To learn, retrieve

"Effortful retrieval makes for strong learning and retention. When the mind has to work, learning sticks better."

Can you remember a time when you know you learned something but couldn’t seem to recall it? Or have you ever tried to discuss something that you read or learned somewhere but are unable to articulate it the way you remembered it? “In very short order we lose something like 70 percent of what we’ve just heard or read,” reveal the authors. “After that, forgetting begins to slow, and the last 30 percent or so falls away more slowly, but the lesson is clear: a central challenge to improve the way we learn is finding a way to interrupt the process of forgetting.”

That data is absolutely frightening to read (to me at least). Luckily, there are things we can all do on our own to learn smarter. Here are three easy practices the authors give us:

• Retrieval Practice: recalling facts or concepts or events from memory (not rereading). This effortful retrieval makes for stronger learning and retention. Research shows that when the mind has to work, learning sticks better. For example, think flash cards. As the authors say, “the greater the effort to retrieve learning, provided that you succeed, the more that learning is strengthened by retrieval.”
• Delay Subsequent Retrieval Practice: delaying trying to recall information after you’ve learned it proves to be more potent for reinforcing retention than immediate practice, because delayed retrieval requires more effort.
• Practice Repeated Retrieval: repeat retrieving information again and again over time until you’ve mastered the material.

In summary, the harder it is to recall information you’ve learned the better!  By doing so, it becomes more likely that we engrain that information into our brains for retrieval purposes and for longer periods of time.

Mix up your practice

"Practice that’s spaced out, interleaved with other learning, and varied produces better mastery, longer retention and more versatility."

Most of us were taught to learn with a single minded, repetitive focus. It’s the thinking that more we “practice, practice, practice” the more likely it will be that information or skills will be burned into our memory. Researchers call this “massed” practice and studies have shown just how ineffective a learning strategy it actually is.

While practice in anything is still a vital component of learning, studies indicate that when learning and training is broken up, spaced out, interleaved and varied – it eventually produces better mastery, longer retention and more adaptability. So what can we do to mix up our practices when learning? The authors give us three common ways:

• Spaced Practice – practicing in installments and allowing time to elapse between them. This makes both the learning and the memory stronger, in effect building habit strength. How big an interval? The simple answer: enough so that practice doesn’t become a mindless repetition. Enough time so that a little forgetting has set in.
• Varied Practice – practicing in different environments or circumstances improves your ability to transfer learning from one situation and apply it successfully to another. If you always practice the same skill in the same way, from the same place on the ice or field, you’re starving your learning on short rations of variety.
• Reflection – a form of retrieval practice. What happened? How did I do? How did it work out? What would I do differently next time?

Avoid illusions of knowing

"To become more competent, or even expert, we must learn to recognize competence when we see it in others, become more accurate judges of what we ourselves know and don’t know, adopt learning strategies that get results, and find objective ways to track our progress."

The second insight that I took from Make It Stick was this caution of thinking you’ve learned or retained something when, in reality, you haven’t. In order to combat this, the authors suggest that the “most important [thing] is to make frequent use of testing and retrieval practice to verify what you really do know versus what you think you know.”

Once we’ve learned something, it doesn’t mean we’ll remember it forever. We still have to use the information and revisit it from time to time. The authors caution us not to “make the mistake of dropping material from your testing regime once you’ve gotten it correct a couple of times. If it’s important, it needs to be practiced, and practiced again. And don’t put stock in momentary gains that result from massed practice. Space your testing, vary your practice, keep the long view.”