Three simple tricks to read textbooks more effectively

Textbooks are a slog. But part of the problem is that we read them like we read other things, and we shouldn't. Here's how to up your textbook reading game.

00:00 Introduction
00:38 Sipping and chugging
1:20 A technique for reading more actively
2:43 A technique for incorporating free recall practice

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The textbook pages are from "University Physics with Modern Physics" by Young and Freedman. If you're interested in learning physics on your own, check out: https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics

References:

My recommendations here are a variety of what's called "spaced retrieval practice". There is a huge literature that spacing out study sessions (e.g., "sipping") provides long-term learning benefits.

Here's a meta-analysis on verbal recall tasks: Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological bulletin, 132(3), 354. https://escholarship.org/content/qt3r...

And here's a piece using realistic classroom controls. Seabrook, R., Brown, G. D., & Solity, J. E. (2005). Distributed and massed practice: From laboratory to classroom. Applied cognitive psychology, 19(1), 107-122. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc...

For my intro to this phenomenon, see: https://bit.ly/3BKHhl2.

My recommendation to do free recall practice prior to coming back to the textbook again comes from evidence on the efficacy of free recall in general (that's the "retrieval"). Here's some good papers on it:

Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger III, H. L. (2007). Repeated retrieval during learning is the key to long-term retention. Journal of memory and language, 57(2), 151-162. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc...

Karpicke, J. D., & Aue, W. R. (2015). The testing effect is alive and well with complex materials. Educational Psychology Review, 27(2), 317-326. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/...

For my intro to retrieval practice, see: https://bit.ly/3djdOFv.

My recommendation on reading the question before seeing the answer (e.g., "active" reading) is based on work in prior knowledge and illusions of knowing.

Example problems tell you things, and there is "a time for telling". Seeing the canonical answer before first think about what the problem is short-circuits the learning process. Here's a few papers on this idea:

Schwartz, D. L., & Bransford, J. D. (1998). A time for telling. Cognition and instruction, 16(4), 475-5223. http://aaalab.stanford.edu/papers/tim...

Schwartz, D. L., Chase, C. C., Oppezzo, M. A., & Chin, D. B. (2011). Practicing versus inventing with contrasting cases: The effects of telling first on learning and transfer. Journal of educational psychology, 103(4), 759. http://ece.neu.edu/edsnu/mcgruer/USC/...

There's also interesting work exploring the opposite order. See the paper below for a really good discussion:

Fyfe, E. R., DeCaro, M. S., & Rittle‐Johnson, B. (2014). An alternative time for telling: When conceptual instruction prior to problem solving improves mathematical knowledge. British journal of educational psychology, 84(3), 502-519. https://www.academia.edu/download/393...