For math I usually try first unless I know that I have no idea how some function or question works, then I watch a video explaining that subject of math, then I usually do some exercises with Khan Academy to apply the knowledge. If I still can't really explain it I'll watch a couple more videos until I can explain in my own way how something works. I struggled all my life with slopes of linear equations and I understood it in a day after doing it like this which will probably tremendously help with understanding vectors better in calculus.
This advice is spot on in terms of the current research. Lots of information packed into a short video, any of these strategies could be a full video in itself. Would be interesting to see something that flips the script and instead focuses on how educational UA-camrs can make the concepts in their videos stickier, or maybe a video that acts as an example of how to do that.
i went and applied the advice from this video on this video. and as you were saying with controlled forgetting, i ended up "forgetting" a lot of examples in addition to the sequence in which you presented the topic, but wrote down everything in a way that made sense to me. coming back to check on this video to see if i missed anything important, i learned the entire thing perfectly fine.
This video provides helpful tips for remembering what was discussed in a video. One should bring forth what they know about a subject before trying to learn from the video. Then write down what they are learning. Finally, using free recall by way of a pencil and paper, one may strengthen the knowledge one has gained from the viewing experience.
I love how much info is packed in this short video. Commenting to help solidify my understanding, and maybe someone can use these terms to learn more. For step 1, I like to recall all the information I have about the topic I'm going to study. That may mean reviewing notes or just free thinking. After that, I use the Question Formulation Technique to generate a list of questions I have about the material. Using QFT really primes my brain to absorb the new information because I already know what I want to look for. For step 2, not much to add. Using a dedicated study environment, having note-taking at the ready, silencing cell phone, etc. If I find I'm getting distracted by other thoughts while watching, I may jot them down to review later, so I don't have to try to hold on to them while simultaneously paying attention. For step 3, there are two things that come to mind beyond the use of free recall. The gap you suggest taking before starting the free recall I'd describe as a single iteration of spaced repetition. For quick facts that may be adding something to an Anki deck. For more in depth topics, I'll get some of that when I review my notes prior to my next learning session, but I also like to put time on my calendar to have another free recall session down the line, moving the time between sessions further each iteration. When it comes time to do an iteration of spaced repetition, sometimes I'll use free association as described in the video, and other times I'll use the Feynman technique. I agree with writing things down (or explaining out loud to another person). It helps avoid my brain's tendency to confuse recognition (hey, I've seen this before!) with recall (I remember the all of the details of this information). Taking a break also helps me stop doing focused linear thinking about the topic and gives my brain a chance to do diffuse thinking, making connections with other material and topics and enmeshing it in my web of knowledge. Great stuff! Now to binge watch the rest of the channel...
I remember back when I was practicing Jiu Jitsu, I used to practice with my girlfriend and we would watch the content from the course and try the technique without looking at it. Then when we reached a step that couldn't be recalled, we would watch that part of the video again and try it again. I learned some serious submissions this way, to the point where when I went back to my jiu jitsu school and sparred with my mates, I would remember perfectly the technique and applied it almost flawlessly. We didn't only learned submissions but also escaping or countering submissions. If a training partner won against me with a particular submission or I saw I had a particular way of always losing, I would return to the course, practice with my GF for several days and voila, no I learned to escape or counter what was making me lose. Good old days! My GF loved to practice with me because she was also learning basic things to apply in real life.
I learn a ton from you tube videos, guitar, drums, and vocals, horse training, auto restoration (apparently my adhd is showing) regardless, I find value in a preliminary binge watch on topic. Theres a pant load of content on just about any topic, not all of it good clearly, and not all of it conducive to my learning style necessarily, so the binge lets me discriminate where I’m focusing that time I’m going to invest. (I just have to make sure I process check myself if I don’t find something that clicks my hyper focus switch, otherwise it ends up being like doom scrolling.) I’m gonna give this active recall approach a try on some of the videos I’m focused on right now. I definitely see a problem with what I’m doing in that, clearly I have to rotate my time investments around or things will get stale and not progress well. But that rotation in general is somewhat whimsical, so it looks like it would serve me to start tracking that movement to some schedules, (outside of whatever current hyper focus is drawing the big blocks of time, cause if the hook is in, u gotta mine it.) Or words to that effect.
3:40 Instead of writing things down, I tend to explain things verbally(most to an imaginative person) related to whatever I know beforehand or whatever I learnt in the video. Is that equivalent to writing things down? Also, would I have to follow these steps even if I am trying to just get an idea of the subject and not just trying to absorb every single bit of information ? I am doing so now as it is my spring break and would be learning those topics in school in the future.
Explaining things to yourself is great. The research on spoken vs written recall, as far as I can tell, is a bit conflicting. But there seems to be some tradeoffs involved: speaking is faster and avoids your brain having to deal with letters, but also leads to more repetitions and doesn't yield something you can reflect upon or review afterwards. Sometimes researchers find a "spoken superiority effect" in terms of how accurate the recall is and other times they've found a "written superiority effect" (though "accuracy of recall" is a different question than how much the practice promotes long-term learning). I can't imagine that the difference is all that large. Certainly there's lots of times when you might not take this approach. Maybe you're just searching for specific information or you're just exploring what certain topics are like. It's just a tool to have in the toolbox getting more out of the video. What's important is that you know what you have learned from it. The problem is that people will watch an engaging video and think "I really learned a lot from it" when they didn't.
@@benjaminkeep Different learning styles. Different strokes for different folks. 😊 I took a study class in the little college I got to attend. I learned that the memory path in the brain was like a light colored cord when first introduced to a new thing. Then each time you studied the new thing the cord color became more intense. Say 1st time the cord was barely pink and with each study period it got darker until you learned the thing, the cord become very red . I'm sure there was more but I'd have to look it up . I'm here because I just realized I'm learning from UA-cam if I review a thing like the study course taught me. At least 15 min at a time, with no more than 12 hours apart , for best memory adhesion . It still helped memorization if it was 24 or more but prime time was 12 hours. I don't remember what the maximum wait time was . When I find my text book I'll edit this if someone wants to know.
youtube videosunu açmadan önce bir kağıda o konu hakkında ne bilip bilmediğini yaz, videoyu izlerken not almana gerek yok dikkatin dağılmasın yeter, videoyu izledikten bi 15 dk sonra active recall yap, yazmak zorunlu
Thank you, thats very interesting. I do the binge watching to find the common denominator of a specific topic, talking to someone about it (If it might be of interest to them) and then doing it. Worked fairly well for the past years .:) I'll definetly give your advice a shot, especially for learning languages. Thank you and have a good one :)
More a musing than a comment now I’ve written it: I mentioned Dr Molly Gebrian’s work in another video of yours; this one got me thinking about her discussion on effective ways to memorise music (similar free recall with three gradually more spaced test repetitions after the initial learning). The vigilance decrement is also really interesting (and something I first read about recently), and the UA-cam homepage/social media/the current internet seems created to push us closer to that decrement sooner.
Generally agreed that there are many aspects of modern culture that seem designed to make learning less effective. Thanks, as always, for your thoughts.
After watching the video, I find it helpful to review the transcript of the video and take notes from that and click into points on the video from the transcript if necessary. (Though I see this video doesn't have a transcript available.)
Thank you, really useful! I got 2 questions from this: You said that we shouldn't binge on videos, but you also say we should watch different perspectives. So you can watch a lot of videos if they're all about the same concept, right? And second, is it possible to apply this with long videos? Like 2 hours or so.
How would I do it for long form podcasts or audiobooks? I presume i break it up into chunks where I stop listening, wait, then do the free recall. Do you recommend any size to the chunks? I feel like it will take forever to get through an audiobook this way. What if i am on a long drive and can't write things down, say an hour drive? Wait till the end of the drive and try to recall everything from the past hour?
I talk about learning from podcasts here: ua-cam.com/video/2KICSMLL2_g/v-deo.html. Yes, I would break it into chunks, though how long the chunk is probably depends on what you're learning. Maybe 30 minutes to an hour. I would experiment a bit. It's easy to get behind on the recall (feeling like "hey, I'm really enjoying this podcast and I'm in a situation where I'd like to listen to it... but I haven't done any free recall for the previous hour yet...).
You can do either. Sometimes I trash it if I think I won't really use it again. Sometimes I keep it around for idle quick review. Or you could use it as a check on future free recall sessions.
I got myself askify - its a chrome plugin that lets me take notes and screenshots & timestamps from youtube videos - jsut next to the video. And my goal for education is to just watch videos where im willing to take notes - so i skim the video and tackle it now, schedule it for later or dont watch it at all. But i try to get away from education for entertainment where i load 10 tabs of study youtube videos just to feel productive - or at least i try to be honest with me when my binging is more for entertainment.
You've mentioned in a couple of videos, the idea that it is important to do preparation before engaging with a topic. Does it matter how far in advance this preparation is done? For example (lets say you know a reasonable amount on the topic, but are not an expert), would you have to do the preparation immediately before engaging with the topic? Would it be as effective if you did the preparation during the preceding week, and then perhaps reviewed your preparation notes the day prior?
This is a good question. I don't have a strong, empirically supported answer. In the studies I am familiar with, the preparation happens close in time to the main learning experience. There's a certain logic to it as well - evidence from the problem-solving literature establishes the idea of "mental set" - that whatever has happened immediately before problem solving highlights certain kinds of solutions at the expense of others. More generally, "activating prior knowledge" as a principle is usually something that happens immediately before the learning experience. But with the "week before, then quick review" approach you've also built spacing into the learning process. It's a tough call. With the quick review there might not be that much of a difference. It's not a bad topic for a research study, actually.
Do you have any recommendations if you have no "prior knowledge" of the topic? For example, watching a short clip of a relevant video of the topic or reading a short summary of the topic to obtain the needed prior knowledge. @@benjaminkeep
And about chunking information? For example, if my lecture is like 100min long, is it ideal to stop every 30 minutes or so to trying to process this information using some blurting method or trying to create a mindmap?
Me seeing this video: "Oh hey, this is gonna be great! Just in time ahead of new year." Me watching this video: *puts away phone, pretending like I wasn't scrolling through my DMs for the whole of the beginning* I am so guilty of the binge watching thing. Also super guilty of jumping straight into searching "how to do " on UA-cam without even attempting something first. I guess that's why I spent so much time rewinding a DIY face mask tutorial during the process of making one and now that I need to make some more, I can't remember how 😅
Yeah, I've been thinking about how the access to information through the internet has changed our thinking patterns. Because I find myself doing the same thing you do. Just jump to the "how to do X" without even THINKING about how it might work first. In isolation, it's probably not bad. But as a habit, doesn't seem great. I forget where I heard this, but I remember an art teacher giving an assignment to her students: to spend something like 30 minutes looking at the same painting. Just to soak in the details, notice new things, fully concentrate on it. Most of the stuff we read or listen to doesn't have the information density of an art museum painting. But I think about that example sometimes when I find myself doing three things at once. : )
Thank you for this Some "teachers" or UA-cam videos are better organized than others. Some UA-cam videos are so well-organized and professional that they leave out everything that can go wrong. They make tasks look easier than they are. I have found that I get more out of UA-cam videos if I utilize other methods of learning such as manuals or books or professional articles. A video designed for a Next Bicycle might not work exactly with a Schwinn, for example but having a Schwinn manual and referencing my own experience should help me with whatever problem I face. If I were in school and learning how to repair a Bicycle the course is usually written by a professional and is tried and tested. But UA-cam videos often represent "trial and error" and in come instances the videos are disorganized, excessively wordy and incoherent and disorganized. You can pick up a lot from UA-cam - and some channels are highly advanced and professional - but caveat emptor.
Hi Ben! I wonder what is your oppinion on new AI study/ressearch tools like NotebookLM (AI in general) and how to use them correctly in the process of learning It would be a great content to discuss!
I have been trying to learn how to code and solve data structure and algorithm problems by watching tutorials. How would this method work in that instance where the videos can be very long. Should I watch the whole thing then go do something else then come back and try to solve the problem?
Hey there. What are your thoughts about using the Cornell Note Taking System by Walter Pauk while watching videos? Or mixing with the technique you recommend in the video, but instead of a pure "watch through the video without taking notes", you take notes in the Cornell system? I'm curious to hear your take. Thanks! Great channel. I really appreciate your effects to distill learning theory for the curious! Have a good one. 😀
In the time that you "get your mind off" and you take a break, is it a bad idea to use that time to learn something totally different? (imagine I'm learning two or more things, would it be bad if in the intervals or breaks I just swap between them)
in my view, you should put your body in motion, and do a mundane chore, or similar activity. You don't want to be focused on learning something new, which might block an insight which would otherwise occur to you randomly regarding the topic you just took a break from.
Thanks for the content! I have a question though. Would taking notes for the sake of it being a resource to go back to for active recall be effective? Going back and forth to a certain page/part of the video to confirm all what I didn’t understand seems unecessarily difficult especially with text/videos.
hell yeah you can well sometimes. I mean it depends sometimes like really it depends one what kind of videos you are really watching educational wise but yeah if I don't really have any idea I will observe what they say and have first but then if it doesn't really add up form what they said in a video then I can't really trust them and have to figure it out on my own mainly. Rarely enough I do that unless it's something diabolical and not just school math answers 😅😅
I am really lazy so I just record myself speaking out loud the content of what I just learned and then compare that recording to what was actually in the video/textbook that I just watched/read to find out what I missed and what I got wrong.
where should we exactly use the technique of guess work in subjects of physics, chemistry, mathematics to learn effciently and for long time, i think that guessing work for formulas in physics and mathematics is not that efficient as these subjects dont focus much on memory skill but more on application skill.
So watch different videos for same topic it’s a good something to do ?! And do you recommend to watch this vid at same day or session or at another day !? I will be so grateful if you answer me 🖤
Generally speaking, yes. Depends on what you're learning and how long the videos are. Both same day or different day could work (different day offers the advantage of spaced study, which is nice; same day might get you to understand the topic more deeply to begin with). It's hard to say in the abstract.
Not sure if you're checking comments on this video this far out since its original posting, but... I binge watch videos on a topic to identify patterns. I save the videos that are structured in a way that works with my learning style to a playlist, then I use that playlist for the primary learning session. Philosophy PhD.'s will suggest a quick "first read" of a text to understand the general topic and argument, then a second slower read for deeper understanding and note taking. This is the approach I have with UA-cam videos. By using videos that align with my learning style/structure the note-taking phase is faster and far more effective. If I'm going to watch a bunch of videos all on the same topic, most of them will have the same primary information (bell curve, after all). I may as well make sure I'm learning the primary info in the way that works best for me.
When first learning sthg, would you suggest understanding the information at hand first without incorporating it into my existing knowledge structures or is it better to do that immediately and just try not to be judgemental if that could be an issue? Hope this question makes sense ? Edit: looking through your your great material i guess you have covered this question in facettes :)
Is there a recommended watch/break time ratio? For a 10-15 minute dense video I am able to recall enough after 15 minutes to spend 5 minutes writing. However, this seems like a lot of time to be spending on a single video.
what about if the UA-cam video is say about 1.5 hrs. or more and is jam-packed with information. It would be extremely difficult to remember an amount of information that is significant, would this technique be still effective or is there another way to go about it?
I didn't do any of these steps while watching this video. I bet it had some good advice I already forgot. Too bad. I really want to get more out of watching educational youtube videos.
Would it still work effectively if In the bicycle example instead of practicing you instead write down the specific steps as if you were doing it (so still using recall)?
That's a good question. Wouldn't be bad. But I still think the practical experience beats writing in this case. Think about changing a tire. You can write down the steps, but that doesn't give you the experience of actually looking at the tire and looking at the parts and trying to figure out what to do.
@@benjaminkeep as a bicycle mechanic, I can verify that there's no substitute to actually doing it. You can write things down all you want, but the actual understanding of what the words mean isn't going to happen until you actually have the experience of struggling to learn those motor skills.
I think there's a difference between browsing youtube and being intentional about learning from it. The youtube browse feature (and homepage) basically exist to catch your eye in any way that a video can, so I think you need to go in thinking "I'm going to learn about this". Then you only search for that thing, pull up 3-5 videos on it, full screen them, do the prior knowledge and free recall thing on each one over the course of a day or two and then I think you're better off. Turning off notifications and any other distractions to the extent possible is key as well. IMO, there's a link between browsing and entertainment (think Netflix) vs search and learning (you go in looking for something and are more intentional about what you find). I'm not saying that you can't learn from just browsing and binging, but if you're focused and intentional it will take you a bit further.
Sir, me and my classmate Roohama are facing a similar problem. Whenever we prepare a topic we don't successfully be able to retrieve it. Even though our method of studying is fully based on understanding. If we read a book the next day it seems like i don't even remember a page. We are undergraduate students and our age is roughly around 21-22. What should we do? We don't take notes btw but why our brain is not retaining information?
don't wait until u read to the end of the topic to do recall. Stop and try recall and explain what u reading, while reading. Successful discomfortable active recall - that how it should be calling
I just did what you criticized with your video LOL. I tend to disagree in the most part. Since my "education" is a hybrid of entertainment, I'd rather let my brain cover a wide area passively. Using full focus would classify as any other task like institutional studying or work for me. It's not about really learning for me, but scanning and making pathways IN CASE I want to learn and invest time in the future. Good video
Yeah. Agree (if I've understood you correctly). When I watch UA-cam videos, I think of myself as "curating" so that If I find something valuable worth exploring, I save that video, and then come back to it later to consume it more actively, take notes, think of how I can apply it, etc. If it wasn't particularly valuable or applicable for me, that's okay. At least it'll have been entertaining - as that was mostly the goal in the first place.
@@Mephistel I never go back on anything unless an authority forces me to. I'd rather read a thousand different books first. And then re read 10 or so. It might not be the most practical approach. But I prefer variety rather than specialization for now.
It depends right, he's a PhD and that requires him to be through with a niche while you and me, with our profile pictures - anyone can make out we're undergrads or grad students, so we prefer variety but it makes sense he's doing what he's doing and I'm at a point in life where I'm leaning more towards his approach. I guess at the end of the day, it's all about what we are and what we want to be.
6:59 So can cognitive dissonance help you learn better? This uncomfortableness and your brain trying to wrap its head around should make it more memorable, painful and effortful, as long as you dont reject it right away (like arguments against god's existence).
For math I usually try first unless I know that I have no idea how some function or question works, then I watch a video explaining that subject of math, then I usually do some exercises with Khan Academy to apply the knowledge. If I still can't really explain it I'll watch a couple more videos until I can explain in my own way how something works. I struggled all my life with slopes of linear equations and I understood it in a day after doing it like this which will probably tremendously help with understanding vectors better in calculus.
This advice is spot on in terms of the current research. Lots of information packed into a short video, any of these strategies could be a full video in itself. Would be interesting to see something that flips the script and instead focuses on how educational UA-camrs can make the concepts in their videos stickier, or maybe a video that acts as an example of how to do that.
i went and applied the advice from this video on this video. and as you were saying with controlled forgetting, i ended up "forgetting" a lot of examples in addition to the sequence in which you presented the topic, but wrote down everything in a way that made sense to me. coming back to check on this video to see if i missed anything important, i learned the entire thing perfectly fine.
This video provides helpful tips for remembering what was discussed in a video. One should bring forth what they know about a subject before trying to learn from the video. Then write down what they are learning. Finally, using free recall by way of a pencil and paper, one may strengthen the knowledge one has gained from the viewing experience.
I love how much info is packed in this short video. Commenting to help solidify my understanding, and maybe someone can use these terms to learn more.
For step 1, I like to recall all the information I have about the topic I'm going to study. That may mean reviewing notes or just free thinking. After that, I use the Question Formulation Technique to generate a list of questions I have about the material. Using QFT really primes my brain to absorb the new information because I already know what I want to look for.
For step 2, not much to add. Using a dedicated study environment, having note-taking at the ready, silencing cell phone, etc. If I find I'm getting distracted by other thoughts while watching, I may jot them down to review later, so I don't have to try to hold on to them while simultaneously paying attention.
For step 3, there are two things that come to mind beyond the use of free recall. The gap you suggest taking before starting the free recall I'd describe as a single iteration of spaced repetition. For quick facts that may be adding something to an Anki deck. For more in depth topics, I'll get some of that when I review my notes prior to my next learning session, but I also like to put time on my calendar to have another free recall session down the line, moving the time between sessions further each iteration. When it comes time to do an iteration of spaced repetition, sometimes I'll use free association as described in the video, and other times I'll use the Feynman technique.
I agree with writing things down (or explaining out loud to another person). It helps avoid my brain's tendency to confuse recognition (hey, I've seen this before!) with recall (I remember the all of the details of this information). Taking a break also helps me stop doing focused linear thinking about the topic and gives my brain a chance to do diffuse thinking, making connections with other material and topics and enmeshing it in my web of knowledge.
Great stuff! Now to binge watch the rest of the channel...
I remember back when I was practicing Jiu Jitsu, I used to practice with my girlfriend and we would watch the content from the course and try the technique without looking at it. Then when we reached a step that couldn't be recalled, we would watch that part of the video again and try it again. I learned some serious submissions this way, to the point where when I went back to my jiu jitsu school and sparred with my mates, I would remember perfectly the technique and applied it almost flawlessly. We didn't only learned submissions but also escaping or countering submissions. If a training partner won against me with a particular submission or I saw I had a particular way of always losing, I would return to the course, practice with my GF for several days and voila, no I learned to escape or counter what was making me lose. Good old days! My GF loved to practice with me because she was also learning basic things to apply in real life.
Sounds like a really effective approach!
How to get a gf
@@benjaminkeep💀💀
Yeah, Jiu Jitsu :^)
@@manamsetty2664 learn ziu zitsu submissions and impress her the first time you meet her
I learn a ton from you tube videos, guitar, drums, and vocals, horse training, auto restoration (apparently my adhd is showing) regardless, I find value in a preliminary binge watch on topic. Theres a pant load of content on just about any topic, not all of it good clearly, and not all of it conducive to my learning style necessarily, so the binge lets me discriminate where I’m focusing that time I’m going to invest.
(I just have to make sure I process check myself if I don’t find something that clicks my hyper focus switch, otherwise it ends up being like doom scrolling.)
I’m gonna give this active recall approach a try on some of the videos I’m focused on right now. I definitely see a problem with what I’m doing in that, clearly I have to rotate my time investments around or things will get stale and not progress well. But that rotation in general is somewhat whimsical, so it looks like it would serve me to start tracking that movement to some schedules, (outside of whatever current hyper focus is drawing the big blocks of time, cause if the hook is in, u gotta mine it.)
Or words to that effect.
Why didn't you turrn on closed captions? Your voice is good, but I dolike the opiton.
3:40
Instead of writing things down, I tend to explain things verbally(most to an imaginative person) related to whatever I know beforehand or whatever I learnt in the video. Is that equivalent to writing things down?
Also, would I have to follow these steps even if I am trying to just get an idea of the subject and not just trying to absorb every single bit of information ? I am doing so now as it is my spring break and would be learning those topics in school in the future.
Explaining things to yourself is great. The research on spoken vs written recall, as far as I can tell, is a bit conflicting. But there seems to be some tradeoffs involved: speaking is faster and avoids your brain having to deal with letters, but also leads to more repetitions and doesn't yield something you can reflect upon or review afterwards. Sometimes researchers find a "spoken superiority effect" in terms of how accurate the recall is and other times they've found a "written superiority effect" (though "accuracy of recall" is a different question than how much the practice promotes long-term learning). I can't imagine that the difference is all that large.
Certainly there's lots of times when you might not take this approach. Maybe you're just searching for specific information or you're just exploring what certain topics are like. It's just a tool to have in the toolbox getting more out of the video. What's important is that you know what you have learned from it. The problem is that people will watch an engaging video and think "I really learned a lot from it" when they didn't.
@@benjaminkeep Thank you. That was helpful. And congratulations, you have gained a new subscriber 😇
@@benjaminkeep
Different learning styles. Different strokes for different folks. 😊
I took a study class in the little college I got to attend. I learned that the memory path in the brain was like a light colored cord when first introduced to a new thing. Then each time you studied the new thing the cord color became more intense. Say 1st time the cord was barely pink and with each study period it got darker until you learned the thing, the cord become very red . I'm sure there was more but I'd have to look it up .
I'm here because I just realized I'm learning from UA-cam if I review a thing like the study course taught me. At least 15 min at a time, with no more than 12 hours apart , for best memory adhesion . It still helped memorization if it was 24 or more but prime time was 12 hours. I don't remember what the maximum wait time was . When I find my text book I'll edit this if someone wants to know.
youtube videosunu açmadan önce bir kağıda o konu hakkında ne bilip bilmediğini yaz, videoyu izlerken not almana gerek yok dikkatin dağılmasın yeter, videoyu izledikten bi 15 dk sonra active recall yap, yazmak zorunlu
Thank you
Thank you, thats very interesting.
I do the binge watching to find the common denominator of a specific topic, talking to someone about it (If it might be of interest to them) and then doing it. Worked fairly well for the past years .:)
I'll definetly give your advice a shot, especially for learning languages.
Thank you and have a good one :)
Love the free recall technique! I recommend that too! Very cool!
Thanks! Yeah, it's criminally under-used IMO.
Agree!
More a musing than a comment now I’ve written it:
I mentioned Dr Molly Gebrian’s work in another video of yours; this one got me thinking about her discussion on effective ways to memorise music (similar free recall with three gradually more spaced test repetitions after the initial learning).
The vigilance decrement is also really interesting (and something I first read about recently), and the UA-cam homepage/social media/the current internet seems created to push us closer to that decrement sooner.
Generally agreed that there are many aspects of modern culture that seem designed to make learning less effective. Thanks, as always, for your thoughts.
Thanks, I shall try this method with this video itself.
After watching the video, I find it helpful to review the transcript of the video and take notes from that and click into points on the video from the transcript if necessary. (Though I see this video doesn't have a transcript available.)
Thank you, really useful! I got 2 questions from this: You said that we shouldn't binge on videos, but you also say we should watch different perspectives. So you can watch a lot of videos if they're all about the same concept, right?
And second, is it possible to apply this with long videos? Like 2 hours or so.
Thanks. Very useful
I needed this
How would I do it for long form podcasts or audiobooks? I presume i break it up into chunks where I stop listening, wait, then do the free recall. Do you recommend any size to the chunks? I feel like it will take forever to get through an audiobook this way.
What if i am on a long drive and can't write things down, say an hour drive? Wait till the end of the drive and try to recall everything from the past hour?
I talk about learning from podcasts here: ua-cam.com/video/2KICSMLL2_g/v-deo.html. Yes, I would break it into chunks, though how long the chunk is probably depends on what you're learning. Maybe 30 minutes to an hour. I would experiment a bit. It's easy to get behind on the recall (feeling like "hey, I'm really enjoying this podcast and I'm in a situation where I'd like to listen to it... but I haven't done any free recall for the previous hour yet...).
The SQ3R method applied to UA-cam? Very interesting and insightful approach! 😉
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Question
Read, Recite, Review
So what do you do with what you have written down? Do you just bin them right away, keep them for revision later, something else?
You can do either. Sometimes I trash it if I think I won't really use it again. Sometimes I keep it around for idle quick review. Or you could use it as a check on future free recall sessions.
@@benjaminkeep OK, thanks for the response. Really enjoying your content by the way.
I got myself askify - its a chrome plugin that lets me take notes and screenshots & timestamps from youtube videos - jsut next to the video.
And my goal for education is to just watch videos where im willing to take notes - so i skim the video and tackle it now, schedule it for later or dont watch it at all.
But i try to get away from education for entertainment where i load 10 tabs of study youtube videos just to feel productive - or at least i try to be honest with me when my binging is more for entertainment.
You've mentioned in a couple of videos, the idea that it is important to do preparation before engaging with a topic.
Does it matter how far in advance this preparation is done?
For example (lets say you know a reasonable amount on the topic, but are not an expert), would you have to do the preparation immediately before engaging with the topic?
Would it be as effective if you did the preparation during the preceding week, and then perhaps reviewed your preparation notes the day prior?
This is a good question. I don't have a strong, empirically supported answer. In the studies I am familiar with, the preparation happens close in time to the main learning experience. There's a certain logic to it as well - evidence from the problem-solving literature establishes the idea of "mental set" - that whatever has happened immediately before problem solving highlights certain kinds of solutions at the expense of others. More generally, "activating prior knowledge" as a principle is usually something that happens immediately before the learning experience.
But with the "week before, then quick review" approach you've also built spacing into the learning process. It's a tough call. With the quick review there might not be that much of a difference. It's not a bad topic for a research study, actually.
Do you have any recommendations if you have no "prior knowledge" of the topic? For example, watching a short clip of a relevant video of the topic or reading a short summary of the topic to obtain the needed prior knowledge. @@benjaminkeep
Sir it was very helpful.
can you please add the subtitle? I need that.
And about chunking information? For example, if my lecture is like 100min long, is it ideal to stop every 30 minutes or so to trying to process this information using some blurting method or trying to create a mindmap?
Me seeing this video: "Oh hey, this is gonna be great! Just in time ahead of new year."
Me watching this video: *puts away phone, pretending like I wasn't scrolling through my DMs for the whole of the beginning*
I am so guilty of the binge watching thing. Also super guilty of jumping straight into searching "how to do " on UA-cam without even attempting something first. I guess that's why I spent so much time rewinding a DIY face mask tutorial during the process of making one and now that I need to make some more, I can't remember how 😅
Yeah, I've been thinking about how the access to information through the internet has changed our thinking patterns. Because I find myself doing the same thing you do. Just jump to the "how to do X" without even THINKING about how it might work first. In isolation, it's probably not bad. But as a habit, doesn't seem great.
I forget where I heard this, but I remember an art teacher giving an assignment to her students: to spend something like 30 minutes looking at the same painting. Just to soak in the details, notice new things, fully concentrate on it. Most of the stuff we read or listen to doesn't have the information density of an art museum painting. But I think about that example sometimes when I find myself doing three things at once. : )
Thank you for this Some "teachers" or UA-cam videos are better organized than others. Some UA-cam videos are so well-organized and professional that they leave out everything that can go wrong. They make tasks look easier than they are. I have found that I get more out of UA-cam videos if I utilize other methods of learning such as manuals or books or professional articles. A video designed for a Next Bicycle might not work exactly with a Schwinn, for example but having a Schwinn manual and referencing my own experience should help me with whatever problem I face. If I were in school and learning how to repair a Bicycle the course is usually written by a professional and is tried and tested. But UA-cam videos often represent "trial and error" and in come instances the videos are disorganized, excessively wordy and incoherent and disorganized. You can pick up a lot from UA-cam - and some channels are highly advanced and professional - but caveat emptor.
Hi Ben! I wonder what is your oppinion on new AI study/ressearch tools like NotebookLM (AI in general) and how to use them correctly in the process of learning
It would be a great content to discuss!
phenomenal content, thank you!
I have been trying to learn how to code and solve data structure and algorithm problems by watching tutorials. How would this method work in that instance where the videos can be very long. Should I watch the whole thing then go do something else then come back and try to solve the problem?
My little understanding, is try to do it in little chunks
Hey there. What are your thoughts about using the Cornell Note Taking System by Walter Pauk while watching videos? Or mixing with the technique you recommend in the video, but instead of a pure "watch through the video without taking notes", you take notes in the Cornell system? I'm curious to hear your take. Thanks! Great channel. I really appreciate your effects to distill learning theory for the curious! Have a good one. 😀
In the time that you "get your mind off" and you take a break, is it a bad idea to use that time to learn something totally different?
(imagine I'm learning two or more things, would it be bad if in the intervals or breaks I just swap between them)
in my view, you should put your body in motion, and do a mundane chore, or similar activity. You don't want to be focused on learning something new, which might block an insight which would otherwise occur to you randomly regarding the topic you just took a break from.
Thanks for the content! I have a question though. Would taking notes for the sake of it being a resource to go back to for active recall be effective? Going back and forth to a certain page/part of the video to confirm all what I didn’t understand seems unecessarily difficult especially with text/videos.
hell yeah you can well sometimes.
I mean it depends sometimes like really it depends one what kind of videos you are really watching educational wise but yeah if I don't really have any idea I will observe what they say and have first but then if it doesn't really add up form what they said in a video then I can't really trust them and have to figure it out on my own mainly.
Rarely enough I do that unless it's something diabolical and not just school math answers 😅😅
Prior knowledge through watching more videos and writing down what you know beforehand.
Trying this method with this video now. How meta.
I am really lazy so I just record myself speaking out loud the content of what I just learned and then compare that recording to what was actually in the video/textbook that I just watched/read to find out what I missed and what I got wrong.
where should we exactly use the technique of guess work in subjects of physics, chemistry, mathematics to learn effciently and for long time, i think that guessing work for formulas in physics and mathematics is not that efficient as these subjects dont focus much on memory skill but more on application skill.
Great stuff as always! I definitely need to work on not binge watching and actively engaging with each video instead
So watch different videos for same topic it’s a good something to do ?! And do you recommend to watch this vid at same day or session or at another day !? I will be so grateful if you answer me 🖤
Generally speaking, yes. Depends on what you're learning and how long the videos are. Both same day or different day could work (different day offers the advantage of spaced study, which is nice; same day might get you to understand the topic more deeply to begin with). It's hard to say in the abstract.
@@benjaminkeep thank you 🖤
Not sure if you're checking comments on this video this far out since its original posting, but...
I binge watch videos on a topic to identify patterns. I save the videos that are structured in a way that works with my learning style to a playlist, then I use that playlist for the primary learning session.
Philosophy PhD.'s will suggest a quick "first read" of a text to understand the general topic and argument, then a second slower read for deeper understanding and note taking. This is the approach I have with UA-cam videos. By using videos that align with my learning style/structure the note-taking phase is faster and far more effective.
If I'm going to watch a bunch of videos all on the same topic, most of them will have the same primary information (bell curve, after all). I may as well make sure I'm learning the primary info in the way that works best for me.
When first learning sthg, would you suggest understanding the information at hand first without incorporating it into my existing knowledge structures or is it better to do that immediately and just try not to be judgemental if that could be an issue? Hope this question makes sense ?
Edit: looking through your your great material i guess you have covered this question in facettes :)
I just binged watch all your videos hahaha
Is there a recommended watch/break time ratio? For a 10-15 minute dense video I am able to recall enough after 15 minutes to spend 5 minutes writing. However, this seems like a lot of time to be spending on a single video.
what about if the UA-cam video is say about 1.5 hrs. or more and is jam-packed with information. It would be extremely difficult to remember an amount of information that is significant, would this technique be still effective or is there another way to go about it?
I didn't do any of these steps while watching this video. I bet it had some good advice I already forgot. Too bad. I really want to get more out of watching educational youtube videos.
Fr definitely me
Серега, спасибо что скинул видос на 7 минут, а не на 1 час уху!
Would it still work effectively if In the bicycle example instead of practicing you instead write down the specific steps as if you were doing it (so still using recall)?
That's a good question. Wouldn't be bad. But I still think the practical experience beats writing in this case. Think about changing a tire. You can write down the steps, but that doesn't give you the experience of actually looking at the tire and looking at the parts and trying to figure out what to do.
@@benjaminkeep as a bicycle mechanic, I can verify that there's no substitute to actually doing it. You can write things down all you want, but the actual understanding of what the words mean isn't going to happen until you actually have the experience of struggling to learn those motor skills.
So, has someone asked what that western architecture is doing in the middle of Guangzhou
My problem with learning on youtube is that I am always distracted by notifications and other attractive thumbnails is there any solution ?
I think there's a difference between browsing youtube and being intentional about learning from it. The youtube browse feature (and homepage) basically exist to catch your eye in any way that a video can, so I think you need to go in thinking "I'm going to learn about this".
Then you only search for that thing, pull up 3-5 videos on it, full screen them, do the prior knowledge and free recall thing on each one over the course of a day or two and then I think you're better off.
Turning off notifications and any other distractions to the extent possible is key as well.
IMO, there's a link between browsing and entertainment (think Netflix) vs search and learning (you go in looking for something and are more intentional about what you find). I'm not saying that you can't learn from just browsing and binging, but if you're focused and intentional it will take you a bit further.
Df tube helps tho
Sir, me and my classmate Roohama are facing a similar problem. Whenever we prepare a topic we don't successfully be able to retrieve it. Even though our method of studying is fully based on understanding. If we read a book the next day it seems like i don't even remember a page. We are undergraduate students and our age is roughly around 21-22. What should we do? We don't take notes btw but why our brain is not retaining information?
don't wait until u read to the end of the topic to do recall. Stop and try recall and explain what u reading, while reading.
Successful discomfortable active recall - that how it should be calling
@@ЛюдмилаАхмедова-м5я thanks, sounds like a good advice
I just did what you criticized with your video LOL. I tend to disagree in the most part. Since my "education" is a hybrid of entertainment, I'd rather let my brain cover a wide area passively. Using full focus would classify as any other task like institutional studying or work for me. It's not about really learning for me, but scanning and making pathways IN CASE I want to learn and invest time in the future. Good video
Yeah. Agree (if I've understood you correctly).
When I watch UA-cam videos, I think of myself as "curating" so that If I find something valuable worth exploring, I save that video, and then come back to it later to consume it more actively, take notes, think of how I can apply it, etc.
If it wasn't particularly valuable or applicable for me, that's okay. At least it'll have been entertaining - as that was mostly the goal in the first place.
How often do you find yourself coming back to watched content for a deeper dive?
@@Mephistel I never go back on anything unless an authority forces me to. I'd rather read a thousand different books first. And then re read 10 or so. It might not be the most practical approach. But I prefer variety rather than specialization for now.
It depends right, he's a PhD and that requires him to be through with a niche while you and me, with our profile pictures - anyone can make out we're undergrads or grad students, so we prefer variety but it makes sense he's doing what he's doing and I'm at a point in life where I'm leaning more towards his approach. I guess at the end of the day, it's all about what we are and what we want to be.
I made a goal of watching and applying only 20 videos per week
that is still too much information
6:59 So can cognitive dissonance help you learn better? This uncomfortableness and your brain trying to wrap its head around should make it more memorable, painful and effortful, as long as you dont reject it right away (like arguments against god's existence).