Author Archives: Andrew Watson

As we put our lesson plans together, we teachers want to know: are some minutes more valuable than others?

That is:

Do students remember most at the 10-minute mark of the lesson, because they’re mentally revved up?

Or, perhaps they remember most from the final five minutes, because the whole class has led to this grand conclusion.

Or, perhaps some other time slot generates the most learning, because psychology reasons.

What does the research tell us?

Start Here

I occasionally see teaching advice that seeks to answer this question. That advice typically begins with a fascinating research pool.

Here’s the story.

Researchers present students with — say — a list of 15 words. After distraction, how many  words do students remember? And, can we predict which ones?

Several studies suggest a consistent answer.

Students tend to remember words from the beginning of the list. Researchers call that the “primacy” effect.

And, they remember words from the end of the list. That result gets the moniker “recency effect.”

Going all the way back to 1962, this primacy/recency effect has a lot of research behind it. (For a more recent study, click here.)

Lab to Classroom

So, how should teachers plan our lessons based on this particular finding?

Let’s imagine that I tell my students a list of 8 instructions. Because of the primacy/recency effect, I suspect they’ll remember the early and late instructionst better than the ones in the middle. (Hint: maybe I should write down a long list of instructions…)

But: what does this effect tell us about the most valuable teaching time during a class period as a whole?

From time to time, scholars who translate psychology research for classroom teachers make this argument:

The primacy/recency effect suggests that the first several minutes of class, and the final several minutes of class, have the greatest effect on learning.

That is: For the same reason that students remember the first and last instruction from my list of 8, they’ll learn the most during the first and last minutes of class.

Voila: a research-based answer to the question.

I confess, however, that I myself have doubts.

The argument says, in effect:

Rules governing mental processes for 60-120 seconds also govern mental processes for 45-80 minutes.

Honestly, I’m just not sure that’s plausible. My doubts spring from two sources.

Doubts, and More Doubts

In the first place, I doubt this advice because it extrapolates so far beyond the initial research conditions.

If research tells me something about — say — college students, that conclusion might also apply to 1st graders. But it might not. 1st graders aren’t college students.

If research tells me something about adolescents in Iceland, that conclusion might apply to teens in Brazil. But it might not. Icelandic culture differs from Brazilian culture.

And, if research tells me about mental functions over one minute, that conclusion might apply to 20 minutes. (Or 45, or 80.) But IT MIGHT NOT. One minute isn’t twenty.

Long-time readers know I always focus on “boundary conditions.” From my perspective, this advice goes WAY beyond the boundaries of the initial research.

By the way: I’ve asked SEVERAL wise people if they know of primacy/recency research that goes beyond a minute or two. So far, the answer is “no.”

The second reason I doubt this advice because of the specific mental functions involved.

As far as I can tell, researchers explain the primacy/recency effect by talking about short-term memory and working memory.

Both of these mental faculties describe very short-term mental functions. In my grad-school classes, our profs typically said that working memory holds information somewhere between 5 and 30 seconds.

If, in fact, the primacy/recency effect results from short-term and working memory functions, then those findings almost certainly won’t apply to mental processes that take 30+ minutes.

Like, say, our classes.

Just Answer the Question

If this advice doesn’t hold, what can research tell us about the “most important five minutes in class”?

I’ve got two answers.

Answer #1:

I’ve asked lots of people if they have a resaerch-informed answer to this question. So far, no one has a strong “yes.” But, If I hear of one, I’ll pass it along.

And, btw, a friend has answered “we really have to research that question!” So, I’ll let you know if/when his results come through.

Answer #2:

Long-time readers know my mantra: “don’t just do this thing; instead, think this way.”

In this case, I don’t think we can plausibly identify any one time slot that consistently generates the most learning.

Instead, we want to use core ideas from cognitive science to structure lesson plans effectively.

Use retriveal practice.

Beware working-memory overload.

Foster attention.

Activate prior knowledge.

And so forth.

If we follow this approach, every minute will build ultimately — and more-or-less equally — toward students’ learning.

Castel, A. D. (2008). Metacognition and learning about primacy and recency effects in free recall: The utilization of intrinsic and extrinsic cues when making judgments of learning. Memory & Cognition, 36(2), 429-437.

Should students use cameras to take pictures of boardwork?

My high school students know my fierce anti-cell-phone policy. Nonetheless, they do occasionally ask if they may take a quick picture. (I typically say yes, and then check to be sure the phone goes back in the bag.)

When I do PD work at schools, or present at conferences, teachers take pictures of my slides ALL THE TIME.

Of course, the fact that students and teachers want to take those pictures doesn’t automatically mean that it’s a good idea to do so.

In fact, we have several reasons to think it’s a bad idea.

First reason: those photos might serve as subtle hint to our brain’s memory systems: “you don’t need to remember this, because you’ve got a photo.”

Second reason: the act of taking a photo might distract students (and teachers) from the content we’re discussing.

For example: If my students are thinking about framing the photo correctly (and using a cool filter), they’re NOT thinking about the ways that Fences combines both comic and tragic symbols.

Third reason: we’ve got research!

Check this out…

Prior Knowledge

Researchers have looked at this question for several years now.

In several studies, for instance, researchers asked participants to tour a museum and take pictures of various works of art.

Sure enough, later tests revealed that people remember more about the artwork they didn’t photograph than the artwork they did photograph.

As predicted above, something about taking a photograph made it harder – not easier – to remember the content.

For all these reasons, it seems, teachers might reasonably discourage students from taking photos.

At the same time, we should probably keep asking questions.

In particular, we should acknowledge that museum photography probably isn’t a good stand-in for classroom photography.

That is: my students (and teachers during PD) probably take photographs to help themselves remember important ideas, concepts, and examples. In museums, people might take pictures because that statue is so cool and beautiful!

The museum research offers a useful and interesting baseline, but we’d love some research into … say … actual classrooms.

Cheesemaking, and Beyond!

Well, I’ve got good news. A research team — led by Dr. Annie Ditta at the University of California, Riverside — has indeed started exploring exactly these questions.

In their studies, Team Ditta had students watch 3 short online video lectures about obscure topics. (Like, cheesemaking. No, I’m not joking.)

Participants took pictures of half of the slides.

Here’s the primary question: did students remember more information from the photographed slides, or the unphotographed slides?

SURPRISE! Taking pictures helped students remember the information on the slide.

For the reasons listed above, I did not expect that result. In fact, the researchers didn’t either.

But, those photos really helped.

In one study, students got 39% of the questions right for the slides they photographed, and 29% right for the ones they didn’t. (Stats folks: Cohen’s d was 0.41.)

Given how EASY this strategy is, we should really pay attention to this finding.

By the way, Dr. Ditta’s study explored some other questions as well.

First: students remembered info from photographed slides better both when they decided which slides to photograph and when they were told which ones to photograph.

So, if we tell students to “photograph this information,” we (probably) don’t disrupt the benefit.

Second: what about spoken information?

Common sense suggests that taking a picture won’t help remember spoken ideas (if those ideas aren’t written on the slide). In fact, taking that picture might distract students from the spoken words.

Strangely, in this research, Team Ditta came up with mixed – and surprising – results. In one study, taking a picture made no difference in memory of spoken material. In the other, it benefitted memory of spoken material.

WOW.

So, What Should Teachers Do?

Before we rush to apply research in our classrooms, we always want to ask a few questions.

In this case, I think we should have LOTS of questions.

First: Dr. Ditta’s research looked at brief, online lectures for college students.

Do these conclusions apply to longer classes? To in-person classes? For K-12 students? To students who aren’t neurotypical?

We just don’t (yet) know.

Second: participants in these studies didn’t do anything with the photos. They simply took them.

Would we find the same pattern for students who reviewed their photos, compared to – say – reviewing their notes?

We don’t (yet) know.

Third: participants were tested on their knowledge 5 minutes after the videos were done.

We’ve got LOTS of research showing that short-term gains don’t necessarily result in long-term learning.

So, would these findings hold a week later? A month later?

We don’t (yet) know.

Given all the things we don’t know, how can this research benefit us?

For me, these studies open up new possibilities.

In the past, as I described above, I permitted students (and teachers) to take photos. But I tried to discourage them.

I would even – on occasion – explain all the reasons above why I thought taking photos would reduce learning.

Well, I’m no longer going to discourage.

Instead, I’ll explain the complex possibilities.

Perhaps taking photos helps memory because it signals that THIS INFORMATION DESERVES ATTENTION.

Or, perhaps taking photos helps only if students DON’T review before tests. But, taking notes would help more … especially the students who DO review before tests.

And perhaps, just perhaps, this research team got flukey results because even well-done research sometimes produces flukey results. Future classroom research about taking photos of slides might ultimately suggest that (despite this thoughtful work), it really is a bad idea.

I wish the answer were simpler, but it just isn’t.

TL;DR

Surprising new research suggests that taking photos of lecture slides helps college students remember slide contents – even when students don’t review those photos.

Before we teachers rush to make dramatic changes, we should think carefully how this research fits our classrooms and contexts.

And, we should weigh this memory strategy against lots of other strategies – like retrieval practice.

Finally: let’s all watch this space!

Ditta, A. S., Soares, J. S., & Storm, B. C. (2022). What happens to memory for lecture content when students take photos of the lecture slides?. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition.

Soderstrom, N. C., & Bjork, R. A. (2015). Learning versus performance: An integrative review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 176-199.