9 Ways the Brain Learns: Reimagining Gagné’s Events of Instruction
How neuroscience turns learning design into lasting impact
According to the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report (2023), only 25% of employees apply what they learn in training after two weeks, and fewer than 15% retain that information after a month. Rather than a limitation, those numbers remind us of what’s possible. They highlight a tremendous opportunity to design learning that translates into sustained performance, learning that reflects how the brain naturally engages, encodes, and recalls information.
When instruction is designed with the brain in mind, engagement deepens, retention strengthens, and performance improves where it matters most. Traditional training has often focused on delivering information, but the science of learning shows a clear path forward: design for cognition, not just content.
Robert Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction remain one of the most practical bridges between theory and practice, especially when reimagined through the lens of modern cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. Gagné’s framework stands the test of time, inviting today’s designers to rethink and reapply its principles through the lens of modern neuroscience.
Even decades after their publication, Gagné’s events describe not just how good instruction feels, but how the brain actually processes, encodes, and recalls new information.
From Sequence to System
When Gagné published The Conditions of Learning in 1965, he was describing what effective learning looks like from the learner’s perspective. His nine events outline the psychological stages that move a learner from curiosity to competence.
Today, neuroscience gives that model biological depth. Studies in attention, emotion, and memory affirm what Gagné intuited: Learning follows a predictable neural sequence. Dopamine drives motivation, the hippocampus binds new knowledge to prior experience, and the prefrontal cortex manages working memory and goal alignment.
When learning design follows that natural sequence, retention and transfer increase dramatically. Rather than a linear checklist, Gagné’s model can be viewed as a neural choreography, a design pattern that aligns instruction with the brain’s rhythm of attention, encoding, rehearsal, and reflection.
1. Gain Attention: Activate Curiosity
At the heart of every learning experience is attention, a finite cognitive resource guided by emotion, novelty, and relevance.
Research shows that dopamine neurons fire when the brain detects novelty or unpredictability (Bromberg-Martin & Hikosaka, 2011). This “curiosity signal” activates reward circuits that make the brain want to learn more. In other words, curiosity isn’t a luxury but a biological entry point for learning.
To gain attention, design should open with relevance or surprise: a relatable scenario, a provocative question, or a counterintuitive fact. The goal is not to entertain, but to awaken the learner’s predictive brain, the system constantly asking: What happens next?
When attention is emotionally charged, engagement follows naturally.
How-To: Start every module with a “curiosity cue,” a short, emotionally relevant hook such as a question, quote, or challenge that connects directly to the learner’s world.
2. Inform Learners of Objectives: Give the Brain Direction
Once curiosity is engaged, the brain seeks clarity. Without a defined goal, working memory becomes scattered and inefficient. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning and decision-making, performs best when the learner understands purpose and expected outcomes (Mayer, 2014).
Learning objectives can be powerful anchors when they’re written for learners, not just designers. The brain cares about outcomes that feel meaningful and applicable, like how a concept will make work safer, faster, or easier.
Framing objectives as real-world applications gives the brain an anchor point.
How-To: Rephrase objectives into “why it matters” statements. For example, swap “Identify safety protocols” for “You’ll learn to spot hazards early so you can act with confidence.”
3. Stimulate Recall of Prior Learning: Connect to What Exists
The brain is a pattern-making organ. New knowledge integrates best when it connects to existing neural networks, a process mediated by the hippocampus (Zull, 2002).
Activating prior knowledge creates a bridge for new learning to land. This can happen through quick reflections, warm-up questions, or short scenario comparisons.
How-To: Use a “connection prompt,” a one-minute activity that asks learners to recall or apply a related experience before introducing new content (e.g., “Think of a time you…”).
4. Present the Content: Manage Cognitive Load
Working memory acts as the brain’s “mental workspace,” and it’s surprisingly limited. Adults can hold only about four meaningful pieces of information at a time (Cowan, 2010)!
Effective learning design reduces friction by chunking content into manageable, connected segments, supported by visuals and plain language.
How-To: Apply the “Rule of Four”: organize content into four digestible parts or ideas per section, and use white space or pacing cues to let the brain breathe.
5. Provide Learning Guidance: Support Neural Scaffolding
Once content is introduced, learners need support to make meaning. Mirror neurons, discovered by Rizzolatti and colleagues (2010), fire both when we act and when we observe others acting, allowing us to mentally simulate what we see.
Guidance turns exposure into understanding. Modeling, analogies, and storytelling activate the learner’s simulation system, making abstract ideas tangible.
How-To: Incorporate guided modeling moments, brief “Watch how I think through this” segments that reveal expert reasoning, not just final answers.
6. Elicit Performance: Turn Knowledge into Skill
Learning comes to life through application. Repetition with variation strengthens neural pathways through myelination, making recall faster and more automatic (Schultz, 2016).
Practice should appear early and often through simulations, case studies, or short applied challenges.
How-To: Design “do and decide” moments, which are micro-scenarios where learners make a quick choice and immediately see the impact, reinforcing decision-making under real conditions.
7. Provide Feedback: Reinforce and Refine
Far more than a correction tool, feedback acts as a neurological cue for growth. Immediate, specific feedback activates dopamine pathways that reinforce progress and guide refinement (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996).
Timing and tone make all the difference. The most effective feedback focuses on process over outcome, emphasizing why a decision worked.
How-To: Use “feed-forward framing” to pair each correction with a future-focused statement, like “Next time, try this approach…” to sustain confidence and curiosity.
8. Assess Performance: Strengthen Recall Through Retrieval
Every act of recall reshapes memory. This process, known as retrieval practice, improves long-term retention far more effectively than passive review (Roediger & Butler, 2011).
How-To: Replace one high-stakes test with frequent, low-pressure retrieval loops: quick, varied check-ins (polls, reflections, or drag-and-drop recall) that strengthen neural pathways while reducing anxiety.
9. Enhance Retention and Transfer: Design for the Long Game
Learning continues long after the experience concludes, as the Default Mode Network (DMN) integrates new knowledge with personal meaning during rest and reflection (Immordino-Yang, 2016).
How-To: Close every session with a “bridge question.” Ask learners to write or share one way they’ll apply what they learned in their own environment. This personalizes transfer and activates long-term consolidation.
Why Gagné’s Framework Still Works
Viewed through the lens of neuroscience, Gagné’s Nine Events reveal a system of learning design grounded in biology rather than a simple sequence.
Attention activates engagement.
Clarity organizes cognition.
Connection strengthens encoding.
Practice builds mastery.
Reflection fuels transfer.
These stages illuminate how effective instruction nurtures the brain’s natural capacity to learn and grow.
From Framework to Practice
Through this lens, Gagné’s events redefine design as the creation of environments where learning thrives.
Each event connects to a core neural process:
Curiosity engages dopamine activation
Clarity strengthens prefrontal focus
Recall supports hippocampal integration
Feedback refines reward prediction
Reflection fosters DMN consolidation
When design follows the brain’s rhythm, learning becomes an orchestrated experience that mirrors how people think, feel, and grow!
The Takeaway
When instructional design works in harmony with how the brain naturally learns, the process becomes purposeful, engaging, and alive. Curiosity sharpens focus, clarity sustains attention, and deeper engagement leads to true understanding, empowering learners to apply their knowledge confidently and meaningfully long after the lesson ends.
Designing with the brain in mind transforms learning from something effortful into something inspiring, a dynamic process where attention evolves into engagement, engagement deepens into understanding, and understanding ultimately becomes the bridge to real-world application.
Gagné’s Nine Events remain timeless not because they are traditional, but because they capture what is universally human. They unite the science of how we learn with the art of how we grow.
Designing for the brain means designing for the learner as a whole system, alive with curiosity, shaped by emotion, and driven by purpose. When training honors that design, learning becomes an experience that inspires growth, fuels motivation, and leaves a lasting impact.
Try This
Take one existing learning experience, like a workshop, module, or microlearning series, and map it against Gagné’s Nine Events.
Where does attention fade? Where might reflection or feedback deepen the connection? Each discovery represents not a gap, but an invitation to refine, a moment to realign instruction with how the brain learns best!