hacking your memory

Question 1

No-laptops orders - technophobia?:

Answer 1

• Putnam et al (2016) recommend not using a laptop
  
  • Some lectures forbid their use in class

Question 2

Distraction in class:

Answer 2

• Does Mr Zuckerberg need your attention right now?
  
  • Students multitasking on a laptop during class may learn 11% less in study by Sana, Weston and Cepeda (2013) + blog
    May also affect comprehension of students near you

Question 3

Note-taking and memory encoding:

Answer 3

• Famous study: taking notes on a laptop is faster but encourages verbatim notes rather than summary - this is ‘shallow’ processing (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014)
  
  • See blog by student, Brook Fulton, on Learning Scientists
  • BUT less clear cut in replication + mini meta-analysis Urry et al. (2021), also
  • Voyer et al. (2022)
  • However, note-taking IS useful in
  • preventing mind-wandering, Wong & Lim (2023)
  • AND: there may be ways to use a laptop well – blog by a student who has dysgraphia, Martin Winter

Question 4

What is note-taking for?:

Answer 4

• Promote deep and elaborative encoding of the material
  
  • Provide external storage of information that is in the lecture but is not on the slides
  • (Processing and adding this surrounding material may help elaborative encoding)
  • Good notes can also support later study and revision

Question 5

What is elaboration?:

Answer 5

• Actively relating incoming material to existing knowledge
  
  • Usually implies a deliberate strategy
    ○ Elaborative interrogation = Generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true
    ○ Self-explanation = Explaining how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving
    ○ Keyword mnemonic = Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials (can involve explanation)

Question 6

The keyword mnemonic:

Answer 6

• How to learn the word hippocampus
  
  • Keyword mnemonic: hippo + campus
  • A hippo visits her old Uni campus, this brings back lots of memories

Question 7

Elaborative interrogation:

Answer 7

• generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true - much less clunky than keyword mnemonic

Question 8

Schemas in education - van Kesteren et al (2018):

Answer 8

• encode new A-B picture-word pairs
  -> test memory for the A-B pairs
  -> encode new A-C pairs where relatedness of B and C varies
  -> recognise C, cued recall B-C, rcognise A
• here, B-C is not directly studied but is inferred from learning A-B and A-C; as model of generalisation during learning

Question 9

Schemas in education - van Kesteren et al (2018) 2:

Answer 9

• associative memory better for inferred B-C pairing if it was schema congruent
• also better if remembered the B picture during A-C learning
• people;s judgements of what they would remember depended on reactivation but not schemas
• partially accurate but people underestimated the importance of prior knowledge

Question 10

Schemas at uni:

Answer 10

• Connecting material to what was learned before helps new learning and generalisation. Some of this is tutors’ job but…
  
  • Doing readings and revision of key ideas before lectures can help students to assimilate lecture material
  • So can reading over slides, e.g. to understand main messages, spot what will need most clarification, relate to readings and prior study (Marsh & Sink, 2009)
  • If you didn’t do it before the lecture you can also do later!
  • See Putnam et al. (2016)

Question 11

Limits of improving encoding:

Answer 11

• Keyword mnemonic involves work, and needs suitable material – as do other elaboration strategies
  
  • Elaborative interrogation “…effects are often larger when elaborations are precise rather than imprecise, when prior knowledge is higher rather than lower […] and when elaborations are self-generated rather than provided” (Dunlosky et al., 2013)
  • D et al interpret as distinctiveness effect on encoding
  • BUT surprisingly (to many in 2013) not very effective for long-term learning

Question 12

Can memory cues help?:

Answer 12

• Cues provided in the test …are not up to you, but
  
  • Elaboration while studying can add to the potential cues that are able to retrieve something
  • I.e., you also generate your own cues when studying!

Question 13

Self-generated cues:

Answer 13

• You make the connections!
  
  • Create cues that connect with your personal knowledge and cognitive context
  • E.g. “when remembering that Rutherford was the first person to show that each atom has a nucleus in its center, a chemistry student can create a cue that says “Ruth is my grandma’s name and grandmas are the center of the family.””
  • From Tullis & Finley’s (2018) review
  • Note that cue is semantically related to target fact
  • Use interests, hobbies etc e.g. sport, or music etc
  • Why does this work?
  • Likely to overlap more with your personal cognitive context (thoughts stored at time of encoding)
  • And self-generated cues may be more diagnostic point more uniquely to the information in memory (lecture 2)
  • → so, thanks to transfer-appropriate processing, you will remember the material better
  • Works well with the testing effect (which is…?)

Question 14

the testing effect

Answer 14

• Roedifer and Karpicke (2006) memory for ‘ideas units’ in prose passages
• how much less forgetting at 1 week with testing?
• 10% forgetting instead of 52%

Question 15

Thomas et al (2020):

Answer 15

• Compared study with quizzes (MCQ), quiz with feedback
  
  • Outcomes
    ○ Unit exams x 4 – repeated, new MCQs & short answers
    ○ Final exam – more MCQs, & essays
  • Included MCQs from quizzes, unit exams & new
  • Analysis
    ○ Transfer of learning to related concepts
  • Transfer of learning to different test format
    12-14% better:
• conceptually related MCQs:
• quizzing better than studying
  13%-21% better:
• conceptually related short answers:
• quizzing better than studying

Question 16

Evidence-based revision at uni:

Answer 16

• Least useful
  ○ Summarisation (written)
  ○ Imagery for text
  ○ Re-reading
  
  • Moderately useful
    ○ Elaborative interrogation (generating explanations)
    ○ Self-explanation (relate to knowledge)
    ○ Interleaved practice (with other material)
  • The most useful
    ○ Testing yourself (the testing effect)
    ○ Is there a ‘down-side’?

Question 17

A small conundrum:

Answer 17

• Imagery at the time of revision does not seem to impact long-term retention
  
  • Of Lecture 1’s variables that operate at encoding and help one-shot episodic memories to form, only elaboration and other meaning-processing-related strategies seem to be useful in revision
  • Can be combined with testing!
  • More research needed on what works over longer periods

Question 18

Theories of the testing effect, feedback:

Answer 18

• Semantic elaboration theory (Carpenter, 2009):
  
  • So a studied item can be retrieved with a different (semantically related) cue at test
  • Versus
  • Context theory (Karpicke et al., 2014):
  • A harder initial memory test has more benefit, suggesting more mental reinstatement of context
  • Both relate to memory updating and storing updated context in the updated memory trace
  • But why give feedback, if Thomas et al. found that it had no (significant) effect?
  • So that testing does not introduce misinformation
  • See Bergman & Roediger, lecture 3
  • But more research needed on when feedback is useful with retrieval practice
  • Systematic review by Agarwal, Nunes and Blunt (2021)
  • Also: more research in non-WEIRD countries
  • But retrieval practice was consistently beneficial

Question 19

practice and spaced recognition

Answer 19

• revision - revisiting information after a break helps memory = spaced learning
• ‘expanding’ spacing is probably best but depends on retention interval

Question 20

Academic learning and episodic and semantic memory:

Answer 20

• Conway et al. (1997)
  § Tested psychology students immediately after a lecture course and in a delayed test (exam)
  § Immediately after lectures, better performing students ‘Remembered facts in a particular lecture’
  § At delayed test, they ‘Knew the Facts’ rather than ‘Remembered the lecture’
  § Suggests a shift from Episodic to Semantic Memory and generalisation beyond initial context.
  § (NB different for methods courses – ‘just know’ more impt.
  
  • Tested first year and final year students in 2014 and 2017 and assessed ‘remember-know’ following Conway et al.
  • 100+ students per cohort, exam
  • Specific memory for learning episode versus ‘just know’ - more Know at end of course
  • From equal to Know > Remember at 3 years (in 42 students)
  • More evidence needed + what is relation to study strategy?
  • Why?
  • Episodic memories become semanticised over time, e.g. Harand et al. (2012)
  • Review by Robin and Moscovitch
  • see Eysenck & Keane chapter
  • Repeated retrieval likely important
  • Sleep is also important!