Recall

Recall is the process of re-triggering my brain to bring something I’ve previously learned, back to top-of-mind. If I recall something enough times, at the right cadence, it has a high likelihood of being retained as a memory.

There are two forms of recall: active retrieval and passive resurfacing.

Active Retrieval

Retrieval is when I prompt my brain to remember something by testing it.

The most common format of retrieval is the question and answer format. Picture old-school flashcards, where one side has a question and the other side has an answer – when I see the question, my brain has to recall the answer.

Retrieval has a stronger memory impact than resurfacing¹; however, it is harder to practice for two reasons:

• Active recall sessions are more mentally involved than passive recall, sometimes discouraging practice.
• Writing good retrieval prompts is a hard

The difficulty of retrieval combats completionism, as the work required for good retrieval prompts and sessions limits spending time on things I don’t actually want to remember.

I find that memories I develop through retrieval take the form of mastery – they are part of my day-to-day vocabulary, and I can easily bring them to top of my mind.

Passive Resurfacing

Resurfacing is when I prompt my brain to remember something by showing it the exact thing I want to remember.

For example, if I want to remember a Bible verse, I could write it down on a sticky note and attach it to my computer monitor. Everytime I sit at my desk, I’ll see the verse and my brain will be prompted to remember that exact verse. Other examples of resurfacing are – Apple Photos Memories to remember past experiences or Readwise to remember quotes.

In all these examples, my brain doesn’t have to do anything to bring the memory to top of mind. This makes resurfacing a less effective recall method, but it is much easier to practice.

When I practice recall through resurfacing, I have a mental response like – “Oh yea! I forgot about that.” Resurfacing is good at keeping something on the back of my mind, but it’s difficult to recall the memory on-demand.