FEYNMANdon't fool yourself

How this works

If you cannot say it simply, you do not understand it yet.

Why selfexplain.com

The method is named after Richard Feynman. He tested whether he understood an idea by explaining it in plain words — as if to a child. Where the words broke, he did not yet know.

In the studies, that same act has a name: self-explanation. You explain it yourself. Papers measure that. They do not always say “the Feynman technique”.

This site is called selfexplain.com so the name matches the research, and still points to Feynman.

The steps

Feynman never published “seven letters”. He tested understanding like this: explain it simply, find the hole, go back to the source, simplify. F-E-Y-N-M-A-N is those steps, cut so you cannot skip the work.

  1. F Focus. One idea. A chapter is too wide.
  2. E From memory. You write with the book closed. Recall beats rereading.
  3. Y Young mind. You teach a child. They ask from three sides, not the same hole three times.
  4. N Note the holes. Jargon and a missing “why” are not knowledge.
  5. M Material. Back to the text only for the holes. Not the whole chapter again.
  6. A Analogy. An image you invented. A borrowed image does not count.
  7. N Nail it. Again without the book, then a short test. Testing is the strongest way to make it stick.

The AI is not a teacher. If it explains for you, you get the feeling of understanding without the understanding. So it only asks, points at holes, and scores you honestly.

The research

Each card is one study: what it found, then the link.

Robert Bjork at UCLA. What slows you down while you learn often sticks longer. What feels fast often fades. He called that desirable difficulties. The page below explains that name, and it links their 2011 chapter.

Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way.

In 1992 Robert and Elizabeth Bjork split memory in two. Storage: how deep a fact sits in what you already know. Retrieval: how easy it is to pull up right now. You can feel sure today and lose it in nine days. That is cramming. A pause helps more once the memory has faded a little. That is this model, not a second paper.

Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (1992). A new theory of disuse and an old theory of stimulus fluctuation.

PDF

Ease feels like knowledge. That feeling is called the fluency illusion. This study is the evidence. Students read a passage, then either reread it or took a recall test. After 5 minutes, rereading won. After 2 days and after a week, testing won. The rereaders were more sure they would remember.

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning. Psychological Science.

Harold Pashler, Mark McDaniel, Doug Rohrer, and Robert Bjork went through the learning-styles research. Almost none of the studies were even built to test the claim. Of the ones that were, several went the other way. There is no good evidence for sorting people into visual, auditory, or hands-on learners.

Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

Jeffrey Karpicke and Henry Roediger, in Science. Students learned Swahili–English pairs. After a pair was recalled once, some kept rereading it and some kept being tested. A week later the testers remembered about 80%. The rereaders remembered about a third. Students’ guesses about which method worked did not match the results.

Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science.

Doug Rohrer and colleagues, in real classrooms. Seventh grade, nine weeks of math, either mixed or blocked. A surprise test two weeks later: mixed practice 72%, blocked practice 38%.

Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., & Burgess, K. (2014). The benefit of interleaved mathematics practice is not limited to superficially similar kinds of problems. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

During practice, mixed work looked worse: about 60% correct, blocked about 90%. A week later the mixed group scored about three times higher: 63% versus 20%.

Rohrer, D., & Taylor, K. (2007). The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning. Instructional Science.

In 1973 William Chase and Herbert Simon showed chess masters and beginners a real position for a few seconds, then asked them to rebuild it. Masters were far better. With the pieces placed at random, that advantage almost disappeared. Their memory was not bigger. They saw familiar chunks.

Chase, W. G., & Simon, H. A. (1973). Perception in chess. Cognitive Psychology.

Herbert Simon: learning takes place in the minds of students and nowhere else. A teacher helps only by getting the student to do the work.

Simon, H. A. (1998). What we know about learning. Journal of Engineering Education.