Neuroscience Shows Why Re-Reading Notes Is One of the Worst Study Methods

A 2013 study by Dunlosky et al., published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, rated highlighting and re-reading as low-utility study techniques despite being the most popular among students. In contrast, retrieval practice and spaced repetition were rated high utility, with researchers noting a significant gap in learning outcomes between the two approaches. Neuroscience explains this through retrieval-induced plasticity, a process where actively recalling information strengthens neural pathways in the brain's hippocampus each time it occurs. Passive re-reading, by comparison, does little to reinforce these pathways. Practical techniques recommended by the research include closing the textbook and writing a memory-based brain dump, attempting problems before checking methods, and reciting definitions aloud from memory.