ABSTRACT
Presenting information repetitively in multiple ways compels attention and mental processing. How deeply a student processes material is determined by how much the information is elaborated, its uniqueness, its relevance, and the frequency and modes presented. Students can elaborate content by connecting, explaining, or expanding upon it. What students will remember is a function of what they spent the bulk of their time thinking about. This has implications for critical thinking, as well as the countering of “fake news” and propaganda: incorrect information, when emphasized and repeated, is better remembered for the same basic reasons. For example, when students spend a long time developing erroneous theories or solutions and only receive brief corrective feedback, they will remember the incorrect information better than the correction because the erroneous was more deeply processed. Deep processing takes mental energy and cannot be sustained indefinitely.
