Posted by Michael N.Michael (NSASA Information Commissioner)
In his book 'Fluent Forever', opera singer Gabriel Wyner
suggests that one of the best ways to learn a new language is to practice
remembering it. In other words, instead of reading and re-reading a list of
vocabulary words, you should read it once and then test yourself repeatedly.
The same strategy works for pretty much anything you're
hoping to commit to memory, and there's a growing body of research behind it.
Psychologists call this phenomenon the 'testing effect'.
A 2003 study, cited in a meta-analysis by Henry L. Roediger
III and Jeffrey D. Karpicke, highlights the power of testing for making
information stick. In the study, researchers led by Mark Wheeler had
participants either review a list of 40 words five times or review it once and
take four recall tests. Then they took a recall test either 5 minutes or one
week later.
Results showed that participants who'd read the word list
five times performed much better on the recall test five minutes later. But
participants who'd read the test just once and been tested performed better on
the test one week later. In other words, testing helped boost the participants'
long-term memory.
More recent research suggests that combining testing with
immediate feedback (finding out whether you answered right or wrong) is more
effective, and can even boost memory right after the information is learned.
In a 2014 study led by Carola Wiklund-Hörnqvist, 83 students
in an undergraduate psychology course studied a series of psychological
concepts for four minutes. Half the participants continued to study these facts
while each fact was presented on a computer screen for 15 seconds.
The other half took six tests in which they had to come up
with the concept described on the screen. For example, if they saw "the
improvement in retention of information presented at the beginning of a
list", they would have to type in "primacy effect". Then they
would see the correct answer.
At the conclusion of the learning period, all participants
took a test in which they were presented with a fact and required to type in
the corresponding concept. They took the same test eighteen days and five weeks
later.
Participants who had been tested performed better on all
three tests.
Taken together, these studies suggest that the most
efficient strategy for remembering something - whether you're learning a new
language or studying for a science exam - is simply to practice recalling it.
It's probably a lot more effective than trying to drill the facts into your
head by staring at them for an hour.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com.au
