In August 2012, faculty members of the UCLA Psychology department were approached and asked whether they could recall the location of their nearest fire extinguishers. Despite being bright red, placed in prime locations and potentially life-saving, a vast majority of participants admitted they couldn’t.

One long-running professor, probably feeling a little perturbed by the revelation, embarked on a mission to discover his nearest fire extinguisher. He didn’t have to go far, and was dumbfounded to discover one standing mere centimetres from the door handle to his office, the same handle he had been turning for the past 25 years. It mattered not that the professor had been exposed to the vibrant object thousands of times, the extinguisher had not associated itself with a lasting purpose or function in his mind, and so was promptly forgotten once out of sight.

Conversely, participants were much better at recalling the location of the nearest clock, water fountain or floor plan. It’s likely that faculty members have made use of these objects, so their brain sub-consiously internalised their location for future use. This contrasts with the fire extinguisher, which is required only in the unlikely event of a fire.

What does it mean?

This small study has huge implications on how the brain learns and retains information. More specifically, it puts forth a compelling case against the effectiveness of rote learning i.e. staring at a sporadically highlighted text book page and willing the information to go in. Instead humans learn best by doing, practising and testing.

2 months after the study, researchers at UCLA went back to those same faculty staff and asked again whether they could recall the location of their nearest fire extinguisher. Most now could, and cited the reason being the initial survey which focussed their attention on the issue.

Research source: http://reasoninglab.psych.ucla.edu/KH%20pdfs/Castel_Vendetti_Holyoak.2012.pdf

This is an adapted story from Make It Stick, by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger and Mark A. McDaniel. I record my favourite non-fiction stories and the lessons associated with them to help practise what I read. If this story resonates, I highly encourage you check out the full book.

This anecdote is found on page 13.