From cramming the night before a big test to creating month-long study plans, students utilize different study tactics to succeed in classes. But a new research study released Jan. 10 found some of students’ favorite study tactics are not beneficial, and may even hinder their learning.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Educational Psychology Mitchell Nathan helped conduct the study, which compiled existing research on study methods into one large research project to find which methods benefit students the most and which have a negative impact.
The research focused on 10 commonly used study methods and tested the benefits of them on students of different ages and cognitive abilities.
The study found some of the most popular study techniques, including underlining, highlighting and re-reading material, had little benefit to students and in some cases proved detrimental.
“While [highlighting, underlining and re-reading] can achieve some advantages in some kinds of circumstances, it tends to focus the reader’s thinking on kind of isolated facts or phrases,” Nathan said. “But they do really badly if you ask questions that go much beyond recognizing phrases and fact retrieval.”
Additionally, while cramming before a big test is second nature to many students, the research found that studying over a long period of time and practice testing are the most effective ways of learning material.
Nathan said most students forget memory includes both storing and retrieving information and that if students do not store information properly it becomes challenging to retrieve it when needed.
“You could store everything you encounter, but if you can’t retrieve it ever, you won’t look any more competent than someone next to you who didn’t remember it in the first place,” he said.
UW-Madison sophomore Theodore Bakken said he was not surprised by the research findings, but said he engages in the recommended behavior by recopying his notes everyday after class to master the material.
“I’ve had pretty good success with my study habits,” Bakken said.
Nathan said he hopes the research will help students and teachers improve learning inside and outside the classroom.
More information about the research’s findings can be found on the Association for Psychological Science’s website.
