Principle 03 · How to review
Retrieval practice: why answering a question beats rereading
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Short answer
Retrieval practice means trying to recall information without looking at it, for example by answering a question. A 2021 meta-analysis of 222 classroom studies with 48,478 students found that quizzing raises achievement to a medium extent, compared with restudying and other strategies. It is also known as the testing effect.
What it is
When we reread a text, we recognise what is there and get the feeling that we already know it. When we have to answer without help, the brain has to go and fetch the information. That act of fetching, retrieval, is what makes the memory stronger and easier to find next time.
Researchers call it retrieval practice or the testing effect.
What the research says
222 classroom studies, a medium effect
A review of 222 studies run in real classes, with data from 48,478 students, found that quizzing raises academic achievement to a medium extent (g = 0.499). The effect varied with factors such as corrective feedback, the number of test repetitions and how closely the practice test format matched the final test.
Yang, Luo, Vadillo, Yu and Shanks (2021), Psychological Bulletin.
In real schools, the benefits hold
A systematic review of 50 experiments run in schools and classrooms, with 5,374 participants, found medium or large benefits from retrieval practice in most cases (57%), across education levels, subjects, question formats and delays before the final test.
Agarwal, Nunes and Blunt (2021), Educational Psychology Review.
Retrieval and spacing, together
A review of research on retrieval practice and spacing describes how both improve learning across domains and ages, and notes that they remain underused, possibly because of mistaken beliefs about how learning works, lack of awareness or the fact that they feel counter-intuitive.
Carpenter, Pan and Butler (2022), Nature Reviews Psychology.
The g value measures the difference between those who were quizzed and those who were not, in standard deviations: the larger it is, the bigger the advantage.
Where the idea comes from. Roediger and Karpicke (2006) showed that students who took tests after reading a text remembered more, after two days and after one week, than those who reread it. An earlier meta-analysis concluded that practice tests are more beneficial than rereading and than every other condition compared (Adesope and colleagues, 2017), and in a review of ten learning techniques, practice testing was one of only two rated as highly useful (Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013).
Rereading feels like knowing. Answering shows what you really know, and strengthens it.
Why it works
- It strengthens the path to the memory. Each successful retrieval makes the next one easier.
- It shows what is missing. Getting a question wrong reveals a gap that rereading hides.
- It is a desirable difficulty. The extra effort feels slower in the moment, but can improve long-term retention, as Robert Bjork described in 1994.
Does multiple choice work too?
It does, under two conditions the research identifies:
- Plausible wrong answers. When the alternatives are believable, multiple choice can trigger productive retrieval: it makes you think about what sets the right answer apart (Little and colleagues, 2012).
- Feedback after answering. Showing the correct answer increases the benefits of multiple-choice testing and reduces its downsides, such as remembering a wrong answer by mistake (Butler and Roediger, 2008).
How the game applies it
Which ITIL v5 practice restores service as quickly as possible?
21- Everything is question and answer, never passive reading.
- Wrong answers are checked against quality rules so they are plausible.
- After every answer, the correct one appears with a short explanation.
- Questions come back at growing intervals, combining retrieval with spaced repetition.
References
- Carpenter, S. K., Pan, S. C. & Butler, A. C. (2022). The science of effective learning with spacing and retrieval practice. Nature Reviews Psychology, 1(9), 496-511. doi:10.1038/s44159-022-00089-1
- Agarwal, P. K., Nunes, L. D. & Blunt, J. R. (2021). Retrieval practice consistently benefits student learning: a systematic review of applied research in schools and classrooms. Educational Psychology Review, 33(4), 1409-1453. doi:10.1007/s10648-021-09595-9
- Yang, C., Luo, L., Vadillo, M. A., Yu, R. & Shanks, D. R. (2021). Testing (quizzing) boosts classroom learning: a systematic and meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 147(4), 399-435. doi:10.1037/bul0000309
- Adesope, O. O., Trevisan, D. A. & Sundararajan, N. (2017). Rethinking the use of tests: a meta-analysis of practice testing. Review of Educational Research, 87(3), 659-701. doi:10.3102/0034654316689306
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J. & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. doi:10.1177/1529100612453266
- Little, J. L., Bjork, E. L., Bjork, R. A. & Angello, G. (2012). Multiple-choice tests exonerated, at least of some charges: fostering test-induced learning and avoiding test-induced forgetting. Psychological Science, 23(11), 1337-1344. doi:10.1177/0956797612443370
- Butler, A. C. & Roediger, H. L. (2008). Feedback enhances the positive effects and reduces the negative effects of multiple-choice testing. Memory & Cognition, 36(3), 604-616. doi:10.3758/MC.36.3.604
- Roediger, H. L. & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
- Bjork, R. A. (1994). Memory and metamemory considerations in the training of human beings. In J. Metcalfe & A. Shimamura (Eds.), Metacognition: knowing about knowing. MIT Press, pp. 185-205.