Making It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

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Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at Washington University, Dr. Henry L. “Roddy” Roediger is the keynote speaker for Celebrate Learning Week. Cognitive psychologists have a long tradition of research illuminating processes of learning and memory, yet their findings have rarely penetrated educational practice. This situation is starting to change. I will report on a program of research about the benefits of retrieval practice through quizzing as an aid to learning. Testing or quizzing is a practice usually considered only to measure what a student knows, but experimental research shows that retrieving information helps to stabilize the knowledge and make it easier to recall on future attempts. My presentation will provide evidence advancing from laboratory experiments to field experiments in classrooms showing how frequent quizzing can improve educational outcomes. If adopted, retrieval-enhanced learning may have far-reaching implications for education at all levels. Many experimental or quasi-experimental studies in K-12 as well as university classrooms have shown meaningful benefits for students.

Bio: Roediger is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and co-author of Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Harvard University Press, 2014). 

Roddy Roediger is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. A psychologist who focuses on human learning and memory, his research interests include factors that greatly increase learning and retention and their application to education; memory illusions and the development of false memories; the study of people with highly superior memory abilities; and collective and historical memory. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Washington & Lee University and his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University. He previously taught at Purdue University, the University of Toronto, and Rice University. Roediger is recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and he has served as president of the Association for Psychological Science and Chair of the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society, as well as serving in other leadership posts in organizations of psychologists. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science. Roediger received the Association for Psychological Science’s William James Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as their Lifetime Mentoring Award for his many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to success in the field. He is a member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists and received its Howard Crosby Warren Medal for his studies of illusory memories. He recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science.  

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RODDY ROEDIGER KEYNOTE WEBCAST MAY 4 2017 PRESENTATION