Make it Stick Chapter 5-6

  1. Avoid Illusions of Knowing
       * metacognition: monitoring your own thinking
       * we are all hardwired to make errors in judgment
         * we overestimate our competence
         * we are easily misled
       * two systems of knowing
         * automatic and immediate
         * controlled, slower process of conscious analysis
       * memory can be distorted
         * imagination inflation: believes a vivid imaginary event is actually a memory
         * suggestion: the way a question is asked may distort the memory of an event
         * interference from other events
         * curse of knowledge / hindsight bias: our tendency to underestimate how long it will take to learn something that we’ve already mastered
         * accounts that sound familiar can create the feeling of knowing and be mistaken for true
         * fluency illusions: tendency to mistake fluency with a text for mastery of its content
       * memories are subject to social influence and align with the memories of the people around us
         * social contagion of memory
         * false consensus effect: humans assume that others share their beliefs
       * mental models
       * Dunning-Kruger effect: incompetent people overestimate their own competence, so they see no need to improve
  2. Get Beyond Learning Styles
       * what you tell yourself about your ability plays a part in shaping the ways you learn and perform
       * learning styles don’t really exist
         * when the instructional style matches the nature of the content, all learners learn better
       * fluid intelligence: ability to think abstractly
       * crystallized intelligence: one’s accumulated knowledge of the world
       * Howard Gardner: there are 8 kinds of intelligence
       * Robert Sternberg: analytical, creative, and practical intelligence