Note: This is a new field to me. The thoughts and theories presented below may or may not be correct. They are just that. Theories.

Lately I’ve been exploring the area of cognitive science. I have a fascination with psychology, learning, personality, and linguistics. The field of cognitive science takes all of these fields and tries to combine them with computer science. It’s an interdisciplinary field which is responsible for understanding how the brain, both human and animal, works in order to understand how we could teach computers to “think”.

I just finished reading “The Scientist in the Crib” by Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff, and Patricia Kuhl, which delves into the development of the mind during the first couple of years of a child’s life. I’m also reading “In Search Of Memory” by Erik Kandel. This second book covers human memory. Both books attempt to explain their respective branches of cognitive science without requiring any prior knowledge. Do they succeed? I would say they will. I found both books understandable without needing a lot of breaks for external research to understand a topic. However, I noticed something interesting. Both books, while fascinating reads, were exhausting. I’ve got a theory why….

One of the areas that both books have been exploring is the fact that the brain is one big network of connected input/output cells called neurons. These neuron’s connect to each other, with “pipes” of varying “thickness” connecting one cell to another. Imagine these pipes working off of a weighted system. The more commonly used avenues get a higher probabilty of being the correct answer because they have so commonly been correct in the past. The brain will be more likely to look at them. In this case though, these pipes are the the communication points between neurons and literally get bigger or smaller over time.

Every time you access a thought whether it’s to remember it or to expand upon it, your brain changes…. These connections get thicker and other, less accessed ones get thinner. The more you access something, the thicker the “pipes” leading up to it get.

I believe that learning something new is hard because that network doesn’t exist. You’re starting with an incomplete slate. The more related topics you learn, the better your brain’s network for that field gets and the easier it is to expand on the already existing material. I don’t yet have a strong basis in memory or cognition so my brain has to work harder to build up the fundamental network. Likewise, taking an area that you’re strongly familiar with and extending it comes easily, perhaps without you even noticing it because that network has already built up.

I believe that this also explains why we forget things that aren’t used often. The more commonly used areas get thicker connections, causing it to be much easier for the brain to travel down that path. The less commonly used paths aren’t the correct path as often, so they get smaller. The knowledge isn’t gone, but it’s a small path that must be bushwacked instead of a major highway.