Friday, January 21, 2011

Illusion of Knowing

NYT: To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test

A study published in Science shows better long term recall when students take a "test" - when they write an essay on the material and then re-read the material before writing another essay. This approach beat out repeated studying sessions and drawing concept maps - even when the long term assessment was to create a concept map from memory.

The mystery effect seems to be that the essays give students an opportunity test what they know and what they don't - when they return to the material, their perception is then focused on new things that were not recalled as opposed to simply recognizing everything in a "I've seen this before" way.

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