Unlearning old ways of functioning can help to clear the path to fulfilment

Unlearning is the counter-intuitive companion to progress. It might seem strange to press the undo button when you’re trying to get better at something – whether that’s improving the way you work, honing a skill or changing how you write an email – but letting go of familiar approaches could inspire renewed engagement and provide a boost in capability along the way.

What is unlearning?

The concept can be challenging to define. Richard Ivry, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley, who directs the Cognition and Action Lab, breaks it down: ‘Unlearning, traditionally called extinction, essentially means that a memory of something once learned is lost. Going back to basics, the example of Pavlov’s dog can be used. In the famous experiment Pavlov rang a bell and then gave the dog some food. He did this repeatedly and, after time, found that when he rang the bell the dog started to salivate. The dog had learned the bell was predictive of food. Unlearning comes about when the contingency is broken. In one of Pavlov’s experiments, he continued to ring the bell, but no longer presented the food. Eventually the dog stopped salivating in response to the bell. So that’s the most classic form of unlearning, to extinguish a behaviour that’s been acquired.’