Can You Indeed Teach an Old Dog New Tricks? : A Short Empirical Study of Adult Learning

Can You Indeed Teach an Old Dog New Tricks? : A Short Empirical Study of Adult Learning

By: Gabriela Clayton

Is it truly impossible to teach an old dog, new tricks? The simple answer is ‘no’, yet the explanation deserves more than just a one word answer.  Gary Marcus in his 2012 novel, Guitar Zero: The Musician and the Science of Learning, explores the relationship between age and the ability to learn.  The common ‘mis’-conceptions of learning are; the older one, is the harder it is to learn, or even that the ability to learn a new skill is dependent upon “critical [learning] periods” that people usually develop out of with the onset of puberty (Marcus 2). Marcus at the tender age of thirty-nine decides that it is finally the proper time in his life to start the journey into the “glamorous” world of music, thus challenging the ‘old dog’ stereotype and collecting firsthand data on how true or untrue the conception is, of the adult brain’s ability to learn. Recent studies from the cognitive psychology and neurology fields indicate that one can indeed teach an old dog new tricks albeit that process will be delayed by neural stipulations.

To understand the level of complexity of the process of learning as an adult, one must first understand the level of complexity involved in learning as a child; so that one may be able to fully comprehend the differences that make it harder to learn as an adult, and the similarities that make learning a process of continuity in the human brain. As a fetus, the brain is constantly developing at a rate of 250,000 neurons a minute, at birth there are billions of neurons in the still underdeveloped brain and these neurons account for trillions of neural connections (Brynie).  To put it into a different light, think of a newborn baby’s brain as a brand new computer.  The brand new computer will have what seems like an infinite (although this is to the contrary in the human brain*) amount of storage capability, as well as having the most essential programs already installed from the factory.

Like the new computer, the baby’s brain is capable of holding a large capacity of information, captured and retained through attention and memory processes, and comes already installed with the basic and essential programs (involuntary movements such as breathing, heartbeat, and the like).  The brain is very impressionable at this stage in life; many put it under one of those “critical learning periods” where virtually any knowledge is equally likely of being taken in and wired into the brain without the neural obstacles that adults face. The brains of babies can be thought of as universal learners in light of this evidence.  As babies age into infants, infants into children, children into adolescents, and adolescents into adults, that storage capacity of learning information becomes filled and more specialized (Max et al).  As one ages the specialization of knowledge discriminates more and more until rewiring and reshaping the brain becomes a more strenuous activity than it once was (Mueller et al). 

However, in a recent study from Dartmouth College, (White Matter Structure Changes as Adults Learn a Second Language) new evidence of adult learning has emerged. The study, lead by Alexander Schelgel, points to increased white matter volume in the brain as a sign of adult learning (Schelgel et al). The white matter of the brain is basically composed of the myelinated sheathes of the axons of the billions of neurons computing electrical transmissions within the brain (Sciencedaily.com). The increase in volume of these neurons is directly correlated with an increase in the myelination of the axons of the neurons.  According to Schelgel, “An increase in myelination tells us that axons are being used more, transmitting messages between processing areas. It means there is an active process under way."  Using DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) Shelgel and his colleagues were able to actively observe the structural changes in myelination of the axons that coincide with learning, by measuring the diffusion of water in the axons , “[r]estrictions in this diffusion can indicate that more myelin has wrapped around an axon” (Schelgel et al).

Marcus’ beliefs in adult learning can be correlated with the findings of Schelgel et al; it is evident when Marcus claims that “critical periods are not quite so firm as people once believed” (Marcus 3).  Marcus’ endeavor into trying to learn guitar at age thirty-nine makes it quite clear his opposition to the idea of true learning being confined to “critical learning periods” of early life. Schelgel et al’s study is the physical evidence that supports the hope given to Marcus in the barn owl learning study by Stanford biologist, Eric Knudsen.  In the study, Knudsen gives clear evidence of the ability of adult learning, but the stipulation to this learning ability is that each step has to be small and deliberate (Marcus 8).  The work of Schelgel builds evidence for Marcus’ theory, which was based partially upon the work of Knudsen; all of which concludes that adult learning is possible, which is evident in new developments in brain structure as well as in the successful application of adult learning.

Furthermore, now that it is established that adults do contain the ability to learn new knowledge adequately, the incidence of “slower” adult learning can be examined. In another recent study’s findings, by the Michigan State University, a reason for delayed learning in adults can be deduced to confusion due to already wired neural connections.  The study,  When the rules are reversed: Action-monitoring consequences of reversing stimulus–response mappings, was primarily about the acquisition of a set of “secondary rules” in adults but the results can be taken as universal in terms of adult learning. In the study, participants were showed a sequence of letters and told to press one button or another according to what the center letter of the sequence was (MMNMM or NNMNN). After a few trials of the same set of rules, the experimenter reversed the rules so that button A was pressed instead of button B when N was in the middle of the sequence and vice versa.  The results implicate that “When participants did respond correctly after the rules changed, their brain activity showed they had to work harder than when they were given the first set of rules” (Schroder et al). What was even more interesting was that when the participants made a mistake under the second set of rules they were less likely to notice than under the first set of rules. 

This neural confusion is due to the already specialization of the connections in the brain, and the hardships that the brain undergoes to rewire the already made connections (Sciencedaily.com).  To put it into a better light, think of the situation as new language acquisition at an adult age.  As a child, one is taught that a red, round, and tart fruit is an apple; and for that child’s entire life into adulthood red, round, and tart fruits are apples.  Yet once that adult tries to acquire a second language, that red, round, and tart fruit is now a manzana (Spanish), pomme (French), apfel (German), omena (Finnish), and the list goes on. However, these new words require rehearsal and maintenance in order to ensure that they are encoded into the brain’s long term memory store, but if they are not then the word that comes to mind when one sees a red, round, and tart fruit would always be apple by mental reflex (Ashcraft et al).

The evidence of this mental degradation of new information in the adult mind is seen in Marcus’ inability to quickly grasp the new material involved in learning to play an instrument.  Marcus talks of his hardships with learning the positions notes on the guitar as well as reading the sheet music.  The hardships with learning the positions of the fingers with the corresponding note could be seen as the input of new verbal language.  Where Marcus places his fingers to create sound with meaning, known as music, is now analogous to where he places his lips and tongue to create the human sound with meaning, known as language.  Furthermore, in reading the sheet music, Marcus must now rewire his brain to see dots and lines as representative of a higher meaning (notes), as dots and lines are representative of a higher meaning in reading a language (letters).  In both instances, the two situations that are being compared are so similar in their general composition, movement to create noise and lines and dots representing a higher complex meaning, that it is not surprising if the brain were to confuse the processes before both could be specialized to the point where the brain is actively aware of their differences despite their vast similarities.

 Though Marcus’ journey from novice to intermediate guitarist is evidence in itself that adult learning is possible, that finding could be criticized as a phenomenon of individual differences and that the results could not be realistically replicated in other adults.  However, Marcus’ endeavors combined with the results from Schroder et al and Schelgel et al’s experiments on adult learning and obstacles in adult  learning  can be pieced together to form a understanding that adult learning is indeed possible, yet it has to overcome obstacles that are not necessarily present in child learning.

Works Cited

Alexander A. Schlegel, Justin J. Rudelson, Peter U. Tse.White Matter Structure Changes as Adults Learn a Second Language. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2012; 24 (8): 1664 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00240

Ashcraft, M. A. & Radvansky, G. A. (2009). Cognition (5th ed.). NJ: Pearson.

Brynie, Faith. "The Baby's Brain." The Secret Life of the Brain. PBS. WPBS, Chicago, Illinois, n.d. Www.pbs.org. Web. 01 Oct. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode1/index.html>.

Dartmouth College (2012, September 24). White matter study shows brain capable of learning complex tasks well into adulthood.ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2012/09/120924152544.htm

Hans S. Schroder, Tim P. Moran, Jason S. Moser, Erik M. Altmann. When the rules are reversed: Action-monitoring consequences of reversing stimulus–response mappings. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2012; DOI: 10.3758/s13415-012-0105-y

Jutta L. Mueller, Angela D. Friederici, and Claudia Männel.Auditory perception at the root of language learning.PNAS, September 10, 2012 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1204319109

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (2012, September 10). Babies' ability to detect complex rules in language outshines that of adults, research suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2012/09/120910151613.htm

            Michigan State University (2012, July 30). When rules change, brain falters. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 11, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2012/07/120730124239.htm

Playing with My Heartstrings

If you’ve turned on the radio in the past year and a half, you will have undoubtedly heard Adele’s “Someone Like You” on multiple occasions, on multiple stations…at the same time. And if your friends are anything like mine, once they’ve heard it, it’ll be stuck in their head and played on repeat, especially in the plight of an unfortunate breakup. What is the magic behind Adele’s power to make you love her songs? In fact, what’s the magic behind any “good” piece of music? An article titled “Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker” by Michaeleen Doucleff attempts to find the answer to Adele’s secret, and Gary Marcus explores what makes a song “good” in general in his novel Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning.

Regardless of whether or not you know anything about music, you will have noticed from experience that different songs elicit different moods. Though this is an obvious phenomenon that probably didn’t need to be pointed out, there is actually a reason this occurs. Marcus explains that this is because of the different scales used in songs: “Happy Birthday,” a happy song, contains notes arranged from the major (or happy) scale, whereas a song like “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones has a more haunting melody, arranged of notes in the harmonic minor (Marcus 16).

Adele’s “Someone Like You,” as Doucleff describes, is famously sob-inducing. So much so, in fact, that it was actually on Saturday Night Live recently, and was played so a group of co-workers could “have a good cry together” (Doucleff). So what is it about this song, and songs in general, that causes deep, strong emotions? A twenty year old study by John Sloboda, a British psychologist, looked for the answer. The study had audiophiles (music lovers) identify song passages that set off a physical reaction such as tears. Of the 20 tear-triggering passages chosen, Sloboda analyzed that 18 of them contained what is known as an “appoggiatura,” which is defined as an ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create dissonant sound (Doucleff).

But wait! “Dissonance?” you ask, “why would we like when the notes of chords clash?” Normally, we don’t. In Guitar Zero, Marcus points to studies experimentally showing that infants (and beyond) prefer consonance, where notes in the chord blend together smoothly (Marcus 24). Later in the book, he delves into the question from an evolutionary perspective, and likens dissonant chords to an out-of-focus picture; the brain struggles here, since its natural preference is obviously for that which it can most easily make sense of (Marcus 133). But I digress….The use of “appoggiatura,” or any kind of dissonances, creates tension. However, when the tension is resolved and the song goes back to the anticipated melody, it feels good. “Someone Like You” is full of notes similar to appoggiaturas, creating cycles of tension and resolution, taking the listener on an emotional mini-rollercoaster (Doucleff).

Psychologist Martin Guhn and his colleague Marcel Zentner wanted more information to see if they could find a “formula for a tear-jerker,” and, as it turns out, one exists. For their study, participants listened to musical excerpts that produced chills while having their physiological reactions (heart rate, sweating, goosebumps, etc) measured. What they found was that all of the most chill-provoking passages shared 4 features: beginning softly and suddenly becoming loud, abrupt entrances of a new “voice” (either harmony or instrumental), expansion of frequencies played (such as jumping up an octave), and unexpected deviations in melody or harmony (Doucleff). If you have ever listened to “Someone Like You,” you will immediately recognize that all of these features fit the song perfectly. 

Starting with a soft, repetitive pattern, “Someone Like You” brings you in slowly. If you think about it, music in general is filled with repetitions: Marcus asks, “When is the last time you heard a pop song that didn't repeat its chorus?” (Marcus 135). I’d be relatively surprised if you could come up with more than a couple examples. This is in part because we like repetition; we like to know what comes next because it’s familiar, and we can give ourselves a pat on the back when we’re right; Marcus calls this principle familiarity. However, repetition can get boring….At the chorus, Adele’s voice increases volume and jumps up an octave, shifting the harmony, and making the lyrics more dramatic. These breaks from the unexpected that happen each time the chorus comes around are what Marcus calls the concept of “novelty:” we like when there are alterations between the familiar and unfamiliar because it keeps us in the game and on our toes. Even better, we like when there is novelty and familiarity at the same time (Marcus 117). This is because all the changes make our sympathetic (“fight or flight”) nervous system kick in, making our heart race, sending dopamine rushing through our brains, similar to the rush you get after food, sex, and drugs; it makes you feel good, motivating you to repeat the behavior. The more emotional the song, the more you want to listen to it (Doucleff, Marcus 117).

As it turns out, there’s a logical explanation for why this song is everywhere. “Someone Like You” is a perfect tear-jerker, and hearing it only makes you want more. No wonder it’s always on the radio. 

Doucleff, Michaeleen. "Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker." Wall Street Journal (2012): 12 Feb. 2012. <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577213010291701378.html>.

Marcus, Gary F. Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning. New York: Penguin, 2012. Print.

Stop Brain Decay

People are defined by their abilities. Athletes tend to be much more physically fit and skilled than others, musicians can create beautiful music out of almost anything. In contrast, however, the elderly tend to have decreased brain functionality. This loss of cognitive ability is not limited to the elderly. It can even affect people in their middle ages. Through scientific evidence, there is reason to believe that cells die off with age. But is there a way to stop this decline?

Perhaps I should begin with my journey toward developing this question. Recently, I have been trying to learn a new language. This is not a task to be taken lightly; it requires many hours of dedication in order to become fluent in any given language, but it can be done. Often times we hear stories about people who have learned new languages even after the age of sixty. There are stories about individuals who have learned new languages after the age of sixty, so I’m sure I am capable of doing so.

Not too long ago I came across a book titled “Guitar Zero” by Gary Marcus. This book is about the journey of a man on his path to become a rock legend. The only problem is that he has to learn how to play the guitar....at the ripe age of forty-seven. This story brought two concepts to light for me:

1. There is one advantage children have over adults that he consistently saw. This advantage was that children have the patience to repeat a task thousands of times in order to master it.

2. People tend to stick with things that they are good at rather than trying something new.

These concepts came to my mind when I read “How to Train the Aging Brain” by Barbara Strauch. After reading this, I thought about how one could stop the decline of cognitive function. Strauch examined the connotations and perceptions that are aligned with the aging brain. She found that individuals need to challenge their minds in order to keep them efficiently working on new ideas and viewpoints.

In that article, Dr. Micheal Taylor said, “We need to know stuff. But we need to move beyond that and challenge our perception of the world. If you always hang around with those you agree with and read things that agree with what you already know, you’re not going to wrestle with your established brain connections.” This seems to be the simplest answer. Push yourself to your limits and your brain will adapt. It will make more connections and you may be able to stave off the decline.



 Referrences:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03adult-t.html?ref=health&_r=0

Changing Your Mind

Growing up, I looked forward to Tuesday afternoons all week. In my elementary school’s music room the possibilities of activities and lessons we would learn were endless. Leading up to Tuesday, I tried to imagine what my music teacher, Mrs. Reiner, had in store for us. From playing “Hot Cross Buns” on the amateur recorder to sitting in a large drum circle feeling and creating the vibrations of ancient African beats, I always knew something exciting was in store for me once I entered that classroom. Unfortunately my external expression of music was short lived; my middle school choir director admitted that I had a complete lack of rhythm. As if that wasn’t enough, teasing remarks from my family about how they praised the lord the day I gave up playing the violin, solidified that fact that music was not my forte. However, I never lost my desire for the euphoric sensation music brought me. I now satisfy my thirst for music by frequenting concert halls and having my headphones permanently attached. In Guitar Zero, Gary Marcus mentality about his lack of talent differed from mine when he embarked on a mission to fulfill a life long dream of learning to successfully play guitar.

            Guitar Zero discusses the challenges of learning to play an instrument especially for an adult. He discourages the notion that talent is everything and argues for the extreme importance of practice. Marcus becomes his own lab rat by attempting to learn the guitar and sets out to prove that it is possible for an adult to acquire new knowledge.  The reoccurring theme throughout Guitar Zero is the struggle to rewire his brain so that it fosters the necessary connections to be a musician. The brain must reallocate space in the primary motor cortex in order to increase the amount of dexterity and sensitivity body regions essential to playing the guitar have. For example, in order to increase the ability to accurately perform finger positions the region assigned finger sensitivity needs to be larger than say the region devoted to the back of the neck.

            In article Brain Connectivity Predicts Reading Skills, a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed a strong correlation to the growth of long-range connections in the brain and future reading success among children between 7 and 12 years old. The study followed these children’s success in learning to read for the duration of three years. Thirty-nine of the fifty-five children who participated in the study received brain scans tracing the growth of two major white-matter tracts. While a child grows up the brain is partaking in synaptic pruning where rarely used synapse are eliminated and replaced. This process of pruning is what dedicates the growth of white-matter tracts.  Along with pruning, the myelination or encasing of tracts by fatty fibers increases the speed of communication and subsequently the growth of white-matter. In Brain Connectivity Predicts Reading Skills, the brain scans revealed two distinct growth patterns of long-range white-matter connections. Some children started with a weak signal of white-matter tracts on the left side of the brain, which gradually strengthened over the three years and resulted in strong reading ability. The other group of children had the opposite findings. In the strong readers brain the development of myelination and pruning was occurring simultaneously while in the poor readers brain it occurred separately (Mo Costandi).

Throughout adolescences a child’s brain is undergoing subtle changes similar to the changes Marcus’ brain underwent during his year of learning to play the guitar. The adult and adolescent brain slowly eliminated synapses that were unnecessary for everyday processes. In order to learn a new task whether playing the guitar or learning to read the brain needed to literally make new pathways and allocate new areas to handle the task at hand. 

Guitar Zero illustrates that it is possible to learn a new trick but experience and a particular teaching style is necessary. Marcus explains that in order for an adult to learn to play an instrument or a foreign language they must break the content into small pieces so that chunking allows for greater success. A student must also dedicate a lot of time and effort into the task because practice matters. He also attributes his success at learning to play to dedicated teachers who are motivating, patient, and able to point out mistakes. Guitar Zero exemplifies the extreme importance of the environment and type of teaching students experience. In Brain Connectivity Predicts Reading Skills it would be beneficial for these children’s teachers to apply the knowledge that different processes of brain mapping require different plans of when a particular skill should be learned.

Works Cited

Costandi/Nature Magazine, Mo. "Brain Connectivity Predicts Reading Skills:

Scientific American." Brain Connectivity Predicts Reading Skills: Scientific American. Scientific American, 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=brain-connectivity-predicts-reading-skills>.

Marcus, Gary F. Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning. New York: Penguin, 2012. Print.

Exercise: useful for mental and physical health

As college students, we all try to determine the best way to study. One experiments with different techniques, hoping that one of them will help him or her remember the information. What one forgets is that other activities, such as exercise, can help retain information. This is what some researchers at the University of Copenhagen examine in their study to see if exercise plays a role in creating specific muscle memories. The study attempts to see the influence of exercise on development and consolidation of physical memories, rather than intellectual tasks.

To obtain data, researchers allowed one group to exercise before the motor test, another to exercise after the motor test, and the last group to just rest. What they found was that the group that exercised after the first motor test performed better on subsequent motor test, especially those that were conducted after a week or more. Thus, the study demonstrates that exercising right after studying may help in retaining it on a long-term basis, rather than short-term

What is interesting about this study is that it measures exercise’s effect on muscle memory, more commonly known as the “motor memory. “ Rather than focusing on intellectual tasks, it examines how the retention of physical tasks is affected by exercise and to what extent can that skill be remembered. The brain sends signals to muscles and forms actual memories on any particular movement. Thus, when one studies and exercises right away, the brain associates the information with a movement and retains it that way for a long period of time. This is why the group that exercised after taking the tests once did worse on the second and third tests, but did significantly better on latter tests. Gray Marcus, in his book Guitar Zero, touches on this idea when he explains how the “hippocampus plays a recurring role as an engine for memory… [especially of] any skill that demands the development of so-called muscle memory.” What he builds upon is the idea that each mental ability draws upon a broad range of brain areas. Whether it is to learn language or music, one can retain the skill on a long-term basis through exercise or movement of body as the brain relates a skill to each move.

Furthermore, the researchers explain that consolidation of memory is not instantaneous. Each memory is retained to a different degree. Exercise helps in consolidation of memory by making the imprints of memory stronger. For whatever reason, exercise right after a memory is formed intensifies it. Gary Marcus brings up this idea when he explains the use of flashcards. The students were allowed to look at the card, while letting their eyes wander freely within the confines of the card, for three minutes. This allows for a period of consolidation, during which memories firm up.  Similarly, exercise right after learning something allows the brain enough time to associate that skill with movement and makes the memory stronger. Thus, the idea is to use time with different techniques that help in retaining information.

Want to learn a new skill? Use body movement (i.e. exercise) to help intensify the imprints. What is essential is the timing. Whether one uses flashcards or exercise, it is important to spend enough time for the brain to make association and retain the memory for a long-time basis. Once you perfect a skill, go run immediately afterwards to cement the memory of that skill. Stop using that skills and try years later, you will still remember the skill with almost equal mastery.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/how-exercise-can-help-you-master-new-skills/

Musical Training Makes Better Learners

For many years, scientists have studied professional musicians’ brains to determine the types of benefits that arise from vigorous musical training and why they might occur. Various benefits of learning an instrument include being able to learn multiple languages, better listening as an adult, stronger reading and math skills, and having higher IQ scores than individuals who are not musically inclined (Wilcox). However, most people, myself included, begin playing an instrument and taking music lessons during childhood only to discontinue their training between middle and high school. Few people go on to become professionals and have successful careers in music. Recent research suggests that even having a few years of musical training is better than nothing at all. 

A study conducted at Northwestern showed that participants with prior music training were better able to distinguish particular frequencies out of complex sounds than non-musical counterparts, even years after their training (Skoe and Kraus). This suggests that even after a limited period of music lessons during childhood, neural patterns in the brain significantly change and these changes can and do persist into adulthood. The brain’s neuroplasticity or ability to change due to new, consistent information is unbelievable. However, to some extent it makes sense that with musical training the number of connections between auditory areas of the brain would increase and one would become a better listener. 

How then does someone who takes music lessons during childhood also end up with the benefits of stronger reading and math skills or a better memory, both not particularly related to auditory processes? I think it may be directly related to changing neural connections of other areas of the brain during musical training. Gary Marcus spends a great deal of time discussing proceduralization of music and how one commits the actions of playing an instrument to implicit memory in his book Guitar Zero (Marcus, 51). I think this would be a direct example of changing the neural circuitry of the brain. Through repetitive action and rehearsal of musical playing, the brain would make connections between motor areas of the brain, as well as memory recall and reasoning areas while trying to process and understand the music you are playing. Individuals like Marcus, who learn musical theory in addition to learning how to play probably have the most benefits relating to IQ, language and math, because they are using a wider variety of brain functions than just implicit knowledge and muscle memory.

Another interesting idea is whether music is the key or whether other structured activities can produce similar benefits. Marcus and other musicians like Anders Ericsson coin 10,000 as the golden number of hours needed to practice to become "perfect" at an instrument. To practice any type of activity for 10,000 hours would require tremendous patience, dedication and self-motivation to become better. Therefore, if an individual is able to commit even a small percentage of this time to an instrument during childhood, the life skills developed during this time can probably be called upon again later in life during tasks like studying. This reasoning could explain why people who had musical training in childhood are better able to learn multiple languages and have stronger reading and math skills. Regardless, learning to play an instrument, at any age, has obvious benefits and will continue to challenge the architecture of the brain, making us better listeners and learners.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120821212626.htm
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/2012/08/21/even-a-few-years-of-music-training-benefits-the-brain/
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/34/11507.full.pdf+html