The ATP Scotland
October 3rd, 2015
Jonathan Firth &
Mark Healy
How do we link these together?
Does it help
in the Class?
False
Perceptions /
What we
knowLearning
Myths
Research
Aware /
Literate/
Enagaged
Neuroscience:
implications for
education and
lifelong learning
Neuroscience:
implications for
education and
lifelong learning
SOURCE- Permission to use: Professor Dorothy Bishop, Research Ed Presentation, 2014
Key Insights:
1.Both nature and nurture affect the learning brain
2.The brain is plastic
3.The brain’s response to reward is influenced by
expectations and uncertainty
4.The brain has mechanisms for self-regulation
5.Education is a powerful form of cognitive
enhancement
SOURCE- Permission to use: Professor Dorothy Bishop, Research Ed Presentation, 2014
Cognitive Psychology:
Universal consonants
Differential Psychology:
Individual Differences
SOURCE: http://digest.bps.org.uk/2015/08/this-is-what-happened-when.html?m=1
• Working Memory- Near / Far Transfer?
• Heritability Traits
• Fluid Intelligence
• Crystalised Intelligence
• Close? Narrow? The Gap
• Cognitive Enhancement / Nudge Bell Curve
10 Things about Working Memory Model
1. Willingham (P.55), our site of awareness and of thinking (STM)
2. Willingham, (P.14) thinking occurs when we combine info. from
environment and LTM. Combining happens in WM
3. Willingham, (P.20) This ‘meeting point’ of WM can be overloaded
and has a limited processing capacity of its own
4. Willingham, (P.20) Slow the pace, and use memory ‘aids’
5. Gazzaniga, (P.300) The Central Executive – ‘Coordinator’ via
existing Schema (what we have already stored) V SAS (when novel
tasks are involved)
10 Things about Working Memory Model
6. Richardson-Klavhen & Bjork, (P.293)Widely accepted that Long
Term Memory is not single store; communication between LTM
& WM
7. Carey, (P.36) Storage strength, can increase not decrease but
retrieval strength can decrease i.e we can’t access (Bjork &
Disuse Theory)
8. Eysenck (p.176) WM, tasks can be performed that require active
processing and temporary storage of information (SEE
Willingham diagram)
9. Ackerman et al (2005) Working Memory & Intelligence (g)- the
same? Different constructs? No. p=.479 “They correlate
moderately highly- Eseynck”
10 Things about Working Memory Model
10. “Hermeneutic Humility” –Can we improve WM capacity? With
reference to our current (at least, my) understanding of memory,
inconclusive- we just don’t know- yet 
But, a research aware profession, as a
community of teachers, parents and
pupils can point towards evidence
based practices such as these:
10 Things about Working Memory Model
10. “Hermeneutic Humility” –Can we improve WM capacity? With
reference to our current (at least, my) understanding of memory,
inconclusive- we just don’t know- yet 
But, a research aware profession, as a
community of teachers, parents and
pupils can point towards evidence
based practices such as these:
To Learn, Retrieve
• “Practice at retrieving new knowledge or skill
from memory is a potent tool for learning and
durable retention”
(P.43, Make It Stick, Brown, Roediger and
McDaniel)
• Effortful Retrieval (Desirable Difficulties?)
(Halamish & R. A. Bjork, 2011
To Learn, Retrieve
• Repeated Retrieval, Long Term Benefits
• Testing Effect -Not only in the class
Low stakes & Self Tests
(Roediger & Karpicke, 2006)
• Corrective Feedback linked to repeated
testing or study only? Which would you
choose?
EF is important for school success
Working memory and inhibitory control
each independently predict both math &
reading competence throughout the
school years. Discipline accounts for
over twice as much variance in final
grades as does IQ, even in college.
(Duckworth & Seligman, 2005)
Adele Diamond
Effective Learning Technique?
1. Elaborative interrogation- Generate an explanation
why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true
2. Self-explanation- Explain how new information is
related to known information, or explaining steps
taken during problem solving
3. Summarization- Write summaries of “to-be-learned”
texts (of various lengths)
4. Highlighting/underlining- Mark potentially important
portions of “to-be-learned” materials while reading
5. Keyword mnemonic- Use keywords and mental
imagery to associate verbal materials
Effective Learning Technique?
6. Imagery for text- Form mental images of text
materials while reading or listening
7. Rereading- Restudy text material again after an initial
reading
8. Practice testing- Self-test or taking practice tests over
to-be-learned material
9. Distributed practice- Implement a schedule of
practice that spreads out study activities over time
10. Interleaved practice- Implementing a schedule of
practice that mixes different kinds of problems, or a
schedule of study that mixes different kinds of
material, within a single study session
Dunlosky et al, 2013
Is our professional practice,
at times, based on
traditions and assumptions
rather than evidence?
Long-term
memory
“Conditions that create
challenges and slow the rate
of apparent learning often
optimize long-term retention
and transfer.”
– Bjork & Bjork (2011, p.57)
What we already know:
• Long-term memory is based on meaning
• Can be distorted by questioning and recall
• Our conceptual understanding clusters into
schemas
• Elaboration - linking concepts - is helpful
• Forgetting can be due to retrieval failure
• Spacing: delay between
practice/retrieval.
• Optimum gap?
• Links to LTP/protein synthesis
(Sharf et al., 2002) and may
require SWS.
• Issues of external validity
Graphs based on Bird,S. (2010)
• Interleaved practice: mixing
different study activities (instead of
studying one at a time until fluent).
• Mimics real world activities
• Massed practice results in a false
sense of mastery
• Retrieval practice: testing = a
learning strategy
• Superiority of short answer v’s multi
choice/reading only (McDaniel et al.,
2007; see graph).
• Shown in lab & in real learning
contexts
Source: McDaniel et al. (2007, p.503)
• Transfer: can the material be used in
other contexts?
• ‘Far transfer’ = entirely different
situations
• Automation of skills and knowledge;
creative thinking.
Social
psychology
“…in a majority of social contexts, social
identities serve to structure (and
restructure) people’s perception and
behaviour: their values, norms and goals;
their orientations, relationships, and
interactions; what they think, what
they do, and what they achieve.”
(Haslam, 2014, p.4)
What we already know:
• Behaviour can alter radically depending
on the social context/field.
• Social identity = part of self-concept.
• Affects group behaviour & motivation
• Depends on culture
• Individual v’s social identity:
emphasis varies in different
situations (Tajfel, 1982).
• Individual - alone & some 1-to-1
situations
• Social - in school; norms of group
influence behaviour
• Intrinsic motivation: enjoyment of
the task
• Extrinsic can become intrinsic
• Self-concept impacts motivation &
therefore achievement (& vice versa?)
• School-relevant goals and social
identity
• Leadership: the teacher and other
school figures
• Traditional - focus on characteristics of
leader.
• S.I.T. view - identifying & harnessing
social identity (Haslam et al., 2003).
• Groups collaboratively set goals; leader
guides
• Risks emphasising divisions..?
• Belongingness rather than
alienation - likely to boost
attainment (Reynolds et al., 2015).
• Potential links to current
educational policy - encouraging
cultural identities and ownership
of learning…?
Qs:
• How could the evidence on spacing and
interleaving affect our delivery of
concepts and topics?
• How do people self-identify in classes,
and identify with psychology in
particular?
References
Bird,S. (2010). Effects of distributed practice on the acquisition of second language English syntax. Applied
Psycholinguistics, 31, 635–650.
Bjork, E. L., and Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable
difficulties to enhance learning. In Gernsbacher, M.A., Pew, R.W., Hough, L.M. and Pomerantz, J.R. (Eds.) Psychology
and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society, 56-64.
Haslam, S.A. (2014). Making good theory practical: Five lessons for an Applied Social Identity Approach to
challenges of organizational, health, and clinical psychology. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53, 1–20.
Haslam, S.A., Eggins, R.A. and Reynolds, K.J. (2003) The ASPIRe model: Actualizing social and personal identity
resources to enhance organizational outcomes. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology , 76, 83–
113
McDaniel, M. A., Anderson, J. L., Derbish, M. H., and Morrisette, N. (2007). Testing the testing effect in the
classroom. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19(4-5), 494-513.
Reynolds, K.J, Subašić, E., Lee, E., Bromhead, D. and Tindall, K. (2015). Does education really change us? The impact
of school-based social processes on the person. In Reynolds, K.J & Branscome, N.R. (eds.), Psychology of Change:
Life Contexts, Experiences, and Identities. New York: Psychology Press.
Sharf, M.T., Woo, N.H., Lattal, K.M., Young, J.Z., Nguyen, P.V. and Abel, T. (2002). Protein synthesis is required or the
enhancement of long-term potentiation and long-term memory by spaced training. Journal of Neurophysiology,
87(6), 2770-2777.
Tajfel, H. (1982). Social psychology of intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 33(1), 1-39.