The document discusses research on how the brain learns. It debunks the common claim that people remember only 10-20% of what they read or hear by citing a cognitive psychologist who did not recognize the graph supposedly showing these percentages. The document then covers several key topics in how the brain learns, including the limited capacity of short-term memory, the importance of rehearsal for moving information to long-term memory, different types of memory, and theories of motivation and how rewards can positively or negatively impact learning.

2. The Brain and Learning

3. The Brain and Learning
Research – Be Careful!
People remember 10%, 20%...Oh Really?
Will Thalheimer
www.willatworklearning.com
“People do NOT remember 10% of what they
read, 20% of what they see, 30% of what they
hear, etc. That information, and similar
pronouncements are fraudulent.
Unfortunately, this bogus information has been
floating around our field for decades, crafted by
many different authors and presented in many
different configurations.”

4. The Brain and Learning
An Example of “Bogus Science”.
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Chi, M. T. H., Bassok, M., Lewis, M. W., Reimann P., & Glaser, R. (1989). Self-explanations:
How students study and use examples in learning to solve problems. Cognitive
Science, 13, 145-182

5. The Brain and Learning
The Graph is a Fraud! (Will Thalheimer – quote)
After reading the cited article several times and not seeing
the graph---nor the numbers on the graph---I got
suspicious and got in touch with the first author of the
cited study, Dr. Michelene Chi of the University of
Pittsburgh (who is, by the way, one of the world's leading
authorities on expertise). She said this about the graph:
"I don't recognize this graph at all. So the citation is
definitely wrong; since it's not my graph."
What makes this particularly disturbing is that this graph
has popped up all over our industry, and many
instructional-design decisions have been based on the
information contained in the graph.

6. The Brain and Learning
 The brain is the primary organ involved in
learning
 Our senses are secondary organs involved in
learning

7. Teachers Should Study…..
 Cognition
 Sensory perception
 Brain chemistry
 Nutrition
 Memory and Recall
 Language acquisition
Studying cognitive science (the study of how
the brain works) is very helpful to teachers

8. The Brain and Learning - Memory
Memory is the most impactful
brain function with regard to
academic success
 Memory is more thoroughly studied by
cognitive psychologists than any other topic.

9. Daniel Willingham, PhD Cognitive Psych-
Harvard
“Willingham's basic theme is that, despite everything
you've heard, nothing works to increase student
ability like factual learning and practice. In fact, one
of his first ideas is to point out that what separates
the excellent student (or adult) from those
performing less well is their ability to recall facts.
The more facts you know about your subject, the
more you can understand your subject because of
significantly less energy spent on fact recall or
retention. With facts learned to automaticity, more
time can be spent on higher-order concept
learning, and once that becomes automatic....etc.
Kevin Currie-Knight on D. Willingham

10. The Brain and Learning - Memory
The critical thinking we hear so much about
teaching our kids simply CANNOT happen
without giving kids the requisite background
info that must be employed to think
critically.
Students must have LOTS of information and
facts, learned beyond the point of
mastery*, to use to learn to think critically.
*D. Willingham - Overlearning

11. The Brain and Learning - Memory
Short- Long-
Receptors term term
memory memory
Tiny in capacity but huge in importance, STM
seems to be where we first process the stimuli
from our environment.

12. The Brain and Learning - Memory
In 1959, a very important discovery was made: Our
capacity to store information in a temporary memory
bank (STM) is severely limited and susceptible to gross
forgetting if we do not have the opportunity to rehearse
the information.
100
80
Percent 60
Correctly
40
Recalled
20
0
3 6 9 12 15 18
Recall Interval
Cognitive Psychology, Solso, McLin 2005

13. Rehearsal
This is a key factor in what makes some
students “smart”
TYPICALLY “SMART” STUDENTS:
 Rehearse naturally
 Require few rehearsals to place info into
STM, and a few more to encode into LTM

14. Creating Smart Students
How can teachers help all students
become SMART students?
 Provide opportunities to rehearse –
every time you introduce information
students need to master
 Use choral responses for the most
efficient rehearsing

15. The Brain and Learning - Memory
The time between presentation of the letters and
recall was filled with the subtraction task, which
prevented efficient rehearsal of the letter sequence.
RECALL IS SERIOUSLY ERODED IN THE
ABSENCE OF FOCUSED REHEARSAL.
The results suggest that if the information was not
rehearsed (or if rehearsal is interrupted), it dropped
out of memory.

16. The Brain and Learning - Memory
Short- Long-
Working
term term
memory
memory memory
Working memory is thought to be part of the
LTM, but shares some features of STM. It is a
system that temporarily holds and manipulates
information as we perform cognitive tasks.
WIT, SUM, HARM, BAY, TOP

17. The Brain and Learning - Memory
WIT, SUM, HARM, BAY, TOP

18. The Brain and Learning - Memory
Short- Long-
Working
term term
memory
memory memory
UNIVERSITY, OPPORTUNITY, ALUMINUM, C
ONSTITUTIONAL, AUDITORIUM

19. The Brain and Learning - Memory
Short- Long-
Working
term term
memory
memory memory
Articulatory Loop
Phonological Loop
Visuospatial Scratchpad
Central Executive

20. The Brain and Learning - Memory
 Allow students opportunities to rehearse
information you want them to remember!!
 Choral responses help you to KNOW they are
rehearsing
 If they don’t participate, they will probably not
remember
 Short chunks of information – short in length
 Short chunks of information – short in time
 CONCISE LANGUAGE!

21. The Brain and Learning - Memory
 Capacity of Short-Term Memory is
approximately 7 items.
 This is a very consistent number in the
research – and holds true regardless of the
type of data involved.

22. The Brain and Learning - Memory
 More INFORMATION was held in the string of
words than in the string of letters, so your memory
of those words contained more information, but
the same limited number of items.
 Words are a form of “chunking” which allows us to
maximize the STM.
 The capacity of the STM is increased by our ability
to chunk information, but there must be
information in the LTM in order to chunk.

23. The Brain and Learning - Memory
AUDITORY CODE
Short-term memory seems to operate by means of an
auditory code, EVEN IF THE INFORMATION IS
DETECTED BY A NONAUDITORY CODE SUCH
AS A VISUAL ONE.
STM errors were made on the basis of auditory
rather than visual characteristics.
P/B; S/X

24. The Brain and Learning - LTMemory
Long-Term Memory is believed to be limitless
in capacity. We know about many of the
features of LTM:
Codes
Types of information held there
General architecture and organization
Capacity
Permanence

25. The Brain and Learning - LTMemory
Theory: Information held long enough in
STM is encoded into LTM.
Adrenaline and Glucose – memory enhancers:
Experiences are remembered better if:
Exciting, ego-involving, or traumatic due to
adrenaline.
Glucose enhances memory!

26. The Brain and Learning – Retrieval and Decay
If information is rehearsed, it will likely be
encoded. If it is not rehearsed, it will likely
“decay” by being covered (masked) with
other information or displaced by new
information.
If information is encoded, and we are asked
to recall it, we usually can and will.
How can we now think about
Model, Lead, Test, DT?

27. The Brain and Learning – Retrieval and Decay
Distributed practice over time is better than
massed practice – the greater the
distribution over time, the better the
information is remembered.

28. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 Operant Conditioning: strengthening or
weakening of a behavior as a result of its
consequences
 Consequences that strengthen a behavior are called
REINFORCERS
 Consequences that weaken a behavior are called
PUNISHERS
Specifically, an event is a REINFORCER if
1. It follows a behavior, and
2. The future probability of that behavior increases.

29. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 Rewards for behaviors are reinforcers. There
are two types of reinforcers, extrinsic and
intrinsic.
 Intrinsic reinforcers are provided by the mere
act of performing the behavior.
 Extrinsic reinforcers are provided by some
consequence that is external to the behavior
 “the dangers of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic
motivations have been greatly overstated”
• CAMERON, BANKO, PIERCE, 2001

30. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 They also learned that verbal rewards
such a praise often produce an increase
in intrinsic motivation, as do
TANGIBLE REWARDS given for
HIGH-QUALITY performance.

31. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 Previous work has shown that if a decision
leads to a successful outcome, it is registered
in the brain's reward system. The reward
stimulus is then relayed to the area of the
brain which was responsible for making the
decision. In this way, the brain optimizes its
processes for improved performance each
time.

32. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 Learned Industriousness –according to
LIT, if working hard (displaying high
effort) on a task has been consistently
associated with reinforcement, then
working hard might itself become a
secondary reinforcer. This can results
in a generalized tendency to work hard.

33. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 Experiments with both humans and
animals have confirmed this. Students
who have been reinforced for solving
complex math problems will later write
essays of higher quality; rats which
have been reinforced for emitting
forceful lever presses will then run
faster down an alleyway to obtain food.

34. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 Rats and humans that have been
reinforced for displaying low effort on a
task will show a generalized tendency to
be lazy (Eisenberger, 1992).

35. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 Just starting a task is often the most important
step in overcoming procrastination; once you
start, the work often flows naturally. For this
reason, it is sometimes helpful to use certain tricks
to get started, such as beginning with a short, easy
task before progressing to a more difficult task.
 This is especially important to teach students so
they can successfully complete independent work.

36. Brain Research and Motivation Theory
 Should we use rewards with our students?
 Yes!!!
 The result: depending on the size of the
reward, the subjects were able to
subsequently make the correct decision with
improved accuracy. "It turns out to be
stronger, the higher the reward."

37. Brain Review
 USE CONCISE LANGUAGE WHEN TEACHING
SPECIFIC CONTENT
 Chunking helps us increase the capacity of STM
 Require students to rehearse (without distraction)
 LTM requires delayed tests and overlearning
 Reinforcement increases learning
 Tangible rewards and praise increase motivation
 Getting started is a skill