Testing Still Key For Information Retention: Study

According to a study recently published in Science, the best way to retain information is simply by testing yourself.

The report, titled "Retrieval Practice Produces More Learning than Elaborative Studying with Concept Mapping" and written by Purdue University's Jeffrey Karpicke and Janell R. Blunt, challenges the generally accepted ethos of elaborative learning -- which asks students to elaborate on material studied -- as more productive than straight retrieval.

In a press release, Karpicke explained that:

Educators, researchers and students are often focused on getting things 'in memory,' so techniques that encourage students to elaborate on the material are often popular. But learning is fundamentally about retrieving, and our research shows that practicing retrieval while you study is crucial to learning. Self-testing enriches and improves the learning process, and there needs to be more focus on using retrieval as a learning strategy.

To reach these conclusions, Karpicke asked two groups of students (200 altogether) to read several paragraphs about differing scientific topics. One group was instructed to use the information to create a concept map, while the other was told to put away their articles and spend ten minutes writing what they recalled. A week later, the students were called back and tested on the material. Those who had practiced retrieval retained 50 percent more information than those who engaged in the traditionally preferred method of concept mapping.

Harvard professor and educational progressive Howard Gardner told the New York Times that the results "throw down the gauntlet to those progressive educators, myself included...who embrace seemingly more active approaches, like concept mapping."

The researchers further found that although they ended up learning less, students who had engaged in concept mapping were more confident that they would remember the material than those in the retrieval group.

To Karpicke, this "disconnect" means that it is up to teachers and professors to encourage the most effective forms of studying.

What's your favorite way to study? Let us know in the comments section.

Comments

[Ross Trotter]

08:27 AM on 01/24/2011

I reading the chapter and testing myself with flashcards of some sort. I like testing students on what they learn. I truely believe it is the best way to hold teachers and students accountable. However, in sub par school districts educators try to gain an advantage by teaching to the test.

[MyFatCat]

08:35 PM on 01/23/2011

Wow. That explains just about everything I've noticed about management "science" education, too. It's never about learning the material, it's about making it up to validate your personal experience.

[yetiwatcher]

01:50 PM on 01/23/2011

so the research in question deals solely with retaining information gained from reading a handful of paragraphs (eg "A 276-word science text on "Sea Otters" was selected from (S1).") which apparently dealt with heavily with factual knowledge (eg "a text describing properties of different muscle tissues") - and the end point for analysis was only one week...

is this work relevant to education beyond factual recall from short readings?
consider mathematics: in this context do the problems assigned as homework qualify as "self testing"? - because if they do, then these researchers will have rediscovered the obvious - you need to work the problems to learn the material - it would be yet another foray into educational psychology which simply aggrandizes what is already clear, dressed up with $10 words

the quotation says it all - and it's all about the latest fad
"throw down the gauntlet to those progressive educators, myself included...who embrace seemingly more active approaches, like concept mapping."

Science has had a short run of retractions recently - which points to serious deficiencies in the review process at that publication. Can't believe this work is on the cutting edge of research in education.

[brandonmdodd]

04:28 PM on 01/23/2011

I agree, how does retention (or lack thereof) after 1 week in regards to an article that the subjects don't have any attachment to, show us anything about education?

[RichardinDelmar]

09:56 AM on 01/24/2011

Concept mapping only works when there are concepts held. They also require some data that supports concepts and then links, or the lack of them, can be established. I find the students lack data upon which they can build concepts and without these, they are in the wilderness with concept mapping.