Written by Elizabeth Yost Hammer, Garth Neufeld, Jeanne Turner
Purpose
The purpose of this learning activity is to give your students an opportunity to develop their metacognitive skills (i.e., their ability to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning processes) by learning about depth of processing. In order for this activity to have the most impact, you should explicitly discuss the role of metacognition in this activity.
National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula
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Pillar: Cognition
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Standard Area: Memory
Time Required
10 minutes for the exercise, 5 minutes for metacognitive reflection, 10 minutes for classroom discussion.
Task
This classroom exercise is based on a between-group quasi-experimental design and will illustrate depth of processing, which is the tendency for people to better recall information that is encoded in meaningful (i.e., deeper) ways. Students in three ‘blind’ learning conditions (i.e., rote, vowel, and meaning) will perform a memory task based on one of three written prompts. Students should not be told about the conditions or the purpose of the exercise before they complete it.
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To introduce the assignment say, “I’ve got a quick exercise for you. Read the directions, but don’t yet flip over the paper.”
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Then, say “flip”.
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Give them 45 seconds.
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Then, say “flip”.
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For 2 minutes, have students write down as many words as they can remember.
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Explain the true nature of the assignment.
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On the board, write down how many correct answers students had from each condition.
The metacognitive value of this assignment can be drawn out through two questions, either in written reflection or in group conversation:
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What do the results of the study tell you about the importance of comprehension and meaning on learning? (After students have had a chance to respond to this question, teachers should discuss shallow and deep processing to make sure that students accurately understand what the task illustrated, that deeper processing leads to better retention.)
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How can you use what you learned here, in other areas of your life?
Assessment
Informal evaluation of after-activity student responses.
Attachment
Depth of Processing Handoutsopens in new window (PDF, 120KB)
This resource was developed by a Working Group on Skills that Promote Well-Being and Flourishing from the APA Summit on High School Psychology Education (July 2017).