The Psychology of Learning: Context Matters–Where You Learn is How You Learn
Here at LaymanPsych, we would like to think that many of our fans are spunky, enthusiastic, and well-informed psychology students. This probably isn’t the case but we’ll work on the premise that it is. And since all you imaginary fans are now back at college, it seems a good time to tackle the psychology of learning. So the next few articles will be dedicated to some fun facts about the human brain’s ability to learn.
The Real World Example
In my early days of college, I would often spend my time studying with music blasting in my ears. In my later years in school, I was more likely found in a quiet room. Not surprisingly, perhaps, my grades were better in my later years of school. It’s possible that learning material with something as distracting as music on is simply difficult but it is possible, and perhaps likely, that something else is work here. How do we know this? Because it’s been studied, of course.
Who Are They?
D. R. Godden and A. D. Baddeley of The University of Stirling in 1975.
What They Did?
Godden and Baddeley designed a simple experiment that required deep sea divers (and they were all deep sea divers) to learn material while either on land or while under water. They were then asked to recall this information in the form of a quiz.
There were four groups of subjects. One group learned material under water, and took the quiz under water. Another group learned the material on land and recalled the information on land. Another group learned the material under water and recalled it on land. The final group learned the material on land and recalled it under water.
What They Found?
The point of the quiz was to determine an individuals ability to learn the material. Obviously, if someone performs better on the quiz, we can assume that they learned it better. So what did they find?
When an individual learned the material on land and recalled it on land, they performed fairly well on the quiz. When an individual learned the material under water and recalled it under water, they too did fairly well (though, slightly less than the former group). But here is the kicker. Those who learned under water and took the quiz on land, or learned on land and took the quiz under water, performed significantly worse than the other two groups. Furthermore, they performed about as equally as bad, despite the fact that those who learned and tested on land were better than any other group.
What This Means?
The takehome here is your ability to recall something in a particular context is directly correlated with the context of where you learned that information in the first place. So what does this mean for you? If you have a test where the teacher blasts Metallica while you take the test, then by all means, you should listen to Metallica while you study. When you begin studying for something, ask yourself “How much does this room remind me of my lecture hall” or wherever you are going to be taking your test.
But it’s important to realize that whether you’re wet or dry isn’t the only thing that matters. Many other studies have confirmed the notion that context-dependent learning is real. This means that the looks and sound and even the smells around you have an impact on your ability to remember things. Try this, study with a Jolly Rancher in your mouth and then take a test with a Jolly Rancher in your mouth. The effect is likely going to be small but you never know when the sweetness of a watermelon Jolly Rancher reminds you who the lead the British Expeditionary Force into the 1st Battle of Ypres in 1914 (it was Sir John French, for those of you wondering)
More Reading
Context-Dependent Memory in Two Natural Environments: On Land and Underwater (the article)
The Psychology of Learning: Cramming and why it doesn’t work (A laymanpsych article)
