Knowing Knowledge

The register

All twenty-one entries. Every entry states the effect, what it predicts, how well it replicates, and where it breaks. No effect size is printed where the published estimates disagree.

Sec.EntryWhat it predictsWhere it breaksEvidence
01 The testing effect
Retrieval
Retrieval practice beats re-reading on any delayed test of the same material.Immediate tests, multiple-choice formats, and far transfer.Replicates broadly
01 Retrieval difficulty
Retrieval
More effortful successful recall produces more durable memory than easy recall.When the attempt fails and no correction follows.Robust, bounded
01 Feedback timing
Retrieval
Delayed corrective feedback is remembered better than immediate feedback.Procedural skills, and learners very early in acquisition.Mixed
02 Distributed practice
Spacing
The same total study time spread across occasions beats the same time massed.Very short retention intervals, where massing can win.Replicates broadly
02 Expanding intervals
Spacing
Review gaps that lengthen as material is relearned outperform fixed gaps.Comparisons with equal-interval schedules, which often tie.Mixed
03 Mixing problem types
Interleaving
Mixed practice lowers accuracy during practice and raises it on a later test.Types with nothing to confuse, and very short practice sets.Robust, bounded
03 Discrimination
Interleaving
Interleaving works by forcing the choice of method, not its execution.It is a mechanism claim, and it is tested indirectly.Mixed
04 Cognitive load theory
Cognitive Load
Working memory is narrow, and the design of an explanation adds to what it must hold.Its partitions of load resist independent measurement.Robust, bounded
04 Split attention
Cognitive Load
A diagram separated from the text that explains it worsens comprehension of both.Readers already fluent in the material.Robust, bounded
04 The expertise reversal
Cognitive Load
Support that helps a beginner measurably hinders someone who already knows the material.Where expertise is assumed rather than measured.Robust, bounded
05 The Ebbinghaus curve
Forgetting
Retention falls steeply at first and then progressively more slowly.As a source of exact intervals: nonsense syllables, one subject.Shape replicates
05 Bartlett's reconstruction
Forgetting
Recall of meaningful material is reconstruction shaped by expectation, not replay.As a quantitative model; the original studies were loosely controlled.Replicates broadly
06 Fluency
Illusions
Ease of processing raises confidence in later recall without raising recall.When judgements follow a delayed practice test rather than a reading.Robust, bounded
06 Judgements of learning
Illusions
People predict their own future recall badly, and in a predictable direction.Delayed judgements are markedly better calibrated.Replicates broadly
07 Near and far transfer
Transfer
Gains from practice extend to genuinely novel problems.Most tests of far transfer; near transfer is the safer claim.Contested
07 Desirable difficulties
Transfer
Conditions that slow acquisition can improve long-term retention.Difficulty beyond what the learner can resolve unaided.Robust, bounded
08 Replication
Evidence Standards
Which of these findings survived the replication crisis, which shrank, and which did not.A single failed replication settles less than it appears to.Method note
08 Effect size
Evidence Standards
A statistically real effect can still be too small to matter, and several here are.Effect sizes travel badly from the laboratory to real study.Method note
08 Lab versus classroom
Evidence Standards
Effects measured over an afternoon on word lists do not automatically hold over a term.Field studies trade control for realism and usually find less.Method note
09 The self-experiment
How We Know
One rigorous subject can found a field and still represent nobody but himself.Any generalisation from a single participant.Method note
09 Working memory
How We Know
A limited-capacity system with separable components handles information in use.It was never a model of long-term learning.Robust, bounded

21 entries shown.