Learning science terms

Concepts learners keep hearing and rarely get explained. One page each: what it is, why it works, how it goes wrong.

• Spaced repetition — Spaced repetition spreads the same material over widening gaps, so each review lands before it is gone.
• Retrieval practice — Retrieval practice means pulling an answer out of memory before checking it, rather than reading it again.
• The forgetting curve — The forgetting curve is what survives of a memory as time passes without review — steepest in the first day.
• Interleaving — Interleaving mixes problem types within one session instead of drilling one type at a time.
• Cognitive load — Cognitive load is how much your working memory holds at once — it fills up, and then nothing gets in.
• The Feynman technique — The Feynman technique is explaining a concept in plain language, then studying the places you stall.