Make the question precise, not generic

Ask "why does THIS fact hold, given what I know?" rather than a vague "why?"

Why it works

A specific prompt forces specific retrieval. Asking "why is the desert cold at night?" pulls up targeted knowledge about heat and moisture; a generic "why?" lets you produce a flabby answer that engages nothing. The precision of the question determines how much of your existing knowledge gets recruited, and recruited knowledge is what the new fact attaches to.

How to do it

1. Rewrite a flat "why?" into a pointed question naming the specific fact and contrast.
2. Tie the question to something you already know that makes the fact surprising or expected.
3. Reject answers that could apply to any fact; demand one that fits only this one.

Evidence

Research on self-explanation and elaboration indicates that targeted, content-specific prompts produce deeper processing than generic ones, consistent with the broader finding that meaning-rich encoding outperforms shallow processing. (rct)

This refines an established effect rather than being a separately named protocol; the core evidence is for elaboration and self-explanation generally.

Common mistake

Firing the same generic "why?" at everything, which trains a reflex of producing vague, interchangeable answers that do not differentiate one fact from another.