Students may have an initial knee-jerk negative reaction to these activities. In addition, this concept may be useful for understanding and overcoming discrimination against racial, ethnic, cultural or learning differences that are common in the educational environment. These differences may be less favored simply because they are less familiar. Retrieval practice consists of engaging in activities that call for the recall or access of stored information in long-term memory. Studies have shown that in some cases retrieval practice may actually be more effective for retention of information than encoding practice.
Retrieval cues facilitate the recall or access of the stored information.
The encoding specificity hypothesis states that retrieval cues must be present when learning takes place in order to be effective in facilitating the recall of information. Retrieval cues may take various forms. They may consist of conceptual categories that the new information is placed in. They may also be visual images or other words that the new information is associated with at the time it is stored in long-term memory. Mnemonic Methods Memorization of facts and knowledge through the use of mnemonic methods may provide the scaffolding for higher order thinking.