Just look at the binary representations of the numbers, and perform the following rules on each bit:
0 XOR 0 = 0
0 XOR 1 = 1
1 XOR 0 = 1
1 XOR 1 = 0
So, 1 XOR 3
is:
1 = 001
3 = 011
XOR = 010 = 2
To convert a (decimal) number to binary, repeatedly divide by two until you get to 0, and then the remainders in reverse order is the binary number:
To convert it back, repeatedly subtract it by the largest power of two that's no bigger than it until you get to 0, having each position in the binary number corresponding to the powers you subtracted by set to 1 (the left-most position corresponds to the 0-th power):