Learning & Cognition

How people actually learn, remember, and understand. Cognitive science applied to studying.

A chalkboard covered in partially erased physics equations with a lone piece of chalk on the ledge, shot in an empty classroom with morning light.
Featured

The Expertise Reversal Effect: When Scaffolding Becomes a Ceiling

A UNSW finding from the early 2000s shows that scaffolding beginners need becomes a ceiling for advanced students, and explains a lot of teaching failures

• 5 min read
An open biochemistry notebook on a wooden desk with a pen resting across handwritten pathway diagrams, warm afternoon light coming through a nearby window.

Judgments of Learning: Why You Are a Poor Judge of What You Know

Rereading feels like mastery because fluency fools the brain, and students who trust that feeling consistently underestimate what they have not learned

• 5 min read
A student at a desk with several open textbooks, a page of handwritten notes, and crossed-out scribbles under focused desk light.

Desirable Difficulties: Why Struggle Is the Study

Conditions that make practice feel harder often produce better long-term learning. Bjork, Shea & Morgan, and why ease is usually the enemy…

• 7 min read
A hand writing on a blank sheet of paper beside a closed notebook and a coffee cup, in natural window light.

Retrieval Practice and the Testing Effect

Testing yourself beats rereading, the research is clear, and students still refuse to do it. Why retrieval practice works, and why it…

• 7 min read
A stack of handwritten index cards fanned out on a wooden desk with a pen beside them, under warm lamp light.

Spaced Repetition, Done Wrong

Anki's algorithm is sound. Students still manage to break it. The five most common failure modes of spaced repetition, and how to…

• 7 min read
An open sketchbook on a wooden desk beside a pencil and an open textbook, showing a rough process diagram drawn in pencil.

Drawing vs. Rereading: Why Generating Beats Reviewing

Why drawing from memory beats rereading, even when rereading feels like it's working. The cognitive science of generation, and how to use…

• 6 min read
A student's desk scattered with a half-read textbook, a notebook covered in arrows and diagrams, and a single lamp casting focused light.

What Cognitive Load Theory Gets Right About Studying

John Sweller's cognitive load theory explains why some textbooks overwhelm while others flow, and what students can do about it when they…

• 6 min read
A stack of worn flashcards scattered on a wooden desk next to an open notebook and a cup of black coffee.

The science of spaced repetition, and why most students do it wrong

Spacing works. But most students misuse it in three specific ways. What Ebbinghaus and modern memory research say about doing it right.

• 6 min read
A student's hand sketching a messy pencil diagram in a spiral notebook under warm desk lamp light.

Why drawing what you’re learning works better than rereading it

The research behind drawing-to-learn, from Fiorella and Mayer to the NSF Picturing to Learn project, and why sketching beats rereading for durable…

• 5 min read