Working in Movement

Do you have to try hard or concentrate to learn stuff? Not according to a study at the University of Cambridge. Concentration hampers simple tasks reports on the study in which people were ask to learn a pattern of button-pushing during a six-minute test. Researchers told some to concentrate on learning the sequence; others just relaxed and didn't worry about learning the pattern. It turned out the relaxed group, not worried about learning anything, actually completed the task measurably faster than the try-hards. Researchers also took a look at brain activity during the test with MRI. They observed more frontal lobe activity in the try-hards than in the relaxers.

Why would increased frontal lobe activity make it harder to learn the pattern? Fletcher explains that the frontal lobes are valuable in a crisis, when it is necessary to make a quick decision about which course of action to take. But this conscious processing might actually inhibit the automatic learning of simpler tasks, he says.

Anyone who has studied detailed "text book" subjects like statistics knows that some concentration is required; sometimes a great deal of it. But in learning movement behaviors, trying to work out the sequences of movements probably actually disrupts the learning. So relax and stop thinking about your backswing. Just do it.