What Study Gurus Get Wrong About Learning

Study gurus promote active recall and spaced repetition to maximize learning. But is it all its cracked up to be? In the brain, retrieval and encoding processes interact to produce learning. The trick is doing them right. 01:17 Our brain’s memory systems 02:38 Justin’s beef with active recall 03:29 Spaced repetition systems, “active recall”, and spaced retrieval practice 04:35 Why flashcard systems kind of suck 05:12 Justin’s recommendation 05:35 What are “desirable difficulties”? 07:03 The alternatives to flashcards 08:35 A good question to ask yourself when studying 10:02 An example study comparing elaborative encoding to retrieval practice 11:25 A true statement Here are some of my other videos which are relevant to the discussion: How forgetting works: Free recall demo: Questions about free recall answered: Example of encoding from reading using organization: What researchers knew in 1979: Advice about learning on your own: Other myths about learning: Desirable difficulties: (my first youtube video!) Flashcards: Interleaving: Sign up to my email newsletter, Avoiding Folly, here: To read more about retrieval practice, check out: Justin Sung’s video on retrieval: Justin Sung’s video on encoding: The pro baseball footage is from: REFERENCES The article I showed in the video comparing elaborative encoding to retrieval practice is: Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772-775. Below, one of the classic pieces on retrieval. It’s really an illustration of why you shouldn’t just stop trying to remember something just because you have successfully recalled it in the past: Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger III, H. L. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. science, 319(5865), 966-968. This is a meta-analysis on the testing effect, which I haven’t read in-depth lately, but is worth checking out if you’re into this stuff: Rowland, C. A. (2014). The effect of testing versus restudy on retention: a meta-analytic review of the testing effect. Psychological bulletin, 140(6), 1432. There’s quite a bit of support for the idea that you want to be operating at a “high level“ (e.g., synthesizing, applying, critiquing) early in the game. It’s not like you need to learn all these rote facts first. A point that Justin makes eloquently in his video on encoding. The piece below is a great discussion of that. Agarwal, P. K. (2019). Retrieval practice & Bloom’s taxonomy: Do students need fact knowledge before higher order learning?. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(2), 189. Some have argued that retrieval is only good for simple materials (like remembering new vocabulary words) and not complex materials (like understanding how Newtonian physics works). Although many of the early studies do focus on “simple“ materials, there’s plenty of studies that establish the effect of retrieval is just as strong for complex materials. Karpicke, J. D., & Aue, W. R. (2015). The testing effect is alive and well with complex materials. Educational Psychology Review, 27(2), 317-326.