Topic 3 Flashcards
Penny Study
Participants were shown is different variations of the US penny and wanted to see if they could identify the correct one
- most people got it wrong
Key Takeaways:
- learning requires attention and engagement
- Just because you see something all the time doesn’t mean you have learned it
Rubber Ducky Debugging
- consists of having a rubber ducky or stuffed animal and talking to it while studying as it helps to navigate through hard problems faster rather than doing it in your head
- talking out loud speeds up problem solving
- helps navigate hard problems (especially math)
- some kind of mechanism in our brain that when we talk out loud, helps us to process info in a different way
Depth of Processing Study
RQ: Does depth of processing during studying influence memory?
M: 1. participants are asked different kinds of questions that is followed by a word relating to a question - answer with yes or no response
2. tested later on memory of the words
- questions were either semantic (meaning of word), phonetic (does it rhyme), elaborate semantic (does the word fit into the blank of a sentence), and graphemic (is the whole word in capital letters)
R: Elaborative semantic (80% correct), semantic (60%), phonetic (38%), graphemic (17%)
A: The deeper the processing the more you remember it without additional retrieval practice or studying
- When learning new material, engage with them deeply and think about their meaning and context to remember them better - ELABORATE ON THEM!
Unprompted Elaboration Study
RQ: Is there a correlation between elaboration and academic success?
M: 1. students are shown a series of short statements and asked to invent continuation sentences
2. Surprise test for memory of statements later
C: Some students had high grades while others had lower
R: 1. higher grade kids wrote more ‘precise elaboration’
2. Lower grade kids wrote more vague and unrelated statements
3. higher grade kids did better on the surprise test
- training in elaboration techniques improved test scores over time
A: By learning to use elaboration techniques like the depth of processing study, you can improve your learning much more quickly
Elaboration vs Explanation
RQ: what explains better retention? Having an explanation of the content OR the act of elaboration itself?
- Does it matter that you produce the elaboration yourself or can you use other peoples elaboration?
M: 1. students are shown the sentence in the unprompted study “The hungry woman got into her car”
2. Conditions applied
3. Later cued recalled task - “who got into the car?” = the hungry woman
C: 3x2 design
1. Control group: read the sentences
2. pre-explained: shown explanation
3. Elaboration group: generate own explanation
Tested later by: 1. Intentional: knew about test
2. Incidental: Didn’t know about test later
R: Intentional: Elaborated did best, read, pre explained
Incidental: Elaborated (by a lot), pre explained, read
A: come up with your elaborations and explanations whenever possible to learn more and remember more
Elaboration and Depth of Knowledge
RQ: Does the impact of elaboration get impacted by how much you already know about a subject?
- depth of knowledge: how much you know of something
M: 1. Canadian & German students
2. Learn facts about Canada and Germany
3. Study either by reading or elaborative interrogation (connect things together)
R: High prior knowledge: Elaboration did about 20% better than read
Low prior knowledge: elaboration did about 20% better than read
A: elaboration is still useful when you don’t know a lot about a subject and literally just helps you learn more and faster
Actors use of Elaboration
RQ: how do actors make use of elaboration?
M: Professionals and Novice actors, learn a 6 page script, asked about how they memorise the lines
R: Professionals used deeper elaborations, included perspective of characters and other info not offered by the script, think about why the character would say and do each thing
A: Knowing and elaborating on your character matters more than memorisation of lines because the lines will come naturally when you know your character
Problem solving with elaboration
RQ: Does elaboration improve problem solving skills?
M: Participants solve logical problems
1. Practice using concrete problems (real world)
2. Tested using abstract problems (e.g. algebra)
All problems used the same rules
C: Had to do with how they solved the problem
A. no verbalisation (only in their head)
B. congruent verbalisation (talk out loud)
C. Retrospective verbalisation (solve problem in their head then explained their reasoning out loud)
R: Concrete problems: all 3 did well - 1st congruent, 2nd retrospective, 3rd no verbalisation
Abstract problems: 1st congruent, 2nd retrospective, 3rd no verbalisation - so much worse than the rest
A: elaboration during problem solving leads to faster and more accurate solutions
Two ways sleep improves memory
- Sleep reduces interferences from other learning
- reduces the chances of getting info from different subjects mixed together - Sleep consolidates memory, leading to sleep-based improvements with no additional practice
- we forget a lot at first, but once you have a good nights rest, you stop forgetting as quickly
Interference Study
RQ: does sleep protect memory from interference?
M: paired associations learning task
A-B list example: if I say blanket you say village - each word has a paired association
A-C list example: Blanket-rubber (this is interference list cause it messes up and can confuse you with the A-B list)
1. Participants learn A-B list
2. Wait 12 hours, then learn A-C list
3. Get tested on the A-B list
C: 2 groups
1. no sleep between learning the lists
2. sleep after learning the first list
R: sleep group did way better than no sleep group
A: this is because sleep reduces interference!
Top performers value sleep
- Interviews with top musicians and they rated sleep as highly important for improving performance
- took more naps in the afternoon compared to music teachers
- naps and sleep is one of the core important skills that help them retain high quality performances
Nap Study
Both groups sleep for approx 8hrs a night but experts take naps between 2-6pm
- this helps consolidate what was learnt earlier
- naps are good for you in terms of learning more and retaining more!
Sleep deprivation
- leads to worse memory
- decision making areas of the brain are negatively impacted by it
- new learning is compromised
Losing 1 night of sleep means:
- impairs learning from the day before
- make new learning harder
- impacts 2 days of learning!
What is stress?
responses by the body and mind in response to external or internal stresses
- anything that causes energy to be expended, whether that’s physical, mental, or emotional
- can be “acute” or “chronic”
- influences attention and engagement
Good stress vs. Bad stress
- if stress is too low we don’t care enough to do well
- if stress is too high we get anxious and make mistakes or choke
- optimal stress is challenging enough to keep us motivated but not too much that we shut down - optimal stress is best performance
Balancing stress has been discussed to have implications for:
- education
- learning
- performance
- decision making
