The familiar emptiness hit me in the pit of my stomach. For the second time in five years my beloved 49ers had blown a 10-point lead to the Kansas City Chiefs and lost the Super Bowl. As soon as the game was over I turned away from the screen, quietly thanked my party hosts, went home to feed my cat and grew determined to not read about or watch sports for a long while. I may have muttered the phrase “I hate sports” several times over the next few days.
Yet not two weeks later, with spring training games now underway, and every baseball team, including my beloved San Francisco Giants, offering its followers a glimmer of optimism for the coming season, I’m drawn back in again to sports fandom. A question plagues my mind, and not for the first time: Why?
As a sentient being who happens to be a passionate sports fan, I have had ample opportunity to grapple with this question. Why do we bother? We will most likely never meet the athletes we root for. We will never make as much money as they do. Nothing they do affects our physical health, our families or our livelihoods. Yet our emotional well-being rises and falls with their success on the field, on the court and on the baseball diamond.
I believe it’s because, in a world in which tribalism is pulling us apart, the completely imaginary tribalism of the sports fan is a necessary balm. Not because it allows you to celebrate — though you do occasionally get to do that — but because you get to lose. A lot. Nothing brings us together like communal suffering. And this simulated losing helps prepare us for the worst that life can dish out.
I do remember one sentence I uttered as I stumbled out of that Super Bowl party: “Well, somebody had to lose.” (It’s an inverse of what I often say when two teams I hate square off: “It’s a pity somebody has to win.”) Whether we realize it or not, every fan of a team that loses is constantly in the process of honing a valuable life skill. To live is to lose — a loved one, a marriage, a job, a sense of identity — and sports are trivial compared with any of that. But sports provide perspective: You think this is bad? C’mon. This is just a game. It gives us a kind of laboratory of loss, a relatively safe arena in which to practice for the losses that really matter.
What is the best and worst part of being a sports fan? How does being a fan enrich your life?
A. Bartlett Giamatti, a former commissioner of baseball, once said of the game: “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.” Does that sentiment resonate with you? Has sports ever broken your heart? Do you think it would be as fun if your favorite team never lost? Or is heartbreak an essential part of being a fan?
After watching his beloved 49ers suffer another devastating loss in the Super Bowl, a despondent Mr. Vognar questioned his love for the game: “Why do we bother? We will most likely never meet the athletes we root for. We will never make as much money as they do. Nothing they do affects our physical health, our families or our livelihoods. Yet our emotional well-being rises and falls with their success on the field, on the court and on the baseball diamond.” How would you respond to his question? What keeps you coming back to the sports fandom despite the constant pain and loss?
“To live is to lose — a loved one, a marriage, a job, a sense of identity,” writes Mr. Vognar. And sports, he argues, “gives us a kind of laboratory of loss, a relatively safe arena in which to practice for the losses that really matter.” Do you agree? Do you think sports provides us with the skills and perspective to deal with heartbreak and loss in real life? What other life lessons has sports provided you?
Would you recommend being a sports fan to others? Why or why not?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Tabes Dorsalis is a medical condition that may not be widely known but has significant implications for those it affects. This article aims to unpack its complexities, shedding light on its causes, symptoms, and clinical implications, making it easier for our readers to grasp this condition’s essence.
What is Tabes Dorsalis?
Tabes Dorsalis is a neurological disorder stemming from the progressive degeneration of the spinal cord’s dorsal roots and dorsal columns. This condition is intricately linked with neurosyphilis, a manifestation of late-stage syphilis infection, showcasing how infections can have far-reaching impacts on the nervous system.
Symptoms and Clinical Presentation
Individuals with Tabes Dorsalis may experience a range of symptoms that affect their quality of life. These include:
Paresthesias: A sensation of pins and needles, often described as a tingling or numb feeling.
Pain: Chronic, sometimes intense pain that can affect various parts of the body.
Polyuria: An increased need to urinate, which can disrupt daily life.
Sensory Ataxia: Difficulty with walking or picking up objects, primarily due to impaired coordination.
Positive Romberg Sign: A loss of balance when the eyes are closed, indicating issues with proprioception.
Suppressed Reflexes: Diminished responses to stimuli, such as the knee-jerk reaction.
Argyll Robertson Pupils: A specific eye condition where pupils constrict when focusing on near objects but do not react to bright light.
These symptoms are indicative of the broader impacts of Tabes Dorsalis on the body, especially concerning the nervous system’s function.
Clinical Correlates and Diagnosis
The diagnosis of Tabes Dorsalis involves recognising the constellation of symptoms and their association with neurosyphilis. Key clinical features include:
Impaired Vibration and Position Sense: Difficulty in sensing vibrations and positional changes.
Paroxysmal Pains and Ataxia: Sudden, sharp pains and unsteady movement.
Astereognosis: Inability to recognise objects by touch.
Characteristic Gait: A “high-step stride” caused by uncertainty of foot placement.
Charcot’s Joints: Joint damage due to repeated injuries in areas that have lost sensation.
Tabetic Crises: Episodes of severe cramping pains in various organs, including the larynx and stomach.
The Rarity of Tabes Dorsalis Today
With the advent of antibiotics, Tabes Dorsalis has become a rarity, a stark contrast to its prevalence in the pre-antibiotic era. This change underscores the importance of early detection and treatment of syphilis to prevent its progression to neurosyphilis and, subsequently, Tabes Dorsalis.
Tabes Dorsalis presents a fascinating but cautionary tale about the interplay between infectious diseases and neurological disorders. While now rare, its existence reminds us of the critical need for early intervention and the complexities of diagnosing and treating neurological conditions. Understanding Tabes Dorsalis enriches our knowledge of medical history and highlights advancements in treating and preventing such conditions in modern medicine.
Towering over visitors, the 43-foot seated statue was painstakingly reconstructed by a Madrid-based digital art group, Factum Foundation, from the 10 known fragments of the original sculpture. The reconstructed statue was installed in a garden in Rome’s Capitoline Museums this week, close to where the Temple of Jupiter, the most important temple of ancient Rome, once stood.
… The head and most of the other fragments of the colossal statue were discovered in 1486, in the ruins of a building not far from the Colosseum. They were transferred to what eventually became the Capitoline collection, and nine of those ancient fragments — including a monumental head, feet and hand — are permanently on show at the museums.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word colossal in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
If you want a better idea of how colossal can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
The Reveal
We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
Boasting over 100 million users, GitHub is one of the leading online development environments. Programmers use GitHub every day to work on projects and collaborate with others. If you’re looking for a tech job in today’s competitive developer job market, having GitHub skills can give you a leg up on the competition.
When Codecademy learner Stina Niemann was interviewing for her first data analytics position, she was able to talk about her knowledge of Git and GitHub. She completed our course Learn Git & GitHub, and felt comfortable making Git commands and using open-source lingo. “Those small basics, I think, really helped me stand out,” Stina said.
In our course Learn Git & GitHub, you can grasp the ins and outs of how GitHub works, learn the markdown language Git and its important operations, and get a primer on how to collaborate with others using GitHub. Whether you want to start contributing to open-source projects or are preparing your resume for the job search, this free course is a solid introduction to the go-to platform. You’ll also learn how to use GitHub Copilot in this course, a popular language-agnostic tool that harnesses AI to speed up the development process.
Keep reading to learn the benefits of using GitHub to bolster your job prospects, some of the possible downfalls and how to approach them, and how entry-level, mid-career, and seasoned professionals can use GitHub to make their resumes pop.
Learn something new for free
What is GitHub?
GitHub provides internet hosting for developers who use Git — a software used to track changes made to code. With Git, programmers can work with each other to design and improve source code.
Developers use GitHub to manage and store different versions of projects. For example, if you’re working on a web application, you can upload your code to GitHub, invite others to help you work on your code, or simply store it there to work on later.
Plus, as you develop new versions of your app, you can use GitHub to get easy access to what you’ve already made, giving you a straightforward way to compare, improve, and troubleshoot your solutions.
How to put GitHub on your resume
Even though you can describe your skills and experience on your resume, adding your GitHub profile adds another dimension. Most people include a link to their GitHub profile in the header section of their resume, alongside contact information. If you have a paper resume, you can include the full URL of your GitHub profile.
Here is an example of a resume for a fictional job seeker named Joshua Parker. As you can see, there is a link to his GitHub profile right at the heading of the resume, next to the contact information.
In many ways, your GitHub profile is like a developer-specific social media profile. A strong GitHub profile features diverse projects, each with unique concepts and well-crafted README documents that communicate your work to fellow developers through clear code documentation.
During his job search, iOS Developer Matthew Ogtong worked on Docs, our open-contribution coding documentation for common programming languages and concepts. Docs is built and maintained on GitHub, so Matthew got hands-on experience working with tools that he uses every day in his role now.
“Before you even start applying to jobs it’s important to have a strong GitHub profile and a README in place for yourself, at least just to give a little intro for anyone that’s visiting your page,” Matthew said.
It’s worth taking the time to make sure your GitHub profile looks polished and thorough. You want to make a good first impression with recruiters and hiring managers who are browsing your work for the first time. We break down some more features that make a “good” GitHub profile in Learn Git & GitHub.
A good GitHub profile is one more way you can stand out in the job search.
The benefits of including GitHub work on your resume
Here are some of the top benefits of including your GitHub profile with your projects and contributions on your resume.
It shows you know how to write code
It’s easy to claim you’re a programmer, but it’s another thing to prove it. Showcasing GitHub work on your resume gives a prospective employer tangible evidence of your skills. (This is especially important if you don’t have professional programming work experience yet.) Showing some of your best work also gives your interviewer something they can share with decision-makers and other stakeholders, like the rest of the dev team.
Showing your work can be intimidating, especially if you feel like your project still needs some fine-tuning. Don’t let this stop you because analysis of what you could’ve done better is a great talking point during an interview. It shows you’re introspective about your work and capable of evaluating it with a critical eye.
It shows you can read code
When you showcase projects you’ve contributed to on GitHub, you let employers know you’re proficient at reading code. For many programmers, reading other people’s code is very challenging. Employers know this, and while they’re often ready to invest time into improving a new developer’s reading skills, they’d prefer someone who already has experience.
Doing this will add diversity to the kinds of code you can read and work with, giving your employer the confidence they need in you to move forward.
It shows your collaboration skills
The ability to collaborate with others on GitHub shows you know how to produce quality work with other programmers. While many developers create excellent products working alone, working within a team environment is a necessary element of today’s DevOps teams.
When you connect with others on GitHub and include links to your work on your resume, you show an employee you know:
How to take feedback about your work
How to provide constructive feedback that improves the end-product
How to maintain a focus on higher-level objectives while working on smaller pieces of a project
How to annotate clearly, explaining your coding ideas to others
It lets the employer know you can use Git
Granted, not every employer is going to have Git as part of their production process, but some do. Someone who knows how to use Git will require less upfront training for these companies.
Also, some other development platforms, like Helix Core and AWS CodeCommit, have a few similarities with Git. Even if the employer doesn’t use Git, your experience with it could be a bonus and give you an edge over the competition.
It shows your passion for coding
Developers who use GitHub to contribute to open-source programming have an admirable passion driving them. The time, energy, and effort it takes to invest yourself in open-source solutions—usually without any compensation—shows you have a sense of commitment to your craft that may set you apart from others applying for the position.
Potential downfalls of using GitHub on your resume
While the benefits of showcasing your work on GitHub outweigh the drawbacks, there are a few things you want to keep in mind when deciding if and how to showcase your work.
Older work may reflect past weaknesses
Showing older work is great—as long as you have the opportunity to explain how you’ve improved or how you’ve grown when it comes to that specific kind of programming.
Be careful to provide context for any work you showcase, especially products that have clear deficiencies. This will make your introspection and improvement stand out instead of the errors you made.
You may overemphasize your dependence on others
If you primarily use GitHub to get help when you’re stuck, it might seem like you rely on others to solve problems versus tackling them on your own. Do your best to avoid a narrative like, “I got stuck so I went to GitHub for help. I got stuck again, and GitHub bailed me out. And this other time when I couldn’t figure an error out, I went to GitHub…”
If you use GitHub only when you need help, be sure to highlight what you’ve learned from each experience, including:
How another programmer’s thinking improved your own
New skills you picked up by working with others
How watching someone else improve your code helped you improve your troubleshooting abilities
Long periods of inactivity may undercut the benefits
If you choose to showcase GitHub work on your resume, there’s a chance the hiring team will focus more on your GitHub work than the rest of your resume. If that’s the case, inactivity on GitHub may convey inconsistent performance, passion, and work ethic.
To avoid this, explain why you chose to take a break from GitHub, perhaps because you got busy with other work that paid more or had to focus on more important projects.
Advice for different kinds of GitHub users
The way you show your work on GitHub will vary based on whether you’re applying for an entry-level position, mid-career position, or if you’re a seasoned professional. Here are tips for each stage of your career.
Systematically adjust products until they meet core requirements
To ensure you have the skills you need to produce on GitHub, and for a traditional dev team, you can enroll in any of our Career Paths. For new developers, some of the best choices include:
Mid-career applicants
As a professional in the middle of your career, GitHub offers you a chance to show how you can solve more complex problems and adapt to new types of programming, including learning new languages. The ability to acquire and apply new knowledge is crucial to the skillset of a mid-career applicant.
Even if you haven’t produced stellar work with a language you’re still getting comfortable with, showing what you’ve been able to accomplish using newer skills can convince an employer you have the agility necessary to work in a flexible environment.
Seasoned professionals
GitHub offers seasoned professionals a chance to flex their knowledge and help others with their projects. Showing the hiring team how you support up-and-coming developers on GitHub is a great addition to any resume.
Also, if you’ve been working on a pet project on GitHub, letting employers see this work can be just as beneficial. A little passion project lets them know you’re still hungry, innovating, and ready for challenges.
With the help of our courses, you can acquire and improve the skills necessary to shine on GitHub—and your resume. We teach you not just skills, but also provide valuable experience working with others. Also, you can develop a portfolio of work to upload to GitHub and show to potential employers. Get started today, free of charge.
This blog was originally published in September 2021 and has been updated to include our new GitHub courses and resources.
When cutting-edge AI systems and tools come on the scene, it’s easy to forget that there are lots of humans behind these tech marvels. Sure, you might hear the same names of a few high-profile CEOs and thought leaders in the news (like Elon Musk and Sam Altman), but the AI and machine learning field is full of diverse and accomplished people.
Women contribute to AI research and innovations, often to less fanfare than their male counterparts. Women hold just 35% of STEM jobs in the U.S., and the fraction of women working in AI is even slimmer. A past report from the World Economic Forum suggests that women only account for 22% of AI professionals in the workforce.
For International Women’s Day, we put together a list of women in technology who are developing AI advancements, fostering important discussions about ethics in AI, and serving as role models for aspiring technologists from marginalized communities. This is by no means a comprehensive list — if you want to take a deep dive into today’s tech talent, the organization Women in Machine Learning maintains a database of women experts working in the field of machine learning.
Known for: Pre-training, scaling, and finetuning of Large Language Models. She was the Technical Lead who theorized and coded PaLM (Pathways Language Model) and was a core contributor on Gemini.
“It was a ton of languages that I had to learn to program each of these different tasks,” Dr. Chowdhery said. “What’s really inspired me is that now I don’t have to go learn all these languages; I can talk to computers like I can talk to humans. This is really a turning point in the history of human-computer [and] human-machine interaction.”
Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute
Known for: She co-created ImageNet, a large-scale dataset for visual recognition, which has been instrumental in advancing the field of computer vision and deep learning. Her 2015 TED Talk on the subject is worth watching even today.
Dr. Li is a renowned AI expert and leader at one of the foremost AI research institutes. When it comes to gender diversity in academia, 76% of computer science, computer engineering, and IT faculty at North American universities are male, according to The AI Index 2023 Annual Report by Stanford University.
“Now we have a new generation of women professors. But this is far from enough,” Dr. Li told CNBC. “This field has a severe lack of women and underrepresented minority and this will impact the technology.”
Bren Professor of Computing at Caltech
Known for: She’s held top research positions at NVIDIA and AWS. Her research focuses on algorithmic foundations for AI in scientific domains, and she specializes in neural operators, optimization, probabilistic models, and tensor methods.
Both of Anima’s parents were engineers in Mysore, India, and her mother was one of the first women in their community to pursue engineering. Seeing her mother confidently navigate a male-dominated industry impacted Amina.
“I never saw it as something weird for women to be interested in engineering. My mother inculcated in us that appreciation of math and sciences early on,” she said in an interview with Quanta Magazine. “Having that be just a natural part of who I am from early childhood went a long way. If my mom ever saw sexism, she would point it out and say, ‘No, don’t accept this.’ That really helped.”
AI Researcher and Founder of the Algorithmic Justice League
Known for: Her groundbreaking research on facial recognition technology and her book Unmasking AI, which digs into the how racism, sexism, colorism, and ableism manifest in AI.
Dr. Buolamwini is an artist in addition to an academic, and she goes by the moniker “Poet of Code.” Art is a medium that humanizes AI and can reach lots of different people who may not have technical backgrounds.
“Research was not enough for me to teach everyday people whose life opportunities and pathways were being shaped by often faceless and nameless technology,” Dr. Buolamwini told TIME. “So I began to find my voice as a poet of code, a person who could penetrate technical jargon to highlight the harms and equip people with knowledge to resist harmful uses of AI.”
Senior AI Reporter at MIT Technology Review
Known for: Writing about how AI is changing our society. Check out one of her recent stories, which was a letter to Taylor Swift that unpacks how we can combat deepfake porn.
In a recent interview with “The Good Robot Podcast,” Melissa emphasized the importance of intersectional feminism and inclusivity in the development of technology. If technologists can consider how technology affects people from different genders, races, and classes from the outset, “I think we have a chance of this technology becoming a really powerful helpful tool instead of a sh-t show,” she said.
OLAY will award $2 million worth of scholarships for learners interested in cosmetic sciences
By Marni Baker Stein, Chief Content Officer, Coursera
Today, OLAY is launching a new Specialization, Introduction to Cosmetic Science and Ingredients, on Coursera. This is OLAY’s first Specialization on our platform and is designed to educate learners on skin care fundamentals and encourage more learners, especially women and women of color, to enter the cosmetic science field.
Our partnership with OLAY comes at an important time for careers in STEM. As of 2023, women’s representation remains low, comprising just over one quarter of the overall STEM workforce. The new cosmetic science Specialization is the first of a series of STEM Specializations from OLAY that reflect OLAY’s commitment to doubling the number of women in STEM and tripling the number of women of color in STEM by 2030.
To bolster this effort, OLAY and Coursera will provide $2 million in scholarships over three years for the course to anyone interested in cosmetic science. From 2024 – 2026, 5,000 recipients will receive a one-year subscription to Coursera Plus, which also includes more than 6,900 courses, as well as entry-level Professional Certificates and hands-on projects that teach job-relevant business, technology, and data science skills. Women and women of color are encouraged to apply.*
The new Specialization is taught by OLAY’s in-house cosmetic scientists, including Dr. Rolanda Wilkerson, who has an extensive background in researching emerging skin and hair science. With a deep understanding of women’s skin and hair needs, Dr. Wilkerson’s work has been used to improve the formulas of Procter & Gamble’s most popular cosmetic products.
“OLAY is committed to positively impacting the STEM pipeline and supporting all women in STEM. This is why we are excited to collaborate with Coursera to put STEM education within reach for both current and aspiring STEM learners,” said Dr. Wilkerson. “Whether you are a skin care enthusiast or someone considering cosmetic science as a career, anyone, anywhere can now learn the basics of skin care from OLAY scientists with the new ‘Introduction to Cosmetic Science and Ingredients’ course.”
Introduction to Cosmetic Science and Ingredients will ground learners in the history of the cosmetic industry while helping them understand key ingredients in various cosmetic products and how they affect the biological structure of the skin. By the end of the four-course program, learners will be able to understand:
Skin physiology and how to create a model of the skin
Skin care, skin concerns, and how to identify effective skin care ingredients
Fundamental approaches and best practices to create innovative and sustainable cosmetic formulations
Best practices and ways to implement cosmetic quality control and safety methods
Learners who complete the program and apply to Procter and Gamble beauty roles are encouraged to acknowledge their cosmetic science certificate during the application process.
With OLAY’s commitment to inclusivity in STEM, we’re thrilled to welcome them to Coursera’s partner community and join them in helping open more doors to cosmetic sciences.
EnrollinIntroduction to Cosmetic Science and Ingredients and earn a certificate on Coursera.
*To be eligible for a scholarship, learners must be 17 years or older and meet one of the following requirements:
a. a current high school senior
b. a recent high school graduate
c. a college student who is interested in or majoring in a cosmetic science or skin care adjacent STEM field including: life sciences, engineering, pre-med, and nursing
d. interested in switching to a STEM-related career
150 scholarships will be awarded in 2024; 1,500 in 2025; 3,350 for 2026. Selection based on the first number of people who meet above requirements. Scholarships are open to all, but women are encouraged to apply.
Applications will become available in the coming months.
Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this illustration or, describe a memory from your own life that this image makes you think of.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
The report also found instances of the models directly reproducing language used in news articles, which Ms. Coffey said showed that copies of publishers’ content were retained for use by chatbots. She said that the output from the chatbots then competes with news articles.
“It genuinely acts as a substitution for our very work,” Ms. Coffey said, adding: “You can see our articles are just taken and regurgitated verbatim.”
… Media executives have raised a number of concerns about A.I. in addition to the use of articles to train language models. Traffic to news sites from search engines could dwindle, some executives fear, if chatbots become a primary search tool. In addition, many media workers are worried that they could be replaced by A.I.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word dwindle in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
If you want a better idea of how dwindle can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.
While we talk about the benefits of retrieval practice a lot here at the Learning Scientists, we usually talk about the benefits of retrieval practice for already learned information. However, retrieval practice has also been shown to be beneficial for learning new information. That is, retrieving already-learned material not only helps you to remember that material (1), it also helps you to learn new material (2). While this effect (called the forward testing effect or test potentiated learning or retrieval potentiated learning) has been well established (2), what is less well-understood is how retrieval facilitates new learning.
In a review of studies on retrieval potentiated learning, Chan, Meissner, and Davis (2018) four theoretical perspectives on how retrieval improves new learning: resource theories, metacognitive theories, context theories, and integration theories.
Resource Theories
Resource theories state that retrieval is beneficial for new learning because it frees up cognitive resources. Retrieval acts as a way for you to set aside already learned material and focus on the to-be-learned material. Pretend you are asked to remember two lists of words. According to this theory, you will remember more from the second list of words if you have been tested over the first list because you’re not still thinking about that first list. Chan et al. (2018) that this is consistent with the literature on expressive writing that people have fewer intrusive thoughts during a learning task if they are able to write about them before hand (see this post from Cindy about expressive writing an math anxiety).
Research on mind-wandering is also consistent with this set of theories. Szpunar and colleagues have found that testing between video lectures reduced or changed mind wandering during subsequent lectures (3, 4). Interestingly, in one study when participants were tested intermittently, they reported more lecture-relevant mind wandering than participants who were not tested (4).
Metacognitive Theories
Theories in this category theorize that retrieval practice helps learners to optimize their encoding strategies. That is, after taking a test on information they might change the way they approach learning new information. One way this may happen is that retrieval practice may change how much time or effort learners spend on items that they think are more difficult or more important to learn (2)
Context Theories
Another reason why retrieval might benefit future learning is due to updating context. Contextual information refers to any information that is not necessarily directly related to the to-be-remembered information, but that does provide information about the context (e.g. time or order information – knowing that an item was presented towards the beginning or end of a session.). According to these theories, people are better able to learn new information because old information has been associated with context (2). For example, practicing retrieval on one list of information may may make it more likely that you associate items on that list with “things that happened in the first list” and therefore will be less likely to have those interfere when you try to remember “thing that happened on the second list”.
