TAGTEACH, which is the Behavaioral Science method using a "clicker" training for rapidly training humans in any type of skill, uses a "CUE-->RESPONSE-->REINFORCEMENT" sequence. It's now being used to teach surgeons fine motor skills like being able to tie a super-small surgical knots, teaching gymnists to rapidly do complecated routines and safety methods for fishing crews. TAGTEACH is based on sound Behavioral Science principles that have been replicated in thousands of studies. Virtually any type of skill can be rapidly taught, from simple behaviors to complex ones. TAGTEACH has a fantastic course that covers the hard science and research.

TAGTEACH has expanded rapidly across the athletic community and many industries, like nursing and safety, for 3 reasons. First, it's based on solid research, Second, the course uses its own method to teach its online webinars, and third, it's immediately effective, you can see the results in seconds. One of the great ideas behind TAGTEACH is that when they "teach" a person how TAGTEACH works, they use their own methods to teach the process. So, when they teach how to design a proper CUE, they use the WOOF formula:

Now, look at the picture below. This is how an accounting student created their flashcards, which is exactly opposite of the WOOF principle.. You'll quickly realize that although FLASH CARDS use a CUE card, this violates the 5 word criteria of TAGTEACH...and, for this reason, this type of "over-wordiness" severely restricts how much information you can retain.

Why use CUES with a human that are five words or less? Think back to George Miller's "The Magic Numer Seven." Link to article His research said that people can only remember a maximum of 5 to 9 units of information.  Recent research points to the idea that it's actually around 4 for most people. As an extremist, we discovered using our ATTENTION POINT LEARNING (APL) software that retention of foreign language went up dramatically when less than 5 words in a definition were used.

Although we are no fan of the popular flash cards (why would anyone use a method that shows you how much you'll forget if you use their program!), even using an antiquated method, you will notice a dramatic increase in retention. FLASHCARDS  ask you if you "know a term, need to flip the card, need to study it more" or similar ideas. This is like asking a computer translation program if it knows the Spanish for"dog" and the computer prints out the words, "yes, I do." Or, this is the same as asking a dog "Do you know how to sit?" If he wags his tail, does he know how to sit? Of course, we don't know.

 So, when the Flash card programs ask you "do you know the answer." "It's almost silly. What they should be doing is having you demonstrate your knowledge by writing out the answer, speaking the answer, or at least picking the answer out from a group of possibilities. And, then, they need IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK within one second-- you discover immediately if you need to practice the response again. This is not retrieving information, this is self-reporting. Only when you can actively demonstrate the answer (which APL software has you do), do you retrieve the information. Retrieval methods has been shown to increase retention over any other method that is popular among students.

This is why Flashcards take so long to learn and, why, despite Spaced Repetition, you immediately forget what was on the test... there is no demonstration that you know the answer and there is no immediate feedback within one second. 

Background article: BLOG: Personal Fluency

Background article: BLOG: Why to NEVER use a FREQUENCY LIST