Toku science topic
How knowledge becomes easier to retrieve, connect and use long after the first lesson.
Explore retrieval, spacing, long-term memory and why learning that lasts is more useful than short-term familiarity.
Henry L. Roediger III & Jeffrey D. Karpicke · Psychological Science
Trying to recall information can itself be part of learning, rather than only a way to measure what has already been learned.
Retrieval can improve later retention relative to additional study under the tested conditions.
Olusola O. Adesope, Dominic A. Trevisan & Narayankripa Sundararajan · Review of Educational Research
Low-stakes practice questions can be a learning tool when they are used to retrieve knowledge rather than simply grade it.
Across a large evidence base, practice testing generally outperformed restudying and other non-testing comparison conditions for learning.
Pooja K. Agarwal, Ludmila D. Nunes & Janell R. Blunt · Educational Psychology Review
The retrieval effect is not limited to laboratory memory tasks; it has also been studied in authentic educational settings.
Retrieval practice benefits have been observed across real classroom settings, age groups, subjects and test formats.
Nicholas J. Cepeda et al. · Psychological Bulletin
Returning to material over time is generally more durable than concentrating all repetitions into one sitting.
A broad spacing effect across a large body of memory research.
Sean H. K. Kang · Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Short practice can be useful when it is part of a repeated schedule rather than an isolated one-off burst.
Spacing benefits have been demonstrated across memory, problem solving and generalisation tasks, and can be combined with retrieval practice.