Topic 1 Flashcards
Principle 1.1
Retrieve! Retrieval practice is more effective than re-reading your notes
Principle 1.2
Interleave! Mix different concepts. Mix old and new
Principle 1.3
Space it out! Learning, like digesting food, happens slowly over time, and can’t be rushed.
Principle 1.4
Elaborate! Elaborate new ideas and make connections with things you already know.
Principle 1.5
Self-Care! Sleep cements knowledge into long term memory and protects it from interference. Stress makes it more difficult to learn
Principle 2.1
Humans find feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness rewarding (in addition to meeting basic survival needs).
Principle 2.2
Lack of confidence leads to lack of motivation.
Principle 2.3
The further in the future something is, the less we care about it.
Principle 2.4
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)
Principle 2.5
Habits, for better or worse, shortcut the decision process.
Principle 2.6
Short-term goals helps us to be more directed, energized, and persistent in our efforts to achieve an outcome.
Principle 3.1
Learning is proportional to surprise. Learning is what happens when our predictions are wrong.
Principle 3.2
Everything gets boring, eventually.
Principle 3.3
Effective Learning requires self-reflection and effective “metacognition”
Principle 3.4
Novice + Practice = Expert
Weakness 1
Our brains are impatient. We discount future rewards too much, getting fewer rewards than had we been more patient.
Weakness 2
Our brains are insecure. Although errors are important for learning, we do our best to avoid making them.
Weakness 3
Our brains are lazy. We tend to avoid difficult methods of studying, even if those methods are more effective
Strength 1
Our brains can change rapidly to adapt to the environment, and this change is rewarding to us.
Strength 2
We can understand our own weaknesses and use this understanding to make better decisions.
Strength 3
Our brain is capable of learning any skill, and so our abilities are not fixed
More training pairs / More recall
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
Difficulty of Retrieval
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!
Feedback Study
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
