Explain It To Me: The Beneficial Effects of Explaining for Memory
Outcomes of the Experiment Lachner and colleagues (1) created an experiment (Experiment 2) in which they tested these different hypotheses against each other. They had students study two related texts and asked them to either a) explain the main ideas to a fictitious person or b) write down everything they remember (written retrieval practice). In…
Can Students Change Their Study Habits?
Before I give a more detailed description of the study I want to caution that this is still a working paper. This means that it has not gone through the peer review process. The peer-review process is in place to assure that research that is published is high quality. As the name suggests, this process…
How Should Students Take Notes?
References (1) Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25, 1159-1168. (2) Bui, D. C., Myerson, J., & Hale, S. (2013). Note-taking with computers: Exploring alternative strategies for improved recall. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105, 299-309. (3) Fiorella,…
Retrieval Practice and Bloom’s Taxonomy
By Cindy Nebel As researchers attempting to bridge psychological science and education, we come across several challenges. Each of us has expertise in the area of retrieval practice, where many of the classic studies take place in the laboratory with simple materials. Researchers have therefore attempted to answer several questions to address the extent to…
Learning in a Museum
By Althea Need Kaminske This past week I had the opportunity, along with Megan Sumeracki, to talk with docents about how they can use the science of learning in their work. As educators, docents face an interesting set of challenges when teaching visitors about their collections. Namely that they have a limited amount of time…
Dual Coding and Learning Styles
By Megan Sumeracki Dual coding and learning styles sound similar, but are not quite the same thing. While dual coding has scientific evidence backing its use, while learning styles has been repeatedly tested and shown not to improve learning. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post (see here), I have been working with a team…
A Brief Overview of Working Memory
Working memory refers to your ability to manipulate and remember information over a short period of time (about two minutes). It’s very similar to short term memory, but when we use the term working memory we are emphasizing the manipulation of information. For example, if someone gave you a telephone number to write down, you…
Conducting Research Projects in Collaboration with Teachers
These examples show that applied research is important and more applied research is needed. It can point researchers to limitations of research findings and at the same time motivate new research questions to tackle. Thus, applied research does not only help to provide teachers and students with practical tips, but also informs research itself. Applied research…
Lessons from The Science of Learning in the Field
Over the past few months, I have had the pleasure of working on a Science of Learning grant through the Learning Agency, funded by the Overdeck Family Foundation (see here). Through this grant, professors and researchers with expertise in the science of learning have been paired with K-12 teachers across the country. Each team is…
New Findings Inform the Laptop versus Longhand Note-Taking Debate
While there may be very good reasons to be cautious about laptop use in the classroom – e.g., laptops with internet access may invite multitasking which is detrimental to the learning of the student engaging in multi-tasking, but also has negative effects on students sitting in proximity of the multitasker (2) – their use to…
