WHEN attempting to learn something, it is best just to relax and let it happen. Trying too hard can slow you up, according to a study of volunteers learning a push-button sequence.
Paul Fletcher at the University of Cambridge set out to investigate whether knowing the point of a task in advance helps you to master it. He gave 11 volunteers the task of pressing one of four buttons in response to four corresponding icons highlighted on a screen. Hidden within the sequence was a repeating pattern.
When subjects just concentrated on pushing the buttons and were not told about the pattern, they learned to push the buttons faster than when the sequence was randomised. On average their reaction times were 40 milliseconds faster, indicating that they were not just getting better at button-pushing, but were subconsciously learning the sequence. When asked afterwards, none had noticed the pattern.
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But when subjects were told to look out for the pattern, they did not learn to do the task faster. Some had identified parts of the pattern after the test, but the act of looking for the sequence seemed to hinder their ability to do the task (Cerebral Cortex, doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhh201).
鈥淎s many sportsmen or women have already discovered, there are certain circumstances under which we should stop deliberating and just act,鈥� says Fletcher.