Topic 1

Question 1

Principle 1.1

Answer 1

Retrieve! Retrieval practice is more effective than re-reading your notes

Question 2

Principle 1.2

Answer 2

Interleave! Mix different concepts. Mix old and new

Question 3

Principle 1.3

Answer 3

Space it out! Learning, like digesting food, happens slowly over time, and can’t be rushed.

Question 4

Principle 1.4

Answer 4

Elaborate! Elaborate new ideas and make connections with things you already know.

Question 5

Principle 1.5

Answer 5

Self-Care! Sleep cements knowledge into long term memory and protects it from interference. Stress makes it more difficult to learn

Question 6

Principle 2.1

Answer 6

Humans find feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness rewarding (in addition to meeting basic survival needs).

Question 7

Principle 2.2

Answer 7

Lack of confidence leads to lack of motivation.

Question 8

Principle 2.3

Answer 8

The further in the future something is, the less we care about it.

Question 9

Principle 2.4

Answer 9

Procrastination is what happens when the value of our desired activity is lower to us than the value of some other activity (in that moment)

Question 10

Principle 2.5

Answer 10

Habits, for better or worse, shortcut the decision process.

Question 11

Principle 2.6

Answer 11

Short-term goals helps us to be more directed, energized, and persistent in our efforts to achieve an outcome.

Question 12

Principle 3.1

Answer 12

Learning is proportional to surprise. Learning is what happens when our predictions are wrong.

Question 13

Principle 3.2

Answer 13

Everything gets boring, eventually.

Question 14

Principle 3.3

Answer 14

Effective Learning requires self-reflection and effective “metacognition”

Question 15

Principle 3.4

Answer 15

Novice + Practice = Expert

Question 16

Weakness 1

Answer 16

Our brains are impatient. We discount future rewards too much, getting fewer rewards than had we been more patient.

Question 17

Weakness 2

Answer 17

Our brains are insecure. Although errors are important for learning, we do our best to avoid making them.

Question 18

Weakness 3

Answer 18

Our brains are lazy. We tend to avoid difficult methods of studying, even if those methods are more effective

Question 19

Strength 1

Answer 19

Our brains can change rapidly to adapt to the environment, and this change is rewarding to us.

Question 20

Strength 2

Answer 20

We can understand our own weaknesses and use this understanding to make better decisions.

Question 21

Strength 3

Answer 21

Our brain is capable of learning any skill, and so our abilities are not fixed

Question 22

More training pairs / More recall

Answer 22

RQ: Does more recall or training help learning?
M: learn English-swahili word Paris; test 1 week later
C: 2x2 (+/- training) x (+/- recall)
R: recall is better, more training didn’t help
A: you might not need to reread notes if you get them correct on practice tests, but you should still test them

Question 23

Difficulty of Retrieval

Answer 23

RQ: does increasing the difficulty of our practice improve learning outcomes?
M: all participants study (70 English-swahili word pairs) using retrieval practice up to a criterion level
C: 1 minute delay vs. 6 minute delay
Retention Interval - study then take test 25 mins later or 1 week later
R: 25 min - those with 6 min delay did best
1 week - all did bad but 6 min delay did slightly better
A: How hard you study doesn’t mater, whether it is EFFECTIVE does!

Question 24

Feedback Study

Answer 24

RQ: is feedback important for learning outcomes?
M: Training (read and practice test), quiz after 1 week
C: 4 kinds of practice
1. No test
2. Test with no feedback
3. Test with immediate feedback
4. test with delayed feedback
R(1 week later): no test did so bad, no feedback did okay, immediate did good, delayed did best!
A: delayed feedback is additional difficult practice which helped learning outcome

Question 25

Transfer of Learning

Answer 25

RQ: does retrieval practice help with the solving of real-world problems?
M: Participants read 6 paragraphs for 24 minutes
Test 1 week later seeing if they can use transfer learning
C: 1. reread paragraphs
2. reread highlighted notes
3. practice quizzes
R: reread okay, highlighted notes slightly better, retrieval practice did a lot better
A: retrieval is better for memorisation and application

Question 26

Concept Mapping Study

Answer 26

RQ: how does practice with retrieval compare to practice with less retrieval and concept mapping? How prepared do students feel using different studying techniques?
Concept map: concepts are connected using lines and arrows
M: 1. study for test
2. rate how well they think will do after studying
3. take 2 test (a) factual knowledge (verbatim) (b) applied knowledge (inference)
C: 1. reread notes for 1 hour
2. reread notes for 4 hours
3. concept mapping with notes for 1 hour
4. retrieval practice for 1 hour
R: (worst to best)
verbatim - study, concept mapping, repeated study, retrieval (by a lot was better)
inference - study, concept mapping, repeated study, retrieval (a lot better)
A: Retrieval practice is best! Concept mapping is great as well but should be used as a form of retrieval practice
Note: Those who did retrieval had low ratings how well they thought they were going to do and repeated study had a high ratings