Dan Willingham writes on his blog about yet another study that provides “evidence that putting to-be-learned material in a story format improves learning outcomes.”

I’m not going to describe that particular research here since Dan does an excellent job over there. But I will spend a little time reviewing how I’ve written about stories previously here on this blog and in my books (you might want to explore The Best Digital (& Non-Digital) Storytelling Resources for even more info).

Neuroscience researchers Renate and Geoffrey Caine have reflected on the importance of stories in their study of two types of memory systems: taxon and locale.

Taxon learning consists of lists, basic skills, and habits. Locale, on the other hand, involves creating stories out of a person’s life experiences. Taxon tells how to turn a key in our house door and locale tells us what to do when we lose the key. Taxon memories must be rehearsed regularly to move into long-term memory. Locale memories, however, go automatically into long-term memory. Taxon learning responds more to extrinsic motivation and is resistant to change once a fact or habit has been learned. Locale learning is more responsive to intrinsic motivation and is always evolving.

Professor Melanie Green calls it “narrative transportation.” Another researcher likens the effect of stories to a Trojan House — they make people let their guard down.

And here’s how Jerome Bruner summed up the research:

Stories-are-about-22

But just teaching information through storytelling is only….part of the story.

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