One thing that new (and not so new) people should do is to go through the main Arduino site and skim through and bookmark pages (if you organize your bookmarks, if not then why not? it is a primary web skill) with reference material like the main reference page, the libraries, tutorials, playground, AVR-LibC (core of Arduino language) etc.
The site references is like a detailed map. If you are in a new, strange city then you could use a map, no?
I typed into the onsite Search Bar: binary bits
and I found this page, Bit Math Tutorial by CosineKitty, near the top of the list. It looks like all you need.
http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/BitMath