Acquiring an Accurate Mental Model of Human Learning
Steven C. Pan, Robert A. Bjork · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2024
Abstract To learn effectively requires understanding some fundamental, but unintuitive, properties of how the human learning and memory system works. A variety of research findings suggest, however, that human beings are prone to employ a mental model of learning and memory processes that is inaccurate and/or incomplete in some fundamental ways—due, in part, to the implicit or explicit assumption that the storage and retrieval processes that characterize human learning and memory are similar to those that characterize man-made recording devices, such as a computer hard drive or a memory disk. Consequently, many humans engage in practices that yield short-term gains in performance but do not foster durable and flexible learning. This chapter discusses why and in what ways humans tend to misunderstand how to optimize their own learning, and it provides a set of principles that are essential components of any owner’s manual on how to learn and remember.