Bjork Seven Study Techniques
Bjork Seven Study Techniques
Bjork Seven Study Techniques
Bjork
Techniques
One area of research in the field of
g
Psychology
y
gy is human learning
g
Cognitive
and memory. The following information
comes from decades of research byy
Cognitive Psychologists on how to best
q
new information.
acquire
Bjorks Seven
Study/Teaching/Learning
d /
h /
Techniques
The decades of research was synthesized into 7 Effective
1. Allocating
ll
Attention.
Pay Attention!!
So you might be thinking,
thinking ok IIm
m going
to stop now if all she is going to tell me
is to pay attention!! Who doesnt
doesn t know
that, right?
Attention (cont.)
(
)
Yeah right,
g , but I bet theres not one of you
y (me
(
too))
who hasnt had the experience of reading several
pages of text only to discover that in this case
reading meant running your eyes over the words
without any comprehension of the meaning of those
words.
And, perhaps youve had the experience of sitting in
a lecture only to discover that the professor is on a
completely different topic from the one that she or he
was on when you tunedtuned-out.
Or have you ever practiced some skill while being
completely on autoauto-pilot allowing your mind to
wander?
Attention (cont.)
(
)
I know you have, we all have! Yet we continue to
study, teach, try to learn, practice and so on long
after weve
we ve caught ourselves (or in the case of
teaching, caught our students) slipping into semisemiconsciousness.
If you feel yourself slipping right now. Stop! StandStandup, stretch, move your head from side to side, do like
Winnie--the
Winnie
the--Pooh: tap your head three times while
muttering think, think, think. Ok now refocus.
Feel better?
Well its not that simple, but I got a kick out of
imagining you doing all those things, so read on.
Attention (cont.)
(
)
The decades of attention research have
told us at least two things.
g
1. When you try to divide your
attention between two tasks
tasks, one or
both tasks WILL suffer.
2.
2 There is a limit to the amount of
time that one can sustain attention
(concentrate).
(concentrate)
Attention (cont.)
(
)
So, lets take each one in turn to see how we can be
more effective.
1.
1 Divided
Di id d attention
tt ti is
i costly!
tl ! Dont
D t try
t tto study
t d and
d
_______ (you fill in the blank). You really must stay
focused on the p
primaryy task of learning,
g, practicing,
p
g,
studying. If you find yourself being distracted,
remove yourself from the distracting situation. Turn
off the stereo,
stereo leave the coffee shop
shop, tell yourself
that if you study/practice for 20 min then youll spend
5 minutes thinking about those distracting thoughts.
Attention (cont.)
(
)
For lectures, give yourself a pep talk beforehand.
Even the most boring lecture will end eventually.
You must try to stay focused on what is being said
said.
When you find yourself beginning to lose attention,
refocus. Try to think of a question to ask the
instructor.
If youre teaching, you MUST first get your students
attention (Hint: Droning on in monotones probably
attention.
isnt the best way). Try to think of an interesting
question to ask your students. Insert an active
l
learning
i demonstration
d
t ti into
i t your lecture.
l t
Tell
T ll a joke,
j k
an anecdote, or give a relevant realreal-world example.
Attention (cont.)
(
)
2. This brings us to the second point, a
person can concentrate for a limited amount
of time.
The amount of time a person can sustain
attention
i differs
diff
from
f
person to person and
d
from task to task.
You
Y will
ill know
k
when
h youve
reached
h d your limit
li it
because you will start to violate point 1, that
is your mind will start to wander.
is,
wander
Attention (cont.)
(
)
Ill work through an example but of
course yyou mayy need to varyy the
specifics depending on your own
yp of task to which
abilities and the type
you are attending. (In general, the
more difficult or more boring
g the task,,
the more breaks you will need.
Attention (cont.)
(
)
Example: Lets say you have 50
y, practice,
p
, or to lecture.
minutes to study,
You will actually learn more, acquire
more or teach more by studying,
more,
studying
practicing or teaching for 45 of those 50
minutes and taking a short break for 5
min.
OK! I know.
know You DON
DONT
T have time for
a break.
Attention (cont.)
(
)
But, if YOU dont take a break, your
go on one without you
y
brain will g
anyway. And your brain might decide
to g
go on break just
j
when youre
y
trying
y g
to learn/teach the most important part
of the lesson.
So for every 50 minutes, study,
practice or teach for 25
practice,
25, take a break
for 5, and then start again for 20.
Attention (cont.)
(
)
DONT FORGET TO START AGAIN!
period,, you
y will
For the next 50 min. time p
probably begin to notice diminishing returns
from that 5 min. break. You might find that
you need
d a 10 min.
i break.
b k
At the point when your breaks begin to be
l
longer
than
th your study
t d sessions,
i
take
t k a
siesta, hiatus, run around the block, swim,
trip to the laundry
laundry,... get the idea?
Attention (cont.)
(
)
So my 5 year old is running around
trying
y g to see if he can get
g the dog
g to
bite him, my 10 year old is watching
Rockos Modern Life at an ear p
piercing
g
volume, and Ive been at this now for
guess that Ive missed
over an hour. I g
out on both points one and two. Time
for a bread,, thats break. You take one
too, ok.
Interpretation and
d Elaboration
l b
Ok, Im back and you must be back too,
now on to the second studyy technique:
q
Interpretation and Elaboration
Read the following:
1. The exposure was insufficient because
of the weather conditions.
2. The crash was due to the keys sticking.
3 The numbers slid down because of the
3.
crisis abroad.
Interpretation and
d Elaboration
l b
Elaboration provides breadth of processing.
p with how the
You should be able to come up
book information is related to what you
learned in lecture (same as and different
f
from),
) or h
how what
h you learned
l
d in
i lecture
l
relates to something that you have observed
directly.
directly
Perhaps the content from two different
courses can be compared or contrasted
contrasted.
Interpretation and
d Elaboration
l b
When you practice, you should be able to
relate parts of the movements or musical
piece to one another.
When you teach, you should use several
examples.
l
You
Y should
h ld illustrate
ill
how
h
the
h
current lecture material fits with the previous
lectures and with the information that will be
coming in future lectures.
And the great thing about elaboration is
that it provides variability
variability!!
!!
Variation
I just illustrated how elaboration relates to
the next study technique: variability. Also,
taking a study break provides variability.
Thus, Im trying to illustrate how what came
before relates to the current point
point. Can you
find any other study techniques incorporated
in this presentation? Now IIm
m asking you to
generate (the 7th study technique). See, I
practice what I preach!
Variation
Have you ever been told to pick a single
quiet place
q
p
and then to always
y studyy in
that same place?? That way you will
y g there
become accustomed to studying
and will be more effective, right?
WRONG
WRONG!!!
!!!
Actually, the opposite is true. Youre
better off studying in many different
locations.
Variation
I bet I got your attention with that one
one.
Are you thinking, all right! Shes finally
telling me something that I can use.
use No
problem, Ill be happy to study all over
campus IIllll practice everywhere
campus,
everywhere, Ill
I ll
teach my class outside occasionally.
The
Th restt off th
the stuff
t ff shes
h b
been ttalking
lki
about sounded like it would take
f
forever!!
!!
Ill just study in different locations.
Variation
Oh, I forgot to mention, the size of the
increase in p
performance that you
y will
see as a result of changing your study
g in
locations ((without anyy other changes
your study behavior) is MINISCULE!
A much better way to increase your
performance is to incorporate variation
in the way that you think about the
material.
Variation
Play the musical piece at a number of
different tempos.
p
Make the shot from several different
locations on the court
court.
Present the most critical information
across several different lectures
lectures.
Think about the material in a number of
diff
different
t ways.
Variation
Doesnt this sound like elaboration?
produces variation.
I told yyou that elaboration p
Guess what! Variation produces...
You got it, elaboration!
One way to increase variation in the way that
you think about the information, is to space
your study.
Which brings us to the 4th study technique:
Spacing
Spacing
Spacing and
d Repetition
You have 2 hours to study for two tests, one
in Class A the other in Class B. What do you
do?
Buy a time machine and travel back in time.
Th
Then,
manage your time
i
better,
b
so that
h you
can have a more reasonable about of time to
study for those test!!
Ok, now you have 4 hours to study for those
tests (you need to work on that time
management thing).
Spacing and
d Repetition
What do you do?
Do you spend two hours on Course A
and then two hours on Course B?
I dont
don t think so
so, or this study point
would be called massing.
Youre
Y much
h better
b tt off
ff studying
t d i C
Course
A for an hour, then Course B for an
h
hour,
then
th Course
C
A for
f an hour,
h
then
th
Course B.
Spacing and
d Repetition
Spacing your study in this way is an
easyy wayy to increase variabilityy ((again,
g ,
increasing elaboration).
The chances of you continuing to think
about a topic only in one way decreases
when you space your study
study.
Spacing your study in this way is an
easy way to increase variability (again
(again,
increasing elaboration).
Spacing and
d Repetition
Oh no! Shes losing it. Now shes starting to
repeat herself (not to mention writing in the
third person). She needs an attention break.
Well yea, but also Im trying to illustrate the
point
i that
h each
h time
i
you study
d something,
hi
you will encode the information somewhat
differently.
differently
Especially when time intervenes between the
two study sessions
sessions.
Spacing and
d Repetition
Also, you need to study the same
information more than once,, hence the
repetition.
Spacing your study is an easy way to
increase variability (again, increasing
elaboration).
elaboration)
Just a bit more of practicing what I
preach.
preach
Organization and
d Structure
S onto
So
t th
the 5th point.
i t
List the months of the year.
How long did that take you?
Did you get them all?
Pretty trivial, huh?
N
Now
lilistt the
th months
th off th
the year
alphabetically?
How long did that take?
Are you sure that you got them all?
Organization and
d Structure
So with that little demo under your belt,
belt can
you think what Im going to tell you about the
importance
p
of organization
g
and structure?
If you spend sometime trying to figure out
what Im about to say,
y, youll
y
learn them
better that way. Its called generation. I
know I said that before (thats called
repetition).
i i ) Its
I been
b
a while
hil though,
h
h thats
h
called spacing and we all know: Spacing your
study is an easy way to increase variability
(again, increasing elaboration).
wood
gasoline
paper
h
hammer
saw
nails
mountain
hill
valley
tennis
swimming
soccer
hurricane
tornado
rain
ain
shirt
d
dress
hat
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Its well known that people will tend to
remember the first thing that they learn and
the last thing that they learn (these effects
are known as primacy and recency). Thats
why I presented the two most important
points first (attention) and last (generation
and retrieval practice) in the presentation.
If I had to pick one point that I think is the
most important to use and master it would be
this last one: Generation and retrieval
practice.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Ok for those of you who know me really well, stop
laughing! I didnt pick this point as the most
important simply because its been my research
area now for more years than I care to admit. It
really is the most important
important, really!
By generating (or producing the information)
before the textbook
textbook, instructor
instructor, or coach can tell
you that same information, the better able youll
be to gauge how much you already know or don
dontt
know.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Guess
G
what,
h t even if you generate
t th
the
wrong answers, youll remember the
right
i ht ones better
b tt after
ft correcting
ti
yourself than if you never attempted to
generate
t the
th iinformation
f
ti b
before.
f
So when you flip through your textbook
taking note of the organization before
you begin to read the chapter, try to
generate the details of each of the
chapter subheadings. For example...
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
The next subheading is entitled The
Function of the Sensoryy Register.
g
Tryy to
generate what you think the function of a
g system
y
mayy be.
sensoryy storage
Even if you were to generate the wrong
function once you correct yourself as you
function,
read through the chapter, youll remember
the correct function better than if you
simply read about the function.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Now that youre done previewing the
chapter,
p , how do you
y apply
pp y generation
g
during the reading of the chapter.
Step number one: Take out your
highlighting pen.
Step number two: Make sure your
highlighter has plenty of ink.
Step
St number
b th
three: Th
Throw away your
highlighter!!!
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
I recently looked back to some of my textbooks
from college. My first year textbooks were
covered with highlighting ink. Just about every
word in every chapter was highlighted! Why
bother? Now if you
youre
re saying to yourself Ive
I ve
always used a highlighter and Ive always done
really well on test, good for you! But why are
you wasting your time on this study techniques
presentation if youre already doing really well?
For those of you who arent, throw it away
NOW.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
You are much much much better off reading a
paragraph or two at a time (more once youve
practiced this skill and are good at it), then
putting the textbook aside and generating a
summary of the information that you
youve
ve just read
in your own words.
Then,
Then check the textbook to make sure that you
have correctly summarized the information
making any error corrections as needed and
incorporating any information that you have left
out.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
All the time, trying to make sense out of what
you are learning (interpretation) and
interconnecting what you are learning with
other information (elaboration).
You
Y may b
be thinking
hi ki STOP RIGHT THERE!!!
Youre talking about taking hours to read
what would normally take me only about 30
minutes to run my eyes across.
Yes,
Yes sadly it is true
true. Using this very powerful
technique will double if not triple your reading
time.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
But, when you sit down to study for
the test,, youll
y
discover that you
y alreadyy
know most of the information. Also,
grades start to improve,
p
,
when yyour g
youll be glad that you spent the extra
time studying
y g effectivelyy (time
(
spent
p
studying only counts if its spent
studying
y g well!!).
)
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Instructors can give their students opportunities to
generate answers during lecture by asking questions and
giving students TIME to answer the questions.
questions
If, the instructor asks a question, come up with an answer
((even if its wrong).
g) You are much better off trying
y g to
answer the question yourself (generating) than taking a
mental break while other students think up the answer.
By the way
way, if you hope to have any chance of filling in
gaps (generating) in your lecture notes, its very important
that soon after lecture you review your notes. You might
remember something that the instructor said that you
failed to include in your notes.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Now the second part of this most
p
point:
p
retrieval practice.
p
important
How will you know that youre ready to
take the test
test, that all of your study
efforts have been effective, and that
you will do well on the exam?
PRACTICE RETRIEVING THE
INFORMATION BEFORE THE TEST!!!
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Retrieval practice provides very
effective feedback. You will know
immediately if you know the
information or if yyou need to studyy it
some more.
Even better,
better retrieval practice makes
the information more likely to be
remembered the next time you try to
retrieve it!
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
So, how do you do retrieval practice?
Remember those notes you made while
you read the textbook, and those
wonderfully complete lecture notes?
You can now use your notes to practice
retrieving the information on the notes.
notes
ALL OF IT! Unless of course youre
psychic and know what the instructor is
planning for the test.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
You must generate, produce from
memory,, all of the information that is
memory
contained within you notes.
You wont have the notes during the test, so
reading
di over them
h
and
d saying
i yup I know
k
that wont do you any good.
Look
L k att a kkeyword,
d e.g., Sensory
S
Register,
R i t
put away the notes and then practice
retrieving everything in your notes about the
sensory register.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
You might discover that you know the definition
of the sensory register, and its functions, but
you could only recall three of its five
characteristics. Next time through your notes
youll
you ll be much more likely to remember all five
of the characteristics.
You continue going through your notes or
flashcards until you can correctly retrieve
everything!!
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
So, youve been attending every time
yyouve worked on the course. Youve
checked back with the textbook during
yyour effective reading
g and youre
y
sure
that everything from the textbook is in
yyour notes. Youve reviewed yyour
lecture notes filling in any gaps (getting
help
p from the instructor if needed).
)
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Youve interpreted (made sure that you
p ) and
understood the concepts)
elaborated everything in your notes.
Youve thought
g about each concept
p in
several different ways. Youve used
g y when appropriate.
pp p
visual imagery
Youve noted the organization and
structure of all chapters
p
and lectures.
Generate generate
Generate,
generate, generate
generate,
Retrieve, retrieve, retrieve!
Youve spaced your studying and
retrieval p
practice allowing
g more and
more space (time) between each study
p
And the last several times
repetition.
that you went through your
notes/flashcards,
/
, yyou were able to
retrieve everything in those notes.
YOU ARE NOW READY TO TAKE THE
TEST. Relax!
Finally...
Finally
Ive attempted to illustrate how these techniques
could
ld be
b applied
li d to
t the
th acquisition
i iti off skills
kill as wellll
as information. At times, I focused more on the
information (it
(itss what I know best) than on the
skills. Please dont interpret this as meaning that
the p
particular point
p
doesnt apply
pp y to skill
acquisition, it does.
p
can be effectivelyy incorporated
p
Also,, all the points
into teaching. Even retrieval practice. So, practice
retrieving Bjorks 7 Study Techniques.
Good luck!! All feedback is appreciated.
Email me at Patty.deWinstanley@oberlin.edu