In researching background material for Information Design, I came across this interesting interview in Wired: Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong by Garth Sundem (2012). He interviews Robert A. Bjork, Distinguished Professor in Cognitive Psychology, UCLA. (And he got his BA from U of M, so that's nice.)
Some interesting snippets from the article:
- "People tend to try to learn in blocks," Bjork said. "Mastering one thing before moving on to the next."
- Instead of doing that Bjork recommends interleaving. (To learn tennis, mix in a range of skills like serving, backhands, volleys, overhead smashes, and footwork.)
- Make sure the mini skills you interleave are related in some higher-order way. If you're trying to learn tennis, you'd want to interleave serves, backhands, volleys, smashes, and footwork - not serves, synchronized swimming, European capitals, and programming in Java.
- The spacing effect: If you study, wait, and then study again, the longer the wait, the more you'll have learned after this second study session.
- Bjork also recommends taking notes just after class, rather than during. You have to work for it. The more you work, the more you learn.
Jim, really interesting finding with that article!Thanks for sharing with us! I find myself how many of the wrong methods were part of my own system for memorizing new inforamtion when study or studying for an exam.Big thanks and for summarizing it all for us!
Mover