Strategies to Improve Learning

Ok, we know how memory works now – so what? This information can be applied to make sense of neuroscience-backed strategies to improve learning by strengthening memory. Below are some strategies for more effective learning/studying, along with the reasons behind why they work.

Active Studying

Learning can be split into two broad types – active and passive. Passive studying involves studying where you are not actively engaging or interacting with the content - things like rereading your notes, watching a video of the lecture, or rewriting your notes. Active studying focuses more on synthesis, analysis, reflection, and reproduction (in one’s own words) of the content. If you’re thinking that active studying sounds like a lot more work, you’re right. It will require more effort and be harder, but that is precisely why it is so helpful. Stress and performance level are correlated in what is known as an “inverted U curve” – this means that moderate levels of stress result in greater amounts of learning than low stress or high stress.

If your studying method is causing you to think more, and use System 2 more, then it will further strengthen your neuron ensembles and result in greater memory formation. Cognitive science research has continually shown that active studying results in improved understanding. Some of my favorite methods for active studying strategies can be seen below.

Teaching Others - Explain the material to someone else, without just reading from your notes. If you don't have someone to explain it to, teach a pet or a stuffed animal. By trying to teach the material, you will not only quickly learn what you do or don't know, but you'll come up with different ways to explain things and strengthen your own understanding. If you are teaching someone else, have them use your notes to check and correct you as you go. This is one of my absolute favorite ways to study, and one that works remarkably well. As Phil Collins sings in Tarzan, "in teaching you will learn."
"Whiteboarding" - This is my personal go-to when I need to study for something. I call it "whiteboarding" because I have my students do it in class using whiteboards, although using a blank piece of paper or a tablet works perfectly well. In essence, you should write and draw out a lesson's materials and verbally explain it in your own words as you go (think about it like you're making your own Khan Academy video). When you're done, use your notes and check how you did. I think it's then helpful to use another color to correct any mistakes or to add anything that you missed.
Study Guides - Study guides can be really helpful, but are often done poorly. A study guide should not just be a list of vocabulary and definitions. Nor should it just be something your teacher gives you already filled out. Creating a good study guide is far more helpful than studying from a bad one. What you want to do is synthesize the information/concepts and explain/summarize it in your own way, without repeating things word-for-word. See this guide for more details on making a good study guide.
Concept Maps - If you create a visual representation where you connect ideas/topics/concepts based on relationships that they have, you are forced to think more deeply about the concepts. In addition, by creating the connections, you create more elaborate semantic networks, which can allow for one concept to trigger the memory of another.

These force one to think at a deeper level about the content, which results in it sticking better. These are also examples of what's known as "retrieval studying" in which you have to retrieve information from your memory rather than just reviewing it by reading it over again. This uses more System 2 thinking and has been repeatedly shown by research to increase learning outcomes.

Other options are coming up with one’s own examples (which has the benefit of creating new neuron ensembles by connecting the content to other things), flash cards (which are particularly helpful for something that is very vocabulary heavy), and doing practice questions. When it comes to practice questions, it can also be helpful to create your own practice questions, as it forced you to think about the concept in a different way, especially if you try and write application-based questions - plus, you can then trade questions with another student and have more practice ones to try. In essence, any form of studying that engages System 2 more, and that involves actively engaging with the material more, will be harder but will result in a “productive struggle” with improved learning outcomes.

More Sleep

Everyone knows that it’s important to get a lot of sleep, although very few people (particularly when talking about students) get the proper amount. This can have a massive impact on the formation of memories. There is a part of the brain known as the hippocampus – this region is extremely important in memory, and is where a large amount of neurogenesis happens. During deep sleep (AKA slow-wave sleep), the hippocampus continually reactivates neurons. This is believed to be what allows for the memories to transition from temporarily stored in the hippocampus for short-term memory to being stored in the neocortex, for long-term memory. Increased sleep has been linked to an increased ability to not only learn and retain information, but also to apply it in new and creative ways. In other words, if you aren’t getting enough sleep, your memory and learning will be far worse as the creation of long-term memories happens while you’re asleep.

More Frequent, Smaller Study Sessions

As mentioned above, the hippocampus is extremely important when it comes to learning new information. Neogenesis occurs here and it is where new memories are temporarily stored. However, the hippocampus can only store so much. Think about your phone, if you are at your max storage capacity on it, it doesn’t matter how many times you try to take a picture of that really cute dog you just met, the picture won’t save. It’s the same with your brain – if the hippocampus is “full” then you won’t be able to learn new things and convert them to long-term memory, even if you cram and study for several hours. It is for this reason that it is better to break studying up into smaller time chunks – it prevents wasted effort and allows for what you do learn to be converted to long-term memory. If you combine studying over shorter amounts of time with doing it more frequently, increased repetition can help to strengthen the memories by causing the neuron ensembles to continually activate, making it more likely for you to remember and be able to recall it. Research has shown that students who use “spacing” (as the technique is called in psychological contexts) have better outcomes on assessments than those who don’t.

The Importance of Context

Just like how the way in which you study is important, the environment in which you study is remarkably important. Studying in a similar context to how you will be testing is important and connected to significantly greater results on the test. If you will be testing in a silent environment, you should study in a silent environment rather than a loud one or listening to music.

Likewise, the context can include the test format as well - if your test will include taking a lot of multiple choice questions, it is best to study by creating multiple choice questions.

Multisensory Approaches

You’ve probably heard of people referred to as visual, auditory, or tactile learners at some point. While the idea of individuals falling under distinctive learning styles has been shown to be little more than an educational urban legend, there has been a lot of research into the benefit of learning material through the use of multiple senses. A multisensory approach to studying is one that incorporates multiple senses, such as having both verbal and image-based aspects to a vocabulary word. Senses are strongly encoded with memory – this is why particular smells, tastes, songs, etc. can remind you of particular past events. By studying using multiple senses, multiple neuron ensembles can be made, creating more pathways to potentially retrieve information, which makes it more likely that you can successfully recall the relevant information. A common technique for this is drawing out processes or diagrams and describing what is happening. If you describe it out loud, you are working in verbal, auditory, and visual memory.

Make It Easier to Remember

When you're studying, you're rehearsing the information in some way and trying to commit it to long-term memory. There are some ways that you can try and make certain concepts stick a little more easily.

Maybe you remember the order of operations and how to do calculations because you were taught to "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally," or you remember the cardinal directions because you "Never Eat Soggy Worms," or you remember that "King Phillip Came Over For Great Spaghetti" and that's how you know organisms in the same order are more closely related than things in the same class. These are all examples of mnemonics which organizes information in a way that will be more likely to be remembered. If you try and make your own, it might make it easier to remember certain concepts!

Similar to mnemonics is elaborative rehearsal, which functions by connecting information to information you already have stored. If you're trying to remember that polar molecules are hydrophilic, it might be helpful to connect that thought to the idea that polar bears like to swim. By making connections between what you're trying to learn, and unrelated things that you already know, it becomes much easier.

Switching the Order

As one studies, it is common to continually study topics in the same order. If you switch the order that you study topics in, it can change the neuron ensembles that are forming (or cause additional ensembles to form), resulting in some concepts becoming more closely linked to others than they normally would not be. This can increase the number of connections that you make, along with making it easier to recall concepts. Interleaving, as this process is called, is harder and less able to rely on System 1, therefore incorporating System 2 more. Studies have shown that using interleaving has resulted in a stronger ability to recall the knowledge as well as apply it to new contexts.

Chunking

As mentioned when discussing types of memory, short-term and working memory are limited in their capacity – they can only hold so many pieces of information at once. However, it is possible to artificially increase these by “chunking” information together. In other words, by relating pieces of information in a way that multiple things can be stored as one chunk. As an example, if I were told to remember the following numbers: 0, 0, 2, 2, 2, 3, and 4, that would be multiple chunks of information to remember. However, if those were listed as 3-24-2020, that would my dog’s birthday, which is one thing, and all of those numbers would now only be one chunk. By grouping information into meaningful chunks, more information can be retrieved at a time.

Think About What You Start With

It’s common to want to start with concepts you know well and that are easy. Active studying as we’ve been discussing can be mentally draining and difficult. Research has shown that starting with the harder material that you don’t know as well is more effective, as it is accomplished when you are the least fatigued. Those who start with the harder material tend to be more productive than those who start with the easy material.

It can also be helpful to start with the most important concepts first, as you can then keep thinking back to them and making more connections to them as you go.

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