how to study more effectively, based on research in psychology

1. Mark A. Laumakis, Ph.D.
San Diego State Universtiy
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
mlaumakis@mail.sdsu.edu
4 November 2014
Successful Learning:
What Psychology Says
about Learning Better
Subtitle or catch phrase for the presentation

2.  A.B. in Psychology and
Sociology from Duke
University
A Little Bit about Me…
 Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology
from the University of
Southern California

3. Introductory Psychology at
San Diego State University
My 500-student lecture hall  The SDSU campus

4. Since 2000, I have taught 20,000 students…

5. Our Agenda Today
 Learning: How do you try to learn?
What does psychological science suggest about how to
be a successful learner?
 Having heard this, what will you do differently now, if
anything?
 Questions, some answers, and lively discussion
 Some resources to take with you…

7. Results from Karpicke, Butler, and Roediger
(2009; N = 177 college students)
Study Strategy % endorsing the use of this strategy
Reread notes or textbook 84%
Do practice problems 43%
Use flashcards 40%
Rewrite notes 30%
Study with a group of students 27%
Practice recall (self-testing) 11%

8. What are the disadvantages, if any, of these
study strategies?

9. “Illusions of competence”
 “When students rely purely on their subjective experience
while they study (e.g., their fluency of processing during
rereading) they may fall prey to illusions of competence
and believe they know the material better than they
actually do.”
 “A challenge for instructional practice is to encourage
students to base their study strategies on theories about
why a particular strategy – like practicing repeated
retrieval – promotes learning and long-term retention.”

10. What does psychological science suggest
about how to be a successful learner?

11. Major claims in make it stick
 learning is deeper and more durable when it is effortful
 we are poor judges of when we are learning well and when
we’re not
 rereading text and massed practice of a skill or new knowledge
are by far the preferred study strategies of learners of all stripes,
but they are also among the least productive
 retrieval practice -- recalling facts or concepts or events from
memory -- is a more effective learning strategy than review by
rereading
 when you space out practice at a task and get a little rusty
between sessions, or you interleave the practice of two or more
subjects, retrieval is harder and feels less productive, but the
effort produces longer lasting learning and enables more
versatile application of it in later settings

12. Major claims in make it stick
 the popular notion that you learn better when you receive
instruction in a form consistent with your preferred “learning style”
is not supported by the empirical research
 we’re all susceptible to illusions that can hijack our judgment of
what we know and can do
testing can help calibrate our judgments of what we’ve learned
in virtually all areas of learning, you build better mastery when
you use testing as a tool to identify and bring up your areas of
weakness
 all new learning requires a foundation of prior knowledge

13. Major claims in make it stick
 if you practice elaboration, there’s no limit to how much you can learn
elaboration is the practice of giving new material meaning by
expressing it in your own words and connecting it with what you
already know
 putting new knowledge into a larger context helps learning
 people who learn to extract the key ideas from new material and
organize them into a mental model and connect that model to prior
knowledge show an advantage in learning complex mastery
a mental model is a mental representation of some external reality
many people believe that their intellectual ability is hardwired from
birth, and that failure to meet a learning challenge is an indictment of
their native ability
but every time you learn something new, you change the brain --
the residue of your experiences is stored

14. Test-Enhanced Learning:
Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention
(Roediger and Karpicke, 2006)
 Investigated the testing effect
 If students are tested on material and successfully recall or recognize it,
they will remember it better in the future than if they had not been tested
 Experiment 1
 120 undergraduates read a prose passage on a single topic (sun, sea
otters), covering 30 idea units
 Researchers manipulated the learning condition of participants (study,
study OR study, test)
 Dependent variable was % of idea units recalled at 5-minute, 2-day, or 1-
week retention intervals

15. Experiment 1 Results

16. Test-Enhanced Learning:
Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention
(Roediger and Karpicke, 2006)
 Experiment 2
 180 undergraduates read a prose passage on a single topic (sun, sea
otters), covering 30 idea units (same as Experiment 1)
 Researchers manipulated the learning condition of participants
(repeated study [SSSS], single test [SSST], OR repeated test [STTT])
 Dependent variable was % of idea units recalled at 5-minute or 1-week
retention intervals
 Researchers also asked participants to predict how well they would
remember the passage

17. Experiment 2 Results

18. Experiment 2 Results

19. Conclusions
 Both experiments showed the same pattern
 Immediate testing after reading a prose passage promoted better
long-term retention than repeatedly studying the passage
 The testing effect is dramatic
 In Experiment 2, students in the repeated-testing condition recalled
much more after a week than did students in the repeated-study
condition (61% vs. 40%)
 Even though students in the repeated-testing condition read the
passage only 3.4 times and those in the repeated-study condition
read the passage 14.2 times
Major conclusion: TESTING HAS A POWERFUL EFFECT ON
LONG-TERM RETENTION

20. Implications
 Judicious use of testing may improve learning in
educational settings at all levels from elementary through
university education
Why?
1. Frequent testing leads students to space their study
efforts (no cramming)
2. Frequent testing permits students and their instructors to
assess their knowledge on an ongoing basis
3. Frequent testing serves as a powerful mnemonic aid for
future retention

21. Adaptive Quizzing (LearningCurve)
in Psychology 101 at San Diego State University
 Two sections of Intro Psych
 800 TTH section: 273 students (TRADITIONAL)
 930 TTH section: 491 students (LEARNINGCURVE)
 800 section completed conventional online quizzes
 14 pre-lecture quizzes & 14 mastery quizzes
 5 points for each of up to 12 quizzes in each category completed
with a score of 65% or more
 Unlimited attempts
Maximum point total = 120 points (out of 700 in course)

22. PSY 101 Pilot Study – Spring 2012
 930 section completed 3-5 LearningCurve activities for
each of 14 chapters
 LearningCurve activities were worth 10 points per chapter
 Maximum point total = 120 points (out of 700 in course)

23. Results
88.9
101.5 100
120
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Mean Median
Traditional
1.8% of course grade LearningCurve
2.9% of course grade

24. More Results
Total number of quiz questions completed
545
1661
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Traditional LearningCurve
Traditional
LearningCurve

25. LearningCurve Quizzes: Feel the Burn!
% of students who did MORE than the minimum
required to get all of their quiz points
27%
56%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Traditional Learning Curve
Traditional
Learning Curve

26. Test and Course Grade Results

27. Course Grade Distributions

28. Eliminating Confounds:
Spring 2012 vs. Spring 2011

29. One Last Result:
Fall 2012 Course Grade Distributions
as a Function of LearningCurve Completion Status

30. What does psychological science suggest
about how to be a successful learner?
http://bit.ly/1thDazf

32. Levels of Processing
 Deep processing is better than shallow processing
 Examples of deep processing:
 Relating new information to prior knowledge
 Analogy of lock and key for neurotransmitters and receptor sites
Making information personally meaningful
 Your own examples of negative reinforcement
 Examples of shallow processing:
 Memorizing definitions of terms
 Mindlessly reading notes and/or the textbook

34. How can I achieve deep processing?
1. Elaborate: how does this concept relate to other concepts?
Example: how are hair cells similar to rods and cones?
2. Differentiate: how is this concept different from other concepts?
Example: how is negative reinforcement different from positive
punishment?
3. Personalize: how does this concept relate to my own personal
experiences?
Example: when have I experienced shaping in my own life?
4. Retrieve and Apply: how will I be expected to use or apply this
concept?
Example: take practice quizzes (use the testing effect to your
advantage)

35. Other Recommendations
about Learning Better

37. Having heard this, what will you do differently
now, if anything?
 Let’s discuss
http://aptaujucentrs.com/uploads/images/focus-group.jpg

38. Any other questions?

39. Some resources for you
http://bit.ly/1thDazf
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/22113681/3/3