Taking breaks improves practice
The study found that too much training can impede your progress, as learning involves rewiring of the brain. For this rewiring to work you need to breaks, the research suggests. Image: PeskyMonkey/iStockphoto Trying to learn a piano piece or master a new dance step? Make sure you take good breaks while training because you’ll learn more effectively than if you push yourself and practice non-stop, a new study suggests.The study, found that adopting a “practice makes perfect” approach has limits: train too much and the law of diminishing returns cuts in to impede your progress. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, was conducted by UNSW psychology researchers Soren Ashley and Joel Pearson. Learning a new skill involves rewiring of the brain, a phenomenon called neural plasticity, the paper notes. For the new skill to persist, those brain changes must be stabilised or consolidated by being transferred...