Active Recalling
Active recalling or active learning is a study technique that retrieves information from the brain while studying. And this method is considered one of the best learning strategies. Because the principle is retrieving data from the brain rather than putting information repeatedly.
For instance, once you review a concept, you can close your eyes and recall as much as possible.
As we put higher effort to recall, our brain forms connections. And those connections help to move your short-term memories to long-term ones.
There are two categories that we can put most of the learning methods.
- Passive Learning
- Active Learning
Passive Learning
Passive learning is a traditional learning technique where students try to learn without recalling it.
For example, imagine you want to learn about Polypropylene. It’s a widely used plastics type with many uses, and it has advantages and disadvantages. If you’re learning it by rereading and highlighting, it’s passive learning.
If you put a higher effort to recall, it’s known as active learning.
Active Learning
The concept of active recalling is a simple one. Have you ever experienced difficulties recalling the lyrics, even if you have listened to that song hundreds of times?
However, you listen to another song for the first time and try to recall. Later you hear the same song and try to recall it again. Moreover, now you try to recall it while listening to that song. In that way, you can remember the full lyrics faster. That is what active recalling is.
You can apply this practice in different ways. Before getting into that, let’s get into how it works.
How Does Active Recalling Work?
We read, feel, hear, and watch many different things during the day, but we only remember the things we did with awareness. So it’s not necessary to recall after doing something. The best way is to recall while doing it.
Without awareness, you can’t recall much. With awareness, we can move information to our short-term memory. When we recall it again after that, the short-term memory becomes stronger. By recalling it for days, you can move it to your permanent memory.
Applications Of Active Recalling
Most of the best learning techniques are based on active recalling, and without it, those don’t exist.
- Flashcard method
- Anki
- Feynman Technique
- Memory Palace
Uses Of Active Recalling
We use active recalling when studying both concepts and facts. And we also use it for learning skills. Using active recall, we can go deep into our knowledge because it forces us to think. It makes connections between different concepts and facts.
Moreover, the technique is helpful to slow down the forgetting curve.
Advantages Of Active Recalling
Deep Concepts: Active recall gives us the ability to learn in-depth concepts more effectively.
Saves Time: Unlike passive learning methods, active recalling takes less time to remember.
Testing Ourselves: Since recalling is the primary function, it allows us to test ourselves.
Understanding Gaps: There is an opportunity to understand the gaps in our knowledge and revise.
Long-term Memory: Recalling information without any hints, we can move data from short term memory to long term memory.
Applications: Since active recalling can connect each concept, the ease of using them as applications increase.
Disadvantages Of Active Recalling
Much Effort
Unlike passive study methods, active recalling needs serious effort. That’s the main reason most people give up on this technique and go back to passive study methods.
Exhausting
Students get quickly exhausted by doing active recalling.
Guidelines
- Review the concept well before recalling
- Read as much as you can on that concept.
- There is no need for a perfect recall.
- Don’t recall the exact words; recall the essential topics.
- When recalling large concepts, recall the first and last sentence in the beginning.
- Always note down your gaps and knowledge.
- Revise your gaps on the same day.
Active Recalling Strategies
There are a few strategies that you can use for active recalling.
Taking A Moment Away From Notes
This is the most traditional active recalling method. Close your eyes and try to recall what you just studied. Or close your book and recall
Making Questions
Make questions and try to answer them, again and again. It is one of the primary active recalling methods. We don’t need to waste your time writing the answers. We can always find answers easily on google or by referring to lecture notes. And don’t write questions without reviewing them. Even after writing each question, close your eyes and try to recall the topic
.
Green: When you start answering those questions, you can’t recall, change the color of that text to green. On the same day, review those green questions.
Blue: On a later day, if you can’t answer some of those green questions, mark them in blue.
Red: On the third day, if you can’t recall some blue questions, mark them red.
During Lectures
Active recalling or awareness during lectures is essential. Otherwise, you will forget most of the lecture content within a few hours. During the classes, always think your lecturer is wrong. Ask questions and make some doubts in your mind. Try to explain it to yourself. Always check the slide and notes to check whether the lecturer is right or not.
After The Lecture
Recall your doubts and questions. Go slide by slide and try to recall each slide. If there are no slide or lecture notes, google the topic. You can repeat your recalling with a spaced repetition time table.
Practice Testing & Problem Solving
Practice Testing is another great way. And this is a traditional method; but it’s an effective one. When practicing test questions, you have to recall each concept. You can quickly note down things you don’t remember and revise later on the same day.
FlashCards Method
Flashcard is a traditional study method. By writing questions or the topic on one side and writing the answer on the other side, you can create flashcards.
My advice is to have four boxes. Name them as following names,
- Everyday Box
- Every 2 Days Box
- Every 3 Days Box
- Every 7 Days Box
You can place every new card on ‘Everyday Box’. If you can recall a card, put it into the ‘Every 2 Days Box’.
If you can’t, place it in the Everyday Box again.
When Reviewing ‘Every 2 Days Box’, do the same thing. If you can recall, place it in the ‘Every 3 Days Box’. If not, put it on the same ‘Every 2 Days Box’.
Repeat the process until you master all of the cards.
Anki Flashcard Software
Anki is the greatest technological invention using both active recalling and spaced repetition concepts.
And remember, don’t make a flashcard for every piece of information. You’ll end up with hundreds of flashcards. And you’ll never have time to look into them.
Feynman Technique & Teaching
Feynman technique is known as the one of the best study methods. However, active recalling is also a part of this great technique. Because, when you’re trying to explain something, you are forcing your mind to recall that concept and make connections between each concept.
Conclusions
Both active learning and passive learning methods have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, we can’t say one is better than the other.
For example, we can take Passive Voice and active voice. Even if Active Voice is simple and easy to understand, we can’t give up on passive learning.
Using active recalling, you can move short-term memory to long-term memory.
Highlighting and Rereading is not as effective as they claimed to be. Moreover, passive learning consumes a longer time to move information into long-term memory.
When active recalling is combined with visual memory, it’s the fastest way to memorize. However, training is necessary to use visual memory.
Active recalling can be found in Feynman Method, Flash Card Method, Anki, and Memory Palace.
Summary
Active recalling is primarily based on two steps, which are Review and Recall. Because, the main function of the technique is to move short-term memory to long-term memory in a faster and effective way.
I’m from HundredRules.com, and this is a republished content from my blog.