Make It Stick

Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel discuss retrieval, spacing, and varied practice. Their book website outlines these themes. The practical distinction is between material feeling familiar while you read it and being able to produce an explanation later.

Study one distinction with an answer key

Use this original Nuxflo exercise to practise correlation and causation. Read: “People who visit a park more often report less stress.” Close the note and answer three questions: What was observed? What causal claim might someone add? What other explanation is possible?

Check your answer against this key: the observation links park visits and reported stress. The added claim is that visiting the park reduces stress. Other possibilities include people with less demanding schedules having more time for parks, or people choosing to visit when they already feel better. The observation alone does not distinguish these explanations.

Return without the wording in front of you

Try the questions on another day using a new scenario: people who borrow more library books tend to have higher reading scores. Write an explanation before looking back. Ask whether you identified a possible alternative cause, rather than merely repeating “correlation is not causation.”

If you cannot answer, reopen the explanation, find the specific missing step, and try again after a gap. Guessing repeatedly without checking can leave an error intact. The aim is accurate retrieval with feedback, not making the exercise as frustrating as possible.

What your result can tell you

A correct explanation on the second example provides evidence about that distinction in those tasks. It does not establish a general increase in intelligence, memory capacity, or everyday judgment. Likewise, struggling during an attempt does not automatically mean the method is effective; look at what you can explain later.

Choose this book for a study process you can apply to material you actually need to learn. Use Peak when you want to examine a specific performance bottleneck and the feedback needed to practise it.