WHEN attempting to learn something, it is best just to relax and let it happen. Trying too hard can slow you up, according to a study of volunteers learning a push-button sequence.
Paul Fletcher at the University of Cambridge set out to investigate whether knowing the point of a task in advance helps you to master it. He gave 11 volunteers the task of pressing one of four buttons in response to four corresponding icons highlighted on a screen. Hidden within the sequence was a repeating pattern.
When subjects just concentrated on pushing the buttons and were not told about…
