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What a miss is for

The seconds after a miss: check at once, cover and produce the answer, name the kind of miss, and bring it back later.

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.

1. What you will learn

You will choose the next move after a miss, name four kinds of miss, tally a round into a retry pile, and log hits and misses for the next round.

2. Misses are coming

Every trial so far has had items that did not come back. You have met free, delayed and cued attempts, and you have made cues of your own. This lesson is about the few seconds after a miss, which decide whether it was wasted or was the most useful moment of the session.

3. Words this lesson uses

4. A miss marks the spot

A miss tells you precisely what to work on, which rereading never does. But it is useful only if the answer follows quickly. Nate Kornell, Matthew Hays and Robert Bjork (2009) gave people word pairs, such as whale – mammal, arranged so that a first guess would almost always fail. Trying, failing and then seeing the answer helped later recall more than simply studying the pair for the same total time. The failed attempt seems to prepare the ground for the answer that follows.

The routine that uses a miss has five moves: attempt, check at once, cover it and produce it yourself, mark it, bring it back later. The covered attempt matters: seeing the answer is review, while saying it yourself is retrieval.

Confident errors deserve a flag. Brady Butterfield and Janet Metcalfe (2001) found that the errors people had been most sure of were often the most readily put right once the correct answer was shown. The surprise seems to make the correction stick.

5. Four kinds of miss

All four get the same first move, a check straight away. The label is for the log, so that tomorrow you can see which kind keeps happening.

6. Using a miss, step by step, and how to check it

1. Attempt with the answer hidden, and commit to something, even 'blank'.
2. Check at once. Never leave a written answer unchecked.
3. Cover and produce. Say or write the right answer with it hidden.
4. Mark the kind of miss in the log.
5. Bring it back later in the same session, a few cards down the pile, and again in the next session.

To check the routine, look at the last thing you said for each missed card. It should be the right answer, produced with the answer covered. If the last thing was the wrong answer, or the right one read off the card, the miss has not been used yet.

7. When a miss does harm, and who should avoid misses

A miss does harm when it is left unchecked. An answer written down and never corrected is an answer you have now practiced, and it can come back next time with the confidence of a real memory.

For someone who finds it hard to notice their own errors, which can happen after a brain injury or a stroke, among other things, the balance tips the other way. For them, practice built to avoid errors from the start has better support, and the Everyday memory course teaches it: the answer is shown first and the support is withdrawn slowly. If that describes you, prefer that course's routines to this one, and tell your own clinicians about any new difficulty.

8. Learning produce codes at a new job

Grocery cashiers key in loose fruit and vegetables by price look-up (PLU) codes, four-digit numbers set by the International Federation for Produce Standards; bananas are 4011, and a fifth digit 9 in front marks many organic items (94011). A new cashier is expected to know the common ones without the book.

Work through a fictional case. Kai makes 30 flashcards, produce name on the front and code on the back. Round 1: 17 hits, 8 wrong, 5 blank. For each of the 13 misses he turns the card, covers the code again and says it aloud, then slips the card five places down the deck. One of his wrong answers he was sure of: he had typed 4012 for bananas. He stars it. Round 2 takes only the 13 misses; 9 come back right. The 4 left go round once more before his shift.

9. Hiding from misses

Avoiding the attempt. Reading the answer first so as never to be wrong feels efficient. It removes the one moment that shows exactly what to fix, and it turns retrieval back into review.

Counting a peeked answer as a hit. A code or word read off the card and then typed is right on the screen and still a miss in the log.

Treating a miss as a verdict. A miss is a note about one card on one day. It is the start of the next round, not a comment on the person who made it.

10. Using a confident error

1. Make the attempt and commit to an answer.

   Largest planet? → 'Saturn, definitely'

   Committing makes the check informative.

2. Check straight away.

   Card: Jupiter

   The answer must follow the miss quickly for the miss to help.

3. Cover the card and say the right answer.

   Covered; said aloud: 'Jupiter'

   The last thing produced is now right, and it was produced, not read.

4. Mark and move it.

   Log: Largest planet, wrong and sure ★. Card moved five places down.

   Confident errors are often corrected well; bringing the card back tests the fix.

11. Turning a round into the next round

1. Tally the round.

   15 cards: 9 hits, 4 wrong, 2 blank

   Blanks count as misses.

2. Build the retry pile.

   4 + 2 = 6 cards on the retry pile

   Every miss goes back first, whatever its kind.

3. Run the pile again after the check.

   Round 2: 6 cards, 4 right → 2 left

   A card leaves the pile only when it is produced right.

12. Your turn: a round of 20 cards gives 12 hits, 5 wrong and 3 blank. How big is the retry pile, and what share of the round is it?

1. Add the wrong answers and the blanks.

   5 + 3 = 8 cards

   A blank is a miss as much as a wrong answer is.

2. Your turn: work this step out. Its working is at the end of the packet.

   Turn the pile into a percentage.

13. Guided practice

Practicing cards, your answer to *Capital of Nevada* is 'Las Vegas'. The right answer is Carson City. What is the most useful next move?

• Look at Carson City, cover it, say it back, and put the card a few places down the pile
• Move on quickly so the miss does not waste time
• Keep guessing until something sounds right, then check
• Reread the whole deck from the start

14. Guided practice

A fictional practice session with 12 cards. Round 1 misses 5. Each miss is checked, covered and said back, and the misses go round again: in round 2, 3 of them are right. The rest go round once more, and in round 3 all are right. Complete the worked count of the retry pile.

1. Start the pile with round 1's misses.

   Pile after round 1: 5 cards

   Every miss, checked at once, goes on the pile.

2. Take off the cards produced right in round 2.

   5 − 3 = _a cards left

   A card leaves the pile only when it is produced, not when it is read.

3. Take off the cards right in round 3.

   Pile after round 3: _a − _a = 0

   Each round is shorter than the last, and every card ended on a right answer.

15. Guided practice

Four misses from a fictional practice round of state capitals. Name the kind of each miss.

16. Practice

A fictional round of 20 cards: 16 hits, 4 blanks and 0 wrong answers. Every miss was checked at once. How many cards go on the retry pile, and what percentage of the round is that?

Retry pile: _n cards, which is _q percent of the round.

17. Practice

A fictional round of 13 vocabulary cards: 7 right, 3 blank, 1 wrong and guessed, 2 wrong and sure. Fill in the tally for the log.

18. Somewhere new

Grocery cashiers key in produce by 4- and 5-digit PLU codes (bananas are 4011). Jo, a fictional new cashier, practices 20 codes from flashcards: 9 typed from memory and right, 1 right but only after peeking at the card, 4 wrong, and the rest blank. Fill in her record.

19. Lesson test

Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.

20. Test question

Four cards from today's practice, with the answer given and the right answer. Mark each as a hit or a miss, and say whether it goes back on the first pile for the next round.

21. What you can do now

Without looking back: say the five moves after a miss, and which kind of wrong answer earns a star. Next: recalling things in order. A trial here is practice, not a test of your memory. What is kept is the list you wrote back on this device today, and it is never set beside anyone else's. You can stop at any point: closing the page is the whole of stopping, and the lesson reopens where you left it.

Working for the steps left to you

12. Your turn: a round of 20 cards gives 12 hits, 5 wrong and 3 blank. How big is the retry pile, and what share of the round is it?, step 2