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The lesson you never got taught in school: How to learn!

 by Neurobonkers

February 21, 2013, 8:21 AM

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A paper published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest  has evaluated ten techniques for improving learning,

ranging from mnemonics to highlighting and came to some surprising conclusions.

The report is quite a heavy document so I’ve summarised the techniques below based on the conclusions of the report

regarding effectiveness of each technique. Be aware that everyone has their own style of learning, the evidence suggests

that just because a technique works or does not work for other people does not necessarily mean it will or won’t work 

well for you. If you want to know how to revise or learn most effectively you will still want to experiment on yourself a

little with each technique before writing any of them off.

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Elaborative Interrogation (Rating = moderate)

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A method involving creating explanations for why stated facts are true. The method involves concentrating on why

questions rather than what questions and creating questions for yourself as you are working through a task. To do this

yourself, after reading a few paragraphs of text ask yourself to explain “why does x = y?” and use your answers to form

your notes. This is a good method because it is simple, so anyone can apply it easily. It does however require enough

 prior knowledge to enable you to generate good questions for yourself, so this method may be best for learners with

experience in a subject. The technique is particularly efficient with regard to time, one study found that elaborative

learning took 32 mins as opposed to 28 mins simply reading.

An example of elaborative interrogation for the above paragraph could be:

 Elaborative learning is useful for proficient learners because it allows them to apply their prior knowledge

effectively to process new information. It is rated as effective because it is time efficient and relatively easy to

 perform.

“The current evidence base for elaborative learning is positive but lacking" 

Self Explanation (Rating = moderate) 

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A technique that is useful for abstract learning. The technique involves explaining and recording how one solves or 

understands problems as they work and giving reasons for choices that are made. This was found to be more effective if 

done while learning as opposed to after learning. Self explanation has been found to be effective with learners ranging

from children in kindergarten to older students working on algebraic formulas and geometric theorems. Like elaborativeexplanation, self explanation benefits from its simplicity. Unlike elaborative learning, self explanation was found to double

the amount of time spent on a task in comparison to a reading control group.

“The core component of self-explanation involves having students explain some aspect of their 

 processing during learning”

Summarisation (Rating = low)

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An old staple, tested by having participants summarise every page of text in to a few short lines. Summarising and note

taking were found to be beneficial for preparing for written exams but less useful for types of tests that do not require

students to generate information – such as multiple choice tests. Summarising was rated as being likely less beneficial

than other methods available but more useful than the most common methods students use – highlighting, underlining and

rereading.

“It can be an effective learning strategy for learners who are already skilled at summarizing”

As you might have guessed, I personally find summarising to be very effective – my love of taking notes is probably

what drove me to blogging in the first place. I love the function of being able to “ctrl-f” or search my notes folder for the

fact that’s on the tip of my tounge. Since starting blogging I love that I can throw a phrase I’m after in to Google along

with ‘neurobonkers’ and instantly have the relevant fact in front of my eyes. On a vaguely related note – some have

suggested that the ability to Google spontaneously is destroying your memory – but based on the evidence I can’t say

this is a view I agree with.

Highlighting and underlining (Rating = low)

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The runaway favourite technique of students was found to perform spectacularly poorly when done on its own under 

controlled conditions. It seems pretty intuitive that highlighting alone is ineffective for the same reasons it is so popular – 

it requires no training, it takes practically no additional time and crucially, it involves very little thought above the effort

taken to simply read a piece of text.

It’s worth remembering that this study only assessed research examining highlighting/underlining as a stand-alone

technique. I’d be interested to discover how effective highlighting is when paired with other techniques.

The keyword mnemonic (Rating = low)

A technique for memorising information involving linking words to meanings through associations based on how a word

sounds and creating imagery for specific words. Much research has found that mnemonics are useful for memorising

information in the short term in a range of situations including learning foreign language, learning people’s names and

occupations, learning scientific terms etc. However, it seems the keyword mnemonic is only effective in instances where

keywords are important and the material includes keywords which are inherently easy to memorise. The review citesone study for example that required students to use mnemonics to memorise English definitions that were not well suited

to keyword generation – the study found that the control group outperformed the group using mnemonics. More

worrying – it seems that though the keyword mnemonic has been found effective for aiding short term recall, it has been

demonstrated to actually have a negative effect when compared to rote learning in the long term. So, the mnemonic

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might be useful for remembering definitions the week before an exam but it doesn’t seem to be much use when used in

any scale as a long term memory aid.

Imagery for Text Learning (Rating = low)

Experiments asking students to simply imagine clear visual images as they are reading texts have found advantages whenmemorising sentences, but these advantages seem much less pronounced when longer pieces of text are involved.

Interestingly, visualisation was found to be more effective when students listened to a text than when they read text

themselves, implying the act of reading may make it harder to focus on visualising. A major problem with imagery

research is that most researchers instructed one group to visualise but did not follow up to see if they actually did. One

experiment that checked afterwards found that some participants instructed to imagine did not, while some participants

in the control group reported using visualisation on their own accord. It is therefore likely that imagery could be a more

useful technique than this evaluation currently demonstrates – it is certainly an easy technique to use, so there is little

harm in trying. Perhaps more interestingly, imagery research has found that drawing does not seem to improve

comprehension and may indeed actually reverse the benefits of imagery. Finally, though imagery is reported to be more

versatile than the keyword mnemonic, it has also been found useful only for certain situations. For example, imagery wasnot been found to be effective to help students answer questions that required inferences to be made from the text, nor 

was it been found useful for answering questions about a passage on the human heart.

Rereading (Rating = low)

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Overall, rereading is found to be much less effective than other techniques – however the research has drawn some

interesting conclusions. Massed rereading – rereading immediately after reading - has been found more effective than

outlining and summarising for the same amount of time. It does seem however, that rereading spaced over a longer 

amount of time has a much stronger effect than massed rereading.

Practice Testing (Rating = High)

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This is where things get interesting; testing is often seen as a necessary evil of education. Traditionally, testing consists of 

rare but massively important ‘high stakes’ assessments. There is however, an extensive literature demonstrating the

 benefits of testing for learning – but importantly, it does not seem necessary that testing is in the format of ‘high stakes’

assessments. All testing including ‘low stakes’ practice testing seems to result in benefits. Unlike many of the other 

techniques mentioned, the benefits of practice testing are not modest – studies have found that a practice test can double

free recall!

Research has found that though multiple choice testing is indeed effective, practice tests that require more detailed

answers to be generated are more effective. Importantly, practice testing is effective when you create the questions

yourself.

So how can you apply this research? Students can create flash cards (or even use free software to do this). Alternatively

students can use a system such as the Cornell note-taking system (Example PDF) which involves noting questions in acolumn next to their notes as they learn. This finding looks like wonderful news for MOOCS which typically use

intensive practice testing as a primary method of teaching. The finding is also great news for students – as practice

testing actually takes up much less time than other methods such as rereading, which practice testing far outperforms!

Try it yourself: Can you name and explain two methods of self-testing?

Distributed Practice (Rating = High)

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Have you ever wondered whether it is best to do your studying in large chunks or divide your studying over a period of time? Research has found that the optimal level of distribution of sessions for learning is 10-20% of the length of time

that something needs to be remembered. So if you want to remember something for a year you should study at least

every month, if you want to remember something for five years you should space your learning every six to twelve

months. If you want to remember something for a week you should space your learning 12-24 hours apart. It does

seem however that the distributed-practice effect may work best when processing information deeply – so for best

results you might want to try a distributed practice and self-testing combo.

There is however a major catch - do you ever find that the amount of studying you do massively increases before an

exam? Most students fall in to the “procrastination scallop” – we are all guilty at one point of cramming all the

knowledge in right before an exam, but the evidence is pretty conclusive that this is the worst way to study, certainlywhen it comes to remembering for the long term. What is unclear is whether cramming is so popular because students

don’t understand the benefits of distributed practice or whether testing practices are to blame - probably a combination

of both. One thing is for sure, if you take it upon yourself to space your learning over time you are pretty much

guaranteed to see improvements.

Interleaved Practice (Rating = Moderate)

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Have you ever wondered whether you are best off studying topics in blocks or “interleaving” topics – studying problems

of different types in a slightly more haphazard fashion? Unlike the other methods discussed above, there is far less

evidence to go on. The research that has so far been conducted seems to suggest that interleaving is useful for motor 

learning (learning involving physical movement) and cognitive tasks (such as maths problems) – where benefits of up to

43% have been reported. It also seems that like distributed practice; interleaved practice seems to benefit longer term

retention:

“Accuracy during practice was greater during block trials but accuracy a day later was far higher 

 for students who had received inter-leaved problems.”

So why do we use the wrong techniques and which should we use?

The review looked at a range of educational psychology textbooks and found that despite the wealth of research

evidence, none of the textbooks that were reviewed covered all of the methods described above – and in those that

covered one or more, the coverage was minimal. So if you happen to be an educational psychologist looking to write a

textbook, you’re not in a bad position. We are all expected to be able to learn but currently we don’t ever really get

taught how to learn. So next time you have something to learn why not take a second to create a schedule to distribute

your practice, while you're reading – instead (or as well as) taking extensive notes why not write yourself some practice

questions with a special focus on why questions; and when you are learning a new skill why not write a detailed

explanation of how you answer the questions. This doesn’t mean you should rush out and bin all the highlighters, but

maybe try to gradually incorporate a new technique every time you study and see which techniques work best for you!

 Reference:

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K., Marsh, E., Nathan, M., & Willingham, D. (2013). Improving Students' Learning With

Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology Psychological 

Science in the Public Interest, 14 (1), 4-58 DOI: 10.1177/1529100612453266  [  PDF  ] 

 Image Credit: Slavoljub Pantelic, Sergey Nivens, Dusit, Africa Studio, Tatiana Popova, ladybirdanna,

Vladgrin, Evgenyi, Digital Genetics, HomeStudio, Elena Elisseeva /Shutterstock.com

 by Neurobonkers

On Twitter neurobonkers

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Rafael Gorges   •  

Indeed the motivation is pretty much important in these processes.

Nothing will work if you don't have motivation to study or did something

bored. About motivation is a personal thing... because it doesn't exists any formula to do a good study.

Great article, thank you.

 

nannasin smit h  •  

I’d be inter ested to discover how effective highlighting is when paired with other techniques.

LM317T

 

 Alex ander   •  

 Attention is lowered when visualizing what you read; i would say, however, it's possible to

gain benefits from reading a long pieces of text. The trick to gain this benefits it's to visualize in distinct

fashion, visualize it everything within the same stage, world, scenario (holistically) not word by word.

(when visualizing the concept as a formation of the connections that exist between the concept andwith other things you know are also necessary)

 

Nick Aleman  •  

Imagination and curiously is what needed to spark true intelligence and ability to learn

 

Leah Hicks   •  

If you think Robin`s story is unimaginable..., in the last-month my cousins step dad also earnt

$4324 grafting a sixteen hour week from home and there friend's mother`s neighbour done this for 6

months and actually earned over $4324 parttime at Their laptop. use the information available here...

 jump15.comCHECK IT OUT

 

philessense  •  

This is a wonderful article that I shall share with my colleagues and students. However, it

leaves out those of us who are gifted-visual-spatial learners--and there are more of us than you can

imagine. We think in pictures and understand by creating a picture in our minds. At least I do. Others

think and learn in words and more linearly. 

 Andree Furey   •  

Thank you, as a teacher I have often tried to find ways of helping my students. The most

difficult task is maintaining a decent level of motivation in the learner.

 

Lock To Lock Locksmiths   •  

cool

 

best essay writ ing website  •  

Your article is really good. There are many cool information that would really help people in

knowing several techniques on how to learn on their own way.

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margot  •  

I love the study card application Anki, which combines both of the highest rated methods

listed: practice testing and distributed practice. While learning new material, I create new note cards

as I go along that require thinking about the material and creating questions in my own words. I sync

with the mobile app and study every day on the go, where the questions are given at growing intervals

when you continually answer correctly (so the daily workload isn't too heavy because of the varied

intervals). It has been awesome for short term learning and most importantly for long term retention. I

wish I had something like that when I was in college, so much time wasted studying inefficiently with

the low utility methods on the list, and the information was gone as soon as the next semester began.

 1

Boba_Steph   •  

What mobile app do you use to study with?

 

Kelly   •  Currently, our schools are, in fact, laying a heavier focus on metacognitive skills to better 

prepare our students for life and learning in the 21st century. Change is happening! (Ontario)

 

Kelly M  •  

On my first day of Biochemistry as as an undergrad, the professor told us that the best thing

we could do for ourselves was put the highlighter down and learn the material. If we started

highlighting we wouldn't stop because all of the material was so foreign to us that we would be

highlighting everything and it would serve no purpose. It was both a suggestion I took seriously and

probably the best advice I ever received as far as college went. 2

Fusion Enterprise  •  

Techniques can help with passing a test but do not truly reflect learning skills. Motivation to

learn is far more important than techniques employed. True curiosity and interest in the subject will

lead to learning. Study tricks will lead to a good grade on a test with much of the information forgotten

in a year. Schools are not geared to learning at all.

 6  1

Starbuck  •  

Of course interest and motivation support better learning, but we live in a world where

we must learn things that don't inspire our passion or curiosity. We have a knowledge and

skills deficit in our society because we do not focus on what really works when it comes to

teaching and learning, For example, it would be far more effective to group elementary

students by their dominant learning styles as opposed to their perceived overall ability or 

knowledge gained thus far. Lesson plans constructed around particular learning styles could

be far more effective overall than the current methods of "special education" for allegedly "poor 

learners."

 3

Guest  •  

The mainstream educational system focuses primarily on skills for the labor market as

opposed to life skills. Noam Chomsky once noted: "You have no rights on the labor market it's just a

"

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.

IMHO competition rather than cooperation, having one's tickets punched by theoretical academic

award accounts for much of the self centered impulses rampant in society which has been divided

into wolves and sheep. Emphasis should additionally be placed on daily functional applications how to

change a car tire, coping with unemployment, relating to the opposite sex, relationships, etc. There

appears to be a recurring deficiency in this area.

 

Starbuck  •  

Families teach life skills; schools should teach academic skills. It would be great if 

people could make change, write in complete sentences, and display a basic grasp of world

geography, basic science and at least a sense of the history. These are basics, and too many

high school graduates lack this basic knowledge.

 1

Jeremy   •  

I happen to think that families should teach academic skills IN ADDITION to life

skills. It doesn't have to be hard stuff either. For example, I learnt fractions from mymum when I was 3 when we were cutting up pizza, which was a huge advantage for 

me in school. The earlier you learn a simple, fundamental concept in the correct way,

the better you will be.

 

 Ari el Margol is   •  

You are right that families should teach life skills. Unfortunately, many do not

for a variety of reasons. It is also come to be expected by parents that schools also

teach life skills. While I teach my own children life skills (getting dressed, being polite,

proper table manners), I am constantly teaching them to my students (and they are in

Middle School). As a former principal, if a qualified candidate did not have "life skills",

then I would not hire him/her because teachers (like all adults) are models for our 

children.

 

Lekker   •  

Different countries use different methods. The good thing is, now we know what works in a

given system. Changing a school and an education system, the curriculum, parents', teachers' and

students' approach to learning : everything is a gradual process and takes time. If you look at howIndian students are assessed, then there is little option but learning by heart. The same applies to US

or Korean kids. Similarly, if you are preparing for written exams, then you need particular set of 

methods. All in all, to each situation, its own method of learning. What teachers can try to do is

encourage children to understand that classroom knowledge is not enough and the world is full of 

sources of learning.

 

Chandra Friend Montoya  •  

These strategies are about MEMORIZATION, which is a subset of the much larger and more

complex task of learning. The article does say that "summarising and note taking were found to bebeneficial for preparing for written exams" -- and it's pretty clear that written exams are better 

assessments than multiple-choice!

 5  2

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Shatoon   •  

Not all strategies/measures were about memorization. From the abstract: "Criterion

tasks include different outcome measures that are relevant to student achievement, such as

those tapping memory, problem solving, and comprehension."

 5

Karthik Kumar   •  

This should be plastered in every Indian school in every class on the wall adjacent to the

black/whiteboard...

 

Will iam Dalmazzo  •  

That's a really powerful article but unfortunately schools are not aware enough about this fact

 5  1

Judith Johnson  •  

If you think Jonathan`s story is neat..., a month-ago my son in law basically also got

paid $9984 sitting there eighteen hours a week from there apartment and their neighbor'saunt`s neighbour did this for 5 months and earnt more than $9984 part-time on there labtop.

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Jo   •  

I've just shared it with my entire school (K - High School)!

 2

 Alwin George   •  

Thanks!! 

Jared Creado  •  

Indeed a very helpful article.

 

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 by Neurobonkers

36 Posts since 2012

A blog devoted to empirical science and the study of the mind. Expect to find critical analysis of scientific research,

debunking of misinformation and tongue-in-cheek commentary based on cold hard evidence.

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