Principle 04
Retrieval Practice
Pull the schema out with the notes gone. Space it later.
- Function
- Testing effect now; spacing on the calendar
- Substrates
- dlPFC · hippocampal circuits (reconsolidation is a model, not a stopwatch)
- Intervention
- Unaided target-language recall, then +1 / +3 / +7 day retests
- In transfer
- Stage 4 is immediate retrieval. Spacing is a second session.
Testing is not assessment here; it is the learning event. Retrieval makes the trace labile, then writes it back stronger and less context-bound (Roediger & Karpicke; Bjork desirable difficulties).
Calling a five-minute end-of-block quiz ‘spacing’ is a category error. Spacing requires distribution over time. Stage 4 is retrieval practice. Put +1, +3, and +7 days on the calendar, always in target-native terms.
Roediger & Karpicke 2006; Bjork & Bjork 2011