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> Evening learning probably isn’t ideal for teenagers either. In a study published in 2012, Johannes Holz at the University of Freiberg, and colleagues, found t
by dlkf 7y ago
> Evening learning probably isn’t ideal for teenagers either. In a study published in 2012, Johannes Holz at the University of Freiberg, and colleagues, found that 16- and 17-year-old girls performed better on tests of factual memory if they’d learned the material at 3pm than at 9pm.
> However, another study, published in Psychological Science in 2016, suggests that evening learning can be beneficial – especially if you follow it with a decent night’s sleep, and a follow-up session the next morning.
In other words, we have directly conflicting results, because this is all a bunch of p-hacked complete fucking bullshit.
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoThe follow-up feature is critical to why that 2nd study might have found different results. The delay-review step is very important for cementing learning. So no, its not all bs when different protocols have seemingly opposite results. Its not some simple question that can be answered glibly in one sentence.
- zzzcpan 7y agoExactly. The only somewhat sensible advice in the article is not to focus on grammar.
- wodenokoto 7y agoOr those to experiments simply measure completely different things. One is time of day, the other is review + good sleep.
- odyssey7 7y agoI know I directly relate to both findings as they're explained in the article. In the morning I can process information more easily, but when prepping for tests I've found that reading the material at night and reviewing my notes the next morning is really impactful.
- hombre_fatal 7y agoAlso why bother with microoptimizations? Just sound like easy ways to justify excuses — “Welp my 3pm window passed, maybe tomorrow!” The best method is the one you actually do.
- mikysco 7y agoTook me song long to realize this. Just * do it is so often a more effective/efficient methodology than "optimize first". Once I have a strong understanding of scope, marginal adjustments carry more weight when starting something new.
- csallen 7y agoYep. This applies to so many things. Watching your diet? Lifting weights? Learning to code? People will emphasize so many tips, micro-optimizations, recommendations, etc. that can be intimidating and add a ton of work to your plate. But simply showing up every day is 95% of what matters.
- magashna 7y agoJust do it™
- avip 7y agoBecause it’s a publishable result.
- zzzcpan 7y ago> The best method is the one you actually do. Doesn't apply to languages. I studied French for years "actually doing it" but using a typical traditional methodology with teachers, grammar, forced word repetitions, etc. It's like it didn't even happen. But using a very different methodology for English took me just about six months to go from understanding nothing to understanding almost everything.
- bubblewrap 7y ago
- joekrill 7y agoWell, you're discounting this entire article based on one point out of five. It's useful information, regardless. And they are upfront about it. So I don't particularly understand the problem, and calling it "complete fucking bullshit" seems a bit overboard, to me.
- KajMagnus 7y agoThis pessimistic comment made me link directly to the article, instead of linking to HN as I usually do, when I now sent the article to someone looking to learn a new langauge.