Back to topics

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

Questions you could explore

  • How similar does a new task need to be for practice to transfer?
  • How could an active comparison group help test whether training improves an unpracticed skill?

Start reading

Ready to try your ideas aloud?

Your topic carries over. Record up to 2½ minutes, depending on your plan.

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

A learning preference is not proof of a learning-style effect

Many students are told early on that they are a 'visual learner,' an 'auditory learner,' or a 'kinesthetic learner.' While people certainly have preferences for how information is presented, evidence reviews do not support assigning pupils a fixed learning style and matching all teaching to it. Comparing a preference with a demonstrated learning benefit makes a useful research question.

3–7 min

A learning preference is not proof of a learning-style effect

Education and learning3–7 minMany students are told early on that they are a 'visual learner,' an 'auditory learner,' or a 'kinesthetic learner.' While people certainly have preferences for how information is presented, evidence reviews do not support assigning pupils a fixed learning style and matching all teaching to it. Comparing a preference with a demonstrated learning benefit makes a useful research question.

Getting better at a game is not the same as broad transfer | Speech Topic | speaking.app