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Finding an explanation online can inflate confidence in knowing

Finding an explanation can create a feeling of understanding without making it possible to explain the idea unaided. Experiments on internet search ask whether access to information raises confidence about knowledge in other areas, a narrower claim than saying search is bad for learning.

3–7 min

Questions you could explore

  • How would you compare confidence with actual understanding?
  • How could a test separate access to an explanation from being able to explain it without the source?

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Education and learning

Why can closing the book change how you study?

A passage can feel familiar while you are looking at it and become difficult to explain once it is hidden. Rereading and trying to recall it involve different demands, and immediate ease need not tell the whole story about later retention.

3–7 min

Why can closing the book change how you study?

Education and learning3–7 minA passage can feel familiar while you are looking at it and become difficult to explain once it is hidden. Rereading and trying to recall it involve different demands, and immediate ease need not tell the whole story about later retention.

Education and learning

Why can spacing study sessions change later recall?

Two study plans can use the same amount of practice yet place it at different points in time. Research on spacing asks how the gaps between sessions interact with the delay before knowledge is needed.

3–7 min

Why can spacing study sessions change later recall?

Education and learning3–7 minTwo study plans can use the same amount of practice yet place it at different points in time. Research on spacing asks how the gaps between sessions interact with the delay before knowledge is needed.

Education and learning

Getting better at a game is not the same as broad transfer

Spend a month practicing a 'brain-training' puzzle app on your phone, and your score on that puzzle may climb. The interesting scientific question is whether that improvement follows you into real-world memory and decision-making, or stays locked inside the specific game you practiced.

3–7 min

Getting better at a game is not the same as broad transfer

Education and learning3–7 minSpend a month practicing a 'brain-training' puzzle app on your phone, and your score on that puzzle may climb. The interesting scientific question is whether that improvement follows you into real-world memory and decision-making, or stays locked inside the specific game you practiced.

Finding an explanation online can inflate confidence in knowing | Speech Topic | speaking.app