Learning and memory

• Curse of knowledgetype: effect · evidence: supported

  Once you know something, it is hard to imagine how someone who doesn't know it thinks.

• Growth mindsettype: effect · evidence: contested

  The idea that abilities can grow with effort should help students learn better.

• Hindsight biastype: effect · evidence: supported

  Once we learn how something turned out, it seems to have been predictable and we feel "I knew it all along".

• Interleavingtype: technique · evidence: supported

  When you practise, you mix the types of problems instead of taking them one at a time, in blocks.

• Learning stylestype: effect · evidence: failed to replicate

  The idea of learning styles says that each person is "visual", "auditory" or another type and learns better when teaching matches their style.

• Peak-end ruletype: effect · evidence: supported

  When we remember an experience, we judge it mostly by its most intense moment and by how it ended, and its length matters surprisingly little.

• Serial position effecttype: effect · evidence: strong

  From a list, we remember the last items best and, somewhat less, the first ones.

• Spacing and retrieval practicetype: technique · evidence: strong

  You remember more in the long run if you split your studying into several sessions and test yourself instead of rereading.

• Zeigarnik effecttype: effect · evidence: failed to replicate

  The idea that you remember interrupted tasks better than finished ones has not held up.