How to Study More Effectively • 189student who sent me his study technique said he took naps while studying. He would
study for a while, take a short nap when he felt tired, and then go right back to studying
after the nap. Although one reaction to this technique might be that the student is lazy,
the experiments described in Chapter 1 indicate that material studied just before going
to sleep is remembered better than material studied long before going to sleep. Thus,
one of the most effective breaks you can take from studying involves going to sleep (of
course, getting up to fi nish studying is helpful as well!).MATCH LEARNING AND TESTING CONDITIONS
From what we know about encoding specifi city and state-dependent learning, memory
should be better when study (encoding) and testing (retrieval) conditions match as closely
as possible. Student #2 takes advantage of this by studying in the classroom. To strictly fol-
low this procedure, you would have to do all of your studying in the classroom in which
you will be taking the exam. This might be an impractical strategy, however, not only
because of the logistics involved in studying in a room where there are other classes, but
also because your classroom might not be a comfortable place to study, and you might not
be highly motivated to spend even more time in your classroom. A solution to this prob-
lem is to study in a number of different places. Research has shown that people remember
material better when they have learned it in a number of different locations, compared to
spending the same amount of time studying in one location (Smith et al., 1978). The use
of different locations prevents learning from being associated with just one place.AVOID “ILLUSIONS OF LEARNING”
One of the conclusions of both basic memory research and research on specifi c study
techniques is that some study techniques favored by students may appear to be more
effective than they actually are. For example, rereading material is the predominant
study method for most students (Karpicke et al., 2009). One reason for the popularity
of rereading is that it can create the illusion that learning is occurring. This happens
because reading and rereading material results in greater fl uency—that is, repetition
causes the reading to become easier and easier. But although this enhanced ease of
reading creates the illusion that the material is being learned, increased fl uency doesn’t
necessarily translate into better memory for the material.
Another mechanism that creates the illusion of learning is the familiarity effect.
Rereading causes material to become familiar, so when you encounter it a second or
third time, there is a tendency to interpret this familiarity as indicating that you know
the material. Unfortunately, recognizing material that is right in front of you doesn’t
necessarily mean that you will be able to remember it later.
Finally, beware of highlighting. A survey by S. W. Peterson (1992) found that
82 percent of students highlight, and most of them do so while they are reading the
material for the fi rst time. The problem with highlighting is that it seems like elabora-
tive processing (you’re taking an active role in your reading by highlighting important
points), but it often becomes automatic behavior that involves moving the hand, butThe Exemplar Approach: Thinking About Examples
When Peterson compared comprehension for a group who highlighted and a group
who didn’t, he found no difference between the performance of the two groups when they
were tested on the material. Highlighting may be a good fi rst step for some people, but it is
usually important to go back over what you highlighted using techniques such as elabora-
tive rehearsal or generating questions in order to get that information into your memory.
Looking at all of these techniques, we can see that many of them involve using more
effective encoding strategies. Elaborating, generating, testing, and organizing all encour-
age deeper processing of the material you are trying to learn; making up questions
about the material and answering these questions incorporates retrieval into studying.
Do you have a study technique that isn’t mentioned here—one that works for you
and that you can relate to the memory principles discussed in this chapter? If so, I invite
you to send a description of your technique to me at [email protected].Copyright 2011 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.