For Students

Cover image by u_9p7tw4noz0 from PixabayBy Althea Need KaminskeNote: The following describes Health Professions Education within the U.S.As a learning scientist interested in how learning works, health professions education is an exciting and dynamic environment to explore best practices in the application of the principles and strategies that we study in cognitive psychology. Recently, Cindy…

As mentioned, the authors used a mixed-method approach. One the one hand, they asked students during the pre- and post-assessment to indicate how many minutes they had spent using successive relearning or other learning strategies, when they had started studying for the exam, their confidence in recalling specific content from the course, etc. On the…

Images above by WOKANDAPIX, Yinan Chen, Taken, kieurope, M S, and GSLCMedia, from PixabayWe are able to categorize, and to generalize. Every time you see a chair that you have never seen before, you don’t have to learn that it is a chair and can be used for sitting. This is because you have learned some general rules…

The question then is whether imitation is the best approach to learning pronunciation or whether an alternative approach is equally or more effective. Kang et al. (1) investigated exactly this research question. They looked at comprehension and production (i.e., pronunciation) of foreign language words and pitched an imitation approach against a retrieval practice approach. In…

Cover Image by huoadg5888 from PixabayBy Althea Need KaminskeWhen I meet with a student to discuss why their performance in a class isn’t where they want it to be, I remind them that there are many factors that affect how well they do in a course. Many of those things are under their control -…

References1.      Lewis, J. & Stiebahl, S. (2025). Student mental health in England: Statistics, policy, and guidance. Research briefing, House of Commons Library. https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8593/CBP-8593.pdf2.      McEwen, B. S. (2006). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators: central role of the brain. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(4), 367–381. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2006.8.4/bmcewen3.      Schneiderman, N., Ironson, G., & Siegel, S. D. (2005). Stress and…

Generative chatbots like ChatGPT also have a remarkable ability to pass for human-like performance in some limited social contexts, scoring well on standardized exams assessments typically used to measure aptitude and performance in a field (2). However, the lack of agency in chatbots means that they are unable to take responsibility for their actions.They cannot…

Cover Image by cottonbro studio from PexelsBy Althea Need KaminskeNote: To the best of my knowledge I did not use generative AI to write this post. Any mistakes or insights are my own. AI is big right now. It’s been big for a while, but it seems to be more and more aggressive in the…

Cover image by Pavel Danilyuk from PexelsDelivering engaging and effective presentations is important when it comes to teaching or when presenting work at conferences. As teachers, we may want to help our students to develop their presentation skills and prepare them to become confident speakers. Today’s digest offers resources on boosting presentation skills. 10 Tips for…

For long-term exams, it can be beneficial to create a study schedule to help pace yourself and hold yourself accountable. This may look different for every student, but a good basic outline includes starting with content from the beginning of the year and studying recent information closer to the exam. Additionally, students can portion out…