How to Listen, Learn and Adapt
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In today’s world we listen more than ever before. We are often bombarded by numerous sound bites everywhere we go: social media clips, television series, news feeds, music, radio, social conversations, formal group and classroom meetings, etc. Even in reading, we hear as we internally listen to words. We need to become more aware of this activity we often engage in throughout our lives. We’ve all heard the sayings: seize the day and make every day count…well, we should rephrase them to: seize every listening opportunity and make every listening count!
LISTEN
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Most of what we do with our ears is hear; listening is more intentional than just hearing. We listen at a much faster rate (about three times faster) than the person speaking, and even more so when internally listening while reading. So what do we do with all this extra time? Our minds tend to wander and we are tempted to multitask. Being aware of your listening is the single most important part of listening. Intention, motivation, and interest are critical and also help you listen attentively.
These elements of listening are more easily applied when consuming light news and humorous content found on social media, news feeds, and television. However, when we listen in other situations that are more personal and consequential to our lives, we need to ensure that these elements are sustained at all costs. Unbeknown to us, our perception and harmful thoughts such as fear, selfconsciousness, etc. cloud our listening and greatly reduce our concentration, information actually taken in, and any chances of recalling the information when needed. This phenomenon is known as interference theory. Interference theory occurs when an interaction between new material and transfer effects of past learned behavior or experience comes to bear. Negative memories or thoughts hinder the comprehension of new material. As an adjunct professor in CUNY, I come across students who exhibit anxiety while on the listening end of communication. They express a trait known as Receivers’ Apprehension which is fear of misinterpreting, inadequately processing, and not being able to fully adjust psychologically to messages we listen to.
When I talk to students about some of the visible anxiety they exhibit in class, they almost always mention negative thoughts about learning that goes on in their minds while listening to new information. The irony of it is that allowing those thoughts of ‘Will I understand this?’ and ‘Am I going to be a failure?’ makes up the bulk of the reason why their listening is grossly incomplete. It is then diffcult to retain information that was never received accurately. For our beneft, we need to continuously practice active listening. Whether in the classroom, at work, at a game show, or at a cocktail or networking party, we need to practice shutting down any self-conscious or other negative, doubtful, and wandering thoughts in order to give our full attention and make our listening worthwhile.
LEARN
The intention of most of our listening is to learn one thing or another. Learn other’s jokes, or a storyline in a TV series, news around the world, facts about others in order to foster and build relationships, a subject matter in order to be successful in a profession and earn a living, and the list goes on. Learning follows being able to actively listen and it starts with a desire to actually learn. Learning should indeed become our lifestyle if we want to continuously grow in life and avoid stagnation. I maintain that there’s an opportunity to learn in every situation…even in not-so-pleasant ones. Once a person has begun to actively listen regularly, their attention span is increased which means they are able to stay in a prolonged state of focused awareness on certain available perceptual information. A person at this level can then begin to apply the following tips more effectively.
Learning is best tested by how much information is retained or not forgotten. To forget is either failing to store information in the first place (this was addressed with active listening), or not able to retrieve or recall retained information when needed. When storing or learning information, it is important to note that short term memory has a limited capacity and we lose information quickly unless we can shift it into long term memory. In the classroom, cramming techniques might work with simple concepts but information must be learned and fully understood initially with complex topics and then reviewed quickly and repeatedly to improve retention. Memory is strengthened when associated with other familiar or long term memories visually and by using mnemonics.
As previously mentioned, memory has two parts: concentration, and recall. We explained above that our attention is often times divided with the advent of multitasking. Working memory is defned as the ability to remember relevant information in the face of distraction. There is a need to practice improving our working memory in order to get better at multitasking. However, I must add that studies have shown that when we focus exclusively on material we are learning, we stand a better chance at storing the information to our long term memory. We all have learning preferences and everyone should understand how best they learn. A visual learner will struggle if all they have are audio recordings of lecture notes. The time of the day, noise level, and lighting can affect learners differently so take the time to learn what works for you while learning.
Lastly, with improved cognitive functions as you learn wider topics and more complex concepts, work on utilizing (and developing) both the left and right hemispheres of your brain with varying methods. Individuals with dominant left brains tend to be more logic based, while those with dominant right brains tend to be more artistic. Use all of your senses such as writing things down, explaining the concept to a lay person, rehearsing in the mirror, etc. Improve your metacognition which is the thought a person has about their own thoughts. It includes things like self-regulating or monitoring your performance on a given task or learning process. So check your concentration as you learn and take breaks or reset your brain if you feel it getting dull by restating words or testing yourself periodically.
ADOPT
After taking in information through active and effective listening, and learning new material, the natural progression is to adapt oneself to the learned information. This translates to being able to confdently explain to and teach someone else, applying information learned to successfully perform on the job, and sustaining a lasting behavior change in any part of life. Adapting is rooted in ‘doing’ an action and as they say, the proof is in the pudding.
Neuroscientist, Dr. Caroline Leaf states that behavior starts with a thought. Thoughts stimulate emotions which then result in attitude and finally produce behavior. We started with the effects of thoughts and perceptions during listening and have indeed come full circle as they also greatly affect adapting our behaviors. Multiple studies and research by other neuroscientists (Dr. Marion Diamond; Dr. Candace Pert) explain that the body and mind function as a single psychosomatic network which make up information molecules that control physical and mental actions. This link between the body and mind is fascinating and corroborates behavioral studies of the 1970s.
These biochemicals or “molecules of emotion” help form our memory networks or “magic trees of the mind”. Before you can think yourself through adapting positive behaviors, let me paint a clearer picture of these thought pathways. When you frst start to develop thoughts during listening or learning by building memories, a part of your brain called the hypothalamus (H) is activated. As with apprehensive listeners, feeling a jolt of fear means H secretes negative emotion hormones CRH and ACTH which then release stress chemicals cortisol and adrenaline. In a chain reaction fashion, cortisol and adrenaline race through the body causing immediate high blood pressure and heart palpitations. They further travel to the brain’s nerve cells causing memories to literally shrink which affects the ability to remember information or even think creatively. Does this sound familiar? Think of individuals with receiver apprehension exhibiting anxiety, or individuals that experience test day mind blocks, or even folks with stage fright or fear of publicly speaking (even in small classrooms).
To adapt to any desired change, we must unlearn old negative and doubt ridden thought patterns and begin to relearn new positive and renewed mindsets. Change is constant and inevitable in the information age we live in and we should aspire to drive positive waves of change by becoming change agents…frst in our thoughts and ‘can do’ attitudes. I’ll leave you with this thought: our brains are very powerful and creative and can learn almost anything with time and dedicated practice! Thoughts that foster adapting to and modeling desired behavior does not only focus on past memories as it is not enough to anchor our focus. We must learn to become aware of our present thought patterns and more importantly, focus on our goals and the positive change we want to see. Change can be so small, constant, and gradual that we begin to look like and act like whatever we’ve committed to diligently learn.
