Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
This is my "everything I know about encoding" video. Well, not quite everything. But best I could do in 45 minutes.
00:00 Introduction
00:46 What can we encode?
1:46 Two issues in encoding research
4:43 Depth of processing
9:17 The generation effect
13:31 Imagery
17:28 Memory palaces and “time palaces”
20:10 The drawing effect
23:36 Distinctiveness
27:50 Value
31:42 Integration
37:17 Transfer appropriate processing
43:32 The complete list of themes
Join my online learning community: benjaminkeep.com/community
Edited by Presage: https://www.presage.media/
References:
Perhaps this goes without saying, but each of the issues that I mention are considerably more nuanced than how I've presented them here. But hopefully the video gives you the basic ideas so that you can dive in further, if you want.
Depth of processing: Craik, F. I., & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of experimental Psychology: general, 104(3), 268.
Generation: Bertsch, S., Pesta, B. J., Wiscott, R., & McDaniel, M. A. (2007). The generation effect: A meta-analytic review. Memory & cognition, 35, 201-210.
Imagery: Leopold, C., & Mayer, R. E. (2015). An imagination effect in learning from scientific text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(1), 47–63. doi.org/10.1037/a0037142
"Time palaces" and memory palaces Bouffard, N., Stokes, J., Kramer, H. J., & Ekstrom, A. D. (2018). Temporal encoding strategies result in boosts to final free recall performance comparable to spatial ones. Memory & Cognition, 46(1), 17–31. doi.org/10.3758/s13421-017-0742-z
Value and encoding: Hennessee, J. P., Patterson, T. K., Castel, A. D., & Knowlton, B. J. (2019). Forget me not: Encoding processes in value-directed remembering. Journal of Memory and Language, 106, 29–39. doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.02.001
Drawing: Fernandes, M. A., Wammes, J. D., & Meade, M. E. (2018). The Surprisingly Powerful Influence of Drawing on Memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(5), 302–308. doi.org/10.1177/0963721418755385
Wammes, J. D., Meade, M. E., & Fernandes, M. A. (2016). The drawing effect: Evidence for reliable and robust memory benefits in free recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(9), 1752–1776. doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1094494
Acting things out: Engelkamp, J., & Zimmer, H. D. (1997). Sensory factors in memory for subject-performed tasks. Acta Psychologica, 96(1-2), 43-60.
Production and distinctiveness: Ozubko, J. D., & MacLeod, C. M. (2010). The production effect in memory: evidence that distinctiveness underlies the benefit. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(6), 1543.
Integration and self-explanations: Chi, M. T., Bassok, M., Lewis, M. W., Reimann, P., & Glaser, R. (1989). Self-explanations: How students study and use examples in learning to solve problems. Cognitive Science, 13(2), 145–182.
Renkl, A. (2002). Worked-out examples: Instructional explanations support learning by self-explanations. Learning and instruction, 12(5), 529-556.
Integration and video games/passages:
Arena, D. A., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Experience and explanation: Using videogames to prepare students for formal instruction in statistics. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 23, 538-548.
Schwartz, D. L., & Bransford, J. D. (1998). A time for telling. Cognition and Instruction, 16(4), 475–5223.
Transfer appropriate processing: Morris, C. D., Bransford, J. D., & Franks, J. J. (1977). Levels of processing versus transfer appropriate processing. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 16(5), 519–533. doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(77)80016-9
This is my "everything I know about encoding" video. Well, not quite everything. But best I could do in 45 minutes.
00:00 Introduction
00:46 What can we encode?
1:46 Two issues in encoding research
4:43 Depth of processing
9:17 The generation effect
13:31 Imagery
17:28 Memory palaces and “time palaces”
20:10 The drawing effect
23:36 Distinctiveness
27:50 Value
31:42 Integration
37:17 Transfer appropriate processing
43:32 The complete list of themes
Join my online learning community: benjaminkeep.com/community
Edited by Presage: https://www.presage.media/
References:
Perhaps this goes without saying, but each of the issues that I mention are considerably more nuanced than how I've presented them here. But hopefully the video gives you the basic ideas so that you can dive in further, if you want.
Depth of processing: Craik, F. I., & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of experimental Psychology: general, 104(3), 268.
Generation: Bertsch, S., Pesta, B. J., Wiscott, R., & McDaniel, M. A. (2007). The generation effect: A meta-analytic review. Memory & cognition, 35, 201-210.
Imagery: Leopold, C., & Mayer, R. E. (2015). An imagination effect in learning from scientific text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(1), 47–63. doi.org/10.1037/a0037142
"Time palaces" and memory palaces Bouffard, N., Stokes, J., Kramer, H. J., & Ekstrom, A. D. (2018). Temporal encoding strategies result in boosts to final free recall performance comparable to spatial ones. Memory & Cognition, 46(1), 17–31. doi.org/10.3758/s13421-017-0742-z
Value and encoding: Hennessee, J. P., Patterson, T. K., Castel, A. D., & Knowlton, B. J. (2019). Forget me not: Encoding processes in value-directed remembering. Journal of Memory and Language, 106, 29–39. doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.02.001
Drawing: Fernandes, M. A., Wammes, J. D., & Meade, M. E. (2018). The Surprisingly Powerful Influence of Drawing on Memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(5), 302–308. doi.org/10.1177/0963721418755385
Wammes, J. D., Meade, M. E., & Fernandes, M. A. (2016). The drawing effect: Evidence for reliable and robust memory benefits in free recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(9), 1752–1776. doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1094494
Acting things out: Engelkamp, J., & Zimmer, H. D. (1997). Sensory factors in memory for subject-performed tasks. Acta Psychologica, 96(1-2), 43-60.
Production and distinctiveness: Ozubko, J. D., & MacLeod, C. M. (2010). The production effect in memory: evidence that distinctiveness underlies the benefit. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(6), 1543.
Integration and self-explanations: Chi, M. T., Bassok, M., Lewis, M. W., Reimann, P., & Glaser, R. (1989). Self-explanations: How students study and use examples in learning to solve problems. Cognitive Science, 13(2), 145–182.
Renkl, A. (2002). Worked-out examples: Instructional explanations support learning by self-explanations. Learning and instruction, 12(5), 529-556.
Integration and video games/passages:
Arena, D. A., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Experience and explanation: Using videogames to prepare students for formal instruction in statistics. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 23, 538-548.
Schwartz, D. L., & Bransford, J. D. (1998). A time for telling. Cognition and Instruction, 16(4), 475–5223.
Transfer appropriate processing: Morris, C. D., Bransford, J. D., & Franks, J. J. (1977). Levels of processing versus transfer appropriate processing. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 16(5), 519–533. doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(77)80016-9




![The best brain training app is NOT the one youre thinking of.
Brains. It would be great if we could train them, huh? But what if the best brain training app turns out to be a commercial video game? Some researchers put the brain training question to the test, comparing the benefits of the brain-training app Lumosity to the benefits of playing a regular, old game—Portal 2. The results, as they say on the internet, may surprise you.
Join my online learning community: https://www.benjaminkeep.com/community
00:00 Introduction
00:28 The Research Design
01:47 The Results
02:46 The Brain Training Game Game
04:01 Irony Time!
05:06 What About Portal?
For more about how our brains use imagination to solve problems, check out: https://youtu.be/-lzzI4jRY7E
Maybe grad school is the best brain training game? Check out: https://youtu.be/elamGFfeDGg
Link to the FTC settlement notice: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/01/lumosity-pay-2-million-settle-ftc-deceptive-advertising-charges
Link to the Lumosity research article page: https://www.lumosity.com/hcp/research/completed
References:
The main study this video was based on:
Shute, V. J., Ventura, M., & Ke, F. (2015). The power of play: The effects of Portal 2 and Lumosity on cognitive and noncognitive skills. Computers & education, 80, 58-67.
(available at https://myweb.fsu.edu/vshute/pdf/portal1.pdf)
For a ridiculously comprehensive take on brain training apps, circa 2016, see:
Simons, D. J., Boot, W. R., Charness, N., Gathercole, S. E., Chabris, C. F., Hambrick, D. Z., & Stine-Morrow, E. A. (2016). Do “brain-training” programs work?. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(3), 103-186.
(available at https://www.ontwerpenvoordementie.nl/assets/simonsetal_2016-braintraining.pdf)
An interesting test of brain training games to completely non-active controls.
Bainbridge, K., & Mayer, R. E. (2018). Shining the light of research on Lumosity. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, 2(1), 43-62. (currently at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41465-017-0040-5)
This is more of a correlational study, but finds no association between long-time brain trainers and cognitive function:
Stojanoski, B., Wild, C. J., Battista, M. E., Nichols, E. S., & Owen, A. M. (2020). Brain training habits are not associated with generalized benefits to cognition: An online study of over 1000 “brain trainers”. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
(available at https://www.owenlab.uwo.ca/pdf/2020%20-%20Stojanoski%20-%20Journal%20of%20Experimental%20Psychology.pdf)
Studies that win the irony award for being cited on the Lumosity website, but demonstrating that Lumosity doesn’t really improve things.
Withiel, T. D., Wong, D., Ponsford, J. L., Cadilhac, D. A., & Stolwyk, R. J. (2020). Feasibility and effectiveness of computerised cognitive training for memory dysfunction following stroke: A series of single case studies. Neuropsychological rehabilitation, 30(5), 829-852.
(currently at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09602011.2018.1503083) [No clear benefit of Lumosity in several case studies; high variability.]
Ruiz-Marquez, E., Prieto, A., Mayas, J., Toril, P., Reales, J. M., & Ballesteros, S. (2019). Effects of nonaction videogames on attention and memory in young adults. Games for health journal, 8(6), 414-422.
(currently at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Soledad-Ballesteros/publication/334717472_Effects_of_Nonaction_Videogames_on_Attention_and_Memory_in_Young_Adults/links/5ddd61a5299bf10bc3294eb6/Effects-of-Nonaction-Videogames-on-Attention-and-Memory-in-Young-Adults.pdf) [Finding no difference between Lumosity and a normal video game in improved memory and attention - actually didn’t have a real control, so who knows what led to the improvement]
Lassonde, K. A., & Osborn, R. M. (2019). Lumosity does not best classroom memory improvement strategies. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 5(1), 1. (paywall at https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-62909-001) [Finding no additional improvement from using Lumosity, at least as far as I can tell from the abstract; it’s behind a paywall.] The best brain training app is NOT the one youre thinking of.](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WYl-nZyoEXs/mqdefault.jpg)





