Simple change can increase recall by 14% (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

Simple change can increase recall by 14%
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

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aabram
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Message 9 of 12

28 January 2011 at 7:49am | IP Logged

This "study" reminds me the story about QWERTY typewriter layout being born because
typists were becoming proficient with previous layout and their speed started to
surpass mechanical ability of the typewriters and keys and levers were becoming jammed
from fast typing. Thus, the solution was not to improve mechanical parts but to mess up
layout to slow down typists. There, problem solved.

I, for one, cannot read slowly. I have to keep feeding my brain at certain constant
speed or it gets bored in between receiving chunks of information and wanders off. Slow
reading is like wathcing movie by carefully inspecting each frame. It's not necessary,
wastes time and hinders me from getting the bigger picture and forming thoughts and
memories. I want my text acquisition to be a continuous stream, not a trail of puddles.

As for Comic Sans, it would block me up from reading any text longer than few lines.
It's not snobbery, it's just disgust for the unorder that monstrocity of a font
represents. Ordnung muß sein! Even with fonts. No, especially with fonts.

Also, they tested the subjects with Powerpoint? They didn't test with printed texts?
Seriously? They just could've donated the study money to women against breast cancer
fund or something to put it to better use.

Edited by aabram on 28 January 2011 at 7:50am
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Normunds
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Message 10 of 12

29 January 2011 at 11:57am | IP Logged

John Smith wrote:

Difficult-to-read fonts make for better learning, according to scientists.

Researchers found that, on average, those given the harder-to-read fonts actually recalled 14% more.

...

"So if something is hard to see or hear, it feels disfluent... We'd found that disfluency led people to think harder about things.

Source
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666

Is it possible then that people who speak languages that have difficult scripts remember more information after reading a text than people who speak languages that are phonetic???

IMO BBC is pretty unreliable in reporting "scientific" discoveries. Both because of the quality of reporting itself and of "scientific methods" used by the "scientists" (though usually BBC simply fail to mention methodology used). I would not bother one iota about this article.
2 persons have voted this message useful

maurelio1234
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Message 11 of 12

26 February 2011 at 11:11am | IP Logged

Normunds wrote:

John Smith wrote:

Difficult-to-read fonts make for better learning,
according to scientists.

Researchers found that, on average, those given the harder-to-read fonts actually
recalled 14% more.

...

"So if something is hard to see or hear, it feels disfluent... We'd found that
disfluency led people to think harder about things.

Source
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11573666

Is it possible then that people who speak languages that have difficult scripts
remember more information after reading a text than people who speak languages that are
phonetic???

IMO BBC is pretty unreliable in reporting "scientific" discoveries.
Both because of the quality of reporting itself and of "scientific methods" used by the
"scientists" (though usually BBC simply fail to mention methodology used). I would not
bother one iota about this article.

Maybe that's because BBC is not a scientific journal :)
BTW, most of BBC readers would not be able to evaluate the scientific methods employed
in these kinds of "discoveries", why bothering them with that?

1 person has voted this message useful

plaidchuck
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Message 12 of 12

26 February 2011 at 7:27pm | IP Logged

If anyone is interested here is the actual scientific journal article:

http://web.princeton.edu/sites/opplab/papers/Diemand-Yauman_ Oppenheimer_2010.pdf

Overall the methodology wasn't bad, but it's still impossible to generalize results from just one "high-performing 98% white" high school. As for the printed material, they were made disfluent by being recopied in a disfluent way "moving the paper up and down during copying". As far as I know they only modified supplemental material (worksheets and powerpoint slides).

As we all know the popular press will sensationalize anything and the idea they seem to convey here is there is a "magic" font they will help you remember more. We have to look at the big picture hypothesis which is that disfluent or slightly more difficult to read material may be retained more because people will concentrate more and think more deeply about it.

As anyone who is familiar with research knows, you can never "prove" a hypothesis but rather only find data they may support it. It would be interesting to see this replicated across many different schools and subjects to see if they find something similar.

1 person has voted this message useful

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