Always generate a guess before receiving the correct answer

Before looking up any fact or asking for a solution, produce your best guess — even if you’re confident it’s wrong.

Why it works

A guess activates memory networks related to the question. When the correct answer then arrives, it is encoded against the background of the activated-and-failed guess, creating a stronger prediction error signal. This signal marks the correct answer as important to remember and drives deeper processing. Research by Kornell et al. showed that even when guesses were wrong 100% of the time, retention of the correct answer was better than in a study-only condition.

How to do it

1. Before looking anything up or receiving any explanation, write or say your best answer to the question.
2. Rate your confidence 0–100%.
3. Then receive the correct answer.
4. Note which items you were confidently wrong about — the hypercorrection effect makes these especially well retained.

Evidence

Kornell, Hays & Bjork (2009) showed that generating errors followed by corrective feedback produced better retention than studying correct answers directly, even for general-knowledge items where guesses were rarely correct. Potts & Shanks (2014) extended this to novel foreign-language vocabulary, showing that generating errors before feedback still benefited learning even when the correct answer could not plausibly be guessed. (rct)

The errorful learning benefit depends critically on receiving correct feedback promptly. Errors without correction can embed false memories rather than enhance true learning.

Sources

• Kornell, Hays & Bjork (2009), Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
• Kornell, N., Hays, M. J., & Bjork, R. A. (2009). Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35(4), 989-998.
• Richland, L. E., Kornell, N., & Kao, L. S. (2009). The pretesting effect: Do unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15(3), 243-257.
• Kornell, N., & Vaughn, K. E. (2016). How retrieval attempts affect learning: A review and synthesis. Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 65, 183-215.
• Potts, R., & Shanks, D. R. (2014). The benefit of generating errors during learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(2), 644-667.

Common mistake

Treating the guess as a commitment ("I was wrong, I’m bad at this") rather than as a deliberate encoding tool — the emotional response to being wrong can short-circuit the memory benefit.