“The Learning Scientists have done it again! In their new book Ace That Test they seamlessly meld scientific research with practical application in an easily accessible manner certain to help students gain agency over their learning. Excellent book.”

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, The Science of Learning Group, Melbourne, Australia

“Ace That Test is the ‘must read’ handbook for students providing current and efficient learning and study habits. Students world-wide deserve the opportunity to learn from this book and employ the evidenced-based practical tips to improve their academic performance and lifelong learning.”

Deanne Clark, Brisbane, Australia

“The Learning Scientists have long been my go-to source for accurate, lively, and useful advice about teaching and learning. In this excellent book, all students have a practical, research-based resource explaining how best (and how not!) to study, remember, and learn.”

Andrew Watson, author of Learning Begins and The Goldilocks Map

“Ace That Test delivers multiple evidence-based approaches to learning, including practical examples, and it is engaging and easy to comprehend. The step-by-step approaches, with just the right amount of humor and anecdotes, make this a fantastic resource, encouraging real learning, for students and educators alike.”

James Barraclough, Director of Undergraduate Initiatives, Washburn University, USA

Ace That Test

We know students have more to learn than ever before and there is a lot of pressure to perform well on tests, demonstrating superior learning. However, common study strategies such as cramming, highlighting text, and repeated reading have little impact in the longer term. This exciting new book reveals the effective study strategies that will help you to use your time more efficiently, ace your tests, and retain information over time.

In full color and accompanied by beautifully illustrated graphics, Ace That Test offers evidence-based learning strategies that students can use during their study sessions, including dual coding and the power of retrieving what they know. Including concrete examples of the ways students can use each strategy, illustrations to leverage dual coding principles of learning, and questions and activities for retrieval practice, the book covers:

How to prepare your mind for learning

Making better decisions about what you study

Planning study sessions

Using visuals and words to aid understanding

Understanding concepts

Improving learning in the long run

Reading and note-taking strategies

With QR codes linking to answers to embedded questions and supplemental material, this is essential reading for college, university, and school students as well as educators teaching study skills or learning to learn courses.

Megan Sumeracki (@DrSumeracki) earned her PhD at Purdue University and is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Rhode Island College. She is one of the original co-founders of The Learning Scientists and is a co-author of the award-winning book Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide.

Cynthia Nebel (@PsyDocCindy) earned her PhD at Washington University in St. Louis and is a Senior Lecturer in the Leadership and Learning in Organizations EdD program at Vanderbilt University where she both teaches the science of learning and leads doctoral students through their capstone research.

Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel (@pimpmymemory) earned her PhD at the University of Mannheim and is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Glasgow. She is dedicated to teaching, science communication, and outreach. She founded the Teaching Innovation & Learning Enhancement (TILE) network that spans across different disciplines and educational sectors.

Althea Need Kaminske (@DrSilverFox) earned her PhD at Purdue University and is an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery and the Senior Director of Student Academic Support and Achievement at Indiana University School of Medicine. She is a co-author of the book Five Teaching and Learning Myths – Debunked.

Karina Tiller (@by__karina), our illustrator, earned her BFA in Graphic Design at Webster University and now works as a Creative Director in the modern furniture industry by day and an illustration artist by night. She has given numerous lectures and talks, and her work has been published in both print and digital editorial.

Ace That Test A Student’s Guide to Learning Better

Megan Sumeracki, Cynthia Nebel, Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, and Althea Need Kaminske Illustrated by Karina Tiller

Illustrated by Karina Tiller

Designed cover image: © Karina Tiller

First published 2023

by Routledge

4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2023 Megan Sumeracki, Cynthia Nebel, Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, Althea Need Kaminske, and Karina Tiller

The right of Megan Sumeracki, Cynthia Nebel, Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, Althea Need Kaminske, and Karina Tiller to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sumeracki, Megan, author.

Title: Ace that test : a student’s guide to learning better / Megan Sumeracki, Cynthia Nebel, Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, and Althea Need Kaminske ; illustrated by Karina Tiller.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023000996 | ISBN 9781032355863 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032355856 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003327530 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Learning strategies—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Study skills—Handbooks, manuals, etc. | Test taking skills—Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Classification: LCC LB1066 .S86 2023 | DDC 371.26—dc23/eng/20230223

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023000996

ISBN: 978-1-032-35586-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-032-35585-6 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-32753-0 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530

Typeset in Sabon

by codeMantra

Access the student and educator resources: www.routledge.com/cw/acethattest

Contents

Preface: Who we are and why we wrote this book

About the authors and illustrator

Acknowledgements

PART 1 Introduction

1. The science of learning is flexible (and so is this book)

2. Science literacy: Why should you trust the advice in this book?

PART 2 Getting ready to learn

3. Assigned work and studying are not the same, and you need to do both!

4. Your brain is part of your body: Preparing your mind for learning

5. The myth of multitasking: Preparing your environment for learning

6. How do I know what I (don’t) know?

7. Planning your study sessions is important

PART 3 Study strategies that work

8. Bring to mind what you can remember

9. Find multiple concrete examples

10. Use visuals and words to help you understand

11. Describe and explain how things work

12. Jumble it all up

13. Use effective note-taking strategies

14. Avoid strategies that don’t work

15. Conclusion: Believe in yourself

Sample answers to embedded questions

Glossary

Index

Preface: Who we are and why we wrote this book

This book was written by four cognitive psychologists who work together on a project called The Learning Scientists. The Learning Scientists project emerged from a common passion for improving learning for students, and anyone else who wants to learn. As academic researchers, we work to understand how students learn through research. Then, guided by the science of learning research, we work to foster bi-directional conversations with learners and educators in order to improve both education and science. We have created free resources that can be found on our website (www.learningscientists.org), a blog, and a podcast, all focused around helping learners and educators in their pursuit of encouraging learning. In 2019, the book Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide, was published with content for teachers, students, and parents. While we spend a lot of our time working with teachers and other educators to foster learning, our mission has always been about improving student learning. We decided to write this book to focus on exactly this, providing a single resource that students could use to help with studying for exams and improving learning as a whole.

In writing this book, our goal was to explain complicated science in an approachable way, empower students to try something new, encourage students to persist when strategies seem difficult, and help students consider how they might use these strategies in their unique circumstances. It is our hope that this book can be used both in the initial learning of these strategies and also as a reference guide that students revisit throughout their studies in order to continue improving their learning over time.

We also took care to make the book accessible to all students. Students have a variety of identities, backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. Not all students are the same! Across the institutions where we teach, we can see diverse identities, including race and ethnicity, gender identity, age, ability, neurodiversity, level of prior education and prior preparation, and many other attributes. We want every student to be able to see themselves in this book, and we want to be able to see the diverse groups of students we teach within this book. Therefore, throughout the book, we tried to provide diverse examples of students studying and learning. We ourselves are always learning and growing in this area, and we sincerely hope that we accomplished this goal.

About the authors and illustrator

All four authors earned PhDs in Cognitive Psychology, and serve as faculty at academic institutions where they teach, conduct research on how students learn most effectively and efficiently as well as how to encourage students to use evidence-based strategies, publish academic papers and books, and serve their institutions and larger communities. They frequently give talks and workshops around the world about the effective and efficient use of the science of learning in the classroom and other learning settings such as museums, the US State Department, hospitals, corporate settings, and more.

Megan Sumeracki earned her PhD at Purdue University and is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Rhode Island College. She is one of the original co-founders of The Learning Scientists and is a co-author of the award-winning book Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide. In her free time, Megan enjoys crocheting, scrapbooking and general crafting, and traveling to new places to hike and go wine tasting. She lives in Rhode Island in the US with her husband Sam, daughter Molly, and two cats Ellie and Teddy. You can follow her work on Twitter @DrSumeracki.

Cynthia Nebel earned her PhD at Washington University in St. Louis and is a Senior Lecturer in the Leadership and Learning in Organizations EdD program at Vanderbilt University where she teaches both the science of learning and also leads doctoral students through their capstone research. In her free time, Cynthia enjoys spending time with her family, especially exploring new outdoor parks and hiking trails. She lives in the greater St. Louis area in the US with her husband Steve, three children Lindsey, Teddy, and Annabelle, and puppy Bailey Rose. You can follow her work on Twitter @PsyDocCindy.

Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel earned her PhD at the University of Mannheim and is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Glasgow (US equivalent: Associate Professor). She founded the Teaching Innovation & Learning Enhancement (TILE) network to bring together different disciplines and educational sectors to overcome issues in education with research-informed approaches. In her free time, Carolina enjoys spending time with family and friends, listening to vinyl records, reading books, and watching movies and series. She lives in Glasgow, Scotland, with her husband Patrick and son Emil. You can follow her work on Twitter @pimpmymemory.

Althea Need Kaminske earned her PhD at Purdue University and is an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery and the Senior Director of Student Academic Support and Achievement at Indiana University School of Medicine. She is a co-author of the book Five Teaching and Learning Myths – Debunked. In her free time, Althea enjoys going on walks with her family, reading science fiction, fantasy, and romance, and playing Dungeons & Dragons. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the US with her husband Tim, son Calvin, dog Bree, and cat Sushi. You can follow her work on Twitter @DrSilverFox.

Together, they make up the Learning Scientists Team (www.learningscientists.org). You can follow them on Twitter @AceThatTest.

Karina Tiller, our illustrator, earned her BFA in Graphic Design at Webster University and now works as a Creative Director in the modern furniture industry by day and an illustration artist by night. She has given numerous lectures and talks, and her work has been published in both print and digital editorial. In her free time, Karina enjoys picnics in the park with friends and family, endless true crime podcasts, volunteering at a local animal shelter, and collecting tropical plants despite residing in the Midwest. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, in the US with her beagle, Penelope. You can follow her work on Instagram @by__karina.

Acknowledgements

We first extend our gratitude to the many teachers, students, and other educators who engage with the Learning Scientists project. Bidirectional communication within and between educational circles is extremely important to us, and we could not do that without you! We also want to thank our own students at Rhode Island College, Vanderbilt University, University of Glasgow, St. Bonaventure University, and the many institutions we have learned and taught with in the past. We are driven by the science of learning, but it is through interactions with our own students that we are truly able to see evidence-based practice in action, and we learn tremendously from our own students.

Megan would like to thank her husband, Sam, for his love, support, and encouragement while writing this book and throughout her career as a whole. She would also like to acknowledge her children, Spencer who left this world far too soon but will never be forgotten, and Molly, who started as just a few cells when this book was only a few outlined ideas on a page. She developed, grew, and kicked throughout the entire writing process! She thanks her mom, Sandy, and sister, Alyssa, for their constant empowerment while pursuing academic endeavors.

Cindy would like to thank her husband, Steve, for his love, patience, and support as she struggled to find work–life balance, and her children, Lindsey, Teddy, and Annabelle, from whom she has learned the most. She would also like to thank her parents, Ed and Jayne Wooldridge, for laying the foundation for her own love of learning, and her dear friends Emily, Mary Jo, and Stefanie who have been a constant source of support these 25 years. And, finally, she thanks her colleagues and students at Lindenwood and Washburn, who taught her to be a student-centered teacher and scholar.

Carolina would like to thank the many strong and empowering women in her life who have been constant sources of support. Without them, she would not be where she is. Here they are (in more or less chronological order): Sueli Kuepper-Tetzel (Mamse), Pia Sue Helferich, Heike Kreher, Melody Wiseheart, Lea Kuepper-Tetzel, Elaine Niven, Ashley Robertson, Niamh Stack, Emily Nordmann (#workwife4life), Chiara Horlin, and Heather Cleland Woods. Carolina is also grateful for the love and support from the men in her life: Patrick and Emil Bayer as well as Udo and Claus Kuepper-Tetzel. Thanks. Danke. Obrigada.

Althea would like to thank her husband, Tim, for his support, encouragement, and understanding during the writing process. She would like to thank her son, Calvin, for forcing her to be present in small moments of joy in the way that only toddlers can do. She would like to thank her siblings, Tom, Callie, Meagan, and Lorene for always being sources of support and inspiration.

Karina would like to thank her community of talented creatives who inspire and energize her to continuously create new work. She would like to thank her mother, Ginny, and the rest of her family for always enthusiastically supporting her career, her dreams, and her independence. She is also grateful for the 25+ years of friendship and support from her dear friend Ellen Sanders, who continues to keep her grounded and forever entertained. She thanks every goose in The Gaggle (RB, EC, TH, CJ, and PVVDLC), who have been the noisiest, wittiest, and most uplifting flock of friends. And, finally, she is beholden to Penelope the beagle, who will never read this (or anything), but who has undoubtedly helped shape her into the human she is today.

Finally, we would like to thank our editors Annamarie Kino, Lauren Redhead, Molly Selby, and other helpful staff at Routledge; Zayba Ghazali-Mohammed and Andrea Dottolo for their help and advice as we aimed to represent diverse identities, especially in race, ethnicity, gender identity, and ability, and for looking over our alt text descriptions; and our peer reviewers for their guidance and support as we conceptualized, wrote, illustrated, and edited this book.

Part 1 Introduction

Chapter 1 The science of learning is flexible (and so is this book)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-2

If you’re anything like us when we were students, you want to get as much information into your head as possible so that you can do really well on exams, get good grades, and succeed in life. While we were often thinking about grades and scores, we also hoped that we would truly learn the information and be able to retain it for when we needed it in the future. The process sounds so simple when it is laid out like this, but we all know that learning is often difficult, and it is normal to sometimes feel discouraged. This is precisely why we wrote this book.

We are a group of cognitive psychologists, which means we study how people think. Our group has a common mission to use the science of learning in order to help students learn. We have developed a lot of resources for teachers to share with their students and use in the classroom. But, we wrote this book specifically for the group we hope to help learn: you.

In this book, we will teach you about the science of learning and how you can use it to learn better. The strategies in this book are based on evidence, and this means that scientific research shows they work. They will help you do well on tests so that you can earn good scores and grades, but this book is about more than that. We want you to pass your classes, but we also want you to truly learn the material. We want you to be able to remember the material in the long run, and also be able to apply the material in the future. This is really what studying is all about: learning.

We also want to teach you to become more independent in your own learning. As you move through school – from high school or preparing for GCSEs in the UK to college or university – you will need to become more and more independent in your own learning. Managing your own studying will become more and more important as time goes on, and this book can help you do this both effectively and efficiently.

While we will explain some of the science behind the learning strategies covered in this book, we are not going to teach you a lot about the basic processes that happen in our minds when we learn. In this book, we want to focus on practical tips that you can use right away. If you are interested in understanding more of how learning happens, you can check out Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide¹.

How is this book different?

There are many study skills books out there, but what makes this book special is that it is fully backed by scientific evidence. We only included strategies that have a lot of research to show that they work. However, the science of learning does not provide an exact prescription for what to do in every situation. There is no one way to study that will work for every person in every circumstance. Just like doctors don’t prescribe 200mg of ibuprofen to every person who has head pain, regardless of their age, underlying conditions, and likely reasons for the head pain, we cannot say that all of you reading this book should simply do X for Y amount of time and then you will earn a top grade. We wish we could do this, but it would not work for all of you and would not be based on science.

Instead, we provide flexible guidelines for how you can study. In this book, we will explain what study strategies are effective based on decades (and in some cases centuries) of research, and how you can use them in a number of different ways. We hope that you will be able to take this information and apply it to your own studying in a way that works best for you.

How do I use this book?

We did not write this book to be read from front to back or in one sitting. Rather, you should consider this book to be a guide. It probably makes sense to first read chapters about getting ready to learn in Part 2 of the book and later read chapters about study strategies that work in Part 3, but the chapters are written so that you can jump around.

You will also notice that in each chapter, we provide some concrete examples of how you could use the information from that chapter to change your study habits. You will find examples in the “How Do I” sections and the “In Action” sections of each chapter. While you could do any of those things, you may find that you want to use a strategy in a different way, and that is completely fine! We have written these examples to help you see what you could do, not necessarily what you must do.

Each chapter has some questions for you to answer. We encourage you to actually write down your answers to these questions before looking up the answers on the online student and educator resources. You’ll learn in a later chapter that this activity, called retrieval practice, helps you to learn and retain the information much better than just finding the answers (Chapter 8). So give it a shot!

At the end of each chapter, you will find a bulleted list of chapter takeaways that serve as summaries to help you briefly review the main points from each chapter. You will also find a QR code. You can use this code to head to the online student and educator resources. There, you will find additional resources associated with each chapter, like apps that may help, more information to read, and feedback for the questions.

We hope that you will not just read these chapters once. One of the principles you will read about in a later chapter shows us that we learn best when we revisit material spaced out over time (Chapter 7). As you study and sometimes struggle, you should come back to different chapters and try the techniques until you feel comfortable knowing when and how to apply them. When you revisit chapters, you may want to read the content of the chapter or skip straight to the chapter takeaways at the end for a refresher. Do what makes the most sense for you at that moment.

Figure 1.1 A book with tabs so that students can revisit chapters.

Finally, at the back of the book, you will find a glossary of terms and an index. In writing this book we did our very best to make the concepts clear, with a focus on understanding the concepts and how to apply them and not on memorizing terms and definitions. However, as you jump around from chapter to chapter, and revisit chapters, you may find that you need a refresher on some of the terms. If this is the case, you can use the glossary as a dictionary to look up what terms mean. You may also want to find everywhere within the book that you can read about some of the concepts, as many of the concepts are relevant across multiple chapters. When this is the case, you can use the index to locate pages touching on these concepts.

One final note about the book: As you read, you’re going to see little numbers that are associated with references listed at the end of each chapter. That is because it is always important to cite sources! If you’re interested, you can look at these references to see where we got the information, and you could even look the references up to read more if you want. But, most of the time when reading, you can ignore these and focus on the meaning of what you are reading. Just know whenever you see a little number, it means that the information is backed up by research.

Monitoring your progress over time

Many of the strategies in this book might feel difficult when you first start to use them. That extra effort is one of the things that leads to better learning and less forgetting in the long run. However, seeing progress over time takes exactly that – time! As you try different strategies, we encourage you to stick with them and to notice any improvements you see in your understanding of course material and, hopefully, your grades! Even though a given strategy may feel difficult, you may find that you are able to remember more and especially for longer than you could before. This means that you should be able to spend less time cramming just before an exam and feel less anxiety, knowing that you are prepared (to avoid cramming, see Chapter 7 on spaced practice).

You may also find that you need to make adjustments to the way you are using the strategies as you go. Figuring out how to use these strategies is a process, and we will talk about this process and how to monitor your learning effectively throughout the book. As you read and try out the strategies, remember that the strategies are flexible and you can use them in a lot of different ways. If one method does not seem to be working for you, try another. If one schedule feels very disruptive to your life, try a new schedule! We provide advice and recommendations, but it is ultimately up to you to figure out how to make the strategies work for you.

Figure 1.2 A student struggling while writing (top image), and feeling less challenged with the book open (bottom image).

All this will take time and it is important that you not abandon a strategy completely when it seems hard. Instead, ask yourself whether you are remembering more in the long run, and what adjustments you can make. You might even go back to a chapter and read the examples again to see if a different method might be better for you. Most importantly, remember that it is better for it to be hard while studying than while taking the test!

This book in action

Mario is taking a class where he is learning different study skills. This book is one that is handed out by the teacher. The teacher encourages Mario and the other students in the class to try the strategies in their other courses. When they start learning about using pictures with words (Chapter 10), Mario has a really hard time thinking about how to apply that strategy to his math class, where he would like some extra help. Instead of giving up, Mario flips through the book and tries a different strategy that seems to work a lot better when he is studying for math.

Q: Why did Mario change strategies? Was it ok for him to do that?

Figure 1.3 Mario (he/him) learning math.

Ludmila is reading this book on her own to try to improve her study skills. She is trying to use a new strategy where she uses flashcards to test herself because she read about it in the book (Chapter 8), but it feels really hard. She is really worried that she hasn’t re-read her notes enough and that this new strategy won’t work. She decides to go read the chapter again, where she learns that most people find this to be difficult or feel like it’s not working but that it’s usually really effective. She sticks with the strategy (but still re-reads one more time before her next exam) and finds that she actually learned much more than she thought!

Q: How did Ludmila use the book to succeed?

Figure 1.4 Ludmila (she/her) using flashcards.

Chapter takeaways

This book was written to help you learn how to learn more effectively and efficiently so that you can do well on your tests and also retain the information in the long run. It will also help you become a more independent learner, taking more responsibility for your studying.

The principles in this book are all based on scientific evidence, and the science of learning is flexible. It is important for you to use the strategies in this book in a way that works for you, and adjust them to what you need to learn.

You don’t have to read this book chapter by chapter, in order. Jump around and read whatever chapter you need for today. Remember, too, that you may need to revisit chapters to refresh. We don’t expect you to remember everything after one pass over it.

Progress may be slow, and that is okay. Effective learning strategies are ones that help you learn information in the long run. It may feel difficult and slow, but be patient; this is the key to true success.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Weinstein, Y., & Sumeracki, M. A. (2019). Understanding how we learn: A visual guide (O. Caviglioli, Illus.). David Fulton, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203710463

Chapter 2 Science literacy Why should you trust the advice in this book?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-3

There is a lot of information out there about how to study. You may have seen books sold by test preparation companies, videos on YouTube, posts on Instagram with images of organized highlighters and notes, or advice from friends and family. So, the question is: Why should you trust and use this book? What does this book offer that other resources lack?

The answer is simple: All strategies and study tips provided in this book are based on science. In other words, after many investigations, researchers have concluded that these strategies make information stick better and help you learn more.

But what do these investigations look like, and how do researchers know that one strategy is better than another strategy? In this chapter, you will learn about some basic research methods to help you answer these questions. By understanding some basic scientific concepts, you will be able to tell what type of advice you can trust (for studying, but also for all kinds of other things, too) and what type of advice you should take with caution.

The research basics

If you’re reading this book, then you probably want to know what study strategies are most effective to help you learn, and to help you increase your test or exam grades. What you are asking is which strategies cause learning to happen, and cause you to remember information for longer so that you can use them to prepare for tests or exams.

There are a lot of study tips out there, but unfortunately, not all of them are based on actual science. There is also a lot of research showing relationships between students who tend to do certain things and students who tend to score higher on tests or exams, but this does not mean these behaviors cause increased grades. To give an example: Let’s say you notice, or even read in a news article, that students who eat more fruit tend to do better in class. But that does not mean that eating more fruit causes better grades. A more likely explanation would be that students who eat healthy foods tend not to get ill as often and it’s actually class attendance that leads to better grades. Understanding what research methods lead to cause-and-effect relationships will help you better evaluate claims about study strategies.

Imagine your teacher tells you that you will do better on the final exam if you do your homework, but you’re curious – is that true? You get together with a couple of your peers and ask the research question “Does completing weekly homework tasks cause better exam performance?” Any scientific research project starts exactly with that: A research question that you aim to answer. This is the first step that takes you to the next one, deciding how to find an answer to it! To put it in scientific terms, you have to decide which research methods to use that will help you answer the research question.

Together with your peers, you come up with the following study to try to answer your question: At the end of the semester, you send out a brief questionnaire to all students asking them to indicate if they completed all homework tasks and you also ask them to state the grade they received on the final exam. You then check to see how students who completed all homework tasks performed on the final test.

Let’s assume you indeed find that students who completed more homework did better on the final exam. You found a relationship between completing homework and better exam performance. As one factor (e.g., homework completion) increased, so did another factor (e.g., final exam score). Can you say that completing homework caused students to do better on the final exam?

The answer to this is, “No, you can’t!” What you can conclude is that there is a correlation, a relationship, or an association between homework completion and exam grade, but you cannot draw a causal conclusion. Why is that? Because the relationship you have found between homework completion and exam performance could be explained in different ways:

Completing homework tasks led to better exam grades.

Students with better exam grades tend to complete more homework tasks.

There is another factor, say “student studying habits,” that causes both an increase of exam grades and completed homework tasks.

This third possibility is that students with better study habits tend to do all of their homework and, separately, they study a lot for their exams and do better than the students who skip their homework. Homework might not actually help with the exam, but people who study a lot also tend to do a lot of homework. Any of these three explanations could be true.

Here is another example: Imagine you are at the beach and observe that people eating ice cream also have sunburns. Now, can you conclude that eating ice cream causes sunburns? Or that sunburns cause people to eat ice cream? Obviously not. The more likely explanation is that something else causes both: sunshine causes people to eat more ice cream and also causes people to get sunburned. So, while you can establish a relationship between ice cream eating and sunburns, it would be silly to claim that ice cream causes sunburns (or vice versa). Understanding the difference between relationships and causation is really important. The tips we’re suggesting in this book are based on investigations of causation. This can also be useful when reading about scientific findings in the media – as they get this wrong sometimes.

Figure 2.1 In summer, you may observe that people eating ice cream also have sunburns, and because you see these together, you could conclude that eating ice cream causes sunburns. Rather, something else, sunshine, causes both.

Let’s come back to your original research question: “Does completing weekly homework tasks cause better exam performance?” You go back to the drawing board with your peers to think about how to best tackle this question. What you really want to know is whether completing homework causes better exam scores. Causation means that changes in one factor (homework completion) lead to changes in another factor (exam grades). The research method that allows us to figure out what causes what is called an experiment. Experiments come with three important features:

Manipulation (changing) of factors/conditions: In the first step, you want to actively manipulate, or change, the conditions you are interested in. Using our example, you could design two conditions: One condition would be the experimental condition where students are required to complete homework on a weekly basis. The other condition would be the control condition where students do not receive any homework tasks.

Randomization: It is important to make sure that any differences you find on the final exam are due to your manipulation and not due to anything else such as “study habits.” You wouldn’t want the students who like doing homework to pick the homework group, because they might also study a lot, or be different from other students in other ways. Instead, you want to randomly assign students to one of the two conditions. You can do this by putting the names of all students into a bowl and then picking out half of the names and assigning them to one condition and the other half to the other. This procedure makes sure that all students have the same chance to be in either group. At the end, you will know that any difference that you find in exam grades between the two groups is most likely due to having been put in these conditions – and not due to any other factors. (Random assignment does not guarantee groups will be the same, but does give the best chance for very similar groups before the manipulation takes place. This is especially true if the experiment contains a larger number of participants, and is repeated with the same results.)

Control of other factors: Finally, it is important to make sure to control everything else between the two groups. This means that we want the only difference between the two groups to be the thing we manipulated (here: homework tasks). Using our example, you want to make sure that all students are taking the same course and being taught by the same teacher. If, for example, students in the homework condition were taught by a very supportive teacher and students in the no-homework condition by a less supportive teacher, then any differences you find in exam grades between the two groups could be because of homework tasks, the support the teacher provided, or even both. So, keeping other factors constant for both groups is important.

Following these three steps when running the proposed experiment will allow you to answer whether completing homework assignments causes students to perform better on the final exam.

Figure 2.2 In an experiment, students are randomly assigned to conditions, including a control condition. The experimenter manipulates or changes something about what they do, and then they all take the same assessment, in this example an exam, to measure learning. This procedure allows the experimenter to determine causation.

Why did we take this quick tour on research methods? Because most of the scientific evidence that we present in this book comes from experiments. As you have seen, the experimental method allows us to draw causal conclusions. So, when we suggest that one learning strategy causes better test performance than another learning strategy, this conclusion is based on a series of different experiments with the three features we covered (manipulation, randomization, and control of other factors), where any effects can be clearly attributed to that strategy. You can feel confident that researchers have investigated these ideas with scientific methods! Knowing about these research concepts can also help you think about findings you hear about in the media and what conclusions you are able to draw from them.

Using scientific evidence

Even if you find an experiment showing that a study strategy leads to better learning, there may not be enough evidence to warrant changing learning or studying habits. It is typically not a good idea to make large changes based on a single experiment or a single set of experiments published together. This is because a single experiment cannot answer every question by itself or study every learning situation. Instead, we need a lot of different types of experiments that all show similar results before we are confident enough to make recommendations to students and others in education.

We would never want to waste students’ time or give advice that is not likely to improve learning. For that reason, we use what we call the lab-to-classroom model¹. Put very simply, this means that researchers use three types of experiments to make sure that we see those causal effects in lots of different situations. For most things suggested in this book, researchers have used: (1) experiments that are highly controlled in laboratory settings (for example, a computer lab) where students learn very simple things, (2) laboratory experiments where students learn more complex information from textbooks or videos, and (3) experiments that are conducted in real classrooms.

Figure 2.3 In the lab-to-classroom model¹, researchers start with basic laboratory research using very simple materials. Then, researchers use applied laboratory research using more complex materials. Finally, researchers move to the applied classroom research level where they manipulate something within a real classroom setting. Researchers can move back and forth between these levels.

So, the recommendations in this book have a body of evidence supporting their effectiveness, not just a single experiment. Importantly, the learning strategies we identify as being particularly effective have been tested multiple times in many different ways, giving us confidence that they cause improved learning and memory.

Science in action

Molly is working on a school project for which she needs to identify a research question and find research answering the question. For her question, she asks “Does listening to music while studying cause better test scores?” She finds one research paper where researchers asked students whether they tend to study while listening to music, with background noise (e.g., chatter at a coffee shop), or in silence. The researchers then obtained test scores. She finds a second research paper where researchers recruited students to come to the lab and learn a textbook chapter. Participants were randomly assigned to study while listening to music or in silence. Molly needs to decide which paper addresses her research question.

Q: Which paper addresses Molly’s research question, and why?

Q: Using the lab-to-classroom model, what level does Molly’s second paper fall into?

Figure 2.4 Molly (she/her) is trying to decide which research paper to use. She wants to find the paper that determines causation.

Reem and Giorgi are working together on a research project for class, and need to design an experiment. They identify their research question: “Does chewing gum while studying improve test scores?” Now they are trying to decide how to test their question so that they can make a causal conclusion.

Q: Can you come up with an experiment that would test whether chewing gum causes improved test scores?

Figure 2.5 Reem (she/her) and Giorgi (he/him) are working together to try to answer their research question. They will need a method that allows them to determine causation.

Chapter takeaways

Cause-and-effect conclusions from research are important. They mean that the learning strategy or studying behavior actually causes more learning (or more efficient learning).

Whether you can draw cause-and-effect conclusions depends on the research methods that are used to investigate a research question. Experiments come with specific features that allow us to draw causal conclusions. Simply measuring or observing variables only allows us to establish relationships, but relationships do not imply causation. This is true for learning, but also all kinds of other things you may read or hear about in the media!

In experiments the variables or conditions are manipulated, participants are randomly assigned to these conditions, and all other variables are held constant. Experiments are a powerful tool to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

Even with an experiment, one study is not enough. Recommendations in this book are made based on many experiments from very simple laboratory research, laboratory research with more complex materials, and applied classroom research (i.e., the lab-to-classroom model).

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Weinstein, Y., & Sumeracki, M. A. (2019). Understanding how we learn: A visual guide (O. Caviglioli, Illus.). David Fulton, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203710463

Part 2 Getting ready to learn

Chapter 3 Assigned work and studying are not the same, and you need to do both!

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-5

Much of the time you probably focus on completing work that is assigned to you by a teacher. This is sometimes called homework, set work, or coursework in the UK (we will call it homework in this book for simplicity). Of course, learning from these assignments will depend on the assignment itself, but most teachers assign work to complete outside of class with the goal of helping you learn and preparing you for bigger assignments like tests or exams. Regardless of the assignments, it is essential that you complete them because they are often associated with your marks or grades. But, in addition to grades, you should also care about how much you learn. Because of this, it is also essential that you study (or revise, as it is sometimes referred to in the UK), independent of these assignments.

Homework vs studying

Homework includes the assignments that your teacher gives you to complete on your own outside of class. Homework can vary greatly and depends on what your teacher assigns. For example, homework can include:

Worksheets that need to be completed and brought back to school

Assigned readings

Low-stakes quizzes or practice tests that you bring home to complete

Papers or reports that you need to write

Projects like posters or portfolios, including group projects

Making corrections or edits to previously submitted work

Presentations to prepare

Online activities that you are assigned to complete

And anything else that your teacher assigns and asks for you to bring back to class or submit in some way (e.g., on a learning management system like Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, or Google Classroom).

These are all important to complete, both because your teacher assigned them and you likely need to complete them for credit, but also because they can help you learn.

Studying involves independently (or with peers or a tutor) working with the course material to increase your understanding of the material. Studying can include lots of different activities, too:

Reviewing notes or textbook chapters

Looking up correct answers on completed assignments, quizzes, or tests

Creating or completing practice quizzes or tests

Meeting with a group and asking each other questions

Creating or looking up other examples of things you learned in class

Making and using flashcards

And lots of other activities that involve working with course materials.

This book is full of ideas and strategies for what you can do while studying, including many of the ideas above.

Your teacher will not likely assign studying, though they may encourage you to study before upcoming tests or exams, especially when there are higher stakes. You won’t be able to turn in “studying” for a grade, either. However, studying is extremely important; it will help you learn more and, if done well, will lead to better test and exam scores. The amount of time you spend studying will vary across subjects and may not be the same as other students in the class, and you don’t have to study every subject every day. The key is that you study consistently in addition to completing homework, and not just right before a test or exam (cramming).

Figure 3.1 Some differences between homework and studying.

How do I make sure I do both?

Set aside time to complete homework when it is assigned so that you always make sure it gets completed.

Set aside additional time to study.

Use the strategies throughout this book during your study sessions to boost your learning and memory for the material.

Homework and studying in action

Theo’s history teacher assigns weekly readings for all students in the class to complete, and the students in the class are required to turn in two small application papers for each unit in the course. In addition, there are occasional worksheets that the students have to complete and turn in for a grade. Theo makes sure that she blocks off time every single week to complete the readings, and has extra time blocked off for the application papers and worksheets. Her schedule is consistent, so she always has time for her history homework. Theo has earned good grades on the papers and worksheets, but is surprised when she does not do as well on the class tests as she thought she would. Theo wonders what she is missing.

Q: What is Theo missing?

Q: What should Theo do each week to improve her test scores, and retain more in her history course?

Tiara is currently taking a math class. She has a few practice problems due every class as well as a weekly quiz on Fridays. Tiara completes her practice problems right after class so that she doesn’t forget, and always has them ready to turn in. She also studies for her weekly quiz on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. During these evening sessions, she reviews her notes from the current week and the week before to keep them fresh in her memory, and completes a number of practice problems from the back of her textbook.

Q: When is Tiara doing homework and when is she studying?

Q: Which of these activities is going to help Tiara learn?

Figure 3.2 Tiara (she/her) schedules time for homework after class and schedules time to study.

Chapter takeaways

Work that your teacher assigns (homework) and studying are not the same thing, but they are both important for you to do.

Homework involves assignments that your teacher requires you to complete on your own and hand in, often for a grade or marks. Studying involves independently working with the material to help improve learning and, if done well, increases test and exam scores.

Set aside time specifically for studying throughout the week and use the strategies throughout this book to maximize your learning.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

Chapter 4 Your brain is part of your body Preparing your mind for learning

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-6

As you are probably already aware, your brain plays a very big role in learning! One of the most important things to keep in mind about your brain is the obvious, but often overlooked, fact that your brain is part of your body. All of the recommendations that we will make about improving your learning will be much more effective if you can prepare your mind for learning. In this chapter, you will learn how you can prepare your mind and body for learning by getting a good night’s sleep, plenty of exercise, and proper nutrition.

What does it mean to prepare your brain for learning?

Using your brain requires energy. In order to think, learn, and remember, your brain needs nutrients that can be delivered efficiently¹. If you don’t have enough energy, you will have trouble learning and remembering information from your classes, or at least you won’t do this as well as you could. So, if you are here to learn how to learn more, one of the effective ways you can do this is by living a healthier lifestyle. But what does that really mean?

It turns out that it’s really difficult to make exact prescriptions on healthy living. Some people need less sleep than others, or exercise, or a different balance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats in order to optimally think². We’re not here to tell you exactly what you need to do, but we can make some recommendations based on the research that should help pretty much everyone.

Scientific evidence of the brain/body connection

Sleep

Sleep is really important for learning³. Over the course of the night, we go through several different stages of sleep⁴. At the beginning of the night, we experience really deep sleep – the kind that restores our bodies and makes us able to think the next day – and at the end of the night we have more REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Getting enough sleep at night is very important for learning and building long-lasting memories. In fact, in one study, students who were challenged to sleep for 8 hours a night during finals week performed significantly better on their final exams than students who were not challenged to do so⁵!

It is important to get enough sleep, but the quality of that sleep is important as well. Better sleep means that you are able to go to sleep when you are tired and to stay asleep throughout the night. Establishing a healthy bedtime routine (called sleep hygiene) is important so that your body will relax when it is time to sleep.

When you are trying to develop a sleep schedule you may need some help getting your body to fall asleep and wake up at the right times. Things like brushing your teeth, washing your face, and doing some light stretching or yoga can help signal to your brain that it is time to relax and go to sleep. Whatever you decide to put into your routine should be relatively simple and should occur right before getting into bed to fall asleep. The more you do the routine before going to sleep, the more effective the routine will be at signaling to your brain that it’s time to go to sleep. Similarly, developing a morning routine to help you get up on time can help you to stick to a regular sleep schedule. A morning routine may look similar to your night time routine – it may even be the same activities just in reverse! Whatever activities you decide to put into your morning routine, they should be light activities to get you up and moving, signaling to your brain that it’s time to wake up.

A major barrier to good sleep is our use of screens, particularly phones⁶. Whether you are looking at your laptop, tablet, or phone, these screens emit blue light, which sends a signal to your brain that it is daytime. This keeps your body from releasing the hormones needed to relax and to go to sleep. However, the more important driver that contributes to young people falling asleep later and later is the use of social media on their phones and the fear of missing out⁷. Phones are particularly detrimental to our sleep hygiene because they are easier to look at in bed, so we tend to spend more time looking at screens. Several studies have found a negative relationship between phone use and sleep quality: the more time students spend on their phone in bed, the worse their sleep is⁸,⁹.

Simply staying off your phone for at least a half hour before you try to fall asleep can help you to fall asleep faster and improve your overall quality of sleep¹⁰. Try setting up a sleep mode on your phone so that your sleep is not interrupted by notifications⁹ or keeping your phone out of your bedroom at night.

Figure 4.1 A healthy bedtime routine, without screen time, can help you relax and get ready for bed.

Exercise and hydration

Across many different studies, moderate aerobic exercise has been shown to improve thinking and remembering¹¹,¹². But this is only true when the exercise doesn’t lead to exhaustion or dehydration. It turns out that having plenty of water in your system trumps the beneficial effects of exercise. Even mild dehydration can lead to some problems remembering and thinking¹³. Exercise is also related to higher academic performance – students who have moderate levels of physical activity tend to have higher average grades or marks compared to students who have very high or low levels of physical activity¹⁴.

Nutrition

One recent review looking at the research on how nutrition affects your brain came up with two key conclusions¹⁵.

Eating a lot of saturated fat has an immediate negative impact on your ability to remember. This means that it might not be a great idea to eat high fat foods (things like pizza, donuts, etc.) while studying or the day before your big exam.

Eating healthy foods (for example, fruits and vegetables) can prevent and could even reverse any damage that has been done from eating fatty foods. This means that it’s ok to have foods with saturated fat every once in a while, as long as you’re also eating lots of healthy foods regularly. If you have a big exam coming up, you may want to eat healthier foods in the few days leading up to it and save the fatty foods to celebrate after your exam!

How do I prepare my body and mind for learning?

Develop a sleep schedule. One of the best ways to get more high- quality sleep is to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day. The more regular your sleep schedule, the easier it is to fall asleep when you need to and wake up when you need to.

Stick to a sleep routine. Routines are incredibly useful for developing habits. Create a routine that you can use every day to help your body recognize that it’s time to wind down and consider having a morning routine as well.

Put your phone away before bed. Interacting with your phone before bedtime makes it more difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep when you need to. Make sure you turn off all screens at least half an hour before bed and keep your notifications off or your phone in the other room so you’re not disturbed while sleeping. No matter what sleep routine you decide to develop, we recommend adding this in!

Take breaks while studying. While there may be times when you need to do a lot of studying and homework, you should be careful to take breaks as needed and to set aside time for exercise. Sitting at a computer, hunching over your phone, or slouching over papers are not good for your posture and physical health. If you are going to spend a long time studying, you can set a timer to make sure you get up and move around once an hour. Similarly, if you have several days in a row with long stretches of studying, you may want to set aside time for a longer walk or other exercise.

Exercise regularly. Regular physical activity can improve your overall physical and mental health. This can mean something as simple as taking a walk once a day, going to a yoga class a few times a week, or getting on a stationary bike at the gym¹¹. Whatever level of exercise you choose it should be something appropriate for your level of ability and your lifestyle.

Stay hydrated. Dehydration can have a negative impact on your ability to think and remember¹³. Keeping a water bottle at your desk while you study can make it easier to drink water more frequently.

Eat healthy snacks. Thinking is hard work! Your brain burns calories which means that you can work up an appetite while studying. Try to make sure you have healthy snacks of fruits and vegetables on hand while you’re studying. Foods high in saturated fats have a negative impact on your ability to think and remember. Eating fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, can improve your ability to learn.

Your brain and body in action

Hamaad is worried about his biology exam next week. He knows about the importance of spacing out his studying and preparing in advance, so he decides to spend several hours each day studying. When he studies, he tends to go for long stretches of time without getting up, eating, or drinking because he wants to make the most out of the time he has. Despite his determination to do well on the exam, he finds it harder and harder to concentrate and he feels drained.

Q: Why might Hamaad be having trouble concentrating?

Q: What could Hamaad do differently while studying to take better care of his body?

Figure 4.2 Hamaad (he/him) does not take breaks while studying, and he finds himself exhausted.

Paul and Kiana are studying for their math test together. The night before the exam, Paul wants to stay up later to prepare for the test. Kiana declines and instead chooses to go to bed at her usual time, following her nightly routine. Paul ends up staying up much later than he usually would and only gets a few hours of sleep before the exam.

Q: Who do you think will do better on the exam and why?

Figure 4.3 Paul (he/they) stays up the night before an exam to study, and feels exhausted. Kiana (she/her) sticks to her bedtime routine and is sleeping calmly.

Chapter takeaways

Your brain is part of your body! In general, things that improve your overall health and wellness have a positive impact on your learning.

Sleep has a profound impact on our thinking and learning. Developing habits and routines to get better sleep will improve your learning.

Phones can have a negative impact on our ability to go to sleep and maintain a healthy sleep schedule. Limiting phone use before bed can improve your sleep.

Getting regular bouts of moderate cardio exercise can improve your thinking and learning.

It’s important to stay hydrated and drink water. The benefits of exercise go away if you end up dehydrated.

Nutrition is also important for a healthy brain. Avoid foods with lots of saturated fats and instead opt for fruits and vegetables to keep your energy up.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Yehuda, S., Rabinovitz, S., & Mostofsky, D. I. (2006). Nutritional deficiencies in learning and cognition. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 43, S22–S25. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.mpg.0000255847.77034.a4.

Fuligni, A. J., Bai, S., Krull, J. L., & Gonzales, N. A. (2019). Individual differences in optimum sleep for daily mood during adolescence. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 48(3), 469–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2017.1357126.

Maquet, P. (2001). The role of sleep in learning and memory. Science, 294(5544), 1048–1052. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1062856.

Feinberg, I., & Floyd, T. C. (1979). Systematic trends across the night in human sleep cycles. Psychophysiology, 16(3), 283–291. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1979.tb02991.x.

Scullin, M. K. (2019). The eight hour sleep challenge during final exams week. Teaching of Psychology, 46(1), 55–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628318816142.

Amra, B., Shahsavari, A., Shayan-Moghadam, R., Mirheli, O., Moradi-Khaniabadi, B., Bazukar, M., … & Kelishadi, R. (2017). The association of sleep and late-night cell phone use among adolescents. Jornal de pediatria, 93, 560–567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jped.2016.12.004.

Scott, H., & Woods, H. C. (2018). Fear of missing out and sleep: Cognitive behavioural factors in adolescents’ nighttime social media use. Journal of Adolescence, 68, 61–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2018.07.009.

Arshad, D., Joyia, U. M., Fatmina, S., Khalid, N., Rishi, A. I., Rahim, N. U. A., Bukhari, S. F., Shairwani, G. K., & Salmaan, S. (2021). The adverse impact of excessive smartphone screen-time on sleep quality among young adults: A prospective cohort. Sleep Science, 14(4): 337–341. https://doi.org/10.5935/1984-0063.20200114.

Dowdell, E. B, & Clayton, B. Q. (2019). Interrupted sleep: College students sleeping with technology. Journal of American College Health, 67(7), 640–646. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2018.1499655.

He. J-w., Tu, Z-h., Xiao, L., Su, T., & Tang Y-x. (2020). Effect of restricting bedtime mobile phone use on sleep, arousal, mood, and working memory: A randomized pilot trial. PLoS ONE, 15(2): e0228756. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228756.

Tomporowski, P. D. (2003). Effects of acute bouts of exercise on cognition. Acta Psychologica, 112(3), 297–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0001-6918(02)00134-8.

Hillman, C. H., Erickson, K. I., & Kramer, A. F. (2008). Be smart, exercise your heart: Exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(1), 58–65. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2298.

Park, K. S., Zaplatosch, M. E., Wahlheim, C. N., Etnier, J. L., Wideman, L., & Adams, W. M. (2021). Effect of mild dehydration on episodic memory and inhibitory control in college-aged young adults. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 53(8S), 312. https://doi.org/10.1249/01.mss.0000762780.5484.dc.

Muntaner-Mas, A., Martinez-Gomez, D., Castro-Pinero, J., Fernandez-Santos, J., Salmon, J., Viega, O., & Esteban-Cornejo, I. (2021). Objectively measured physical activity and academic performance in school-aged youth: The UP&DOWN longitudinal study. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 31, 2230–2240. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.14036.

Spencer, S. J., Korosi, A., Layé, S., Shukitt-Hale, B., & Barrientos, R. M. (2017). Food for thought: How nutrition impacts cognition and emotion. NPJ Science of Food, 1(1), 1–8.

Chapter 5 The myth of multitasking Preparing your environment for learning

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-7

If you’re like many students, you likely lead a busy life and may be worried that you are not making the most of your time. There is often the false belief that you can be more productive if you multitask. Plus, increased use of social media and reliance on digital devices can make it difficult to limit distractions. In this chapter, you will learn about multitasking and how to focus your attention during learning. Understanding how your attention works can help you to take control of your learning environment to set you up for success.

What is multitasking?

Sitting down to complete assignments or study, especially when you find the material challenging or boring, can be difficult. In an effort to make the task more enjoyable, you might watch a show in the background, scroll through social media, or text a friend. These are all examples of multitasking – attempting to do more than one task at a time.

The term multitasking, however, is misleading. Instead of doing multiple tasks at the same time, what is actually happening is that we are switching between tasks¹. We spend a few minutes studying, then we switch to watching TV, then back to studying, then to texting, and back again. We’re not actually studying and watching TV at the same time. Because our attention can only be on one task at any given time, multitasking essentially means we are constantly interrupting tasks by switching back and forth between them. Thus, task-switching is a more appropriate description of how our attention works.

When we are task-switching we don’t do as well on our work. We take longer to complete the task, we make more mistakes, we miss information, and we remember less later on²,³. On the other hand, when we focus on one task at a time we complete the task faster, make fewer mistakes, miss less information, and remember more later on.

Clearly, focusing on one task at a time will lead to better outcomes. But, it doesn’t always feel easy to stick to one task at a time. Even if you sit down to focus on studying with the best of intentions, you can be easily distracted by objects in your environment (your phone or other devices) and even your own thoughts (fears, anxiety, or just other things on your to-do list). Being aware of how these things will help you understand how best to prepare your environment so that you can avoid distractions and get the most out of your learning.

Figure 5.1 We take longer to complete tasks, and learn less, when we task-switch (top image) than when we take tasks one at a time (bottom image).

Scientific evidence for avoiding multitasking

Before we look at the evidence on how task-switching affects our performance, let’s take a quick look at why we tend to engage in multitasking in the first place. In one study⁴ participants engaged in multitasking between different types of online media content on their laptop. They found that task-switching between media content happened on average every 19 seconds! This means that we tend to view specific content only for a very short time before moving on. In addition, the participants’ excitement increased in the seconds leading up to switching from a work task to a more entertaining task (e.g., checking social media), but not the other way around. This tells us that one reason we tend to switch between tasks is because it feels rewarding to do so.

Task-switching seems to be particularly harmful when we need to sustain our attention in order to perform well and remember information later¹. This is true when students are studying. Taking in complex information and connecting different ideas with each other requires your undivided attention and will help you recall it later – for example, on an exam.

While some task-switching happens through things like social media, it can also happen through our own thoughts. It is difficult to remain focused on something when we are distracted by daydreams, mind wandering, and our fears and anxieties. When we become distracted by our own internal thoughts, we end up bouncing back and forth between the task at hand and our distracting thoughts. This task-switching ties up the attentional resources we would otherwise be able to use on learning. This is especially true of anxiety⁵, which may cause us to pay attention to more irrelevant information⁶.

It is important to stay on task and focus when you need to, but there are some times when you need to let your mind wander and unfocus. Daydreaming and mind wandering are normal, healthy, and can even sometimes be beneficial for us⁷,⁸. Having periods of time where your mind is unfocused can help with creativity⁹, planning¹⁰, and goals¹¹. So, while the ability to focus and reduce task-switching is important, don’t worry if you are not focused all of the time.

How do I avoid multitasking and focus my learning?

There are different things you can do to reduce distraction when you start a focused study session. They are all easy to implement into your study routine and will enhance your study efficiency. Your study sessions will be shorter in total because you are less distracted by the nagging interruptions. The tips below embrace two things: First, they accept that we are easily distracted and, second, that we live in a world where we do engage in social media to connect with others. Preparing your environment for learning must take these aspects into consideration.

Stick to a routine. Setting up a routine can help you get into a studying state of mind. The routine could be as simple as sitting in a favorite chair and drinking a cup of tea, listening to quiet, pleasant background music at your desk, or even doing a simple series of stretches before sitting down to study. When you stick to a routine while you study, over time these actions become cues that tell your brain that it’s time to relax and focus¹².

The routine may look different for everyone, but some general tips are to make sure the routine is something that you find pleasant and relaxing. For example, while you may enjoy high energy metal or rap music, it’s better to study with music that does not have lyrics so that you don’t become distracted by the words¹³. This might mean lo-fi hip hop beats for some people and a gaming soundtrack for others. As long as it’s something that you enjoy and is not distracting, it can help set up a routine that puts you in a pleasant and relaxed state of mind for focused learning.

Try the pomodoro technique¹⁴. This is a technique that breaks up your study session into smaller chunks of focused work and dedicates time for distraction, too. Think of your session in chunks of 30 minutes: Set a timer for 25 minutes and work on your homework, assignment, or topic you wish to study. This is your focused work time. When the time is up, take 5 minutes and do whatever you like – get a snack, chat with friends, check social media. Well done, you have now completed one pomodoro, or one 30-minute session, using this technique. You can then continue doing another pomodoro and after two or three make sure to take a longer break before returning to your focused work. In a way, the pomodoro technique is similar to circuit training in sports, just applied to studying. Note that you can use this strategy flexibly. If, for example, 25 minutes of focused work is too challenging, try to reduce it to 15 minutes. This way you can adjust the strategy to fit you.

Figure 5.2 The pomodoro technique using a timer.

Use apps. There are apps for your phone and your computer that can support you to reduce distractions. We will suggest two apps here because we use them ourselves and they are free to use, but there are probably others available.

The first one is called Cold Turkey and it is an app for your computer. In Cold Turkey, you can set the time you wish not to be distracted by any incoming messages, email, or social media notifications. Once activated, Cold Turkey will block these distractions. For example, you won’t be able to access any social media sites and if you try to do so during the set time (out of habit), Cold Turkey shows you a motivating quote instead (“You can do this! You are stronger than this!”).

The second one is Forest which is an app for your phone. Forest will not block your phone the way Cold Turkey blocks your computer, but it encourages you to set a timer and dedicate that time for focused work, like studying. Whenever you successfully complete a session without checking your phone, a virtual tree grows in your forest in the app. If you fail to complete the session because you check your phone during the set time, your growing tree dies (and stays like that in your forest). Forest features two further interesting aspects: (1) You can use it collaboratively with your peers and grow a forest together, and (2) Forest has partnered up with the organization Trees for the Future, and for every virtual tree you plant you receive virtual coins that you can dedicate to planting real trees. How amazing is this? For keeping focused during studying for a set time, you can contribute to a world with more trees.

Most phones have a way to turn off notifications or set different profiles to block distractions as well. Using these apps is very effective and you will realize how much you can get done when you are not constantly distracted. If it is essential that certain people be able to reach you no matter what (e.g., a daycare center or a parent), you can set a list of contacts that can always contact you for ease of mind.

Create accountability groups with peers. Studying in pairs or as a group can increase accountability. Setting a goal for a study session and engaging in focused time together with planned distraction time that you spend chatting to each other, for example about the progress you have made or where you got stuck, can be motivating. You can study together in person or remotely through video chat, for example. Plus, all members of your study group don’t need to work on the same thing. In fact, everyone can study or work on their own assignment during these sessions – at their own pace and with their own goals.

Figure 5.3 Study in groups to hold each other accountable, and keep distractions to a minimum.

Focused learning and multitasking in action

Riley considers themselves a good multitasker. When Riley studies and reviews class material, they keep a group chat with their friends going – sending each other funny videos or just chatting about their day. Riley appreciates these social interactions and is usually able to get through all the class material, but they sometimes spend a long time on tasks or have to go over the same material two or three times before completing the task. Riley would like to spend their study time more efficiently and wonders whether there are techniques that can help.

Q: What techniques could Riley use to make their study time more efficient?

Q: How could social connection be built into their study routine?

Figure 5.4 Riley (they/them) wonders what they can do to study more efficiently.

Soquania is worried about her biology class and has struggled to focus when studying. After 20 minutes of studying, she finds herself checking her text messages, watching videos online, and even cleaning her room instead of studying. Soquania decides to create a checklist of what she wants to do during each study session and to set a timer to help her focus during her study time. She sets time during each study session to take a break and do something else for 5 minutes. She finds that it’s easier to focus when she has clear goals and she knows she will be able to take a break. She slowly works up from studying for 5 to 10 minutes before taking her break to studying for 30 to 40 minutes before taking her break.

Q: What was distracting Soquania during her studying?

Q: What strategies did she use to feel less overwhelmed?

Figure 5.5 Soquania (she/her) uses checklists and timers to help her stay focused while studying.

Chapter takeaways

There is no such thing as successful multitasking. Switching between different tasks compromises your attention and decreases your performance later on. Plus, it takes longer to do the task you’re supposed to be doing.

Make every study session count and use the time efficiently. Studying without distractions will make the best use of your time and you will be able to achieve your study goals quicker – and as a consequence will have more time for other things you enjoy.

Reducing distractions can be challenging because we are living in a world of permanent social connectedness and influx of information as well as distracting thoughts. There are techniques that can support you by decreasing distractions coming from different sources. Give them a try!

While it’s important to be able to focus and ignore distractions when we need to, it’s also ok if we struggle to focus at times. It’s normal to get distracted when we are stressed and anxious – and normal to get distracted when we are excited and happy. In fact, some mind wandering is even beneficial for learning! The recommendations here are meant to help you focus when you are able. You may need to make adjustments based on what is going on in your life.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Brown, A. M., & Kaminske, A. N. (2018). Five teaching and learning myths debunked: A guide for teachers. Routledge.

Ricther, F. R., & Yeung, N. (2015). Corresponding influences of top-down control on task switching and long-term memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(6), 1124–1147. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.976579.

Moisala, M., Salmela, V., Salo, E., Carlson, S., Vuontela, V., Salonen, O., & Alho, K. (2015). Brain activity during divided and selective attention to auditory and visual sentence comprehension tasks. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 19, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00086.

Yeykelis, L., Cummings, J. J., & Reeves, B. (2014). Multitasking on a single device: Arousal and the frequency, anticipation, and prediction of switching between media content on a computer. Journal of Communication, 64(1), 167–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12070.

Berggren, N., & Derakshan, N. (2013). Attentional control deficits in trait anxiety: Why you see them and why you don’t. Biological Psychology, 92, 440–446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.03.007.

Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J., & Van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2007). Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: A metaanalytic study. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.1.

Dane, E. (2018). Where is my mind? Theorizing mind wandering and its performance-related consequences in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 43(2), 179–197. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2015.0196.

McVay, J. C., & Kane, M. J. (2009). Conducting the train of thought: Working memory capacity, goal neglect, and mind wandering in an executive-control task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35: 196–204. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014104.

Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W. Y., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction: Mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Sciences, 23, 1117–1122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612446024.

Mason, M., Bar, M., & Macrae, C. N. (2009). Exploring the past and impending future in the here and now: Mind-wandering in the default state. In M-K. Sun (Ed.), Cognitive science compendium, Vol. 2 (109–123). Nova Publishers.

Klinger, E. (2009). Daydreaming and fantasizing: Thought flow and motivation. In K. D. Markman, W. M. P. Klein, & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of imagination and mental simulation (225–239). Psychology Press.

Stawarz, K., Gardner, B., Cox, A., & Blandford, A. (2020). What influences the selection of contextual cues when starting a new routine behavior? An exploratory study. BMC Psychology, 8, 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-020-0394-9.

Vasilev, M. R., Kirkby, J. A., & Angele, B. (2018). Auditory distraction during reading: A Bayesian meta-analysis of a continuing controversy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(5), 567–597. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617747398.

Cirillo, F. (2018). The Pomodoro technique: The life-changing time-management system. Virgin Books.

Chapter 6 How do I know what I (don’t) know?

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-8

Figuring out whether you have learned material is a crucial skill for studying. You need to be able to spend less time on material that you have learned well, and more time on material that you have not learned. This skill is called metacognition. Somewhat surprisingly, we are not always the best judge of what we do and do not know. Our ability to think about our thinking can be thrown off by things that have nothing to do with how well we can remember information. Things like how many times you have read something and even whether you have highlighted information can alter your metacognition, often to your disadvantage. In this chapter, you will learn about metacognition and how to use it to your advantage while studying. Understanding how your metacognition works can help you improve your ability to think about your learning so you can make better decisions about your studying.

What is metacognition?

A big part of studying is making choices. You have a limited amount of time to study, and you need to make sure you use that time wisely. Should you set aside extra time to prepare for your upcoming math exam? Or should you focus on history instead? If you choose to focus on math, then what problems should you try to solve? Are there certain formulas that you feel you know well? Are there formulas that are more challenging for you? If you practice the challenging formulas, then how often do you refresh the things you feel confident about? You also have other decisions to make, like when to study throughout a week, and what strategies to use for what topics.

When you make choices during studying you are using your metacognition. Metacognition is the awareness of our own cognitive processes¹. In the context of studying, metacognition is an awareness of what we know and what we do not know. We can break metacognition down into two components that we can call awareness and action (formally named metacognitive monitoring and metacognitive control). Metacognitive awareness is our ability to assess our own knowledge, identifying what we know and what we do not know. Metacognitive action is what we do with that information, the decision of whether to use a particular learning strategy and the application of that strategy.

Figure 6.1 This student is making studying choices about whether to study math or history. A big part of studying is making these types of choices.

Metacognitive awareness and action work together. Imagine you have both math and history exams coming up, and you determine you are less confident about the math concepts that will be on the test (awareness). Further, you identify the formulas you will need to use on the exam and judge that you know some of them very well but there are two that you do not know well (awareness). You decide to review how and when you should use the two formulas that you have struggled with, and you do practice problems for these formulas (action).

In a perfect world, you would be aware of exactly what you know and what you do not know and would then be able to make perfect decisions about what, how, and when to study to maximize your overall learning. Unfortunately, we are often overconfident in how much we know. What’s worse, some of the most popular study strategies students report using², like reading repeatedly, tend to inflate our confidence, making us think we know more than we really do. However, there are also study strategies that tend to make us underconfident. Study strategies that are particularly challenging but highly effective, like retrieval practice and spaced practice (see Chapters 7 and 8), tend to make us underconfident when we use them³.

Students tend to like the study strategies that make them feel like they are learning more. Anecdotally, we hear from some of our students that they do not like using retrieval practice (see Chapter 8) because they feel like they’re not learning as much, and therefore they think it doesn’t work for them. Students tell us they want to use “what has always worked” for them.

You may feel similarly to our students. But, which would you rather have? Do you want to be overconfident while studying, and then think “oh no, maybe I don’t know this as well as I thought” during the test, when it is too late to study more? Or, do you want to feel challenged, and a bit less confident? You might think “oh no, maybe I don’t know this as well as I thought” while studying, but there is still something you can do about it. We imagine most of you would prefer to be a bit less confident while studying rather than overconfident. The benefit of being challenged while studying is that typically, when you actually start taking your test or exam, it feels a lot easier than you thought it would!

Figure 6.2 Strategies that feel easy during studying often make you overconfident in what you know. The consequence is that on the test day, you may find it difficult to answer questions and may not perform as well. On the contrary, whenever you use effective learning strategies, they may feel hard during studying, but that extra effort during studying may result in answering more questions and performing better.

It is important to use metacognitive awareness and action while studying. However, to make your predictions and decisions while studying most effective, it is essential to use the learning strategies described in this book. Being challenged while studying is actually a good thing because it often means you are learning more and are not experiencing overconfidence.

Scientific evidence for metacognition

Highlighting is a very common study strategy⁴. Unfortunately, highlighting can be one of the least effective strategies to use for learning⁴ (see Chapter 14). There are a lot of factors that can affect how well highlighting works as a learning strategy: How sparingly it’s used⁵, the difficulty of the text⁴,⁶, and whether you have been trained to use a specific highlighting strategy⁴.

Despite this limited range of circumstances where highlighting is useful, many students report highlighting. Why do students feel it is useful when there’s little evidence that it’s effective? One possible reason is that highlighting affects our metacognitive awareness by influencing how easy it is to read or process⁷. This means that when something is easier to read, we tend to think it will be easier to remember⁸. Highlighting may make us overconfident because it makes the highlighted words or phrases stand out so that they are easier to read. But reading a word or phrase is a very different task than remembering and applying that information on an exam.

While some strategies lead to overconfidence, others can lead to underconfidence. For example, in this study with college students, we can see that engaging in challenging but effective strategies led to some underconfidence³:

In the repeated reading condition, the students read and re-read a text passage four times in total.

In the retrieval practice condition, the students read the text passage, and then practiced retrieval; they put the passage away and tried to write as much as they could remember from memory. Then they re-read the text passage and practiced retrieval a second time.

After learning the text material by either repeatedly reading or practicing retrieval, the students in the experiment made predictions about how well they thought they would do on a test one week later. One week later, they took the test.

When the students in the experiment were making predictions, those in the repeated reading condition thought they would do better than they actually did on the test one week after learning. However, students in the retrieval practice condition actually performed better on the test one week after learning than they had originally predicted. Overall, retrieval practice led to better test scores than repeated reading.

Unfortunately, many of the effective evidence-based strategies will tend to decrease your predictions about how well you are learning in the moment, while many of the ineffective, but popular, study strategies will tend to inflate your predictions. Repeated reading will often make you overconfident, likely because reading the same thing over and over again feels easy. In other words, those same words seem more and more familiar, and this makes you think that you will certainly remember the material. This is likely why repeated reading is one of the most frequently reported study strategies among students²,⁴,⁹. But unfortunately, repeated reading does not tend to increase your ability to remember and use information from your memory later. On the other hand, retrieval practice will likely lead you to feel a bit underconfident. This is because it is often a challenging learning strategy. However, it also happens to be a strategy that is extremely effective, and it is covered in more detail later in this book (Chapter 8).

Figure 6.3 This figure is based on the overall pattern of results from the experiment³. The figure shows overconfidence after repeatedly reading, but underconfidence after retrieval practice.

Why are we so often overconfident when we study? When we make predictions about the future, we tend to assume it will be very much like the present. While reviewing a list of terms for a test you might think, “I recognize all of these, I bet I’ll remember most of them for the test.” Because the terms are easier to recognize in that moment, you are tricked into thinking they will be easier to remember in the future⁷. However, unless the test involves you reviewing the list of terms to see if they are familiar, then this isn’t really a fair comparison.

What’s more likely is that the test will involve recalling definitions, recognizing examples, and explaining concepts. And you’ll have to do all of that without a list of terms in front of you. Simply waiting a few minutes after studying to make your predictions will allow the familiarity to reduce a little bit. You should also make your predictions without your course materials in front of you (for example, by covering up definitions). Both of these will create conditions that are more similar to the test, which will help make your metacognitive awareness more accurate¹⁰.

How do I use metacognition?

Use metacognitive awareness and action. You can ask yourself how well you know the material you are studying (awareness) and make decisions about studying based on your assessment (action).

Avoid overconfidence by using strategies from this book. Remember, it is important to avoid using strategies in ways that make you overconfident (like repeated reading or highlighting) and to instead use strategies that have been shown to lead to more accurate metacognitive awareness (like retrieval practice or spacing). You will learn how to make some popular study strategies more effective in a later chapter in this book (Chapter 14).

Make your predictions more accurate. Waiting a few minutes after studying and putting your study materials away before you make predictions about how much you will remember can improve your metacognitive awareness.

Metacognition in action

Going into their first psychology exam, Esmée felt pretty confident. They prepared by reading through the chapters carefully and highlighting all the key terms. Then they went back and re-read the chapter paying close attention to the key terms that were highlighted. All the key terms seemed familiar, and they felt confident they would remember them on the exam, so they stopped studying. Once they started taking the exam, however, they quickly became frustrated when they couldn’t remember all of the definitions or recognize examples of them.

Q: Why was Esmée overconfident in their ability to remember the key terms for the exam?

Q: Describe how Esmée’s metacognitive awareness affected their metacognitive action.

Q: What could Esmée do to make their metacognitive awareness more accurate?

Figure 6.4 Highlighting key terms in a book chapter may make you feel overconfident in understanding the material.

Quentin makes a deck of flashcards to quiz himself on the terms and equations he needs to know for his statistics exam. After making the flashcards he felt pretty confident about his ability to remember everything, but then he quickly felt discouraged after he struggled to remember even half of them after quizzing himself the first time. He remembers that difficult and challenging strategies often help with learning, and so he keeps trying. He feels better about his upcoming exam as he gets better with the flashcards.

Q: Why was there such a big difference in how Quentin felt about his memory between making the flashcards and using the flashcards?

Q: What advice would you give Quentin about studying based on what you know about metacognition?

Chapter takeaways

Metacognition is our ability to think about our learning and make decisions about it. We use metacognitive awareness to determine what we know and don’t know, and then metacognitive action to make study decisions.

Our metacognitive awareness is not always accurate. Sometimes we can be overconfident in our ability to remember information and sometimes we can be underconfident.

Activities like re-reading and highlighting tend to make us overconfident in our metacognitive awareness. Activities like retrieval and spaced practice tend to make us underconfident in our metacognitive awareness. Overconfidence likely leads us to stop studying before we should, while underconfidence leads us to be better prepared for tests or exams.

Waiting a few minutes after you study to make predictions about your learning can make your metacognitive awareness more accurate.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive– developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906–911. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.34.10.906.

Hartwig, M. K., & Dunlosky, J. (2012). Study strategies of college students: Are self-testing and scheduling related to achievement? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19(1), 126–134. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0181-y.

Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772–775. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199327.

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning and comprehension: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14, 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266.

Yue, C. L., Storm, B. C., Kornell, N., & Bjork, E. L. (2015). Highlighting and its relation to distributed study and students’ metacognitive beliefs. Educational Psychology Review, 27(1), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-014-9277-z.

Fass, W., & Schumacher, G. M. (1978). Effects of motivation, subject activity, and readability on the retention of prose materials. Journal of Educational Psychology, 70, 803–807. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.70.5.803.

Begg, I., Duft, S., Lalonde, P., Melnick, R., & Sanvito, J. (1989). Memory predictions are based on ease of processing. Journal of Memory and Language, 26, 610–632. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-596X(89)90016-8.

Rhodes, M. G., & Castel, A. (2008). Memory predictions are influenced by perceptual information: Evidence for metacognitive illusions. Journal of Experimental Psychology General, 137(4), 615–625. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013684.

Karpicke, J. D., Butler, A. C., & Roediger, H. L. (2009). Metacognitive strategies in student learning: Do students practise retrieval when they study on their own? Memory, 17(4), 471–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210802647009.

Dunlosky, J., & Nelson, T. O. (1992). Importance of the kind of cue for judgments of learning (JOL) and the delayed-JOL effect. Memory & Cognition, 20, 374–380. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210921

Chapter 7 Planning your study sessions is important

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-9

Planning your study sessions is one essential part of managing your time and structuring your learning. While you know that you need to study for upcoming tests and exams, knowing when to study can be critical in making that happen. Between homework, friends, extracurricular activities, etc., if you don’t prioritize and plan your study sessions, it might not happen at all or only at the very end (cramming) – leading to a quite stressful experience.

But there is more: Creating shorter study sessions and distributing them over time comes with notable learning benefits. In the long term, you will be more likely to remember what you studied. Why is that desirable? New material tends to build on older material and remembering older material will allow you to better understand new material. As your class material gets more challenging, you’ll be better prepared to learn that new material. And you might just have a cumulative final exam requiring you to remember all of the old and new information you were taught in a course!

In this chapter, you will learn about spaced practice, why having breaks between study sessions is a good idea, and how you can use this approach.

What is spaced practice?

Spaced practice is all about planning and scheduling. The main aim is to overcome the studying habit of waiting until just before a test or exam and then studying in one big session (cramming). Instead, you break the study time up into smaller pieces and space out the study sessions so that you do that same amount of studying over the course of days and weeks.

Spacing out study sessions is really helpful for remembering information for a long time. Of course, you will forget some material as time goes on throughout your semester. Forgetting is completely normal! However, spacing actually slows down the amount you will forget over time¹. Let’s say you have a few unit exams or in-class quizzes and then a cumulative final exam covering the entire semester in a class. Spacing out your study sessions will reduce the amount that you forget over the course of the entire semester, leading to better learning over time, and better performance on your cumulative test. Not only will you do better on your unit exams or low-stake quizzes, but you won’t have to study as hard for the final exam!

Figure 7.1 A calendar showing study sessions spaced out over time.

Scientific evidence for spaced practice

Spacing out study sessions is one of the most researched techniques out there. This strategy works for learning vocabulary², facts³, mathematics⁴, complex motor skills⁵, and even to sing a song⁶. As an example, in one study⁷ students were asked to read a science text passage. Then some students re-read it immediately (cramming) and some students came back a week later to read it again. Everyone took a test. Some took the test immediately after reading, and others took the test two days later.

What they found was that on the immediate test, cramming was actually better, so in the minutes before you sit down to take a test, go ahead and re-read your book and notes as much as you want! However, just two days later, the results were very different: The students in the spaced sessions remembered almost twice as much as the students who crammed. This means that the people who re-read right away not only forgot a lot of what they had read, but the re-reading was actually a waste of time. And that last point is really important for busy students. Not only is spacing study sessions more effective for learning, it’s also more efficient. You can spend the same amount of time spread out across weeks and learn a lot more than you would if you spent that same amount of time studying the night before the exam. This finding also nicely demonstrates that cramming may work in the short term, but if you want to be able to use what you learned on future exams, in future courses, or in your life, you are better off planning shorter study sessions that are distributed over time.

When you use spaced practice and plan your study sessions accordingly, you might ask: How should I best schedule my study sessions when revisiting older material? One approach for remembering for a long time is using an expanding learning schedule⁸,⁹,¹⁰. In an expanding learning schedule, the breaks between one study session and the next get progressively longer over time. For example, if you are taught new vocabulary in Spanish on a Monday, you might review that material in your study session that Monday evening, again two days later, next a week later, and so on. So, the gaps of revisiting the vocabulary would increase over time. This will keep refreshing your memory of the vocabulary and will make it more likely for you to remember it in the long term – say when you want to apply the language on holidays or when traveling in the future.

The important thing is that when you sit down to study, you should review current material, but also things that you learned a while ago to keep it fresh in mind. An expanding learning schedule is only one way to do this and as long as you space out your study sessions and rotate older and newer material, you are successfully using this strategy.

Figure 7.2 Using an expanding learning schedule means that you increase the breaks from one study session to the next. For example, you could study right after your class (that’s Day 1), then schedule a study session a few days later (Day 3), and another one on Day 8. This way you are continuously increasing the spacing between one study session and the next. You could schedule learning sessions in this way to make sure you come back to previously taught material, but also integrate newer material into your study sessions.

Spaced practice is one of those strategies that feels effortful to do because distributing study sessions over a longer period of time will also mean that you will forget some content between sessions. However, this kind of temporary forgetting is what makes this strategy so beneficial¹¹. In addition, some forgetting will give you a better picture of what you know and what you do not know yet. This allows you to better focus your study efforts on the material that you have not yet grasped.

How do I use spaced practice?

Schedule your study sessions in advance. The key to start using spaced practice as a strategy is to plan your study sessions in advance. You are much more likely to meet your goals if you write them down. Use your planner or calendar and actually write down when you will study. Make sure that you choose a time that you can consistently study, so other things won’t get in the way of your plan. If for some reason your plan doesn’t end up working with your schedule, then revisit it and make a new plan!

Plan frequent study sessions. Even if you’re really busy, it’s better to spend 10 minutes every evening reviewing information than it is to spend a long time in a single study session as your only study session. Do what works for you. If that’s 20 minutes three times per week during lunch, great! If some sessions take less time and others a bit longer, that is fine too. The important thing is to plan for several study sessions that are distributed over a longer period of time – and to avoid those extensive cramming sessions right before the exam.

Form study groups. It can be hard to stick to a study schedule. One of the advantages of forming a study group is that your peers can help to keep you accountable. Through your study group you can support each other to build successful study habits.

Review older material during study sessions. While you are studying, you shouldn’t just review the material from that day or week, but also go over older material so that it stays fresh in your memory. Consistently returning to older material and studying it alongside newer material will also help you to see connections that you may miss otherwise. This leads to continuously building new knowledge on old knowledge.

Studying does not replace homework. Homework is something that is assigned to you by your teacher and likely counts for points in your class. You should make sure that you complete your homework and also space out study sessions (see Chapter 3).

Use the other effective techniques in this book while studying. Repeated reading is only one kind of studying, and it’s not the most effective way to study. For example, a more effective way to fill your spaced study sessions is to test yourself and complete quizzes from memory. You will encounter this strategy in the next chapter. Spaced practice works really well with other effective strategies, so make sure to check out the other chapters in this book for ideas about what to do during your spaced study sessions.

Spaced practice in action

Lindsey is studying for a big math exam that she has coming up in a few months. She knows that she tends to get stressed if she waits until the last minute to study, so she plans out some time each month to read through her notes.

Q: What is good about Lindsey’s study habits?

Q: How could Lindsey’s study habits be improved?

Figure 7.3 Lindsey (she/her) planned study sessions for math for many weeks before her big math exam.

Gabriel’s teacher assigns daily homework, so each day he gets home from class and immediately works on his homework and looks over his class notes to make sure he understood everything. After homework, he usually has to work for a couple hours, then he exercises with a friend before coming home and watching his favorite show before bed.

Q: When could Gabriel fit in time for study sessions?

Q: How could Gabriel improve his habits during his homework time?

Chapter takeaways

Spaced practice is all about planning and scheduling your study sessions. The goal is not to leave studying to the last minute, but rather carefully plan for shorter study sessions over the course of a longer period of time.

Spaced practice encourages revisiting previously learned material and highlights the importance of consistent learning over time. This approach improves your ability to remember information in the long run. In addition, it reduces the stress that is usually experienced during last-minute cramming sessions.

An expanding learning schedule is one way to plan which material you will review during your study sessions. Start with shorter breaks between study sessions for newer material in the beginning and increase the gaps over time.

Since spaced practice only tells you how to schedule study sessions, but not what to do during those sessions, make sure to combine this strategy with other tips provided in this book.

Finally, planning study sessions and sticking with the plan can be challenging. Try to make it a routine to engage in those shorter study sessions over time and maybe find peers to establish this new studying routine together. Don’t beat yourself up if you are unsuccessful in sticking with spaced practice at first. Try your best and see how it goes.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Über das Gedächtnis: Untersuchungen zur experimentellen Psychologie. Duncker & Humblot.

Namaziandost, E., Nasri, M., Rahimi Esfahani, F., & Keshmirshekan, M. H. (2019). The impacts of spaced and massed distribution instruction on EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. Cogent Education, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2019.1661131.

Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1095–1102. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02209.x.

Emeny, W. G., Hartwig, M. K., & Rohrer, D. (2021). Spaced mathematics practice improves test scores and reduces overconfidence. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 35(4), 1082–1089. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3814.

Boettcher, M., Boettcher, J., Mietzsch, S., Krebs, T., Bergholz, R., & Reinshagen, K. (2018). The spaced learning concept significantly improves training for laparoscopic suturing: A pilot randomized controlled study. Surgical Endoscopy, 32(1), 154–159. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-017-5650-6.

Katz, J. J., Ando, M., & Wiseheart, M. (2021). Optimizing song retention through the spacing effect. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 6(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00345-7.

Rawson, K. A., & Kintsch, W. (2005). Rereading effects depend on time of test. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(1), 70–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.97.1.70.

Küpper-Tetzel, C. E., Kapler, I. V., & Wiseheart, M. (2014). Contracting, equal, and expanding learning schedules: The optimal distribution of learning sessions depends on retention interval. Memory & Cognition, 42(5), 729–741. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-014-0394-1.

Gerbier, E., Toppino, T. C., & Koenig, O. (2015). Optimising retention through multiple study opportunities over days: The benefit of an expanding schedule of repetitions. Memory, 23(6), 943–954. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2014.944916.

Vlach, H. A., Sandhofer, C. M., & Bjork, R. A. (2014). Equal spacing and expanding schedules in children’s categorization and generalization. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 123, 129–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2014.01.004.

Maddox, G. B. (2016). Understanding the underlying mechanism of the spacing effect in verbal learning: A case for encoding variability and study-phase retrieval. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 28(6), 684–706. https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2016.1181637

Part 3 Study strategies that work

Chapter 8 Bring to mind what you can remember

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-11

Students are often worried about trying to get all of the information they have to learn into their heads, but rarely focus on getting the information back out again. However, getting the information back out is a powerful way to learn. Cognitive psychologists refer to this strategy as retrieval practice and it involves any task where you have to recall what you have previously learned. When you try and bring to mind what you’ve learned in the past, you not only find out whether you can do this (and whether you need to keep studying), but you also make that memory stronger. Because retrieval practice works in lots of different ways, it is one of the best ways that you can increase your learning. In this chapter, you will learn about retrieval practice and how you can use this strategy while studying.

What is retrieval practice?

One of the most effective ways to study is to bring to mind what you can remember from memory¹,²,³. This strategy is called retrieval practice, and it is beneficial in a number of different ways³. When you bring to mind what you can remember, it helps you see what you know and what you don’t yet know. You can then spend time focusing on the content that you don’t yet know using some of the other strategies in this book, and just refresh your memory of the content you know well already. This is a positive benefit of retrieval practice because it makes your studying more efficient, but retrieval is powerful in other ways too. When you bring information to your mind from memory, something about that process actually helps you learn more⁴. This means that when you answer a question or explain a concept out loud from your own memory, your learning increases.

Bringing information to mind from memory is particularly effective because it produces durable, long-term learning. In the short term, you may not see big benefits of retrieving information compared to other strategies. But after even a few days, bringing information to mind from memory is extremely effective⁵. This also makes it a very efficient strategy because you won’t forget as much over time, and won’t have to spend as much time re-studying later.

Scientific evidence for retrieval practice

We can see the benefits of bringing information to mind in an experiment with college students in a physiology course⁶. The students in the experiment studied the information presented by the teacher in three different ways:

In the repeated reading condition, the students repeatedly read the passage three times.

In the reading and note-taking condition, students read the passage once and then re-read it while writing down anything that they thought was particularly important.

Finally, in the retrieval practice condition, the students read the passage, and then put it away and tried to write down as much information as they could on a blank sheet of paper. Then, they re-read the passage to see how they did.

The teacher then gave the students a multiple-choice test over all three passages. When the students took the multiple-choice test 5 minutes after studying, practicing retrieval did not lead to better scores than reading and note-taking (though they were both better than repeated reading). However, when the teacher gave the students a multiple-choice test one week later, retrieval practice led to the best scores on the test.

Figure 8.1 Practicing retrieval led to better performance on the test later than repeated reading and repeated note-taking⁶.

In the week between taking the two tests, the repeated reading and note-taking study strategies led to a lot of forgetting. Writing out what they could remember on a blank sheet of paper led to less forgetting, by comparison. Importantly, after seeing how practicing retrieval helped them learn more and forget less over time, the college students were encouraged to keep using this strategy while studying. These students were able to improve their scores on their course exams by using this strategy!

Like many effective learning strategies in this book, using retrieval practice can often trick you into feeling like you are not learning very much. When you try to bring information to mind from your memory, it often feels really difficult. It can be really tempting to quit or try to look up all of the information in your notes or your textbook, but slipping into re-reading your notes or textbook will reduce your learning. Instead, it is better to try to bring as much information to mind from your memory as you can, and only after you have tried this should you look in your notes, textbook, or other course materials to see what you got right and what you forgot or need to work on more.

Bringing information to mind can feel less effective than it really is. In one experiment⁴, college students learned a text passage in one of a few different learning conditions:

In a repeated reading condition, the students read the text passage repeatedly for a total of 20 minutes.

In a retrieval practice condition, the students first read the text passage for 5 minutes, and then the passage was taken away and they practiced repeated retrieval. The students were given a blank sheet of paper, and they brought as much of the text passage to mind as they could remember and wrote it on the paper for 5 minutes. Then they were given a new sheet of paper and they tried to remember and write as much as they could again for 5 minutes. This was repeated again a third time, bringing their total learning time to 20 minutes (5 minutes of reading and 15 minutes total of retrieval practice).

After the students finished learning the text passage, either by repeatedly reading or repeatedly bringing the information to mind and writing it down, they made predictions about how well they thought they would do on a test one week later. This is similar to when you are studying and you evaluate how much you have learned and how you think you will do on a test (this is also called metacognitive awareness), only the students in the experiment did not have the option to keep studying or change their strategy (called metacognitive action). We talk about these ideas in more detail in Chapter 6.

The students in the repeated reading condition thought they would do better on a test in one week than the students in the retrieval practice condition. Based on the students’ experiences, writing down what they could remember from memory did not seem like the better learning strategy of the two. However, one week later, the students were given an essay test to see how much they had learned. During the test, the students again had to write out as much as they could remember from the passage. The students in the repeated retrieval condition scored better on this test than the students in the repeated reading condition.

It is very important to keep in mind while you are studying that difficulty does not always mean you are not learning very much. Quite the opposite! Strategies that feel effortful are often the ones that help us learn the most (and lead to better scores on tests!). Centuries of scientific studies demonstrate that in the long run bringing information to mind from memory is a very effective learning strategy. Importantly, repeated retrieval of information is particularly effective, and you will find that you get better each time you do it!

How do I use retrieval practice?

This strategy is really flexible. The key is to bring information to mind from your memory (i.e., without looking at your notes or other course materials), and you can do this in a lot of different ways.

Write it out. Grab a blank sheet of paper and write or sketch everything you can remember from your memory⁴. Don’t worry about getting it perfect or remembering definitions word-for-word. It is much better if you can put the information into your own words, and even come up with your own examples or make connections to your own life. Once you have written or sketched everything you can remember, go back to your course materials and see what you got right, what you missed, and what you need to work on more²,³,⁷.

Use practice tests or quizzes. When you answer questions, like you do when taking a test or quiz, you are bringing information to mind⁸. So, if your teacher gives quizzes in class or as homework, make sure to do them! You can also answer practice questions on your own. Sometimes teachers give practice questions before a bigger test or quiz, and answering these questions from memory can be very effective. If not, you can make your own questions or create a pool of questions with friends. Make sure the questions you create focus on the facts that you need to remember and big picture questions, like how to apply the concepts or how they relate to one another⁹.

Use flashcards. Flashcards are another great way to practice retrieval, but they’re not always used in the best way¹⁰. It’s really important when using flashcards to make sure you actually retrieve the answer before you flip the card over. You can do this by writing down the answer, saying it out loud, or having a friend quiz you with your flashcards. You should also keep any cards you get right in the deck so you can practice them again¹¹.

Create concept maps from memory. A concept map is a way of organizing the ideas you are trying to learn by looking at the relationships between them. You could try to create a concept map by writing down the concepts you can remember from class and then trying to organize them, or you could start by creating a concept map while looking at your notes or course materials, but then try to re-create it from memory (without your notes)¹².

Study in groups. In some of the examples above we mentioned ways that you could study with friends. Working in groups can help with retrieval practice because you can quiz each other using practice tests or flashcards. You can also just talk about the course material without looking at your notes or course materials. By bringing the information to mind to have a discussion, you are practicing retrieval.

Repeat! Retrieval practice works best to improve learning, and test scores, when you repeat it over time (spaced practice, see Chapter 7)¹³.

Figure 8.2 There are many ways to practice retrieval.

Retrieval practice in action

Nayelie has a European history exam coming up in two weeks. In this class, the teacher moves quickly, and so there is a lot of information that she needs to learn. Every day after class (on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays), Nayelie spends 20 minutes typing what she can remember on a blank document on her computer. First, she types what she can remember from the class she just attended and from the reading that day. Then, she tries to remember information that was taught in previous weeks. After about 10 minutes, she pulls out her notebook and looks to see what she got right, what she missed, and what was not quite right. She uses her notes and her book to fill in the gaps in her knowledge, and knows that she will have another opportunity to retrieve again in a couple of days.

Q: Nayelie is combining two important learning strategies here. What are they?

Q: Think about the way Nayelie is studying, and compare this to a different student who only repeatedly reads. If they both have an exam in one week, who do you think would perform better and why?

Figure 8.3 Nayelie (she/her) typing what she can remember into her computer from memory.

Spencer and Calvin are taking Introduction to Psychology together. They have started meeting every Thursday afternoon to study together. First, they go through their notes and see which concepts they are really struggling with. Then, they ask one another questions. For example, Calvin might say to Spencer, “I’m really having trouble understanding how neurons communicate. Can you explain how it works?” Spencer then tries to explain how neurons communicate in the nervous system using his own words and from his memory. Just to make sure, they then check their notes for accuracy. Then Spencer might ask a question, like “Can you come up with an example of a true experiment?” And Calvin comes up with his own example, explaining why it is a good example of the concept, and the two then check their notes for accuracy.

Q: What part of Spencer and Calvin’s study sessions involves retrieval practice?

Figure 8.4 Spencer (he/him) and Calvin (he/him) studying together using retrieval practice.

Chapter takeaways

Put your course materials away and try to bring the material to mind from memory. This is called retrieval practice!

You can practice retrieval in a lot of different ways, like writing on a blank sheet of paper, answering practice questions, creating concept maps from your memory, using flashcards, and more. Just make sure you are bringing the information to mind from your own memory and in your own words. Then check your materials for accuracy.

Bringing information to mind from your memory is difficult, and it can sometimes trick you into thinking you are learning less than you are. Don’t be fooled! Retrieving information from your memory is very effective, especially when you do it repeatedly with spaces in between (spaced practice, see Chapter 7), so keep at it.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Adesope, O. O., Trevisan, D. A., & Sundararajan, N. (2017). Rethinking the use of tests: A meta-analysis of practice testing. Review of Educational Psychology, 87(3), 659–701. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316689306.

Agarwal, P. K., Nunes, L. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2021). Retrieval practice consistently benefits student learning: A systematic review of research in schools and classrooms. Educational Psychology Review, 33, 1409–1453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09595-9.

Roediger, H. L., Putnam, A. L., & Smith, M. A. (2011). Ten benefits of testing and their applications to educational practice. In J. Mester & B. Ross (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Cognition in education (1–36). Elsevier.

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x.

Karpicke, J. D. (2017). Retrieval-based learning: A decade of progress. In J. T. Wixted (Ed.), Cognitive psychology of memory (Vol. 2 of Learning and memory: A comprehensive reference, J. H. Byrne, Series Ed.) (487–514). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.21055-9.

Dobson, J. L., & Linderholm, T. (2014). Self-testing promotes superior retention of anatomy and physiology information. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 20, 149–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-014-9514-8.

Abel, M., & Bäuml, K. H. T. (2020). Would you like to learn more? Retrieval practice plus feedback can increase motivation to keep on studying. Cognition, 201, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104316.

Smith, M. A., & Karpicke, J. D. (2014). Retrieval practice with short-answer, multiple-choice, and hybrid tests. Memory, 22(7), 784–802. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2013.831454.

Agarwal, P. K. (2018). Retrieval practice & Bloom’s taxonomy: Do students need fact knowledge before higher order learning? Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(2), 189–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000282.

Weinstein, Y., & Sumeracki, M. A. (2019). Understanding how we learn: A visual guide. David Fulton, Routledge.

Karpicke, J. D. (2009). Metacognitive control and strategy selection: Deciding to practice retrieval during learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(4), 469–486. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017341.

Blunt, J. R., & Karpicke, J. D. (2014). Learning with retrieval-based concept mapping. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(3), 849–858. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035934.

Lyle, K. B., Bego, C. R., Hopkins, R. F., Hieb, J. L., & Ralston, P. A. S. (2020). How the amount and spacing of retrieval practice affect the short- and long-term retention of mathematics knowledge. Educational Psychology Review, 32, 277–295. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09489-x

Chapter 9 Find multiple concrete examples

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-12

Wrapping your head around new concepts and ideas can be challenging in the beginning. One of the simplest ways to improve learning is by finding different concrete examples of these concepts. You can find examples in all sorts of places: through an internet search, in your textbook, during class, or even examples you come up with on your own. Examples are really useful in helping you to understand complicated concepts from your classes, but not all examples are good ones. In fact, sometimes examples can actually hurt learning. In this chapter, you will learn about concrete examples and how to use examples in a way that helps you understand and remember.

What are concrete examples?

Using examples is pretty self-explanatory. If you have something complex or abstract that you need to learn, having some concrete examples of that concept can help you make sense of it. Let’s say you’re trying to learn about an abstract concept like “loyalty,” which is defined as “the quality of being unswerving in allegiance.”¹ Examples of loyalty might include a friend who stands by your side when you’re being teased, an employee who has worked at the same company for many years, or a soldier who doesn’t reveal secrets even when captured by an enemy. While the definition of loyalty may be abstract, seeing these concrete examples helps you understand what it means and makes you more likely to come up with new examples or recognize loyalty in other circumstances.

Scientific evidence for concrete examples

In general, it is easier to understand and remember concrete concepts than abstract concepts. For example, research on memory for words finds that people are more likely to remember words for concrete ideas (e.g., “chair,” “elephant,” or “airplane”) than they are to remember words for abstract ideas (e.g., “loyalty,” “irony,” or “equity”)². Therefore, having concrete examples of abstract ideas available can be really helpful when trying to understand these ideas.

When using examples to understand a concept, it is also important to use multiple examples. In a series of studies³,⁴, researchers asked participants to read a story about a rebel leader trying to capture a fortress held by a dictator, then they asked participants to solve a problem about how to operate on a tumor using radiation. While the story and the problem seem different on the surface, they actually have a very similar solution. In the story, the rebel leader splits up his forces and has them take many different paths that converge on the fortress to avoid dangerous traps set by the dictator. In the tumor problem, one solution is to split up the rays of radiation and have them converge on the tumor to avoid having too much radiation go through healthy tissue. Researchers found that people had a hard time recognizing that the fortress story gave an example of how to solve the tumor problem using the same kind of solution. However, as soon as participants were given a hint, they were able to see the similarities and apply the solution from the fortress story to the tumor problem (in this case, converging forces)³.

Figure 9.1 A concrete example such as the story about overthrowing a fortress can help students see similarities and support finding a solution for the tumor problem. However, sometimes the link may still not be obvious, and a hint can help with finding the solution.

Why didn’t participants recognize that the solution to the tumor problem was in the story they just read? This series of studies highlights one of the challenges of using examples. When you only have one example to go off of, it can be hard to recognize which parts of the example are relevant, and which parts are not.

To investigate this, researchers set up another study using the same story and problem⁴. However, this time they used two different stories with the same solution. Instead of reading only one story, participants read one story about volunteers putting out a fire with multiple buckets of water, and another story about a commander trying to attack a military headquarters on an island. After reading both stories, participants were then given the tumor problem. This time participants were much better at recognizing how the examples they read could help them solve the problem. Having multiple different examples helped them to compare and contrast so they could decide which parts were similar, and therefore relevant to the main idea they needed to learn (in this case, converging forces), and which parts were not.

Using multiple examples is especially important when you are first learning about a topic. When students are just beginning to learn a topic, they have a tendency to notice the story or surface details in the example more than the underlying idea⁵. In the example of loyalty above, if you were just given the example of a friend standing by your side, you might think that loyalty only has to do with friendship. In the fortress story studies, participants thought the story was just about military strategy and didn’t recognize the underlying problem-solving strategy. This is one of the reasons why having multiple examples while you study is really important, especially when the material you are learning is new.

Another reason for using multiple examples is that sometimes students tend to remember the story in an example much better than what the example was trying to illustrate⁶. For example, in the case of the fortress story, a student might remember “it was a story about a fortress and a general” and not that the general actually converged smaller forces in the middle. As a student, you need to make sure you try to look beyond the story: Try to figure out what different examples have in common, how they are related to the class material, and what abstract ideas they are trying to explain.

How do I use concrete examples?

Ask for examples. If you are having trouble understanding a concept, ask your teacher for examples! You can simply ask, “I’m a little confused about X. Could you give another example?” If you’re nervous about speaking up in class, you can talk to them after class, go to office hours (i.e., times when you can visit with a teacher to ask questions or get extra help), or contact them via email.

Look up examples. Another option to get more examples of a tricky concept is to look for examples in your textbook or other class materials, or to search for examples on the internet. If you look for examples outside of class materials, it is also a good idea to double check them with your teacher, tutor, or teaching assistant to make sure they are accurate examples.

Come up with examples on your own. Coming up with examples on your own is a great way to check your understanding of the material. To make sure the examples are good, talk with your teachers, tutors, or teaching assistants about them. You can also use your study group to share and discuss examples.

Use multiple examples. Especially when learning about a concept for the first time, it’s useful to have multiple examples so that you can more easily see which parts of the examples are relevant to what you are learning about. You can use any of the methods above to find more than one example of the concept you are learning about.

Look beyond stories in examples. When you are given examples either in your textbook or by your teacher, make sure you understand how those examples represent the concept you are learning about. When in doubt, ask!

Concrete examples in action

Annabelle is having a hard time understanding “negative reinforcement” in her psychology class. She read the description in her textbook, re-read her notes, and even asked her mom for help. Finally, she did an internet search for examples of negative reinforcement and, after reading lots of examples online, she thinks she has a pretty good idea of the concept.

Q: What was good about Annabelle’s approach?

Q: What should Annabelle do next?

Figure 9.2 Annabelle (she/her) searching online to find multiple concrete examples of a concept she finds difficult.

In one of her classes, Sunita’s teacher uses a lot of really interesting and funny examples. In fact, all week Sunita has been telling her friends about this funny example that her teacher used in class. But as she was preparing for the weekly quiz in her class, Sunita realized that she couldn’t remember anything else from class that day – including what the example was meant to explain!

Q: What should Sunita do next?

Q: How could Sunita avoid this problem in the future?

Chapter takeaways

Concrete examples can help make abstract concepts easier to understand.

Using multiple examples helps you to recognize the relevant parts of an example and keep you from focusing on the story in the example.

Get feedback on examples from your teacher, tutor, or teaching assistant to make sure you understand the examples.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Loyalty. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved July 7, 2022 from www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/loyalty.

Paivio, A., Walsh, M., & Bons, T. (1994). Concreteness effects on memory: When and why? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20(5), 1196. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.20.5.1196.

Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1980). Analogical problem solving. Cognitive Psychology, 12(3), 306–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(80)90013-4.

Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1983). Schema induction and analogical transfer. Cognitive Psychology, 15(1), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(83)90002-6.

Chi, M. T., Feltovich, P. J., & Glaser, R. (1981). Categorization and representation of physics problems by experts and novices. Cognitive Science, 5(2), 121–152. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0502_2.

McNeil, N. M., Uttal, D. H., Jarvin, L., & Sternberg, R. J. (2009). Should you show me the money? Concrete objects both hurt and help performance on mathematics problems. Learning and Instruction, 19(2), 171–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2008.03.005

Chapter 10 Use visuals and words to help you understand

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-13

You have probably heard the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Indeed, we tend to be very good at remembering visual information, and images can quickly and easily show a lot of information to help a learner understand the content better. Combining visuals with words can be a powerful way of helping you understand and remember information (called dual coding). In this chapter, you will learn about dual coding, different ways that you can use visuals to help you study, and some common pitfalls when doing so.

What is dual coding?

Dual coding is all about combining visuals with words¹. The combination of visuals and words can help us understand and remember the information we are trying to learn². When you have both visuals and words it helps make the information more concrete because you can actually see it! This makes it easier to remember, and some information is just easier to understand with visuals³. For these reasons, it is a good idea to use both visual and verbal descriptions of the concepts you are trying to learn.

There are a lot of different types of visuals that can be used, and the best type will likely depend on what you are trying to learn. You can use labeled diagrams, infographics, graphic organizers, concept maps or mind maps, illustrated timelines, or even cartoon strips. However, dual coding does not simply mean adding any sort of visual. Decorative images that do not help explain the information can be distracting, and overly complicated images, or moving too quickly over the images and words, can lead to poorer learning⁴,⁵. The key is to make sure you take your time to understand how the verbal explanations connect to the visuals provided. This leads to a deeper understanding of the material.

Figure 10.1 Many different types of visuals can be used to depict the concepts you are trying to learn.

Beware of misconceptions! Talking about visual and verbal information might make you think about your preferences for learning, and may start to sound like learning styles. Learning styles is a popular idea that students’ learning preferences, like preferring to learn from visuals or preferring to learn from verbal information, determine how each student learns best. People who believe in learning styles believe they must learn information in their own style to maximize how much they learn. However, learning styles are a myth⁶! Certainly, you probably have preferences, but it isn’t the preference that drives how you learn best. Instead, all students learn best when they combine different modalities of learning, like visual and verbal.

Think about it this way: if you have thought you were a visual learner in the past, could you learn everything you would need to learn about human anatomy from an unlabeled (i.e., no words) diagram? Could you learn to ride a bike by looking at a picture of a person riding a bike? Could you learn about English literature without ever reading a word? Probably not. Similarly, someone who prefers verbal information will likely still struggle to learn about human anatomy just from a verbal description and no diagram. Certain types of materials work really well for certain subject areas. And, we know that for a lot of subject areas, combining visuals with words is helpful regardless of student preference.

Scientific evidence for dual coding

An experiment with Year 11 chemistry students showed that visuals are powerful tools to deepen understanding of material⁷. Students read a science text on water molecules. In the dual coding condition, students were asked to create drawings of ideas in the text. In a words-only condition, students were asked to write down the main ideas from the text. Afterward, they were given a multiple-choice test that covered the core ideas from the text and a more challenging test that required students to apply what they learned to new scenarios. Students performed well on the test about the core ideas no matter what strategy they used. However, on the application test, students performed better if they had used the drawing strategy while reading (dual coding) – demonstrating a better understanding of the material than when they just wrote the main ideas.

Figure 10.2 On an application test, using the text and creating drawings (dual coding) led to the best scores on the test.

Another experiment⁸ showed that combining visuals and words was best for all students, and that the students’ preferences (learning styles) did not affect their learning. All students’ preferences or learning styles were assessed, and students were separated into two groups: having a preference for visual learning or a preference for auditory learning (in this case, hearing words). Then, the students all listened to statements read aloud to them. Some of the students were told to think about how the words sounded, so they were only focused on the verbal or auditory modality. The other students were told to think about how easy it was to create a visual image of the read statement, so they were able to focus on both visual and verbal or auditory modalities (dual coding). After learning the statements, they took a test over the statements.

The results showed the students’ learning styles did not matter at all. Instead, dual coding led to the best learning by far. Students learned best when they both listened to the statements (words) and thought about how easy it would be to create a visual image of the statement (visuals). In fact, when dual coding was used, they remembered about double the number of statements no matter what their learning style was. Therefore, regardless of preference, it is the combination of visual and verbal information that is important for learning.

How do I use dual coding?

Use visuals along with words. There are a lot of types of images, but the key is that the visual should complement the verbal material. We don’t want pictures just to have pictures; we want them to illustrate the concept we are trying to learn so that remembering the picture will help us remember the verbal material.

For example, if you are trying to learn a process, like the water cycle, how a generator works, or how a series of events led to the outbreak of World War I, the most helpful image will illustrate the process with accompanying explanations. If you are trying to learn something with spatial relationships, like geography, the anatomy of a living thing, or how different pieces come together to make a machine, the image should clearly depict all of the parts in relation to one another and clearly label them.

Figure 10.3 On the left side, the water cycle is described in words only and any visuals are only decorative. These visuals are unlikely to improve learning. On the right side, pictures and arrows are used to visualize the process of the water cycle. This image is informative and supports understanding of the water cycle by adding dual coding.

Start by finding visuals within your course materials that help explain the concepts you are trying to learn. If you don’t have many visuals within your course materials, you can try to find some online. Just make sure they are accurate, and check them against the course materials that you do have or check with your teacher.

Review the visuals and the words. Make sure to go slowly enough that you can understand what you are reading and seeing. Take your time to think about how the verbal explanations link to the visuals. Compare the information in the visuals to the words you are reading.

Come up with your own visuals. Try to create visuals yourself that capture main ideas and concepts. The aim is not to create perfect artwork. Instead, produce an organized visual showing the concepts you learned about. As mentioned above there are different visuals that you can create (e.g., mind maps, illustrated timelines, etc.) and which one works best depends on the content.

Use dual coding along with spacing and retrieval practice. Review the verbal and visual information spread out over time (spaced practice, see Chapter 7), and work your way up to drawing your own visuals from memory (retrieval practice, see Chapter 8). Your drawings do not have to be pretty; the point is to retrieve the information from memory and put it down on the page. As long as you are retrieving the information as best you can, it doesn’t matter at all what it looks like!

Dual coding in action

Aoife loves creating visuals of concepts she reads about in textbooks or when she takes notes while listening to the teacher. She spends a long time optimizing her visuals. Aoife also adds additional doodles and elements to her visuals to decorate them and make them look appealing. When her best friend Joaquín looks at her amazing visuals, he feels discouraged and thinks that he is not good enough at creating visuals himself.

Q: What is good about Aoife’s approach to dual coding?

Q: What does Joaquín worry about when trying to create visuals himself and how could he be supported in engaging with dual coding?

Figure 10.4 Aoife (she/her) is drawing her own visuals in her notebook along with words to represent ideas (dual coding), while Joaquín (he/him) is writing in his notebook.

Liu thinks of herself as a verbal learner. She feels that reading about concepts and writing summaries helps her best to understand the material. For that reason, Liu tends to avoid engaging with visuals or illustrations in textbooks or when the teacher uses these to explain concepts.

Q: Explain in your own words: What is the problem with Liu’s approach?

Q: What could help Liu to overcome this problem?

Chapter takeaways

Dual coding is combining visuals with words. Visuals help you to better learn and comprehend concepts. They make information more likely to stick.

Visuals come in different forms and shapes and should capture the core aspects of the material you are learning. Pay attention to the visuals that are provided by your teacher or the textbook and think about how the verbal descriptions connect to the visuals.

When creating your own visuals, keep in mind that this is not artwork but rather a way to transform taught concepts into a visual form to make it more concrete and graspable to learn.

Don’t worry about whether you think you’re a “visual” or “verbal” learner. Combining visuals with words will help you learn regardless of your preference.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Clark, J. M., & Paivio, A. (1991). Dual coding theory and education. Educational Psychology Review, 3(3), 149–210. www.jstor.org/stable/23359208.

Paivio, A., & Csapo, K. (1973). Picture superiority in free recall: Imagery or dual coding? Cognitive Psychology, 5(2), 176–206. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(73)90032-7.

Mayer, R. E., & Gallini, J. K. (1990). When is an illustration worth ten thousand words? Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 715–726. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.82.4.715.

McNeil, N. M., Uttal, D. H., Jarvin, L., & Sternberg, R. J. (2009). Should you show me the money? Concrete objects both hurt and help performance on mathematics problems. Learning and Instruction, 19(2), 171–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2008.03.005.

Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. (2003). Nine ways to reduce cognitive load in multimedia learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 43–52. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_6.

Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2009). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105–119. https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1539-6053.2009.01038.x.

Leopold, C., & Leutner, D. (2012). Science text comprehension: Drawing, main idea selection, and summarizing as learning strategies. Learning and Instruction, 22(1), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2011.05.005.

Cuevas, J., & Dawson, B. L. (2018). A test of two alternative cognitive processing models: Learning styles and dual coding. Theory and Research in Education, 16(1), 40–64. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1477878517731450

Chapter 11 Describe and explain how things work

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-14

While it is important to memorize terms and definitions, it is better for your overall learning if you can understand how concepts relate to each other, why they are relevant or important, and how or why you might use this information. Elaboration is one method you can use to improve your understanding of material so that you can remember and use information when you need to, and to connect new information you are learning to information you already know well. In this chapter, you will learn about elaboration and how you can use this strategy while studying.

What is elaboration?

Elaboration refers to adding and connecting information to concepts that you are learning. There are different ways that you can elaborate on something, but one way that has been studied by cognitive psychologists is called elaborative interrogation. Elaborative interrogation is simply asking “how” and “why” questions about what you are learning¹,². For example, if you are learning a new computer programming language, like HTML5, you might ask: “Why am I learning HTML5 for this task?” “How is HTML5 different from other programming languages?” “How are HTML5 and JavaScript used together?” “How are HTML5 and JavaScript similar?” “How are HTML5 and JavaScript different?” “How do I do x with HTML5?” Then, it is important to find the answers to these questions, creating explanations of how and why things work.

Another way to use elaboration is by explaining concepts to yourself³,⁴. For example, if you are trying to understand neural communication, you might elaborate by explaining the process of one neuron sending a message to another neuron. “First, the dendrites receive messages from other neurons… if there is an action potential, an electrical signal travels quickly down the axon. If there is myelin sheath on the axon then it can travel even faster because the myelin sheath works as an insulator, like the coating on the electrical cord of a vacuum…”

Figure 11.1 A student explaining neural communication to themselves.

Scientific evidence for elaboration

Asking “how” and “why” questions encourages you to explain the concepts you are learning and to make connections with other material. Integrating these new ideas with information you already know helps you to organize your knowledge, making it easier to understand and remember later⁵,⁶.

In one study⁷, students learned science facts in one of three different ways:

In the reading condition, the students read the facts out loud and tried to understand them.

In the student’s choice condition, students used whatever study strategy they wanted to use, and tried to understand the facts.

Finally, in the elaborative interrogation condition, the students answered the question “why is this true?” for each of the facts, using their course materials to help them.

In addition, the students in the experiment worked either on their own or with a partner. Then, the students took a test to see how much they learned either immediately or 60 days after learning. Students who used elaborative interrogation learned more than the students in the reading condition and the student’s choice condition. This was true whether they worked alone or in pairs and was true 60 days after learning. This experiment shows that elaborative interrogation is an effective strategy to help you learn and remember in the long term, and you can use it with a partner!

Elaborating by explaining concepts to yourself helps you to develop your understanding of the material³. Research looking at self-explanation found that students who were prompted to self-explain while reading a text learned more from reading the text than those who were not prompted to self-explain³. Furthermore, of those who self-explained, the students who made more self-explanations showed greater understanding than those who made fewer self-explanations.

Figure 11.2 Elaborative interrogation led to better test scores, both immediately and 60 days after learning, compared to the other two conditions⁷. Using elaborative interrogation alone and with a partner were equally effective at improving test scores compared to the other two conditions.

Importantly, elaboration works best when you have some prior knowledge about the topic⁸, and when the elaborations that are generated are of high quality⁷,⁹. This means going beyond stating facts. Instead, create connections between information you already know and the information you are trying to learn, and explain the reasons information is true. In the example above about the neuron, the elaborations explain why the electrical signal travels quickly by explaining the myelin sheath. The elaboration also makes connections between the myelin sheath and electrical cords, something that is probably part of students’ prior knowledge. If you feel like you are struggling to generate good “how” and “why” questions, or that you are struggling to come up with strong explanations of how and why things work, it is probably a good idea to try another strategy from this book (like concrete examples, Chapter 9, or dual coding, Chapter 10), and work your way up to using elaboration. If you are using elaboration and it is working for you, you can work your way up to using elaboration and retrieval practice (Chapter 8) together, so that you are describing and explaining the information from your own memory.

How do I use elaboration?

Ask “how” and “why” questions. Then, you should find the answers to these questions. This strategy can be done by yourself or with a partner. Make sure that the answers to the “how” and “why” questions go beyond just stating the facts and make connections between different ideas. If you are struggling a lot, try another strategy in this book first.

Explain concepts to yourself. As you study, articulate the steps you are taking when you are engaging in a process or explain how and why ideas are connected when you are reviewing material. This can work really well if you’re trying to solve problems (like in math or physics), learning about processes (like in biology, chemistry, or even English and writing), or learning procedures (like in laboratory courses).

Explain how two things are similar and how two things are different. One way to make connections between different ideas that you are trying to learn is to explain how they are similar and how they are different. Comparing and contrasting like this can help you understand and organize the things you are learning, and help you distinguish among different concepts⁶.

Pay attention to your prior knowledge. Elaboration works best when you have some prior knowledge about the topic, and when you generate high-quality elaborations⁵. This is one of the reasons it is so important to enhance your long-term learning! Concepts you learn throughout a class, and across classes, build on each other, and the prior knowledge helps you learn. Use the strategies in this book to make sure you improve your long-term learning, don’t just study to pass the test. If you find yourself struggling while using elaboration, try another strategy in this book first and work your way up to using elaboration.

Use elaboration along with spacing and retrieval practice. Revisit the information, describing and explaining each time (spacing, see Chapter 7), and work your way up to being able to describe and explain how things work from your own memory (retrieval practice, see Chapter 8). Doing this will probably feel challenging, but when you feel ready for that challenge embrace it! It will help you learn and remember in the long term.

Elaboration in action

Saad gets a little overwhelmed by the dates and events he needs to remember for his history class. He decides to try elaboration to help him better understand the events he is learning about in World War I. He starts with asking questions about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He asks questions like, “Why did this happen? What was the result of this assassination? Why is this event important? In what ways were World War I and II similar? Different?”

Q: What form of elaboration is Saad using?

Q: How will this elaboration help Saad understand the events he is learning about?

Figure 11.3 Saad (he/him) using elaborative interrogation by asking “how” and “why” questions about World War I.

Tobi is in a physics class, but it has been a while since they took physics or math. They don’t remember much from their previous classes. While trying to solve problems they want to describe and explain the concept to themselves. However, Tobi realizes they don’t really understand exactly why they need to complete each step, and so they aren’t able to really explain.

Q: Why is Tobi struggling to use elaboration?

Q: What should Tobi do next?

Chapter takeaways

Elaboration is all about making connections, and you can do this by describing and explaining how things work.

Two study strategies that involve using elaboration are elaborative interrogation, when you ask and then answer “how” and “why” questions, and self-explanation.

You can elaborate with a partner or by yourself. Just make sure you have some prior knowledge about the information you are trying to learn to help you make connections, and that the descriptions and explanations that you create are high-quality.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

McDaniel, M. A., & Donnelly, C. M. (1996). Learning with analogy and elaborative interrogation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 508–519. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.88.3.508.

Pressley, M., McDaniel, M. A., Turnure, J. E., Wood, E., & Ahmad, M. (1987). Generation and precision of elaboration: Effects on intentional and incidental learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13(2), 291–300. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.13.2.291.

Chi, M. T., de Leeuw, N., Chiu, M. H., & LaVancher, C. (1994). Eliciting self-explanations improves understanding. Cognitive Science, 18, 439–477. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1803_3.

Weinstein, Y., & Sumeracki, M. A. (2019). Understanding how we learn: A visual guide (O. Caviglioli, Illus.). David Fulton, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203710463.

Willoughby, T., & Wood, E. (1994). Elaborative interrogation examined at encoding and retrieval. Learning and Instruction, 4, 139–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-4752(94)90008-6.

Hunt, R. R. (2006). The concept of distinctiveness in memory research. In R. R. Hung & J. B. Worthen (Eds.), Distinctiveness and memory (3–25). Oxford University Press.

Woloshyn, V. E., & Stockley, D. B. (1995). Helping students acquire belief-inconsistent and belief-consistent science facts: Comparisons between individual and dyad study using elaborative interrogation, self-selected study and repetitious-reading. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9(1), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.2350090106.

Woloshyn, V. E., Pressley, M., & Schneider, W. (1992). Elaborative-interrogation and prior-knowledge effects on learning of facts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84(1), 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.84.1.115.

Clinton, V., Alibali, M. W., & Nathan, M. J. (2016). Learning about posterior probability: Do diagrams and elaborative interrogation help? The Journal of Experimental Education, 84(3), 579–599. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2015.1048847

Chapter 12 Jumble it all up

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-15

Regardless of the subject you are studying (e.g., math, history, or a foreign language), you will always cover different topics, ideas, concepts, or problem types within a course. When preparing for an exam, you probably focus on a single concept or problem type at a time before moving to the next. This is called blocking or blocked practice, and it is what most students tend to do. Alternatively, you can jumble and mix up different concepts or problem types and study them together. This is called interleaving or interleaved practice. It turns out that mixing up different problem types and studying them together boosts your understanding of the material and makes it more likely for you to remember it in the long run. In this chapter, you will learn about interleaving and ways to use this strategy effectively while studying.

What is interleaving?

Interleaving means jumbling up different topics and reviewing them together instead of reviewing and studying the topics one-by-one in a blocked fashion. To give a simple example: In math, you probably learned how to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. When practicing solving these problem types, you could focus on one problem type at a time (e.g., multiplication) and work on lots of those problems until you reach a level of mastery you are happy with. Afterward, you would move to the next problem type (e.g., division). This would be blocked practice.

Alternatively, you could jumble up all four problem types (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and practice them together, switching between each type. First, you might do an addition problem, then multiplication, then subtraction, etc. This would be interleaved practice. Jumbling or mixing up different concepts or types of problems during studying might lead to more mistakes initially, but it will also lead to learning how to better distinguish between different concepts or problems and help you see connections that will help you later.

Think about it: On an exam, you will probably be given different problems to solve in a random order, instead of blocks of the same type of problem, with a label telling you what to do with the problem. Thus, having practiced different problem types in random order (e.g., jumbled up, or interleaved) can help you perform better on the exam.

Figure 12.1 Working through the workbook that is organized by problem type in a blocked fashion may make it more difficult to solve the tasks on the exam where problem types are jumbled up (interleaved).

But there is more: By practicing concepts and ideas in a different order each time, you will have to really think about how to solve a specific problem every time¹. This will improve your learning of the concepts, making you better prepared for exams and using the concepts in real life. If you study the same concept all blocked together, then you will only have to decide in the beginning how to solve or answer it and then just apply the same procedure for all remaining tasks without deeper thinking.

For example, for students learning English as a foreign language, it can be difficult to get their heads around the different tenses, like when to use simple past (“I studied for the exam!”) vs present perfect (“I have studied for the exam!”). If you practice using these tenses in a blocked fashion (i.e., one exercise just with simple past sentences and another exercise just with present perfect sentences), you will only have to decide in the very beginning which tense to use and just do so for all remaining sentences (a bit like copy and paste). But if you interleave simple past and present perfect sentences, you will have to think about which tense to use for each sentence and why. Thus, jumbling up ideas encourages you to see how they are similar and different¹. This helps you understand the concepts better. Finally, interleaving is a form of spaced practice (see Chapter 7) because by mixing up different ideas or problem types during practice you automatically introduce breaks between studying similar ideas.

Scientific evidence for interleaving

Intuitively, many students will choose to use blocked practice because it seems to work better: Practicing in a blocked fashion makes us feel like we are understanding the concepts because we are making fewer errors. However, like with so many other strategies, the thing that makes us feel like we are learning more is not the most effective way to learn (see Chapter 6).

This was shown in a large experiment with Year 8 students². The experiment included students from 54 classrooms across five different schools! Classes were assigned to either a blocked practice or an interleaved practice condition in math. The only difference between the two conditions was the worksheets that teachers gave students. They were practicing four types of math problems (i.e., expression, inequality, graph, circle), which can look very similar at first, but they require different procedures to solve them.

The students in the experiment practiced the problems on worksheets and review sheets for over three months. In the blocked condition, each worksheet had only one type of problem (e.g., circles), and they used different worksheets to practice all four types of problems. In the interleaved condition, each worksheet had all four types of problems mixed up. Finally, about a month later, all students had a final surprise test on all problem types. The results were striking: Students who had practiced with the problems jumbled up clearly outperformed students who had practiced only one problem type at a time.

Figure 12.2 Worksheets that contained interleaved problem types led to better performance later than worksheets with blocked problem types.

Similar benefits have been found in other subjects, like art. In one experiment³ students had to study painting styles of three artists either blocked by artist or interleaved (i.e., paintings of the three artists jumbled up). On a multiple-choice test 20 minutes later, students who had practiced the painting styles interleaved together outperformed students who had seen them in a blocked fashion. Interleaving painting styles allowed students to identify how the styles between artists differed from each other and this helped them to identify the painters later.

So far you have seen that practicing different concepts and ideas within the same subject side-by-side can help you to learn and understand them better. You may now ask yourself whether it is beneficial to interleave studying of completely different subjects, like studying a bit of chemistry, then history, then biology. For example, if you use flashcards for different subjects, you could mix them all up and then study them instead of having different stacks of cards for different subjects. Is this a good idea?

In an experiment⁴ students studied flashcards with anatomy terms and foreign language vocabulary either mixed together (interleaved) or blocked by topic. Here, the researchers found no benefit of interleaving completely different topics. This makes sense when you think about the reasons why interleaving is beneficial: Interleaving helps you to distinguish between ideas or problems that are similar in some ways but are different in others. This does not apply to completely different topics, and so interleaving works best when applied to ideas that are similar in some ways, but not others.

How do I use interleaving?

Jumble up materials. When you have multiple different topics that need to be reviewed in your course, you should mix them together instead of studying one topic at a time. Make sure to also change up the order in which you practice different tasks.

Think about the relationship between topics. As you are reviewing materials, think about how the materials are similar and different from each other.

Be careful to only jumble similar material. It makes more sense to jumble material within one course or maybe even a section of a course than to mix up things that are too different from each other. You need to be able to see differences and similarities between material for interleaving to be beneficial.

Jump between blocked practice materials. If your textbook or class assignments are presented in blocked format (as many are), switch between chapter questions or practice problems to introduce your own interleaving.

Interleaving in action

Katrin is a diligent student. She always reads her textbook before class and takes notes during class. Her teacher hands out weekly homework assignments, giving the students practice over that week’s material, and Katrin always completes these assignments as soon as they are assigned and turns them in the next day.

Q: Katrin would like to try out interleaving during her independent studying sessions. How could she do that?

Q: What else have you learned in this book that Katrin could use to improve her learning?

Joseph has heard of interleaving and is trying really hard to use it in his studies. In his math class, he collects his old homework sheets and creates his own scrambled worksheets. In his psychology class, he flips through his notebook and tries to recall whatever he can on each page. He has made flashcards for his Spanish, biology, and history classes and has shuffled all of them together so he can review them during study sessions. When he reviews, he looks at the front of the card and tries to recall as much as he can about the concept from his memory before flipping to see what is on the other side.

Q: What is good about Joseph’s study approach?

Q: How could Joseph’s study be improved?

Figure 12.3 Joseph (he/him) creates his own interleaved worksheets by taking homework worksheets from the previous three weeks and jumbling up different problem types and adding them to one worksheet.

Chapter takeaways

Interleaving means to practice different ideas, concepts, and problem types within the same study session. When studying, try to switch between different problem types and ideas instead of always studying them in a blocked fashion and in the same order.

Jumbling up concepts and ideas during studying helps you to get a better understanding of how these ideas are similar or different from each other. This process will help you to better comprehend the topic as a whole.

Interleaving may slow down your learning initially, but this slowing down is exactly what leads to better understanding in the long run and that will allow you to successfully tackle related tasks in the future.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Pan, S. C. (2015). The interleaving effect: Mixing it up boosts learning. Scientific American, 313(2). www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/.

Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., Hartwig, M. K., & Cheung, C.-N. (2020). A randomized controlled trial of interleaved mathematics practice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(1), 40–52. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000367.

Kang, S. H., & Pashler, H. (2012). Learning painting styles: Spacing is advantageous when it promotes discriminative contrast. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26(1), 97–103. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1801.

Hausman, H., & Kornell, N. (2014). Mixing topics while studying does not enhance learning. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3(3), 153–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2014.03.003

Chapter 13 Use effective note-taking strategies

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-16

Reading textbook chapters or listening to your teacher explain new concepts in class can be quite overwhelming and it may take some effort to grasp the new concepts. Many concepts are usually introduced, and they build on each other. So, it is important to have access to (and remember) concepts from previous material to understand new material. In these cases, it can be a good idea to take notes. But how should you take notes and how should you use your notes later when studying? In this chapter, you will learn about ways to take notes and how you can strategically use your notes during study sessions to make them the most effective.

What is note-taking?

If you’re like most students, you take notes during class; a majority of students report that they engage in note-taking¹. Note-taking boils down to producing a written record of the main ideas taught in class or in a textbook chapter. This sounds simple at first, but not all note-taking is equally effective, so learning to take notes in the best way is a bit less straightforward.

In order to take useful notes, you need to

comprehend the material

identify the key points

connect new ideas to previously taught ideas

paraphrase (express the meaning of what the teacher is explaining or the text is describing in your own words)

and finally write this all down².

On top of all this, when you are note-taking in class, the teacher will probably continue their teaching as you are taking notes. One thing we know about multitasking is that we are not good at attending to two things at the same time (see Chapter 5). Essentially, you can either produce good notes or listen attentively to the teacher, but not do both well at the same time.

However, there are note-taking strategies that can facilitate this process and we will introduce you to them. Surprisingly, while many students tend to agree that taking notes is important, fewer have adopted a specific note-taking strategy³. Things are a bit easier when taking notes while reading because here you can switch between textbook reading and note-taking at your own pace. Nevertheless, having a note-taking strategy can still be really helpful¹.

Before introducing you to our preferred note-taking strategies, let’s take a quick look at why note-taking is beneficial.

Scientific evidence for effective note-taking

Why should you take notes? Generally speaking, there are two big benefits to note-taking: (1) note-taking helps with attention and learning, and (2) notes can be used later for studying. When students are asked about their beliefs about note-taking, they tend to agree that taking notes helps them pay attention, learn information better, and gives them material to review for the exam³. The question now is: Do all forms of note-taking provide these benefits? This brings us to three aspects of note-taking that are most important for students to consider: (1) note-taking format (by hand vs laptop), (2) note-taking structure (organized notes), and (3) note-taking quality (verbatim, which means word-for-word, vs paraphrased)².

Note-taking format (by hand vs laptop). Taking notes on the laptop is more common among students today than producing notes by hand. You may have asked yourself whether there is an advantage of using one note-taking format over the other. The quick answer to this is: Probably not⁴. While there are studies that have crowned by-hand notes as the winner⁵, other studies have not been able to confirm this advantage of by-hand notes⁶, and yet others found a clear benefit of laptop notes over by-hand notes⁷.

What we do know is that students tend to produce more notes on the laptop compared to when taking notes by hand because people are often faster at typing than writing by hand. Having more notes may seem to be more beneficial than having fewer notes because you have more notes available when you are reviewing the material. However, laptop notes tend to be more verbatim, like copying what the teacher said word-for-word, instead of paraphrasing. Paraphrased notes are usually better for your learning as they capture main ideas in your own words. So, it is not about the specific format of taking notes, but rather about the quality of the notes and that you capture the most important points in your own words, as you will read in the next two paragraphs.

Note-taking structure (organized notes). Organizing your notes and using a structured approach when you take notes is more likely to help you improve your test performance later². This is not only helpful when reviewing notes, but the act of taking notes in this way helps you to better understand the material.

There are different ways that you can accomplish this. The simplest way would be, for example, to check the class material in advance and prepare a note-taking sheet with the main subheadings. Your teacher may have given you material to read in advance, you may have an assigned textbook chapter, or you may have access to the presentation slides. You can use all of these things to essentially prepare an outline to guide your note-taking during class or when reading textbook chapters. This outline can be done in the form of a list, but also in a more visual way by using a table structure. In a table, you could write main headings on the top row and specific aspects as separate rows⁸ or use boxes and arrows⁹. The boxes would contain main ideas and the arrows would indicate how these ideas connect to each other. We will introduce yet another note-taking system, the Cornell notes, below in more depth that falls into the category of organized notes.

Note-taking quality (verbatim vs paraphrased). Putting notes in your own words (paraphrasing) will increase the quality of your notes compared to copying exactly what the teacher or the textbook says word-for-word (verbatim). This, in turn, boosts your understanding and thus can increase your test performance⁵. The reason is that the process of paraphrasing requires you to understand the material: You cannot put ideas into your own words if you have not understood them in the first place. Paraphrasing, therefore, already makes you think more deeply about the material which benefits taking information in, but also helps when reviewing the notes later.

While paraphrasing is considered the gold standard, it is important to acknowledge that it may not always be possible for you to paraphrase when taking notes. When you are completely new to a topic, it will be more difficult to follow what the teacher says, process all details, extract the key points, and paraphrase in your own words. If this is the case, it is better that you stick with verbatim note-taking initially of some main ideas and postpone paraphrasing to a later time when you can take your time¹⁰. This may mean that you take notes in class and then go back and summarize them later. Thus, producing any notes can support this process better than having no notes at all! However, it is typically not helpful for you to simply re-copy your notes.

You can also record the lesson and then listen and paraphrase later. Doing this will help support paraphrasing of more complex concepts that were not captured in your own words during class because you can pause the recording when you need.

How do I effectively take notes?

There are many different approaches to note-taking. All of the note-taking strategies presented below provide structure and help you improve the quality of your notes. The best strategy for you will be the one that you can most easily use and stick to in your classes.

Try Cornell note-taking. Cornell notes are a popular and effective note-taking strategy¹¹,¹². The Cornell method of note-taking starts by dividing your paper into three main sections: A right-hand section for taking notes, a left-hand column for tracking keywords/cues, and a bottom section for summaries.

During class or reading you take notes as you usually would in the notes section of your paper. After class, or at the end of a chapter or section in your reading, you go back and create keywords (or cues) in the left-hand column so that you can quiz yourself on the material later. Here you can also add questions that can guide your studying later. During this review phase, you also create short summaries of the notes section (right-hand section) in the bottom portion of the page. This is for you to find information quicker when you are studying.

Importantly, you can then use your notes as study tools, and nicely combine two learning strategies that are covered in this book: Spaced practice (Chapter 7) and retrieval practice (Chapter 8). How? Go back to your Cornell notes at different points in time (spacing). You can engage in recall from memory first (retrieval) – by simply covering up the notes and summaries sections so that only the keywords/cues column is showing and quizzing yourself on those concepts. Then, use the actual notes to check if you got it right.

Figure 13.1 The Cornell note-taking method involves taking notes on pages that look like this image.

Try sketch-noting. Sketch-noting focuses on creating visuals, diagrams, and doodles in your notes. Sketch-noting can be as simple as creating doodles or icons for important ideas. For example, you might draw a stick figure in the margins of your notes whenever they represent an important person, or a star to represent a main idea. Sketch-noting is one way you can use dual coding to help your understanding of the material¹³ (see Chapter 10).

Sketch-noting can also be a way to show information in a more creative and non-linear fashion. Key ideas and processes should be emphasized on your notes paper, with supporting ideas appearing as smaller pictures and text surrounding it. Creating visually appealing and organized sketch-notes takes time and reflection. So, while it can be a lot of work, especially for those who aren’t as artistically skilled, if you find it enjoyable, you will probably be more likely to stick with it.

Figure 13.2 Sketch-noting focuses on creating visuals to go with notes.

Collaborative note-taking. In collaborative note-taking you work with other students to create notes to share with the entire class. This method of note-taking is more about the process, rather than the specific format. In fact, collaborative note-taking can be done with either of the other two formats listed here! Typically, collaborative note-taking is done online so that multiple students can see and edit the document at the same time. One of the strengths of collaborative note-taking is that working with peers to create the notes helps to improve understanding of the material¹⁴.

Figure 13.3 Collaborative note-taking involves working with other students to create notes, usually online with a shared document.

Effective note-taking in action

Emil takes notes during class because it helps him to stay focused and follow what the teacher is saying. He makes an effort to use his own words when putting down notes. However, sometimes this is quite challenging when the teacher is explaining new and complex ideas. Emil tends to have fewer notes on these ideas.

Q: What is good about Emil’s note-taking approach?

Q: How could Emil’s strategy for note-taking be further improved?

Figure 13.4 Emil (he/him) takes notes during class to help stay focused and puts notes into his own words (paraphrasing).

Keiko has been taking notes in class and when reading the textbook. Her notes are usually brief summaries of the content which she re-reads during studying. While her approach has been working fine, she feels that it could be improved because she sometimes does not know how to best use her notes when studying. She wants to do more than just re-read.

Q: What note-taking strategy could Keiko use to make studying with her notes more effective?

Chapter takeaways

Note-taking (1) supports taking in information when attending a class or reading textbook chapters, and (2) notes can be used later during studying when revisiting material.

Organize your notes and try to paraphrase ideas and concepts in your own words before writing them down. If paraphrasing is too challenging, make sure to put down as many notes as possible – even if some notes are more verbatim at first. You can always go back and capture the notes in your own words during studying.

There is no advantage of putting down notes by hand vs on the laptop. Either method is fine as long as the notes capture as many of the most important concepts as possible and are high in quality.

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Morehead, K., Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Blasiman, R., & Hollis, R. B. (2019). Note-taking habits of 21st century college students: Implications for student learning, memory, and achievement. Memory, 27(6), 807–819. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.1569694.

Jansen, R. S., Lakens, D., & IJsselsteijn, W. A. (2017). An integrative review of the cognitive costs and benefits of note-taking. Educational Research Review, 22, 223–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.10.001.

Witherby, A. E., & Tauber, S. K. (2019). The current status of students’ note-taking: Why and how do students take notes? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 8(2), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2019.04.002.

Voyer, D., Ronis, S. T., & Byers, N. (2022). The effect of notetaking method on academic performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 68, 102025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2021.102025.

Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581.

Urry, H. L., Crittle, C. S., Floerke, V. A., Leonard, M. Z., Perry III, C. S., Akdilek, N., … & Zarrow, J. E. (2021). Don’t ditch the laptop just yet: A direct replication of Mueller and Oppenheimer’s (2014) study 1 plus mini meta-analyses across similar studies. Psychological Science, 32(3), 326–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620965541.

Schoen, I. (2012). Effects of method and context of note-taking on memory: Handwriting versus typing in lecture and textbook-reading contexts. [Unpublished Senior Thesis]. Pfitzer College. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/20/.

Robinson, D. H., Katayama, A. D., Beth, A., Odom, S., Hsieh, Y. P., & Vanderveen, A. (2006). Increasing text comprehension and graphic note taking using a partial graphic organizer. The Journal of Educational Research, 100(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOER.100.2.103-111.

Madu, B. C., & Metu, I. C. (2012). Effect of mind map as a note-taking approach on students’ achievements in Economics. Journal of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences, 3(3), 247–251. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC132206.

Bui, D. C., Myerson, J., & Hale, S. (2013). Note-taking with computers: Exploring alternative strategies for improved recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(2), 299–309. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030367.

Akintunde, O. O. (2013). Effects of Cornell, verbatim and outline note-taking strategies on students’ retrieval of lecture information in Nigeria. Journal of Education and Practice, 4(25), 67–73.

Evans, B. P., & Shively, C. T. (2019). Using the Cornell note-taking system can help eighth grade students alleviate the impact of interruptions while reading at home. Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education, 10(1), 1–35.

Crespo, S. M., & Kyriakides, A. O. (2007). Research, reflection, practice: To draw or not to draw: Exploring children’s drawings for solving mathematics problems. Teaching Children Mathematics, 14(2), 118–125.

Costley, J., & Fanguy, M. (2021). Collaborative note-taking affects cognitive load: The interplay of completeness and interaction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 69(2), 655–671. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11423-021-09979-2

Chapter 14 Avoid strategies that don’t work

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-17

It is easy to waste time when studying if you are using strategies that don’t help you learn. What’s worse: A lot of these ineffective strategies, unfortunately, make you think you are learning a lot while you are doing them, but lead to very little learning in the long run (see Chapter 6). This is probably why these strategies are so popular among students; they trick us into thinking we know a lot more than we actually do.

In this chapter, we will discuss some of these strategies, explain why they don’t work, and the alternative strategies that do work. If you have relied on these strategies, like repeatedly reading the textbook or your notes, or highlighting important portions of your course materials, this chapter will help you understand how you can modify the strategies to include principles from this book, making them much more effective.

What popular strategies tend to be ineffective?

The strategies that students report using most often are, unfortunately, not always the most effective study strategies. A review of surveys that asked high school and college or university students how they study revealed that the five most popular study strategies are re-reading, flashcards, highlighting, note-taking, and outlining¹. We also know that students report a lot of cramming²,³.

The strategies that are reported as the most popular among students are not inherently bad, but they are often used in a way that leads to less learning than the strategies discussed throughout this book. Importantly, many of these strategies tend to produce overconfidence in students. This means that they feel like they are working really well when they are being used, and students are confident that they are learning while studying. However, much less is learned than students actually think, and so students find themselves disappointed when they take an exam and discover that they did not know the material as well as they thought they did (see Chapter 6).

Thankfully, you don’t need to give up completely on your favorite study strategy; you should just give up using them in ways that are ineffective! You can integrate the principles from this book into the way you use these popular study strategies to make them more effective.

Scientific evidence: Why and when don’t these strategies work?

In other chapters in this book, we cover experiments that compare the effective strategies to other less effective strategies like repeated reading (e.g., see Chapters 8, 9, and 11). In each case, repeated reading is less effective, even though it is the most popular strategy that students report using¹.

However, saying that repeated reading is less effective does not mean that students should never read! But how much learning occurs when we re-read information, and is this a good use of our time? To answer these questions, we can look at a set of four experiments that compared how much time students spent reading information once compared to reading it twice, and how much learning occurred after reading information once or reading it twice⁴. Across the experiments, students learned about different topics by reading portions of textbooks. Students in the experiments read the textbook content either once or twice in a row. Then, they took a test similar to the exams given in courses either right after learning or one day after learning.

Across all of the experiments, reading twice was no better than reading once. Of course, reading twice took more time than reading once⁴. This means that the extra time students spend repeatedly reading is wasted time if the goal is to learn and perform better on a test later.

Figure 14.1 Reading twice compared to once takes longer but does not necessarily lead to better performance on a test.

Why do students tend to repeatedly read if it doesn’t produce more learning or better scores on tests? Reading something a second time tends to feel a little bit easier, and this ease makes us think that we know the information better. It makes the reader overconfident in their ability to remember and use the information later, like on a test (see Chapter 6). This is probably true of a lot of the popular study strategies that are not very effective. In the moment when students are using them, they feel like they are producing learning when really they are likely just producing overconfidence.

How can I make popular strategies more effective?

Make re-reading more effective. Repeated reading tends to increase confidence, but not increase learning. This leads to overconfidence. You can make reading while studying more effective by spreading out your study sessions over time (spaced practice, Chapter 7) and writing what you can remember from memory after reading (retrieval practice, Chapter 8).

One specific method of including retrieval practice with reading is called the 3R (read-recall-review) method⁵. First, read a portion of your course materials or notes. Then put your materials aside and recall what you can remember by writing or sketching what you remember from what you just read. Finally, go back to your course materials or notes again and review them. You should check for accuracy and see what you may have missed. Repeat this process in multiple study sessions spread out over time.

Make flashcards more effective. Flashcards can be highly effective when they are used to recall what you know from memory (retrieval practice, Chapter 8). You can make flashcards on your own or use flashcards that are already made. Just make sure that when you use flashcards, you use the prompt on one side to guide you to produce what you can remember about that prompt from your own memory. It may help you to write it down or say it out loud. Then, after you have produced what you can remember, you can flip the card to review what is on the other side.

Even once you are successful, you should keep the card in your deck to repeatedly recall the information at least three times¹,⁶. Dropping cards from your deck right away is not a good idea, in spite of what many study books may tell you! Finally, avoid simply memorizing terms and definitions. Use the flashcards to prompt you to describe and explain concepts in more detail (see Chapters 9 and 11).

Make highlighting more effective. The main problem with highlighting is that students tend to highlight too much or too little, and struggle to highlight the most important things. You can make highlighting more effective by reading a section or chapter of your course materials in full, without marking any of the content. Then, go back to the beginning and highlight just the main concepts. You can even try highlighting just the key terms and using those as prompts to recall what you can remember from memory⁷ (retrieval practice, see Chapter 8).

Make note-taking more effective. This book has an entire chapter covering effective note-taking (Chapter 13). Try to take complete notes that represent the main concepts taught and summarize the information in your own words. Check out Chapter 13 for more specific advice on note-taking strategies.

Make outlining more effective. Outlining is effective when the outline is good, but before students become experts in the area it is hard to make a really effective outline (And most students aren’t experts yet, you’re still learning and that’s okay!). If your teacher gives you an outline, or a partial outline, use that for studying. If not, try reading an entire section or chapter of your course materials first before doing anything. Then, go back and read a second time. During the second reading, you can record the main points to create an outline. If you want to make this strategy even more effective, you can use your outline to help you recall what you can remember from memory (retrieval practice, see Chapter 8).

Can I still study right before the test? Many students report cramming, and we know that cramming is not effective for long-term learning. However, you can still study right before the test, if you want. This just should not be the only time that you study. Schedule small study sessions over time and stick to that schedule (spaced practice, see Chapter 7). Then, you can still review right before the test. By that point, you probably will feel confident and won’t need to study for hours on end!

Popular strategies in action

Many popular study strategies can be made more effective by modifying them to include the effective strategies covered in this book.

Bidziil and Nicolás are studying together. Normally, Nicolás likes to study by repeatedly reading, but Bidziil knows this is not the most effective way to study. Instead, they try to add in retrieval practice. Both Bidziil and Nicolás go over their notes once on their own. Then, they take turns explaining different concepts to one another from memory. Nicolás notes that this feels harder than the repeated reading they normally do on their own, but they are thankful Bidziil recommended the strategy after they get their top score on the test later!

Q: Why was Nicolás less confident in their learning while studying?

Q: Can you think of examples of ways that Nicolás and Bidziil could add more effective strategies into their study session? Generate as many ideas as you can based on this chapter, and others from this book!

Chioma and Xīn are studying for a food science test. They start by reading one of the chapters that will be on the test, but they are struggling to identify the main points in the chapter. They want to highlight the most important information, but it all feels important. Chioma recommends that they read the chapter without writing anything down or highlighting first. Then, they go back and read a second time together, writing down the main points together and then highlighting the key concepts in their books.

Q: How did Chioma and Xīn make outlining and highlighting more effective?

Q: If they wanted to also use retrieval practice, how might they do that using their course materials (see Chapter 8 if you need a hint)?

Figure 14.2 Chioma (she/her) and Xīn (he/him) read and re-read the text, but only during their second reading of the text do they create an outline and highlight key concepts.

Chapter takeaways

It is easy to waste time studying if you use strategies that are not effective and efficient, like repeated reading or highlighting.

Many of the most popular study strategies among students are not the most effective!

Popular study strategies can be made more effective by modifying them to include the effective strategies covered in this book.

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References

Miyatsu, T., Nguyen, K., & McDaniel, M. A. (2018). Five popular study strategies: Their pitfalls and optimal implementations. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(3), 390–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617710510.

Geller, J., Toftness, A. R., Armstrong, P. I., Carpenter, S. K., Manz, C. L., Coffman, C. R., & Lamm, M. H. (2018). Study strategies and beliefs about learning as a function of academic achievement and achievement goals. Memory, 26(5), 683–690. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2017.1397175.

Hartwig, M. K., & Dunlosky, J. (2012). Study strategies of college students: Are self-testing and scheduling related to achievement? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19(1), 126–134. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0181-y.

Callender, A. A., & McDaniel, M. A. (2009). The limited benefits of rereading educational texts. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34, 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.07.001.

McDaniel, M. A., Howard, D. C., & Einstein, G. O. (2009). The read-recite-review study strategy: Effective and portable. Psychological Science, 20(4), 516–522. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02325.x.

Vaughn, K. E., & Rawson, K. A. (2011). Diagnosing criterion-level effects on memory: What aspects of memory are enhanced by repeated retrieval? Psychological Science, 22(9), 1127–1131. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611417724.

Leutner, D., Leopold, C., & Den Elzen-Rump, V. (2007). Self-regulated learning with a text-highlighting strategy: A training experiment. Zeitschrift Fur Psychology/Journal of Psychology, 215(3), 174–182. https://doi.org/10.1027/0044-3409.215.3.174

Scientific evidence for the

Chapter 15 Conclusion Believe in yourself

DOI: 10.4324/9781003327530-18

All of the strategies in this book have one very important thing in common: You have to use them in order for them to work! In other words, you have to be motivated to change your study habits if you want to see results. Research shows that one of the most important aspects of motivation is believing in yourself, what psychologists call self-efficacy. In this chapter, you will learn about self-efficacy and how you can help increase your self-efficacy.

What is self-efficacy?

Self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to do something in any given situation¹. There are probably some classes where you feel a lot more confident that you will be successful than others. In addition, some days you probably feel more confident than on other days. These beliefs have a big impact on how much effort you will put into your work and how much successes and failures impact your future efforts.

For example, if you feel confident that your study efforts will result in a higher exam score, you are much more likely to put forth effort, knowing that it will pay off for you. If, instead, you don’t feel confident at all that your studying will result in a higher score, you might not bother studying much. When you get that exam back, if your score was lower than expected, you could react in a couple of different ways: If you have high self-efficacy in your studying abilities, you might think, “Oh well, I should study more next time because I know that studying works!” But if you have low self-efficacy you might think, “Well this isn’t surprising. I didn’t think I could perform well to begin with. I won’t even bother studying for the next one.”

Scientific evidence for the benefits of self-efficacy

There are several different ways in which your self-efficacy can be changed. Researchers have separated these different ways into four categories².

Previous experiences: If you have previously been successful (or not) in any given situation, you are more likely to believe that you can be successful again.

Others’ experiences: Seeing or hearing about other people being successful can help you believe that you will be successful.

Messages from others: If other people tell you that you can be successful, you’re more likely to believe it yourself.

Your current psychological state: If you are energized and happy you are more likely to believe in your ability to succeed than if you are fatigued or sad.

Figure 15.1 Your self-efficacy can change through previous experiences, others’ experiences, messages from others, and your current psychological state.

In one study³, a teacher emailed half of his students after taking their first exam and tried to manipulate their self-efficacy using these four components. He told them how great they were doing in some aspect of the course, how other students had been successful, that he knew they could do it, and gave them some stress-relief tips. On the next exam, those students who had gotten the self-efficacy boost performed better than students who didn’t get the boost. Hearing from their teacher that they were doing well helped them to believe in themselves which, in turn, improved their performance!

Students who believe in themselves are more likely to engage in challenging tasks, work toward their goals longer, and use better strategies to achieve their goals⁴. Part of the reason for this is because the strategies we talk about in this book tend to require more effort and feel a bit more difficult than other, less effective strategies. If you believe that these strategies are effective and that using them will help you achieve your goals, you are much more likely to put in that extra effort.

Self-efficacy has also been shown to improve physiological effort, like adherence to exercise or other health-improvement programs, which can be helpful for learning (see Chapter 4)⁵,⁶. Believing that you can achieve can have a big impact on your behavior which can then lead to big improvements!

How do I increase my self-efficacy?

Think about your previous successes². When going into any kind of assessment, think about other times that you have done similar things and been successful.

Talk to other people who have been successful. Or, just remind yourself that a lot of people just like you are successful at the same thing you’re doing². Representation matters. Seeing people like you succeed in the areas you are interested in helps you to feel like you can be successful as well⁷.

Seek out social support². We all have moments of self-doubt and wonder if we can really do the things we want. Talking with friends, family, or mentors who believe in you can help to remind you that you can do challenging things.

Use self-affirmations. Tell yourself that you believe you can achieve your goal, even if you’re not totally convinced.

Try to improve your psychological state. You can follow the guidelines in Chapter 4. Get plenty of sleep, eat healthy foods like fruits and vegetables, and exercise to improve your mood going into tests, exams, or other big assignments. And consider other stress-reducing techniques such as meditation, yoga, journaling, etc.

Self-efficacy in action

Teddy is really worried about his upcoming test. He talks to his friend, Penelope, about his concerns and she reminds him that he did really well on his last test, and she knows he can do it again. Still, he stays up really late studying the night before so he can cram as much as possible before the test and keeps thinking about what will happen if he fails.

Q: In what ways is Teddy’s friend helping his self-efficacy?

Q: How could Teddy improve his own self-efficacy?

Figure 15.2 Penelope (she/her) reminds Teddy (he/him) that he got a high grade in his last test.

Ava once had a teacher that said she wasn’t really a “math person” so she struggles to believe that she will ever succeed in math classes. But after reading this book, she thinks that maybe she was wrong (and their teacher was not very nice), and she decides to give math another chance. When their next class starts, she says, “There is no such thing as a math person! I can do this! I know I can! Just look at all my friends who are doing just fine! Surely they don’t all love math!”

Q: In what ways is Ava improving their own self-efficacy?

Q: How will Ava’s improved self-efficacy lead to better math performance?

Figure 15.3 Ava (she/they) realizes that the first step is believing in oneself.

Chapter takeaways

Changing your study strategies takes time and effort. Believing in your ability to do so can help you persist toward your goal of learning more effectively!

Self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to succeed. Work to increase your self-efficacy in many different areas to help you achieve more.

After decades of research, we believe in these strategies and we know that, through a little bit of work and dedication, you can improve your own learning. And, even if you’re struggling to believe in yourself, know that we believe in you!

Use this QR code to find additional resources related to this chapter:

References

Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman/Times Books, Henry Holt & Co.

Jackson, J. W. (2002). Enhancing self-efficacy and learning performance. The Journal of Experimental Education, 70(3), 243–254. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220970209599508.

Zimmerman, B. J., & Cleary, T. J. (2009). Motives to self-regulate learning: A social cognitive account. In K. R. Wentzel & D. B. Miele (Eds.), Handbook of motivation at school (261–278). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203879498.

Hutchinson, J. C., Sherman, T., Martinovic, N., & Tenenbaum, G. (2008). The effect of manipulated self-efficacy on perceived and sustained effort. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 20(4), 457–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413200802351151.

Merluzzi, T. V., Pustejovsky, J. E., Philip E. J., Sohl, S. J., Berendsen, M., & Salsman, J. M. (2019). Interventions to enhance self-efficacy in cancer patients: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Psychooncology, 28(9), 1781–1790. https://doi.org/10.1002/pon.5148.

Jodrell, D. (2010). Social-identity and self-efficacy concern for disability labels. Psychology Teaching Review, 16(2), 111–121.

Sample answers to embedded questions

Chapter 1 – The science of learning is flexible (and so is this book)

Q 1.1 Why did Mario change strategies? Was it ok for him to do that?

A 1.1 Mario likely changed strategies because he was not seeing a clear way to apply using pictures with words in his math class. That is okay! The strategies in this book are not exact prescriptions. He knows he may need to make adjustments to the way he uses the strategies as he goes. Some strategies may seem to work really well with some material but not others. Mario will try another strategy in the book, rather than giving up, and may return to pictures and words for another class or another time.

Q 1.2 How did Ludmila use the book to succeed?

A 1.2 Ludmila is experiencing difficulty, but rather than giving up she went back to the chapter to refresh her memory for the way the strategy works. She was reminded that effective studying can often feel difficult or challenging, and she stuck with it. She finds that when she monitors her progress in the long run, like after the exam, she did better than she thought she would.

Chapter 2 – Science literacy: Why should you trust the advice in this book?

Q 2.1 Which paper addresses Molly’s research question, and why?

A 2.1 The second paper, where participants were randomly assigned to study while listening to music or in silence, answers her research question. Molly’s research question asks whether listening to music while studying causes better test scores. The term cause means a true experiment is needed. The first paper simply measures music listening behavior while studying and test scores, making it a study that looks at a relationship, but not causality. Looking at relationships between factors is useful, but cannot determine cause-and-effect relationships.

Q 2.2 Using the lab-to-classroom model, what level does Molly’s second paper fall into?

A 2.2 The second paper is an applied laboratory experiment. The participants come into the laboratory, but they are learning educationally relevant material, a textbook chapter. A basic laboratory experiment would involve very simple materials, like word lists. An applied classroom experiment would take place in an authentic learning environment, like a true lesson with students enrolled in the class.

Q 2.3 Can you come up with an experiment that would test whether chewing gum causes improved test scores?

Hint 2.3: Make sure to (1) manipulate gum chewing, (2) use random assignment, and (3) control for other variables.

A 2.3: There are a few ways to answer this question. Because the research question asks about cause, we need a true experiment. Therefore, it is important to manipulate chewing gum. We would need an experimental condition, chewing gum while studying a textbook chapter, and a control condition, perhaps not chewing gum or even eating a mint before studying a textbook chapter. It would be important for the participants in the experiment to be randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. For example, the researcher could flip a coin. Each participant that gets heads could be in the experimental group (the chewing gum group), and tails could be in the control group. Everything else about the experiment would need to be the same. All students should learn the same textbook chapter, and take the same test to measure learning. The environment should be the same, with the same level of background noise. The only difference should be the thing that is manipulated, chewing gum.

Chapter 3 – Assigned work and studying are not the same, and you need to do both!

Q 3.1 What is Theo missing?

A 3.1 Theo is scheduling time for homework, but she is not scheduling time for additional studying.

Q 3.2 What should Theo do each week to improve her test scores, and retain more in her history course?

A 3.2 Theo should add a few brief study sessions to her consistent schedule. During study time, she should use the strategies in this book to help her learn and retain the information she is learning in addition to doing her homework.

Q 3.3 When is Tiara doing homework and when is she studying?

A 3.3 Tiara has a consistent schedule. She always does her homework, completing her practice problems and her weekly quiz, after class and on Fridays. She is studying on Tuesday and Thursday when she goes over her notes from the current week and completes additional practice problems on her own. Completing the additional practice problems is an effective strategy from this book, retrieval practice (Chapter 8).

Q 3.4 Which of these activities is going to help Tiara learn?

A 3.4 Both homework and studying will help Tiara learn.

Chapter 4 – Your brain is part of your body: Preparing your mind for learning

Q 4.1 Why might Hamaad be having trouble concentrating?

A 4.1 Hamaad is not taking care of his body, and this affects his brain, and his learning. He is probably having trouble concentrating because he is not taking breaks, or refueling his body with snacks and water.

Q 4.2 What could Hamaad do differently while studying to take better care of his body?

A 4.2 Hamaad could take short breaks while he studies. Short breaks will help him regain his focus. During his breaks, he should get up and move around because physical activity can help cognition. He should also make sure he drinks enough water so that he is not dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to some memory and thinking impairments. Finally, he can eat a healthy snack, like fruits or vegetables, which can help cognition and keep energy up.

Q 4.3 Who do you think will do better on the exam and why?

A 4.3 Kiana will probably do better on the exam because she sticks to her bedtime routine and gets the sleep she needs. Bedtime routines help with getting enough quality sleep. Sleep is important for our bodies to stay healthy, and getting enough quality sleep can actually help us remember the information that was studied the day before!

Chapter 5 – The myth of multitasking: Preparing your environment for learning

Q 5.1 What techniques could Riley use to make their study time more efficient?

A 5.1 There are a few things that Riley could do to be more efficient during study. Riley could try using the pomodoro technique, setting a timer for 25 minutes of focused work and then checking the group chat during the 5 minutes of break. During the 25 minutes of focused work, Riley could use an app to block the messages from distracting them, or they could simply put their phone on do not disturb or leave their phone in another room altogether.

Q 5.2 How could social connection be built into their study routine?

A 5.2 Riley could be more efficient while maintaining the social interaction by forming a study group with their friends. The group could get together, either in person or over video chat, and all study at the same time. They could work on whatever assignments or studying they need to for that week. The entire group could set goals and use timers to stay focused. With the pomodoro technique, the group could all chat together during the 5 minutes of break, taking longer breaks after two or three rounds of pomodoros.

Q 5.3 What was distracting Soquania during her studying?

A 5.3 There were a few things that were distracting Soquania. She was distracted by text messages, online videos, and even her environment like wanting to clean her room. Soquania was likely just avoiding studying after a block of time and needed a scheduled break.

Q 5.4 What strategies did she use to feel less overwhelmed?

A 5.4 Soquania used timers and used the pomodoro technique in a flexible way. She started out studying for less than 25 minutes, but worked up to studying for more than 25 minutes before taking the break. She also used checklists to help her stay on task. She adjusted the technique so it worked for her.

Chapter 6 – How do I know what I (don’t) know?

Q 6.1 Why was Esmée overconfident in their ability to remember the key terms for the exam?

A 6.1 Esmée was likely overconfident because they used highlighting and repeated reading that made the terms feel very familiar and studying felt very easy. When the terms seemed very familiar it tricked Esmée into thinking they knew the terms and definitions.

Q 6.2 Describe how Esmée’s metacognitive awareness affected their metacognitive action.

A 6.2 Esmée felt very confident that they would remember the information on the exam (awareness) so they stopped studying (action).

Q 6.3 What could Esmée do to make their metacognitive awareness more accurate?

A 6.3 Esmée could use retrieval practice, or any of the other strategies in this book, as a study strategy after reading to make their judgments more accurate. They could also wait after reading and highlighting and close their book before making their metacognitive awareness judgments.

Q 6.4 Why was there such a big difference in how Quentin felt about his memory between making the flashcards and using the flashcards?

A 6.4 When Quentin made the flashcards, he was able to see the terms and equations right in front of him. They probably seemed familiar, and copying them probably felt easy, and so he felt more confident. However, when he was using the flashcards he did not have the answers right in front of him, and this made him less confident, though probably more accurate in his judgments.

Q 6.5 What advice would you give Quentin about studying based on what you know about metacognition?

A 6.5 Quentin should embrace the difficulty of using his flashcards. He should keep making metacognitive awareness judgments based on how well he thinks he knows the material when the answers are not right in front of him (like when he is quizzing himself). His decision to keep using the flashcards was a great one based on good metacognitive awareness judgments. He could make sure there is a space between when he is looking at the answers to his flashcards and making his awareness judgments, if he is not doing this already.

Chapter 7 – Planning your study sessions is important

Q 7.1 What is good about Lindsey’s study habits?

A 7.1 Lindsey knows that waiting until the last minute is not a good approach to studying. She is trying to avoid cramming by studying multiple weeks before the math exam, not just the night before. By scheduling it into her calendar, she is more likely to actually sit down and make it happen!

Q 7.2 How could Lindsey’s study habits be improved?

A 7.2 It is unclear exactly what Lindsey is doing during her study sessions. To get the most out of her study time, she should consider not just reviewing the most recent content, but also material that is older. She could also consider using some of the other strategies from this book instead of just repeatedly reading. For example, she could take practice tests (see Chapter 8).

Q 7.3 When could Gabriel fit in time for study sessions?

A 7.3 There are a few good answers to this question. Doing daily homework is important for learning, and so is getting exercise. So, Gabriel probably should not change that part of his routine. Gabriel might consider scheduling study sessions before his class or in the mornings if he can. He could also study before bed instead of watching his favorite show. Looking at a screen can negatively affect sleep (see Chapter 4).

Q 7.4 How could Gabriel improve his habits during his homework time?

A 7.4 Gabriel could introduce a space in between his class and his homework to benefit from spreading out learning over time. Gabriel could exercise before work, and then do his homework after work. He could also use an effective study strategy from this book, instead of just looking over his notes. For example, he could put his notes away after his homework and try to write down as much as he can remember (called retrieval practice, Chapter 8).

Chapter 8 – Bring to mind what you can remember

Q 8.1 Nayelie is combining two important learning strategies here. What are they?

A 8.1 Nayelie is using retrieval practice and spacing because she is bringing to mind what she can remember from memory, and she is doing this spread out over multiple days. She is also trying to retrieve information from that day’s class and previous classes, which adds more spacing. (If you have not yet read about spacing, check out Chapter 7.)

Q 8.2 Think about the way Nayelie is studying, and compare this to a different student who only repeatedly reads. If they both have an exam in one week, who do you think would perform better and why?

A 8.2 Nayelie is using effective study strategies, and the student using repeated reading really is not. If their exam is in one week, Nayelie will probably do better than the other student because she is practicing retrieval (and spacing).

Q 8.3 What part of Spencer and Calvin’s study sessions involves retrieval practice?

A 8.3 When Spencer and Calvin are explaining the concepts in their own words from their memories to one another, they are practicing retrieval. The key is that they bring the information to mind from their memories. It is also good that they then go back to their materials and check for accuracy after practicing retrieval.

Chapter 9 – Find multiple concrete examples

Q 9.1 What was good about Annabelle’s approach?

A 9.1 Annabelle was having trouble understanding the abstract concept of negative reinforcement and so she searched for multiple concrete examples to help her understand. It is good that she found multiple examples to help her understand.

Q 9.2 What should Annabelle do next?

A 9.2 There are a couple of things that Annabelle should do next. Because she found the examples online, she should double check with her teacher, tutor, or teaching assistant to make sure they are correct. She can also try to come up with her own examples, either by herself or with a study group.

Q 9.3 What should Sunita do next?

A 9.3 There are a couple of things that Sunita could do. She should first look at her course materials – notes, a textbook, etc. – to see if she can figure out what the example meant. If she is still struggling, she should ask her teacher about the example and what it has to do with the course material.

Q 9.4 How could Sunita avoid this problem in the future?

A 9.4 This is a really common problem and Sunita is likely to encounter it again. The next time she is in class and her instructor uses a funny or interesting example, she should write down in her notes both the example and how it is a good example of the concept they are talking about. This will help her to make the connection again later or give her a good place to go back and find that connection when she needs it.

Chapter 10 – Use visuals and words to help you understand

Q 10.1 What is good about Aoife’s approach to dual coding?

A 10.1 It seems like Aoife spends time making sure her visuals are a good representation of the concepts she is trying to understand. Making connections between visuals and verbal information (e.g., from textbooks or when her teacher explains concepts) is a good thing and will help her obtain a better understanding of the material. The additional decorative doodles may keep her motivated, but are not necessary for understanding the material.

Q 10.2 What does Joaquín worry about when trying to create visuals himself and how could he be supported in engaging with dual coding?

A 10.2 Joaquín thinks that the visuals he comes up with need to be pretty and look good. However, this is not the case. As long as the visuals represent the concepts he is trying to wrap his head around, he is on the right track. Visuals can be as simple as boxes and arrows to highlight links between ideas. Different students will come up with different ways to express the same idea in an image – and this is a good thing.

Q 10.3 Explain in your own words: What is the problem with Liu’s approach?

A 10.3 Liu is restricting herself by only using verbal information. She is thinking about her preferences, but is ignoring information that, when combined with the verbal information, will help her learn.

Q 10.4 What could help Liu to overcome this problem?

A 10.4 It is okay that Liu likes reading and writing summaries, but she should also engage with the visuals and illustrations. Combining both the visual and verbal information will help her learn.

Chapter 11 – Describe and explain how things work

Q 11.1 What form of elaboration is Saad using?

A 11.1 Saad is using elaborative interrogation. We know this because Saad is asking how and why questions.

Q 11.2 How will this elaboration help Saad understand the events he is learning about?

A 11.2 Using elaborative interrogation will help Saad understand how the different events of World War I are connected, and how World War I and II are similar and different. Overall, this will help Saad organize his knowledge. It will be important for Saad to find the answers to these questions, or come up with the answers from his own memory.

Q 11.3 Why is Tobi struggling to use elaboration?

A 11.3 Tobi’s prior knowledge, the amount they remember from their previous classes, is not as high as it could be. It is not enough just to ask how and why questions. It is important to be able to describe and explain the concepts, by finding the answers or bringing them to mind from memory.

Q 11.4 What should Tobi do next?

A 11.4 Tobi should try one of the other strategies in this book first. Tobi could try going back to their textbook or notes and taking effective notes on the material to help improve their prior knowledge (Chapter 13). They could try to find concrete examples of physics problems and see how they are being solved (Chapter 11), and can jumble up different types of problems (called interleaving, Chapter 12) while studying. When Tobi feels more confident, they can try going back to elaboration.

Chapter 12 – Jumble it all up

Q 12.1 Katrin would like to try out interleaving during her independent studying sessions. How could she do that?

A 12.1 During independent studying, Katrin could mix up the order in which she answers the practice questions from the weekly homework assignments. That way, she is jumping between concepts that were covered in different weeks, and this will help her to distinguish between the different ideas.

Q 12.2 What else have you learned in this book that Katrin could use to improve her learning?

A 12.2 There are a number of things Katrin could do. For one example, Katrin is completing the weekly homework assignments immediately after they are assigned, but to introduce some spacing she could wait a little bit to complete these assignments. She does not need to wait very long, and should not wait until the last minute before they are due. However, if her schedule allows, she could wait one day to complete them. She could also use a note-taking strategy from Chapter 13, like the Cornell note-taking technique, and then use the keywords from the notes to practice retrieval after class (Chapter 8).

Q 12.3 What is good about Joseph’s study approach?

A 12.3 Joseph is using interleaving, and as a result is introducing some spacing as well. He is also using retrieval practice when he flips through his notebook and tries to recall information from memory and when he recalls from memory using his flashcards.

Q 12.4 How could Joseph’s study be improved?

A 12.4 Joseph is mixing up very different topics (Spanish, biology, and history). This is probably not the most effective. Joseph should focus on interleaving or mixing up concepts within the same subjects. So, in Spanish, Joseph should make sure to interleave different tenses and vocabulary, and remix the cards to go through in a different order each time.

Chapter 13 – Use effective note-taking strategies

Q 13.1 What is good about Emil’s note-taking approach?

A 13.1 Emil is focusing on paraphrasing his notes, or writing them in his own words. This helps him integrate the new concepts that he is being taught with knowledge he already has.

Q 13.2 How could Emil’s strategy for note-taking be further improved?

A 13.2 Emil might consider recording the lesson so that he can go back and paraphrase the sections he struggles with more easily after class. He could also take a few verbatim notes during these times when he struggles and go back and paraphrase later.

Q 13.3 What note-taking strategy could Keiko use to make studying with her notes more effective?

A 13.3 Keiko is already doing a portion of Cornell note-taking. She can create Cornell note-taking sheets and fill out all three sections. Then, she can use the keywords or cues section to quiz herself before she re-reads her summary section. If she does this repeatedly over time, she is engaging in both retrieval practice and spacing. These are both really effective strategies from this book (Chapters 7 and 8)!

Chapter 14 – Avoid strategies that don’t work

Q 14.1 Why was Nicolás less confident in their learning while studying?

A 14.1 Nicolás was used to repeatedly reading, which tends to make students overconfident. When they tried bringing information to mind from memory (retrieval practice, Chapter 8), it felt more challenging. That’s okay, because the challenge is good and helped them learn.

Q 14.2 Can you think of examples of ways that Nicolás and Bidziil could add more effective strategies into their study session? Generate as many ideas as you can based on this chapter, and others from this book!

A 14.2 There are a lot of ways to answer this question! They could try sketching what they know from memory, which would add in visuals and words (dual coding, Chapter 10). They could schedule multiple study sessions with one another consistently so that they are spreading out their studying over time (spaced practice, Chapter 7). They could find concrete examples in their textbook, and then come up with their own and share them with each other (Chapter 9). They could also generate how and why questions and answer them together (elaborative interrogation, Chapter 11).

Q 14.3 How did Chioma and Xīn make outlining and highlighting more effective?

A 14.3 By reading the chapter first and then going back a second time for outlining and highlighting, Chioma and Xīn are making it more likely that they will identify the most important information and highlight useful information. Doing this will help them avoid highlighting too much (or too little).

Q 14.4 If they wanted to also use retrieval practice, how might they do that using their course materials (see Chapter 8 if you need a hint)?

A 14.4 Once they are done highlighting only the key concepts, and identifying the main points, they could use the main points they have identified as prompts to try to write out as much as they can remember from their memories. The key is to try to recall as much information as they can without looking things up. Then, after they have recalled as much as they can, they can go back to the textbook and see what they got right and what they might have missed.

Chapter 15 – Conclusion: Believe in yourself

Q 15.1 In what ways is Teddy’s friend helping his self-efficacy?

A 15.1 Teddy’s friend is providing social support. Self-efficacy can increase when we get positive messages from others like telling us we can be successful.

Q 15.2 How could Teddy improve his own self-efficacy?

A 15.2 Teddy’s friend Penelope has already reminded Teddy that he did really well on his last test, so Teddy can think about his previous successes to help improve his self-efficacy. Teddy can also try to improve his psychological state by getting more sleep before his exam, and even having a healthy snack and getting some exercise. Finally, he could also talk to others who have been successful taking tests, especially other people who are similar to him.

Q 15.3 In what ways is Ava improving their own self-efficacy?

A 15.3 Ava is believing in themself! She is looking to her friends who are also successful, and this is helping them believe that she also can be successful. She is also using self-affirmations, telling themself that she can do it and improving their own mood.

Q 15.4 How will Ava’s improved self-efficacy lead to better math performance?

A 15.4 Research shows that when we believe in ourselves it can improve our performance on academic tasks. Ava is likely to do better on their math tests in this class because she is improving their own self-efficacy.

Glossary

Blocking, Blocked practice:

Practicing similar types of problems together instead of mixing them up (like in interleaving).

Causation:

When changes in one factor lead to changes in another factor. The only way to determine causation is to conduct an experiment.

Collaborative note-taking:

A method of note-taking that involves taking notes together with other students and to share notes with the entire class.

College:

College may refer to secondary or tertiary education. In the UK college may mean schooling that is roughly equivalent to American high schools (i.e., secondary education). In the US college typically refers to tertiary education and is used interchangeably with university.

Concrete examples:

Real-world examples of an idea.

Condition, Experimental condition, Control condition:

In an experimental design, condition refers to different groups or settings in an experiment. In an experimental condition the variable of interest is changed to determine whether it affects another variable. The control condition provides a basis of comparison for the experimental condition, where the variable of interest remains either unchanged or changed to a lesser degree.

Control:

In an experimental design, control refers to the way experimenters hold everything else equal so that only the factors being manipulated are different between conditions.

Cornell notes:

A method of note-taking that involves dividing your paper into three sections: a right-hand section for notes, a left-hand section for tracking keywords, and a bottom section for summaries.

Correlation:

A mathematical way of measuring the extent to which two factors vary together. While a correlation can describe how factors vary, it cannot determine whether they vary because of a causal relationship between the two factors (causation) or because of another factor or mechanism.

Coursework:

See homework.

Dual coding:

Combining visuals with words to improve memory and understanding.

Elaboration:

Adding and connecting information to concepts that you are learning. For example, connecting new concepts with things you already know (prior knowledge).

Elaborative interrogation:

Adding and connecting information by asking “how” and “why” questions about the material.

Expanding learning schedule:

One way to do spaced practice by increasing the length of breaks between study sessions over time.

Experiment:

A scientific procedure in which a factor is manipulated, or changed, in order to observe its effects on another factor. Randomization and control are important aspects of experiments.

GCSEs:

Standardized exams in parts of the UK that correspond to specific school subjects, taken during Year 11, or roughly ages 15–16.

High school:

Period of schooling in the United States corresponding to 9th–12th Grade, or roughly ages 14 – 18.

Homework:

Assignments that your teacher gives you to complete on your own outside of class. Also called coursework or set work.

Interleaving, interleaved practice:

Mixing up different problems or examples from similar material during study.

Lab-to-classroom model:

A model that emphasizes the different levels of research and the links between controlled laboratory experiments, applied laboratory research, and applied classroom research.

Metacognition:

The awareness of your own cognitive processes, often described in terms of metacognitive awareness and metacognitive action.

Metacognitive actions, Metacognitive control:

In the context of studying, the decisions and actions you make about your studying based on your metacognitive awareness.

Metacognitive awareness, Metacognitive monitoring:

In the context of studying, your ability to assess your knowledge in order to determine what you do and do not know.

Multitasking:

The mistaken belief that you can pay attention to two or more tasks at once. When people think they are multitasking they are actually engaging in task-switching.

Paraphrase:

Phrasing something in a different way than you have initially read or heard it, for example by putting it into your own words.

Random assignment, Randomization:

In an experiment, random assignment refers to research participants having an equal chance to be in the experimental condition or the control condition. Thus, assignment to conditions is random. This is one way of providing control in an experiment.

REM sleep:

REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement and refers to the stage of sleep that is responsible for dreaming and memory consolidation.

Research methods:

Scientific procedures that are used to answer a research question.

Research question:

A question about the world that can be investigated with scientific procedures.

Retrieval practice:

Recalling what you have previously learned.

Revision:

See studying.

Self-efficacy:

Believing in yourself and your abilities.

Set work:

See homework.

Sketch-noting:

A style of note-taking that involves creating visuals, diagrams, and doodles in your notes.

Sleep hygiene:

Healthy bedtime routines and sleeping conditions that promote better sleep.

Spaced practice, Spacing:

Breaking study time into smaller sessions that can be spaced out over the course of days or weeks, instead of cramming a longer session into one day.

Studying:

Work that is completed on your own, outside of homework, to improve your learning or understanding for an upcoming exam or assessment (called revision in the UK).

Task-switching:

Switching your attention between tasks. Task-switching involves several steps and can lead to errors and mistakes. The difficulty of the tasks, how much practice you have had with them, and your overall health and wellness may affect how well you can task-switch.

Verbatim:

Writing or phrasing something word-for-word as opposed to paraphrasing.

Index

accountability group 37

anxiety 6, 34, 35

apps 4, 36–37, 117

Cold Turkey 36–37

Forest 37

assigned work see homework

attention 33–35, 39, 48, 96, 126, 127

blocked practice (blocking) 89–93, 125

brain 25–29, 35, 117

breaks 27–28, 35–36, 39, 51, 53, 56, 90, 117, 126–127

causation 12–14, 16–18, 125; see also cause-and-effect relationships

cause-and-effect relationships 12, 17–18, 115; see also causation

check (i.e., for accuracy, notes, with TA, with teacher) 66–67, 71, 78, 96, 98, 105, 119

concept maps 64, 67, 75; see also mind maps

concrete examples 4, 69–73, 85, 119–122, 125

confidence see overconfidence; underconfidence

control condition 13–14, 116, 125–126; see also experiment

correlation 12, 125; see also relationship

coursework see homework

cramming 6, 22, 51–52, 54–55, 103, 106, 118, 127

creativity 35

dehydration 27–28, 117

describing see explaining

digital devices 33; see also laptop; phone; tablet

distraction (distracting) 33–37, 39–40, 75, 117

dual coding 75–80, 85, 99, 120, 122, 126

elaboration 83–87, 120–121, 126

elaborative interrogation 83–85, 87, 120–122, 126

examples see concrete examples

exercise 25, 27–29, 55, 110–111, 119, 123

aerobic 27

cardio 29

physical activity 27, 117

exhaustion 27

expanding learning schedule 53, 56, 126

experiment 13–18, 46–47, 62–63, 76–77, 84, 91–92, 104, 115–116, 125–126; see also control condition; experimental condition; manipulation

experimental condition 13, 116, 125–126; see also experiment

explaining 47, 83–87, 95, 100, 106, 119

self-explain 83–85, 87

feedback 4, 73; see also check for accuracy

flashcards 7–8, 22, 49, 64, 67, 92–93, 103, 105, 118, 121; see also retrieval practice

focus 3, 5, 21, 33–40, 43, 53, 61, 73, 77, 89, 100, 117, 122; see also mind wandering; multitasking; task-switching

forget 6, 23, 51–53, 62

goal 21, 35, 37, 39–40, 54–55, 104, 110–112, 117

highlighting 43, 46, 48–49, 103, 105–107, 118, 123

homework 12–14, 21–24, 27, 35, 51, 54–55, 64, 92–93, 116, 119, 121, 126–127

images see visual

interleaved practice (interleaving) 89–94, 121–122, 125–126

lab-to-classroom model 15–16, 18, 116, 126

laptop 26, 34, 96, 101; see also digital devices; tablet

learning environment 33–35, 116–117

learning preferences 76–77, 120

learning styles see learning preferences

manipulation (manipulated) 13–15, 18, 116, 125–126; see also experiment

meditation 15

metacognition: action 43–44, 46–49, 63, 118, 126

awareness 43–44, 46–49, 63, 118, 126

control 43, 126

monitoring 43, 126

mind maps 75, 79; see also concept maps

mind wandering 35, 40

motivation (motivating) 37, 109, 120

multiple-choice test 62, 77, 91

multitasking 33–35, 38–39, 95, 117, 126; see also focus

task-switching

note-taking 62, 95–101, 103, 105, 121–122, 125, 127

collaborative 99–100, 125

Cornell 97–98, 121–122, 125

format (by-hand notes, laptop notes) 96–97, 101

quality 96–97, 101

sketch-noting 99, 127

structure (organized notes) 96–97

nutrition 25, 27, 29

healthy foods (healthy snacks) 12, 25, 27–28, 111, 117, 123

outline 97, 106–107, 123

overconfidence (overconfident) 44–49, 103, 105, 118, 122; see also underconfidence

paraphrase 95–97, 100–101, 122, 126–127

phone 26–27, 29, 34, 36–37, 117; see also digital devices; tablet

planning 35, 51, 53–56, 118

Pomodoro technique 35–36, 117

practice tests 21–22, 64, 118; see also quiz; recall; retrieval practice

prediction 46–49, 63

prior knowledge 85–87, 121, 126

problems (i.e., practice problems, solving problems) 23, 43–44, 70–71, 86–87, 89–93, 116, 121, 125–126; see also practice tests

quiz 21–23, 49, 51–52, 54, 64, 72, 97–98, 116, 118, 122; see also practice tests; recall

retrieval practice

random assignment (randomization) 13–16, 18, 115–116, 126

recall 35, 47, 61, 93, 98, 105–106, 121, 123, 126; see also retrieval practice

relationship 11–12, 18, 26, 64, 78, 92, 115, 126; see also correlation

repeated reading 46–48, 54, 62–63, 103–107, 118–119; see also re-read

re-read 7, 46, 48, 52, 62, 72, 101, 104, 107; see also repeated reading

research question 12–13, 16–17, 115–116, 126

retrieval practice 4, 45–49, 61–67, 79, 86, 98, 105–106, 116, 118–119, 121–123, 126

3R method 105

routine: sleep 26–27, 29, 117, 127

study 35, 38, 56, 117; see also schedule

schedule: sleep 26–27, 29

study 6, 23, 53–54, 56, 106, 116, 122; see also expanding learning schedule

routine

self-affirmation 111, 123

self-efficacy 109–112, 123, 127

set work see homework

sleep 25–27, 29, 111, 117, 119, 123, 126–127

hygiene 26, 127; see also routine: sleep; schedule: sleep

social media 26, 33–36

social support 111, 123; see also accountability group

spaced practice (spacing) 6, 28, 45, 48–49, 51–56, 64, 67, 79, 86, 90, 98, 105–106, 119, 121–122, 126–127; see also expanding learning schedule; schedule: study

study group 37, 54, 71, 117, 120; see also accountability group

study habits 4, 12–13, 15, 54, 109, 118; see also routine: study

summaries (summarize) 4, 80, 97–98, 101, 105, 120, 122, 125

tablet 26; see also digital devices; laptop; phone

task-switching 33–35, 39, 126–127; see also focus; multitasking

underconfidence 45–47, 49; overconfidenceverbal 75–80, 120

description (explanation) 75–76, 78, 80

information (material, modality) 76–79, 120

verbal learner 76, 80; dual coding visual 75–80, 97, 99, 120, 122, 126–127

cartoon strips 75

decorative images 75, 78, 120

diagrams 75–76, 99, 127

doodles 79, 99, 120, 127

graphic organizers 75

infographics 75

information (material, modality) 76–80, 97, 99, 120, 122, 126–127

timelines 75, 79

visual learner 76, 80; see also dual coding; note-taking: sketch-noting