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DoofDilla t1_ithielr wrote

Reply to comment by Electrical-Smile-636 in Exploring a new environment helps boost dopamine levels which are projected to the hippocampus, decreasing the threshold for learning. However, in older people, the novelty of a new environment doesn’t boost memory as much as it does in younger people. by Wagamaga

While reading this, i asked myself, should students and teachers try to change the environment their are learning in as often as possible then? Would it make a difference if you study in the same room for a few weeks or study a few weeks in a new room everyday?

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Electrical-Smile-636 t1_ithxzd3 wrote

Yes, this is also what I have suggested in earlier papers and grant applications! One should also consider context-dependent retrieval effects, which suggest that it is easier to retrieve information when you are in the same place when learning that information. So for elementary school children this effect may be stronger than the potential effect of novelty, but for university students (who almost never do an exam at the same location as where they were learning) novelty may be potentially beneficial. Some other labs also have shown that elementary school children can benefit from exposure to other types of novelty (e.g., a novel science lesson)

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