250 likes | 352 Views
Want Your Students To Remember Everything?. There’s an App for That. Keith B. Lyle, Ph.D. Dept. of Psychological & Brain Sciences. Celebration of Teaching and Learning, Feb. 8, 2013. How should students study?.
E N D
Want Your Students To Remember Everything? There’s an App for That Keith B. Lyle, Ph.D. Dept. of Psychological & Brain Sciences Celebration of Teaching and Learning, Feb. 8, 2013
How should students study? Suppose you give students four practice problems or four short readings on the same topic. Would you recommend that students do/read them consecutively without breaks or spend some time on Facebook between each one? Or does it not matter? Press 1 for Consecutively Press 2 for Facebook breaks Press 3 for Who cares?
Memory test For each sentence, press 1 if it is an exact quotation of a famous line from television or film. Press 2 if it is not. Luke, I am your father. I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat. Play it again, Sam. Beam me up, Scotty. Houston, we have a problem.
Memory test Why are these things (which didn’t even happen) so frequently remembered, when so much is forgotten?
Today’s focus How can we help students remember more? We remember information better when its presentation or retrieval is spaced out A freely available program to help students space out retrieval of to-be-remembered info Ankisrs.net
What memory researchers know (and you should, too) For any interval of time (X)between initial exposure to information and a retrieval attempt (Y)… Exposure …the more times you have successfully retrieved the info during X, the more likely Y is to be successful ? X Retrieval Attempt Y
What memory researchers know (and you should, too) If retrievals are spaced out during X, instead of happening one after another… Exposure …Y is more likely to be successful ? X Retrieval Attempt Y
Spacing is happening all the time Think about your exposure to, or own retrieval of, lines from television and film Or your phone #, social security #, UofL ID #, etc…
Ss studied 40 vocabulary pairs (e.g., limpid-serene, enervate-weaken) over 4 days and were tested on a fifth day An example of spacing Each pair was studied 8 times total, but 20 spaced pairs were studied every day (2X/day) and 20 massed pairs were studied on one day only (8X)
An example of spacing Number 1 represents limpid-serene and that pair was studied 2X every day Number 36 represents enervate-weaken and that pair was studied 8X on the last day only
An example of spacing Kornell (2009) On the test, Ss saw limpid-_______ and enervate-_______ and had to fill in the blank Ss remembered 54% of the spaced pairs, but only 34% of the pairs for which they crammed the day before Ss “crammed” for these pairs the day before the test
What students don’t know can hurt them Students do not know that spacing is valuable In Kornell’s study, subjects predicted that they would remember 33% fewerspaced pairs than massed pairs! If given the opportunity to space, students knowingly opt not to
What students don’t know can hurt them Karpicke (2009)
This isn’t “just” about memory Some people mistakenly think that remembering can be easily dissociated from… understanding discovering connecting conceptual knowledge Research suggests otherwise
This isn’t “just” about memory Karpicke & Blunt (2011) Ss studied a science text in 1 of 4 conditions: Study 1X Study 4X in a row Study 1X – write down everything they remembered – study again – write again Create a context map while studying
This isn’t “just” about memory Karpicke & Blunt (2011)
This isn’t “just” about memory Karpicke & Blunt (2011)
This isn’t “just” about memory Mullaney et al. (2012)
Students need our help Students cannot be expected to spontaneously make use of a tool they do not know is useful Anki is an adaptive flashcard program that implements spacing for learners
Anki basics Free computer-based version runs on Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, and FreeBSD Free mobile version for Android phones $25 for iPhones A web-based version is also free Supposedly works well on phones
Anki basics Instructors can create “decks” and upload them so that students can easily download them Supports images, audio, videos, and LaTeX After each retrieval attempt, you are asked to report how easy/difficult retrieval was The easier retrieval was, the longer the interval before the next time you are asked to retrieve The more spaced out retrieval attempts become
Why Anki works It is efficient Once information becomes sufficiently easy to retrieve, the value in retrieving it over and over again (in massed fashion) is small, especially relative to the cost of time spent Anki directs students to spend time attempting retrieval of information that is, by their own assessment, difficult for them to retrieve
Why Anki works It creates desirable difficulty By increasing the interval between retrieval attempts, Anki ensures that each attempt has a measure of difficulty, even for information that has been retrieved many times Research indicates that making a retrieval attempt difficult can increase retention of the retrieved information
Celebration of Teaching and Learning, Feb. 8, 2013 Fin Thank You