A woman learning how to play guitar.
Learning a new skill, such as playing an instrument, gardening, or picking up a new language, takes a lot of time and practice, whether that means scale training, learning about native plants, or using flashcards to memorize new words. To improve through practice, you have to perform the task repeatedly and receive feedback so you know whether you’re doing it correctly. Is my pitch correct? Did my geraniums bloom? Is my pronunciation understandable?
However, a new study by researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon shows that you can speed up these processes by adding a third element to practice and feedback: passive exposure. The good news is that passive exposure requires minimal effort and is enjoyable.
"Active learning of a... task requires both expending effort to perform the task and having access to feedback about task performance," the study authors explained. "Passive exposure to sensory stimuli, on the other hand, is relatively effortless and does not require feedback about performance."
A woman reading a book.via Canva/Photos
How to pick up new skills faster?
So, if you’re learning to play the blues on guitar, listen to plenty of Howlin’ Wolf or Robert Johnson throughout the day. If you’re learning to cook, keep the Food Network on TV in the background to absorb some great culinary advice. Learning to garden? Take the time to notice the flora and fauna in your neighborhood or make frequent trips to your local botanical garden.
If you’re learning a new language, watch plenty of TV and films in the language you are learning. The scientists add that auditory learning is especially helpful, so listen to plenty of audiobooks or podcasts on the subject you’re learning about.
But, of course, you also have to be actively learning the skill as well by practicing your guitar for the recommended hours each day or by taking a class in languages. Passive exposure won't do the work for you, but it's a fantastic way to pick up things more quickly. Further, passive exposure keeps the new skill you're learning top-of-mind, so you're probably more likely to actively practice it.
What is passive exposure?
Researchers discovered the tremendous benefits of passive exposure after studying a group of mice. They trained them to find water by using various sounds to give positive or negative feedback, like playing a game of “hot or cold.” Some mice were passively exposed to these sounds when they weren't looking for water. Those who received this additional passive exposure and those who received active training learned to find the water reward more quickly.
A woman tending to her garden.via Canva/Photos
“Our results suggest that, in mice and in humans, a given performance threshold can be achieved with relatively less effort by combining low-effort passive exposure with active training,” James Murray, a neuroscientist who led the study, told University of Oregon News. “This insight could be helpful for humans learning an instrument or a second language, though more work will be needed to better understand how this applies to more complex tasks and how to optimize training schedules that combine passive exposure with active training.”
The one drawback to this study was that it was conducted on mice, not humans. However, recent studies on humans have found similar results, such as in sports. If you visualize yourself excelling at the sport or mentally rehearse a practice routine, it can positively affect your actual performance. Showing, once again, that when it comes to picking up a new skill, exposure is key.
The great news about the story is that, in addition to giving people a new way to approach learning, it’s an excuse for us to enjoy the things we love even more. If you enjoy listening to blues music so much that you decided to learn for yourself, it’s another reason to make it an even more significant part of your life.
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This article originally appeared last year.
A person on Threads makes a typo.Photo credit: Threads/@maureenmzobe
Individual impact isn't as inspiring to Gen Z as it was to 
Gen Z is much more black and white about behaviors than previous generations. 
Young man holds up his hand to show five.
Two women having a conversation at a coffee shop. 
Two women talking as the leave a yoga class
Curvy-and-proud newscaster takes the wildest viewer comments turns them into pure comedy gold
"My family is very thick-skinned; I’ve never been bothered by a lot of that.”
Carissa Codel and some shocked news anchors.
Body-shamers beware: when your target is a newscaster on a popular local news channel, you may get called out. Even worse, the newscaster may not be bothered by your offensive comments and actually find them funny. The case in point is Carissa Codel, 26, a newscaster on Fox 49 “Ozark’s First” in Missouri.
Codel, who is 5’3” and 180 pounds, has a figure that attracts a lot of attention on social media, whether it’s from admirers or trolls who make offensive comments. While some may be upset by that type of attention, Codel finds it funny and even beneficial for her career as a journalist.
Given the intense pressure to amass a large social media following, she thought it would be funny to highlight the comments she receives, like when Jimmy Kimmel has celebrities read mean tweets. While a guest on her mother Codie's podcast, Attention Addiction, Codel shared her thoughts, saying, "Well, people love to hear mean comments." She then realized how funny those comments would be if she read them in her newscaster voice.
Codel’s posts of her reading the comments on air have received millions of views
"Dayuum Gurl, I want you to put a hurtin' on me like you do those midnight snacks."
"She's like the only fat 9 I've ever seen."
"Now that fills a frame."
"Built for breeding."
"You look like you could survive a harsh winter."
"She's thicker than zoo glass."
People message her, assuming that the comments hurt her feelings, but she stresses it's fine: "They don't," she says, as evidenced by the hearty laughs she gives while reading the messages. “It doesn’t affect me at all. I think that they’re hilarious. . . . I don’t put up the extremely mean ones, but I like the insults that are very creative,” she told The New York Post. “My family is very thick-skinned; I’ve never been bothered by a lot of that.”
Codel recently lost weight
The insults are a lot easier to take because of her recent weight loss. “I find it so funny, like, ‘Oh, you think I’m big now, you should have seen me back then,’” she continued.
The comments on her videos are overwhelmingly positive, many from admirers and some from women who find her reaction to the attention empowering. “My daughter is 13 and self-conscious. We watch these, and she seems to be embracing taking comments like you do! Thank you for that!!” one viewer wrote. “Making fun of haters in this way is probably the most badass thing a newscaster could do lol keep ‘em coming,” another added.
It’s wrong to make disparaging comments about other people’s bodies, and Codel’s ability to laugh it off doesn’t mean we should disregard those who are hurt by body-shamers online and in real life. But there is something extraordinary about a young woman taking the negativity she finds online and spinning it into something positive for her career. “I think they see me as a more genuine person,” she told The New York Post about her viewers, “instead of just a reporter.”