Make it Stick Flashcards
Learning is deeper and more durable when it’s effortful.
Learning that easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow.
What is Massed Practice?
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’re also among the least productive. By massed practice we mean the single-minded, rapid-fire repetition of something you’re trying to burn into memory, the “practice-practice-practice” of conventional wisdom. Cramming for exams is an example. Rereading and massed practice give rise to feelings of fluency that are taken to be signs of mastery, but for true mastery or durability these strategies are largely a waste of time.
What is retrieval practice?
Retrieval practice-recalling facts or concepts or events from memory-is a more effective learning strategy than re-
view by rereading. Flashcards are a simple example. Retrieval strengthens the memory and interrupts forgetting. A single, simple quiz after reading a text or hearing a lecture produces better learning and remembering than rereading the text or reviewing lecture notes. While the brain is not a muscle that gets stronger with exercise, the neural pathways that make
up a body of learning do get stronger, when the memory is retrieved and the learning is practiced.
What is periodic practice?
Periodic practice arrests forgetting, strengthens retrieval routes, and is essential for hanging onto the knowledge you want to gain. 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.
It may not be intuitive that retrieval practice is a more powerful leaning strategy than repeated review and rereading.
Well, here’s a study that may surprise you.
A group of eight-year-olds practiced tossing beanbags into buckets in gym class. Half of the kids tossed into a bucket three feet away. The other half mixed it up by tossing into buckets two feet and four feet away. After twelve weeks of this they
were all tested on tossing into a three-foot bucket. The kids who did the best by far were those who’d practiced on two and four-foot buckets but never on three-foot buckets. PG46
Why is spaced and interleaved practice hard to commit to?
Massed practice always feels more productive than spaced and interleaved but you mistake the memorization of the text with deep learning of the idea, you have to commit and trust that the benefits of spaced and interleaved will come down the track.
Spacing out your practice feels less productive for the very reason that some forgetting has set in and you’ve got to work harder to recall the concepts. It doesn’t feel like you’re on top of it. What you don’t sense in the moment is that
this added effort is making the learning stronger
Why is spaced practice more effective?
It appears that embedding new learning in long-term memory requires a process of consolidation, in which memory traces
(the brain’s representations of the new learning) are strengthened, given meaning, and connected to prior knowledge a process that unfolds over hours and may take several days.
What is the difference between straight forward knowledge of facts and deeper learning?
The distinction between straightforward knowledge of facts and deeper learning that permits flexible use of the knowledge
may be a little fuzzy, but it resonates with Douglas Larsen at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, who says that the skills required for bird classification are similar to those required of a doctor diagnosing what’s wrong with a patient. “The reason variety is important is it helps us see more nuances in the things that we can compare against,” he says. “That comes up a lot in medicine, in the sense that every patient visit is a test. There are many layers of explicit and implicit memory involved in the ability to discriminate between symptoms and their interrelationships.” Implicit memory is your automatic retrieval of past experience in interpreting a new one. For example, the patient comes in and gives
you a story. As you listen, you’re consciously thinking through your mental library to see what fits, while also unconsciously polling your past experiences to help interpret what the pa-
tient is telling you. “Then you’re left with making a judgment call,
Practice like you ____ and you will ____ like you ________
Practice like you play and you will play like you practice
How long should the intervals be in spaced practice?
Enough that the practice doesn’t become mindless repetition, enough that a little forgetting has set it and it takes effort to remember the concept next time you practice. But not enough time that you basically have to relearn to material.
Is there a limit to how much we can learn?
There’s virtually no limit to how much learning we can remember as long as we relate it to what we already know. In fact, because new learning depends on prior learning, the more we learn, the more possible connections we create for further
learning. Our retrieval capacity, though, is severely limited. Most of what we’ve learned is not accessible to us at any given
moment.
What are 3 cognitive activities that involve reflection
retrieval (recalling recently learned knowledge to mind)
elaboration (for example, connecting new knowledge to what you already know)
generation (for example, rephrasing key
ideas in your own words or visualizing and mentally rehearsing what you might do differently next time).
Learning is at least a three step process
What are these steps?
Learning is at least a three-step process: - - initial encoding of information is held in short-term working memory before being consolidated into a cohesive representation of knowledge in long-term memory.
- Consolidation reorganizes and stabilizes memory traces, gives them meaning, and makes connections to past experiences and to other knowledge already
stored in long-term memory.
- Retrieval updates learning and
enables you to apply it when you need it.
Learning always builds on a store of prior knowledge. We interpret and remember events by building connections to what we already know.
Long term memory capacity is virtually limitless: the more you know the more possible connections you have for adding new knowledge
People who as a matter of habit extract underlying principles or rules from new experiences are more successful learners than those who take their experiences at face vale, failing to infer lessons that can be applied later in similar situations
Write down 2 concepts (underlying principles) that you have learn today and yesterday.
What are the 4 steps of the habit loop?
and is there ways you can use this to improve your habits
Cue: make it obvious
Craving: make it attractive.
Response: make it easy
Reward: make it satisfying
