Is performance linked to learning?
We can observe and measure someone’s performance to see how often they are correct and see how rapidly they produce an answer. These tests effectively become a measure of their performance and for this reason many people think that performance is linked with learning
According to science, performance and learning are totally different. The measured performance during the learning process can be highly misleading and conditions that can improve rapid gains in performance can in fact lead to very poor long term learning and transfer.
Why measuring performance can be harmful to long term learning
We don’t really know whether learning has happened until we measure performance at a delay or under some new circumstances.
This poses an immensely difficult problem for learners because they can get shaped into interpreting performance as learning. This interpretation can lead them into accumulating a set of learning habits which aren’t really effective in the long term.
Some of these habits include:
- Cramming
- Learning in the same conditions
- Rereading and highlighting notes
- Summarising texts
- Using keyword mnemonics
In fact, most learning techniques are highly ineffective and there is a growing body of academic literature to prove it.
Testing and distributed practice help learning
A meta-analysis of different types of learning techniques that was conducted by Dr. Dunlosky and his colleagues showed that some of the most common study techniques are astoundingly ineffective.
Dunlosky researched 10 common study techniques used by students – these 10 techniques are:
- Elaborative interrogation: Asking yourself “why” as you read
- Self-explanation: Generating reasons to explain new information
- Summarisation: Writing summaries of study notes
- Highlighting/underlining: Marking important portions of material while reading
- Keyword mnemonic: Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials
- Imagery for text: Attempting to form mental images of text materials while reading or listening
- Rereading: Restudying text material again after an initial reading
- Practice testing: Self-testing or taking practice tests over material
- Distributed practice: Spreading out study sessions over time
- Interleaved practice: Trying out different types of problems when you practice
After analysing the learning techniques, Dunlosky and his colleagues categorised the techniques as high, moderate or low utility, based on each technique’s relative efficacy, ease of use and applicability to a broad range of learning scenarios.
In his analysis Dunlosky discovered that spreading out study over time and quizzing on material are highly effective learning strategies. Both these techniques have been shown to boost student’s performance across different kinds of tests.
Dunlosky also discovered that five of the most widely used study techniques have little consequential effects on students learning outcomes. These techniques include summarisation, mnemonics, visualising, highlighting and rereading.
The fatal flaw in learning
A lot of the things students assume about learning is quite the opposite. We just don’t have an intuitive feel to learning.
A favourite study strategy for students is to reread their study materials. It stems from people’s own ideas that repetition will produce learning and it gives an illusion that with enough revision, the material will be burned into memory.
Unfortunately, this is not how memory works.
Two Types of Memory Strength
According to the New Theory Of Disuse, our memories can be indexed in two ways. These indices are known as retrieval strength and storage strength.
This theory of memory suggests that both retrieval Strength and storage strength relate to each other and are very important with learning.
- Retrieval strength is the measure of how easily you recall something from memory. The retrieval strength of any information can be high or low and your ability to retrieve information from memory can move back and forth between these values. We measure retrieval strength by current performance – these include questioning in class, tests and quizzes.
- Storage strength is a measure of how deeply embedded information is in our minds. In other words, it’s an indicator of how well we learned something. In healthy individuals, storage strength cannot decrease and in most cases storage strength can only accumulate with practice. We cannot directly measure storage strength, so we must infer how high someone’s storage strength is by evaluating if that information can be easily be recalled in the future.
How storage strength and retrieval strength works in life?
Remember when you were younger – can you remember your fifth grade classroom number, tenth grade timetable or who sat behind you in history class in freshman year of college?
If you’re like most people, you can’t remember those details very well.
In the past, those bits of information had high Retrieval Strength, so you could easily recall the information when you needed to use it. But you didn’t learn it properly because you can no longer recall it – hence it has a low storage strength.
The relationship between storage strength and retrieval strength
Both storage strength and retrieval strength are related and important in learning. When we study – both our storage and retrieval strength increase. However, the boost in storage strength is inversely proportional with retrieval strength. That is to say – whenever you can’t remember something and you try to recall it, that’s when learning happens the most.
If you’re studying and recalling facts feels easy, it is often because retrieval strength is high – but the retrieval strength can be high because:
- The information is already very well learned, and therefore, there isn’t much more to be gained with respect to storage strength. In that case, it’s fine to assume you’ve learned the material and move on to other material.
- Cues in your present environment have brought that information to mind and it can lead you to believe you that you understand the material, however you’re storage strength is still low, so you’ll probably forget the information in a few days.
In either circumstance, when retrieval strength is high, regardless of the underlying storage strength, relatively little learning is happening. When retrieval strength is low however, there is the greatest potential for making learning gains. This is why forgetting is an important part of learning.
How does this all related to spacing effect and testing?
Testing or retrieval practice involves reproducing something you’ve learned in the past from your memory, and thinking about it right now.
After you’ve learned something, you need to bring it to mind by retrieving it. You need to practice testing the information some time after you’ve learned it as it is really important that you forget the information in order for retrieval to be effective.
Spacing, or distributing learning is another way to reduce retrieval strength and boost storage strength. For example, after we have just read something, that information is fresh in our minds i.e. it has high retrieval strength. Rereading that information immediately is not going to lead to a lot of gains in learning i.e. increase storage strength. To learn more effectively, you need to space out your study!
Final points
Learning happens when you try to recall information that you’ve started to forget. It is precisely for this reason, distributed learning and testing are such potent learning techniques.
For more info check out these resources:
https://www.amazon.com/Successful-Remembering-Forgetting-Festschrift-Robert/dp/1848728913
http://hilt.harvard.edu/files/hilt/files/bjorkslides.pdf
Learn more about how to study
Want more tips? Check out Asapscience’s take on great study tips. Video and summary down below.
- Study in small short chunks for about 30 mins
- Keep a designated place for study
- Test yourself with the material
- Use flash cards
- Space out study sessions over weeks or months
- Cram or do 10 hour learning sessions
- Highlight or re-read your learning material
- Summarise your notes
- Pull all nighters
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