"How We Learn versus How We Think We Learn"
Robert A. Bjork, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department
of Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles
Monday, November 3, 3:30-4:45 pm
Viking Theater, Buntrock Commons
A reception will follow
Visit coordinated by Mary Walczak, Chemistry and 2003-04 CILA Associate. Co-sponsored by the Center for Innovation in the Liberal Arts, the Education Department, and the Psychology Department.
ABSTRACT: Paradoxically, certain manipulations that promote forgetting and impair performance during instruction and practice actually enhance long-term retention and transfer. Conversely, conditions that retard forgetting and enhance performance during training frequently fail to support long-term, post-training performance. From a theoretical standpoint, such findings have implications for the functional architecture of humans as learners. From a practical standpoint, they point to reasons instructors are susceptible to choosing less effective conditions of instruction over more effective conditions, why learners are prone to illusions of comprehension, and why real-world instruction is seldom as effective as it might be.
Biography: Robert A. Bjork received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research focuses on how humans learn and remember and on the implications of that research for training and instruction. He is currently co-editor of Psychological Science in the Public Interest; his earlier responsibilities include editing Psychological Review (1995-2000), and chairing a National Research Council Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance (1988-94). He has served as President of the American Psychological Society, President of the Western Psychological Association, Chair of the Psychonomic Society, and Chair of the Council of Editors of the American Psychological Association. He is a recipient of UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award and the Distinguished Scientist Lecturer Award of the American Psychological Association. In 2001-02, he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford CA, and Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Bjork has published numerous articles on memory, retention, retrieval, and forgetting. Among others: With D.A. Simon. (2002). Models of performance in learning multi-segment movement tasks: Consequences for acquisition, retention and judgments of learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8, 222-232. With P.A. deWinstanley. (2002). Successful lecturing: Presenting information in ways that engage effective processing. In D.F. Halpern & M.D. Hakel (eds.), Applying the Science of Learning to University Teaching and Beyond (pp. 19-31). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
