Brain mechanisms engaged when people allow their minds to rest and reflect on things may boost their learning.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have shown that the right kind of mental rest, which strengthens and consolidates memories from recent learning tasks, helps boost future learning. Previous studies have established that resting the mind, as in daydreaming, helps strengthen memories of events and retention of information.

"We've shown for the first time that how the brain processes information during rest can improve future learning," researcher Alison Preston said in a statement. "We think replaying memories during rest makes those earlier memories stronger, not just impacting the original content, but impacting the memories to come."

For the study, researchers gave participants in the study two learning tasks in which participants were asked to memorize different series of associated photo pairs. Between the tasks, participants rested and could think about anything they chose, but brain scans found that the ones who used that time to reflect on what they had learned earlier in the day fared better on tests pertaining to what they learned later, especially where small threads of information between the two tasks overlapped. Participants seemed to be making connections that helped them absorb information later on, even if it was only loosely related to something they learned before.

Preston said the new understanding might help teachers design more effective ways of teaching.

Until now, many scientists assumed that prior memories are more likely to interfere with new learning. This new study shows that at least in some situations, the opposite is true.

The findings were detailed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.