According to this author - Benedict Carey, The New York Times - a number of things we tend to believe about learning are ... wrong; here's what's correct:

• Studying the same material in different spaces yields better learning than always studying it in the same place.
• Studying a variety of things in each study session yields better results than focusing on a single type of learning.
• Repetitive study sessions space out over time are more fruitful than mass cramming.
• Testing is far more valuable as a learning tool than as a mere assessment measure for grading purposes.

The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time, the authors say, regardless of whether those perceptions are conscious. It colors the terms of the Versailles Treaty with the wasted fluorescent glow of the dorm study room, say; or the elements of the Marshall Plan with the jade-curtain shade of the willow tree in the backyard.

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Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding. “When students see a list of problems, all of the same kind, they know the strategy to use before they even read the problem,” said Dr. Rohrer. “That’s like riding a bike with training wheels.” With mixed practice, he added, “each problem is different from the last one, which means kids must learn how to choose the appropriate procedure — just like they had to do on the test.”