Back to the on-screen lesson ·
Keep a new fact with spaced retrieval: tries after gaps that grow, a step back after a miss, and every return written on the calendar.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will plan spaced returns to a new fact: waits that double inside a session, the last wait that worked after a miss, and returns across the week written on the calendar.
Last lesson you learned a new fact with the answer in view and the cues stepped down. This lesson makes that learning last, by coming back to the fact after gaps that grow. The people and plans are invented. The practice is optional, it is not treatment, and it does not measure anyone's memory; your own clinicians are the people to tell about anything new.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Return | One more try at recalling a fact, after a gap, before looking at it. |
| Spaced retrieval | Recalling a fact after gaps that grow when the answers are right. |
| Expanding gaps | Waits that double or grow after each correct try: 1 minute, 2, 4, 8. |
| Last wait that worked | The longest gap bridged correctly so far, which the next try uses after a miss. |
| Retention interval | How long you need to keep the fact, such as until a trip in 30 days. |
Two aids carry this lesson. The card holds the fact — Spare key: inside the blue flowerpot — so after any miss you can look instead of guessing. The calendar holds the returns. When you learn the fact, write each return on the calendar straight away: Tue — spare key?, Fri — spare key?. A kitchen timer or a phone timer handles the short waits inside one session.
Writing the returns down is the point. Spacing that depends on remembering to practice is spacing that does not happen.
A fact practiced ten times in a row feels solid and then fades within days. The same fact recalled once, then again after a gap, then again after a longer gap, lasts much better. Each successful recall after a gap does more than the tenth repetition in a row.
Spaced retrieval puts that to work. Inside one session, you try the answer after a short wait — a minute — and if it is right, the next wait doubles: 2 minutes, 4, 8. If you miss, you look at the card, say the answer, and the next try uses the last wait that worked. Across days, you do the same with the calendar: a return the next day, then a few days later, then a week later.
Each return starts with an honest try before looking. That try is the work. Reading the card again without trying first is a reread, not a return.
Another way: picture
Think of stepping stones across a stream, placed a little farther apart each time. You can always reach the next one, and by the end you have crossed a width you could never jump at once.
Another way: steps
Landauer and Bjork (1978) showed that tests at gradually expanding intervals helped people keep new names. Cameron Camp (1989) turned the idea into a practical method, spaced retrieval, for people with memory impairment — often using it to teach one useful fact, such as where a list or a card is kept — with the waits growing after correct answers and shrinking after a miss.
For learning in general, a large review by Cepeda and colleagues (2006) pooled hundreds of experiments and found that spreading practice out beat massing it together for long-term keeping. A later study by the same group (2008) found that the best gap depends on how long you need the fact: the longer you need it, the longer the gap. As a rough guide, a gap of about a tenth to a fifth of that time works well — returns every 3 to 6 days for a fact needed in a month. That is a rough rule from studies of learning, not a prescription, and it says nothing about memory in general: it is a way to keep one fact.
A miss is part of the plan, not the end of it. It tells you the last gap was a little too long for today. Three moves follow, in order.
First, look and say: read the card and say the answer aloud, so the last thing practiced is right. This is the errorless habit from last lesson.
Second, step back one gap: the next try uses the last wait that worked, not the one that just failed and not the shortest wait of all.
Third, build up again: after a correct try, double as before. Across days the same rule applies — a missed return earns an extra return the next day, and then the schedule carries on. Write the extra one on the calendar at once, or it will be missed too.
The US Environmental Protection Agency's WaterSense program estimates that household leaks can waste nearly 10,000 gallons of water a year in an average home. In a burst pipe, what matters is how fast someone can find the main shut-off valve — a fact most people look up once and then lose.
Work through a fictional case. Ines finds her valve on October 2: basement, front wall, behind the water heater. She writes a card and tapes it inside the basement door. The same afternoon she does a short session: tries after 1, 2, 4 and 8 minutes, all correct. Then the calendar: October 3 (one day later), October 6 (three days after that), October 13 (a week after that). On October 6 she hesitates, reads the card, and adds October 7. By the thirteenth, the answer comes at once. Four short returns, each a few seconds, written on a calendar she already reads.
"Practice it lots today and it'll stick." Ten tries in a row feel solid and fade fast. Fewer tries with gaps between last longer.
"A return means reading the card again." Rereading feels like practice, but the try before looking is what does the work.
"After a miss, start the whole schedule over." Step back one gap, not all the way. The earlier returns still count.
"I'll remember to come back to it." The returns go on the calendar the day you learn the fact, or they drift.
Read the card once and say it aloud.
Card: Spare key — inside the blue flowerpot.
The session starts with the right answer, as in errorless learning.
Try after 1 minute, then after 2.
1 min ✓ — 2 min ✓
Each correct try doubles the next wait.
Try after 4 minutes and miss; look and say.
4 min: not sure → card read, said aloud
The miss shows 4 minutes is a little long today; looking keeps the practice right.
Use the last wait that worked, then build up.
2 min ✓ — 4 min ✓ — 8 min ✓
One step back, then the gaps grow again from there.
Write the first return for the next day.
Calendar, Tue: Spare key — where?
A short first gap catches the fact before it fades.
Write the second return 3 days after the first.
Calendar, Fri: Spare key — where?
The gap grows because the fact now lasts longer.
Write the third return a week after the second.
Calendar, next Fri: Spare key — where?
Returns are written now, because spacing that relies on remembering to practice does not happen.
Plan what a missed return does.
If not sure on Fri → read card, add Sat, keep next Fri.
A miss earns one extra return, and the schedule carries on.
You learn the stop name on Wednesday. Write the first return.
Calendar, Thu: Bus stop — name?
The first return comes one day later.
Write the second return 3 days after the first.
Calendar, Sun: Bus stop — name?
Count from Thursday, not from Wednesday.
Write the third return a week after the second.
A fictional practice session. Dan is learning where the spare key is kept. He answered correctly after 1 minute and after 2 minutes, then after 4 minutes he said *not sure*. What is the spaced-retrieval next move?
A fictional session with every try correct. The first try comes 3 minute(s) after reading the card, and each wait after that doubles. Complete the worked count of minutes since the start at each try.
Try 1 comes after the first wait.
Minutes since start at try 1: 3
Nothing has happened before try 1 except reading the card.
Try 2 comes after a wait twice as long.
Minutes since start at try 2: a
Add the doubled wait to the time of try 1.
Try 3 comes after a wait twice as long again.
Minutes since start at try 3: b
Add four times the first wait to the time of try 2. A whole spaced session fits inside a cup of tea.
A fictional session. The first try comes after 29 seconds. The rule: after a correct try, double the wait; after a miss, show the answer and use the last wait that worked. The record: try 1 correct, try 2 correct, try 3 missed, try 4 correct, try 5 correct. Fill in the wait before tries 2 to 6, in seconds.
| Wait (seconds) | |
|---|---|
| Try 2 | |
| Try 3 | |
| Try 4 | |
| Try 5 | |
| Try 6 |
A fictional plan. Mia learns where the water shut-off valve is on October 12. She puts three returns on the calendar: the next day, then 3 days after that, then 7 days after that. Write the date of each return in October.
Returns: October a, October b, October c
A fictional goal. Ken wants to still know a new route in 60 days. Using the rough rule from this lesson — a gap of about a tenth to a fifth of the time you need the fact — what range of days should separate his practice returns?
Gap between returns: a to b days
A fictional household. Sam learns on a **Monday** where the main water shut-off valve is. His plan: return after 1 day, then 2 days after that, then 4 days after that. At the second return he says *not sure*, looks at the card, and adds an extra return the next day before carrying on with the 4-day gap. Write the weekday of each return.
| Weekday | |
|---|---|
| Return 1 | |
| Return 2 | |
| Extra return | |
| Return 3 |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
A fictional session for learning a new bus route number. The first try comes after 1 minute. After a correct try, double the wait; after a miss, show the answer and use the last wait that worked. Record: try 1 correct, try 2 correct, try 3 correct, try 4 missed, try 5 correct. Fill in the wait before tries 2 to 6, in minutes.
| Wait (minutes) | |
|---|---|
| Try 2 | |
| Try 3 | |
| Try 4 | |
| Try 5 | |
| Try 6 |
Choose one fact you want to keep, write its card, and put three returns on your calendar now. From memory, say what the next wait is after a correct try and after a miss. Next: a memory notebook that holds a whole day. This is optional practice alongside your own care, not treatment and not a test. If anything about your memory is new or changing, tell your own clinicians. You can stop at any point: close the page and the lesson reopens where you were.
12. Your turn: the returns for a new bus stop name, step 3
Calendar, the following Sun: Bus stop — name?
Each gap is counted from the return before it.