“Retrieval-Based Learning: A perspective for enhancing meaningful learning”<\/a>,\u00a0that retrieval is the best way to learn, and hence prepare for exams.<\/p>\nWhat is retrieval? Retrieval is the concept of active recalling of existing memory. Therefore, a retrieval-based learning\/studying would require one to actively recall information repeatedly after going through the material once, as opposed to just reading through the material multiple times.<\/p>\n
Learning is usually thought to be information that is inquired, understood, and stored in our memory, and sometimes the idea of applying this knowledge with pre-existing knowledge. Retrieval is very rarely known to be the key process in understanding and promoting learning. Retrieval is known to be a tool for assessing knowledge and a medium to test how much learning has taken place.<\/p>\n
Karpicke and Grimaldi use several studies to demonstrate that retrieval of knowledge is actually a better way to learn and retain information. Below are two of the many studies to demonstrate this hypothesis, explained in a way that might be similar to how many of us study.<\/p>\n
If you are one to use flashcards to study: this will be interesting for you. Do you discard the cards you get right? Do you just look at the back of the card over and over again? If you answered yes to either of these questions, it might be time to see how you can do this better. Participants were put into four groups and asked to study a number of words and their translations; one group was asked to discard the flashcards when they got them right; one group that just was just asked to keep going through the material over and over again; one that was asked to recall the translations after going through all of the material and not discard the flashcard even if they recalled it correctly; and one that was asked to do a mixture of both, recalling and looking through the words, repeatedly.<\/p>\n
A week later, the participants were asked to recall as many of these words as possible. Results showed that those who dropped the flashcards when they got them right, recalled the least number of words, followed by the ones that one that kept looking through the material over and over again. The best performance was shared by the other two groups (one that just recalled the words after studying them once through and the other group that did both studying and recalling repeatedly) suggesting that studying repeatedly did not facilitate in doing much better.<\/p>\n
So, the next time you are using flashcards, as much as it is tempting to leave out the ones you get right, and to just keep looking through the material, remember it is more useful if you just keep testing yourself repeatedly!<\/p>\n
Fewer flashcards, and more notes-based studying for you? In that case, this study will be more relatable. Participants were given a meaningful test to study and eventually recall. They were put in three groups, each differing in the manner they were asked to learn. One that read through this material four times, which would be equivalent to reading through your class notes four times. One that was asked to read through three times, and then recall as much as they could the fourth time. And, one that only read through once, and asked to recall three times. Participants were not given feedback after recalling in terms of how much they remembered right. Recalling, could be equivalent to just writing out as much as you remember in a piece of paper or teaching someone else the same material.<\/p>\n
At the end of this learning phase, they were asked to predict how well they remembered this material. The group that was asked to read through the material all four times had the highest confidence, followed by the group that read three times, and recalled once and lastly, the group that read it once and recalled three times had the lowest confidence level.<\/p>\n
However, after a week when they were asked to come in and recall as much as they could from the material they were asked to study, the results were the complete opposite of their confidence level \u2013 the group that was asked to recall three times after just studying it once did the best, followed by the one that was asked to recall once after studying three times, and lastly, the group that was asked to read through the material four times. This showed that even though the group that was asked to recall the most did not think they remembered too much, they encoded the most. Hence, also, supporting the retrieval-based learning.<\/p>\n
So the next time you are pressed on time to study for an exam, don\u2019t turn down a friend asking you some questions or for some clarification, that might be the best way to study for you!<\/p>\n
Goodluck studying for your exam, remember, retrieval is the key!<\/p>\n
Reference:
\nKarpicke, J. D., & Grimaldi, P. J. (2012). Retrieval-based learning: A perspective for enhancing meaningful learning.Educational Psychology Review, 24<\/i>, 401-418.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With finals week fast approaching, are you starting to think about how you are going to study for your exams? Well, Karpicke and Grimaldi (2012) argues, in their article,\u00a0“Retrieval-Based Learning: A perspective for enhancing meaningful learning”,\u00a0that retrieval is the best way to learn, and hence prepare for exams. What is retrieval? Retrieval is the concept […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4034,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60348,80215],"tags":[112,212],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556"}],"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\/4034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}