9
Hebb’s Rule and Cognitive Rehearsal
I never questioned repetition until now.
—Teacher
Donald Hebb was a consummate teacher. Even in his early career at age 24, he experimented with methodology to eliminate drudgery and improve academic outcomes. Intuitively, he was convinced that the school experience that he was asked to deliver did not serve his students well. Having witnessed children of all intellectual abilities fail, he was convinced that the system was not in sync with how they best learned. In his own school days, he survived the vestiges of a pseudo-British “class” structure, which he considered mired in punitive practice that further damaged children’s motivation to learn. In the 1920s, Montreal’s education system reflected a ...