The Science of Learning PDF

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Donna Truong The Science of Learning Many Popular Study Strategies Will Fail Over the Long Term  Imagine a student named Ava who crammed for courses the night before her tests all throughout her first two years of university. Despite her procrastination, she got high grades.  Then everything changed in her third year. When she started taking seminar courses and more advanced theory, she hardly remembered the prerequisite content.  This meant a lot of time revisiting old content from prior courses, usually through frantic cramming. And because of all the catching up, she was also short on time, and couldn’t fit everything into her schedule. Both her grades and her social life suffered as a result. The Real Goal is Efficient, Long-Lasting Learning  The sad truth is that many courses implicitly encourage this type of last-minute cramming, meaning that students like Ava who tend to cram can still pull off good grades, especially for memorization-oriented courses.  But, like Ava, when you cram you’ll inevitably forget most of the material after a few days.  You’ll have spent your valuable time studying something that you won’t retain, and therefore can’t build upon in your future studies.  This is just plain inefficient. You may end up spending, say, 25 hours of studying to get an A in a course by cramming when really you could have learned the same amount with 10 hours of efficient studying. We’ll Discuss Where, When, and How to Study Efficiently Over the Long Term  Hopefully, you’re convinced that the name of the game is really efficient, long-term learning; in other words, getting the most “bang for your buck” by retaining the most information in the least amount of study time.  It’s also crucial for maintaining work-life balance.  Our goal here is to cover some basic principles that cognitive psychologists have suggested to make your learning more efficient and long-lasting.  Specifically, we’ll discuss where, when, and how to study! If You Really Understand the Module, You Should Be Able to Explain:  Where → Why you should be mindful of distractions in your environment and proactively suppress them.  When → Why it’s more efficient to distribute your studying over time across multiple sessions.  How → Why practice testing and self-explanation are better than rereading, highlighting, or copying notes verbatim.  Desirable Difficulties → Why strategies that initially slow down learning can actually be most efficient in the long run. Because of Bustling Environments, People Claim to Be Good Multi-Taskers  Now, more than ever, we’re bombarded with distractions, like flashing screens and ambient sounds, that compete for our attention. Think about their effect on your focus.  It’s common to hear that “it’s just a matter of efficient multitasking” or that “it’s important to take breaks.”  In this first section, let’s take a closer look at these claims as they relate to your study environment. Multi-Tasking is Really Just Task Switching  In everyday language, multitasking refers to the simultaneous completion of two or more tasks.

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Yet psychologists suggest that our brains are not wired to do two tasks at once – especially when one is a mentally taxing task like studying. Instead, we seem to quickly switch between tasks and perceive it as being efficient, even though it often decreases performance for both tasks overall.

Activity 1: Task Switching  Consider the following analogy. Imagine that people are asked to draw two horizontal lines, one above the other. Their two goals are to write “Task switching is easy” on the top line and the numbers 1 through 20 on the bottom line.  One group is told to first do the entire top line first and then the entire bottom line.  A second “task switching” group is told to alternate between writing a letter on the top line and a number on the bottom line.  The first group will tend to do better.  Although this is a simplified example, it conveys an important point: much like a student repeatedly switching between studying and social media, it’s less efficient to complete a challenging task when you’re switching between it and something else. Task Switching Impairs Driving – Even When Just Having a Conversation  Let’s apply the costs of task switching to a more realistic scenario.  In one study, three groups of people were put into a driving simulator: one group drove normally, one group drove after drinking, and one group drove while talking on a cell phone, either with a handheld device or hands-free.  Much like the drunk drivers, talking on a cell phone led to more risky driving than the normal drivers. Further, handheld and hands-off devices led to similar impairments, suggesting it was the conversation and not necessarily holding the phone that was to blame.  The researchers suggested cell phone use while driving can be as detrimental as driving intoxicated.  This serves a powerful reminder that switching between any two tasks, even relatively automatic ones like driving and conversation, can drastically impair task performance. The Pomodoro Technique Combines Bouts of Work with Planned Breaks  The Pomodoro Technique is one great method that was created to prevent task switching.  Start by setting a timer for 25 minutes. Your goal for these 25 minutes is to completely zone in; to block out all distractions and focus deeply on the task at hand.  Then, when the time is up, treat your self to a 5 to 10-minute break. Talk to friends, answer texts or emails, social media, meditate. Whatever you find helps you mentally “reset.”  But then go back to another 25 minutes of focus.  After you’ve repeated this cycle three or four times, take a longer 30-minute break instead of the shorter break.  Of course, you can specify timings based on your preference. Just remember the true goal is to have sustained periods of work without task switching, and with regular planned breaks to prevent yourself from burning out. Checkpoint Answers 1. Your friend insists they study better when they read their textbook by taking a quick 1-minute texting break whenever they get a text, which is roughly every 5-10 minutes depending on the day. In this case, your friend is studying inefficiently because they’re sporadically shifting their attention away from studying.

Donna Truong Cultivate an Environment Where You Can Proactively Suppress Distractions  The take-home message for this section is that task switching will reduce your studying efficiency, even if it doesn’t feel that way, and so you should seek out a study environment where you can take proactive measures to suppress task switching.  Find a quiet location where people or ambient sounds are unlikely to disrupt you.  Try to explicitly set aside time when you should be studying, interspersed with regular breaks.  Also, set your phone to silent and ensure your attention is not drawn to it every time you receive a message or email. What Does Your Ideal Schedule Look Like?  If you’re anything like me, you’ve fantasized about planning the perfect schedule where you get the most out of every hour of your time.  That is, a schedule where you ensure every hour of work is deliberate and directed toward some final goal, but also striking a good work-life balance.  In this next section, we’ll discuss ways to move you closer toward this elusive perfect schedule. We Know Cramming is Bad Because it Leaves Little Time to Think and Seek Clarification  Imagine that, in addition to your regular heavy workload of coursework and assignments, you have two tests scheduled this month: one on the second Friday of the month, and one on the fourth Friday of the month.  Let’s assume you only have three afternoons available to study for each test.  But, because you’re so busy, it’s tempting to cram just before each test, perhaps allocating these three afternoon study sessions in the three days just before each test.  You might think this is a bad idea simply because if other things come up, or if you get stuck on something you don’t understand, you have little time to seek clarification.  But have you ever wondered if there’s a more direct cost associated with this scheduling? But Spacing Out Learning Also Directly Enhances Content Retention Per Unit Study Time  Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneer of memory research, asked himself this same question back in 1885. Using himself as a subject, he memorized lists of 12 random nonsense syllables (e.g., zip, tol, dal) by listing as many as he could recall and then restudying the list.  When he crammed all of his studying into one day, it took about 68 restudy attempts in total to recite the full list perfectly a day later.  In contrast, when he distributed his studying over three days, he only required about 38 restudy attempts in total.  So, simply by distributing learning across time, he was learning the same amount in less total study time.  This is a robust finding called the spacing effect. Amazingly, over a century after Ebbinghaus, the spacing effect is still a hot topic today, reliably shown in humans and nonhuman animals with many different learning tasks. Spacing is Especially Useful for Learning Terms and Definitions  Because Ebbinghaus used artificial learning materials and only himself as a subject, let’s discuss a more recent and compelling demonstration.  In one study, participants were asked to study a stack of flashcards. On the front of each card was a rare word (example: abrogate), and on the back was a common synonym (example: abolish).  In the cramming condition, the stack of flashcards was studied eight times in one day.  Conversely, in the spacing condition, a stack of flashcards was studied twice per day, spread out across four days.

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Note that each flashcard was studied exactly eight times in both conditions. 24 hours after the final session, they returned to have their memory tested.  Those in the spacing condition retained about 20% more definitions than those in the cramming condition.  This is even more impressive considering the cramming condition had the advantage of studying all the cards the previous day.

Spacing is Also Thought to Be Beneficial For More Complex Forms of Learning  It’s also critical to note that the spacing effect isn’t restricted to cases where you’re memorizing isolated pieces of information for a test.  This is often just how psychologists study the spacing effect in the lab because it’s convenient.  For instance, the spacing effect is also likely to hold true if you’re studying complex concepts for a seminar course where you are tasked with understanding several scholarly articles that share a common theme.  Let’s say you’re required to read two articles each week, then engage in a final class discussion.  Rather than taking notes on the two articles on the same day, you’re better off reading one article and letting the ideas incubate before you revisit similar ideas in the second article – maybe spaced one or two days apart.  There’s a good chance that this will lead to a better understanding of the two articles, more connections being made between them, and thus a richer contribution to the final discussion. You Probably Take Advantage of the Spacing Effect More Than You Think  The truth is you probably have a more intuitive understanding of the spacing effect than you think. Put it this way: what’s your favourite pastime or hobby? Maybe it’s a sport, a video game, or playing music.  If you were to map all the hours you’ve spent on a hobby, what would it look like? Chances are that it would be spread out in relatively thin time slots over weeks and months and even years.  I’m willing to bet that most coaches or teachers would prefer this over a “massed” approach where many consecutive hours of practice are all jammed into one setting.  This distributed approach to practicing harnesses the spacing effect and allows for more learning per unit time, much like a student spacing out their study sessions. Activity 2: Planning Ahead  Pick one big test you have this semester. Allot some study times and space the sessions out.  For example, if you have a final exam one month from now, you could allot 30 minutes to review the material after each new lecture. Then, starting roughly two weeks before the exam, set aside two 1-hour timeslots each week to study, spaced out by at least a few days. Spacing Out Your Studying of a Topic in Time Promotes Efficient, Long-Lasting Learning  We can now confidently say that the cramming strategy is indirectly harmful because it leaves little time to clarify weak spots. It is also directly harmful because you would have learned a lot more per unit of study time if you had planned ahead and spaced out your studying.  The take-home message for this section is that if you want more “bang for your buck,” you have to mind the gap; that is, plan ahead and distribute your study sessions for a particular topic over time. Same time commitment, more learning. Aside from Spacing, What Study Methods Are Most Likely to Boost Efficiency?  The unfortunate truth is that many students study a great deal yet still do poorly on evaluations.

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 This is in part because students rarely receive formal lessons on how to learn efficiently, but also because many poor study strategies may actually feel effective in the moment. In this final section, we’ll discuss methods that you should avoid, but also look at methods that psychologists endorse based on scientific evidence.

Repeated Exposure to Material Tends Not to Work Well  Persistent rereading, highlighting, and verbatim copying of notes all fall under the umbrella of “repeated exposure.”  They’re so named because the learner is basically exposed to the material in its raw form over and over until they’re confident they’ll remember it.  Studies done with children, undergraduates, and even real-world professionals all suggest that these repeated exposure methods are ineffective. Repeated Exposure Methods Can Be Viewed as Involving Mostly Input  One way to look at this is to consider what the brain is doing during repeated exposure; it’s basically a one-way street. There’s a lot of input, but usually very little output. Many Students Report Using Repeated Exposure Strategies  Despite its ineffectiveness, repeated exposure seems to be a popular strategy among students.  In one study conducted at a large university in the United States, 84% of the undergrads listed rereading notes or their textbook as a study method that they used regularly.  Of those, 55% rated it as their number one “go-to” method.  This raises the question: why are these repeated exposure methods so popular if they’re so ineffective? Repeated Exposure Fools Us into Thinking We’re Studying Efficiently  First, repeated exposure usually leads to rapid learning in the short-term, and so can result in a good grade if they cram the night before and the test involves mere memorization.  Second, it’s an intuitive way to study. Many high school students are not taught about efficient study methods and are probably led to believe it’s a good strategy if it gets them decent marks or if they hear their teachers endorse it.  Third, it makes us feel like we’re learning when we continually expose ourselves to the same information. We’re essentially fooling ourselves into thinking: “All this material seems so familiar when I read it over. Surely I’ll remember it.”  This is what researchers call fluency, and it can be harmful because it can seduce us into thinking we have a solid grasp of material when really we just feel fluency because the material is right in front of us. The Best Strategies Involve Output Combined with Input  Instead of reducing studying into purely input, researchers suggest the most efficient learning occurs when output is combined with input.  Put another way, outputting the material helps you organize it based on your prior knowledge, in turn making what you study more memorable. Practice Testing Enhances Long-Term Retention of Content  Along these lines, arguably the most promising study method to date is practice testing.  Consider a study done with medical residents. Residents were lectured on two topics. Afterward, depending on the resident, one topic was studied by reading over a review sheet with all the information, and another topic was studied by taking a practice short answer test for about 10 minutes and then comparing answers with the answer sheet.

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The test or restudy process repeated for the same topics twice more at two-week intervals. Residents then wrote a final test on both topics 6 months later.  Most critically, they remembered approximately 15% more for topics they were tested on than topics they only studied using the answer sheets.

The Key to Practice Testing is Being Forced to Retrieve Content from Memory  This is a reliable finding that researchers call the retrieval practice effect because people are practicing retrieving some information from memory.  Similar to the spacing effect, it has been studied for over a century and is still a hot topic today.  Note that this process entails a combination of output – that is, retrieval of information from memory – as well as input.  Though we focus on the retrieval practice effect here due to time constraints, it’s important to note that other output-focused methods can be used as well.  For example, there is considerable evidence for the effectiveness of self-explanation – that is, periodically stopping to explain information aloud as if teaching yourself the information. Retrieval Practice Becomes More Efficient When Combined with the Spacing Effect  Consider a study where researchers had introductory psychology students learn course content via retrieval practice.  They found a schedule that led to the most learning in the least amount of study time.  They came to the following conclusion regarding a “3 by 3” rule of thumb: when initially studying material, don’t stop until you can successfully recall the information from memory at least three separate times within the same study session.  Later, practice retrieving the same material three more times, with each session spaced about a week apart.  This scheduling was found to be highly efficient while also leading to the most durable, longlasting learning. Cumulative Testing is Also More Efficient When Topics Are Jumbled Up  You can further enhance your retrieval practice by doing something counterintuitive.  Namely, mixing up the topics or units that you test yourself on.  Consider a study with medical students learning electrocardiogram, or ECG – a test that doctors use to measure electrical activity in the heart. Students were assigned to one of two sessions.  In the “blocked practice” tutorial, the instructor explained one diagnosis, then gave four relevant problems related to that diagnosis, explained the next diagnosis, gave four problems related to that diagnosis, and so on.  In the “mixed practice” tutorial, the same instructor explained all diagnoses upfront, then gave students the problems for all diagnoses in a random order.  Students were later asked to diagnose new ECG problems, and the mixed practice tutorial outperformed the blocked practice tutorial by about 20%. Cumulative Testing is an Especially Potent Tool for Efficient Learning  In the later stages of learning, once you have a decent grasp of the material, try a cumulative form of retrieval practice where you mix up the questions by unit.  For instance, if you’re studying for a final exam and have 25 practice questions for each unit of the course, don’t do all the questions from one unit consecutively and then move on to the next. This makes it trivial to determine what unit applies to each question, which is half the battle when it comes to a real exam.

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 Instead, mix your practice questions up from all the units in a random fashion and answer them that way. You’ll hopefully notice that this requires you to decide which unit applies to a given question, thereby helping you piece together the central theme of each unit.

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