Chunking Beats Constant Input

Chunking Beats Constant Input

“Too Much, Too Fast, Won’t Last”

ie As a learner it’s best to learn in nibbles. Ideally around 7-minute nibbles or chunks. Why? Because the part of the brain that helps in the formation of memory and learning (the hippocampus) has a small storage capacity, roughly 7-minutes worth of input. It then needs time to process that information. Liken the hippocampus to a glass that you pour water (content) into. If you simply continue pouring, very quickly the glass will overflow and the water lost. Likewise, if you keep inputting new information without building in processing (settling) time, the hippocampus will fill and simply discard new content.

So, let’s say for ease of numbers, you have a 21 minutes piece of content to deliver, rather than continuing for 21 minutes, break this into 3 (or more), 7 minutes pieces with 1-2 minutes processing time in-between.

Practical Application – short processing activities

• Ask learners to partner with someone they haven’t worked with for a while. Ask them to discuss one thing they learned during the last 7 minutes and one thing that could help them in their everyday work. Allow time, then select a few pairs to share their points with the rest of the group. Continue with content input.
• Ask learners to write down one question they still have about the current content. Allow time. Ask learners to form teams of 4 and share their questions. Ask teams to share a key question their team still has. Continue with the input ensuring you weave in the answers to the questions.
• Ask learners to position themselves on an imaginary continuum from ‘Got it’ to ‘Haven’t got a clue’ and then to physically move to that position that against a wall.  Pair extremes together ie a ‘Got it’ with a ‘Haven’t got a clue’ and have the ‘Got it’ person help the other to ‘Get it’. Those in the middle can chat through what they’ve got and compare their thoughts.

Additional Research

• Eichenbaum, H; Cohen NJ (1993). Memory, Amnesia, and the Hippocampal System. MIT Press.
• VanElzakker, MB; Fevurly RD, Breindel T, Spencer RL (2008).
• The Hippocampus Book – Per Andersen, Richard Morris, David Amaral, Tim Bliss and John O’Keefe