Understanding New Information
Proverbs 3:13
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.”
Why do I find understanding new information so difficult?
The Working Memory
The human memory is amazing but very complex. When we are introduced to new information, we need to process it in our working memory, which can only manage a very small amount before it becomes overloaded. In fact, the working memory can often only manage 4-7 pieces of new information at a time. This is why it is so important to chunk new ideas into smaller sections.
However, if you already know part of the idea or can link the new information to other knowledge stored in your long-term memory, the new information becomes easier to process. Remembering prior learning and bringing it into your working memory, creates a sticky surface so that the new information clings to it and can therefore be stored more quickly and effective
Ultimately, this means that new information is much harder to understand and we must accept that in the beginning, we must break key knowledge into small chunks and be persistent in the learning of it.
If you find reading and processing new information challenging, download the “How To Guide” below.
Finding out why we don’t understand
Sometimes the reasons why we don’t understand something can be very difficult to explain. However, if we cannot tell a teacher exactly what or why we don’t understand, it can be very difficult to provide the right help and guidance. Often our difficulties have arisen because we have a misconception. This means we believe we understand an idea, but actually we do not and this makes trying to understand the new idea difficult. For example, if we believe that only ice melts, we may not be able to remember that the process of any solid becoming a liquid is called melting. If we believe that we always use commas when we need to take a breath, we might not understand when to use semi-colons.
When we are learning new information that we are finding difficult, it is important to pin-point exactly what we don’t understand.
Download the guide below to help you practice identifying what you need help with.