Unsuccessful Retrieval Attempts Enhance Subsequent Learning

Nate Kornell, Matthew Jensen Hays, and Robert A. Bjork
University of California, Los Angeles

Taking tests enhances learning. But what happens when one cannot answer a test question—does an unsuccessful retrieval attempt impede future learning or enhance it? The authors examined this question using materials that ensured that retrieval attempts would be unsuccessful. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were asked fictional general-knowledge questions (e.g., “What peace treaty ended the Calumet War?”). In Experiments 3–6, participants were shown a cue word (e.g., whale ) and were asked to guess a weak associate (e.g., mammal ); the rare trials on which participants guessed the correct response were excluded from the analyses. In the test condition, participants attempted to answer the question before being shown the answer; in the read-only condition, the question and answer were presented together. Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhanced learning with both types of materials. These results demonstrate that retrieval attempts enhance future learning; they also suggest that taking challenging tests—instead of avoiding errors—may be one key to effective learning.

Word on the Tip of Your Tongue? Study Suggests You’re Better Off Looking Up the Answer

This goes along with one of my rules to avoid studying vocabulary words that I repeatedly confuse with another word.

“The longer they stayed in that tip-of-the-tongue state on the first day, the more likely they were to get into a tip-of-the-tongue state on that word on the second day,” explains Humphreys. The extra time that people spend trying to dredge up the word is what the researchers describe as “incorrect practice” time. Instead of learning the correct word, people are learning the mistake itself.

 

Dynamics of Self-Regulation: How (Un)accomplished Goal Actions Affect Motivation
Minjung Koo and Ayelet Fishbach
University of Chicago

Two factors increase the motivation to adhere to a goal: goal commitment and lack of goal progress.When people ask about commitment, focusing on what they have accomplished (to date) signals to themhigh commitment and increases motivation. Conversely, when commitment is certain and people askabout goal progress, focusing on what they have yet to accomplish (to go) signals to them lack of progressand increases motivation. Accordingly, 4 studies show that emphasizing to-date information increasesgoal adherence when commitment is uncertain—that is, when participants study for a relatively unim-portant exam, consume luxuries, fulfill a desire, and make first-time contributions to a charity. Con-versely, emphasizing to-go information increases goal adherence when commitment is certain—that is,when participants study for an important exam, consume necessities, fulfill a need, and make repeatedcontributions to a charity.

Cal Newport is an MIT grad who blogs about knowledge worker productivity.  I recently came across Cal’s blog and it seems to have a lot of good research based productivity advice.  I’ll post more if I find anything interesting to us language learners.

In The Science of Procrastination Revisted: Researchers Rethink Willpower is one article I came across that says that basically we are more engaged in what we are doing if we set the rules ourselves compared to someone else telling us how to do things.  This makes a lot of sense.

Procrastination remains inevitable. But the hope provided by Ryan and Deci is that for many activities it’s allure can be weakened. When you’re doing something that you choose to do, it’s just not that bad.

According to a paper by I.S.P Nation, you need 6-7000 word families for conversation and 8-9000 for unassisted reading.  This assumes 98% vocabulary coverage of general topics.

Research by the same author suggests that 95% vocabulary coverage is not adequate for comprehension of a fiction text.

Victor Mair, noted sinologist and professor of Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania writes:

If I were the czar or god of Chinese and Japanese language pedagogy, I would not teach students a single Chinese character until they were relatively fluent — about two years.  I’ve always said that we should learn languages the way babies do; they learn to speak long before they learn to write.

and:

If you delay introducing the characters, students’ mastery of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and so forth, are all faster and more secure.  Surprisingly, when later on they do start to study the characters (ideally in combination with large amounts of reading interesting texts with phonetic annotation), students acquire mastery of written Chinese much more quickly and painlessly than if writing is introduced at the same time as the spoken language.

Retrieval-Based Learning: Active Retrieval Promotes Meaningful Learning

It is essential to consider retrieval processes not only because they are central to understanding learning but also because the act of retrieval itself is a powerful tool for enhancing learning. Moreover, active retrieval does not merely produce rote, transient learning; it produces meaningful, long-term learning. The idea that retrieval is the centerpiece for understanding learning, coupled with the importance of active retrieval for producing learning, is referred to as retrieval-based learning.

Viola AU, James LM, Schlangen LJ, & Dijk DJ (2008). Blue-enriched white light in the workplace improves self-reported alertness, performance and sleep quality. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 34 (4), 297-306 PMID: 18815716

Vandewalle, G., Maquet, P., & Dijk, D. (2009). Light as a modulator of cognitive brain function Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13 (10), 429-438 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2009.07.004

Lehrl, S., Gerstmeyer, K., Jacob, J., Frieling, H., Henkel, A., Meyrer, R., Wiltfang, J., Kornhuber, J., & Bleich, S. (2007). Blue light improves cognitive performance Journal of Neural Transmission, 114 (4), 457-460 DOI: 10.1007/s00702-006-0621-4

Smith, A. (2002). Effects of caffeine on human behavior Food and Chemical Toxicology, 40 (9), 1243-1255 DOI: 10.1016/S0278-6915(02)00096-0

This study suggests that L2 subtitles are more effective in assisting learners’ comprehension of the aural language presented in films.

The effectiveness of sustained silent reading in becoming autonomous learners.

…the key to success in learning to read through an ER program is to read a vast amount in the target language, and read a lot of easy materials of their own choice.