Attempt to recall before studying new material

Try to answer questions about material before you’ve studied it — the attempt, even when wrong, enhances retention of the correct answer when it comes.

Why it works

Pre-testing, or "pretesting," works through a mechanism sometimes called the "generation effect": a failed attempt to retrieve information creates a "memory error signal" that makes the brain more receptive to the correct answer when it is subsequently presented. The prior attempt also activates related prior knowledge, improving integration of the new information. Kornell et al. showed that retrieval errors followed by the correct answer were better retained than the correct answer studied without a prior attempt.

How to do it

1. Before starting a new chapter, video, or session, write down what you already know or predict about the topic.
2. For specific facts, try to state your best guess before reading.
3. After studying, compare your pre-test predictions to the actual content — discrepancies are high-priority encoding targets.
4. Treat wrong guesses as learning amplifiers, not mistakes to avoid.

Evidence

Multiple experiments have demonstrated that pre-testing followed by feedback enhances retention compared to study-only conditions, even when pre-test performance is near zero. Richland, Kornell & Kao (2009) and others have directly tested this. (rct)

The pre-testing benefit depends on receiving correct feedback afterward; a wrong guess without correction can embed the error rather than facilitate learning.

Sources

• Richland, Kornell & Kao (2009), The pretesting effect: Do unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning?, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

Common mistake

Skipping the pre-test because wrong guesses feel uncomfortable or "a waste of time," when the failed attempt is precisely what makes the subsequent correct answer more memorable.