Retrieval practice is any learning activity that makes you bring information to mind from memory, such as quizzes, flashcards, past papers or writing what you know on a blank page, used as a way to learn rather than only to measure learning.
How it works
Researchers distinguish between putting information into memory (encoding) and getting it out (retrieval). Traditional study focuses on encoding: reading, listening and highlighting. Retrieval practice focuses on getting information out, and it turns out that act of retrieval changes memory. Successfully recalling something makes it more durable and easier to recall again, and the effortful search for an answer strengthens the routes your brain uses to find it.
Retrieval practice also gives honest feedback. If you cannot recall something, you know you have not learned it yet, whereas rereading creates a feeling of familiarity that is easy to mistake for knowledge. Students often call this habit active recall; researchers often call the resulting benefit the testing effect.
How to use retrieval practice (steps)
- Pick a format. Flashcards, practice questions, past papers, the blurting method, or explaining aloud all work.
- Retrieve before you review. Start study sessions by testing yourself on what you studied last time.
- Make it effortful. Questions that require you to produce an answer (short answer, free recall) generally help more than recognising an answer.
- Get feedback. Check every answer against a reliable source.
- Space it out. Repeat retrieval on later days using spaced repetition.
- Use full practice tests near exams to combine retrieval with exam timing.
Evidence
Retrieval practice is one of the most robust findings in learning science. Roediger and Karpicke (2006) showed that recalling a prose passage produced better retention after a week than restudying it. Karpicke and Blunt (2011), in a study published in Science, found that students who practised retrieval remembered more science material than students who built detailed concept maps with the text available. Roediger and Butler (2011) reviewed the evidence in Trends in Cognitive Sciences and concluded that retrieval practice reliably improves long-term retention and transfer. Rowland’s 2014 meta-analysis and Adesope, Trevisan and Sundararajan’s 2017 meta-analysis of practice testing both found consistent benefits across many studies.
Using retrieval practice with Duetoday
Duetoday turns any lecture, PDF, slide deck or YouTube video into flashcards and practice tests with explanations, so you can move from reading to retrieving in one step. Flashcards are reviewed with spaced repetition. When you get something wrong, ask Galileo to explain it from your own material, then retrieve it again.
