![\"\"](\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-iSc4t8I0ejg\/TyNOkvH1kQI\/AAAAAAABAVk\/MGdD2eXhFPA\/s1600\/testing-darth-vader-300x240.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe clock signals the hour. Your palms are sweaty as your professor hands out your final exam. You take a deep breath and look down at the questions in front of you only to realize that you have no idea what the answer is to the first question. Has this ever happened to you? I know it\u2019s happened to me more times than I care to admit. I\u2019ve even had exams that I\u2019ve spent hours studying for and found my brain completely blank when finally confronted with the exam. As a result, I\u2019ve been on the search for the best study strategies to combat these final exam blues.<\/p>\n
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On my quest, I found myself taking Cognitive Psychology. A key component in memory formation is transferring the information you want to know from your Short Term Memory to your Long Term Memory. Short Term Memory is the little chunk of information you\u2019re currently trying to learn but you forget this information very quickly, within minutes. How is it, then, that you remember your 8th grade ancient history lessons? Long Term Memory. Long Term Memory is the stuff you know seamlessly and without effort. Retrieval isn\u2019t always successful. The information in long term memory can stay for years, decades or better yet, whole semesters and the storage space available is practically infinite but, we aren\u2019t always able to retrieve everything we put in. However, testing drastically improves our ability to remember that information over time and slows the rate of forgetting (how quickly we forget things).<\/p>\n
How do you then get information from your Short Term Memory to your Long Term Memory? You go through a process of encoding and retrieval<\/a>. These are just fancy psychological terms meaning you put the information in (encoding) and you take the information out (retrieval).<\/p>\n Pastotter et al. also found that testing yourself<\/a> after study is known to reduce the amount of forgetting you have and increase your scores on further tests, this is called the testing effect. A test itself<\/a>, therefore, has you retrieve the information you encoded and lets you know what information you have encoded and what information you don\u2019t know as well. A study by Verkoeijen et al. also found that being tested is actually significantly better for your performance on further tests than restudying the information.<\/p>\n Then you\u2019re thinking, so when do I take this test? And how do I test myself? What\u2019s the best way to test myself? A study by Pastotter et al. from 2010 states that taking a test while you\u2019re learning the information or trying to commit it to memory increases your recall of the information you\u2019re trying to remember compared to just re-reading or reviewing the information. Let\u2019s say you\u2019re studying for a really hard memory-filled Classics exam and you have tons of words and verbs and forms to memorize. If you study a certain verb form for your exam, it would be really beneficial for you after you learn it in class or during your study time to test yourself on it. It actually would be even more beneficial to test yourself before you start studying and after you study the material. If you test yourself before you study the material, you\u2019re priming, a psychology term for preparing\/readying your brain for that type of information. Then study the material and then test yourself again to see how much you\u2019ve learnt.<\/p>\n An article by Pyc and Rawson suggests that giving yourself a really hard test is an even better way to learn. Now this may seem completely crazy. You\u2019re thinking how could a super hard test possibly get the information into my brain and, more importantly, my Long Term Memory? Pyc and Rawson suggested that there is something about the retrieval effort hypothesis that rings true. The retrieval effort hypothesis states that the harder something is to remember, or retrieve, the stronger memory trace it leaves behind. The stronger the memory is, the easier it is to retrieve from memory. Furthermore, the harder the test during study was, the better the person performed on a final test, similar to your final exam. Whereas, the easier the test, the easier the information was to forget.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are many ways you could go about testing yourself. You could make flash cards and test yourself through them or you could make yourself an exam where you\u2019d have to write out the answers or you could read a question in your notes, hide the answer, and do your best to answer the question in your head. A recent study by Smith and Roediger actually examined what would be the best way to go about testing yourself. They differentiated between two types of testing; covert and overt retrieval. Covert retrieval is when you test yourself silently in your head whereas overt retrieval is when you have to give an outward response of your answer, be it through speech, writing, or typing. Contrary to previous studies that assumed and confirmed that overt retrieval was better, Smith and Roediger found that actually covert retrieval is just as useful as, and sometimes even more beneficial than, overt retrieval. What does this mean to you? It means that you should make a practice exam, or write questions on cue cards and silently test yourself. If you\u2019re consciously searching for the information in your brain and retrieving it before seeing the answer, you\u2019re likely to do better on the actual exam. You can therefore test yourself in scenarios where you cannot answer out loud or in writing, like waiting in line for Take 4 or right after class, or on your way to your dorm (but please watch your step). So I\u2019ve given you a lot of information with a lot of jargon but what it boils down to is that testing yourself while studying is the best thing you can do prepare for your finals. So next time you find yourself worrying over how you\u2019re going to do on your finals, take a test on the material you have to know. Not only will this test tell you what you don’t know but it\u2019ll also make sure that the information you do know stays in your Long Term Memory long enough to make sure you ace that exam and maybe even lead to lifelong learning.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re wondering how to go about planning your studying please go see this article on spacing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Best of luck on your finals and happy testing!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Works Cited<\/p>\n The clock signals the hour. Your palms are sweaty as your professor hands out your final exam. You take a deep breath and look down at the questions in front of you only to realize that you have no idea what the answer is to the first question. Has this ever happened to you? I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80216,60348,80215],"tags":[212],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1269"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3816,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1269\/revisions\/3816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/familyfitnessguru.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/school_test_lead_wideweb__470x3040.jpg\")
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<\/p>\nButler, A. C. (2010). Repeated testing produces superior transfer of learning relative to repeated studying.\u00a0Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition<\/i>,\u00a036<\/i>(5), 1118-1133. Retrieved February 25, 2014, http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1037\/a0019902<\/a><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nPast\u00f6tter, B., Schicker, S., Niedernhuber, J., & B\u00e4uml, K. T. (2011). Retrieval During Learning Facilitates Subsequent Memory Encoding..\u00a0Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition<\/i>,37<\/i>(2), 287-297. Retrieved February 25, 2014,\u00a0http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1037\/a0021801<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nPyc, M. A., & Rawson, K. A. (2009). Testing the retrieval effort hypothesis: Does greater difficulty correctly recalling information lead to higher levels of memory?.\u00a0Journal of Memory and Language<\/i>,60<\/i>(4), 437-447. Retrieved February 25, 2014,\u00a0http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jml.2009.01.004<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nSmith, M. A., Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2013). Covert retrieval practice benefits retention as much as overt retrieval practice.\u00a0Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition<\/i>,39<\/i>(6), 1712-1725. Retrieved February 25, 2014,\u00a0http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1037\/a0033569<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\nVerkoeijen, P. P., Tabbers, H. K., & Verhage, M. L. (2011). Comparing the Effects of Testing and Restudying on Recollection in Recognition Memory.\u00a0Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Experimentelle Psychologie)<\/i>,\u00a058<\/i>(6), 490-498. Retrieved February 25, 2014, http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1027\/1618-3169\/a000117<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"