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One of the strangest quirks of memory is that we cannot trust our own intuitions about it. Memory’s underlying mechanisms are largely unavailable to our conscious awareness. Because memory processes play a crucial role in every type of learning, this quirk is particularly relevant at this time of year, when the school year is just getting underway and many people want to get themselves or their students off to a good start.
My colleagues and I teach a unique course at Colorado State University called Science of Learning. The course is intended to equip students with usable study skills that are rooted in science. Often when I tell people about this course, their first reaction is something along the lines of, "Why do you need to teach a course on this? Isn't learning basically intuitive?" My answer is always, "Actually, no, learning is not intuitive. In fact, many aspects of learning run counter to intuition."
One of the key messages that we teach in this course is that we cannot trust our intuition about how well we’re learning something. Our intuition leads us astray and throws us off when it comes to estimating how much we’ve learned and how prepared we are for a test. Research study after research study has shown that people usually base their estimates of their learning on in-the-moment impressions during the learning process (such as impressions while studying or while looking at a set of notes). These in-the-moment impressions are generally not good indicators of our actual learning or preparedness for a test.
This is partly because our in-the-moment impressions are based on the information being right in front of us, which throws us off. An example is a common complaint I get from students: “When I was looking at the notes, they made so much sense and I really felt like I knew this stuff. I was expecting to do well. I don’t know why I did so poorly on the test."
While the information is right in front of us, it is in a heightened state of accessibility. After all, we are looking right at it. Maybe we can process it with great ease while looking at it, which makes it feel like we've learned it well. Unfortunately, that is not predictive of your ability to later retrieve it when you need it. In order to predict that, you need to put yourself in that exact situation. Set the material aside and then test yourself without the material in front of you. That will be a better gauge of how well you know it, and of what you need to further review. It also helps to reinforce what you already do know, helping to solidify that knowledge.
Another example concerns how we schedule out our studying or practice. People usually think they are learning more when in the midst of a big long stretch as opposed to making attempts during shorter stretches that are spaced apart. Yet, the opposite benefits learning. You get more bang for the buck for the same overall amount of time spent studying when you distribute that studying out in shorter chunks over multiple days.
Instructors can also be thrown off by how students are performing in the moment. For example, when students practice different types of math problems by completing several problems of one category before moving onto problems of another category, they perform better in the immediate-term (which might make it seem to an instructor like that is effective). However, over the long-term (such as for a later test), students do better when different types of problems are interleaved among one another for a more variable type of practice.
In short, how we feel in the moment throws us off and we cannot trust it for how prepared we are for test day or for when we need to use that knowledge.
On what then, should we rely for guidance on how to study and gauge our learning? Science, of course! Here are some tips that are rooted in science:
- Space out your studying, especially across days to allow sleep in between sessions
- Do not start a study session by re-reading your notes.
- First, engage in retrieval (without the notes in front of you) such as writing down everything that you can think of about the topic or testing yourself.
- Then, identify the weak spots or gaps from that and use those to direct your revisiting of the material in your book or notes.
- Make connections—As you are reading, try to elaborate on the material, such as by asking questions in the margins or commenting.
- Ask why a lot. Think it to yourself during lectures, ask it periodically when reading your book or notes. Asking why helps you to elaborate and form connections.
Importantly, following these strategies probably won't lead you to feel like you are going to learn more. Remember, we lack intuitive access to what is working and what isn't.
A student from my Science of Learning course once observed that, after implementing some of the techniques being taught in the class, the learning seemed to sneak up on her. “It is sneaky learning,” she said. “It just sneaks up on you.”
I thought about her statement a lot afterward. "How can learning feel sneaky, when we are trying to teach conscious strategies and deliberate habits for improving learning?" I wondered. Then it hit me. Precisely because learning is not intuitive! Following the right strategies (the ones that science suggests should work), won't necessarily feel at the time like they are going to have any benefit, and may even feel at the time like they are going to be bad for learning. Then, when they do work, it can be somewhat surprising to the learner. Maybe it really does feel like the learning just snuck up on you, because you couldn't see it coming.
This is a much better form of surprise than feeling ready for a test and being surprised at having done poorly. Keep this in mind when implementing science-based study strategies that you feel aren't going to work. Be sure to stick it through with these techniques long enough to give them a chance to demonstrate their effectiveness!
