Does Incorrect Guessing Impair Fact Learning?

Sean H. K. Kang and Harold Pashler – University of California, San Diego
Nicholas J. Cepeda – York University
Doug Rohrer – University of South Florida
Shana K. Carpenter – Iowa State University
Michael C. Mozer – University of Colorado, Boulder

Taking a test has been shown to produce enhanced retention of the retrieved information. On tests, however, students often encounter questions the answers for which they are unsure. Should they guess anyway, even if they are likely to answer incorrectly? Or are errors engrained, impairing subsequent learning of the correct answer? We sought to answer this question in 3 experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, subjects read 80 obscure facts (e.g., “Where is Disko Island? Greenland”) and then took a cued recall test. When a subject reported being unable to answer a question, on a randomly chosen half of those questions the computer program insisted upon a guess. Corrective feedback was provided either immediately (Experiment 1) or after a delay (Experiment 2). Forced guessing did not affect subjects’ performance on a final test given 1 day later. We extended the investigation to more complex material in Experiment 3. Subjects saw a question (e.g., “Why do ice cubes often pop as they melt in your drink?”) and its answer, but for half of the questions, subjects did not see the answer until they first provided a plausible explanation. On a test administered either on the same day or 1 week later, recall performance was again unaffected by a prior wrong guess.

The Pretesting Effect: Do Unsuccessful Retrieval Attempts Enhance Learning?

Lindsey E. Richland – University of California, Irvine
Nate Kornell – Williams College
Liche Sean Kao – University of California, Irvine

Testing previously studied information enhances long-term memory, particularly when the information is successfully retrieved from memory. The authors examined the effect of unsuccessful retrieval attempts on learning. Participants in 5 experiments read an essay about vision. In the test condition, they were asked about embedded concepts before reading the passage; in the extended study condition, they were given a longer time to read the passage. To distinguish the effects of testing from attention direction, the authors emphasized the tested concepts in both conditions, using italics or bolded keywords or, in Experiment 5, by presenting the questions but not asking participants to answer them before reading the passage. Posttest performance was better in the test condition than in the extended study condition in all experiments—a pretesting effect— even though only items that were not successfully retrieved on the pretest were analyzed. The testing effect appears to be attributable, in part, to the role unsuccessful tests play in enhancing future learning.

Unsuccessful Retrieval Attempts Enhance Subsequent Learning

Nate Kornell, Matthew Jensen Hays, and Robert A. Bjork
University of California, Los Angeles

Taking tests enhances learning. But what happens when one cannot answer a test question—does an unsuccessful retrieval attempt impede future learning or enhance it? The authors examined this question using materials that ensured that retrieval attempts would be unsuccessful. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were asked fictional general-knowledge questions (e.g., “What peace treaty ended the Calumet War?”). In Experiments 3–6, participants were shown a cue word (e.g., whale ) and were asked to guess a weak associate (e.g., mammal ); the rare trials on which participants guessed the correct response were excluded from the analyses. In the test condition, participants attempted to answer the question before being shown the answer; in the read-only condition, the question and answer were presented together. Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhanced learning with both types of materials. These results demonstrate that retrieval attempts enhance future learning; they also suggest that taking challenging tests—instead of avoiding errors—may be one key to effective learning.

Word on the Tip of Your Tongue? Study Suggests You’re Better Off Looking Up the Answer

This goes along with one of my rules to avoid studying vocabulary words that I repeatedly confuse with another word.

“The longer they stayed in that tip-of-the-tongue state on the first day, the more likely they were to get into a tip-of-the-tongue state on that word on the second day,” explains Humphreys. The extra time that people spend trying to dredge up the word is what the researchers describe as “incorrect practice” time. Instead of learning the correct word, people are learning the mistake itself.

 

Dynamics of Self-Regulation: How (Un)accomplished Goal Actions Affect Motivation
Minjung Koo and Ayelet Fishbach
University of Chicago

Two factors increase the motivation to adhere to a goal: goal commitment and lack of goal progress.When people ask about commitment, focusing on what they have accomplished (to date) signals to themhigh commitment and increases motivation. Conversely, when commitment is certain and people askabout goal progress, focusing on what they have yet to accomplish (to go) signals to them lack of progressand increases motivation. Accordingly, 4 studies show that emphasizing to-date information increasesgoal adherence when commitment is uncertain—that is, when participants study for a relatively unim-portant exam, consume luxuries, fulfill a desire, and make first-time contributions to a charity. Con-versely, emphasizing to-go information increases goal adherence when commitment is certain—that is,when participants study for an important exam, consume necessities, fulfill a need, and make repeatedcontributions to a charity.

Cal Newport is an MIT grad who blogs about knowledge worker productivity.  I recently came across Cal’s blog and it seems to have a lot of good research based productivity advice.  I’ll post more if I find anything interesting to us language learners.

In The Science of Procrastination Revisted: Researchers Rethink Willpower is one article I came across that says that basically we are more engaged in what we are doing if we set the rules ourselves compared to someone else telling us how to do things.  This makes a lot of sense.

Procrastination remains inevitable. But the hope provided by Ryan and Deci is that for many activities it’s allure can be weakened. When you’re doing something that you choose to do, it’s just not that bad.

According to a paper by I.S.P Nation, you need 6-7000 word families for conversation and 8-9000 for unassisted reading.  This assumes 98% vocabulary coverage of general topics.

Research by the same author suggests that 95% vocabulary coverage is not adequate for comprehension of a fiction text.