Generate your own example after learning a concept
Immediately after encountering a concept, create a fresh example from your own life or field.
Why it works
Generating an example forces retrieval and application of the abstract rule, which is far more encoding-effective than reading a provided one. The act of searching memory for a fitting instance requires the learner to test the concept’s boundaries, deepening understanding in ways passive re-reading cannot reach.
How to do it
- Read or hear a concept, then pause before moving on.
- Ask: "Where have I seen this in my own work, life, or experience?"
- Write the example in one or two sentences alongside the concept definition.
- Check: does your example actually fit? If not, diagnose where your understanding broke down.
Evidence
Generative processing — creating information rather than passively receiving it — consistently outperforms passive reading in retention and transfer across multiple studies in educational psychology. Wittrock’s generative-learning model grounds this mechanistically: comprehension is built when the learner actively generates relations between new material and existing knowledge, not when the material is merely received. (observational)
Most evidence is from academic settings; transfer to self-study in professional contexts is plausible but less studied.
Sources
- Wittrock (1992), Generative learning theory, Educational Psychologist
- Wittrock, M. C. (1992). Generative learning processes of the brain. Educational Psychologist, 27(4), 531–541.
Common mistake
Using the textbook’s own example as your "generated" example — this is copying, not generation, and produces little encoding benefit.
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More practices for Concrete Examples: How to Make Abstract Ideas Stick
- Use multiple varied examples to map the concept’s true shape
Three different examples reveal what one example hides — the edges of the concept.
- Cycle from concrete to abstract and back
Start with a story, name the principle, then return to a new application.
- Use analogies to transfer structure from known to unknown
Map an unfamiliar concept onto a familiar one that shares the same relational structure.
- Expose examples before naming the rule (inductive first)
Present several cases before stating the principle; let the learner induce the pattern.
- Label what each example is an example of
Explicitly tag every example with the concept it illustrates to prevent "inert knowledge."
- Use non-examples to sharpen concept boundaries
Study what a concept is not — cases that almost fit — to prevent over-generalization.
Related concepts
- Make It Stick: The Science of Learning
Retrieval, spacing, interleaving, and elaboration — the evidence-backed core
- Desirable Difficulties: When Harder Means Better Learning
The difficulties worth keeping — and the ones to remove
- Dual Coding: Learn With Words and Pictures Together
Two channels, two routes to memory — when visuals actually help
- The Feynman Technique, Step by Step
Explain it simply, find the gaps, and close them