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Protocols to Remember Everything You Learn | Dr. Alan Castel & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Huberman Lab Clips12:27Added Aug 31, 2026

Dr. Alan Castel and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the mechanisms of memory and effective learning, highlighting how intentional errors, curiosity, and breaking...

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Mnemonics & Information Batching

  2. 00:00pneumonics and ways that we um try and
  3. 00:03batch and learn information by pairing
  4. 00:05it to other things. Trying to remember a
  5. 00:07room full of people's names and you know
  6. 00:09you
  7. 00:09[snorts]
  8. 00:09uh could pair the first letter of their
  9. 00:11name with a fruit or what you know
  10. 00:13people do these things. To me that seems
  11. 00:15like a very inefficient way to learn
  12. 00:18because you're adding more information
  13. 00:20that you need to store away. So the
  14. 00:22first question is is that the best way
  15. 00:25to learn large batches of information? I
  16. 00:27think it's almost a workaround and
  17. 00:29that's the first kind of problem people
  18. 00:31say is I can't remember names and by
  19. 00:33their nature names used to be
  20. 00:35descriptive of person's occupation.
  21. 00:37Someone's a baker we call them Mr. Baker
  22. 00:40but that's of course evolved with time
  23. 00:42and names you know I tell people if you
  24. 00:45can't remember someone's name that's
  25. 00:46probably a natural forgetting but you
  26. 00:49remember if you had an interesting
  27. 00:50conversation or you remember if you can
  28. 00:52trust them that's probably more
  29. 00:54important. So then to engage our kind of
  30. 00:57knowledge base so that we can remember
  31. 00:59names we need to make this arbitrary
  32. 01:01link and so I tell people my last name
  33. 01:03is pastel Castell you know Castell
  34. 01:06rhymes with pastel and my grandfather
  35. 01:07used pastels let's say and so people can
  36. 01:10then make this link but like you say
  37. 01:11that's effortful it takes time it takes
  38. 01:13time away from kind of the essence of
  39. 01:16something else we could talk about and
  40. 01:18it also leads to these kind of
  41. 01:19predictable memory errors so people say
  42. 01:21oh I remember his name was Pastell when
  43. 01:24in fact it's Castell Well, so I think we
  44. 01:26have to almost trick our memory into
  45. 01:28remembering things that might be
  46. 01:29somewhat arbitrary and that becomes more
  47. 01:32pronounced as we get older. You know,
  48. 01:33there's more Davids, there's more
  49. 01:35Andrews, and it's just more
  50. 01:37interference. And so to get around that,
  51. 01:39we have to, you know, use deliberate
  52. 01:42practice, retrieval practice, use the
  53. 01:44name several times. But I tell my
  54. 01:47students whose names I often forget that
  55. 01:50I'll still remember topics we've talked
  56. 01:51about or you know you know how they felt
  57. 01:53about something. And I think that's more
  58. 01:56important than sometimes just
  59. 01:57remembering a name
  60. 01:58to remember chemistry or uh some other
  61. 02:01subject that involves nomenclature. I uh
  62. 02:04not everyday terms unless you're a
  63. 02:07chemist but to really understand the
  64. 02:10deeper mechanics of that thing and
  65. 02:12remember that what are some better

  66. Deep Semantic Learning Levels

  67. 02:15tools. I want to say and I'm not a
  68. 02:17memory researcher that it might be
  69. 02:19helpful to think in terms of verbs not
  70. 02:22labels. So rather than thinking about a
  71. 02:25particular element just in terms of its
  72. 02:27name, but think about how it interacts
  73. 02:29with something else or um how it gives
  74. 02:31or receives a charge in uh you know
  75. 02:33certain conditions.
  76. 02:34Absolutely. I think that's what you're
  77. 02:35looking for is deeper learning, deeper
  78. 02:37semantic learning. And this has been
  79. 02:39referred to as levels of processing. So
  80. 02:41I was working at a very low level of
  81. 02:43processing when I'm, you know, making up
  82. 02:44happy Henry, you know, for hydrogen and
  83. 02:47helium. Um, but if you can start to
  84. 02:49visualize things or interact with them
  85. 02:51and that's why we want to have, you
  86. 02:52know, chemistry labs or places where I
  87. 02:55found chemistry very abstract. I think
  88. 02:56that's why I didn't really engage with
  89. 02:59it. But I found psychology to be
  90. 03:00something that we were interacting with
  91. 03:02every day. I was making these memory
  92. 03:04errors. I saw my parents and
  93. 03:05grandparents remembering and forgetting
  94. 03:07things and I thought, you know, how does
  95. 03:09that happen? And the brain is so complex
  96. 03:11that I don't think we'll ever completely
  97. 03:13understand, you know, why this me memory
  98. 03:16error might happen. But I think this
  99. 03:18awareness um is really important and a
  100. 03:20lot of good learning happens through
  101. 03:22making mistakes. Um you know I you know

  102. Why Failure Leads to Learning

  103. 03:25I play piano and I you know struggle but
  104. 03:27I know when I make a mistake I'm going
  105. 03:28to have to work on this. Um and I see
  106. 03:31that with my children. You learn a lot
  107. 03:32by making these mistakes. And I think
  108. 03:34that illustrates also how our memory
  109. 03:36works that just seeing something many
  110. 03:38times doesn't mean you'll remember it
  111. 03:40well. And this is a classic
  112. 03:42demonstration that you know you've seen
  113. 03:43a penny many times. you don't remember
  114. 03:45all the features on the penny. I've
  115. 03:47updated that to the Apple logo. You
  116. 03:49know, you've seen the Apple logo so many
  117. 03:51times, of course, you know all the
  118. 03:52features, but then when you quiz people
  119. 03:54and test them, and I do this in my
  120. 03:56class, people aren't sure. Is the bite
  121. 03:59on the left or the right hand side? Is
  122. 04:01there a stem or a leaf? Um, but if you
  123. 04:03make people draw it while they're
  124. 04:05looking at it, they're going to remember
  125. 04:07it better
  126. 04:08while they're looking at the actual
  127. 04:09while they're looking at it. Or if they
  128. 04:10actually the best way to remember
  129. 04:12something is to again failures. I'll
  130. 04:15have you draw it without looking at it
  131. 04:17and you struggle. Wait, is it on the
  132. 04:19left or right? Is it stem or a leaf? And
  133. 04:20you're starting to question all of these
  134. 04:22things. Then when you look at the logo
  135. 04:24again, you're going to engage in better
  136. 04:25learning than if you hadn't done that
  137. 04:27errorful kind of trial beforehand. Even
  138. 04:30if you don't redraw it correctly.
  139. 04:32Exactly. Yeah. [clears throat] So this
  140. 04:34sort of thing is you know in a in a
  141. 04:36academic setting we don't want failure.
  142. 04:38We want people to do well. But I think
  143. 04:41the sort of retrieval failure with some
  144. 04:43you know corrective feedback is really
  145. 04:45beneficial and that's kind of how you
  146. 04:47learn through life. You know you make
  147. 04:48mistakes and then you correct them. But
  148. 04:50if you're constantly just doing it the
  149. 04:52right way, you're not really noticing
  150. 04:53these features. And we've tried to
  151. 04:55extend this to other domains like you
  152. 04:57know it's called habituation. You stop
  153. 04:59noticing things around you, like where
  154. 05:00the nearest fire extinguisher is, let's
  155. 05:02say. And I guarantee hopefully there's
  156. 05:05one somewhere nearby and you've probably
  157. 05:07walked by it many times, but you stop
  158. 05:09noticing it. And it's only until you'll
  159. 05:12need it, you'll realize, wait, where is
  160. 05:13it? And so we've done this study where
  161. 05:15you have to instead of me telling you
  162. 05:17where it is, you have to get up and find
  163. 05:19it. And so now you're engaging with the
  164. 05:22environment, you're going to go look for
  165. 05:23it and be like, gosh, it's been there
  166. 05:24the whole time. have walked by it so
  167. 05:26many times, have never noticed it. And I
  168. 05:29think that's the difference between
  169. 05:31seeing something and noticing it. So
  170. 05:33someone who studies vision, we know a
  171. 05:35lot of information reaches the retina,
  172. 05:37but then how much of it reaches our kind
  173. 05:38of more conscious level and not all of
  174. 05:41it does. And I think that's what makes

  175. Neuroplasticity & the Learning Gap

  176. 05:43psychology interesting.
  177. 05:44Yeah. The big revelation for me when
  178. 05:46learning about neuroplasticity, and it
  179. 05:48was such an obvious one once I heard it,
  180. 05:51uh, was that if you can perform a mental
  181. 05:54or physical task, there's no reason for
  182. 05:56your brain to change. You clearly
  183. 05:59already have the circuit. So, it's the
  184. 06:00gap between desired performance and
  185. 06:03current performance that actually
  186. 06:04triggers the opportunity for plasticity.
  187. 06:07Yeah. And those can be uncomfortable
  188. 06:09positions, right, where it's like, I
  189. 06:11don't know this. Am I am I going to be
  190. 06:13able to learn it? And I think that's the
  191. 06:14this metacognitive aspect of when are
  192. 06:17you aware of that. And a lot of learning
  193. 06:18now is unsupervised learning.
  194. 06:20You know, it's not that you're going in
  195. 06:22classrooms and teachers are telling you
  196. 06:24what to do. You want to learn a new
  197. 06:25instrument, you might do a lot of it on
  198. 06:27YouTube, right? You're going to try and
  199. 06:28figure it out. You want to learn a new
  200. 06:30language. You want to learn how to
  201. 06:31communicate with people. There's going
  202. 06:33to be a lot of trial and error. And I
  203. 06:35think kind of the best learners are the
  204. 06:37ones who persist um who are curious
  205. 06:40because that's how you're going to get a
  206. 06:41lot of feedback asking not just lots of
  207. 06:44questions but the right questions.
  208. 06:46Yeah. Yeah. And I think the frustration
  209. 06:47and agitation I do believe that's the
  210. 06:52you know the release of uh catakolamines
  211. 06:55you know epinephrine norepinephrine and
  212. 06:57those change the millu around synapses
  213. 07:00and um let them change you know all the
  214. 07:02things that we want to avoid are the
  215. 07:04things that actually allow us to learn.
  216. 07:06It could be that people that are very
  217. 07:07good at learning and have this
  218. 07:09willingness to embrace so-called
  219. 07:10beginner's mind. Like, you know, like,
  220. 07:12okay, they're excellent in one domain
  221. 07:14and they're perfectly happy to be a raw
  222. 07:16beginner in a different domain. I always
  223. 07:18wonder if they experience agitation the
  224. 07:20same way that anyone else would, but
  225. 07:22that they don't have the same
  226. 07:25relationship to it. Like, oh, here's
  227. 07:26that autonomic arousal again, you know,
  228. 07:29here it is. And maybe they don't
  229. 07:30conceptualize as frustration. So in
  230. 07:32terms of
  231. 07:33getting better at learning and
  232. 07:35remembering things um have you or any
  233. 07:38other laboratories parsed kind of
  234. 07:40people's um framework around it like I
  235. 07:42know there's a vast literature around
  236. 07:44growth mindset but I'm I'm thinking more
  237. 07:46in terms of how people
  238. 07:49think about their own levels of
  239. 07:51frustration because if you go oh like
  240. 07:53here I am frustrated again awesome let's
  241. 07:55go now's the opportunity versus h like
  242. 07:58I'm I'm terrible at this I know I should
  243. 08:00push through I I just wonder whether or
  244. 08:01mindset can actually make a difference.

  245. Curiosity & Knowledge Gaps

  246. 08:03I think it can. I think our goals can
  247. 08:05play a big role. A lot of the learning
  248. 08:07we do is sometimes, you know, learning
  249. 08:08to take a test or learning, you know,
  250. 08:10something because it'll be on a test.
  251. 08:11But as we get through life, we realize
  252. 08:13if you're interested in bird watching or
  253. 08:15music or skateboarding, you know, a lot
  254. 08:17of this is going to be observational
  255. 08:19learning. It's going to be talking to
  256. 08:20other people. So, I think it comes down
  257. 08:22to curiosity, which is almost closing
  258. 08:25this knowledge gap where here I am, but
  259. 08:27I want to be here. How can I get from
  260. 08:29here to here? And some of it is there's
  261. 08:31a strong motivation there. And that's
  262. 08:33something we've started to study with
  263. 08:35older adults as well because um we know
  264. 08:37memory declines happen with age, but not
  265. 08:39all things change equally. And in fact,
  266. 08:42there are certain memory systems that
  267. 08:44might actually remain stable or even
  268. 08:45improve. And I think some of the keys
  269. 08:48here are curiosity, being interested in,
  270. 08:50you know, listening to a podcast,
  271. 08:52talking to someone else, closing that
  272. 08:54knowledge gap, and then kind of
  273. 08:55extending that and going further. And I
  274. 08:57I sometimes find there's topics that I'm
  275. 08:59not so interested in, but then there's
  276. 09:01some that I will almost become obsessive
  277. 09:03about that it's like I'm going to watch
  278. 09:05that YouTube video and the next one and
  279. 09:07the next one and then it's 45 minutes
  280. 09:08later. And I think that that can be, you
  281. 09:12know, kind of a waste of time in some
  282. 09:14ways, but it shows that our brain is
  283. 09:16craving this information. And uh that's
  284. 09:19something that I'm really curious about
  285. 09:20how that will change as we get older.
  286. 09:22And some of our research suggests that
  287. 09:24as we get older, we're more selective
  288. 09:26about what we focus on. And I think that
  289. 09:28can be beneficial. So maybe you don't
  290. 09:29waste as much time on learn trying to
  291. 09:31learn everything, but you're more
  292. 09:32focused on the things you want to learn
  293. 09:34about. Do we know that it's important to
  294. 09:38continue to seek out new information as
  295. 09:41we get older in order to maintain our
  296. 09:43memory? Or is it sufficient to just make
  297. 09:46some effort to remember the past, what
  298. 09:49we need to do to get through our day?
  299. 09:51You know, I think this gets down to this
  300. 09:53question. People think I really should
  301. 09:55be striving to to keep my memory.

  302. Memory Retention as We Age

  303. 09:57Everyone wants to keep their memory.
  304. 09:58Sure, that makes sense. But how hard
  305. 10:01should people push to learn new
  306. 10:02information as opposed to you
  307. 10:04maintaining what they've got?
  308. 10:05Yeah, it's a great question. I think
  309. 10:07it's a little bit of both. And you want
  310. 10:08to have that sort of balance. So, if you
  311. 10:10know, if you if you play piano, my
  312. 10:12father in his 80s and 90s still plays
  313. 10:14piano. I don't think he's learning new
  314. 10:16pieces, but he's strengthening the the
  315. 10:18pieces he knows, and that keeps him
  316. 10:20sharp. Um, on the other hand, being
  317. 10:22exposed to new things, if you're
  318. 10:23traveling, if you're talking to
  319. 10:25different people, that can be really
  320. 10:27important for things like even
  321. 10:28neurogenesis. You want to, you know,
  322. 10:30develop new brain cells, which we know
  323. 10:32doesn't just stop as we, you know, reach
  324. 10:35a certain age. So, it's probably a bit
  325. 10:37of both. And people ask me, you know,
  326. 10:39what's the best thing to keep my brain
  327. 10:40sharp as a cross word puzzles? And
  328. 10:43that's interesting because I think as we
  329. 10:44get older, our actual verbal knowledge
  330. 10:46is maintained, if not improved. So in a
  331. 10:49way you're strengthening a strength and
  332. 10:51I think that can be beneficial but
  333. 10:53probably the other things to do are do
  334. 10:56new things you know go outside and
  335. 10:57appreciate the birds or talk to someone
  336. 10:59who has a different perspective or you
  337. 11:01go to a different restaurant even all of
  338. 11:03these things I find as I get older I
  339. 11:06have a lot of routines but it's when I
  340. 11:08start to violate these routines take a
  341. 11:10different way to work or you know try
  342. 11:12something different at a restaurant I
  343. 11:14can almost feel like wow that was a
  344. 11:15different experience today I did
  345. 11:17something else and I I think it's a I
  346. 11:19think both are really important.
  347. 11:21We do get set in our ways. That's a it's

  348. Benefits of Breaking Daily Routines

  349. 11:24a real thing.
  350. 11:24You know, habits can be healthy and we
  351. 11:26can talk more about that because there
  352. 11:28those routines, you know, I drove this
  353. 11:29way and I didn't get into a car accident
  354. 11:31or I even noticed my students in my
  355. 11:33classes after the first couple of weeks,
  356. 11:35they all sit in the same seats. I'm
  357. 11:37always like, why? Why is that? And it's
  358. 11:39like, well, I didn't get attacked by a
  359. 11:41snake here, so it's safe. Maybe
  360. 11:43evolutionarily it makes sense. But I
  361. 11:45will sometimes halfway through the
  362. 11:47quarter say, "Okay, I want everyone to
  363. 11:48get up and switch sides and sit
  364. 11:50somewhere else." And students are like,
  365. 11:51"This is terrible. Like I have to move."
  366. 11:54But there's some benefits to having a
  367. 11:55different perspective uh both physically
  368. 11:58and possibly mentally that you're going
  369. 12:00to then remember things differently.
  370. 12:02And I know if I've taken a class in a
  371. 12:04different classroom every year, I can
  372. 12:05almost revisit each of those rooms and
  373. 12:07try and recall what I learned. But if
  374. 12:09you learn all in the same spot, there's
  375. 12:11a lot of interference. So I think there
  376. 12:14there can be benefits to changing our
  377. 12:16habits. Um but it can be uncomfortable
  378. 12:18especially at first.
  379. 12:21[music]