# Studying with Flashcards — Feynman Technique Self-Explanation, Elaborative Interrogation & Dual Coding > Deep comprehension and generative learning methods: Richard Feynman's plain-language explanation technique, elaborative interrogation ('Why/How'), dual coding theory, and concrete-to-abstract grounding. - **Canonical URL:** https://flashcards.world/flashcards/sets/8d00cad1-a95a-4786-a78f-368a7effde0a/ - **Markdown URL:** https://flashcards.world/flashcards/sets/8d00cad1-a95a-4786-a78f-368a7effde0a.md - **Level:** intermediate - **Languages:** en → en - **Total Cards:** 32 ## Flashcards (32 Cards) | # | Front (Term / Prompt) | Back (Definition / Answer) | Example | Multiple-Choice Options | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1 | What is the 'Jargon Masking Trap' that the Feynman Technique is specifically designed to expose? | Students often memorize buzzwords (e.g., 'oxidative phosphorylation', 'promissory estoppel', 'polymorphism') and use those words to answer flashcards while having no clear mental model of the underlying mechanism. | | | | 2 | According to Dual Coding Theory, why are 'Concrete Words' (e.g., 'bicycle', 'mitral valve') remembered much more easily than 'Abstract Words' (e.g., 'justice', 'entropy')? | Concrete words automatically activate both the verbal code AND a vivid visual mental image, whereas abstract words activate only the verbal code unless intentionally paired with a visual diagram or concrete metaphor. | | | | 3 | What is the 'Keyword Mnemonic Method' (Atkinson & Raugh, 1975) for foreign vocabulary and pharmacology? | A two-step associative chain: link the sound of the foreign/drug word to a familiar concrete keyword, then form an interactive mental image linking that keyword to the target meaning (e.g., Spanish *charco* = puddle → imagine a piece of *charcoal* splashing into a *puddle*). | | | | 4 | What is 'Mayer's Multimedia Coherence Principle'—and why does adding random decorative clipart to flashcards HURT learning? | Richard Mayer's research proves that decorative images unrelated to the instructional mechanism create Extraneous Cognitive Load; images on flashcards must be functional (diagrams, charts, anatomical structures, or memorable visual mnemonics), never random stock photos. | | | | 5 | What is 'Analogical Transfer' (Gentner's Structure-Mapping Theory), and why should you include analogies on difficult flashcards? | An analogy maps the relational structure of a familiar domain onto an unfamiliar domain (e.g., voltage/current/resistance $\leftrightarrow$ water pressure/flow/pipe narrowing), allowing instant intuitive reasoning. | | | | 6 | What Happens to Keyword Mnemonics as a card's FSRS-6 Stability (S) matures past 60–90 days? | Through repeated spaced retrievals, direct semantic access (`charco → puddle`) becomes faster than the mnemonic bridge, and the scaffolding naturally fades away once cortical consolidation is complete. | | | | 7 | What is the 'Method of Loci' (Memory Palace), and how can it complement digital flashcards? | A spatial mnemonic technique that places ordered items along a familiar physical walk-through (e.g., rooms of your house); you can store the Loci walk-through inside the `💡 Mnemonic` field of ordered-pathway flashcards. | | | | 8 | What is 'Concrete-to-Abstract Grounding' (Fading / Concreteness Fading) in learning mathematics and computer science? | First understanding a theorem or algorithm through a concrete, small numerical example (e.g., tracing QuickSort on `[4, 1, 3, 2]`), and then connecting that intuition to the general symbolic formula. | | | | 9 | How does 'Voice / Audio Self-Explanation' in Feynman Mode accelerate conceptual mastery? | Speaking your explanation out loud for 20–30 seconds engages motor speech planning (Broca's area) and auditory self-monitoring, making logical gaps immediately obvious. | | | | 10 | How do atomic flashcards build 'Expert Pattern Chunks' for medical, legal, or engineering exams? | By drilling clinical triads, legal element checklists, and design patterns until your brain recognizes a 10-line exam vignette as a single familiar pattern chunk within seconds. | | | | 11 | What is Allan Paivio's 'Dual Coding Theory' (1971, 1986)? | Human cognition operates via two distinct, functionally independent but interconnected subsystems: a Verbal (logogen) system for language and a Non-Verbal / Visual (imagen) system for spatial and sensory imagery. | | | | 12 | How do you apply Dual Coding to an abstract concept on a flashcard? | Attach either (1) a clean schematic diagram, graph, or SVG flow on the card, OR (2) a concrete spatial/physical analogy in the mnemonic field (`💡`). | | | | 13 | Why do 'Why / Mechanism Cards' drastically reduce lapse rates on 'What / Fact Cards'? | Because arbitrary facts have only a single brittle retrieval link, whereas understanding the causal mechanism allows you to re-derive the fact from first principles on exam day even if rote memory momentarily slips! | | | | 14 | What are the 4 canonical steps of the Feynman Technique? | 1. Choose a concept and write its title at the top of a blank page; 2. Explain it in plain, simple language as if teaching an intelligent 12-year-old; 3. Identify every point where your explanation gets stuck, vague, or relies on jargon; 4. Review the source material to fix those gaps and simplify your analogy further. | | | | 15 | What is the 'Picture Superiority Effect' (Shepard, 1967; Standing, 1973) in long-term memory? | Human visual memory has an extraordinarily high storage capacity and retention rate (participants recognized thousands of distinct images with >85% accuracy days later), so pairing flashcards with distinctive diagrams anchors verbal facts to visual memory. | | | | 16 | Who inspired the 'Feynman Technique' of learning, and what distinction did he famously draw between 'knowing the name of something' and 'knowing something'? | Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, who emphasized that knowing the technical name or Latin label of a phenomenon in five languages tells you zero about how the phenomenon actually works. | | | | 17 | How do you apply the Feynman Technique directly during flashcard study (Feynman Mode)? | When a conceptual flashcard appears, instead of reciting a memorized definition, you type or speak a plain-language explanation of what the concept means and why it works, which is then evaluated for conceptual completeness and clarity. | | | | 18 | Why should every abstract Theorem Flashcard in STEM include a 'Canonical Toy Example'? | Because recalling a 1-line toy example (e.g., $f(x) = \|x\|$ at $x = 0$ as a function that is continuous everywhere but not differentiable at 0) gives you an instant intuition check to verify or disprove exam statements. | | | | 19 | What is 'Schema-Based Top-Down Encoding' vs. 'Bottom-Up Fact Memorization'? | Top-down encoding starts with a 1-page architectural tree or flow diagram of the chapter so every flashcard has a labeled mental 'folder' to snap into, whereas bottom-up memorization dumps loose facts into a pile. | | | | 20 | What is 'Self-Explanation' in cognitive psychology (Chi et al., 1989, 1994), and how large is its effect on problem-solving transfer? | Self-explanation is the practice of generating explanations to yourself about how new information relates to known principles and why each step of a solution works; Chi et al. showed that high self-explainers learned deep domain mechanics and solved far more novel transfer problems than passive readers. | | | | 21 | What is 'Productive Failure' (Kapur, 2008) before studying a new flashcard module? | Attempting to solve or reason through a problem for 5 minutes using your existing intuition *before* reading the formal textbook solution—which primes deeper attention to the exact critical features of the canonical method. | | | | 22 | How do you apply 'Progressive Disclosure' when studying a complex 5-step physiological cascade? | Master the 2-sentence overview card first (`Overall input and output of the RAAS system?`), then unlock the step-by-step enzyme and receptor cards (`Renin converts [...] into [...]`). | | | | 23 | What is 'Counterexample-Driven Learning' on advanced STEM and Law flashcards? | Creating cards that explicitly ask: 'Why does Theorem/Rule X fail if assumption Y is dropped? Give the standard counterexample.' | | | | 24 | How do you turn a pure 'Fact Card' into an 'Elaborative Interrogation Pair'? | Pair the factual card (`What is the drug of choice for anaphylaxis? → Intramuscular Epinephrine`) with a mechanism card (`WHY is Epinephrine the first-line treatment for anaphylaxis? → α1 vasoconstriction reverses hypotension/edema + β2 bronchodilation opens airways + β1 increases cardiac output`). | | | | 25 | When using an Analogy on a flashcard, what additional card should you create for advanced exams? | A 'Where the Analogy Breaks Down' card (`How does quantum spin differ from a classically spinning ball?`) so the analogy never misleads you on advanced edge cases. | | | | 26 | What is the 'Baker/baker Paradox' in memory research, and what does it teach us about flashcard encoding? | People asked to remember that a man's job is a 'baker' remember it far better than people asked to remember his last name is 'Baker'—because 'baker' connects to a rich semantic network (bread, flour, warm oven, apron), whereas 'Baker' is an isolated arbitrary label. | | | | 27 | What is 'Elaborative Interrogation' (Pressley et al., 1987; Dunlosky et al., 2013)? | A high-moderate utility learning strategy in which the learner systematically prompts themselves with 'Why is this fact true?' and 'How does this mechanism follow from prior principles?' for every factual statement encountered. | | | | 28 | Give an example of converting a jargon-heavy textbook answer into a Feynman plain-language explanation for 'Starling's Law of the Heart'. | Jargon: 'Stroke volume increases in response to an increase in end-diastolic volume via length-tension sarcomere optimization.' Feynman: 'Like stretching a rubber band further before letting go, the more blood fills and stretches the heart muscle before a beat, the harder it snaps back and pumps that blood out.' | | | | 29 | Summarize how Active Recall, Atomic Cards, and the Feynman Technique reinforce one another. | The Feynman Technique builds deep initial comprehension; Atomic Cards decompose that comprehension into unambiguous testable links; and Active Recall + FSRS-6 cements those links permanently in long-term memory. | | | | 30 | How do you overcome the 'Baker/baker Paradox' when memorizing arbitrary names, drug names, or numbers? | Convert the arbitrary label into a meaningful semantic hook using etymology, word stems (e.g., `-olol` = beta-blocker, `-pril` = ACE inhibitor), or vivid phonological keyword associations. | | | | 31 | What is the 'One-Sentence Synthesis Rule' after finishing a 32-card flashcard deck? | Close the app and summarize how the entire deck's concepts connect in 2–3 spoken or written sentences to bind the individual atomic cards back into a unified macro-schema. | | | | 32 | What is 'Chunking' (Miller, 1956; Chase & Simon, 1973), and how did chess masters use it? | Grouping individual primitive elements into meaningful higher-level patterns stored in long-term memory; chess masters did not have larger raw working memory than novices, but possessed ~50,000 chunked board patterns in long-term memory. | | | --- Study this deck interactively with FSRS-6 spaced repetition, audio review, and multiple-choice mode at [Flashcards World](https://flashcards.world/flashcards/sets/8d00cad1-a95a-4786-a78f-368a7effde0a/).