Be Careful with Overlearning

Overlearning, advantage or disadvantage?

Overlearning, sometimes referred to as the process of cooling down the brain, is when you rehearse a skill even after there is no improvement. For example, when you continue Re-Reading after already understanding the concept. Is a controversial topic in areas such as Neuroscience or Education, since many experts claim that it can be an effective method to learn faster, while others believe that it actually blocks the brain from deep effective learning. In this article, we will analyze the pros and cons of overlearning, as well as learning how to use it in our favor, with the aim as always to first understand the concept and hence develop criteria.

Let's first clarify that Overlearning can be used in 2 main different contexts, cognitive and motor skills. In the case of cognitive skills, overlearning is an effective method for short-term retention, meaning that it can be useful if you have a test the next day and you haven't yet studied. However, if you apply overlearning strategies for a test that will happen in 2-3 weeks, the result won't be satisfying. On the other hand, in motor and physical skills, overlearning gives wider benefits, it may be an excellent tool for short and long-term retention. Such as a basketball play or playing an instrument. Consider the following example: Reserve soldiers were told that they needed to practice assembling and dissembling guns, 2 groups were formed, the first one practiced in multiple 3-hours sessions, while the second group just practiced 1-hour sessions trying to reach perfection and detail. 8 weeks passed from the last training that soldiers had, and both groups that had the same amount of sessions were tested in their ability to perform the task, surprisingly the ones that did the overlearning sessions (3-hours) achieved a better result than the ones that looked for perfection in their sessions. Therefore, overlearning shows that it can be extremely beneficial in the case of Physical Activities, having no trouble in the long-term retention. In this scenario, the famous phrase "Practice makes Perfect" is totally valid, and we can constantly experience it in sports, which is the most common physical activity.

This happens because as a study shows, overlearning reduces the energy required for the Brain to perform a task, by almost 20%. Hence, each time we already know we have learned something effectively, continuous practice can help our brain to spend each time less energy in doing the activity, consequently, when performing it under pressure, the brain would not spend much energy on the concept rather it would have available resources to focus on other things. If you didn't get the idea yet, check the following example: In a Martial art competition, fighters have several memorized techniques or combos, which consist of sequences of several steps to damage the opponent, some of these could have a lot of detail in their steps, and one could ask how do they remember all of these small key details. The truth is that they don't spend concentration on these, since they have overlearned them with the huge amount of time training that they have, therefore, they have available focus and energy to use it, for example, in analyzing the opponent rather to try to remember the steps of a specific combo. That's why we can sometimes appreciate stunning knockouts with so much detail in each part of the fighter's body, that one could ask how can they perform it with so much pressure on their behalf. 

We could also call Overlearning, the best tool for automatization, following the same logic from the previous study. Ted talkers, for example, practice massively (around 70 hours) their speech before actually doing it, this in order to avoid nervousness and avoid forgetting information. 

Now, nothing is perfect, and of course, that Overlearning has several weaknesses. For example, if you apply the Re-Reading strategy, while it's effective at immediate testing conditions, it shows several disadvantages when preparing for a future test, distributed reading shows much more success. Furthermore, there is also the Massing Sessions Strategy, which basically consists that after learning something new, you start practicing it a lot on the same occasion. There is a study which shows that several candidates were split up into 2 groups, the first one did a massive practice session in which after learning a new math concept, they solved 10 different exercises which were very extensive. The second group solved the 10 as well but in 2 sessions, spaced by 1 week. Both groups learned the new math concept at the same time. After 1 week, the groups were invited to take a test of the content learned, and both groups performed almost the same. Nevertheless, when amplifying the time period, now being 4 weeks, the second group performed incredibly better and showed much more retention. Overlearnig clearly shows some disadvantages in logical and critical thinking knowledge, in the long-term of course.

Moreover, overlearning could also be dangerous in academic conditions, since a study shows that it obstructs subsequent learning. In this study participants were set up to a huge overlearning session, after doing this they were transferred to another class in which a new subject was being taught, totally different from the previous one, surprisingly, they retained almost nothing from this second class. The study concluded that when overlearning happens, the brain concentrates on the concept so deeply that it interferes with new information that may come later even on the same day. Researchers also found out that a period of at least 4 hours should be left after an overlearning session, in order to let the brain recover and retain new information. Hence, if we analyze these results and transfer them to an academic context, in which students have class after class, we could be in front of a critical issue that may be the reason why there are so many students failing and forgetting content from year-to-year. That's why is so important that Overlearning never happens in academic organizations.

In these types of conditions, experts argue that Distributed and Deliberate practice, show better results. Distributed practice consists of placing small break periods in between equally distributed practice periods. For example, studying maths in 3 different sessions of 1-hour along a 1 week period, taking breaks of 1-2 days, however, every practice session must focus on the same topic/subject. Additionally, Deliberate practice complements incredibly since it consists of putting self-effort into the task that we are focusing on, with the objective of personal growth and gaining quality over quantity. This last one is often described as the critical factor that differentiates a good student from an over-achieving student.

In conclusion, Ovelearning is a fascinating technique for Physical/Motor Skills, if your objective is to increase your performance in your sport or any other physical activity, overlearning should be your best choice. Contrastingly, in the case of Cognitive Skills, it presents several disadvantages, hence, you should only use it as your final choice if the situation requires it, for example, if you have a test the next day from which you don't have any idea. Finally, I would like to end this article with the following phrase:

"Amateurs practice until they get it right. 

Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."