September brings with it another acamdemic year – a time when the children go back at school, universities start up again, and people go back to work after the summer break. Each year at this time I notice the whiff off ‘wanting to learn’ wafting around in my surroundings. Not just my own curiosity but those of other people around me. It seems that the end of summer and the start of Autumn heralds cooler indoor days and time to embark on something new.

In spite of all the learning done in educational institutions, one thing we typically never study is the art of studying itself. In this month’s On the Border, I have combed through some of the scientific literature on learning techniques to identify the two methods that work best.

Education generally focuses on what you study, such as maths, the elements of the periodic table or how to conjugate verbs. But learning how to study can be just as important – and with lifelong benefits. It can teach you to pick up knowledge faster and more efficiently and allow you to retain information for years rather than days.

Cognitive and educational psychologists have developed and evaluated numerous techniques, ranging from re-reading to summarising to self-testing, for more than 100 years. Some common strategies markedly improve student achievement, whereas others are time-consuming and ineffective. Yet this information does not seem to be making its way into the classrooms and lecture theatres. Teachers today (even neuroscience and psychology professors!) are not being told which learning techniques are supported by experimental evidence, and students are not being taught how to use the ones that work well.

Both methods help learners of various ages, abilities and levels of prior knowledge—and they have been tested in a classroom or other real-world situation. Learners can use the methods to master a variety of subjects, and they also result in long-lasting improvements in knowledge and comprehension. Perfect!

 

1.SELF-TESTING: Quizzing Yourself Gets High Marks

HOW IT WORKS:

Unlike a test that evaluates knowledge, practice tests are done by students on their own, outside of class. Methods might include using flash cards (physical or digital) to test recall or answering the sample questions at the end of a textbook chapter. Although most students prefer to take as few tests as possible, hundreds of experiments show that self-testing improves learning and retention.

In one study, undergraduates were asked to memorise word pairs, half of which were then included on a recall test. One week later the students remembered 35 percent of the word pairs they had been tested on, compared with only 4 percent of those they had not. In another demonstration, undergraduates were presented with Swahili-English word pairs, followed by either practice testing or review. Recall for items they had been repeatedly tested on was 80 percent, compared with only 36 percent for items they had restudied. One theory is that practice testing triggers a mental search of long-term memory that activates related information, forming multiple memory pathways that make the information easier to access.

WHEN DOES IT WORK?

Anyone from pre-schoolers to fourth-year medical students to middle-age adults can benefit from practice testing. It can be used for all kinds of factual information, including learning words in foreign languages, making spelling lists and memorising the parts of flowers. It even improves retention for people with Alzheimer’s disease. Short, frequent exams are most effective, especially when test takers receive feedback on the correct answers.

Practice testing works even when its format is different from that of the real test. The beneficial effects may last for months to years— great news, given that durable learning is so important.

IS IT PRACTICAL?

Yes. It requires modest amounts of time and little to no training.

HOW CAN I DO IT?

Students can self-test with flash cards or by using the Cornell system: during in-class note taking, make a column on one edge of the page where you enter key terms or questions. You can test yourself later by covering the notes and answering the questions (or explaining the keywords) on the other side.

RATING:

High utility. Practice testing works across an impressive range of for- mats, content, learner ages and retention intervals.

 

2. DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE: For Best Results, Spread Your Study over Time

HOW IT WORKS:

Students often “mass” their study—in other words, they cram. But distributing learning over time is much more effective. In one classic experiment, students learned the English equivalents of Spanish words, then reviewed the material in six sessions. One group did the review sessions back to back, another had them one day apart and a third did the reviews 30 days apart. The students in the 30-day group remembered the translations the best. In an analysis of 254 studies involving more than 14,000 participants, students recalled more after spaced study (scoring 47 percent overall) than after massed study (37 percent).

WHEN DOES IT WORK?

Children as young as age three benefit, as do undergraduates and older adults. Distributed practice is effective for learning foreign vocabulary, word definitions, and even skills such as mathematics, music and surgery.

IS IT PRACTICAL?

Yes. Although text-books usually group problems together by topic, you can intersperse them on your own. You will have to plan ahead and overcome the common student tendency to procrastinate……

HOW CAN I DO IT?

Longer intervals are generally more effective. In one study, 30-day delays improved performance more than lags of just one day. In an Internet-based study of trivia learning, peak performance came when sessions were spaced at about 10 to 20 percent of the retention interval. To remember something for one week, learning episodes should be 12 to 24 hours apart; to remember something for five years, they should be spaced six to 12 months apart. Although it may not seem like it, you actually do retain information even during these long intervals, and you quickly re-learn what you have forgotten. Long delays between study periods are ideal to retain fundamental concepts that form the basis for advanced knowledge.

RATING:

High utility. Distributed practice is effective for learners of different ages studying a wide variety of materials and over long delays. It is easy to do and has been used successfully in a number of real-world classroom studies.

 

References:

◆ Ten Benefits of Testing and Their Applications to Educational Practice. H. L. Roediger III, A. L. Putnam and M. A. Smith in Psychol- ogy of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 55: Cognition in Education. Edited by Jose P. Mestre and Brian H. Ross. Academic Press, 2011.

◆ Interleaving Helps Students Distinguish among Similar Concepts. D. Rohrer in Education- al Psychology Review, Vol. 24, No. 3, pages 355–367; September 2012.

◆ Using Spacing to Enhance Diverse Forms of Learning: Review of Recent Research and Implications for Instruction. S. K. Carpenter, N. J. Cepeda, D. Rohrer, S.H.K. Kang and H. Pashler, ibid., pages 369–378.

◆ When Is Practice Testing Most Effective for Improving the Dura- bility and Efficiency of Student Learning? K. A. Rawson and J. Dunlosky, ibid., pages 419–435.

◆ What Works, What Doesn’t. J. Dunlosky, K. A. Rawson, E. J. Marsh, M. J. Nathan and D. T. Willingham. Scientific American Mind, vol. 24, nr. 4, Sept/Oct 2013 pages 47-53.

◆“Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology,” on which this story for Scientific American Mind is based, at the Association for Psychological Science’s Web site: www.psychologicalscience.org