Fundamentals of Learning

Chapter 3. From Precise to Fuzzy Learning, and Quizzing Yourself

One of the more interesting and yet perplexing findings in today’s research about learning techniques has to do with focused versus diffuse thinking. It definitely deserves some spelling out, since once you understand the concepts of focused versus diffuse thinking and of quizzing yourself, you’re 90% of the way to taking the Laura path. We’ll also dig a little deeper into the other method that is so important for learning: asking or quizzing yourself about the material you have just read—this time with a focus on focused and diffuse thinking.  

Focused and Diffuse, Precise and Fuzzy

The idea of focused versus diffuse thinking is one of the most fascinating new findings about learning. Instead of spending all our time paying close attention—i.e., focusing precisely on the information at hand—it is actually more conducive to remembering if you move back and forth between what is known as “focused” and “diffuse” thinking.   

I think we who come steeped in the Griselda approach have got “focused” down cold. Do we know how to focus! We have trained our brains to home in on what is before us: “What exactly is this fact in front of me?”

Diffuse learning is different. It is the brain pulling back—but not entirely away!—in order to go for a broader understanding. It is doing a fuzzy, generalized kind of thinking. You could think of the difference in terms of a flashlight with two settings. As you can see in Figure 3-1