What makes a good keyword?

A word that, with a few others, lets you reconstruct the passage’s gist and key relationships.

To train discrimination — not every memorable word is useful.

memory game · 3–5 min

Keyword capture

After reading, pick the keywords that unlock the whole passage — decoys included.

Keyword capture

After reading, pick the keywords that unlock the whole passage — decoys included.

Difficulty

You’ll get a short passage and play the game in your browser — with instant feedback where the format allows.

How to play keyword capture

Keyword capture trains selective encoding. After you read, you pick the keywords that unlock the passage from a mixed list of real anchors and decoys. You cannot remember everything. Choosing the right anchors is the skill — and those anchors make teach-back, recall, and main idea much easier. Ideal when your notes or memory are cluttered with low-value words.

Hunt content words
Prefer specific nouns and verbs tied to the claim over generic fillers.
Avoid decoys
Tempting unrelated words are there to punish vague selection.
Rebuild the gist from picks
If your keywords cannot retell the passage, choose better ones next round.