Construal level theory

Applying Construal Level Theory to Enhance Learning
"How to learn faster and easier while promoting creativity"From Wikipedia:"Construal level theory ( CLT ) is a theory in social psychology that describes the relation between psychological distance and the extent to which people’s thinking (e.g., about objects and events) is abstract or concrete."Now, what the Wikipedia article doesn't teach you, is that this theory can be perfectly used to learn faster and promote creativity in a top-down kind-of-approach.

The "levels" in CTL are essentially divided into two categories: low and high level construal. Let's review some examples of each.

Low-Level Construal
This one is characterized by focusing on concrete details of a particular event, object, concept, etc.

Thinking about the type and brand of phone you want to buy is an example of low-level construal.

A general characteristic of low-level construals, is that they cover, link to, etc. to less other concepts e.g. the concept "Samsung phone" only covers and links to other phones of the same brand, Samsung.

High-Level Construal
This one, on the other hand, is characterized by focusing on the big and abstract picture.

The concept of "phone" is an example of a high-level construal in comparison to the concept "Samsung phone".

The general characteristic of high-level construals, then, is that they cover and link to more other concepts e.g. the concept "phone" covers all kinds of brands "Samsung", "Huawei", "Sony", etc.

High-Level > Low-Level Construal
In order to enhance one's learning and creativity, it is best to start learning a source by understanding the big and abstract picture first before the concrete details.

You can, for example, try to understand the introduction and summary of a book first before digging yourself in every page. SuperMemo creator Piotr Woźniak applies this concept to incremental learning.

One can imagine how learning the concept of "phone" is a lot more applicable to other things and speeds up your learning when engaging in low-level construal learning e.g. "Samsung phone".

It is much easier to learn knowledge that you can relate to other knowledge you already know well (semantic learning) than it is to enter a completely unknown branch of learning.

Now that I have taught you the concept of construal level theory in a "high-level construal" manner, I invite you to proceed in a "low-level construal" manner by reading the Wikipedia article:

Construal level theory, Wikipedia