What is actually known about acquiring and retaining knowledge.
12 topics · 34 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Teaching for Transfer
David N. Perkins & Gavriel Salomon · 1988
Argues transfer of learning almost never happens by itself and must be deliberately designed for, either by drilling a skill to the point of…
+5 more at this level
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School
Bransford, Brown & Cocking · 2000
Synthesises decades of learning-science research into a single account of how understanding, transfer and expertise actually form, aimed at…
+9 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
The Influence of Improvement in One Mental Function upon the Efficiency of Other Functions
Edward L. Thorndike & Robert S. Woodworth · 1901
Reports experiments finding that training a mental function on one kind of material barely improves performance on superficially similar tasks,…
+17 more at this level
12 of 34 works
David N. Perkins & Gavriel Salomon
Argues transfer of learning almost never happens by itself and must be deliberately designed for, either by drilling a skill to the point of automatic reflex or by teaching students to abstract a principle and bridge it to new contexts.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Nate Kornell
Finds in a flashcard-learning experiment that spacing study across separate sessions beats cramming the same material into one, even though learners themselves tend to prefer cramming.
21 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Pooja K. Agarwal, Patrice M. Bain & Roger W. Chamberlain
Reports a multi-year classroom study in which regular low-stakes quizzing raised exam scores by a full letter grade, and argues the effect survives the move from the lab to a real school.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Barbara Oakley (TEDx Talks)
Argues that understanding requires alternating between focused and diffuse modes of attention, and that the feeling of fluency while re-reading is a poor signal of having learnt anything.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Philip M. Newton
Surveys recent education and psychology papers and finds the large majority still endorse the learning-styles idea despite decisive evidence against it, arguing the myth persists in practice long after it was debunked in research.
5 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Sahar Ghanbari, Fariba Haghani, Majid Barekatain & Alireza Jamali
A systematic review aimed at a clinical-education audience introduces cognitive load theory's three load types and connects them to cognitive-neuroscience findings, working as an accessible entry point into a technical literature.
10 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Bransford, Brown & Cocking
Synthesises decades of learning-science research into a single account of how understanding, transfer and expertise actually form, aimed at redesigning how schools teach.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Henry L. Roediger III & Jeffrey D. Karpicke
Reviews a century of testing-effect research to argue that taking a memory test is not neutral assessment but an event that itself strengthens retention, often more than an equivalent period of restudying.
30 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Doug Rohrer & Kelli Taylor
Two classroom experiments find college students solve maths problems better a week later when practice problems of different types are mixed together rather than blocked by type, even though blocked practice feels easier at the time.
18 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer & Robert Bjork
Finds no credible evidence that matching instruction to a student's supposed learning style (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic) improves outcomes, despite the idea's enduring popularity in teacher training.
15 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Jeffrey D. Karpicke & Henry L. Roediger III
In a controlled vocabulary experiment, repeated testing after initial study produced far better long-term retention than repeated restudying, even though the learners doing the restudying judged it more effective.
3 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026Kelli Taylor & Doug Rohrer
Finds fourth-graders who practised interleaved maths problems scored nearly double, a day later, the exam performance of those who practised the same problems blocked by type.
12 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026This subject genuinely sits in more than one domain. These fields approach the same ground with different methods.