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Flashcards / spaced-repetition software

15 papers

Evidence base for flashcards / spaced-repetition software — every paper below is DOI-verified so you can trace any claim back to its source.

How to apply

Cloze deletion (the Anki {{c1::…}} pattern) forces active recall of one or two specific facts inside an otherwise complete, true sentence. The evidence corpus supports this: spaced repetition through Anki tracked with higher Step-1 pass rates and lower failure rates (Cooper et al. 2023); self-generated Anki flashcard volume independently predicted licensing performance (Deng, Gluckstein & Larsen 2015); higher reliance on Anki active-retrieval cards tracked with better exam outcomes (Gilbert et al.

Papers


  1. Nawaf Salah Ayad Mohamed, Maria Abdulaziz Alrafi, Barbara Albani, Hassan Mohammed Abdu, Reem Albuhairan, Naziha Samir Altala, Sami Fatehi Abdalla — 2025
    2025DOI: 10.1007/s40670-025-02487-5
  2. Juliana Magro, So-Young Oh, Nikola Košćica, Michael A. Poles — 2024
    2024DOI: 10.1111/tct.13798
  3. Ogunjobi F., Alexander S. M., Cramer L. — **Year:** 2024
    2024DOI: 10.7759/cureus.70994
  4. Michael M. Gilbert, Timothy C. Frommeyer, Garrett V. Brittain, Nickolas A. Stewart, Todd M. Turner, Adrienne Stolfi, Dean X. Parmelee — 2023
    2023DOI: 10.1007/s40670-023-01826-8
  5. Jillian K. Wothe, Lindsey J. Wanberg, Rae D. Hohle, Aliya A. Sakher, Laura E. Bosacker, Faizel Khan, Andrew Olson, David J. Satin — 2023
    2023DOI: 10.1177/23821205231173289
  6. Spencer Cooper, Nicole Twardowski, Michael P. Vogel, Daniel Perling, Rebecca Ryznar — 2023
    2023DOI: 10.5195/ijms.2023.1549
  7. Cole P. Thompson, Marion A. Hughes — 2023
    2023DOI: 10.1016/j.jacr.2023.08.028
  8. Dylan Jape, Jessie Zhou, Shane Bullock — 2022
    2022DOI: 10.1186/s12909-022-03324-8
  9. David M. Harris, Michael F. Chiang — 2022
    2022DOI: 10.7759/cureus.23530
  10. Cyrus Anthony Pumilia, Spencer Lessans, David Harris — 2020
    2020DOI: 10.7759/cureus.10372
  11. Tabibian B., Upadhyay U., De A., Zarezade A., Schölkopf B., Gomez-Rodriguez M. — **Year:** 2019
    2019DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1815156116
  12. Settles B., Meeder B. — **Year:** 2016
    2016DOI: 10.18653/v1/P16-1174
  13. Tiago Taveira-Gomes, Rui Prado-Costa, Mílton Severo, Maria Amélia Ferreira — 2015
    2015DOI: 10.1186/s12909-014-0275-0
  14. Francis Deng, Jeffrey A. Gluckstein, Douglas P. Larsen — 2015 (cited in the build brief as 2016; OpenAlex records 2015)
    2015DOI: 10.1007/s40037-015-0220-x
  15. Karpicke J. D., Roediger H. L. — **Year:** 2008
    2008DOI: 10.1126/science.1152408

Audio companion script


This technique is called spaced flashcards. Reach for it when you want to drill recall with spaced flashcards (Anki) rather than passive review. The idea is simple. You build a steady habit and let it do the work over time. It is backed by fifteen peer reviewed studies, so the advice rests on real evidence. Try it on your own material this week and notice how much more sticks.