self-explanation

self-explanation is a metacognitive learning strategy that requires memory to operate — you explain what you understood, which presupposes stored knowledge to retrieve and articulate. Remove memory and the strategy collapses.

self-explanation DEPENDS_ON deep-processing: Self-explanation is a learning strategy where learners generate explanations of the material they are studying. The removal test: remove deep semantic processing — the cognitive mechanism that connects new information to existing knowledge — and self-explanation ceases to function as a learning strategy. Without deep processing, generating explanations produces no meaningful learning gain. This is object-level (not meta-level Law 2b): the strategy's mechanism IS the deep processing it induces.

Self-explanation is a specific kind of metacognitive strategy — the learner reflects on and monitors their own understanding while generating explanations. A competent speaker calls self-explanation a metacognitive strategy (Law 9).

Self-explanation is a learning strategy explicitly designed for the sake of learning — learners generate explanations to monitor and deepen their own understanding. For whose sake? Learning. The servant (self-explanation) points at the master (learning). This is a teleological claim, not a dependency: removing learning wouldn't stop self-explanation from being performed, but self-explanation is built to further learning's operation.

The Feynman technique operates through self-explanation — explaining material in one's own words to identify gaps. Remove self-explanation and the technique has no mechanism left; it collapses. This is a present-tense operational dependency, not historical association.