How does your brain decide whether to consciously think through a math problem or solve it automatically? Your mind operates two distinct learning systems that handle different types of information in fundamentally different ways.
Experts explain that the declarative system manages conscious learning—like memorizing facts—while the procedural system handles skills and habits that become automatic over time. Understanding how these systems work together can transform both how you learn new material and how you teach others.
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Procedural vs. Declarative Systems
The authors of Uncommon Sense Teaching say you have two systems for learning different types of information. We’ll start by discussing the declarative system, which is for deliberate learning: memorizing facts, understanding complex topics, and so on. We’ll then describe the procedural system, which deals with skills and habits that don’t require conscious thought.
The Declarative System: Conscious Learning and Recall
The first system Oakley, Rogowsky, and Sejnowski discuss is the declarative learning system: the neural pathways for learning and applying factual information. They say this pathway is a collaboration between your working memory and two specific parts of your brain, and understanding how those parts work together will help you both learn and teach more effectively.
When you encounter new information, your working memory captures it and sends it to your hippocampus and neocortex. The neocortex forms neural connections to store your new knowledge, while the hippocampus acts like an index, creating links to your long-term memory that help you locate the information later.
(Shortform note: In Behave, Sapolsky explains the brain’s structure using a simplified “three levels” model. Working memory relies heavily on the two most recently evolved levels of the brain: The neocortex makes up the highest level of the brain and handles deep thought and logical reasoning, which it does using the knowledge you’ve stored. Meanwhile, the hippocampus is a key part of the limbic system, the middle level of the brain. While it’s usually associated with regulating your emotions, the limbic system has numerous functions, including accessing stored memories. This process excludes only the reptilian complex, the lowest level of the brain, which handles automatic behaviors like breathing.)
The authors emphasize that the process of storing memories takes time, and that you can’t learn effectively if you’re constantly barraged with facts and ideas. Therefore, any type of learning should involve alternating periods of gathering new information and working with that information in order to process it—this is known as active learning. Processing might involve activities like discussing the topic with someone else who’s studying it, working on practice problems, or “re-teaching” the new concepts to another person.
(Shortform note: Many people believe active learning is more effective than rote memorization, which is when you’re expected to simply memorize and repeat information on demand (the “barrage of facts” approach). However, some studies have shown that rote learning is actually the more effective method for basic, foundational concepts like the alphabet and the periodic table.)
Oakley, Rogowsky, and Sejnowski also recommend taking regular breaks during long study or practice sessions. Doing so might feel like a waste of valuable time, but those short rests are crucial: They let your brain form new neural connections and consolidate long-term memories into coherent, usable networks.
(Shortform note: In Feel-Good Productivity, entrepreneur Ali Abdaal explains that taking regular breaks also helps you stay focused and energized. But he urges you to make the most of your break periods: Do something fun, or find something that makes you feel energized and uplifted, rather than just doing something that distracts you and fills the time. For example, try reading an inspiring article or taking a power nap instead of scrolling through social media.)
The Procedural System: Automatic Responses
The second system of learning that Oakley, Rogowsky, and Sejnowski describe is called the procedural learning system, which deals with automatic responses like habits and reflexes. Located in the basal ganglia of the brain, this system largely works outside of your conscious awareness and requires different teaching methods to build strong neural connections.
(Shortform note: The basal ganglia are a series of structures found at the center of the brain. They control voluntary movements, which might seem to contradict the authors’ statement that the ganglia are responsible for procedural knowledge like involuntary reflexes. However, the movements themselves are largely automatic, even when the decision to make those movements isn’t. For example, you might consciously decide to pick up a glass, but you don’t need to think about how to do that—the “skill” of drinking from a glass is procedural knowledge for you.)
The authors explain that procedural learning benefits most from mixing together different types of problems or concepts, as opposed to working through blocks of similar questions. This approach, called interleaving, is more difficult initially, but it builds strong and flexible knowledge that you can apply more easily to unfamiliar situations.
For example, when you studied basic arithmetic, you most likely got worksheets with addition and subtraction problems mixed together, rather than a worksheet of addition problems followed by a worksheet of subtraction problems. The interleaved addition and subtraction problems meant that you had to keep switching between those two skills, which trained you to access the relevant knowledge quickly and easily.
(Shortform note: Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel discuss interleaving in more detail in Make It Stick. They explain that, along with training you to access knowledge more quickly and with less effort, interleaved practice has the added benefit of helping you connect new information to things you already know. This is because it forces you to apply your knowledge to a variety of subjects and situations. Returning to the example of basic arithmetic, word problems made you apply your math skills differently than you were used to from just solving equations. You’d have to use reading comprehension skills to understand the problem, translate what you read into an equation, and then solve it.)
Knowledge Can Change From Declarative to Procedural
Oakley, Rogowsky, and Sejnowski say that you initially learn most skills through your declarative system. With enough time and practice, those skills can then transition to your procedural storage and become automatic. This transition is crucial for using skills effectively in your daily life because procedural knowledge operates much more quickly than declarative knowledge and doesn’t burden working memory during use.
For instance, there was a time when you’d have had to work through the steps of a simple addition problem like 12+12. Now, however, you can most likely solve that problem at a glance. Furthermore, because simple addition is procedural knowledge, you’re not even aware that you solved it—you simply know that 12+12=24.
| The Automatization Theory of Learning This discussion of declarative knowledge becoming procedural knowledge closely resembles psychology’s automatization theory: the process of skills and behaviors becoming automatic through repetition. However, while Oakley, Rogowsky, and Sejnowski describe two stages—declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge—automatization theory describes three. First is the cognitive stage, which is identical to declarative learning. This is when you actively learn a new skill, practice it under supervision, and use feedback from someone more knowledgeable to correct your mistakes. Next is the associative stage, a transitional phase that doesn’t match either of the stages Oakley, Rogowsky, and Sejnowski talk about. During the associative phase, you’ve automated some (but not all) of your new skill, and you continue to refine that skill through further practice. For example, you probably already have a general sense of how to throw a punch. However, a boxing coach could teach you how to position your feet, twist your body, and hit the parts of your opponent’s body to maximize your punches’ effectiveness. Finally, the autonomous stage mirrors procedural knowledge. When you reach this stage, you no longer need to consciously think about using a skill. You can simply do it quickly and correctly. The overall process is essentially the same as what Oakley, Rogowsky, and Sejnowski describe. However, the addition of the associative stage clarifies that you won’t master a new skill or concept all at once, and that it’s important to keep honing the finer points of a new skill or concept even after the basics start to come naturally. |
How to Learn More Effectively
You can learn most effectively by tapping both systems, say Barbara Oakley and Olav Schewe in Learn Like a Pro. When you first learn something, you use your declarative system to consciously understand a concept or perform an action. Then, with practice, your procedural system builds on that learning and ingrains it into your long-term memory. For example, let’s say you’re learning to play a tune on the piano—when you first learn it, you have to consciously think about each note that comes next, what rhythm to play, and so on, using your declarative system. Then, over time, the procedural system builds on those neural connections, and eventually, you can play the piece confidently without thinking through each step.
Mathematics and Language
The authors discuss some techniques that can help you understand concepts deeply enough that they become governed by your procedural system, so you can access that information or skill without consciously thinking about it. Two areas that can benefit from this ability are mathematics and languages.
To comprehend complex mathematical concepts intuitively, you must understand why they work, not just the step-by-step methods of how they work. To achieve that level of mastery, the authors recommend you solve practice problems for which you have access to their step-by-step resolved solutions. Then, try to figure out each step yourself before checking the solution. This will train you to listen to your inner voice—your intuition—about how to approach the problem and will help you internalize the process. Once you’ve internalized it, you’ll be able to tackle other, similar problems because your brain will have learned the patterns behind them.
(Shortform note: In Ultralearning, Scott Young explains that experts’ problem-solving intuition is the result of deeply understanding those subjects’ underlying principles. He outlines many ways to develop deep, intuitive knowledge, one of which is to let yourself struggle and find your own way to the answers and solutions as you learn. This approach is exactly what the problem-solving exercise above facilitates by encouraging you to work through difficult problems on your own. Young’s suggestion is to set a timer for 10 to 15 minutes when you’re faced with a difficult problem, and then force yourself to work on it until the timer goes off. If you don’t solve it in that time, you’ll at least spur your brain to keep thinking about it.)
To learn new languages, you can use both your declarative and procedural systems to help you internalize vocabulary and grammar rules and to achieve fluency (a level of familiarity where you can speak naturally without having to think about it). To support the pattern-finding power of your procedural system, space out your practice sessions—the longer you want to remember, the longer you should pause between review sessions. For example, they say that, if you want to remember the material for a year, have a review session every three weeks.
(Shortform note: Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel, the authors of Make It Stick, explain an additional way to space out your practice which can help you achieve fluency in a new language: practicing your new skill in different contexts. Doing so enhances your understanding of the underlying patterns and improves your ability to use that skill in various situations. This method helps you apply what
What Kind of Memory Do Savants Use?
Moonwalking With Einstein points out that one interesting aspect of declarative and nondeclarative memory is the idea of “savants.” Some scientists wonder if savantism is tied to the difference between declarative and nondeclarative memory.
A “savant” used to be a person who was very intelligent and knowledgeable in several fields. These days, a savant is a person with a mental disability who has exceptional abilities in a narrow area, often to do with memory.
Dr. Darold Treffert informally divides savants into three categories:
- Those who know a narrow set of trivia. For example, Treffert has a patient who can identify the model and year of a vacuum cleaner just from its sound.
- Those who have a more general talent, such as music or art, that’s notable because of their disability.
- Those who have abilities that would be exceptional even if not accompanied by a disability. These people are “prodigious savants.”
Note that none of these definitions consider whether or not someone has learned memory techniques.
Savantism expresses itself differently in different people, but the main thing savants have in common is damage to the left hemisphere of the brain. As a result, savants usually have difficulty with left-brain activities such as language but are exceptional at right-brain activities such as spatial and visual skills. Some scientists think that turning off the left brain allows right-brain skills to flourish.
Treffert thinks that savants might somehow be able to use their nondeclarative memory system (riding-a-bike type skills) to remember declarative things (facts, figures).
Dive Deeper Into Learning
If you found this article interesting and you want to learn even more about the brain, how it learns, and the different systems, you can read the full guides to the books mentioned above.
