Flashcards seem to be a popular way to study, but do they really work? Why are they so popular? Let’s take a look.
During my initial research I came across the Leitner system, developed by German science journalist Sebastian Leitner in the 1970s. Basically, it utilizes three boxes and a promotion / demotion system:
The advantage of this method is that the learner can focus on the most difficult flashcards, which remain in the first few groups. The result is, ideally, a reduction in the amount of study time needed.
The Leitner system uses the principle of spaced repetition, which is also used in popular flashcard app Anki. Spaced repetition exploits the psychological spacing effect:
The spacing effect demonstrates that learning is more effective when study sessions are spaced out. This effect shows that more information is encoded into long-term memory by spaced study sessions, also known as spaced presentation, than by "cramming", or massed presentation.
Yet another proponent for the Pomodoro Technique.
I came across a 2017 research article titled Reinventing Flashcards to Increase Student Learning. It cites a bunch of different studies:
In reviewing the efficacy of 10 commonly used studying techniques, Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) identified practice testing (or practice retrieval) and distributed practicing (or spaced practice) as the two most effective techniques. Students can engage in both of these high utility techniques through the use of flashcards (Wissman, Rawson, & Pyc, 2012).
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Although flashcards are relatively easy to create and commonly used by college students (Wissman et al., 2012), the effectiveness of student-created flashcards in a classroom is unclear. In an introductory psychology class, Golding et al. (2012) found that students who used flashcards for the first exam scored higher than students who did not. However, the use of flashcards was not beneficial on the second exam, and the effect was only marginal on the third exam. Furthermore, Hartwig and Dunlosky (2012) demonstrated that student-created flashcards use was unrelated to students’ grade point average (GPA). These results suggest that retrieval practice and distribution of practice increases retention of information, but the way in which flashcards are typically used may not be sufficient to be successful in college courses.
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Flashcards can facilitate repetitive learning, but repetition is only a superficial level of processing (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014). While 82.9% of students in a study indicated they used flashcards to remember vocabulary, no students reported using flashcards to develop deeper understanding of or the application of concepts (Wissman et al., 2012).
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The FP strategy begins in the same way as traditional flashcards. Students identify bold-faced terms from the textbook and write them on one side of a notecard. Students write the textbook definition on the other side. Students memorize the definition from the textbook (or the instructor) to increase retention. While most students stop here with traditional flashcards, FP creates deeper levels of learning by having the student perform two more actions. In the next step, students write a definition for the same key term in their own words. Rephrasing the term helps students understand the material that will increase comprehension. Finally, students generate a realistic example of the key term from their own lives that will increase application.
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The FP strategy involves one of the most well-known memory-facilitating processes. Remembering is enhanced when the meaning of material is fully processed at the time of encoding (e.g., Craik, 1979, 2002; Craik & Lockhart, 1972; Paller, Kutas, & Mayes, 1987). For example, students who are asked to create their own explanations of a concept recalled that information better than those who were given explanations passively (Pressley, McDaniel, Turner, Wood, & Ahmad, 1987). Furthermore, information processed in relation to one’s self results in particularly strong recall (Klein & Loftus, 1988; Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977).
I really like the sound of this method. Fashion your usual flashcard, but create your own explanation, and then relate it to something in your life. It’s expanding using flashcards to “learn” on a surface level and drives a deeper understanding. I imagine this method coupled with Pomodoro might pack quite a one-two-punch.