In a world as fast-changing and full of information as our own, all of us need to know how to learn well. Yet evidence suggests that most of us don’t use the learning techniques that science has proved the most effective. The scientific literature evaluating these techniques goes back to decades and across thousands of articles. It’s far too extensive and complex for the average parent, teacher or employer to look through. Fortunately, a team of five leading psychologists have done the job for us. Professor John Dunlosky and other psychologists closely examined 10 learning strategies and rated each from high to low utility(实用) on the basis of the evidence they’ve gathered. Here’s part of their conclusions: In contrast to familiar practices, the effective learning strategies with the most evidence to support them aren’t well known outside the lab. Take distributed practice, for example. This strategy involves spreading out your study time, rather than engaging in one marathon. Cramming (死记硬背）information at the last minute may allow you to get through that test or meeting, but the material will quickly disappear from your memory. It’s much more effective to look through the material at intervals over time. And the longer you want to remember the information, whether it’s two weeks or two years, the longer the intervals should be. The second learning strategy that is highly recommended by Dunlosky is practice testing. Yes, more tests---but there not for a grade. Research shows that the mere act of calling information to mind strengthens that knowledge and aids in future retrieval (检索). While practice testing is not a common strategy---despite the strong evidence supporting it ---there is one familiar approach that captures its benefits: using flash cards. And now flash cards can be presented in digital form. Both distributed practice and practice testing were rated as having “high utility” by Dunlosky. 小题1:How did the psychologists study and rate the learning strategies?
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