Developing Capabilities
Training is successful when transference of the knowledge learned has found place1. When that happens learners are able to use what they learned in new and different settings. To achieve that, the knowledge has to become their own, or — in other words — has to be imprinted in the neural networks of their own brain2.
When we learn new things, our brain will create connections between those and what we already know. With enough motivation and interest and sufficient repetition, and provided our brain has some sort of a frame of reference for the new information, we can anchor the information into our long-term memory and reproduce it as needed.
Turning that information into active knowledge requires training our brain in the habit of using that information. We do that by focusing attention, practice and repetition. While learning to use new information in the process of becoming skilled, we need feedback, reinforcing correct applications and extinguishing the incorrect ones.
With enough repetition, the habit of using the knowledge becomes imprinted in our neural networks, embeds itself in our long-term memory, and becomes a ‘fixed feature’ in our brain; it becomes a part of who we are. When that happens, this capability is connected in the brain to many different experiences, associations, bits of knowledge, etc. and can be connected in turn to knew information, knowledge or situations we are presented with. At this stage, not only is the knowledge our own, but we are able to apply it under circumstances we were not specifically trained in.
