Improve Your Retention—and Your Grades

1-13 How can psychological principles help you learn and remember?

Most students assume that the way to cement new learning is to reread. Do you? If so, you may be surprised to hear that repeated self-testing and rehearsal of previously studied material helps even more. Memory researchers call this the testing effect (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). (This is also known as the retrieval practice effect or as test-enhanced learning.) In one study, students learned 40 Swahili words. Those who had been tested repeatedly later recalled the words' meaning much better than others who had spent the same time restudying the 40 words (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). Researchers have found that “trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning” (Roediger & Finn, 2010).

I have designed this book to help you benefit from the testing effect and other memory research findings. As you will see in Chapter 7, to master information you must actively process it. Your mind is not like your stomach, something to be filled passively. Your mind is more like a muscle that grows stronger with exercise. Research shows that people learn and remember best when they put material in their own words, rehearse it, and then retrieve and review it again.

The SQ3R study method converts these principles into practice (McDaniel et al., 2009; Robinson, 1970). SQ3R is an acronym—an abbreviation formed from the first letter of each of its five steps: Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve,6 Review.

To study a chapter, first survey, taking a bird's-eye view. Scan the headings, and notice how the chapter is organized.

Before you read each main section, try to answer its numbered Learning Objective Question (for this section: “How can psychological principles help you learn and remember?”). By testing your understanding before you read the section, you will discover what you don't yet know.

Then read, actively searching for the answer to the question. At each sitting, read only as much of the chapter (usually a single main section) as you can absorb without tiring. Read actively and think critically. Ask your own questions. Take notes. Relate the ideas to your personal experiences and to your own life. Does the idea support or challenge your assumptions? How convincing is the evidence?

Having read a section, retrieve its main ideas. Test yourself—even better, test yourself repeatedly. To get you started, I offer periodic Retrieve + Remember questions throughout each chapter (see, for example, the two at the end of this section). After trying to answer these questions, check the answers (printed upside-down beneath the questions), and reread the material as needed. Testing yourself will make you aware of what you don't know. And it will help you learn and retain the information more effectively.

Finally, review: Read over any notes you have taken, again with an eye on the chapter's organization, and quickly review the whole chapter. Write or say what a concept is before rereading the material to check your understanding.

Survey, question, read, retrieve, review. I have organized this book's chapters to help you use the SQ3R study system. Each chapter begins with an outline that aids your survey. Headings and Learning Objective Questions suggest issues and concepts you should consider as you read the section. The length of the sections is controlled so you can easily read them. The Retrieve + Remember questions will challenge you to retrieve what you have learned, and thus better remember it. The end-of-chapter Review includes the collected Learning Objective Questions and key terms for self-testing. A complete Chapter Test focuses on key concepts, and In Your Everyday Life questions help make the chapter's concepts more meaningful, and therefore more memorable.

Four additional study tips may further boost your learning:

Distribute your study time. One of psychology's oldest findings is that if you want to retain information, spaced practice is better than massed practice. So space your practice time over several study periods—perhaps one hour a day, six days a week—rather than cramming it into one long study blitz. You'll remember material better if you read just one main section (not the whole chapter) in a single sitting. Then turn to something else.

Spacing your study sessions requires discipline and knowing how to manage your time. (Richard O. Straub explains time management in a helpful preface at the beginning of this text.)

Learn to think critically. Whether you are reading or listening to class discussions, think smart. Try to spot people's assumptions and values. Can you detect a bias underlying an argument? Weigh the evidence. Is it a personal story that might not represent the whole group? Or is it scientific evidence based on sound experiments? Assess conclusions. Are other explanations possible?

Process class information actively. Listen for a lecture's main ideas and sub-ideas. Write them down. Ask questions during and after class. In class, as in your own study, process the information actively and you will understand and retain it better. How can you make the information your own? Take notes in your own words. Make connections between what you read and what you already know. Tell someone else about it. (As any teacher will confirm, to teach is to remember.)

Overlearn. Psychology tells us that we tend to be overconfident—we overestimate how much we know. You may understand a chapter as you read it, but that feeling of familiarity can trick you. Overlearning helps you retain new information. By using the Retrieve + Remember opportunities, you'll devote extra study time to testing your knowledge.

Memory experts Elizabeth Bjork and Robert Bjork (2011, p. 63) offer the bottom line for how to improve your retention and your grades: