Learning 2

Question 1

What are the 4 main learning techniques?

Answer 1

1) Elaborative interrogation
2) Highlighting/underlining
3) Practice testing
4) Distributed practice

Question 2

Describe Elaborative Learning

Answer 2

Generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true

Question 3

Describe Highlighting/Underlining

Answer 3

Marking potentially important portions to-be-learned materials while reading

Question 4

Describe Practice Testing

Answer 4

Self-testing or taking practice tests of to-be-learned material

Question 5

Describe Distributed Practice

Answer 5

Implement a schedule of practice that spreads out study activities over time

Question 6

Which learning technique involves asking “Why” questions?

Answer 6

Elaborative Interrogation

Question 7

Which learning technique involves asking “Why is this fact true of this and not some other reason?”

Answer 7

Elaborative Interrogation

Question 8

How can Elaborative Interrogation be successful?

Answer 8

• We are forced to actively consider WHY something happens on top of passively thinking about something
• This method supports questioning of new information with existing prior knowledge which learners may link to provide an explanation
• Learners activate schemata, which helps organise new info that eases the process of retrieval

Question 9

Who proposed a well-known Elaborative Interrogation experiment?

Answer 9

Pressley et al.

Question 10

Explain Pressley et al. ‘s Elaborative Interrogation experiment

Answer 10

1) A series of sentences were provided (e.g. The hungry man got into the car)
2) There were 3 groups:
- Group 1 were asked a “why” question (e.g. Why did that particular man do that?)
- Group 2 were given an explanation (e.g. The hungry man got into the car BECAUSE he wanted to go to the restaurant)
- Group 3 simply read the sentence with no other prompt given (e.g. The hungry man got into the car)
3) Final test involved asking participants which man performed each action (e.g. Who got into the car?)
4) Findings = The Elaborative Interrogation group had the best performance when asked to recall

Question 11

Are the findings of Pressley et al. ‘s Elaborative Interrogation experiment generalizable?

Answer 11

Yes?
- Effects have been shown amongst students working individually and in groups
- Works with UG students and younger
- Applicable to learners of varying ability levels and those with learning disabilities

But…
- The benefits for younger children below elementary school (kindergarten and 1st graders) age is unclear

Question 12

How well does Elaborative Interrogation do when learning new facts about familiar items compared to new facts about unfamiliar items?

Answer 12

Students showed larger effects of Elaborative Interrogation in their high knowledge domain (prior knowledge/ new facts about FAMILIAR items) than in their low knowledge domain (facts about unfamiliar items)

Question 13

Do the type and timing of the test matter when using the Elaborative Interrogation method to study?

Answer 13

• Robust effect
• Mostly tested with cued recall and matching
• Also tested either immediately or within a few minutes of the learning phase (mainly reflects memory for explicitly stated info)
• This method mainly affects for MCQs or verification tests that require inferences/ elaboration

Question 14

List 3 benefits of Elaborative Interrogation

Answer 14

1) Minimal training required and no detailed instructions or practice are needed
2) Reasonable time demands for reading/learning facts and generating elaboration
3) Consistency of the prompt “Why?”, straightforward recommendation to students about the nature of questions they should use to elaborate

Question 15

List 4 limitations of Elaborative Interrogation

Answer 15

1) For complex material, what level do you direct the “Why?” question at?
- Students require instructions about the kinds of content they should elaborate on in complex materials

2) Students may sometimes need to identify their own target facts

3) How often do you ask “Why?”, can be too overused

4) Not as useful for longer texts
- Elaborating on facts found in lengthy texts requires students to identify their own target facts

Question 16

Which learning technique involves marking/underlining important to-be-learned facts of a material?

Answer 16

Highlighting/Underlining

Question 17

Why do students Highlight/Underline important material?

Answer 17

Highlighting/Underlining appeals to students because:
- It is simple to use
- No training is required
- It does not require a huge time investment as you only need to highlight as you read the material

Question 18

Who conducted a well-known Highlighting/Underlining learning experiment?

Answer 18

Fowler and Barker

Question 19

What did Fowler and Barker do in their Highlighting/Underlining learning experiment?

Answer 19

1) Instructed UG students to read/study articles for 1 hour

2) There were 3 groups:
- Group 1 = Highlight as much text as they want
- Group 2 = Read text which had been previously highlighted by Group 1 students
- Group 3 = Simply read the article only

3) 1 week later, all groups were called for an MCQ test. They were allowed to review material for 10 mins before the test

4) Findings = Highlighting group (Group 1) did not outperform the other 2 groups

Question 20

What does Highlighting/Underlining help with?

Answer 20

• Performance was better on test items for which the relevant text had been highlighted (but if info had not been highlighted, there was a small cost to test questions)
• Active highlighting performed better than passive highlighting (reading texts previously highlighted by other people)
• Actively selecting important facts allows learners to work out what’s important and think about the meaning of the text; benefits performance

Question 21

What would be considered “good quality highlighting”

Answer 21

Less text highlighted = more distinctive

Because if you highlight everything, there’s less focus, fewer distinctions between important facts and regular texts and you’ll also lose the actual important element

Question 22

Who proposed students should limit to highlighting a single sentence per paragraph for effective recall?

Answer 22

Rickards and August

Question 23

What is recommended for students when following the Highlighting/Underlining method?

Answer 23

Low utility
- Highlighting may hurt performance on higher-level tasks that require elaboration/inference
- Highlighting mainly draws attention to individual concepts; may be harder to make connections across other concepts

Question 24

When might the Highlighting/Underlining method be effective?

Answer 24

• When prior knowledge is there, helps moderate the effectiveness of highlighting
• Because people with prior knowledge know what info is important and what isn’t, which helps them highlight effectively

Question 25

What learning technique involves practising recall, problems or questions?

Answer 25

Practice testing

Question 26

What learning technique involves low-stakes or no-stakes practising?

Answer 26

Practice testing

Question 27

What learning technique involves learning facts/activity outside of class from summative assessments given by an instructor in class?

Answer 27

Practice testing

Question 28

What learning technique involves recalling from flashcards, doing online practice quizzes and completing practice questions at the end of textbook chapters?

Answer 28

Practice testing

Question 29

What learning technique involves test-taking?

Answer 29

Retrieval practice

Question 30

Why does practice testing improve learning?

Answer 30

1) Direct effects (changes in learning that arise from the act of taking a test itself)

2) Mediated effects (changes in learning that occur from testing on the amount/kind of material/info that takes place after the test)

Question 31

MCQ tests, Fill-in-the-blank tests and Essay style recall tests are all examples of …

Answer 31

Practice tests for retrieval practice

Question 32

Which learning technique has added benefit for long-term retention?

Answer 32

Retrieval practice (specifically practice tests)

Question 33

Who will perform better:

Learners who restudied the material + practised active recall OR learners who only restudied the material

Answer 33

Learners who restudied the material AND practised active recall would be able to recall words/info when prompted with cues than those who only restudied the material

Question 34

What are the well-known studies investigating the effects of retrieval practice (active recall)?

Answer 34

1) Karpicke’s Swahili-English translation active recall test

2) Roediger and Karpicke’s passage active recall test

Question 35

Explain Karpicke’s study of investigating the effects of retrieval practice (active recall)

Answer 35

1) Students were presented with 60 Swahili-English translations (words)

2) There were 2 groups:
- Group 1 only restudied the material/words
- Group 2 alternates between restudying the material/words and performing active recall tests

3) In the final recall test that all students took, Group 2 who did active recall and restudied recalled more words when prompted with cues

Question 36

Why does retrieval practice (active recall) work?

Answer 36

• Recalling enhances how well students mentally organise info and process distinctive aspects of individual items

Question 37

What is recommended for students following the retrieval practice (active recall) method?

Answer 37

• More practice, the better
• Greater time intervals within trials result in greater benefits (repeated tests should be spaced out between studying and other practice tests)

Question 38

What did Roediger and Karpicke do in their active recall study?

Answer 38

1) All articipants were told to read a passage 4 times (initial task)

2) There were 2 groups:
- Group 1 = Read the passage 3 times + active recall (2nd study trial)
- Group 2 = Read the passage once + active recall on 3 occasions (recall test)

3) 1 week later, after the final test, Group 2 (the recall test group) performed better than Group 1 (2nd study trial group)

Question 39

Why does practice testing improve learning?

Answer 39

• Direct effect (you get used to taking the test and changes arise from the act of taking the test itself)
• Mediated effects (better learning at next study)
• Testing can enhance retention by triggering an elaborative retrieval process (Carpenter, 2009)

Question 40

What did Carpenter et al’s study on retrieval practice suggest?

Answer 40

Testing increases semantic links (connecting facts/info with meaning) compared to simple restudy

• Participants retrieved more info when they were given semantically-related cues

Question 41

What is recommended to students following the retrieval practice method?

Answer 41

• Try different kinds of recall tests (e.g. short-answer, MCQs, comprehension etc)
• Try active recall with different types of materials (e.g. factual, text, journal articles)
• More testing, the better
• Continue recalling until you get all the answers correct (keep retesting if you get it wrong)
• High utility
• Create flashcards, cornell notes

Question 42

What learning technique involves spreading out study content over a period of time?

Answer 42

Distributed practice

Question 43

Cramming vs Distributed practice. Which works best and why?

Answer 43

Distributed practice

• Because by “spacing” learning activities out over time you will be able to learn more information and retain it longer
• Because of deficient processing:
  —> When studying sessions/reviews are spaced apart, long-term learning is enhanced. Processing of info suffers when study trials are close in time (massed practice)

Question 44

What was the well-known study investigating the effects of Distributed practice on recalling?

Answer 44

Bude et al.

1) Examined learning stats across 2 sections of the same course over 6 months and 8 weeks

2) Lectures, meetings and lab sessions were shortened in the 8-week program than the 6-month program and retrieval activities were more crammed in the 8-week program

3) Findings = 6-month course students performed better at open-ended qs and final exams

Question 45

What are the 4 main strengths of Distributed practice?

Answer 45

1) Deficient processing -> No need to work very hard to reread notes/retrieve straight away

2) Reminding -> 2nd presentation of to-be-learned material reminds learner of the 1st learning opportunity (practice testing)

3) Consolidation (2nd learning opportunity benefits from making the knowledge/facts learnt from the 1st learning opportunity stronger)

4) Multiple mechanisms?

Question 46

What are the recommendations for students following a distributed practice method?

Answer 46

High utility

• The more spaced out the study sessions, the better but it depends on how long you want to know the material for
• Spacing between learning sessions should be around 10-20% of how long you want to know the material for

Question 47

Which learning techniques are categorised as high-utility?

Answer 47

1) Practice testing
2) Distributed practice

Question 48

Which learning techniques are categorised as moderate utility?

Answer 48

1) Elaborative interrogation
2) Self-explanation

Question 49

Which learning techniques are categorised as a low utility?

Answer 49

1) Summarisation
2) Highlighting
3) Mnemonic
4) Imagery use for text learning
5) Rereading