The learning-science canon, operationalized.
Eight methods that are the reason Brainback works. Each page has the classical citation, the specific research papers, the cognitive + neural mechanism, a worked example, the daily-practice protocol, and the Brainback surface that runs the method for you.
Eight methods, three clusters.
The methods group cleanly by which product surface operationalizes them. Retrieval-based methods live on the recall queue. Reasoning-based methods live in Learn mode + explain-back. Structure-of-practice methods live in how the queue itself is scheduled.
Retrieval-based methods
The methods that make you produce information from memory rather than re-expose yourself to it. All operationalized by spaced recall + explain-back.
Reasoning + integration methods
Methods that build integrated understanding, not isolated facts. Operationalized by Learn mode, hint ladder, and explain-back.
Structure-of-practice methods
Methods about HOW to arrange practice — not what to do, but in what order. Operationalized by the recall-queue's default interleaving.
Eight methods. Each mapped to a Brainback surface.
These aren’t our methods. They’re the learning-science canon — Ebbinghaus, Roediger, Karpicke, Bjork, Ericsson, Dunlosky. Brainback’s job is to make each of them the path of least resistance instead of the heroic exception.
Active recall
Pulling a memory out is stronger than re-reading it in.
Deliberately retrieving information from memory rather than re-exposing yourself to it.
Spaced repetition
Each successful review buys you a longer next interval.
Scheduling reviews at expanding intervals to counter the forgetting curve.
The Feynman technique
If you can't explain it, you don't understand it.
Explaining a concept in simple language, in your own words, to reveal understanding gaps.
Deliberate practice
Practice at the edge of your ability, with immediate feedback.
Focused practice on specific weaknesses at the edge of your ability, with feedback after each attempt.
The forgetting curve
Retention halves in a day. Then again. Then again.
The exponential decay of memory over time in the absence of review.
Interleaving
Mix problem types instead of blocking them.
Mixing different problem types or topics in a single study session, rather than blocking them together.
Retrieval practice
Testing is a learning event, not a measurement event.
Using tests, quizzes, and free-recall as the primary study activity rather than as assessment.
Elaborative interrogation
Ask 'why is this true?' at every step.
Generating explanations for why stated facts are true, to build understanding rather than memorization.
Most edtech products invoke “spaced repetition” and “active recall” as marketing. We’re publishing the specific mapping — method → citation → mechanism → Brainback surface — so you can verify the design flows from the research, not the other way around.
If a method on this page maps to a surface that doesn’t exist yet, we’ll say so (currently: none — every method maps to a shipped surface). If a method we should support isn’t here, tell us at hello@brainback.app.
methods
Read one. Try the mapped surface.
Active recall + spaced repetition are the two most-replicated findings in learning science. Both are on the free tier.