How we learn
Learning is Hard!
Thinking you know something and really knowing it are not always the same thing
In 2019, a video posted on Twitter (@SatisfyingDaily) showed someone drawing a hand using a pencil and about 11 lines. The video made drawing the hand look super easy and the resulting drawing was an incredibly life-like, side view of a hand with slightly bent fingers. This is the drawing:
The post drew a lot of attention and was even featured on the Ellen show. It seemed to really resonate with people, probably because the gap between how easy it appeared to draw the hand in this way, and how difficult it actually was to do it was huge!
People responded by posting their comically inept attempts at drawing the hand alongside comments like:
“I feel lied to.”
“Just tried it. Massive failure!!!”
“Gets worse every time!”
Peoples’ expectations of how well they would do compared to how well they actually did were vastly different.
Of course I had to try it myself. Not surprisingly, my results were similarly weak. Here’s mine:
So what is the takeaway here? Should we be surprised that we can’t just pick up a pencil, watch a video of someone doing a perfect drawing and then replicate it? We shouldn’t, but often we are.
And that’s because learning to do anything well is difficult, but we don’t always appreciate that. Learning anything takes concerted effort, deliberate, spaced practice, along with focused feedback which is acted upon. Only when we do these things can we learn in a meaningful way and develop expertise. But in a world where we are constantly exposed to videos like those on YouTube, Facebook etc., it can be easy to feel an inflated sense of confidence just from watching someone do something and forget that real learning takes focused and sustained effort.
In workshops that I offer on the science of learning, I often begin with the hand-drawing video. We watch it a few times as a group and then participants each try and draw the hand. I then ask for volunteers to show their drawings — not to embarrass anyone, but to underscore how difficult it is and that we don’t master a new skill just by watching video a few times. The truth is, however, we can be tricked into thinking we can do something if we’ve watched someone else do it, and it looks easy.
Seeing someone perform a difficult task can make us believe we can do it too. It can also make us undervalue or underappreciate the amount of time and effort it takes someone to develop expertise. Nobody rolls out of bed an expert artist, musician, athlete, or teacher. But seeing a good one in action can make us forget that.
In a 2018 study, psychologists Michael Kardas and Ed O’Brien had a group of people watch a video of someone throwing a dart and getting a bullseye on the first try. Some watched the video just once and some watched it 20 times.
Those who watched the video 20 times felt more confident they could throw a dart and get a bullseye on their first throw. But they were wrong! There was absolutely no effect of watching the video. Both groups were equally bad!
Students may fall into this same trap in their own learning and it’s because they don’t tend to have a good mental model of how learning works, nor are they likely to have received explicit instruction on the most effective ways to learn. In a 2007 study, Kornell and Bjork surveyed 472 undergraduates about their thoughts and strategies for managing their own studying. The majority of students (80%) said they did not study the way they did because they had been taught to study that way. Moreover, students tended to make decisions about their studying in more reactive vs. proactive ways — they tended to study for whatever was due next, and not make choices to spread out, or space their studying (which has a positive impact on long-term learning). In addition, students reported that they stopped studying when they thought they knew the information. Usually, however, they were relying on their own feelings of mastery rather than an external, objective measure.
This last point is risky given that our intuitions and introspections are unreliable as a guide to how we should manage our own learning activities. Students may stop studying if they are under time pressure, or if they think they know something. The trouble is, thinking you know something and really knowing it are not always the same thing. Real learning requires active engagement and relevant rehearsal. Further it doesn’t happen in one session. Rather, it requires revisiting.
Next time I’ll focus on the remarkably common and predictable errors students make when choosing how, what, and when to study and discuss strategies to help students make better choices to maximize their long-term learning.
Julia Phelan Ph.D is a learning engineer and co-founder of To Eleven. The name was inspired by This is Spinal Tap (“Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder? Nigel Tufnel : [pause] These go to eleven”) and embodies the fact that To Eleven goes above and beyond in all they do. To Eleven focuses on the design and implementation of learning experiences for myriad learners and contexts along with consulting and advising services. www.to11solutions.com
