1-16-15Tips for Learning and Remembering New MaterialWhat you learn depends on…-Why will you need the info later on?-What do you want/need to learn?-How motivated are you to learn it?Why:-Are you going to be tested?-Are you learning out of your own interest?-Do you want to be knowledgeable about a topic so that you can impress a potential employer for an upcoming interview? Impress an upcoming date?What:-What part of the experience is important to you?-Pure facts (anatomy side) vs. concepts (physiology side), or both?-Is it important who is there, where you are, what the diagrams in the book represent?How: How motivated are you to learn?-Just need to pass a class vs. want to excel in a class-Future educational goals-Future career goalsGuidelines for studying:Make sure to…-Spend time learning the material and be patient.-Space apart your learning rather than cramming (distributed practice).-Test yourself-Test yourself at longer and longer time intervals between tests (expanding retrieval).-Find ways to increase your motivation, attention, and interest.-Be alert but not overly wired. The more you study initially= less time to relearn the information later.The more you study initially= more info is retained over timeBased on total time hypothesis by Ebbinghaus (1885)Distributed Practice:Better to distribute you study or practice sessionsChoosing a reasonable amount of work to study (chunk it)Repetition alone isn’t good enough- you also have to test yourself.Why? It forces you to generate the material yourself; this leads to more efficient learning and better remembering later onThe importance of feedback:-Get feedback early on, make sure you are learning the right stuff.Expanding retrieval:-Test yourself at longer and longer intervals.-Tool you can use is focus on material you can’t retrieve easily by using distributed practice. Motivation and interest:-Is it the topic? Material interesting to you?-How well do you want to learn the material?-If you get bored studying one subject, switch to another-Scholarship funding-Stepping stone for other long-term goals?Learning and arousal:-Morning vs. Night people-Caffeine-Yerkes-Dodson curve: finding optimal arousal-Time of day effects--Studying during your optimal time of day.-Other ways to maintain optimal arousal --Coffee but don’t drink too much--Exercise--Study groups (if you can maintain focus)Specific strategies to use while studying:What do you do with the material you are trying to learn?-Focus on meaning and organization-Compare and contrast concepts-Relate the material to yourself-Match study to test (Studying in a similar way the test will be).Focus on meaning and organization:-Categorical organization- organizing material so that similar items are chunked together, based on pre-existing knowledge base.-Subjective: based on our own imagination and prior experiences. Often combined with visualization- very powerful way to increase memory, combing verbal material with visualCompare and contrast concepts:-to gain deeper understanding of material.--ex: golden retriever vs. yellow labRelate the material to yourself:-The self-reference effect- thinking about material as it applies to you will greatly enhance your learning.-Think of an example from your own life that illustrates the concept. Sometimes withvery abstract concepts this may not be possible. Match study to test:-If you know the format of the test, tailor your study method to the types of questions you might be asked.-Knowing how you’re going to be tested can help you come up with a game plan-How would you study for: multiple choice, fill in the blanks, short answer, essay. Other factors that affect ability to remember:-Context dependent memory: external/environmental context (room, music) Internal context (mood, arousal)Cognitive processes involved (processing sounds of a new language, figuring out a math problem)-Retrieval mode- being in the right frame of mind. Do some practice testing just before the test itself- get into “retrieval mode”. Amping yourself up for the