В In our review of useful life hacks for students, we talked about the scientific research behind the obvious advice - “drink more water”, “exercise sports”, “plan your daily routine”. In this part, we will consider less obvious "hacks", as well as directions that are considered today to be one of the most promising in learning. Let's try to figure out how "doodles in the margins of a notebook" can be useful, and in what cases thinking about the exam helps to pass it better.
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Muscle memory
Attending lectures is another obvious tip for those who want to learn better. And, by the way, one of the most popular on . Although visits alone are often not enough, many of you are familiar with the situation: you are preparing a ticket for an exam, and you cannot remember exactly what the teacher talked about, although you are absolutely sure that you were in the classroom that day.
To make the time in lectures pass with maximum benefit, scientists advise to train muscle memory - that is, first of all, take notes. This not only allows you to refer back to them later (which is pretty obvious), but the process of writing down information by hand helps you remember it better. However, sometimes, in order to better remember complex concepts, it makes sense not just to write them down, but to write them down and sketch them.
You can try to present the data in the form of a diagram or diagram (which is quite difficult if you have to listen carefully to the lecturer), but sometimes, in order to better remember the information, it is enough to supplement the notes with scribbles or doodles (they also use the term "").
Doodles can look like repeating patterns, lines, abstractions - or faces, animals, or single words (as in ). You can draw anything - an important feature of doodles is that such a practice does not completely capture a person - unlike, for example, hard work in a painting class.
At first glance, doodling is annoying - it seems that a person is just trying to kill time and is absorbed in his thoughts. In practice, it turns out that doodles, on the contrary, help us to better perceive new concepts and remember them.
In 2009 in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology were results of a study conducted by the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth (Great Britain). It covered 40 people aged 18 to 55 years. Test subjects listen to an audio recording of a “phone call from a friend” (on the recording, the announcer in a monotone voice read out a monologue of a fictitious “friend”, arguing who will be able to go to his party and who will not, and why). The control group was asked to write down on a piece of paper the names of those who would go to the party (and nothing else) as they recorded.
The experimental group was given a sheet of squares and circles and asked to shade the shapes as they listened (subjects were warned that the speed and accuracy of hatching is not important - hatching is only necessary to pass the time).
After that, all subjects were asked to first name those who would go to the party, and then list the place names that were mentioned on the recording. The results were quite unexpected - in both cases, people who were asked to hatch shapes were more accurate (the experimental group remembered 29% more information than the control group, although they were not asked to fix and remember anything at all).
This positive effect may be due to the fact that drawing unconscious doodles allows you to use passive mode of the brain. Doodle activists like Sunni Brown, author The Doodle Revolution believes that doodles are not just a way to keep your hands busy, but a means to activate the brain. In other words, it's a mechanism that allows us to run "workarounds" when we hit a dead end - which means that a doodle can help if, for example, you can't solve a problem or find the right wording for a written work.
Getting back to remembering information, marginal scribbles help you recall the details of what was going on around you when you drew them. Jesse Prince (), Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Research Committee of the Doctoral Graduate School of the City University of New York, that, looking at his own doodles, he easily remembers what was discussed when he drew them. He compares doodles to postcards - when you look at a postcard you bought on a trip, things immediately come to your mind related to that trip - things that you would hardly be able to remember just like that.
Photo by ITMO University
This is the advantage of “doodle notes” (compared to regular notes): constant intense note-taking will distract you from what the teacher is currently saying, especially if he gives a large amount of material that is not designed for dictation. If you capture the main points in the usual way and switch to doodles as you explain them, you will be able to understand the issue better without losing the thread of the story.
On the other hand, doodling is not suitable for all tasks. For example, if you need to memorize and study a large number of images (diagrams, graphs), your own drawings will only distract you - Wall Street Journal in support of a study conducted at the University of British Columbia. When both tasks require processing visual information, doodling prevents us from focusing on what is really important at the moment.
Doodling is better to ignore and when you are not sure that the facts and formulas that the lecturer gives, you can easily find in other sources. In this case, training muscle memory is safer with the help of good old notes alone.
Knowledge about knowledge
Another area that is worth paying attention to for those who want to learn better is metacognitive processes (second-order cognitions or, more simply, our knowledge of our own knowledge). Patricia Chen, Stanford Researcher in the field, : "Very often, students start work thoughtlessly, without trying to plan in advance which sources are best to use, without understanding what each of them is good for, without evaluating how the selected resources can be used most effectively."
Chen and her colleagues conducted a number of studies (their results were last year in the journal Psychological Science) and experiments showing how thinking about learning can encourage students to learn better. As part of one of the experiments, students were given a questionnaire about 10 days before the exam - its authors offered to think about the upcoming test and answer questions about what grade the student wants to get, how important this grade is for him and with what probability he will receive it.
In addition, students were asked to think about what questions were most likely to be on the exam and to determine which of the 15 available learning practices (preparation from lecture notes, reading a textbook, working through exam questions, discussing with colleagues, courses with a tutor, and etc.) they will use. After that, they were asked to explain their choice and describe what exactly they would do - in fact, draw up a plan for preparing for the exam. The control group simply received a reminder about the exam and the importance of preparing for it.
As a result, the students who made the plan did indeed pass the exam better, getting grades on average one third of a point higher (for example, “A +” instead of “A” or “B” instead of “B-”). In addition, they noted that they felt more confident and had better self-control on the exam. The authors of the study emphasize that they selected the participants in the experiment so that there were no statistical differences between the groups - the experimental group did not consist of more capable or more motivated students.
As the scientists note, a key finding of their study is that by paying attention to metacognitive processes and reasoning about a task, you are doing important extra work. As a result, it allows you to better structure knowledge, stay motivated and find the most effective solutions - both for exam preparation and for any other situations.
TL; DR
- To make the time spent in the lecture as effective as possible, connect muscle memory. The easiest option is to take lecture notes. An alternative is an outline plus dudling. This approach helps to better perceive new information and remember it more efficiently. Doodles allow you to recall many nuances in your memory - by analogy with postcards or travel photographs, the look at which “triggers” your memories.
- An important point is that in order for dudling to really help memorize new things better, it is important that this activity remains mechanical, spontaneous. If you go headlong into drawing, you are unlikely to be able to perceive any more information.
- Combine doodling and "classic" abstract. Write down key facts and formulas in the "traditional way." Use dudling if: 1) at a lecture it is important for you to capture the essence of a particular concept, to understand its meaning, and you already have the basic data on the topic; and 2) the teacher gives a large amount of material and tells it at a fast pace, not in a “on the record” format. Do not neglect the teacher's request to record this or that moment in writing.
- According to the assumptions of a number of scientists, doodling activates the network of the passive mode of the brain. Therefore, he can help if you are "stuck". A name or a term "twisting on your tongue" but you can't remember it? Can't find the right wording for your written work? Have you tried all the options for solving the problem and are starting to lose your temper? Try to draw unconscious scribbles and come back to work a little later.
- Paying attention to “knowing about your knowledge” is another way to learn better. Think about why you need to solve a particular problem, what ways and methods may be suitable for this, think about the pros and cons of each of the possible approaches. This will allow you to maintain motivation (you answered the question why you need it and what results you expect from yourself on the exam or at the end of the course). In addition, this approach allows you to plan the most effective self-study option (you no longer grab the first source of information that comes across) and remain calm while testing your knowledge.
In the final part of our review, we will talk about how to memorize and retain information: how storytelling can help in this matter and how to overcome the “forgetting curve”.
Source: habr.com