Neuroscience-backed study techniques for psychology students

Recall, recall, recall

Whether it’s your basic Psychology 101 course or a graduate-level class, there’s a lot of knowledge you must acquire and memorize to perform well come exam day, and your success often hinges on whether you can recall that information and how quickly.  

Using flashcards or something similar is a popular example of a study technique that practices your ability to recall information, and they’ve stood the test of time for good reason.  

“The testing effect is real,” Carbonneau said. “Let’s look at your generic example of training for a spelling test. You don’t really have to write out the words and copy them over and over like we used to. That doesn’t actually work, but if the student just does the test every day with their parents without looking at it every time they do it, they get a little bit stronger. Again, it’s the idea of putting information into long term memory and pulling it back out again.”  

Though it can be useful in almost all subject areas, Carbonneau said the testing effect has shown to be especially effective for language learning.  

The key, as Carbonneau pointed out, is to continue recalling information for the best results, known as repeated retrieval practice. In other words, don’t just put away a flashcard once you’ve successfully recalled the information the first time. The more you do it, the easier it will get. You’ll have a better chance of retrieving that information on test day if you practice recalling it over and over. 

Test yourself

Taking an actual practice test or quiz is another exercise in recalling information. If they haven’t already provided one, see if your instructor can give you a practice quiz to take home. Even when you get answers wrong, your brain is still practicing the act of retrieving that information which helps solidify it in your memory. Online resources like Quizlet can also be helpful in finding user-generated quizzes on certain topics.  

Carbonneau said this is one study technique where artificial intelligence (AI) can be especially useful. If you ask an AI tool to make you a quiz for a list of terms, for example, you’ve got what you need to practice the testing effect right there.  

To get even more out of the testing effect, Carbonneau said students should try to emulate the testing environment as much as possible, especially if you struggle with testing anxiety. 

“I tell my students that someone who plays the violin isn’t going to go up and just perform without practice. Well, a test is a performance. You have to practice in the setting which you’re going to do it. So, practicing with your textbook open is not a great idea if your test isn’t open-book.” 

Another mistake Carbonneau said she sees a lot is when students are allowed one sheet of notes during a test. All too often they fill that sheet up with as much information as they can fit, but then they become too dependent on it. They haven’t practiced without it enough to be able to retrieve most of the information they need quickly and instead waste precious testing time just trying to find whatever they wrote down. It’s important to think of the constraints of the testing environment and practice within them. 

Space it out

You’ve probably heard it before, but the importance of spacing out your study time really can’t be understated. 

“The number one thing that I would say, especially at the undergraduate level but true for anybody as well, is this idea of distributed practice,” Carbonneau said. “Rather than even doing an hour of studying on a specific topic, you do what we call chunks of time. If we go back to thinking of our information processing system where you bring [information] into working memory then put it into long term memory, then the next time that you get to do that, you have to pull it back out. And we know every time you pull it back out, you’re strengthening the ability to retrieve it. That doesn’t occur with bulk studying.” 

Cramming before a big test might save you from flunking here and there, but it’s an incredibly ineffective way of retaining information over time.  

If you have to read a book or long text, Carbonneau encourages students to read in small chunks for this same reason.  

“Think of reading a whole chapter in one sitting. Do you remember what was at the beginning of that chapter? Probably not, right? But if you read a couple of pages one day while you have a 10-minute window of your time, and then the next time you say, ‘I’m going to read the next section of the chapter,’ what happens? You skim those two pages and say ‘Oh yeah, I remember that. Now I’m going to add on to it.’ Not only did you attach to prior knowledge, but you had distributed practice as well.” 

Explain it to someone else—or at least prepare to 

Whether it’s among a study group or tutoring a peer, teaching a concept to someone else—sometimes referred to as the protégé effect—expands your understanding of the topic at hand. When you teach something, it increases your metacognitive processing and you become more aware of your thought processes, which can help solidify your understanding.  

Interestingly, you don’t even need to actually teach someone else to benefit from the protege effect. In one study, students who prepared to teach a topic in preparation for a test still outperformed the students who did not. That said, another study showed that students who really did get the chance to teach someone else (as opposed to students who simply prepared to teach) did perform better when everyone took the same test a week later. When possible, try to teach a real person to maximize your comprehension and retention. 

Reduce distractions and listen to your needs 

“I think the thing that people don’t realize with learning is that we’re constantly taking in information, and our brain does a really good job of not attending to certain things,” Carbonneau said. Because of this, the first step to getting things into our long-term memory is, quite simply, we have to be paying attention to it.  

“This is a problem with undergraduate students in large classes because they aren’t even attending. They’re physically there, but their attention isn’t attending to the lecture. And we can show that if there’s no attention, we have cognitive slips and the information never even had a chance to get into working memory.” 

Whether you’re listening to a lecture or studying on your own, do your very best to reduce distractions that overload your cognitive capacity like checking your cell phone, browsing the internet or even just noise interference.  

There’s another major aspect of learning that has yet to be addressed but is absolutely crucial to remember. Think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—if our most basic physiological needs aren’t being met, it can make learning extremely difficult if not impossible.  

“Food insecurity is a huge issue in undergraduate education. If your belly is rumbling, you are attending to that pain. Whatever is being presented doesn’t even have a chance to get into your working memory. Part of your cognitive capacity is attending to that, no matter how hard you’re trying to pay attention,” Carbonneau said. “Economic security too, if you’re worried about rent or you’re worried about making it to your job on time after class—all those things are impacting [your cognitive capacity].”