CHAPTER 5

R E T R I E VA L P R A C T I C E F O R
M O N I TO R I N G A N D M A S T E RY

In this chapter, you will learn

the power of trying to retrieve information from memory,

why practicing until you succeed is essential for obtaining mastery, and
how to get the most out of your notes and textbook by converting them
into virtual flash cards.

Jenny, like many students, uses flash cards to help prepare for exams.
She typically uses them to memorize foreign-language translation equivalents
for her vocabulary tests. However, she also realizes that, although using flash
cards helps her sometimes, it is not always so helpful. A difficulty Jenny is
having is that she does not understand that flash cards are just tools that can
be used in many different ways, and some of these ways promote success and
others do not. Moreover, aside from using flash cards to learn foreign-
language equivalents, when used appropriately they can be a much more
valuable tool to master almost any course materials. Most important, when
using flash cards does work, an active ingredient is the incorporation of
retrieval practice into your study routine. In fact, using retrieval practice to
help you monitor and improve your learning is one of the most powerful
ways to study like a champion.

WHAT IS RETRIEVAL PRACTICE?

Retrieval practice simply means attempting to retrieve information from your
memory that you would like to learn. The appropriate use of flash cards
provides one example of retrieval practice because you are using retrieval
practice whenever you test yourself by trying to recall a target from memory.
This particular kind of test is called cued recall because a cue (e.g., “What
does chateau mean?”) prompts you to recall the correct target (in this case,
the meaning of chateau: castle). As we explain shortly, you can also use
other kinds of tests—such as multiple choice or free recall—to reap the
benefits of retrieval practice.
Retrieval practice can help you learn a lot more than just word
associations. For instance, trying to answer a question such as “What is
operant conditioning?” or “How do you calculate acceleration?” without
looking up the definition requires you to retrieve the answer from memory.
This is also considered a cued recall test because the cue is the question
itself. Although trying to retrieve longer definitions from memory can be
frustrating, struggling to retrieve an answer, restudying the correct answer
when you are wrong, and then struggling to retrieve it again later on until you
finally retrieve it correctly is a powerful way to gain long-term retention of
what you need to remember. However, to use retrieval practice like a Study
Champion, you will need to know some specifics about why it works, when
it works, and how best to make it work.

WHY IS RETRIEVAL PRACTICE AN EFFECTIVE STUDY TOOL?

As captured in the title of this chapter, retrieval practice can enhance your
long-term retention in two ways (Roediger et al., 2011). First, practicing
retrieval will help you monitor how well you are learning and make good
decisions about what to restudy. Second, retrieval practice can also directly
improve your retention of that information. Monitoring your learning
involves assessing how well you are learning, and a great way to figure out
whether you have learned something is to retrieve what you’re trying to learn
from memory. If you can’t recall the information you are trying to learn, then
there’s a pretty good chance you won’t be able to remember it later, when
you need that information to answer test questions. Therefore, one reason
flash cards can work so well is that they alert you to what you have not
learned well enough to retrieve from memory, so you know to study that
information again. With respect to the second benefit of retrieval practice,
when you do correctly retrieve the sought-after information from memory,
doing so directly enhances your retention of that information.
Retrieval practice is just another term for “practice test.” And, well,
who wants to take an anxiety-provoking test? The good news is that when
you practice retrieving on your own, you may experience less anxiety
because no stakes are involved. Also, if you take enough practice tests and
use retrieval practice to monitor your progress toward mastery, you may even
become less anxious when you take high-stakes exams. You may have noticed
yourself that the forms of retrieval practice we have mentioned are
essentially practice tests. Therefore, it should be no surprise that you can
take different kinds of tests and still benefit from doing so.
When we teach, we use retrieval practice in class. Both of us often start
class by asking our students a question relating to material covered in the
week before. Sometimes we ask a question from the reading due for the day.
We give our students some time to monitor whether they can remember the
answer and make sure everyone gives it a try before we share the answer.
Our students love it, and in fact most of them want us to do more of it in
class. The great news is that you can do this yourself even without your
instructor’s help.
As we noted earlier, cued recall is a common type of test that you can
easily use—just ask yourself a question and try to generate the answer from
memory. Multiple-choice tests, which are commonly used by teachers to
evaluate their students’ knowledge, can also be used. Of course, developing
your own multiple-choice tests can take a great deal of time and may be
rather difficult to do, but many textbooks include practice quizzes that you
can use. In some of our classes, students get together and create quizzes using
free programs such as Quizlet (https://quizlet.com). Have a retrieval practice
party (or study session)!

HOW MUCH DO YOU USE RETRIEVAL PRACTICE?

Before we discuss some evidence that showcases the power of retrieval

practice, take a moment to answer this question: How often do you use
retrieval practice in a typical day?
Many people do not realize just how much they rely on retrieval
practice. Let’s consider two examples. First, did you drive to school today?
Taking the correct route is a form of retrieval practice, and the reason you
can drive to school or work without thinking about it is that you’ve retrieved
the route so often that you can practically do it in your sleep. Turning down
the wrong street and getting lost indicates that you need to pay closer
attention to that part of the route next time. Second, when you relax in the
evening, do you play any video games or perhaps practice your favorite
instrument? If you do either, then you are involved in a great deal of retrieval
practice.
We talk to a lot of students who are really (really) good at video games,
and why they are so good has to do with the magic of (spaced) retrieval
practice. In particular, they need to retrieve the correct information about
how to win a particular level of a game and practice retrieving the correct
series of hand movements to achieve their goals within the gaming
environment. When people engage in such retrieval practice—even if it’s as
low stakes as driving to the store—day after day, it is no surprise that they
become much better. The bottom line is that you probably take advantage of
retrieval practice a great deal every day, but you just don’t realize it. This
insight is critical because what you are naturally taking advantage of to excel
in many everyday and past-time activities can be used equally well to
prepare for exams in your classes. In fact, to study like a champion, you will
need to rely heavily on retrieval practice as you work toward any of your
learning objectives.

WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE? A LOOK INSIDE THE LABORATORY

Aside from research on the spacing effect, retrieval practice is one of the
most frequently investigated techniques for improving students’ memory,
learning, and comprehension. But how, exactly, do researchers test whether
retrieval practice works? Of course, almost any research that focuses on
understanding people’s memory and learning will involve some form of test,
but for most memory research the test is used to measure people’s memory
after they have studied. For studying like a champion, however, the important
insight is that when people take a test, the test itself not only measures their
memory but also actually enhances their memory for it. This claim is
supported by more than 100 years of research. Taking a test—or using
retrieval practice—works, and it can work really well, too. But what exactly
does it mean for retrieval practice “to work”?
To help you understand the answer to this question, consider an
exemplary investigation conducted by Butler (2010), who had college
students study a text passage—approximately 1,000 words long—about a
complicated scientific process, such as how bats use echolocation. After
studying the passage, the students then had a chance to learn the facts and
concepts from some parts of the passage better, using retrieval practice. For
such practice retrieval, cued recall tests were administered in which the
students would be asked questions such as “How many bat species are there
in the world?” (fact) and “How does echolocation help bats determine the
size and location of prey?” (concept). After they attempted to answer a
question, the students were presented with the portions of the passage that
included the correct answers.
For other portions of the passage, the students reread the same excerpts
without practicing retrieval. A critical part of this procedure is that the time
spent on each method of studying was the same for all students. The final test
comprised a new set of questions that required the students to apply what
they learned from the passage. For instance, they may have been asked how a
bat can determine whether an insect is moving toward or away from them,
which was not explicitly covered in the passage but can be answered if the
students understood how bat echolocation works. What did Butler (2010)
find?
As shown in Figure 5.1, final test performance (across three different
experiments) was about 20% higher when students were tested on the
passages than when they just restudied them, regardless of whether the
questions were about the facts or the concepts. Remember, students used the
same amount of time whether they tested themselves or merely restudied, so
although testing feels more difficult than just rereading the information you
need to learn, it is a more effective study strategy and a better use of your
time. The idea is to first test yourself; when you answer correctly, you’ll be
improving your retention of the material, and not answering correctly
indicates that you do need to go back to restudy what you couldn’t retrieve.

Although testing feels more difficult than just rereading the information you need to
learn, it is a more effective study strategy and a better use of your time.
 FIG URE 5. 1. Mean Percentage Performance on a Test,
with 95% Confidence Intervals (Estimated)

Note. Data from Butler (2010).

Long Description.

Research on what is called test-enhanced learning—because taking

tests can enhance your learning—has been increasing, in part because
education researchers have realized the great potential of harnessing
retrieval practice to improve student achievement. In fact, in the past several
decades retrieval practice has been shown to enhance learning across a
broad range of people, materials, and exams. The following list is not
exhaustive but is meant to give you a sense of the broad benefits of using
retrieval practice:

It has worked for children, college students, older adults, adults with
aphasia, and adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
It has helped people learn simple associations (e.g., foreign-language
vocabulary), the content of text passages, definitions that are
foundational to introductory courses, and the steps involved in scientific
processes and mathematics.
It has been shown to not only improve people’s memory for the tested
content but also enhance their understanding of it and their ability to
apply what they have learned in new contexts.

The point of this list is straightforward: Including retrieval practice in

your studying toolkit is essential because it holds much promise in improving
your memory, learning, and comprehension of whatever you are studying.
This is the case regardless of who you are, what you are studying, or how
you ultimately will want to use what you have learned.

WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE? A LOOK INSIDE THE CLASSROOM

Classroom research on retrieval practice typically falls into one of two

categories: Either an instructor administers some kind of practice test during
each class to evaluate the degree to which in-class testing can enhance
learning, or students test themselves outside of class, and then the impact of
those practice tests is examined. In this section, we look at the first kind of
classroom research, and then we touch on research relevant to taking the best
advantage of practice retrieval when studying on your own.
In a course on Brain and Behavior, students took review quizzes that
were meant to help them prepare for a high-stakes exam (Thomas et al.,
2018). All of the review quizzes consisted of short-answer questions that
were about facts or involved the application of concepts. For instance, on a
review quiz about the cerebral cortex, an example of a fact-based question
would be “The neocortex has a cytoarchitecture made up of what?”
Meanwhile, an example of an applied question would be “You’re looking at
a small piece of brain tissue under a microscope. What distinctive
organization would tell you this is neocortex?” (from Appendix A in Thomas
et al., 2018). All students received both kinds of quiz questions on various
topics. On the class exam all the questions were multiple choice, and
whereas some of the questions were about the material covered on the
review quizzes (e.g., the neocortex), other material was included that was not
covered during review. The class exam included both fact-based questions
and applied questions, so a student who answered a fact-based question
about the neocortex during review would have to answer a conceptual
question about it on the exam. Exam performance is presented in Figure 5.2,
and a few outcomes are notable.
FIG URE 5. 2. Exam Performance as a Function of the
Kind of Essay Question Students Took
During the Review Quiz (Either Not Quizzed,
Factual Quiz, or Application Quiz) and the
Type of Question on the Exam (Either
Factual or Application)

Note. From “Testing Encourages Transfer Between Factual and Application Questions
in an Online Learning Environment,” by R. C. Thomas, C. R. Weywadt, J. L. Anderson,
B. Martinez-Papponi, and M. A. McDaniel, 2018, Journal of Applied Research in
Memory and Cognition, 7, p. 255. Copyright 2018 by Elsevier. Reprinted with
permission.

Long Description.
 First, exam performance was better when students took a quiz on the
content, whether the quiz was on facts or application (the two shaded bars in
Figure 5.2), than when the content was not reviewed during a quiz (unshaded
bars). Second, and unsurprisingly, students did the best when the kind of
review quiz matched the kind of exam question; that is, reviews involving
fact-based questions led to better performance on exam questions that asked
for facts rather than applications, and vice versa. Finally, even for
mismatches, review quizzes benefited students’ exam performance; that is,
even when they had review questions that covered facts, attempting to
answer those review questions boosted later performance on application
questions (as compared with not being quizzed over the material). This
represents just one of many classroom demonstrations that have shown the
power of retrieval practice for boosting performance for different kinds of
students, classes, and exams (for a review, see Agarwal et al., 2021).

HOW TO USE SUCCESSIVE RELEARNING

Successive relearning is an incredibly powerful learning technique in large

part because it combines the powers of two other effective approaches to
learning: retrieval practice and spaced practice, which were discussed in
Chapter 4. Put more specifically, successive relearning first entails trying to
retrieve the correct answer or response to a test prompt, examining feedback
to evaluate whether your response is correct, and if it is not, then studying it
again and repeating all the steps described earlier until you retrieve all the
correct responses for a given set of materials. In this case, you would be
learning to a criterion of one correct response, and the goal is to continue
practice in a given study session until you meet that criterion.
You may be familiar with this procedure if you have ever used flash
cards: You begin with a deck of cards that have a cue (or question prompt)
on one side and the correct answer on the other. You then test yourself and
study the answer for each card in turn. If you correctly recall an answer, you
place that card aside, but if you don’t correctly recall it you put the card at
the back of the stack. That is the retrieval practice aspect of successive
relearning. Then, you keep going through your stack of cards until you have
retrieved each answer correctly once (i.e., you have met a criterion of one
correct retrieval). You need to use multiple cards per stack so that if you
miss a question and restudy its answer, a few minutes elapse before you test
yourself again on that content. This practice allows for spaced practice of the
material within a study session.
This procedure—which involves continuing to practice retrieving
responses until you correctly recall them—is just the first step in successive
relearning. The next step is to go through the procedure again—with the same
material—on one or more other study sessions. Put differently, after you
finish a particular stack of cards, you need to pick that same stack up a
couple more times, and it is best if you can space those sessions across
several days. The reason for going back to relearn the stack is because even
after you can correctly recall answers to questions, you will forget some—
perhaps many—of those answers. In other words, a single successful
retrieval attempt does not mean that you have mastered that content, so you
need to go back.
Using successive relearning to learn simple associations is rather
straightforward, and it turns out that many students report using flash cards
extensively in their second-language courses. What many students do not
realize is that flash cards (or an equivalent) can be successfully used to learn
other material, including complicated definitions and concepts, sequences of
steps involved in a process, longer texts and descriptions about science and
history, and much more. Unfortunately, using successive relearning to
effectively study these more complex materials does pose some challenges.
To help you understand these challenges, in Figure 5.3 we have included a
flow chart of the steps involved in successive relearning. This figure simply
puts the steps described above in a pictorial format, and in the paragraphs
that follow we briefly touch on each step to highlight the challenges that may
arise when you are using this technique for anything beyond simple
associations.
FIG URE 5. 3. Flowchart Illustrating the Sequence of Steps
for Successive Relearning
 Note. From “The Power of Successive Relearning and How to Implement It With Fidelity
Using Pencil and Paper and Web-based Programs,” by J. Dunlosky and A. O’Brien,
2020, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, advance online publication
(https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000233). Copyright 2020 by the American Psychological
Association.

Long Description.

Setting Up Practice Tests

Although the first step listed for successive relearning is simply testing
yourself, you may need to set up the tests first. As we have mentioned, flash
cards should have a cue on one side and the answer on the other. This will
work for anything from simple word pairs to complex information such as
lists. You likely already know how to build and use flash cards for simple
associations, and the same approach works for more complex materials.
Let’s consider a few examples. For complex definitions (e.g., the definition
of bystander effect or the definition of individualism), you write the term
(“Bystander Effect”) on one side of the flash card and the complete definition
on the other side. If you are trying to learn lists (e.g., “What are all the facial
nerves?”), then “Facial Nerves” would go on one side and the names of the
nerves on the other. You can even use flash cards for lengthier materials, such
as learning all the steps and processes involved in photosynthesis or the
steps in an action potential. The key is to figure out what word, phrase, or
question you want to use as the prompt for your retrieval attempt and then use
that prompt to try to retrieve the answer from memory.

Flash cards can be used to learn a lot of material, including complicated

definitions and concepts, sequences of steps involved in a process, longer texts and
 descriptions about science and history, and much more.

If you don’t want to spend the extra time making flash cards, no
problem. Many flash card programs are available online (many of them free),
which can make this process easier (for a review of these programs with
respect to how well they support successive relearning, see Dunlosky &
O’Brien, 2020). Some programs will even let you share your cards with
others, so why not pool your efforts with your friends and divide the work?
Moreover, when studying in college, John never used flash cards but used
successive relearning to master definitions, lists, and lengthy processes.
Instead of taking the time to make all those cards, he simply put his hand over
the definitions that appeared at the end of a textbook chapter and tested
himself by trying to write down the correct definition on scrap paper.
With a pack of sticky notes, you can place one over each answer you
want to retrieve and leave the word or phrase that you want to use as your
retrieval prompt uncovered. As shown in Figure 5.4, using sticky notes may
be particularly useful if you’re trying to memorize the names of objects on a
figure—in this illustration, the sticky notes are placed over the labels for the
structures of the forebrain, and the student attempted to recall each structure
name and then peeked behind the sticky note to grade their answers. The
dates on the right side of the figure indicate each session in which the student
used successive relearning, and the slash marks by each date reflect how
many times the student needed to restudy until each answer was correctly
recalled (note how the number of attempts dropped dramatically over just a
few sessions). The sticky note approach works well because you can’t
accidentally peek at the correct answer, and you can write down how well
you did (e.g., whether you recalled it correctly) or any other comments to
yourself (e.g., highlighting a particularly tough item to learn) on the note
itself.
FIG URE 5. 4. Using Sticky Notes to Turn Your Textbook
Into Functional Flash Cards
 Note. From Psychology: Themes and Variations (9th ed, p. 99), by W. Weiten, 2012,
Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Copyright 2012 by Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Scoring Your Answers to Your Practice Tests

After you have tested yourself, the next step of successive relearning
involves scoring your answer. For instance, while studying complex
definitions for an Introductory Chemistry course, you may test yourself on
redox and recall “transfer of electrons.” Of course, you get credit only if your
answer captures the meaning of the correct definition. The difficulty with
most complex materials is that the first couple of times you try to recall the
information you won’t get it all correct, and you’ll need to check your answer
carefully. Even worse, research has shown that students often give
themselves credit for incorrect answers, even when the students are highly
motivated to score the answers correctly (for a review, see Dunlosky &
Lipko, 2007).
The bottom line is that scoring complex answers can be difficult, but
you can make it easier. In particular, if you simply recall an answer aloud
without writing it down, then you’ll need to keep your answer in mind while
checking it against the correct answer. For long responses this will be very
difficult because you will begin forgetting what you have recalled before you
can check your response. To sidestep this problem, we recommend that you
write (or type) your response so that you can carefully check it against the
correct answer. For instance, the response above for redox has some of the
correct ideas (i.e., transfer of electrons), but it is not entirely complete (e.g.,
a chemical reaction in which one reacting compound gets oxidized, or loses
electrons, and the other compound gets reduced, or gains electrons).
After you score an item, you need to decide what to do next. If your
answer was incorrect, then you should restudy the correct answer and come
back to that item later, to practice retrieving the correct answer. If your
response was correct, then you can decide to try it again later or to put it
aside to practice it in a different session. Then, you repeat the process until
you have correctly recalled all the answers to all the items you decided to
practice during that study session. When you are done, you will need to come
back to those items again during another session several days later. We
recommend you schedule that next practice session right after you finish the
first round of practice. If you give each set of items a name (e.g., “Basic
Chemistry Concepts”), you can label reminders in a calendar showing when
you should return to each set.

The Flash-Cards-Plus Method

There are many variations on the theme of making flash cards as described
thus far. We know various apps to help you create flash cards and different
widgets, gadgets, and gizmos that you could probably use for retrieval
practice. That said, there is something to the act of creating flash cards on
index cards. There is one more neat way to modify your flash card use. In the
flash-cards-plus method you go beyond having the term on one side and the
textbook definition on the other. To help you process the material better,
paraphrase the definition in your own words under the textbook one, and then
jot down an application of the concept to your own life. Adding these two
simple components (your paraphrase and an application) can help increase
the depth of your processing of the material and has been shown in classroom
research to be effective (Senzaki et al., 2017).

THE POWER OF SUCCESSIVE RELEARNING FOR

INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY
If you try successive relearning, it will be challenging at first because
retrieving lengthy answers from memory is much more difficult than reading
them. However, the effort will pay off. In fact, if you use this technique for a
set of items across three sessions (e.g., spaced 2 or 3 days apart), we can
almost guarantee that by the third session you will be easily retrieving many
of the responses to the items in the set, even if they are long, complex
definitions of science terms—like the ones you need to learn well for almost
any introductory course in science.
During one research project, students enrolled in a large introductory
course used successive relearning to study some sets of conceptual
definitions as described earlier, as well as other definitions they studied any
way they liked. For the definitions studied using successive relearning, the
students studied small sets of definitions (e.g., eight to 10) at a time, and they
worked on each set for four different sessions before their high-stakes exam
(Rawson et al., 2013). Two outcomes are noteworthy. First, for the concepts
that were learned using successive relearning, the students typically
performed about a letter grade and a half better on the high-stakes exam! In
addition, the speed with which they recalled the correct answers increased
dramatically across the four sessions. Whereas it took more than 30 tries
during the first session to correctly recall each of the eight definitions within
a set, it took students only about 11 trials to recall them in the fourth session.
Put differently, by the fourth successive relearning session most students
were correctly recalling each definition on the first attempt or, at worst, on
their second try. So, even though learning to recall complex materials will be
challenging during an initial session or two, it will eventually be followed by
the quick and easy retrieval of even difficult content.

HUDDLE UP
At the beginning of this chapter, we emphasized that retrieval practice works
well for two reasons, namely, when you correctly retrieve a question, doing
so actually enhances your memory of the retrieved content. In addition, you
can use the retrieval attempt to monitor your progress, because when you
don’t answer a question correctly you know that you need to restudy.
 One study method, successive relearning, is a good way to monitor your
progress and can help indicate whether you’ve done enough studying to retain
what you need to know for a high-stakes exam. In particular, if you schedule
several days between each successive-relearning study session, then how
well you perform will give you a pretty good sense about what you will
remember. For instance, let’s say that you use the technique to study
definitions for your Biological Sciences course, and you scheduled four
sessions, with 3 days in between each session. Given that you eventually
recalled each definition correctly during the first session, if you correctly
recalled a definition during the first retrieval attempt in the second session, it
means that you retained that information for 3 days. If you correctly recalled
the same definition in the third session, then you probably have it down well
enough to retain for at least another 3 days, if not much longer. You will
retrieve the correct answers more quickly each time you return to them,
which will provide even more confidence that you’ve got it down.
Of course, if you continue to fail to correctly retrieve some information
at the beginning of each session, then you have a really great sign that you
will not remember the information later; that is, you may find that you keep
struggling to remember some definitions. This may indicate that you need to
understand the material better. So, you may keep forgetting the definition of
redox because you never understood the meaning of the definition. For pesky
material that you just can’t seem to memorize, you may need to supplement
your studying with other techniques aimed at improving your ability to
understand the content. One way to proceed would be to discuss the material
with a fellow student or your instructor. Other possibilities involve changing
the technique you use to study the to-be-learned material. We discuss some of
those techniques—such as self-explanation, imagery, and so on—in other
chapters.

Key Training Tips

 Practice retrieval of the same content across multiple study sessions.
Stick Your Landing by scheduling two or more weekly study sessions
for each class, and correctly retrieve the answers of course material
during each session.

Go for the Gold With an Advanced Reading

Rawson, K. A., & Dunlosky, J. (in press). Successive relearning: An underexplored but potent
technique for obtaining and maintaining knowledge. Current Directions in Psychological
Science.
Drawing by Paige Herrboldt. Printed with permission.