I admit not being up to date on memory research, but following the encoding specificiy principle, I've always advised students to attempt to recreate during their study times those cues that are likely to be encountered during testing time (e.g., body posture, room atmosphere -physical and social climate-). My recollection of encoding specificity effects is that they were not that strong to begin with. However, I have to wonder the extent to which the benefits of the strategy implied by the statement "... simply alternating the room where a person studies improves retention" counteracts those of cue similarity between study and testing sessions.
Miguel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Clark" <[email protected]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 6, 2010 6:24:03 PM Subject: Re: [tips] Mind - Research Upends Traditional Thinking on Study Habits - NYTimes.com Hi Nice article, but with some caveats for me at least. I dislike the tendency to (a) promote these ideas as deriving from or saying much about the underlying brain processes (that seems gratuitous to me), and (b) many ideas about effective studying, some mentioned in the article and some not (e.g., distributed learning, unless I missed it)) are NOT particularly new (although they have probably not been appreciated). Perhaps b is why a occurs? That is, researchers hope that appeals to the brain will give them new credibility? But that kind of appeal, when not strongly warranted, is partly how we got into the current mess in the first place (e.g., learning styles and left-brain versus right-brain functioning). Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> "Christopher D. Green" <[email protected]> 06-Sep-10 4:26 PM >>> The New York Times looks at strategies for effective studying (and takes down "learning styles" along the way). http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?hp Chris -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 [email protected] http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ========================== --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=4643 or send a blank email to leave-4643-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c74e&n=T&l=tips&o=4644 or send a blank email to leave-4644-13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=4645 or send a blank email to leave-4645-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
