The Power of Retrieval Practice

Faculty aim to impart lasting knowledge and skills, but sometimes, learning doesn’t stick. One of the most powerful techniques for enhancing students’ long-term retention is retrieval practice, the process of actively recalling information to mind rather than passively reading or reviewing it. In this piece, we’ll dive into the evidence behind retrieval practice, provide strategies for how to incorporate it into online courses, suggest ways to frame its utility to students to ensure they fully reap the benefits of this learning strategy, and describe specific types of retrieval practice activities.

Educators are often concerned with getting information into students’ heads. However, a robust amount of research in cognitive psychology shows that helping students pull information out of their heads is even more important for creating durable learning. For example, in one study, students who read a passage of text and then took a test asking them to recall what they had read retained an astonishing 50 percent more of the information a week later than students who had not practiced retrieval (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011).

Contrary to what most faculty and students believe (Kornell & Bjork, 2007; Kornell & Son, 2009; Morehead et al., 2016), the act of retrieving information from memory does not just reveal what students know but also contributes to knowledge construction (Karpicke, 2009, 2012; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). When applied in a classroom context, retrieval practice supports long-term retention of course material, as demonstrated by improved course performance (Brown-Kramer, 2021; McCabe et al., 2021).

Retrieval practice strengthens connections between pieces of information, reveals knowledge gaps, and enhances flexible recall and transfer of learning to various contexts (Dunlosky et al., 2013; Karpicke, 2009; Roediger & Butler, 2011; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). The process of retrieving recently learned material makes the information easier to retrieve later on when learners are assessed or need to apply the knowledge in real-world situations.

When designing your online course, consider the following tips for maximizing the utility of retrieval practice.

Despite its effectiveness, students rarely use retrieval practice strategies on their own, instead preferring to use low-utility strategies such as highlighting and passive rereading of notes or the textbook (Karpicke, 2009). Students will sometimes engage in self-testing during their studying, but mainly to diagnose whether or not they know certain material rather than as a means of improving their learning and memory (Kornell & Son, 2009). Students seem to be unaware that retrieval itself enhances memory, and when they do use retrieval practice, they tend to do so ineffectively (Karpicke, 2009; Karpicke & Blunt, 2011). Interventions attempting to improve students’ self-regulated use of this study strategy have had limited success (Ariel & Karpicke, 2018; McCabe et al., 2021).

We recommend faculty build opportunities for students to practice retrieval throughout their courses and award points to motivate students to complete these exercises. This is especially useful for adult learners in asynchronous courses who are often balancing coursework with other responsibilities. Rather than relying on students to study on their own, and to know how to study effectively, consider designing your course in a way that provides structured study opportunities within the required assignments. Structured pedagogical strategies that require active learning create more equitable classes and improve learning for all students (Hogan & Sathy, 2022).

Studies have shown that students are often skeptical of the utility of retrieval practice. Many students have poor metacognitive awareness and believe that passive review methods are sufficient for learning (Ehrlinger & Shain, 2014). Students are used to interpreting effort as a sign of struggle, and think that if learning feels hard, that means they do not understand the material and thus will not perform well on assessments (Hui, 2021). In contrast, the power of retrieval practice comes from the increased cognitive effort it requires—when the mind has to work, learning sticks better (Roediger & Butler, 2011). With retrieval practice, struggling is a good thing for learning, a phenomenon researchers term a “desirable difficulty” (Bjork, 1994).

Another hurdle for faculty to overcome is students’ belief that passive learning is more effective than active learning. Deslauriers and colleagues (2019) compared students’ self-reported perception of learning to their actual learning across identical college physics courses that varied in the mode of instruction: passive lectures versus interactive lectures incorporating practice problems. The researchers found that students in the active classroom learned more but felt like they learned less, in part due to the increased cognitive effort required during active learning.

Further contributing to students’ misconceptions, passive study strategies like rereading provide an illusion of familiarity, leading to inflated confidence that they have retained the material when, in fact, it has remained processed in their short-term memory (Blasiman et al., 2017; McCabe, 2011; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). Across studies, learners consistently overestimate the benefits of rereading and underestimate the benefits of testing as a learning activity. For example, participants who took a test after reading a passage predicted that they would perform worse than students who read the passage twice when, in reality, they remembered significantly more on the assessment the following week (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011).

To overcome this mismatch between students’ expectations and the actual impact of retrieval practice on academic performance, it is essential for faculty to be transparent about why they are requiring retrieval exercises. Here are some tips for fostering an understanding of the strategy’s benefits so students do not incorrectly perceive it as busy work.

• Educate students on the science: Dedicate time at the beginning of the term to explain the cognitive processes underlying retrieval practice and its role in strengthening memory consolidation. If you are incorporating numerous low-stakes quizzes throughout the course, explain to students that research on the “testing effect” shows that the more tests students take, the better they will remember the material long-term (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006; Roediger et al., 2011; van den Broek et al., 2016).
• Foster a growth mindset: Cultivate a culture that celebrates learning as a dynamic and iterative process in which intelligence is not fixed. Encourage students to view challenges as opportunities for growth and emphasize the importance of persistence and resilience in achieving academic success. 
• Motivate learning for learning’s sake: Help students understand how these techniques align with their long-term goals and empower them to take ownership of their learning journey. For example, you can include language in the introductory module of the course or directly on assignment pages to highlight how students will later use the knowledge and skills they are developing. Consider incorporating real-life job descriptions to demonstrate the overlap between course learning outcomes and the skills employers are seeking. In addition, asking students to reflect on their values, goals, and growth can help them focus on learning instead of just trying to get a good grade. 
• Highlight real-world applications: Illustrate the practical applications of retrieval practice in professional contexts, where the ability to recall and apply information accurately is paramount to success. For example, include videos from practitioners in your field describing how they use the skills students are developing. You can also design simulation assignments and authentic activities to get students to apply course concepts in real-world contexts. 
• Reframe the role of effort in learning: Emphasize the importance of cognitive effort in deepening understanding and strengthening memory traces. Additionally, establish the expectation that using retrieval will feel more challenging than what students might be used to, but that is a sign it is working. 

For retrieval practice to be effective, it is essential to allow sufficient time to pass after initial learning before attempting to recall the information from memory. Students need to forget the content at least a little in order to muster the cognitive effort required for strengthening long-term memory. To encourage such a delay, instruct students to complete the assigned retrieval activities after it becomes a little difficult for them to remember what they read or watched, rather than immediately after completing a lesson. Explain to them in the assignment instructions that putting time between initial learning and later retrieval initiates momentary forgetting that can deter long-term forgetting. You may also provide a suggested timeline for completing activities. For example, encourage students to take a 25-minute break after reading instructional content before completing knowledge checks or quizzes. Research also suggests that if students practice retrieving the same information multiple times (e.g., using flashcards), it’s best to wait at least a few minutes between retrieval attempts (Roediger & Butler, 2011).

It’s important to give students frequent opportunities to externalize and manipulate recently learned materials. While a single retrieval attempt can enhance performance, repeated retrieval practice sessions further strengthen memory consolidation and improve long-term retention (Rawson & Dunlosky, 2011; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). Through repeated retrieval practice, learners not only solidify their knowledge but also develop adaptive retrieval strategies, improving their ability to access and apply information flexibly. Even for a concept that a learner correctly retrieves on the first attempt, it is recommended that students demonstrate successful retrieval at least three times before dropping it from study. The number of repetitions required may vary depending on factors such as the complexity of the material, individual differences in learning, and the desired level of proficiency.

According to the retrieval effort hypothesis (Pyc & Rawson, 2009), the benefits of retrieval practice become larger when successful retrieval attempts require more effort. When information is repeatedly retrieved from memory, the effort associated with successful retrieval is likely to decrease, which may lead to diminishing returns of repeated retrieval practice (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). Thus, introducing challenges during subsequent retrieval activities, such as increasing the time interval between practice sessions or varying the format of questions, can enhance learning and promote deeper processing (Bjork & Bjork, 2014).

When providing repeated opportunities for students to retrieve the same information, make sure that students are not engaging in the repetition in a single sitting. A wealth of research on the “spacing effect” shows that distributing learning sessions across time yields greater benefits for memory retention compared to traditional cramming techniques that rely on massed practice (Cepeda et al., 2006; Gurung & Burns, 2018; Hopkins et al., 2016). For example, a student who spends three hours studying the night before an exam will not remember the material as well long-term compared to a student who studied for one hour per day for the three days leading up to the exam, even though they both spent the same amount of total time engaging with the content. The benefits of spacing are heightened when one sleeps between learning sessions, given the important role of sleep in consolidating new memories and skills (Bell et al., 2014; Reis et al., 2023).

Retrieval practice is particularly effective when combined with the spacing effect (Dunlosky et al., 2013; Karpicke & Bauernschmidt, 2011). Incorporating intervals between retrieval attempts provides learners with more opportunities for forgetting, which, paradoxically, enhances subsequent memory retrieval by facilitating deeper encoding and integration of new information with existing knowledge networks.

Rather than focusing on one topic at a time, intersperse different concepts throughout course modules and retrieval activities to prompt students to revisit previously covered material while learning new content. This practice, known as “interleaving,” prevents learners from relying on rote methods and forces them to “think on their feet,” moving flexibly between ideas as will be needed in the real world beyond the course (Brunmair & Richter, 2019; Rohrer, 2012). Varying the order in which you present concepts, such as in quiz questions, also helps encourage more cognitive effort in retrieving the material.

For example, asking students to practice conducting statistical tests tends to work better when you require them to alternate between different tests, rather than practice each test in chunks. This pushes learners to figure out what strategies, techniques, and information they need to use in order to solve problems that they encounter, instead of being able to rely on simply applying whatever content they learned in the last lesson. Mixing material also helps learners notice the similarities and differences between the concepts they are learning.

Offering timely, specific, and constructive feedback has been shown to enhance the benefits of retrieval practice on long-term retention and transfer of knowledge (Butler & Roediger, 2008; Larsen et al., 2009). Focus on guiding students toward correct responses, correcting errors, and reinforcing correct information. Effective feedback should not only help students identify gaps in their understanding but also promote metacognitive awareness, enabling them to evaluate their learning strategies and adjust their approach accordingly (Agarwal et al., 2012; Bangert-Drowns et al., 1991). By offering feedback, instructors can help students identify their areas of strength and weakness, facilitating their further study efforts. To lessen some of the time burden on instructors, consider asking students to check their answers against the instructional materials and post any remaining questions to a course discussion board to which their classmates can also respond. In addition, asking students to reflect on their improvements in comprehension and retention can help reinforce the value of retrieval practice and motivate continued engagement.

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