A New Priming Study Technique
I came across a simple but effective framework to learn complex topics.
Elizabeth Filis is a former medical student and Ali Abdul’s assistant. She recently shared her priming study technique. And this technique allows her to remember the vast amount of information she consumes.
I have never heard anyone explain knowledge this way.
What’s fascinating is how she leverages the interconnected way the mind works. She builds emotional roots. Then, she constructs the truck of her knowledge tree. All this done before ever cracking open a book.
Over the next few days, you’ll discover how to remember more, give your reading more meaning, and recall info easier.
The trick is to prime a hungry mind, let’s dive in.
Context Broadening
Your mind is associative.
Elizabeth leverages this when learning a complex, new topic. By placing it in relation to the living world, she gains perspective on it. Words on a page aren’t that interesting, real-life examples trigger your brain more. To establish ‘knowledge roots“, she searches for her topic on Google News.
The goal is to find something to bring the topic down to ground level. You are looking for story about a celebrity, a first-hand account, or controversy.
So find something with vivid details and tangible facts that provide footholds for your brain.
Make Connections
Now you find your anchors.
Elizabeth explains it as linking what she already knows to details within the story. It could be locations, actions, colors, experiences, or anything that sparks familiarity. I call this “matching legos.”
The stronger the links are in your mind, the deeper the roots of your knowledge tree will stretch.
What you’ve done is take isolated information and connect it to things familiar to you. By building this foundation you are ready to establish the trunk of your knowledge tree. The trunk will connect to your dopamine response around learning.
That is the first half of this priming study technique.
Tomorrow you’ll discover how to covert your curiosity into desire, so learning becomes more automatic.