The studies
Reviewed · 1 min read
Every grade on this site rests on the studies in this table. Each row says what kind of study it was, who was studied, what it was compared with, what it found, and where it falls short. Filter by grade band, subject, design or principle.
How to read the design column, and why a correlation never earns a grade, is explained on How we grade the evidence.
This is the seed of a larger database. The plan is to add every randomized trial of a classroom practice in K–12, with the same columns, so that a reader never has to go to a second site to check a claim. New studies are logged monthly and reviewed quarterly; see Keeping it current.
2 of 46 studies
- Design
- Review or practice guide
- Grade bands
- adult
- Subjects
- general
- Sample
- Review of memory experiments, mostly adults
- Compared with
- —
- Found
- Working memory holds about 3 to 5 chunks, not 7 plus or minus 2.
- Limits
- Lab tasks with adults; exact limits for children less precise.
- Principles
- Design
- Review or practice guide
- Grade bands
- K–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12
- Subjects
- general
- Sample
- Review of classroom applications of cognitive science
- Compared with
- —
- Found
- Classroom evidence is thinner than lab evidence; multi-strategy programs tested at scale often showed small effects; little early-years evidence.
- Limits
- Review, not pooled estimates.