Elaborative Rehearsal

Connecting new information to meaning and prior knowledge to strengthen long-term retention.

Why beat plain repetition?

Depth of processing, not repetition, is what transfers information into long-term memory.

• Maintenance rehearsal: just repeating to yourself, keeps it alive in short-term memory but transfers poorly
• Elaborative rehearsal: linking to meaning, context, things you already know, much better for long-term

Fits with Levels of Processing: elaborative rehearsal is deep semantic processing by another name. Related to Active Recall, where the effort of pulling information out is itself a form of elaboration.