Study Strategies and Memory Techniques

learning style hypothesis

• view that different people learn info in different ways

  • Most popular: the visual vs. verbal learner

  • Students tend to believe they have a certain learning styl

Massa and Myer (2006)

• Participants learn about electronics

• Given visual help screens (diagrams) or verbal (text) in nature

• Participants were also assessed on a variety of measures of preference and verbal/visual ability

• All participants take the same final test on knowledge of electronics

Nilsson (1987): motivation

• 3 groups:

• Motivation-Study: told before studying that they could win money based on memory

• Motivation-test: told before the test that they could win money based on memory

• Control: given no motivation

  • Performed better than those motivated

• Common misconceptions of motivation

  • We can’t rely on feelings and intuition

  • We can rely on science

science of learning

• Research-based practices for improving memory

  • elaboration rehearsal: deeper meaning

  • maintanence rehearsal: simple repetition

Palmere et al. (1983): example and memory

• Method: manipulated number of examples

• Results: more examples = greater memory

the generation effect

a memory phenomenon where people remember information better when they create it themselves rather than just reading it passively

• flashcards

• self-explanation

• working though problems by memory instead of study guides

Foos et al. (2004): participants read a 2,250 word text

• Half of the participants generated their own study questions

• Half of the participants read study questions that someone else made

  • participant who made their own performed better

encoding specificity

When we learn anything, we are also encoding context–the surrounding environment and our own state

• Classroom research

  • Effect less reliable

  • Lots of same elements in classrooms

    • Small changes don’t seem to drive this effect

• Applications for studying

  • Match what you do on

    • Ex: details vs conceptual understanding

  • Match time pressure

  • Match state/mood (as much as possible)

role of testing

• Roediger & Karpicke (2006): participants read prose passages on scientific topics

• Main comparison: participants either studied the passages twice (study-study) or studied and then took a test (study-test)

• All participants take a final free recall test

• Given either 5 minutes, 2 days, or 1 week after the learning session

  • those who were tested performed better

The power of testing: do testing effects hold up in the classroom?

• Roedinger et al. (2011): looked at quizzing in a middle school classroom

  • Students were given a quiz after a lesson and two days later

• Retention measures via:

  • Chapter exam: 2 weeks after the lesson

  • Semester exam: 1-2 months after lesson

• Influences how a professor designs a curriculum and how frequent they test

• Testing: the implication is that practice tests don’t just assess learning; they also boost learning

massed studying

studying it all shortly before test

spaced studying

studying in intervals days before test

Kornell (2009): asked people to predict their own learning following massed vs. spaced practice

• Showed that participants predicted the opposite pattern when it came to spacing

  • Memory greater for spacing

  • Predictions higher for massing

high utility strategies for studying

• Dunlocky et al.(2013): looked at 10 different learning techniques and ranked them according to their utility 

• The two high utility strategies were spacing and testing