hacking your memory Flashcards
1
Q
No-laptops orders - technophobia?:
A
- Putnam et al (2016) recommend not using a laptop
- Some lectures forbid their use in class
2
Q
Distraction in class:
A
- Does Mr Zuckerberg need your attention right now?
- Students multitasking on a laptop during class may learn 11% less in study by Sana, Weston and Cepeda (2013) + blog
May also affect comprehension of students near you
- Students multitasking on a laptop during class may learn 11% less in study by Sana, Weston and Cepeda (2013) + blog
3
Q
Note-taking and memory encoding:
A
- Famous study: taking notes on a laptop is faster but encourages verbatim notes rather than summary - this is ‘shallow’ processing (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014)
- See blog by student, Brook Fulton, on Learning Scientists
- BUT less clear cut in replication + mini meta-analysis Urry et al. (2021), also
- Voyer et al. (2022)
- However, note-taking IS useful in
- preventing mind-wandering, Wong & Lim (2023)
- AND: there may be ways to use a laptop well – blog by a student who has dysgraphia, Martin Winter
4
Q
What is note-taking for?:
A
- Promote deep and elaborative encoding of the material
- Provide external storage of information that is in the lecture but is not on the slides
- (Processing and adding this surrounding material may help elaborative encoding)
- Good notes can also support later study and revision
5
Q
What is elaboration?:
A
- Actively relating incoming material to existing knowledge
- Usually implies a deliberate strategy
○ Elaborative interrogation = Generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true
○ Self-explanation = Explaining how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving
○ Keyword mnemonic = Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials (can involve explanation)
- Usually implies a deliberate strategy
6
Q
The keyword mnemonic:
A
- How to learn the word hippocampus
- Keyword mnemonic: hippo + campus
- A hippo visits her old Uni campus, this brings back lots of memories
7
Q
Elaborative interrogation:
A
- generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true - much less clunky than keyword mnemonic
8
Q
Schemas in education - van Kesteren et al (2018):
A
- encode new A-B picture-word pairs
-> test memory for the A-B pairs
-> encode new A-C pairs where relatedness of B and C varies
-> recognise C, cued recall B-C, rcognise A - here, B-C is not directly studied but is inferred from learning A-B and A-C; as model of generalisation during learning
9
Q
Schemas in education - van Kesteren et al (2018) 2:
A
- associative memory better for inferred B-C pairing if it was schema congruent
- also better if remembered the B picture during A-C learning
- people;s judgements of what they would remember depended on reactivation but not schemas
- partially accurate but people underestimated the importance of prior knowledge
10
Q
Schemas at uni:
A
- Connecting material to what was learned before helps new learning and generalisation. Some of this is tutors’ job but…
- Doing readings and revision of key ideas before lectures can help students to assimilate lecture material
- So can reading over slides, e.g. to understand main messages, spot what will need most clarification, relate to readings and prior study (Marsh & Sink, 2009)
- If you didn’t do it before the lecture you can also do later!
- See Putnam et al. (2016)
11
Q
Limits of improving encoding:
A
- Keyword mnemonic involves work, and needs suitable material – as do other elaboration strategies
- Elaborative interrogation “…effects are often larger when elaborations are precise rather than imprecise, when prior knowledge is higher rather than lower […] and when elaborations are self-generated rather than provided” (Dunlosky et al., 2013)
- D et al interpret as distinctiveness effect on encoding
- BUT surprisingly (to many in 2013) not very effective for long-term learning
12
Q
Can memory cues help?:
A
- Cues provided in the test …are not up to you, but
- Elaboration while studying can add to the potential cues that are able to retrieve something
- I.e., you also generate your own cues when studying!
13
Q
Self-generated cues:
A
- You make the connections!
- Create cues that connect with your personal knowledge and cognitive context
- E.g. “when remembering that Rutherford was the first person to show that each atom has a nucleus in its center, a chemistry student can create a cue that says “Ruth is my grandma’s name and grandmas are the center of the family.””
- From Tullis & Finley’s (2018) review
- Note that cue is semantically related to target fact
- Use interests, hobbies etc e.g. sport, or music etc
- Why does this work?
- Likely to overlap more with your personal cognitive context (thoughts stored at time of encoding)
- And self-generated cues may be more diagnostic point more uniquely to the information in memory (lecture 2)
- → so, thanks to transfer-appropriate processing, you will remember the material better
- Works well with the testing effect (which is…?)
14
Q
the testing effect
A
- Roedifer and Karpicke (2006) memory for ‘ideas units’ in prose passages
- how much less forgetting at 1 week with testing?
- 10% forgetting instead of 52%
15
Q
Thomas et al (2020):
A
- Compared study with quizzes (MCQ), quiz with feedback
- Outcomes
○ Unit exams x 4 – repeated, new MCQs & short answers
○ Final exam – more MCQs, & essays - Included MCQs from quizzes, unit exams & new
- Analysis
○ Transfer of learning to related concepts - Transfer of learning to different test format
12-14% better:
- Outcomes
- conceptually related MCQs:
- quizzing better than studying
13%-21% better: - conceptually related short answers:
- quizzing better than studying
