By: RJ I bet you 200 Vbucks that you think you know how to study. Well chances are that you have an illusion of how to study. But, who can blame you, you are an expert in school. You are in high school after all (or a teacher). Sorry to break it to you but research has shown the way most students study is only good for short-term memory and not learning it and putting it in your long-term memory. For example cramming if you cram it won't help you learn the material for the long run. Suppose you have to study one subject for 12 hours it is better to study 3 hours each week for four weeks than to study it all in one week. That is why one thing you must do is space your studying because studies show that it improves your long-term memory. Nate Kornell from Williams College conducted an experiment where he asked students to memorize 20 words. All students studies each word 4 times. Half of students memorized the words in a big stack and started over. Then the other half had four small groups. The ones who crammed all the information did better than the ones who did it in groups because it was in a short period of time. This shows cramming can get you through a test. Honestly, at times I feel I cram a little too much. When I mean too much I mean at least 90% of tests I took in my life. I think that I should really stop cramming for tests and quizzes because I don't really retain the knowledge. Then there is interweaving. It is when you learn something, then forget it, then relearn it. It helps students learn similarity and differences among things and understand the material better. Kornell and a UCLA psychologist Robert Bjork had 120 participants learn painting styles of 12 different artists. They had 6 examples of art and for 6 of the artist participants saw them in order. Then for the other 6 of the artist the participants they saw them in a mixed up order. Then before recalling the artist and their painting style they count down 547 by 3s. The artist that were mixed were learned better. Sadly even though we have the evidence that the interwoven method works teachers don't implement it because it would make them seem unorganized because they would be getting rid of units and having a mixed style of teaching. Also testing yourself can be a really good way of retaining knowledge. Some people don't like testing because they believe that teachers teach to test and milk out creativity. Well there was a study where a University of Louisville psychologist Keith Lyle had students in a statistics class. In one class he gave his students quizzes after every lecture that were worth 8% of their grade. While have another class without quizzes. Then they were both took a mid-term. At the mid-term you guessed it the class with the quizzes got higher quizzes than the ones without quizzes. So pretty much these studies show our we aren't learning the right way. This article also is telling us that we should study smart instead of cramming. But cramming can also help you do fine on a test but you won't retain the knowledge. Also we need to test our selves because just reading and re-reading texts won't help us because we give ourselves the confidence that we know it (but we don't). Then there is interweaving that shows that if we learn in a mixed style we would learn the material in a deeper level. Links: Picture:https://www.polytechpanthers.com/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=422591&id=0 Citation: (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2011/11/study-smart.aspx Article: https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2011/11/study-smart.aspx
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Ms. Carrigan's Psych ClassWe have been reading articles about psychological studies to inform the way we live our lives. Please explore, and we hope you learn a bit about the psychology in your life! Categories
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