We tend to associate "studying" with 鈥渉itting the books鈥� -- lots of discipline and focus. At 1 p.m. on Think, education reporter of the New York Times explains how new brain science affirms the wandering mind over a one-track approach. His new book is called .
Take called "How Good Are You At Teaching The Art of Learning?" In the key provided, Carey suggests that distractions can actually help in rethinking problems and changing the context of your usual studying setting deepens learning.
And the way students take notes in class can affect the way they retain information. The popularity of laptops as a note-taking tool has risen as technology has advanced. But ScienceDaily done by Princeton University psychological scientist Pam Mueller and psychology researcher Daniel Oppenheimer. The two found that those choosing to type notes were subject to 鈥渕indless transcription鈥� of lectures compared to those who were able to find conceptual understanding by hand-writing notes.
Studying isn鈥檛 the only way we grasp material -- learning also goes back to pedagogical methods. Carey that one way to improve the studying process is through pre-testing. Even before any instruction, tests are an effective way of altering memory (and taken sooner, studies have shown, yield better results). These pre-tests not only introduce concepts, but point out 鈥渇luency illusions,鈥� or our ideas on what we think we know.
Listen to 鈥楾丑颈苍办鈥�, Monday through Thursday at noon and 9 p.m., on 四虎影院 90.1 FM or via .
