How We Learn Versus How We Think We Learn

Robert Bjork, Distinguished Research Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychology, shares insights from his work as a renowned expert on human learning. Bjork has been studying learning and memory for more than four decades. Recorded on 02/17/2016. [5/2016] [Show ID: 30574]
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[@stoicfloor]

Summary: 1. Testing effect. Test yourself with practice papers or questions you made. Study > Test > Test is better than Study > Study > Study. "Retrieving information from memory is a dynamic process that alters the subsequent state of the system." Testing yourself, which is, retrieval of information is different from restudying. Testing, is a memory modifier that makes the retrieved material more accessible and retrievable. 2. Spacing effect. Space your study sessions. Spacing > massed practice (aka blocked practice). 3. Interleaved practice. Spacing helps you discriminate the similarities and differences between similar subjects, induce future relevant material. One general idea about these 3 study techniques is that they contract to learners' idea of performance and what is best during learning. You might think you're doing poorly with these techniques, but actually, they help you with long-term performance and retention.

[@MadFrenzy582]

This is how I aced my physics courses

[@shrutijindal7919]

adding variation in the methods or place of learning, association, and studying in lapses can help to learn new information but for longer-term

[@togmany5471]

Dragon377 thanks a lot

[@2uride]

'll

[@Nongdamba500]

Thank you very much for such beautiful documentary. Please keep up the good work 👏.

[@plutobaby9996]

Idk why this isn’t a national sensation, make it stick changed my life I literally saw night and day difference in my exam scores and I was definitely retaining information A LOT more

[@DAMfoxygrampa]

Same

[@unframedminds8204]

Wonderful presentation.

[@brianodiwuor2976]

at 15:32, Kerr & Booth's (1978) study did show that children who received a variety of practice on the throwing task performed significantly better than the specific-practice group, not the other way round as reported in this video. This is precisely Ference Marton's work on Variation Theory.

[@TohnoTakaki]

Thank you. The lesson to take home is this: I should recall in evening what you said in your presentation if I don't want to forget.

[@FloraJoannaK]

Oh yes I noticed this early. Just making semi-random basic research and rifling through papers, and especially getting an idea what the community of researchers doubts, what questions they have, was central to my learning anything deep. Mixed intense, and casual sessions with plenty of rest was central. I'd read about 10-15 minutes and write perhaps 45-60. Relax the eyes, and always have an idea what to look for on a categorical level.

[@user-jz3lw5ps8q]

I always thinks that Bjork will have a big impact on psychology and learning!! Good presentation!!I have try anki and this software really help me!!

[@FernandoRodriguez-qj9nz]

Such an amazing talk, I spent my whole life studying the less efficient way and wandering why I had hard time trying to learn, now that I learned and applied this tools I'm able to learn much more efficiently, thank you so much for your insights!

[@jigyanshushrivastava6153]

Wow...UCLA... That is great

[@mamunurrashid5652]

An excellent lecture on the subject of learning......

[@JohnVKaravitis]

SUPERB! Great presentation, with great, useful information to improve our lives! John V. Karavitis

[@muskduh]

Thanks for the video

[@7701707]

Thank you very much I am going now to order the recording

[@dimitrijmaslov1209]

Thanks!

[@jairajsahgal7101]

Thank you

[@jabum3359]

- different environmental cues = better long-term retention = learn at different places

[@foobargorch]

Hurray, a rational basis for my browsing habits!

[@multiyapples]

Interesting.

[@cjennings6179]

Distorted Thinking issues/ EVENTS HAPPENINGS, EXPERIENCES. GOOD & bad/ NOT SO GOOD. ILLUSIONS. ASSUMPTIONS, TRIALS & ERRORS OF DAY TO DAY LIFE. RECALLING Information.. Distorted human EXPERIENCES. Distorted THINKING is cause of many SYMPTOMS. A LACK OF ATTENTION. ADMIRATION. & RESPECT FOR BEING SO COURAGE. A generator of plans to get through....

[@pwhqngl0evzeg7z37]

Really enjoying the talk so far, just wanted to call out the exaggerative axis scale on the graph at 20:00. Could be a bit deceptive!

[@ZupaTr00pa]

I'm interested to know if the same ability differences can be seen by relative professionals/experts where the subjects are already at a high level. Especially so for the section where Shaq was mentioned.

[@TheBillaro]

For the love of God someone get this man a glass of water.

[@nickquik]

4:00 start of the actual topic.

[@koraytugay]

Thank you.

[@Adwalkerhelps]

thank you

[@akshaykhambat]

thanks

[@kiran-ed6tm]

Summary What appears to improve our peformance doesn't help in longterm learning or retention Our memory works differently than real world devices that record the information. If we recall something the state of system changes that means recalling is a dynamic process. Improving learning Varying the conditions of learning Change the context - even changing rooms has the effect Distributing or spacing study or practice study sessions 10 hours / day versus 1 hour * 10 days Distributed learning has betters effects of recalling and longterm memory Although single sit learning has performance benefits when followed by an immediate test. Interleaving - mix topics rather than learning single topic monotonously Learning a mix of topics or concepts and getting them tested is better than learning a topic and getting it tested immediately Using your own tests as learning events rather than simply going through the material Retrieval practice makes the information easily recallable. Retrieval is also learning. Desired difficulties Present partial information - recall complete information allow them to face the difficulty of recalling the information Testing Testing yourself is better than studying again Testing is effectivie in the subsequent study sessions even few are correct or all are incorrect Study Less Test more Learning and Performance Learning and Performance are not same Optimizing inductive learning The ability to generalize concepts and categories through exposure to multiple models. Interleaving improves inductive learning. Errors are part of learning. You should be willing to make mistakes and use them as an opportunity to learn. Power of training, practice and experience are often underappreciated than aptitude. Important to believe that you can learn. New learnings depend on old learning Factors playing with learning - Personal, Family, culture effects - Motivation to learn - Whether learning is valued - Aspirations and expectations on learning - Knowledge and assumptions on learning Lecture first or Text book first If English is your first language - lecture first and text book second If English is NOT your first language = Text first and lecture second Egocentrism : Overestimate ourselves on how much we learn.

[@hiteshpatel1094]

very well summarised. Thank you. God bless you

[@jeremywvarietyofviewpoints3104]

Is there some site or platform that uses tests and other methods to help you retain long term information? Could KZbin add a testing component to educational videos?

[@paulbraga4460]

😇mygreathanks and blessings

[@ravanarbabi140]

One thing is to have a tool and not use it properly. Another thing is not having the right tool. The reasons for learning difficulties can be very varied and not just about methods.Sometimes it's about having the right learning parameters. Testing helps us find out what the problem is and sometimes where it is. But rarely does it act as an effective learning method unless it is part of a larger composition.

[@TheBillaro]

This is a superb point. Testing identifies but then what do you do with that information? The question that arises is how to determine which teaching/learning method is appropriate for the situation. As I see it, in a class of 20+ students, how does a teacher ever hope to apply the right method to the right student?

[@sheppycider123]

So the take-away is I should inter-leave topics and often test myself on them? In revising I should be doing more past papers than I should be doing rote learrning?

[@stoicfloor]

You should interleave relevant and similar topics, for example, different Maths topics but not Spanish vocabulary and Japanese vocabulary. This poses unnecessary (undesirable) difficulty. Yes, often test yourself on the material. Instead of re-reading or restudying, focus on testing yourself with practice papers or questions you generated.

[@BAMBAMBAM495]

exactly ! thats what i am doing

[@kevinknowscs9460]

Interesting. I recently tutored a young man with the goal of getting him to pass the Math GED, complete with questions on Algebra, Geometry, and Statistics. But because of his background, his starting math level was barely at a 3rd grade level - he barely knew his times tables. Okay, so how do you apply these methods to a situation like that? The combined method was a hybrid between blocked and interleaved. It had to be interleaved to a certain degree due to time pressures. There was not the time luxury to have him thoroughly and completely learn, say for example, rounding numbers, before proceeding on to algebraic story problems. But parts of it had to be blocked practice to focus on a certain skill. Math is such a layered thing that's it's very difficult to do the high-level stuff if you don't know the low-level mechanical stuff. It was a big challenge - very anamolous to most learning situations. He did eventually pass the test, but I can't say for sure that one technique or another was more effective.

[@excitedaboutlearning1639]

I think a good solution to your specific teaching situation would be to look into the so called Singapore Math. The Singaporean Math Educator Yeap Ban Har has been featured in a lot of videos where he explains the main ideas of the Singapore math curriculum. The two principal ideas come from Jerome Bruner: math is best learned when students work with multiple representations and are encouraged to transform one representation into another. Singapore math uses the so called CPA approach - concrete, pictorial and abstract. The second idea of Jerome Bruner's is "We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development." This idea is related to the so called spiral curriculum in which content is revisited from a different angles at various points to understand the thing profoundly.

[@cjennings6179]

Resilience is BOUNCING BACK FROM ADVERSITY. Saying. I feel care less. Releasing ones concerns. 💡🔑💡🔬😃👌🌹👌

[@VyvienneEaux]

All of these are reported in Make It Stick and a paper I read, summarizing techniques that helped medical students learn best. I wonder what Robert Bjork's involvement in these might have been.

[@mujtabaalam5907]

Which paper was that?

[@MrHuntervad]

This may sound stupid, but they should teach these/about learning to students after the age of 12 or even before, so they teach children about learning (everywhere in life), this a real problem in many educational institutions. Learning is culture that is passed down and/or experienced, but if not taught you give it a chance you will never be able to learn effienctly and even cause unnecessary anxiety. If you wait for a person until it "develops" a learning strategy, the time is already wasted in a way.

[@altab5556]

58:24

[@007derEchte]

How can he talk about learning teaching in one h 3 ideas?

[@joseeduardohernandezascenc6309]

39:18

[@altab5556]

4:17

[@altab5556]

11:17

[@altab5556]

5:08

[@altab5556]

14:00

[@altab5556]

7:20

[@anialiandr]

This is good as evidence of what he presents. But it is a mistake to believe that neuroscience knows pedagogy - this means that the meaning of these strategies which he presents as obvious needs further contextualising. So do use it but be careful not to treat the video as all there is to it

[@atomshizz8630]

Ania Lian ^Vague Thinking: the Antithesis of Science. Can't wait until the low IQ Cult of Pedagogy retires and only bothers the public through their generous public pensions.

[@verbalkint2248]

Also it's dishonest. You say we don't learn from our learning experience to learn better through trial. Then how could I possibly have come up with the idea that errors improve my retention? Unless I experienced it myself while learning..

[@skyacaniadev2229]

Can't believe anyone today talk about learning without neurons. This is why AI will supercede humans in the future. (Attack me pls)

[@jigyanshushrivastava6153]

No... AI DOES NOT HAS CONSCIOUSNESS... IT CAN ONLY RECOGNISE PATTERNS...

[@jigyanshushrivastava6153]

Attack me please!!! Hahaha... I am not attacking

[@daniabadeister1526]

Agreed, why don't they talk about feet uh ?

[@cjennings6179]

💡🔑👌👍🌹👀

[@ravanarbabi140]

In practice, learning through testing can be too demanding. It means a full-fledged retreat whose purpose is to learn a real new lesson. In some cases, re-studying the new homework several times is usually a much better option if not the only one.

[@verbalkint2248]

I thought it's common sense, I thought already that errors increase learning. And if other did not think so, why would they have the idea to test it? Half an hour wasted with common sense bs.

[@REDMoDz10]

The abusive giant preferentially explain because protocol beverly melt a a amazing idea. accurate, warm class

[@jessebrettjames]

While I find the information presented here interesting and innovative, I find the presenters arrogance insufferable.

[@TheBillaro]

tis a bit and the examples are lame. The theory and its implications are limited too.

[@johngilmour8945]

As a child I possessed Insatiable Curiosity about everything! I loved to read my Fathers Encyclopedic Dictionary, one evening I decided that the information I was placing in my mind, would be placed in someMemory archive, however I was Puzzled how this theory mightValidate it's presence in my mind? I pondered this for a number of years, and gradually allowed my curiosity to end on the matter! and it wasn't until I was retired for Ten Years, that It came to me? I always had a Dictionary on my desk to resolve words I was unfamiliar with! and I recalled all through my working life, when Writing a letter to any superior, for funds or equipment, i would write a word I was unfamiliar with, and looking it up in the dictionary, it was the proper word in proper context to illustrate my intentions, and although this realization only came after my working life was over, I had developed a learning system from my experience, when entering a new environment, of mechanics containing ten different machines, I asked the foreman if I might Borrow, a repair Manual for overnight, for each machine, I recorded the contents on cassette, and proceeded to sublimenily imbed the information, playing each cassette, for five days each, from one in the AM until Four in the AM, starting asfter I went to sleep, and ending before I woke up in the morning, resulting in My mind was more knowledgeable of each machine and it's functions, that persons turning them of and on for over ten years, as well I developed another Learning System any book on any subject, imbedid in the long term memory, by simply reading it 4 pages per night, ""JUST BEFORE SLEEP"" My contribution to those with a weak memory!