hardly any weight and experiences very little resistance to its forward movement. Thus, it can get along with a simple structure, mainly a trunk and head, and can use soft, side-bending movements for propulsion. Extremities became necessary as amphibians pushed against the earth, and later as birds moved into the air. New sections of the nervous system developed to define and coordinate the movements of these limbs and integrate them with the earlier head-and-trunk controls.
Level C. The Level of Space. As this level of the brain developed, animals gained an enlarged capacity to orient themselves in space. Certainly the first frog and fish had an idea of where they were, but the monkey’s sense of location—and thus his ability to swing confidently from tree to tree--is greatly refined.
Level D. The Level of Actions. This is the level of combining all the previous capabilities into long sequences of actions. Although animals have some of this capacity, Level D reaches its highest development in man. These actions are strongly connected to purpose at a high level of interpretation. The dribbling of a basketball player, for instance, is not just skill at bouncing a ball; it is meaningful during a game through its relationship to the rules of the sport and to the other players.
Now is the time to try to apply this scientific understanding to practical experience. The main benefit Bernstein gives us is an objective way to break a large task into smaller pieces.
Level A. The student and teacher can both become more aware of the importance of body tone in every learning experience. Too little—and there is no interest. Too much—and there is no ability to receive. By striving for the right balance, the student lays a strong foundation for the next levels.
Level B. At this level the student focuses on the specific parts of the body, how each functions as a separate part and how they coordinate. These awarenesses are conscious at first, but quickly become automatic. Repetition certainly has a place here, but the student will bring more of the force of interest when there is variety and invention in the work.
Level C. The teacher and student can explore more actively how the student relates to the surrounding space. What shape does the student make as she moves? Is this what is needed? What other possibilities exist?
Level D. To reach the highest levels of performance, a player needs to have awareness not just of his own responsibility but also of that of all the other players. This is an expansion of awareness that students can develop consciously.
Skilled action consists of the integration of all these modules. If in learning each aspect is addressed, then in performance each aspect will be present and make its contribution to the whole.
Thanks to Nicholai Bernstein for his work in teasing apart the ancient strands of movement and thereby suggesting ways to weave new tapestries.
On Dexterity and Its Development is published within the larger volume, Dexterity and Its Development. Edited by Mark L. Latash and Michael T. Turvey. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. ($104 with shipping from Borders Online.)