How People Learn

Dr. Allyson HadwinDepartment of Educational Psychology &

Leadership Studies

Technology Integration and Evaluation Research Lab (TIE)

Dr. Allyson Hadwin

Educational Psychology

Overview of Lecture

• Information processing– Sensory memory– Working memory– Long term memory

• Encoding and storage– Preparing information for people to learn

• Thinking about your leanring– SLQ

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Things to think about• Why activate prior knowledge (what you already

know)?

• Why is learning hard work?

• How do you process information?S=M=A=R=T=

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Information Processing Model

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Input SensoryMemory

Working Memory

Long Term Memory

Retrieval

Encoding

Retrieval & Reconstruction

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Sensory Memory: filter

•Perception

•Attention

•Pattern Recognition

•Meaning Making

Sensory Memory

• Brief/fleeting storage (seconds) of incoming information

• Iconic (visual) for .5 seconds (7-9?)• Echo (auditory) for 4 seconds (5-7)?

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Improving Sensory Memory

• Increase Attention Available» Clear your head of distractors

• Decrease Attention Required» Prepare the environment E.g. turn the TV off

• Attend to only the most important information

» Strategically attend

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What does that mean for instructional design?

• Use signals• Make purpose clear• Draw on multiple senses• Arouse curiosity• Prompt metacognitive monitoring and control

of attention…questions and answers

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Working Memory

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Where the work happens

•Holding

•Rehearsing

•Encoding

Example of WM in action

• Read each sentence out loud• Remember the last word of each sentence• Don’t write anything down

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The rain and howling wind kept beating against the rattling window panes.

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He covered his heart with both hands to keep anyone from hearing the noise it made.

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The stories all deal with a middle aged protagonist who attempts to withdraw from society.

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Without tension there could be no balance either in nature or in mechanical design.

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In a flash of fatique and fantasy, he saw a fat monster sitting beside a campfire.

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The lieutenant sat beside the man with the walkie-talkie and stared at the muddy ground.

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What was the last word in each sentence?

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Last word

• Panes• Made• Society• Design• Campfire• Ground

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Now what if I asked you to:

Read the sentences and tell me whether they were true or false

• AND

Remember the last word of each sentence?

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Working Memory Capacity

• Limited (7 + or - 2) items or chunks

• Constrained by amount and depth of processing required…when the information is easier, can hold more, when the information is difficult, can hold less.

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Think of Working Memory as…

• Ram in your computer

• Spinning plates

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In working memory you try to:

• Rehearse (maintenance rehearsal)

• Connect with what you know (elaborative rehearsal)

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Working memory constrained by:

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What you have to process

-information load-similarity of items-number of items processed during subsequent activities-passage of time

How you have to process, rehearse & assemble

-chunking-clustering-mnemonics-coding

Why is information lost from working memory?

• Cognitive overload

• Lack of strategies for allocating resources

• Too much at a time with too much complexity combined…..studies of cognitive load

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Strategies

• Consider cognitive load of environment - can off load some work to external resources

• Teach strategies for processing info or optimizing working memory

– Chunking information– Pacing, selecting key points

• Pre-train or develop automaticity• Activate relevant prior knowledge (frameworks for

making sense of new info)

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Long Term Memory

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•Like a human hard drive

•Permanent storage

•Unlimited storage

•Unlimited duration

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Long Term Memory

Semantic Episodic Productions

Scripts

Concepts

Propositions

Schemata

Declarative knowledge(knowing what)

Procedural knowledge (knowing how)

Conditional knowledge (knowing when & why)

Declarative knowledge : WHAT

• Semantic

• Concepts & principles

• Episodic

• Experiences

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How is information organized and held in LTM?

• Multiple theories to explain this:

• Concepts and prototypes• Propositional networks• Schemata

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Schemata

• Information organized into key ideas (slots)• Activated when enough requisite values are

present

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Contents of memory consists of representations not exact copies

Encoding varies depending upon the schemata that were activated

Recall is reconstructive, schemata provide frameworks for recall

Recall involves re-creating information and events

Activity

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Activity

• Find a partner• One of you close your eyes• Other person, read the following statement to

yourself (NOT OUT LOUD).

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The following passage is about:

Doing Laundry

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This procedure is actually quite simple. Firstyou arrange items into different groups. Ofcourse one pile may be sufficient dependingon how much there is to do. If you have togo somewhere else due to lack of facilitiesthat is the next step; otherwise, you arepretty well set. It is important not to overdothings. That is, it is better to do too fewthings at once than too many. In the shortrun this may not seem important butcomplications can easily arise. A mistakecan be expensive as well. At first, the wholeprocedure will seem complicated. Soon,however, it will become just another facet oflife. It is difficult to foresee any end to thenecessity for this task in the immediatefuture, but then, one never can tell. After theprocedure is completed one arranges thematerials into different groups again. Thenthey can be put into their appropriateplaces. Eventually they will be used oncemore and the whole cycle will then have tobe repeated. However, that is part of life.

Write everything you remember

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•Compare with your partner

•Simple procedure•Arrange items in groups (perhaps 1 pile)•May go somewhere else due to lack of facilities •Do not overdo things. •better to do too few things at once than too many•Otherwise complications can easily arise. •Mistakes are expensive •Complicated at first, becomes regular facet of life•Not likely an end to the necessity for this task •arranges the materials into different groups again. •put into their appropriate places. •Repeat•Just part of life

Who remembered more?

Differences in what you remembered?Why?

If I tell you this is about doing laundry…

• You will activate the relevant schema first• Direct attention to information based on that schema• Select and encode what is relevant• Ultimately remember more • (Bransford & Johnson, 1972).

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NoTopic

TopicAfter

TopicBefore

Maxscore

Comprehension 2.29 2.12 4.50 7.00Ideas recalled 2.82 2.65 5.83 18.00

Learning like Puzzles

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Learning/processing involves

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Encoding

Storage

Retrieval

transferring information from STM to LTM

holding info in LTM in an organized fashion

Finding info in LTM & transferring to STM

SMART learning

S = Search and select

M = Monitor

A = Assemble – make connections

R = Rehearse

T = Translate

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Need to practice retrieval too.

• Encoding and using multiple encoding strategies is important

• BUT

• It is just as important that you practice retrieving information in multiple ways….particularly those similar to the ways you will USE information

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What is rehearsal?

• Revisiting the to-be-learned material multiple times (repetition)

• Rereading

• Reworking the to-be-learned-material to help encode it in long term memory

• Retrieving information from memory to see what you remember and how you remember it.

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Timing of learning

• Which his better?• reviewing in large solid chunks of time (massed practice)• OR• shorter more focused learning sessions repeated over time

(distributed practice)

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Timing of practice & reviewThis is called the Spacing Effect

• Distributing learning and practice over time (e.g. a little each day) leads to:

– Better long term recall– Less total time required to study

See the following for a really nice article about spacing studying:http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/summer2002/askcognitivescientist.html

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Massed versus Distributed Practice

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So if you are learning material from your readings and lecture

• Is it better to do massed learning session the day before your group meeting or distribute learning over time?

• DISTRIBUTED IS BETTER

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BUT: Timing for rereading depends on when you need to remember

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So if you are cramming for a meeting tomorrow?

• Is it better to do massed reread/review or distributed reread/review?

• MASSED MAY BE BETTER (but it is really short term and will mean you may forget most of it after the meeting

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Reviewing

• Whether you remember something, depends upon how well you have stored it.

• SMART strategies facilitate reviewing

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If you have organized information in memory, it will be easier to retrieve

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World War II

American Revolution

Stuff for chp 1

History notes

Study guidenotes

How you have organized it in memory

• Will influence how you can retrieve it

• Will influence how your practice and review it

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Retrieval is easier when…

• You know where to look in memory

• You can make use of retrieval cues

• Practice retrieving with the appropriate cues for this task– If you are going to need to remember things on the fly

in a meeting, you should practice retrieving them on the fly in conversations or practice meetings

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Structure the information in the way you are going to need to

retrieve it

-if you need to see how concepts fit together, then don’t

study them as discrete things

Setting yourself up to retrieve• Create good internal organizations for material

• How it is retrieved at one time, affects how it is apt to be retrieved later on – PRACTICE retrieving and you are more likely to retrieve it

• Information that must be retrieved in a particular context or way, should be stored that way –practice retrieving under time constraints, etc.

• Try answering the problems under a time limit without being able to look anything up

• Try writing out your essay answers

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• Develop external retrieval cues – mnemonics are examples,– tying a string around your finger is another)

• Question yourself about previously learned material

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Things to think about• Why activate prior knowledge (what you already

know)?

• Why is learning hard work?

• How do you process information?S=M=A=R=T=

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Thinking about work in this course

• ICE notes– SMART Operations

• Note forms– Structuring /organizing information to make

meaningful connections

• SLQ – using strategies for TU, GP, E,A– -using strategies for SMART.

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