weeks 1-6 Flashcards
How to fight procrastination?
written plans ahead of time, written schedules.
Prioritize.
Isolated location/device devoted only for work as to not be associated with distracting things.
classical conditioning
associating something with an automatic response
unconditioned stimulus
stimulus that produces an automatic response
Conditioned stimulus
stimulus that does not produce an automatic response
Operant conditioning
changing behavior via reward/punishment
self handcaping
constructing impediments to performance to protect or enhance one’s perceived competence
proper way to praise a child
reward hard work and effort. not talent and natural skill.
the high utility study techniques
Practice testing:
distributed practice: space out studying
medium utility study techniques
elaborate interrogation
self explanation
interleaved practice
poor study techniques
summarizing highlighting underlining imagery rereading
variable ratio schedule of reinforcement
pigeons generally peck the key more frequently, and are much less likely to give up pecking, if they are reinforced on infrequent random pecks, rather than every peck
The moral: bad behaviours that are only rewarded occasionally are harder to eradicate than those that are rewarded all the time.
discriminative stimuli (“triggers”)
Environmental cues , indicate to the animal when a given behaviour is likely to be rewarded or punished.
Augmenting
: Increasing our assessment of one cause of a behaviour when another cause appears to be working against it (e.g. “I got an A on the exam even though I was hung over. I must be really smart!”)
Discounting:
decreasing our assessment of one cause of a behaviour because another cause appears to be working in the same direction (e.g. “I feel kind of stupid about flunking that exam, but I didn’t study very hard, so maybe I’m not that stupid.”)
Research methedology
Must have a large group of test subjects and a control group. Control as many factors as possible. (diet, sleep, etc)
Correlational studies:
Multiple variables are measured, and none are manipulated.
Experiments:
Independent variables are manipulated to observe their effects on dependent variables.
Primary sources
People report data they gathered themselves.
Secondary sources (a.k.a. review articles)
People summarize data gathered by other people, and try to find some patterns in this data.
Opinion pieces
People write these mainly to voice opinions, and data plays a secondary role.
Practice testing
Can be low-stakes testing or self-directed, can include short essays, one-sentence answers, flash cards, etc.
More effective than restudying
Appears to be widely applicable (even to open book exams)
Free recall test better than recognition
Implementation issues
Reasonable time demands
Minimal training
Practice testing with feedback outperforms testing alone
Feedback should be immediate (i.e. should know instantly if answer right or wrong)
Overall assessment: HIGH UTILITY
Distributed practice
Greater intersession forgetting (i.e. longer intervals between sessions) associated with greater long-term retention
Very robust across different conditions
Distributed practice testing better than distributed reviewing
Benefit even occurs for lags of weeks or months
Bigger effect for intentional than incidental processing (this may be why practice testing is so good)
Issues for implementation
Study materials (e.g. textbooks) tend to promote massed practice; this is bad
The way students actually study: procrastination scallop
Elaborative interrogation
Generating explanation for why fact is true
Focus on similarities and differences between right and wrong answers
Works better when explanations are precise, self-generated
Works best for domains with much prior knowledge
Implementation issues
Requires little training
Reasonable time commitment
May be easier to use for discrete facts than complex systems
Overall assessment: MODERATE UTILITY
Self-explanation
Explaining relation of new with known info, or explaining steps in problem-solving
Related to elaborative interrogation, but much more variable prompts
Explain own processing during (not after) learning or problem solving
Can be done with minimal instruction
Potentially very time-consuming (few studies control for this)
Overall assessment: MODERATE EFFICACY
Interleaved practice
Contrast with blocked practice (i.e. practice one technique at a time)
During practice, blocked practice works better than interleaved practice; this reverses at test
Why? Gives student practice identifying correct method (reduces discrimination errors)
Also, when switching problems, solution not in short term memory, practice retrieval from long term memory
Does not seem to work for vocabulary
Overall assessment: MODERATE EFFICACY
Working memory
lasts about 20 secs
can hold about 4 chunks of info
mainly sight and auditory
Long-term memory (LTM) Three stages
Encoding: Putting information into LTM. Encoding is highly dependent on paying attention.
A demonstration of depth of processing and encoding
Storage: Maintaining information in long-term memory.
Retrieval: Accessing information from LTM so that it is once again available to working memory. Your ability to retrieve memories is often dependent on how you encode them.
Improving encoding
Elaborative encoding
Linking new to already known information
Assembling into meaningful units
Relating to self
Depth of processing
Recall our demonstration of depth of processing effects
Organization
A demonstration of organization
Improving storage
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885)
Forgetting curve
Distributed practice
Overlearning
Managing stress improves long-term storage, just as it does working memory
Stress, the hippocampus, and long-term memory
Improving Retrieval
Context affects how well we retrieve from LTM.
The tip of the tongue phenomenon is a sign of retrieval failure.
Retrieval cues facilitate retrieval. You want lots of them, and you want them to be relevant to contexts in which the information is likely to be useful.
How do you do this? Elaborative encoding! Make links with related ideas explicit, think of examples relevant to yourself, organize!
Serial position curve (Ebbinghaus)
Primacy effect. First few items on a list tend to be better remembered.
Recency effect. Last few items on a list tend to be better remembered.
Moral: If you have to memorize lists, try to keep them short.
Mnemonics: They work by creating really powerful retrieval cues
five factors of personality (OCEAN)
Extraversion Neuroticism Agreeableness Openness to experience Conscientiousness
Taking notes that enhance memory
Complete notes are better than incomplete notes.
Accurate notes are better than inaccurate notes.
Notes that highlight linkages among related pieces of information are better than fragmented notes.
Matrices and mind maps may be better than linear notes under many circumstances, but they are hard to do on the fly, so it may be better to do them after the lecture.
Iconic memory
can hold dozens
lasts .25 secs
holds visual info
LTM
can last a life time
can hold unlimited info
all senses
Study group benefits
Motivational tool
Facilitate self-testing
Multiple perspectives can make lack of understanding easier to detect
Multiple perspectives increase odds that if one student doesn’t understand something, another does and can explain it to them
Can make it easier to establish a regular study schedule
Can make studying less unpleasant
Preventing social loafing
Ensure individual contributions are identifiable
Keep groups small
Set specific goals
Ensure that people are motivated by goals and buy in
Increase identification with the group
Set appropriate norms and roles, and ensure they are adhered to
Note: many of these can be implemented by an effective leader
Groupthink:
a syndrome in which groups make poor decisions because of excessively strong conformity pressures (i.e. everybody is pressured to go along with a plan even though in their hearts they don’t really agree with it)
Solution to group think
leader encourages people to voice dissenting views, questions the emerging consensus him- or herself, makes contingency plans
forming a study group
Get to know each other (this is genuinely important)
Set goals
Set roles (e.g. what does the leader do, do you need a note-taker, etc.)
Set meeting times
Set norms
How are people expected to contribute during study sessions?
What are people expected to do to prepare for study sessions?
What are the norms surrounding asking questions, contradicting people whom you think are making a mistake (people need to be able to do this without offending each other)
How will the group ensure that people contribute?
How will the group monitor itself to see if it is doing what it is supposed to be doing?
negative feedback,
is stabilizing
positive feedback
is destabilizing
