Can You Learn Without Paying Attention?

1. How I came to this

I came to this idea while in the shower. I had just paused my podcast right before I stepped into the running water. And I thought, “should I just leave the show playing? Maybe my brain will subconsciously hold onto a concept that I’ll one day need.

I've often found myself in class, half-listening to the professor and wondering if any of the information being thrown at me will actually stick, just like perfectly cooked pasta sticks to the wall. And surprisingly, science seems to back me up on this!

2. Do our brains learn in the background?

The phenomenon of "learning in the background" was coined by psychologist Edward Tolman as latent learning, where memory operates on a "dual process," combining unconscious and conscious activities.

Tolman concluded that humans subconsciously create a mental map of information through our day-to-day routines.

For instance, you’ve probably memorized the map of the city in which you live without actually sitting down and reading through it on a map. Or you’ve learned and utilized new words you heard in a movie or podcast without writing down or looking up the meaning of such words.

3. Tolman's experiment

To investigate how reinforcement affects how rats navigate challenging mazes, Edward Tolman performed studies using rats and mazes. Tolman found that rats could navigate their way through a maze without any incentive or reward. He created the concept of the cognitive map, which is the brain's internal representation of the physical environment.

Tolman separated the rats into three groups:

The first group would get no reward at the end of the maze.
The second group would receive a reward (food) immediately at the exit of the maze.
The third group wasn’t rewarded for the first 10 days, but on days 11-17 food would be placed in a goal box at the end of the maze.

As soon as the rats in the third group were reinforced by the reward (food), they were able to find their way through the maze as quickly, eventually even surpassing the speed of the first group, which had been rewarded since the beginning.

Tolman’s conclusion was

“latent learning is a type of learning which is not apparent in the learner’s behavior at the time of learning, but which manifests later when a suitable motivation and circumstances appear.”

4. Learning without paying attention

An example of how latent learning plays out in the classroom is when a student passively listens to a lecture or reads a textbook without any immediate reinforcement or motivation.

Although the student may not actively engage with the material, they may subconsciously retain the information and later be able to recall it when needed.

Furthermore, a student may learn a new concept in class but not fully understand it until they encounter a related problem later on.

5. Should I study passively?

Although passively learning has some clear limitations, this type of learning is better suited for students who prefer to take in information at their own pace and don’t thrive in a group setting, because they get easily distracted or discouraged due to a slower learning pace.

It can also be useful for learners who are visual or auditory, and thus enjoy hearing or seeing information presented clearly and concisely.

But should you completely tune out your professors and start browsing for cheap flights? Not quite – if your goal is to boost productivity and avoid mental breakdowns…

6. The limitations of latent learning

Forbes reports that multitasking can reduce productivity by as much as 40%, hindering cognitive function and increasing stress levels.

The Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute found that multitasking can interfere with working memory, cause students to do worse in school, and could even create potentially long-term memory problems.
The American Meditation Institute found that multitasking can cause elevated hormone levels that can depress both the immune system and the mind, leading to chronic stress.
Also, students who are active learners are more engaged and successful in finishing their studies compared to passive learners.

7. So, is this the end of latent learning? -Not yet

The catch is that **not all tasks are created equal.** Effective task pairing can enhance productivity, reduce stress levels, and increase motivation.
Examples of effective task pairing are:
Working out while listening to your favorite music.
Listening to a podcast while doing chores.
A student solving math exercises or taking notes while listening to a math lecture.

**The key is that the cognitive demands of the tasks aren’t competing, but enhancing each other.**

8. Conclusion

Thinking back to Tolman’s experiment, it was due to the eventual reinforcement (the reward at the end of the maze) that the learning cycle was completed. Without the reinforcement, the subconscious mental map would’ve stayed there: in the subconscious.

Thus, while we may not actively absorb every detail during passive listening, active learning later steps in to map out and organize new concepts, strengthening the neurological connections in the brain and closing the learning cycle.

the perfect balance

I would experiment with different topics, tasks, and environments, find out what combination of both passive and active learning works best and keeps you consistently motivated throughout the study cycle because once you later reinforce your passive learning with active learning, you will have made those hours spent in class day-dreaming about your next getaway weekend, a bit more useful.

And before you decide to skip class because the professor's lectures feel like a foreign language, consider that your brain can subconsciously hold onto more information than you’d expect.

Sources

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Acquisition-performance-from-Tolman-and-Honzik-1930-From-Tolman-EC-1948-Cognitive_fig12_285777770
https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2018/12/24/why-cram/
https://americanmeditation.org/why-are-multi-taskers-so-stressed-out/
https://www.lifehack.org/858084/passive-learning
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymaker-psychology/chapter/reading-cognition-and-latent-learning/
https://psychcentral.com/health/latent-learning#examples
https://www.simplypsychology.org/tolman.html
https://neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/why-multitasking-does-more-harm-good
https://www.forbes.com/sites/curtsteinhorst/2020/02/20/how-multitasking-erodes-productivity-and-dings-your-iq/?sh=7260a9643b7e