How We Learn and How Our Brain Works

In Chapter 2, we discussed key differences between being a “student” and being a “learner” and how the college model requires students to do a great deal of learning outside of the classroom.  As such, it is important to understand how we learn in order to make the most effective use of your study time. This chapter will cover three areas of learning and comprehension. The first section will elucidate the process of memorizing information. Understanding this process can assist you in recognizing better ways to study and absorb information. The second section will discuss Bloom’s taxonomy, highlighting different aspects of knowledge and the process of mastering information. This area particularly assists in recognizing gaps in knowledge and actions you can complete to fully comprehend material and master a subject. The final segment will discuss metacognition, or the exercise of thinking about your own thinking.  As a college student, you have a unique opportunity to reflect on your own thinking and learning and adjust your learning strategies to best suit your personal preferences.

3.1 An Information Processing Model

Let’s begin by discussing memory and the manner in which we absorb information.You are constantly processing information.  Your senses are constantly relaying new information to your brain.  Consider sitting in a lecture or lab, your eyes and ears are relaying the content of a class to your brain, your sense of smell or touch may give you new information revealed through a scientific experiment. This new information goes into your short term memory. Additionally, as college students, new information often builds upon older, stored information.  How can you ensure you retain what you learn for future use?  The Information Processing Theory argues that learners need to DO something with newly learned information in order to store this new material in long term memory¹.

The process of DOING something with new material is called encoding. The encoding process can include active engagement with material in a lab-like environment, it may require you to think critically about the new information and connect newly learned concepts to previous information. During encoding a learner may watch, listen, repeat, or recall while trying to establish a neurological pathway from the new information to “long term storage” in the brain¹.

In order for information to go into long term storage, it has to pass through three distinct stages: Sensory Memory, Short-Term Memory, and Long-Term Memory. These stages were first proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin². Their model of human memory is based on the belief that we process memories in the same way that a computer processes information.

Learning, Remembering, and Retrieving Information Is Important for Academic Success

The first thing your brain does is take in information from your senses. In many instructional settings, students primarily use hearing for lectures and seeing for reading textbooks. Information perceived from senses is stored in short-term memory.

It is useful to then be able to do multiple things with information in the short-term memory. You want to: 1) decide if that information is important; 2) be able to save the information that is important in your brain on a longer-term basis (long-term memory); 3) retrieve that information when you need to.

Moving Information from the Short-term Memory To the Long-term Memory

This is something that takes a lot of time: there is no shortcut for it. Students who skip putting in the time and work often end up cramming at the end. Cramming can be an effective method in the short-term. However, due to the stress of cramming and the amount of information processed by the brain over a short period of time, that information is rarely transferred to long-term memory. It is very common to not recall what you study a few days after the exam.

Previewing the information you are trying to memorize is an important first step in transferring information to long term memory. The more familiar you are with what you are learning, the more likely you are to remember it. Another important way to encode information is to try and understand the information and relate it to something you already know³.  Creating context and connection helps with recall.

For memorizing tedious lists, creating acronyms such as “SCUBA” or “ROY G BIV,” can be helpful because the acronym is a cue for what you need to remember.  With practice and repetition, the acronym can trigger the brain to recall the entire piece of information. Additionally, flash cards are a valuable tool for memorization because they allow you to self-test through repetition. They are convenient to bring with you anywhere, and can be used effectively whether you have one minute or an hour. Additionally, flash cards can trigger multiple senses for easier memorization, including visual and kinetic efforts.  Using multiple senses in the learning process has been shown to increase information processing¹.

The last step in transferring information to long term memory is to apply it. Ask yourself: In what real world scenarios could you apply this information? Connecting the information to specific instances or examples further assists your brain in organizing information and recalling it when needed. Lastly, for mastery, try to teach the information to someone else. Being able to explain a topic in your own words to someone else demonstrates full understanding of the material. Recruit a parent, roommate, or uninterested pet. If you are able to recite a topic in a clear and concise manner for others to understand, it is a good sign you have fully absorbed the material.

3.2 Bloom’s Taxonomy

Very few people have the capacity to listen to a lecture and are able to comprehend, remember, and implement the information received right away. The same applies to skills and hobbies. It is impossible to master a pastime after a single demonstration. Learning is a process. That’s where Bloom’s Taxonomy comes in. Although it is primarily used by educators, it elucidates the undertaking of learning, breaking down various steps and traits to fully comprehend material, and clarify various levels of mastery.

Bloom’s Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning). It is most often used when designing educational, training, and learning processes.

The Three Domains of Learning

The committee identified three domains or categories of educational activities or learning⁴:

• Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge)
• Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self)
• Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills)

This taxonomy of learning behaviors may be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is, after a learning opportunity, the learner should have acquired a new skill, knowledge, and/or attitude.

Bloom et al⁴ further reduces the three domains into subdivisions, starting from the simplest cognitive process or behavior to the most complex. The divisions outlined are not absolutes and there are other systems or hierarchies that have been devised, such as the Structure of Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO). However, Bloom’s Taxonomy is easily understood and is probably the most widely applied one in use today.

Cognitive Domain

The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills⁴. This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major categories of cognitive and processes, starting from the simplest to the most complex:

• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first ones must normally be mastered before the next one can take place.

• Knowledge “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.”

• Comprehension “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications.”

• Application refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.”

• Analysis represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.”

• Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.”

• Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes.”

The Revised Taxonomy

In 2001, a group of specialists published “A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment”, a revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of “educational objectives” (in Bloom’s original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy)⁵. These “action words” describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:

• Remembering
• Understanding
• Applying
• Analyzing
• Evaluating
• Creating

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy improved the usability of it by using action words.

The following table⁶ describes the six main skill sets within the cognitive domain and gives you information on the level of learning expected for each. Read each description closely for details of what college-level work looks like in each domain (note that the table begins with remembering, the lowest level of the taxonomy).

While Bloom’s original cognitive taxonomy did mention three levels of knowledge or products that could be processed, they were not discussed in great detail and remained one-dimensional:

• Factual – The basic elements students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems.
• Conceptual – The interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to function together.
• Procedural – How to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods.

In Krathwohl and Anderson’s revised version, the authors combine the cognitive processes with the above three levels of knowledge to form a matrix. In addition, they added another level of knowledge – metacognition:

• Metacognitive – Knowledge of cognition in general, as well as awareness and knowledge of one’s own cognition.

3.3 Metacognition

Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one’s thinking.  More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner.

Initially studied for its development in young children,^{7 8} researchers began to look at how experts display metacognitive thinking and how these thought processes can be taught to novices to improve their learning⁹.  In “How People Learn”, the National Academy of Sciences’ synthesis of decades of research on the science of learning, one of the three key findings of this work is the effectiveness of a “‘metacognitive’ approach to instruction” (p.18)¹⁰.

Metacognitive practices help students become aware of their strengths and weaknesses as learners, writers, readers, test-takers, and group members.  A key element is recognizing the limit of one’s knowledge or ability and then figuring out how to expand that knowledge or extend the ability. Those who know their strengths and weaknesses in these areas will be more likely to “actively monitor their learning strategies and resources and assess their readiness for particular tasks and performances” (p.67) ¹⁰.

Practicing metacognition is easier to do than you might think. It simply involves reflecting on what you have done in a class or on an assignment to check your own understanding and learning, as well as see what you could do differently. Growing up, your parents may have asked you when you got home from school, “what did you learn today?” Thinking back on your classes that day and the main takeaways you got from the lessons is a form of metacognition. If an instructor has ever had you write a short reflection in class on a prompt, or pair up with another classmate to reflect on a topic in class, they had you practice a metacognitive strategy. Utilizing metacognition regularly can help you differentiate between the topics you are familiar with and the topics that you deeply understand¹¹. It can also help develop your growth mindset as discussed in chapter two of this book.

The absence of metacognition connects to the research by Dunning, Johnson, Ehrlinger, and Kruger on “Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence”¹².  The Dunning-Kruger effect is a psychological phenomenon in which individuals perceive they know more than they actually do about certain subjects. They found that “people tend to be blissfully unaware of their incompetence,” lacking “insight about deficiencies in their intellectual and social skills.” If you’ve ever felt really confident after taking an exam or turning in an assignment but received a grade much lower than you expected, you may have fallen victim to this effect. Typical study methods like re-reading notes or highlighting your textbook can give you the false confidence that you have learned the material because you spent time doing the activity. In reality, these strategies are some of the least effective for retaining information.

As a student, you have ultimate control over your learning. Yes, your instructors may present material in class and assign homework, but it is up to you to learn that material. Practicing metacognition can assist in learning that information deeply, instead of having a surface-level knowledge of a subject. Try reflecting on your learning before, during, or after class. Ask yourself, “What do I totally understand about today’s lesson? What am I still confused about? Where can I go to get my questions answered?”

When preparing for an exam, make a plan for your studying that includes a reflection on what will be on the test, and within that, what subject matter you know and what you do not know. Decide where and how much time you will spend studying, and what active strategies you will use to learn. After the test is over, keep reflecting. Instead of putting the exam away and hoping for a better outcome on the next one, think about what you did well and what you could have done differently. Consider what study strategies worked for you and if there was anything on the exam that you did not anticipate. Following up with your instructor one on one during office hours may help to provide you feedback and clarify any remaining questions you have about the material. Practicing these metacognitive strategies regularly will help with long-term retention, leading to increased learning and, hopefully, higher grades.

Citations

1. Baker, A. (2016, June 22). Informational Processing Theory for the Classroom. OER Commons. Retrieved August 19, 2020, from https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/14326-informational-processing-theory-for-the-classroom.
2. Atkinson, R.C.; Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). “Chapter: Human Memory: A Proposed System and It’s Control Processes. In Spence, K.W.; Spence, J.T. (Eds.). The Psychology of Learning and Motivation. New York: Academic Press. pp. 89-195.
3. The Peak Performance Center. Memory Techniques. https://thepeakperformancecenter.com/educational-learning/learning/memory/memory-techniques/.
4. Bloom, B., Englehart, M. Furst, E., Hill, W., & Krathwohl, D. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green.
5. Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Bloom, B. S., & Bloom, B. S. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Blooms taxonomy of educational objectives: Complete edition. New York: Longman.
6. Lucas, L.; Syrett, H. Chapter 6: Theories of Learning. In Effective Strategies for College Success. OER Commons. Retrieved August 19, 2020, from https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/module/25863/overview.
7. Baker, L., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Metacognitive skills and reading. In P. D. Pearson, R. Barr, M. L. Kamil and P. Mosenthal (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research (pp. 353-394). New York: Longman.
8. Flavell, J. H. (1985). Cognitive development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
9. Hatano, G., & Inagaki, K. (1986). Two courses of expertise. In H. Stevenson, H. Azuma, & K. Hakuta (Eds.), Children development and education in Japan (pp. 262-272). New York: Freeman.
10. Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington DC: National Academy Press.
11. Terada, Youki. (2017). How Metacognition Boosts Learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-metacognition-boosts-learning.
12. Dunning, D., Johnson, K., Ehrlinger, J., & Kruger, J. (2003). Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(3), 83-87.