Applying Cognitive Psychology to Enhance Educational Practice: II

Educational research needs an infusion of new ideas from the basic psychological research of the last decade. There is a pressing need to apply what we have learned about memory to learning and teaching, and this collaborative seeks to address this need. The collaborative draws together cognitive psychologists who believe their research has important implications for schooling from primary grades through university level education. The researchers will attempt to apply their research results in the context of learning factual material in school settings.

This new funding expands the scope of the project by adding new collaborative members and shifts the research locus from laboratory to real-world classrooms. This phase of the collaborative is organized around 7 topics (e.g. study habits, errors and feedback effects on retention, concept learning). Some of the planned research could have broad applicability to learning across the lifespan, including strategies to help aging adults.