I get so much info and as a busy eLearning consultant, sometimes I feel like i’m drowning, so am thinking about a roundup approach. Despite the title, these two gems are totally unrelated;)

Research suggest you should limit items in visual change detection tasks to 3 to 4 items and perhaps limit the changes to about 2. This has impacts on learning and assessment activities that involve visual detection of difference particlarly in diagnostic and investigative training. For example, you may have a course on medical diagnosis showing 4 healthy skin images, then showing the variants on the images and requiring the learner to identify the changes/risk. This research suggests there are limits to our ability to process those visual cues.

Refresher training for physical skills may not be needed as frequently as other skills and knowledge this study suggests. Granted it is rat studies, but if we assume the same holds true for humans, then synaptic and spine (in the brain, not spinal cord spine) changes are pretty permanent. The study also  reveals that rapid, but long-lasting, synaptic reorganisation is closely associated with motor learning. When carefully considered, this could be used to breath new life and tangible value into in the ‘team building weekend’ where staff bungie jump for very ephemeral reasons! Instead we might blend the bungie jump with related cognitive activities to embed both skills into long term memory.