Author: Sant Kumar
Cognitive psychologist from Princeton University Dr. Daniel Oppenheimer came to Occidental as a speaker in the Remsen Bird Lecture Series last Wednesday. In his lecture, Oppenheimer explained his research and findings on the way that people learn.
The title of his lecture was “Fortune Favors the Bold: Effects of Disfluency on Judgment, Reasoning, and Educational Achievement.” His work explores the relationship between the brain’s perception of difficulty and its ability to perform tasks such as solving a math problem or reading a dense text.
Oppenheimer discovered that, by changing the font, size and color of a text, you can manipulate how well the reader understands the content displayed. His research finds that the more difficult a text is to read, the more likely the reader is to understand it.
According to Dr. Oppenheimer, questions that are “psychologically distant” are perceived to be more difficult, and therefore the brain spends more energy in processing them. For example, in his lab, Dr. Oppenheimer presented a math problem to his subjects. For Group One, he showed the math problem in 12-point, black Times New Roman font. For Group Two, he displayed the same math problem in a much smaller font and in light gray. His results showed that, on average, more students in Group Two solved the problem than in Group One. Because the brains of the second group perceived the math problem zto be more psychologically distant, they thought it was harder. As a result, they focused harder and were better able to solve the problem.
With much research completed, Oppenheimer will turn his attention to changing school policies. His research implies a whole new way of learning, but, according to Oppenheimer, many teachers are hesitant to make the changes suggested. However, if teachers do start following the research, it could change the entire face of the educational system.
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