For more than a century scientists have known that individuals who are tested on material are more likely to remember it than those who simply study. But questions remain about why that is the case. Kent State University psychology researcher Katherine Rawson argues that part of the explanation is that testing gets people to come up with better keyword clues, which bridge the gap between familiar and new information—and it strengthens ties between these keywords and the newly learned information.
Rawson and former graduate student Mary Pyc asked 118 college students to learn four dozen Swahili words by matching them with their English counterparts, such as wingu, which means “cloud.” After an initial study period, half were given practice tests before studying the words a second time, and half restudied the words without taking a practice test.
As expected, students in the practice test group were better at remembering the word pairs during a final exam a week later. But Rawson and Pyc also asked students to tell them their keywords—for instance, “bird” might serve as a bridge between wingu and cloud—and they revealed that the people in the practice test group not only remembered more of their keywords, but they were more likely to have changed their keyword before restudying the word pairs than those who had not been tested. As the researchers reported in Science last October, these results suggest that testing improves memory by strengthening keyword associations and weeding out clues that do not work.
This article was originally published with the title Why Testing Boosts Learning.
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4 Comments
Add CommentWhy would bird be a keyword for cloud? Wouldn't it make more sense to associate cloud with the Swahili word? I've found that the best way to remember something is to have an emotional value for what you want to remember. If it means nothing you forget it but if it is important, such as needing it for a good grade, then you remember it. Calling it a bird when it is a cloud may make it unusual but hardly seems conducive to remembering that it is a cloud.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI imagine it's because birds have wingus, I mean, wings, and they fly in the clouds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn some tests that I conducted with 8 and 9 year old students I found some interesting results. Each week the students were given 20 spellings to learn, they were tested on a random 10. Half the group used a standard list to learn the words and the other half a Buzan style mindmap with images and colour.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe spelling test results showed a slight difference between the two groups, however a more signicant difference was seen in testing the remaining 10 words immediately after and a week later. The mindmap group scored consistently higher scores week in week out for a term.
The experiment described in the article above may well have been influenced by how the students learnt the words as well as the testing process. Buzan has shown that there is a very strong link when testing recall with colour and images. Most people recall information in colour and if they have learnt something with an image then they recall the image.
Yes it would be as it is standard association technique. If we try to recall a something when a word is mentioned we tend to see an image therefore remembering an image aids recall. Children learn to read by image/word association (sometimes called flash cards). When we learn to drive we learn road signs by image association etc.
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