How to "learn to learn." Part 2 - Metacognitive Processes and Dudling
In the first part of our review of useful life hacking for students, we talked about what scientific research is behind the obvious advice - “drink more water”, “play sports”, “plan daily routines”. In this part, we consider less obvious "hacks", as well as areas that are considered to be among the most promising in training today. Let's try to figure out what the “scribbles in the margins of a notebook” can be useful for, and in what cases thinking about the exam helps to pass it.
Photo Pixelmattic CC BY
Attending lectures is another obvious tip for those who want to learn better. And, by the way, one of the most popular on Quora . Although visits alone are often not enough - many of you are familiar with the situation: you are preparing a ticket for the exam, and you cannot remember exactly what the teacher was telling, although they are absolutely sure that you were in the audience that day.
')
To make the time at the lectures take place with maximum benefit, scientists advise to train muscle memory - that is, first of all, take notes. This not only allows you to return to them later (which is quite obvious) - the process of recording information by hand helps to remember it better. However, sometimes in order to better memorize complex concepts, it makes sense not just to write them down, but to write and sketch them.
You can try to present the data in the form of a diagram or a chart (which is rather difficult if you have to listen to the lecturer carefully), but sometimes in order to better remember the information, it is enough to supplement the recordings with scribbles or doodles (for such drawings, the term “ griffin ” is also used) .
Doodles can look like repeating patterns, lines, abstractions — either as faces, animals, or individual words (as in this example ). You can draw anything - an important feature of doodles is that this practice does not completely capture a person - unlike, for example, the hard work in the painting class.
At first glance, doodling is annoying - it seems that a person is just trying to kill time and is absorbed in his thoughts. In practice, it turns out that doodles, on the contrary, help us to better perceive new concepts and to memorize them.
In 2009, the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology published the results of a study conducted by the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth (Great Britain). It covered 40 people aged from 18 to 55 years. The test subjects were asked to listen to the audio recording of a “phone call from a friend” (the announcer read a monologue of a fictional “friend” in a monotonous voice, reasoning who would go to his party and who would not, and why). The control group was asked to write down on the sheet the names of those who go to the party (and nothing more).
The experimental group was given a sheet with squares and circles and asked to shade the figures while listening (the subjects were warned that the speed and accuracy of the hatching are unimportant - you only need to hatch in order to pass the time).
After that, all the subjects were asked to first name those who go to the party, and then list the place names mentioned on the record. The results were quite unexpected - in both cases, the people who were asked to hatch the figures were more accurate (the experimental group remembered 29% more information than the control group, although it was not asked to record or memorize anything at all).
This positive effect may be due to the fact that drawing unconscious doodles allows you to use a network of passive mode of the brain. Doodle activists, such as Sunni Brown, author of The Doodle Revolution, believe that scribbling is not just a way to hold hands, but a means of activating the brain. In other words, this is a mechanism that allows us to launch “workarounds” when we come to a dead end - which means that a doodle can help if you, for example, cannot solve a problem or find the right wording for a written work.
Returning to memorizing information - the scrawl on the margins helps to restore the details of what was happening around you when you were drawing them. Jesse J. Prinz , head of the Interdisciplinary Research Committee of the Doctoral High School at the City University of New York, claims that, looking at his own doodles, he easily recalls what he was talking about when he painted them. He compares the doodles with postcards - when you look at the postcard you bought during the trip, things related to that trip immediately come to your mind - things that you could hardly remember just like that.
Photos of ITMO University
This is the plus of “notes with doodles” (compared to conventional abstracts): constant intense notes will distract you from what the teacher is currently telling, especially if he gives a large amount of material that is not intended to be recorded under dictation. If you fix the main points in the usual way and switch to doodles in the process of explaining them, you can sort things out better without losing the thread of the story.
On the other hand, doodling is not suitable for all tasks. For example, if you need to memorize and study a large number of images (diagrams, graphs), your own drawings will only distract you - the Wall Street Journal cites a confirmation from a study conducted at the University of British Columbia. When both tasks require visual processing, doodling does not allow us to focus on what is really important at the moment.
Doodling is better to be neglected and when you are not sure that you can easily find the facts and formulas that the lecturer gives you in other sources. In this case, it is safer to train muscle memory with the help of good old abstracts alone.
Another area that is worth paying attention to those who want to learn better is metacognitive processes (second-order cognition or, to put it simply, our knowledge about our own knowledge). Patricia Chen, a Stanford researcher working in this area, explains : “Very often, students start to work thoughtlessly, not trying to plan in advance which sources are better to use, not understanding what each of them is good at, not appreciating how you can use selected resources most efficiently. ”
Chen and her colleagues conducted a series of studies (their results were published last year in the journal Psychological Science) and experiments showing how thinking about school can stimulate students to learn better. In one of the experiments, students were given a questionnaire about 10 days before the exam - its authors suggested thinking about the upcoming testing and answering the questions about what grade the student wants to get, how important this grade is for him, and with what probability he will get it.
In addition, students were asked to reflect on what questions are most likely to be on the exam, and to determine which of the 15 available training practices (training on notes from lectures, reading a textbook, working on exam questions, discussing with colleagues, courses with a tutor and etc.) they will use. After that, they were asked to explain their choices and write down what exactly they would do - in fact, make a plan for preparing for the exam. The control group simply received a reminder of the exam and the fact that it is important to prepare for it.
As a result, the students who made the plan did pass the exam better, receiving an average grade one third higher (for example, “A +” instead of “A” or “B” instead of “B-”). In addition, they noted that they felt more confident and controlled themselves better in the exam. The authors of the study emphasize that they selected the participants of the experiment so that there were no statistical differences between the groups - the experimental group did not consist of more capable or more motivated students.
As the scientists note, the key conclusion of their research is that, paying attention to the metacognitive processes and reasoning about the task, you are doing important additional work. As a result, it allows you to better structure knowledge, remain motivated and find the most effective solutions, both for preparing for the exam and for any other situations.
In the final part of our review, we will talk about how to memorize and hold information: how storytelling can help in this matter and how to defeat the “forgetting curve”.
Photo Pixelmattic CC BYMuscle memory
Attending lectures is another obvious tip for those who want to learn better. And, by the way, one of the most popular on Quora . Although visits alone are often not enough - many of you are familiar with the situation: you are preparing a ticket for the exam, and you cannot remember exactly what the teacher was telling, although they are absolutely sure that you were in the audience that day.
')
To make the time at the lectures take place with maximum benefit, scientists advise to train muscle memory - that is, first of all, take notes. This not only allows you to return to them later (which is quite obvious) - the process of recording information by hand helps to remember it better. However, sometimes in order to better memorize complex concepts, it makes sense not just to write them down, but to write and sketch them.
You can try to present the data in the form of a diagram or a chart (which is rather difficult if you have to listen to the lecturer carefully), but sometimes in order to better remember the information, it is enough to supplement the recordings with scribbles or doodles (for such drawings, the term “ griffin ” is also used) .
Doodles can look like repeating patterns, lines, abstractions — either as faces, animals, or individual words (as in this example ). You can draw anything - an important feature of doodles is that this practice does not completely capture a person - unlike, for example, the hard work in the painting class.
At first glance, doodling is annoying - it seems that a person is just trying to kill time and is absorbed in his thoughts. In practice, it turns out that doodles, on the contrary, help us to better perceive new concepts and to memorize them.
In 2009, the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology published the results of a study conducted by the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth (Great Britain). It covered 40 people aged from 18 to 55 years. The test subjects were asked to listen to the audio recording of a “phone call from a friend” (the announcer read a monologue of a fictional “friend” in a monotonous voice, reasoning who would go to his party and who would not, and why). The control group was asked to write down on the sheet the names of those who go to the party (and nothing more).
The experimental group was given a sheet with squares and circles and asked to shade the figures while listening (the subjects were warned that the speed and accuracy of the hatching are unimportant - you only need to hatch in order to pass the time).
After that, all the subjects were asked to first name those who go to the party, and then list the place names mentioned on the record. The results were quite unexpected - in both cases, the people who were asked to hatch the figures were more accurate (the experimental group remembered 29% more information than the control group, although it was not asked to record or memorize anything at all).
This positive effect may be due to the fact that drawing unconscious doodles allows you to use a network of passive mode of the brain. Doodle activists, such as Sunni Brown, author of The Doodle Revolution, believe that scribbling is not just a way to hold hands, but a means of activating the brain. In other words, this is a mechanism that allows us to launch “workarounds” when we come to a dead end - which means that a doodle can help if you, for example, cannot solve a problem or find the right wording for a written work.
Returning to memorizing information - the scrawl on the margins helps to restore the details of what was happening around you when you were drawing them. Jesse J. Prinz , head of the Interdisciplinary Research Committee of the Doctoral High School at the City University of New York, claims that, looking at his own doodles, he easily recalls what he was talking about when he painted them. He compares the doodles with postcards - when you look at the postcard you bought during the trip, things related to that trip immediately come to your mind - things that you could hardly remember just like that.
Photos of ITMO University
This is the plus of “notes with doodles” (compared to conventional abstracts): constant intense notes will distract you from what the teacher is currently telling, especially if he gives a large amount of material that is not intended to be recorded under dictation. If you fix the main points in the usual way and switch to doodles in the process of explaining them, you can sort things out better without losing the thread of the story.
On the other hand, doodling is not suitable for all tasks. For example, if you need to memorize and study a large number of images (diagrams, graphs), your own drawings will only distract you - the Wall Street Journal cites a confirmation from a study conducted at the University of British Columbia. When both tasks require visual processing, doodling does not allow us to focus on what is really important at the moment.
Doodling is better to be neglected and when you are not sure that you can easily find the facts and formulas that the lecturer gives you in other sources. In this case, it is safer to train muscle memory with the help of good old abstracts alone.
Knowledge of knowledge
Another area that is worth paying attention to those who want to learn better is metacognitive processes (second-order cognition or, to put it simply, our knowledge about our own knowledge). Patricia Chen, a Stanford researcher working in this area, explains : “Very often, students start to work thoughtlessly, not trying to plan in advance which sources are better to use, not understanding what each of them is good at, not appreciating how you can use selected resources most efficiently. ”
Chen and her colleagues conducted a series of studies (their results were published last year in the journal Psychological Science) and experiments showing how thinking about school can stimulate students to learn better. In one of the experiments, students were given a questionnaire about 10 days before the exam - its authors suggested thinking about the upcoming testing and answering the questions about what grade the student wants to get, how important this grade is for him, and with what probability he will get it.
In addition, students were asked to reflect on what questions are most likely to be on the exam, and to determine which of the 15 available training practices (training on notes from lectures, reading a textbook, working on exam questions, discussing with colleagues, courses with a tutor and etc.) they will use. After that, they were asked to explain their choices and write down what exactly they would do - in fact, make a plan for preparing for the exam. The control group simply received a reminder of the exam and the fact that it is important to prepare for it.
As a result, the students who made the plan did pass the exam better, receiving an average grade one third higher (for example, “A +” instead of “A” or “B” instead of “B-”). In addition, they noted that they felt more confident and controlled themselves better in the exam. The authors of the study emphasize that they selected the participants of the experiment so that there were no statistical differences between the groups - the experimental group did not consist of more capable or more motivated students.
As the scientists note, the key conclusion of their research is that, paying attention to the metacognitive processes and reasoning about the task, you are doing important additional work. As a result, it allows you to better structure knowledge, remain motivated and find the most effective solutions, both for preparing for the exam and for any other situations.
TL; DR
- To make the time spent at the lecture as efficient as possible, connect muscle memory. The easiest option is to make a lecture notes. The alternative is synopsis plus doodling. This approach helps to better perceive new information and more effectively memorize it. Doodles allow you to recall many nuances in your memory - by analogy with postcards or photographs from travels, a look at which “triggers” your memories.
- The important point is that in order for the doodling really help to better memorize the new, it is important that this occupation remains mechanical, spontaneous. If you head off into drawing, you can hardly perceive any more information.
- Combine doodling and "classic" outline. Write basic facts and formulas in the “traditional way”. Use doodling if: 1) at a lecture it is important for you to grasp the essence of a particular concept, to understand its meaning, and you already have basic information on the topic; and 2) the teacher gives a large amount of material and tells it at a fast pace, not in the “under the record” format. Do not neglect the request of the teacher to fix this or that moment in writing.
- According to the assumptions of a number of scientists, doodling activates a network of passive mode of the brain. Therefore, it can help if you are "stumped." The name or the term "turns on the language," but you can not remember it? Can't find a suitable wording for writing? Tried all the solutions to the problem and start losing your temper? Try drawing unconscious doodles and return to work a little later.
- Pay attention to “knowledge about your knowledge” - this is another way to learn better. Think about why you need to solve a particular task, what methods and techniques for this may be suitable, consider the pros and cons of each of the possible approaches. This will allow you to maintain motivation (you answered the question why you need it and what results you expect from yourself in the exam or at the end of the course). In addition, this approach allows you to plan the most effective option for self-preparation (you are no longer enough for the first available source of information) and remain calm while testing your knowledge.
In the final part of our review, we will talk about how to memorize and hold information: how storytelling can help in this matter and how to defeat the “forgetting curve”.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/348942/
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