1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:04,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:07,720 Speaker 2: Hey brain Stuff. 3 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:11,840 Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbaumb here with a classic episode from the podcast's archives. 4 00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:16,480 Speaker 1: In this one, we dive into the weird science of learning. 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,400 Speaker 1: We all know somewhere in our heart of hearts that 6 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:24,720 Speaker 1: pulling all nighters to cram isn't really effective, especially in 7 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:27,920 Speaker 1: the long term. But let's talk about what actually is. 8 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 2: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogelbomb here with a familiar scenario. 9 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 2: It's the day before a big calculus exam and you 10 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:38,840 Speaker 2: haven't studied for whatever reason. 11 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 1: You're short on time. 12 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:42,240 Speaker 2: You have too many other exams packed into the same day, 13 00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 2: too many cat videos. You know. Around ten pm you 14 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,000 Speaker 2: finally sit down to review the material. Six hours later, 15 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 2: you catch a short nap before rushing to school. You 16 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 2: take the exam and it seems to go fine, although 17 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,320 Speaker 2: it wasn't your best effort. You pass and promise not 18 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:00,319 Speaker 2: to repeat the cycle when it's time for your next one. 19 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:03,960 Speaker 2: This is what's known as cramming, and while students, parents 20 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,760 Speaker 2: and educators have long known it's not ideal in desperate circumstances, 21 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 2: it does work to some degree, and by some degree 22 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 2: we mean it might save your GPA, but cramming doesn't 23 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 2: provide long term learning. According to researchers who study how 24 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,160 Speaker 2: we learn versus how we think we learn a spoiler alert, 25 00:01:21,160 --> 00:01:24,920 Speaker 2: we're usually really wrong. In the case of cramming, you 26 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 2: may pass the test and feel like you've got the 27 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,959 Speaker 2: material down, but research shows that a dramatic rate of 28 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,160 Speaker 2: forgetting occurs afterwards. This is especially problematic when one lesson 29 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:37,399 Speaker 2: provides foundational information for the next like in math or 30 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,720 Speaker 2: a language class. Forgetting most of what you learned is 31 00:01:40,760 --> 00:01:43,840 Speaker 2: not the only downside to cramming. Researchers have found that 32 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:46,399 Speaker 2: losing sleep while pulling an all nighter also leads to 33 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:50,440 Speaker 2: residual academic problems for days after the cramming session. You 34 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:52,800 Speaker 2: can imagine the negative effects of an ongoing cycle of 35 00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 2: procrastination and cramming. More than a century of research shows 36 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:01,080 Speaker 2: that if you study something twice, retention goes up. Studying 37 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 2: and then waiting before you study more produces even better 38 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 2: long term memory. 39 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 1: This is called the spacing effect. 40 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 2: Rather than reviewing material right away, students benefit from spacing 41 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,480 Speaker 2: out their study sessions. There are many arguments about why 42 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:18,560 Speaker 2: spacing works better for long time retention. One relates to encoding. 43 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 2: When a student studies something from a book and reviews 44 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 2: it immediately, the student will encode the information in the 45 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:28,000 Speaker 2: same way both times. It's not very helpful long term. 46 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,399 Speaker 2: The more different times and ways you can encode information, 47 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:34,360 Speaker 2: the better you'll understand it and the longer you'll know it. 48 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:37,639 Speaker 2: This means that even studying the same material in two 49 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:40,240 Speaker 2: different locations can help you encode it in different ways, 50 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 2: Therefore you'll learn it more successfully. Another factor at work 51 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:47,280 Speaker 2: is that research shows that the harder it is for 52 00:02:47,320 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 2: a brain to recall something, the more powerful the effects 53 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 2: of that recall will be in the long term. For example, 54 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:55,639 Speaker 2: if you're at a conference and meet someone new, you 55 00:02:55,720 --> 00:02:58,600 Speaker 2: might recall their name immediately, which probably won't help you. 56 00:02:58,560 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: Remember it the next day. 57 00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:02,720 Speaker 2: However, if you need to recall the person's name an 58 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:05,520 Speaker 2: hour into the conference and do so, you'll have a 59 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:07,600 Speaker 2: better chance of remembering it a day or a week 60 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 2: later because you had to put in the effort to 61 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:12,920 Speaker 2: recall it. A third reason why spacing works is that 62 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 2: people pay less attention to the second presentation of material 63 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:18,840 Speaker 2: that they've just seen because the information is already familiar. 64 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,239 Speaker 2: When the material is spaced out, it's no longer as familiar, 65 00:03:22,320 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 2: so people pay more attention if the spacing effect sounds 66 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 2: like a lot of waiting around to review material, and 67 00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:31,800 Speaker 2: it may indeed slow the learning process because you'll be 68 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,640 Speaker 2: studying for more than one evening. Recent studies have shown 69 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 2: the positive effects of another study method, mixing up different 70 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:42,200 Speaker 2: material while studying. This concept, called interleaving, consists of working 71 00:03:42,240 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 2: on or studying one skill for a short period of time, 72 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 2: then switching to another one, then maybe a third, then 73 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,520 Speaker 2: back to the first. A twenty fifteen study tested interleaving 74 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 2: in nine middle school classrooms teaching algebra and geometry. A 75 00:03:56,240 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 2: day after the lesson for the unit was complete, the 76 00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 2: students trained with interleaving school were twenty five percent better 77 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 2: than the students who received standard training. A month later, 78 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 2: the interleaving group was up seventy six percent. This is 79 00:04:08,080 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 2: great news. Studying for an exam or completing a big 80 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:13,840 Speaker 2: project doesn't need to feel so daunting, and interleaving has 81 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:17,240 Speaker 2: benefits for writing, too. Rather than trying to block out 82 00:04:17,279 --> 00:04:19,839 Speaker 2: two hours to study for a math test, study math 83 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:21,919 Speaker 2: for thirty minutes before you move on to French, and 84 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:24,280 Speaker 2: then work on an essay go back to the math later. 85 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:28,000 Speaker 2: There's a message here for teachers as well as students. 86 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 2: Instead of teaching a topic and a block and going 87 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:32,880 Speaker 2: to the next steps, teachers can spend a short time 88 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:35,240 Speaker 2: on a topic, go on to others, then return to 89 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 2: the earlier topics. But it seems that we have a 90 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 2: lot to learn about how we learn. A two thousand 91 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:44,400 Speaker 2: and nine study from UCLA found that spacing was more 92 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:47,599 Speaker 2: effective than cramming for ninety percent of the participants. Just 93 00:04:47,640 --> 00:04:49,960 Speaker 2: six percent of those who crammed learned more than those 94 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,359 Speaker 2: who studied using the spacing effect. In three experiments, researchers 95 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:58,080 Speaker 2: tested spacing against cramming, Yet despite the findings in favor 96 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 2: of spacing, participants believed the cramming style was more effective, 97 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:05,560 Speaker 2: and a twenty twelve UCLA study found that staying up 98 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 2: and foregoing sleep to study is actually counterproductive. No matter 99 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 2: how much a student studies daily, if they sacrifice sleep 100 00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:14,640 Speaker 2: in order to study more, they're likely to have more 101 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:25,400 Speaker 2: academic problems, not less the next day. Today's episode is 102 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 2: based on the article why cramming is the worst way 103 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 2: to study on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Kerry Whitney. 104 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 2: Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with houstuffworks 105 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:37,760 Speaker 2: dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Four more 106 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,760 Speaker 2: podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the Airheartradio app, Apple Podcasts, 107 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:53,159 Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.