Further Reading — Chapter 7

The Learning Strategies That Work: Retrieval Practice, Spacing, Interleaving, and Elaboration

This annotated bibliography provides resources for deeper exploration of the concepts introduced in Chapter 7. Sources are organized by tier following this textbook's citation honesty system.

Tier 1 — Verified Sources

These are well-known, widely available works that the authors are confident exist with the details provided.

Books

Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Harvard University Press.

This is the single most important companion to Chapter 7. Written by two cognitive psychologists (Roediger and McDaniel) whose laboratories produced much of the foundational research on retrieval practice, spacing, and interleaving, and a journalist (Brown) who makes the science vivid through narrative. Make It Stick covers all four major strategies from this chapter and presents the central paradox — that effective learning feels hard — as compellingly as any book in print. If you read one trade book alongside this textbook, this is the one. Chapters 1-4 are especially relevant to the material in Chapter 7.

Oakley, B. (2014). A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). TarcherPerigee.

Don't let the math-focused title put you off. Oakley covers retrieval practice, chunking, interleaving, and the dangers of illusions of competence in a warm, accessible style. She's particularly good on the emotional experience of switching from passive to active study strategies — the frustration, the self-doubt, and the eventual payoff. Her treatment of focused and diffuse modes of thinking adds a dimension not covered in this chapter. The companion Coursera course, "Learning How to Learn," is one of the most-enrolled online courses in history.

Carey, B. (2014). How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens. Random House.

Carey approaches the science of learning as a journalist, and the result is an engagingly written book that covers spacing, interleaving, testing effects, and several other phenomena from cognitive psychology. His treatment of interleaving in the context of motor learning (sports, music) complements Sofia Reyes's case study in this chapter. He also includes a helpful chapter on the role of sleep in memory consolidation, connecting to Chapter 6 of this textbook.

Lang, J. M. (2016). Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Jossey-Bass.

Written for educators, but invaluable for students who want to understand why their professors might structure activities in certain ways. Lang's framework of "small teaching" — brief, targeted interventions based on learning science — maps well onto the practical playbooks in this chapter. His chapters on retrieval practice and interleaving are particularly clear.

Research Articles

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.

This is the landmark meta-analysis discussed throughout Chapter 7 — the "report card" for learning strategies. At 55 pages, it's an unusually comprehensive and accessible review article. Each of the ten strategies receives a thorough evaluation covering the description of the strategy, how general the effects are (across learner types, materials, and outcome measures), and the overall utility assessment. This paper is the empirical backbone of this chapter. It is available open-access from the Association for Psychological Science and is written clearly enough for advanced undergraduates to read in full.

Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). "Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention." Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255.

The study described in Section 7.2 — the one where students who took a practice test retained nearly twice as much as students who restudied. This is one of the most cited papers in the retrieval practice literature and a model of clean experimental design. The finding is simple, powerful, and has been replicated dozens of times. If you read one primary research article from this chapter, make it this one.

Roediger, H. L., III, & Butler, A. C. (2011). "The Critical Role of Retrieval Practice in Long-Term Retention." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 20-27.

A comprehensive review of the retrieval practice literature by two of the field's leading researchers. This paper explains not just that retrieval practice works but why — examining theories of how retrieval strengthens memory, when retrieval is most effective, and how it interacts with other learning strategies (especially spacing). More technical than Make It Stick but still accessible to motivated undergraduates.

Tier 2 — Attributed Sources

These are findings and claims attributed to specific researchers or research traditions. The general claims are well-established in the literature, but specific publication details beyond what is provided have not been independently verified for this bibliography.

Research by Kornell and Bjork on spacing and metacognitive judgments.

Nate Kornell and Robert Bjork have published extensively on the spacing effect and on a fascinating paradox: students consistently rate massed practice as more effective than spaced practice, even when spaced practice produces superior test performance. Their research provides some of the strongest evidence for the central paradox described in this chapter — that learners' subjective judgments of learning effectiveness are systematically wrong. Kornell's work on flashcard strategies and optimal spacing schedules is also particularly relevant.

Research by Rohrer and Taylor on interleaving math problems.

Doug Rohrer and Kelli Taylor have conducted several studies demonstrating the interleaving effect in mathematics learning. Their studies on geometric volume calculations — where interleaved practice produced test performance roughly three times better than blocked practice despite much worse performance during practice — are among the most striking demonstrations of the performance-learning distinction in the literature. Rohrer has also published accessible summaries of interleaving research aimed at educators.

Research by Chi and colleagues on self-explanation.

Michelene Chi's research program on self-explanation, beginning in the early 1990s, established that students who explain worked examples to themselves step-by-step learn significantly more than students who simply read the same examples. Her work on "good" versus "poor" self-explanations — and the finding that even spontaneous self-explanation predicts learning outcomes — is the foundation for the self-explanation strategy discussed in Section 7.5.

Research by Rawson and Dunlosky on successive relearning.

Katherine Rawson and John Dunlosky have developed a protocol called "successive relearning" that combines retrieval practice with spacing in a systematic way: practice retrieval until you can recall the material, then wait, then practice retrieval again until you can recall it again, then wait longer. Their research shows that this combination produces remarkably durable long-term retention — sometimes years after the original learning. This work demonstrates the multiplicative power of combining spacing and retrieval, as discussed in Section 7.3.

Allan Paivio's dual coding theory.

Paivio's dual coding theory, developed beginning in the 1960s, proposed that human cognition processes information through two separate but interconnected channels: a verbal system (words, language) and an imagery system (pictures, spatial representations). Information encoded through both channels is remembered better than information encoded through only one. This theory, previewed briefly in Section 7.7, receives full treatment in Chapter 9.

Robert Bjork's desirable difficulties framework.

Robert Bjork's concept of "desirable difficulties" — conditions that make learning harder in the moment but more durable in the long run — provides the theoretical umbrella for all the strategies in this chapter. Retrieval, spacing, interleaving, and elaboration are all desirable difficulties. Bjork's framework, including the distinction between storage strength and retrieval strength, receives full treatment in Chapter 10.

Tier 3 — Illustrative Sources

These are constructed examples, composite cases, or pedagogical resources created for this textbook.

Mia Chen — composite character. Based on common patterns in learning strategy adoption research. Illustrates the transition from passive strategies (rereading, highlighting) to active strategies (retrieval practice, elaboration), including the emotional difficulty of the transition and the central paradox (feeling less confident while learning more).

Sofia Reyes — composite character. Based on common patterns in motor learning and music practice research. Illustrates interleaving and the performance-learning distinction in a non-academic domain (cello performance), including contextual interference and the transition from blocked to interleaved practice.

The Dunlosky utility ratings table. The table in Section 7.1 faithfully represents the ratings from the Dunlosky et al. (2013) meta-analysis. The ratings are: practice testing (high), distributed practice (high), interleaved practice (moderate), elaborative interrogation (moderate), self-explanation (moderate), summarization (low), highlighting/underlining (low), keyword mnemonic (low), imagery for text (low), rereading (low).

Recommended Next Steps

If you want to go deeper on Chapter 7's topics before moving to Chapter 8, here's a prioritized reading path:

1. Highest priority: Read the first four chapters of Make It Stick by Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel. These chapters cover retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and the central paradox with vivid real-world examples that complement the material in this chapter. Budget 2-3 hours.

2. If you want the primary research: Read the Dunlosky et al. (2013) paper itself. It's long (55 pages) but written accessibly, and reading it will give you a much deeper appreciation for the evidence behind each strategy. Focus on the sections for practice testing, distributed practice, and interleaved practice. Budget 2-3 hours for the relevant sections.

3. If you're interested in the testing effect specifically: Read the Roediger & Karpicke (2006) paper. It's short (7 pages), clearly written, and demonstrates the testing effect in a single elegant experiment. This is the study discussed in Section 7.2 where the testing group recalled 70% after two days while the restudying group recalled 40%. Budget 30 minutes.

4. If you're a musician, athlete, or skill learner: Read the interleaving sections of How We Learn by Benedict Carey. His treatment of motor learning and contextual interference will resonate with Sofia's case study. Budget 1-2 hours.

5. If you want to implement these strategies immediately: Skip ahead to Appendix C (Templates & Worksheets) and Appendix D (Quick-Reference Cards), which contain ready-to-use templates for brain dumps, spaced review schedules, interleaved study planners, and elaboration worksheets. Budget 30 minutes to set up your system.

6. If you want to understand WHY these strategies work at a deeper level: Read ahead to Chapter 10 (Desirable Difficulties). That chapter provides Robert Bjork's theoretical framework — storage strength vs. retrieval strength — which explains why difficulty during learning is beneficial. Understanding the theory deepens your commitment to the strategies.

Online Resources

Retrieval Practice website (retrievalpractice.org). A free resource hub maintained by learning scientists, featuring guides, tips, and downloadable materials for implementing retrieval practice. Aimed at both students and educators.

The Learning Scientists (learningscientists.org). A group of cognitive psychologists who create free, accessible materials explaining evidence-based learning strategies. Their six strategies for effective learning — which include retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, elaboration, concrete examples, and dual coding — map almost exactly onto the strategies covered in this chapter. Excellent downloadable posters and study guides.

Anki (apps.ankiweb.net). Free, open-source spaced repetition software. If you want to implement spaced retrieval practice using digital flashcards, Anki is the most powerful and flexible option available. Steep learning curve but highly customizable. Particularly popular among medical students and language learners.

End of Further Reading for Chapter 7.