Running Head: Learning Techniques and Their Relations to Biases

Learning Techniques and Their Relations to Biases

Anggun Citra Berlian


Minerva Schools at KGI - Class of 2021

Spring 2017
 Students are often asked to find the learning technique that would help them excel
academically. This piece of writing addresses and explains learning techniques that are proven to
be ineffective and effective as well as proposes another learning technique. First, imagery for
text is the act of actively creating a mental image while studying was suspected to help to store
and retaining memory (Dunlosky, et al., 2013). However, this is proven to work more effectively
if the type information is rather spatial and easy-to-imagine. While listening or reading
information and being asked to create imagery, students would create an image that has an
association with information. This allows the students to free-recall due to top-down perceptual
bias. However, the mental imagery that does not come from normal perception, a perception
from real experience, is considered to be weak (Pearson, et al., 2015). They only recreate
imagery that is similar or related to what they have known previously.1 Therefore, this technique
works if the study material is something that is obvious, straightforward, and imaginable, for
example, a fable that involves cat and dog. However, this technique would be hard for
information that is more complicated, such as quantum physics.

Second, different with the technique above, self-explanation is a moderate utility technique
(Dunlosky, et al., 2013). Self-explanation is a technique in which students actively question and
answer the material that they are studying.2 Chi (2000) supports this technique by mentioning
that self-explanation assists learners through a process that permits students to generate
inferences and then map these inferences to their existing mental models. This method might
lead to availability bias, as the students might selectively recall information that is easy and
available to retrieve.3 However, precisely because this bias, revaluation in learning could take
place. Students would be able to acknowledge their gap of understanding and then fill the gap by
putting more efforts in parts that they have not mastered. However, if the students only recall
certain information and do not realize the miss other information, it might lead to confirmation

1 #psychologicalbias: to identify perceptual bias and extend the explanation of it in relation to

the learning technique
2 #scienceofleaning: to mention a strategy to learn and explain how it could work effectively
3#heuristicbias: to acknowledge possibility of availability bias in relation to a learning technique
and how to mitigate it
bias. They would reassure their knowledge to be sufficient when it is not as there is no
mechanism that allows other parties to confirm and recheck their understanding. 4

Third, an idea to learn more effectively would be to create an educational Youtube channel in
which students could create a video blog on a topic they are learning. A piece of information that
is stored in short-term memory for a longer period would lead to stronger trace in long-term
memory (Atkinson-Shiffrin, 1968). In creating the video, it is inevitable for students to keep on
engaging with their video material. The process would involve several actions. They should learn
the material which also means to encode as well as store the information. Next, they would need
to create a draft or at least decide which information that they want to present. Again, an active
video production would encourage students to actively recall and retrieve the information they
have. This is similar to the self-explanation technique as the students would realize and consider
their availability bias. Then, they would fill the information that is previously weak to articulate
it in their videos.

Moreover, since the audience of their Youtube videos might include people from different
backgrounds and interests, students might have a perceptual bias that their audience might have
zero knowledge about the topic. This encourages the students to rethink of their presentation in
multiple ways. First, they need to be clear in their explanation and clarify each term that they use
in their video. For example, if the students were to explain a carrot and stick strategy to win a
war in an advanced social science class, they might not have to explain what carrot and stick
strategy is. They might assume that people in the class have been familiar with that concept. On
the contrary, as the students believe from prior knowledge that they have a large and various
audience online, they would think that they obligate to extend their explanation.5 This would
help them clarify the concept of carrot and stick for themselves before clarifying it for others.
Second, students would also be encouraged to create an explanation video that is easy to
understand. This stimulates them in creatively present their discussion on a particular topic. With

4#confirmationbias: to identify bias that raises from preconception and explain how it could
happen in a specific learning style
5#audience: to demonstrate understanding that difference audience influences how students
would explain and present their knowledge differently
all of those processes, in addition to technical processes, such as recording video or audio,
creating images or presentation, editing and finishing the video product, students would
continuously engage with the materials which according to Atkinson-Shiffrin should lead to
information being stored in long-term memory. Therefore, creating a educational video for others
would be a creative learning technique that students could benefit from.
References:

Atkinson, R.C., Shiffrin R.N. (1968). "Human memory: A proposed system and its control
processes". Stanford University. Retrieved from http://apps.fischlerschool.nova.edu/toolbox/
instructionalproducts/edd8124/fall11/1968-Atkinson_and_Shiffrin.pdf

Chi, M. T. H., Bassok, M., Lewis, M. W., Reimann, P., & Glaser, R. (1989). Self-explanations:
How students study and use examples in learning to solve problems. Cognitive Science, 13, 145-
182. Retrieved from: https://chilab.asu.edu/papers/ChiBassokLewisReimannGlaser.pdf

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving
students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and
educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. Retreived
from: https://service.sipx.com/service/php/inspect_document.php?id=perma-cr-99a82b84-
fcdf-11e7-8780-22000bd45457

Pearson, J., Naselaris, T., Holmes, E. A., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2015). Mental Imagery: Functional
Mechanisms and Clinical Applications. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(10), 590–602.
Retrieved from: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.003