Faster Learning

What if I said that the top row of pictures was worth £10? The middle row is too, but the bottom row is worth £50. What’s different? When we try to link a cause and a consequence, such as the pictures and the money, we can either learn gradually – known as incremental learning – or pick up the connection the first time we see it – called one-shot learning. To investigate which parts of the brain control one-shot learning, participants did puzzles like these, and rated how confident they were that each picture caused a good or bad outcome, while having their brains scanned. Researchers found that a part called the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex detects when we are linking complicated ideas. It switches on the hippocampus, which also controls memory, to help us learn faster. This will help us understand how we draw conclusions, and why we’re sometimes wrong.

Written by Esther Redhouse White

Esther Redhouse White

Writer

A recent Biochemistry graduate from York, Esther has worked on bacterial killing proteins and genetic switches in worms. In her spare time she likes visiting museums full of skeletons.

• Image adapted from work by Sang Wan Lee and colleagues
• California Institute of Technology, USA
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Research published in PLOS Biology, April 2015