Factors Influencing

Learning
By Aaron Benjamin
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Learning is a complex process that defies easy definition

and description. This module reviews some of the
philosophical issues involved with defining learning and
describes in some detail the characteristics of learners and
of encoding activities that seem to affect how well people
can acquire new memories, knowledge, or skills. At the
end, we consider a few basic principles that guide whether
a particular attempt at learning will be successful or not.

Learning Objectives

Consider what kinds of activities constitute learning.

Name multiple forms of learning.

List some individual differences that affect learning.

Describe the effect of various encoding activities on learning.

Describe three general principles of learning.

Introduction
What do you do when studying for an exam? Do you read your class notes and textbook
(hopefully not for the very first time)? Do you try to find a quiet place without
distraction? Do you use flash cards to test your knowledge? The choices you make
reveal your theory of learning, but there is no reason for you to limit yourself to your
own intuitions. There is a vast and vibrant science of learning, in which researchers
from psychology, education, and neuroscience study basic principles of learning and
memory.

When you study for a test, you incorporate your past knowledge into learning this new
knowledge. That is, depending on your previous experiences, you will learn the material in
different ways. [Image: UBC Learning Commons, https://goo.gl/eT0jvd, CC BY 2.0,
https://goo.gl/BRvSA7]

In fact, learning is a much broader domain than you might think. Consider: Is listening
to music a form of learning? More often, it seems listening to music is a way of
avoiding learning. But we know that your brains response to auditory information
changes with your experience with that information, a form of learning called
auditory perceptual learning(Polley, Steinberg, & Merzenich, 2006). Each time we
listen to a song, we hear it differently because of our experience. When we exhibit
changes in behavior without having intended to learn something, that is called implicit
learning(Seger, 1994), and when we exhibit changes in our behavior that reveal the
influence of past experience even though we are not attempting to use that experience,
that is called implicit memory(Richardson-Klavehn & Bjork, 1988).

Other well-studied forms of learning include the types of learning that are general
across species. We cant ask a slug to learn a poem or a lemur to learn to bat left-
handed, but we can assess learning in other ways. For example, we can look for a
change in our responses to things when we are repeatedly stimulated. If you live in a
house with a grandfather clock, you know that what was once an annoying and intrusive
sound is now probably barely audible to you. Similarly, poking an earthworm again and
again is likely to lead to a reduction in its retraction from your touch. These phenomena
are forms of nonassociative learning, in which single repeated exposure leads to a
change in behavior (Pinsker, Kupfermann, Castelluci, & Kandel, 1970). When our
response lessens with exposure, it is called habituation, and when it increases (like it
might with a particularly annoying laugh), it is called sensitization. Animals can also
learn about relationships between things, such as when an alley cat learns that the sound
of janitors working in a restaurant precedes the dumping of delicious new garbage (an
example of stimulus-stimulus learning called classical conditioning), or when a dog
learns to roll over to get a treat (a form of stimulus-response learning called operant
conditioning). These forms of learning will be covered in the module on Conditioning
and Learning (http://noba.to/ajxhcqdr).

Here, well review some of the conditions that affect learning, with an eye toward the
type of explicit learning we do when trying to learn something. Jenkins (1979)
classified experiments on learning and memory into four groups of factors (renamed
here): learners, encoding activities, materials, and retrieval. In this module, well focus
on the first two categories; the module on Memory (http://noba.to/bdc4uger) will
consider other factors more generally.

Learners
People bring numerous individual differences with them into memory experiments, and
many of these variables affect learning. In the classroom, motivation matters (Pintrich,
2003), though experimental attempts to induce motivation with money yield only
modest benefits (Heyer & OKelly, 1949). Learners are, however, quite able to allocate
more effort to learning prioritized over unimportant materials (Castel, Benjamin, Craik,
& Watkins, 2002).

In addition, the organization and planning skills that a learner exhibits matter a lot
(Garavalia & Gredler, 2002), suggesting that the efficiency with which one organizes
self-guided learning is an important component of learning. We will return to this topic
soon.
Research attests that we can hold between 5 and 9 individual pieces of information in our
working memory at once. This is partly why in the 1950s Bell Labs developed a 7-digit phone
number system. [Image: Diamondmagna, https://goo.gl/xeUxfw, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://goo.gl/eLCn2O]

One well-studied and important variable is working memory capacity. Working

memory describes the form of memory we use to hold onto information temporarily.
Working memory is used, for example, to keep track of where we are in the course of a
complicated math problem, and what the relevant outcomes of prior steps in that
problem are. Higher scores on working memory measures are predictive of better
reasoning skills (Kyllonen & Christal, 1990), reading comprehension (Daneman &
Carpenter, 1980), and even better control of attention (Kane, Conway, Hambrick, &
Engle, 2008).

Anxiety also affects the quality of learning. For example, people with math anxiety have
a smaller capacity for remembering math-related information in working memory, such
as the results of carrying a digit in arithmetic (Ashcraft & Kirk, 2001). Having students
write about their specific anxiety seems to reduce the worry associated with tests and
increases performance on math tests (Ramirez & Beilock, 2011).

One good place to end this discussion is to consider the role of expertise. Though there
probably is a finite capacity on our ability to store information (Landauer, 1986), in
practice, this concept is misleading. In fact, because the usual bottleneck to
remembering something is our ability to access information, not our space to store it,
having more knowledge or expertise actually enhances our ability to learn new
information. A classic example can be seen in comparing a chess master with a chess
novice on their ability to learn and remember the positions of pieces on a chessboard
(Chase & Simon, 1973). In that experiment, the master remembered the location of
many more pieces than the novice, even after only a very short glance. Maybe chess
masters are just smarter than the average chess beginner, and have better memory? No:
The advantage the expert exhibited only was apparent when the pieces were arranged in
a plausible format for an ongoing chess game; when the pieces were placed randomly,
both groups did equivalently poorly. Expertise allowed the master to chunk (Simon,
1974) multiple pieces into a smaller number of pieces of informationbut only when
that information was structured in such a way so as to allow the application of that
expertise.

Encoding Activities
What we do when were learning is very important. Weve all had the experience of
reading something and suddenly coming to the realization that we dont remember a
single thing, even the sentence that we just read. How we go
about encoding information determines a lot about how much we remember.

You might think that the most important thing is to try to learn. Interestingly, this is not
true, at least not completely. Trying to learn a list of words, as compared to just
evaluating each word for its part of speech (i.e., noun, verb, adjective) does help
you recall the wordsthat is, it helps you remember and write down more of the words
later. But it actually impairs your ability to recognize the wordsto judge on a later list
which words are the ones that you studied (Eagle & Leiter, 1964). So this is a case in
which incidental learningthat is, learning without the intention to learnis better
than intentional learning.
Motivation to learn doesn't make much of a difference unless learners use effective strategies
for encoding the information they want to retain. Although they're not flashy, methods like
spaced practice, interleaving, and frequent testing are among the most effective ways to apply
your efforts. [Image: Cali4beach, https://goo.gl/twjIVg, CC BY 2.0, https://goo.gl/BRvSA7]

Such examples are not particularly rare and are not limited to recognition. Nairne,
Pandeirada, and Thompson (2008) showed, for example, that survival processing
thinking about and rating each word in a list for its relevance in a survival scenarioled
to much higher recall than intentional learning (and also higher, in fact, than other
encoding activities that are also known to lead to high levels of recall). Clearly, merely
intending to learn something is not enough. How a learner actively processes the
material plays a large role; for example, reading words and evaluating their meaning
leads to better learning than reading them and evaluating the way that the words look or
sound (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). These results suggest that individual differences in
motivation will not have a large effect on learning unless learners also have accurate
ideas about how to effectively learn material when they care to do so.

So, do learners know how to effectively encode material? People allowed to

freely allocate their time to study a list of words do remember those words better than a
group that doesnt have control over their own study time, though the advantage is
relatively small and is limited to the subset of learners who choose to spend more time
on the more difficult material (Tullis & Benjamin, 2011). In addition, learners who have
an opportunity to review materials that they select for restudy often learn more than
another group that is asked to restudy the materials that they didnt select for restudy
(Kornell & Metcalfe, 2006). However, this advantage also appears to be relatively
modest (Kimball, Smith, & Muntean, 2012) and wasnt apparent in a group of older
learners (Tullis & Benjamin, 2012). Taken together, all of the evidence seems to
support the claim that self-control of learning can be effective, but only when learners
have good ideas about what an effective learning strategy is.

One factor that appears to have a big effect and that learners do not always appear to
understand is the effect of scheduling repetitions of study. If you are studying for a final
exam next week and plan to spend a total of five hours, what is the best way to
distribute your study? The evidence is clear that spacing ones repetitions apart in time
is superior thanmassing them all together (Baddeley & Longman, 1978; Bahrick,
Bahrick, Bahrick, & Bahrick, 1993; Melton, 1967). Increasing the spacing between
consecutive presentations appears to benefit learning yet further (Landauer & Bjork,
1978).

A similar advantage is evident for the practice of interleaving multiple skills to be

learned: For example, baseball batters improved more when they faced a mix of
different types of pitches than when they faced the same pitches blocked by type (Hall,
Domingues, & Cavazos, 1994). Students also showed better performance on a test when
different types of mathematics problems were interleaved rather than blocked during
learning (Taylor & Rohrer, 2010).

One final factor that merits discussion is the role of testing. Educators and students
often think about testing as a way of assessing knowledge, and this is indeed an
important use of tests. But tests themselves affect memory, because retrieval is one of
the most powerful ways of enhancing learning (Roediger & Butler, 2013). Self-testing
is an underutilized and potent means of making learning more durable.

General Principles of Learning

Weve only begun to scratch the surface here of the many variables that affect the
quality and content of learning (Mullin, Herrmann, & Searleman, 1993). But even
within this brief examination of the differences between people and the activities they
engage in can we see some basic principles of the learning process.

The value of effective metacognition

To be able to guide our own learning effectively, we must be able to evaluate the
progress of our learning accurately and choose activities that enhance learning
efficiently. It is of little use to study for a long time if a student cannot discern between
what material she has or has not mastered, and if additional study activities move her no
closer to mastery.Metacognition describes the knowledge and skills people have in
monitoring and controlling their own learning and memory. We can work to acquire
better metacognition by paying attention to our successes and failures in estimating
what we do and dont know, and by using testing often to monitor our progress.

Transfer-appropriate processing

Sometimes, it doesnt make sense to talk about whether a particular encoding activity is
good or bad for learning. Rather, we can talk about whether that activity is good for
learningas revealed by a particular test. For example, although reading words for
meaning leads to better performance on a test of recall or recognition than paying
attention to the pronunciation of the word, it leads to worse performance on a test that
taps knowledge of that pronunciation, such as whether a previously studied word
rhymes with another word (Morris, Bransford, & Franks, 1977). The principle
of transfer-appropriate processing states that memory is better when the test taps
the same type of knowledge as the original encoding activity. When thinking about how
to learn material, we should always be thinking about the situations in which we are
likely to need access to that material. An emergency responder who needs access to
learned procedures under conditions of great stress should learn differently from a
hobbyist learning to use a new digital camera.
The value of forgetting

In order to not forget things, we employ a variety of tricks (like scribbling a quick note on your
hand). However, if we were unable to forget information, it would interfere with learning new
or contradictory material. [Image: Andrea Maria Cannata, https://goo.gl/ylTbGG, CC BY-NC 2.0,
https://goo.gl/qOP7mj]

Forgetting is sometimes seen as the enemy of learning, but, in fact, forgetting is a highly
desirable part of the learning process. The main bottleneck we face in using our
knowledge is being able to access it. We have all had the experience of retrieval
failurethat is, not being able to remember a piece of information that we know we
have, and that we can access easily once the right set of cues is provided. Because
access is difficult, it is important to jettison information that is not neededthat is, to
forget it. Without forgetting, our minds would become cluttered with out-of-date or
irrelevant information. And, just imagine how complicated life would be if we were
unable to forget the names of past acquaintances, teachers, or romantic partners.

But the value of forgetting is even greater than that. There is lots of evidence
that someforgetting is a prerequisite for more learning. For example, the previously
discussed benefits of distributing practice opportunities may arise in part because of the
greater forgetting that takes places between those spaced learning events. It is for this
reason that some encoding activities that are difficult and lead to the appearance of slow
learning actually lead to superior learning in the long run (Bjork, 2011). When we opt
for learning activities that enhance learning quickly, we must be aware that these are not
always the same techniques that lead to durable, long-term learning.

Conclusion
To wrap things up, lets think back to the questions we began the module with. What
might you now do differently when preparing for an exam? Hopefully, you will think
about testing yourself frequently, developing an accurate sense of what you do and do
not know, how you are likely to use the knowledge, and using the scheduling of tasks to
your advantage. If you are learning a new skill or new material, using the scientific
study of learning as a basis for the study and practice decisions you make is a good bet.

Outside Resources

Video: The First 20 hours How to Learn Anything - Watch a video by Josh Kaufman about how
we can get really good at almost anything with 20 hours of efficient practice.

Video: The Learning Scientists - Terrific YouTube Channel with videos covering such important
topics as interleaving, spaced repetition, and retrieval practice.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjbAmxL6GZXiaoXuNE7cIYg

Video: What we learn before were born - In this video, science writer Annie Murphy Paul
answers the question When does learning begin? She covers through new research that
shows how much we learn in the womb from the lilt of our native language to our soon-to-
be-favorite foods.
https://www.ted.com/talks/annie_murphy_paul_what_we_learn_before_we_re_born

Web: Neuroscience News - This is a science website dedicated to neuroscience research, with
this page addressing fascinating new memory research.
http://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-terms/memory-research/

Web: The Learning Scientists - A websitecreated by three psychologists who wanted to make
scientific research on learning more accessible to students, teachers, and other educators.
 http://www.learningscientists.org/

Discussion Questions

1. How would you best design a computer program to help someone learn a new foreign
language? Think about some of the principles of learning outlined in this module and
how those principles could be instantiated in rules in a computer program.

2. Would you rather have a really good memory or really good metacognition? How
might you train someone to develop better metacognition if he or she doesnt have a
very good memory, and what would be the consequences of that training?

3. In what kinds of situations not discussed here might you find a benefit of forgetting on
learning?

Vocabulary

Chunk

The process of grouping information together using our knowledge.

Classical conditioning
Describes stimulus-stimulus associative learning.

Encoding
The pact of putting information into memory.

Habituation
Occurs when the response to a stimulus decreases with exposure.

Implicit learning
Occurs when we acquire information without intent that we cannot easily express.

Implicit memory
A type of long-term memory that does not require conscious thought to encode. It's
the type of memory one makes without intent.

Incidental learning
 Any type of learning that happens without the intention to learn.

Intentional learning
Any type of learning that happens when motivated by intention.

Metacognition
Describes the knowledge and skills people have in monitoring and controlling their
own learning and memory.

Nonassociative learning
Occurs when a single repeated exposure leads to a change in behavior.

Operant conditioning
Describes stimulus-response associative learning.

Perceptual learning
Occurs when aspects of our perception changes as a function of experience.

Sensitization
Occurs when the response to a stimulus increases with exposure

Transfer-appropriate processing
A principle that states that memory performance is superior when a test taps the same
cognitive processes as the original encoding activity.

Working memory
The form of memory we use to hold onto information temporarily, usually for the
purposes of manipulation.