How Do You Benefit From Psychological Research?

Do you use the best techniques to study? Like most students, your gut reply is probably “yes!” But as you learned earlier in this chapter, even though many students believe they use good study techniques, their instincts are sometimes wrong. What approaches really help you learn and remember information for the long term, and which do not? Psychologists do not answer questions like this one based on their own intuition, beliefs, or opinions. Instead, because psychology is a science, they use an empirical approach to systematically investigate and measure mental activity, behavior, and the brain processes that underlie them. Let’s now learn more about the scientific method that is the foundation of psychological and other scientific research. Along the way you will also discover how psychological research provides information that is both interesting and useful for your life.