Introduction
Psychologists have influenced educational practice with the last few years and have seen increased research into the power of retrieval learning, showing the mnemonic effects of the practice. Retrieval learning is effected through the testing effect, termed as the retrieval of information from memory to produce better retention than passive restudying over the same period of time (Roediger and Butler, 2011). Despite alternative learning strategies and existing limitations to retrieval learning, cognitive psychologists insist on the superiority of retrieval learning over passive restudying in facilitating long-term learning among students.
Learning institutions consider tests an assessment tool where tests are given only once in a while. Most universities issue exams twice or thrice in a semester. Cognitive psychologists hold that testing should not be an assessment tool but a step to enhance long-term learning (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). When used as an assessment tool, students only tend to concentrate on reading just before exams. However, cognitive psychologists think tests should be more regular to allow students to spread their reading as a guided tool to enhance future retention. Testing is superior to passive restudying in enhancing long-term learning. While this analogy, called the testing effect, has been under study for several years, little is known about it outside cognitive psychology. Various research literature explains the cognitive psychologists’ perspective on testing efficiency and its application in learning.
Cognitive psychologists contradict the traditional reliance on passive restudying for learning, arguing that retrieval learning is a powerful mnemonic enhancer for long-term retention. The human brain tends to retain more during an active repetition rather than passive restudying (Roediger and Butler, 2011). While the traditional learning mechanisms focus on passive restudying, lectures, and study groups with limited tests, cognitive psychologists highlight the practical nature of the testing effect in enhancing long-term learning. Retrieval practice allows instructors to assess a student’s comprehension to find ways to ensure a student retains ideas.
Cognitive psychologists have proven the efficiency of testing in enhancing long-term learning through experiments on students. According to Roediger and Karpicke, two experiments conducted to determine retention indicated that immediate testing after reading promoted better long-term learning than repeated reading (2006). From the experiments, students in the repeated testing conditioning remembered more after a week than students in the repeated studying conditioning (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). While passive restudying and learning under mass setting such as lectures and study groups may be practical for initial learning, it does not enhance long-term learning. Distributed learning practice leads to longer retention of information (Roediger, 2013). Memory works as a muscle that gets stronger with practice (Roediger, 2013); hence cognitive psychologists insist on the power of retrieval learning with the testing effect that requires active learning. Long–term learning gets achieved once sufficient active learning gets done, allowing oneself to remember learned concepts rather than looking at notes.
Cognitive psychologists hold that the testing effect is a powerful retention technique. The testing effect is a mnemonic aid for future retention. According to Roediger and Karpicke, “Despite the benefits of repeated study shortly after learning, repeated testing produces strong positive effects on a delayed test.” (2006). The power of the testing effects is explained in that tests allow students to practice the ability to recall as a skill. After several tests, the ability to recall becomes one of the student’s skills that improve long-term learning. Passive restudying produces short-term gains where students remember material during their tests. While the rapid, short-term gains of passive restudying may be widespread among students, cognitive psychologists insist on the need for frequent testing for longer retention. Students relying on repeated studies tend to perform worse after a week, while recall testing indicates better results (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). Several experiments indicate the long-term efficiency of the testing effect.
The testing effect through retrieval practice enhances the transfer of learning in students. Transferred learning allows students to apply gained knowledge in constructing new responses and answering new questions. Repeated testing produces better knowledge transfer, allowing students to apply learned concepts to new situations (Roediger and Butler, 2011). Successful transfer of learning occurs when one’s long-term retention uses memory traces to relate between different scenarios. The memory creates multiple retrieval routes after repeated testing episodes compared to passive restudying of material (Roediger and Butler, 2011). Memory performance determines a learner’s ability to transfer learning. The cognitive process during learning is similar to retrieval; thus, engaging the memory through testing builds the capacity for retentive memory, where students grasp concepts long-term. The ultimate goal of learning is the ability to transfer knowledge to new concepts. Therefore, the testing effect through retrieval learning is an effective cognitive learning strategy.
Cognitive psychologists hold that the implementation of testing effect can boost student performance. Retrieval practice techniques foster a deep understanding of concepts so students can flexibly transfer concepts to new situations. The ability to transfer concepts to new situations indicates that frequent testing allows students to perform better since students stay current with their courses (Roediger and Butler, 2011). While learning through retrieval practice takes time, frequent tests allow students to learn concepts and get correct instructor feedback, eventually leading to good performance. The nature of transfer learning requires commitment, hard work, a favorable learning environment, and intellectual curiosity (Mayer, 2012). Students can improve their grades using frequent testing where they remain curious to fully grasp a concept and answer different questions using previously learned concepts.
Instructor takes responsibility for their students’ performance hence their role in using effective learning strategies. According to Roediger and Butler, instructors rely on retrieval practice to provide feedback on student performance (2011). Where students give wrong answers, the instructor gives correct answers as feedback to avoid long-term retention of wrong information. The timing of feedback also determines the efficiency of the testing effect in enhancing long-term learning. Providing immediate feedback on a test is helpful, yet delayed feedback may be more powerful when students complete a test before receiving answers. When students completed a test before receiving answers, they were likely to perform better in the next test than those who received immediate answers to questions (Roediger and Butler, 2011). Delayed feedback provides spacing between learned material, allowing active learning rather than immediate feedback that gives back-to-back information without allowing the brain to remember.
How Students Would Implement Retrieval Learning Strategy
Students should view testing as a learning tool, not just an assessment tool. Testing allows students to practice active learning, retrieving learned concepts from within their memory rather than looking at their notes or textbooks for answers. The traditional learning mode in our education system encourages students to learn through reading, lectures, and study groups, often ignoring the efficiency of retrieval learning. (Roediger and Butler, 2011). Rather than relying on testing as an assessment tool, students can depend on the feedback after testing to learn concepts and enhance long-term learning. Retrieval practice, through testing, improves student performance over more extended periods compared to the use of passive restudying. Therefore, while students may not like taking frequent tests, they can learn the correct answers from feedback after a wrong answer. Students ought to embrace frequent tests as a tool to enhance their long-term learning.
Students ought to develop a love of learning and appreciate hard work. With a goal in mind, any student can achieve better performance. Through the testing effect, cognitive psychology’s efficiency in learning depends on factors such as a student’s attributions toward the learning process. With a great love of learning, a student will likely appreciate the hard work of working toward long-term learning. Motivation to study over time for retrieval learning enhances long-term learning compared to passive restudying, that portents learning as a memorization game (Roediger, 2013). Passive restudying has been used in the education system, but its alienation of tests makes it an ineffective strategy for learning. Passive restudying involves testing s an assessment tool used occasionally, causing students to study when tests are close (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). Passive restudying without testing does not allow students to know their learning difficulties; hence the strategy does not guarantee good performance. However, through testing, instructors determine the student’s learning difficulties and correct them for future improved performance.
Intellectual curiosity and motivational learning can enhance a student’s long-term learning. Students ought to engage themselves in aspects deeper than the basic textbook concepts. Intellectual curiosity gives students the urge to learn whatever lies beyond the horizon; hence they frequently test their capability. While passive reading may provide short-term memory, the long-term motivation of acquiring long-term learning should keep the student interested in frequent testing (Mayer, 2012). Motivation and learning are closely linked concepts where the attributes of success or failure determine a student’s motivation (Toland and Boyle, 2008). A student’s attributes towards success or failure determine their motivation to learn. The attributions may affect a student’s self-esteem. For instance, a student associates failure with bad luck or poor teaching, and such a student would be motivated to perform better (Toland and Boyle, 2008). The motivation to learn and frequent tests leads to long-term learning.
Students ought to find a favorable learning environment. Mentorship programs are some of the avenues through which students can use to improve their learning process. While the testing effect may be effective in some students, others do not do well with frequent testing. Learning interventions vary among children, hence the need for students to identify their strengths and weaknesses to find appropriate help. Cognitive psychologists propose using intervention-based programs to help children with learning difficulties achieve successful learning (Toland and Boyle, 2008). A mentor provides students with a favorable learning environment by helping them understand their attributions and how they affect learning. Mentors guide students to change their attributions and develop constructive motivations for learning.
Limitations to the Approach
First, learners may not retrieve the correct answers causing them to learn incorrect information. While the testing effect effectively enhances long-term memory, it becomes fully effective only when a learner retrieves the correct answers. Providing a correct answer enhances the mnemonic benefits of the testing effect. However, the testing effect’s efficiency becomes ineffective when learners provide wrong answers and have no resources to learn the correct answers. According to Roediger and Butler, retrieval of incorrect answers can get avoided when instructors provide feedback (2011). Providing alternative answers to the wrong ones helps students relearn and give correct answers in a future test. Providing feedback is primarily helpful for multiple-choice tests where students may give the wrong answers and believe them as genuine. Therefore, instructors should provide feedback to help students find correct answers and enhance successful long-term learning where students retrieve correct answers in subsequent tests.
Other Effective Study Strategies According to Cognitive Psychologists
Attribution retraining has been identified as an effective strategy used by cognitive psychologists to address students’ learning difficulties. Attribution is one of the aspects that influence learning and can change. Attribution retraining is an alternative study strategy where cognitive psychologists find its relevance in cognitive behavioral change. Cognitive retraining allows learners to change their internal or external negative attributions that affect their learning and adopt positive attributions for improved performance. For instance, when students find failure inevitable, their perspective can change with attributional retraining, helping them think positively (Toland and Boyle, 2008). Attribution retraining seems appropriate for students with underachievement and a lack of persistence. The cognitive behavioral approach changes students’ perception of their learning experience since thinking precedes feelings and behavior (Toland and Boyle, 2008). Altering students’ beliefs through attributional retraining helps them become active learners with more robust and cheerful mindsets.
Additionally, according to cognitive psychologists, distributing practice on tasks is an effective learning strategy. Distributing practice on tasks works through grouping practice problems according to their types. Tasks get distributed into chapters or topics; for instance, in mathematics, students may start with addition problems before moving to subtraction and multiplication (Roediger, 2013). Other effective learning strategies are self-explanation, where students explain certain aspects to themselves, and elaborative interrogation, where students ask themselves why the information they read is accurate (Roediger, 2013). However, self-explanation and elaborative interrogation lack the general utility of user testing for retrieval learning. Given the active psychological research on the efficiency of various learning strategies, changes may get witnessed in the next few years as some techniques get eliminated while others get prioritized.
Conclusion
Students and teachers often implement more than one learning strategy. However, cognitive psychologists insist on the superiority of retrieval learning via testing as the most effective learning technique for long-term learning. The mnemonic benefits of the testing effect not only enhance long-term memory but also allows the transfer of learning to different concepts. While passive restudying and memorizing have been the traditional learning strategy for a long time, cognitive psychologists regard them as ineffective in extended–term learning. Cognitive psychologists insist on the impact of motivation, consistency, and practice in making the testing effect successful. The testing effect allows students to reach the ultimate goal of learning: applying knowledge to new concepts. Besides, educational strategies are subject to change with more psychological research. Hence various effective learning strategies exist.
References
Mayer, R. E. (2012). Getting started on the road to applying the science of learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26(2), 330-331. Web.
Roediger, H. L. (2013). Applying cognitive psychology to education: Translational educational science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 1-3. Web.
Roediger, H. L., & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive science, 15(1), 20-27.
Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249- 255.
Toland, J., & Boyle, C. (2008). Applying cognitive behavioral methods to retain children’s attributions for success and failure in learning. School Psychology International, 29(3). 286- 302. Web.