Passive exposure can speed up learning, say Oregon scientists

(FEBRUARY 22, 2024) Researchers from the University of Oregon have news about how we learn. Deliberate (intentional) practice is important, they say. However, simple exposure can also help. 

Researchers conducted a study on mice. Their work supports the results of previous studies about the importance of passive exposure in learning. For example, watching movies in a foreign language or listening to recordings of professional musicians can pair well with traditional learning methods like grammar drills and vocabulary flashcards.

James Murray and Santiago Jaramillo are two scientists at the University. Their research studies the brain. They hope their work will help educators understand how active training and passive exposure influence learning.

During the study, mice were trained to respond to specific tones indicating a reward. Some mice received active training with feedback. Others were passively exposed to the tones without engaging in the task. Those passively exposed mice learned to select the reward location more quickly, regardless of whether the exposure occurred before or during active training sessions.

To understand how learning occurs in the brain, researchers used artificial neural networks to simulate the learning task. These models suggested that passive exposure lays the groundwork in the brain. This creates a basic representation of the stimulus. That means the brain will learn more quickly when it later has active training.