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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Active Recall |
Active recall, which lies at the heart of active learning, is the process of pulling knowledge from your own memory rather than looking it up. The basic process is: 1. Engage with some learning material to learn new information 2. Put away the learning material and notes so you can't see it. 3. Try to recall from memory what you just learned. |
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Pomodoro Technique |
The Pomodoro technique is it really a sequence of steps to help you make an efficient time of your learning. These steps are: 1. Prepare to study or work, removing all distractions around your learning environment. 2. Set a 25 minute timer. 3. During those 25 minutes, focus intently on what you're learning or the work that you're doing. 4. After 25 minutes you take a five minute break. 5. Repeat as needed, starting another 25 minute cycle. |
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Chunking |
The principle of chunking states that learning is easier when material is organized into three or four organized units, each of which can contain three or four units. The basic process is: 1. Look at the totality of the subject or skill you need to learn 2. Begin breaking the skill down into manageable chunks 3. Start with the fundamentals 4. As you master chunks, put them together to form larger chunks. Move to faster or more complex variations over time to work toward mastery. |
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Interleaving |
Interleaving is the process of mixing different types of tasks, problems or topics together during practice and study. Also known as ‘mixed practice’. If you're studying concepts under the same subject: Switch between concepts within that subject during a study session, not studying one for to long. In new study sessions, go back over the concepts again in different orders to strengthen your understanding. Make links between the different concepts as you switch between them. If you're studying multiple subjects: Use cross pollination or skill stacking, which is basically learning the related materials of different subjects at the same time. During study sessions, mix materials from the different subjects in that single session. This may feel really chaotic, but it's going to help you start connecting the different materials from each one of those subjects into a robust skillset. |
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Dual Coding |
The principle of dual coding states that learning and memory are more effective when information is presented in multiple modalities, such as visually and verbally. Applying dual coding generally: - Anytime you're learning a concept, try to learn from material that presents concepts both visually and auditorily. - Look over material your reading or taking notes on, and compare that to different visuals, diagrams, or charts and explain in your own words what they illustrate. - When reading about something or listening to a podcast, try drawing a visual to go along with the material you just consumed. Practice active recall as you draw these diagrams. - If visuals are unavailable for material you are studying, you can also visualize or create a mental image of the concepts in your mind's eye. |
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Reading Effectively |
Reading effectively is about understanding what you read and remembering it longer. When reading use the SQ3R technique: Survey: quickly skim or scan the content before reading it to prepare your mind for new information. Question: ask questions to increase motivation such as "how will this info apply to me? what do I expect to see in this book?" Read: more on this below Recall: Attempt to remember what you just read by recalling the information from memory. Review: Analyze the content from multiple perspectives. Assess what you have learned and try and connect it to previous knowledge. Review notes from reading over time. |
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Retrieval Practice |
Retrieval practice or testing is the process of actively recalling or applying knowledge (either for practice, or as a test). When tests are available: - Take the final exam before you start learning anything. Based on the forward testing effect, retrieval will enhance future learning, even when you have not studied the material yet. - After learning material, practice with old tests or practice tests online. Research shows that the best way to prepare for a test is by practicing with questions similar to those on the upcoming test. When tests are not available: - Create flashcards, a simple, yet effective way to learn pairing associations between questions and answers. - Use the question and book method by taking notes as questions which will requires you to recall information from memory when studying your notes. - Create self-generated challenges to practice skills, like a programmer actually writing small algorithms, which require remembering information and how to apply it. - Use closed book learning which prevents you from looking at source material when engaging with past material. - Create your own tests and don't look for answers in the book! |
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Elaboration |
Elaboration, or self-explaining, is the process of actively trying to explain the topic you're learning in your own words, which will broaden the associated set of links in your long term memory. To apply the elaborative technique: 1. When learning different subjects, concepts, or ideas, begin asking yourself questions about how these ideas work and why. 2. Try to actively recall the answers to those questions, putting the answers in your own words and using your own elaborative details. 3. Make connections between multiple ideas, explaining how they work together. A good way to do this as take two ideas and think about ways that they are similar and different. 4. Then describe how the ideas you are studying apply to your own life experiences or memories. 5. As you go through your day, take notice of the things happening around you and make connections to the ideas you're learning about. |
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Spaced Repetition |
Spaced repetition is the process of testing material over progressively longer intervals in order to increase the effort of recall and thus embed knowledge further into long term memory. The basic process is: 1. Plan days and times when you will study material. For example, create a daily habit of learning for 20 minutes a day. 2. Review information from each learning session, but not immediately after that learning session. 3. When you sit down to study, make sure you are using effective study strategies, retrieval practice or elaboration, rather than just re-reading your notes. 4. After you review information from the most recent learning session, make sure to go back and study important older information to keep it fresh. |
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Creating Associations |
The principle of association states that learning is enhanced by associating new information to what is already known. Strategies for creating associations include: - Learning foundational material first - Concept mapping - Stories or Associative chaining - Exploiting appropriate examples |
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Mnemonics |
Mnemonic links create robust, multi-sensory neural associations between foreign concepts and their meanings, so you can remember things more easily. Strategies for creating associations include: - Creating verbal mnemonics like acronyms - Creating vivid images and symbols - Using metaphors - Building memory palaces |
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Deliberate Practice |
Deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance. To use deliberate practice you need four elements: 1. Specific Goal: What exactly are you practicing and why are you practicing this skill so that it adds up into the overall skill you are learning 2. Intense Focus: Remember you want to set yourself up in an environment that has no distraction and allows you to focus in on what you're practicing. 3. Immediate Feedback 4. Frequent discomfort by being at the edge of our abilities (also known desirable difficulty) |
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Feedback |
Receiving feedback is typically an example of correct way to do the skill that you're trying to learn. In some cases, feedback may not be the correct version of the entire skill, but instead may zero in on a specific part that is incorrect helping you to identify what needs improvement. There are 3 types of feedback to seek when practicing a skill: 1. Outcome: tells you how well you are doing overall and can be motivational, but does not tell you what parts you could improve. 2. Informational: tells you what parts you're doing wrong, but not how to fix them. Often comes from direct practice and receiving feedback in real-time. 3. Corrective: shows you not only what you're doing wrong, but also how you can fix it. This is often only available by having a coach, mentor, or teacher. |
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Proceduralization |
Proceduralization is the process of converting declarative knowledge into automatic unconscious procedural knowledge. The general process of proceduralization is: 1. Learn something through declarative knowledge by focusing intently on the skill your learning, moving your learning from working memory to long-term memory. 2. Start recognizing patterns and repeatable steps within the skill. 3. Engage in deliberate practice until those steps become an automatic habit for you. |
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Overlearning |
Overlearning is the idea of practicing beyond perfect as additional practice beyond what is required to perform adequately can increase the length of time that memories are stored. The first core practice of overlearning is: - Practicing a skill continuously and refining the core elements, specifically the foundations of the skill that do not change over time. - Best done through immersion or working on extensive projects in new contexts after the initial learning phase has been completed. The second strategy of overlearning is: - Doing advanced practice, going one level above a certain set of skills, so that the core parts of the lower level skills are overlearned as one applies them in more difficult contexts. |
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Experimenting |
When you're doing an experiment, you're exploring applications of skills outside of the predetermined ways you originally learned those skills. There are five tactics that you can use to start running experiments: 1. Copy, then create: copying the work of another master, and then using that to create your own work or own application of that. 2. Compare methods side-by-side: trying two different approaches and varying only a single condition to see what the impact is. 3. Introducing new constraints: introducing new constraints that make the old methods impossible to use. 4. Creating a hybrid of unrelated skills: combine two unrelated skills to create a unique skillset. 5. Exploring the extremes: push the boundaries of what other people have done with this skill. |
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Generation |
The Generation Effect is the idea of creating something new which allows you to remember things better by actively engaging with the information and creating your own version of it. Strategies for using: - Try solving problems before looking over the material that you learned. - Reading half a chapter and start asking yourself questions about what you're reading, trying to develop a concept and generate the idea before you finish reading the text. - Watching a video a quarter or halfway through and generate what you think will happen next. - After you're done reading a blog post, go to another tab or open your notebook and try and write out a few bullet points about the content from your memory. - If you're doing something like learning how to code, try to read a tutorial in a focused way and then apply what you learned without looking at the tutorial. - Or when you're trying to memorize anything, ask someone to quiz you so you can start generating your own answers on those concepts. - Teach the material to someone else. |
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Teaching (Feynman Technique) |
Teaching requires us to imagine new and alternative ways to understand a subject and then take those understandings and create simpler, more creative ways to transmit that to other people. Using the Feynman Technique: 1. Choose a concept you wish to learn about. 2. Pretend you are teaching it to a child—a sixth-grader, specifically. Write your explanation down or say it out loud. 3. Identify any gaps in your understanding that might show up when you try to simplify the concept; go back to the source material to find the information you need. 4. Review and simplify your explanation again. 5. Test it out by teaching someone else |
