Students may consider revising their studying strategies after listening to University of California, Los Angeles psychology professor Robert A. Bjork’s presentation on successful studying skills last Thursday during Tutorial in the Haymarket Theater.

According to Bjork, the study skills he shared are helpful to students both in high school and in college.

“When you go to college, much more will be in your own hands than at here [at Paly],” Bjork said.

Bjork found in a poll that after a college course, 80 percent of students no longer review the material learned. According to Bjork, students need to review course material even after the course in order to retain the information in the long term.

Throughout his talk, Bjork emphasized the importance of interleaving, or studying one subject and then another before returning to the first subject, rather than “blocking,” or cramming on one subject for a test or an exam, .

According to Bjork, however, “blocking” is not useful in retaining information for long-term.

According to Bjork’s research, students who study excessively for one subject without doing other things in between believe they perform better, but actually perform worse than students who interleave their studies.

“It’s not a matter of just exposing yourself repeatedly,” Bjork said, “You need to generate and become an active participant in the process.”

Bjork provided the example of meeting with friends in the same class and asking questions about the information.

After hearing Bjork explain that learning by blocking and having longer, less frequent classes hinders memory, at least one student expressed concern that Paly’s block periods could negatively affect students.

Bjork said that he would not give his opinion about block periods without all the information, but still stated that blocking is generally a bad idea.

Sophomore John Kim, who attended the talk, said that the idea of interweaving was the most surprising thing he had learned, calling it “counter-intuitive.”

“Overall, I think it was probably the most productive thing I’ve done for Tutorial since a while, so I definitely think it was worth going,” Kim said. “Although still somewhat skeptical, I’ll definitely try this [Bjork’s advice] at least once.”

Another way to enhance learning is to test or quiz oneself, according to Bjork.

“Tests trigger retrieval,” Bjork said.

Citing an experiment conducted by Roediger and Karpicke in 2006, Bjork explained that students who were given a shorter amount of time to learn the material but took tests afterward recalled information much better than students who simply studied and took no tests.

Bjork also said that studying and testing in the same room can help someone retain information. However, since most students don’t have the luxury of owning the classroom they study in, Bjork suggested that studying in two different places can help if a student is going to take the test in a different room than they studied in.

As he put it, if a student studies only in Room A, they will score worse in Room C than if a student studies in Room A and B then tests in Room C.

According to Bjork, students need to constantly interact with what they’ve learned.

“As you use your memories, you shape your memory…” Bjork said.