What does the research tell us?

Memory researchers have shown that every time we extract a piece of information or an experience from our memory, we are strengthening neural pathways that lead from our long-term memory (storage) to our working memory, which we use to think and take actions. The more times we remember something we have learned, the stronger the pathway becomes and the more we can make use of that information in the future.

A long-term series of experiments conducted by Roediger et al (2006) showed how retrieval practice has a significant impact on the performance of middle-school students. In a controlled experiment, students were given materials on which they were tested with frequent quizzes and materials for which they were given additional study time. Not only did the students score a full-letter grade higher on the quizzed material than they did on the re-studied material, but the improved performance for the quizzed material was also maintained after three semesters. Although we tend to think about quizzes as measuring the learning of our students, this experiment, and many others like it have demonstrated that quizzes can be potent learning tools, because they force students to engage in retrieval practice.

Roediger and Butler (2007) also looked at the relative merits of different testing approaches. Students were asked to observe three thirty-minute lectures over three days. Student cohorts then did one of four things: write a short answer test; take a multiple-choice test; restudy some of the key facts; and undertake no exercise. The students were then tested on the material thirty days later. Students who wrote short answers scored the highest (47%), compared to those who took multiple choice quizzes or undertook additional study time (36%) or did nothing (20%). This experiment reveals that asking students to complete a quick retrieval activity just after they have learned something new can help them remember it weeks and even months later.

Learning researchers have been studying the power of retrieval practice for decades now, and the evidence is overwhelming: if you want students to remember something, they have to practice remembering it. Instructors can support this process by seeding small opportunities for retrieval practice into their classes on a daily or weekly basis. Quizzes are one easy way to build retrieval practice into your teaching, but, as we’ll see in the next section of the course, there are plenty of other ways to do it as well.

Now that you know the basic theory of retrieval practice, you can probably identify examples of where you have witnessed it in everyday life. For example, we are more likely to remember events and experiences that we have described for others – each time you tell the story of that memorable vacation, you are retrieving it from memory and thereby strengthening your mastery of that memory. Can you think of other everyday examples or personal experiences with learning that would demonstrate the power of retrieval practice?