encoding specificity – Cognition in Class

April 30, 2023March 12, 2024

Benefits of Contextual Learning

By Alexis Cole

Have you ever studied for a test but then when the time came to actually take the test you completely blanked? Many factors play a role in how well our memory works in different circumstances. One way you can try to improve your memory when studying for school is to use the encoding specificity principle. The encoding specificity principle is the idea that when we learn information we are processing both the information and the environment in which we learned it so we have better recall of that information when we are trying to remember it in an environment similar to the one we learned the information in (1). If we apply this concept to school we see that it is important to study for exams in an environment similar to the environment we will be in when we take the exam.

December 3, 2017

Where and How to Study for Better Recall

By Ashley Guingrich

Everyone studies differently! Are you one of those people who studies, with your homework and notes sprawled out everywhere, while the TV is on? Maybe you enjoy going to the library and hiding behind the bookshelves. Perhaps you enjoy noisy banging and clanging of pans, while your dog barks every 10 seconds. Possibly, you’re none of these people, and MUST STUDY OUTSIDE no matter what, with your laptop. Whatever the case may be, take a moment and think about how you study.

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April 29, 2017

Professors Hate This Study Method: How Wearing a Zumba Suit and Binging On Kahlúa Improved Exam Scores

By Christopher Forte and Shantell Brusse

So your class has just taken a difficult calculus exam. Amongst the crowd of people leaving the classroom are expressions of relief, profound joy and confidence. There is a light at the end of everyone’s tunnel, except for you. You stagger outside the classroom in complete astonishment, run into Walgreens to buy a pint of Ben & Jerry’s half-baked cookie dough paradise and proceed to crawl in bed to withdraw from such a cruel world.

The following week is spent in wallowing as the inevitable test grade is posted onto D2L and your dreams of leading an armada of food trucks are foolishly, however temporarily, put into question. Assuming that there are no perfect people on Earth, such a failure may lead to a short-lived, higher ingestion of alcohol. More days pass and you break out of your drunken spree only to realize that it is the day of the next calculus exam. A short review of the notes and you find yourself sitting in the same classroom where the exam review took place several days before. Still slightly inebriated, the exam is completed and turned back to the TA. The surprise of your life is posted on D2L as you score higher than you ever have before in the class.

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