Psychology

Our topic is:  how students study strategies can help with improving memory.

For this paper I need you to follow section 4 and 5.

Find new reading about the topic scholarly article only and relating those New Readings to Class Concept already attached class readings. Write like a presentation

For this topic we would be pulling information from week 2 (optimal learning) and week 6 (attention/memory) > attached

For this assignment, you will produce a 5-8 minute video that highlights cognitive psychology as it relates to learning, instruction, or human performance.

The purpose of this video project is to 1) help you practice communicating scientific ideas about learning and cognition, 2) learn new information relevant to your interests, 3) and practice your synthesis / analysis skills.

Your Final Group Project Video Should Contain the following sets of slides:

1. Presentation Title & Name / Group Member Names
2. Purpose of Presentation / Driving Question
3. Class Concepts
4. New Reading
5. Relating New Reading to Class Concepts
6. Takeaways for Understanding or Instruction/Application

1. Presentation Title & Group Member Names: Provide a title that clearly highlights the topic(s) you will discuss. Please limit your topic to areas of cognitive psychology that examine learning, instruction, or human performance. Please do not select topics outside of this domain (e.g., clinical psychology, social psychology). Some examples of this include:

The relationship between exercising and learning

Why you should not muti-task while studying

Can behaviorism be helpful in the classroom?

What motivates college students to learn?

2. Purpose of Presentation / Driving Question: Devote some time to discussing the purpose of your presentation (what are the goals for presenting your work?) or provide a driving question that highlights the importance of understanding this topic.

3. Class Concepts: Discuss the class concept(s) and assigned reading(s) that your presentation is related to. It is also important that you introduce and explain the terminology of the topic/concept you are discussing. 

For example, if your presentation is about whether behaviorism is helpful for some forms of learning, then you should discuss the field of behaviorism (what assumptions does it make about learning) as well as introduce and discuss important terms (conditioning, punishments, rewards, etc.)

4. New Reading (Selected Research Article): Introduce the new reading you will discuss, in terms of the article title, journal name, and authors.

Discuss the purpose of the study/article.

Highlight new terminology,  just as you did in Section 3. You don’t need to re-introduce terms you already discussed, however. Just introduce new terms or concepts.

Discuss the methods (participants, setting (lab, classroom, etc.)), and measures (what did they study (e.g., student motivation, sense of belonging, etc.)).

Discuss what the study found. If the study has a good visualization of the results, then I recommend including it in your presentation. If not, try to describe the difference (on average, participants in the experimental condition had 8.9 errors, whereas those in the distractor condition had 30.1 errors).

Important note about selecting your article!

Make sure that the study you selected focuses on some kind of learning, instructional, or performance outcome

Avoid review articles  / literature reviews, but use them as a way to find good articles!

You have to be very selective about ensuring the article you selected is high quality. That is, it should have a large sample size (lab-based experimental studies should have around 30 participants, surveys should have more), clear methods, and strong results.

One shortcut method filtering out high-quality from low quality articles is to check articles for number of citations. For an article published in the last 10 years, it should have at least 20 citations. In addition to checking the quality of the study, please use the CRAAP test to assess whether the article is recent, was written by an authority on the subject, is free of bias, and is published from a peer-reviewed journal.

I would recommend using scholar.google.com to search for relevant articles, as it allows you to see how many times an article was cited.

Please make sure to include the APA citation in your slides! You can easily cut and paste this from the google scholar search results.

Schmidt-Kassow, M., Kulka, A., Gunter, T. C., Rothermich, K., & Kotz, S. A. (2010). Exercising during learning improves vocabulary acquisition: behavioral and ERP evidence. Neuroscience letters, 482(1), 40-4

5. Relating New Reading to Class Concepts: Discuss how the new reading relates to the course concept you discussed in Class Reading. This can describe how the additional topics/concepts help us better-understand the topic (and make sure to analyze it as it relates to your driving question).

Spend some time discussing how the terminology/concepts and findings in the new article you selected help us understand something new.

This analysis can also be a critique, where you use the terminology/concepts and findings from your new article to critically evaluate specific shortcomings in the related class reading.

Finally, feel free to discuss personal experiences, and how they relate to the readings.

6. Takeaways for Understanding or Instruction/Application: Discuss how the new reading and your analysis of the reading can better inform (1) our understanding of this topic, (2) specific instructional strategies (e.g., promoting group-based exams that focus on demonstrating mastery over memorization, etc.), and/or (3) the application of the reading analysis to real-world settings.

ANSWER

New Reading

New Reading: Dirkx, K. J. H., Camp, G., Kester, L., & Kirschner, P. A. (2019). Do secondary school students make use of effective study strategies when they study on their own?. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33(5), 952-957.

Introduction

The article by Dirkx, Kim, and Hubertina, (2019) focuses on different study strategies that are utilized by students to enhance memory while studying on their own. The study has been used to explore the utilization of different study strategies that have been used by secondary school students to enhance memory. This paper will focus on the article highlighting the new terminology, discussing the methods and measures as well as discussing what the study found with regards to the use of study strategies to improve memory.

New Terminology

The new and unfamiliar terminologies were highlighted from the study strategies. Cognitive psychology is a term that is used to understand how people learn, think, remember and tend to process information. Therefore, this entails studying internal mental processes which include thinking, perception, attention, memory, learning, problem solving, and language. Educational psychology on the other hand is a term that refers to a process that shows how children are capable of growing at each stage. This has been a concern with the scientific study of human learning which involves conceptual processes, the study of memory, and individual differences in the conceptualization of new strategies for learning in humans (Dunlosky, 2013).

Retrieval practice is a term used to explain the strategy in which offering information to the mind boosts and enhances learning. According to retrieval practice, recalling information enables or forces one to examine what they know and pull knowledge out. For instance, the ability of a student to recall an answer to a science question enables them to improve their learning to a big extent rather than having to look up the answer in the textbook. Additionally, having to write down an answer and recalling improves learning more than thinking.

Distributed Practice is a term that is used to explain the strategy of learning that ensures the use of small increments of practice and study over an extended period rather than having a mass practice that utilizes long practice and study over a short period. Therefore, learning occurs through various short sessions over a long period. The spacing effect in distributed practice refers to the idea that long-term memory can be enhanced when learning is effectively spaced apart in time as compared to when the study is massed (Schmeck, 2013).

Practice testing is a term that is used to explain frequent quizzing and testing over a period that encourages the students to remember information by their memory. Practice testing brings the idea of remembering facts or concepts through retrieving from memory thus increasing long-term retention.

Methods and Measures

The study relied on three different secondary schools in the Netherlands with 318 Dutch-speaking students. The study participants were in their fourth year of secondary education. The study relied on a survey method where the students were asked to describe which study strategies they rely on during their self-study (Dirkx, Camp, Kester & Kirschner, 2019). Additionally, they were requested to rank the study strategies that they often rely on. The paper and pencil survey was utilized to determine the strategies that students rely on to enhance their memory. This was administered in the classroom at school where the participants were offered five minutes to complete the survey.

To measure the effectiveness of the reported study strategies, all the responses in the study were categorized. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the many differences that enabled the students to learn and enhance their memories. The study listed the most effective studying strategies that can help the students regardless of their age (Dirkx, Camp, Kester & Kirschner, 2019). The study measured how the strategies can enhance comprehension of materials, learning and most important in boosting student memory.

The survey studied the nature of study strategies and how they affect student motivation towards having better memory outcomes. Considerably, learners focus on learning when they are motivated by having a manageable challenge and when they find the utility and value of what they are learning. Student motivation towards learning and recalling is motivated by the study strategies which improve learning in the educational settings.

Study Findings

Three hundred and eighteen students answered the questions where the frequency distribution was used to different study strategies that were listed by the students. There was no significant difference in the study strategies that were reported by the students (Dirkx, Camp, Kester & Kirschner, 2019). The questions were carried out using an open question where the students were asked to state different strategies that they used to enhance their memory while preparing for exams. They stated that summarizing, rereading, retrieval practice and practice problems help in improving memory and mind. These strategies enable one to enter information into their long-term memory. For instance, retrieval practice helps the students to create integrated and coherent mental presentations which is a kind of deep learning which is essential in drawing novel preferences and solving new issues. Students in the pre-university and secondary level rely on the study strategies to elaborate the text materials during self-study.

Relating New Reading to Class Concepts

The article has linked to the class concepts which focus on the strategies that boost learning. The study has reviewed the learning strategies that have been used to enhance memory among students. The article has indicated some of the strategies that have promised for improvement of memory as well as student’s achievement. Study strategies that were rated as the most effective in the class reading, distributed practice, and practice testing have also been indicated in the new reading as effective strategies since they can help the students in enhancing their memory regardless of their age thus improving learning (Dunlosky, 2013).

All the strategies that have been reviewed in the class concepts have also been stated in the new reading as effective in motivating learning. For instance, retrieval practice has been considered meaningful in both the new reading and class concepts. Education psychology which entails studying how people learn and retain new information has clearly shown the importance of study strategies in improving memory. Understanding and applying effective study strategies improve memories which are useful while studying.

During exams, there are various learning strategies that I rely on that I have learned from my friends and teachers. I have relied on rereading, highlighting, summarizing, cramming, and doing problem practice. However, some strategies are less effective when one understands content and learns. Practice testing has been the most effective strategy in enhancing my memory since using this practice has enabled me to score high grades. In summation, the article has shown that each student has their learning strategy that facilitates recalling and improves memory. When study strategies are administered in daily practices in the class contents students tend to perform better due to enhanced memory.

References

Dirkx, K. J. H., Camp, G., Kester, L., & Kirschner, P. A. (2019). Do secondary school students make use of effective study strategies when they study on their own?. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33(5), 952-957.

Dunlosky, J. (2013). Strengthening the student toolbox: Study strategies to boost learning. American Educator, 37(3), 12-21.

Schmeck, R. R. (Ed.). (2013). Learning strategies and learning styles. Springer Science & Business Media.