Notes and papers on how Humans learn

Self-Regulated Learning: Beliefs, Techniques, and Illusions Robert A. Bjork, John Dunlosky, and Nate Kornell Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2013. 64:417–44

Retrieving information from our brain makes it easier to recall it again later. However, it may make competing information (based on the same cues) less accessible.

Spacing

They mention spacing of learning multiple times, although never with any details about timing or number of trials.

Stability bias

Acting as though one’s memory will not change in the future, either from forgetting or from further study.

Desirable Difficulties

Making studying easier, by priming the correct answer, for example, makes it seem like learning is working better than it is. Spacing learning or interleaving different topics, testing oneself and varying the conditions of learning (time ofday, noisy/quiet, etc) make it harder to learn during the acquisition phase, but improve long term learning.

Errors and Mistakes

Making errors can be an essential part of learning.

Trying to guess a response before you’ve even learned it, even unsuccessfully, can improve learning. Reading and trying to answer questions before reading a chapter where they are answered is the same idea.

Errors made with high confidence seem to be most effective.

Copying

Verbatim copying of notes is not effective (it’s a passive activity), but rewriting notes from memory or reorganizing them are ‘active organizational and elaborative processes’.