MindCraft Challenges

Actors involve their bodies and emotions in learning, with remarkable results. These results are part of a broader pattern in the study of memory known as the enactment effect: when people act out an instruction or a pattern, their memory is more effective than when they simply hear it.

Challenge: How can you use the enactment effect? If what you are learning has associated spatial information (a diagram, a process, or a sequence) or can be converted to that information, you can act out the layout or sequence of the information by talking while you move your hand or body through the space. For example, rather than just looking at a Krebs Cycle diagram, you might walk the cycle while gesturing to describe what is happening at each step. Think about how your movement can point to the next step or idea: goal-directed movement is the key, not just movement without any purpose!

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Subject-performed tasks improve memory
https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.3.524
https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194399
Goal-directed movement is key for actors’ memory
https://doi.org/10.1080/01638530701498911

How do we remember to do something in the future? Planning a future action and then remembering to actually do it is known as prospective memory. Peter Gollwitzer’s solution to the problem of prospective memory failure is implementation intentions: choosing a future cue and linking it to an intended action.

Challenge: Think of a common prospective memory failure you face (where you intended to do something but failed to do it when the moment arrived). Create an implementation intention for that prospective memory:

If I ________________, I will ________________.

Write down the implementation intention and place it somewhere you will see it every morning. Say it out loud to yourself when you see it. Did you avoid prospective memory failure?

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The Psychology of Planning
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-021524-110536
Cues and implementation intentions
https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2014.975816
An early description of implementation intentions
https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493

Bob and Elizabeth Bjork refer to the types of effective learning techniques that challenge students as desirable difficulties. These techniques make studying more difficult in helpful ways so that performance on tests is less difficult.

Challenge: Choose one or more of the study techniques in green or yellow from the charts in class today to implement (I recommend practice testing if you have a class that requires learning facts or patterns). Use your change in study techniques to study for a relatively low-stakes test (for example, a quiz instead of a mid-term test). Pay attention to what study feels like and your performance on the test—our intuitions about study often lead to the incorrect belief that difficult study means that learning isn’t happening.

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Learning in College
https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616645770
Intuitions about spaced practice are reversed
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02127.x