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The effortful process of retrieving information from memory has been established as an effective strategy for improving student learning. However, we have a limited understanding of the development of retrieval practice in children, including contexts that may scaffold its benefit. In the current pre-registered study, we examined whether the use of hints during retrieval practice improved free recall in an online science learning task in 8- to 13-years-olds (N = 77, Nfemales = 36). We found partial evidence supporting the provision of hints as boosting the benefit of retrieval practice. Children's long-term retention of science facts was higher when they received hints during an earlier practice test compared to restudying information, but not compared to a test only condition without hints. Furthermore, we found similar effects across both age and levels of confidence, suggesting that retrieval practice remains stable across these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concept mapping is a practical task for enhancing learning performance. Learners usually construct concept maps while studying the learning material or after studying. In the first case, the learning material is available during construction, and learners are less involved in retrieval practice from memory (study-based concept mapping; SCM). In the second case, the learning material is absent during construction, and the learners rely on retrieving information from memory (retrieval-based concept mapping, RCM). RCM is assumed to be associated with lower concept map quality and higher cognitive load but better elaboration and learning performance than SCM. This study investigated how the availability of the learning material influenced these variables in biology classrooms. Unlike other studies, this study provided learners with an authentic learning environment and prior concept mapping training. After the concept mapping training, n = 129 secondary school students were assigned to an SCM or RCM condition in a quasi-experimental design. As expected, students in the RCM condition constructed concept maps of lower quality but outperformed SCM students concerning elaboration activities and learning performance. The perceived intrinsic cognitive load was higher in the RCM condition. The results indicate that using concept mapping as a retrieval practice could support students' learning in biology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is overwhelming evidence in the literature that retrieval practice of studied material can lead to better final recall than restudy of the same material. Far less clear is whether this recall benefit is accompanied by reduced subsequent forgetting over time. This study revisited the issue in two experiments by comparing the effects of retrieval practice – with and without feedback –, restudy, and a no-practice condition on recall across different delay intervals ranging between three minutes and several days. We fitted power functions of time to the recall rates of each practice condition and compared relative forgetting rates between conditions. The comparisons showed that relative forgetting was reduced after retrieval practice relative to restudy, the relative forgetting rate after retrieval practice was unaffected by the presence of feedback, and forgetting after restudy did not differ from the no-practice condition. Together with other findings in the literature, the results provide evidence that retrieval practice reduces relative forgetting over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retrieval practice typically benefits learning in children, although little is known about the benefits of retrieval practice for learning spelling. We investigated this issue in three experiments with fifth-grade children from a low-income area of Brazil. In the experiments, children first read a list of words (study), and after a short interval wrote down the studied words after hearing and rereading them (copy) or after only hearing them (retrieval practice). After an interval of 4 days, spelling performance was greater for words from the retrieval practice condition than for words from the copy condition, but only when immediate corrective feedback was provided (Experiment 3). The current findings, therefore, suggest that retrieval practice followed by corrective feedback is an effective strategy to improve spelling performance of fifth-grade children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retrieval-enhanced suggestibility (RES) refers to the finding that immediately recalling the details of a witnessed event can increase susceptibility to later misinformation. In three experiments, we sought to gain a deeper understanding of the role that retrieval plays in the RES paradigm. Consistent with past research, initial testing did increase susceptibility to misinformation - but only for those who failed to detect discrepancies between the original event and the post-event misinformation. In all three experiments, subjects who retrospectively detected discrepancies in the post-event narratives were more resistant to misinformation than those who did not. In Experiments 2 and 3, having subjects concurrently assess the consistency of the misinformation narratives negated the RES effect. Interestingly, in Experiments 2 and 3, subjects who had retrieval practice and detected discrepancies were more likely to endorse misinformation than control subjects who detected discrepancies. These results call attention to limiting conditions of the RES effect and highlight the complex relationship between retrieval practice, discrepancy detection, and misinformation endorsement.

The forward testing effect (FTE) refers to the finding that retrieval practice of previously studied material can facilitate recall of newly studied (critical) material. Such interim retrieval practice can also lead to a differential FTE, i.e., a more pronounced FTE for items at early than later serial positions in the critical material. The present study examined whether this differential FTE also holds with interim semantic generation of extra-list items, and whether it is influenced by study material. Consistent with prior work, the results of two experiments showed that both interim retrieval practice and interim semantic generation induce the general (list-level) FTE when unrelated study lists are applied, whereas retrieval practice only creates the effect with categorised study lists. Critically, however, the differential FTE was present in response to retrieval practice but absent in response to semantic generation. This pattern held regardless of which material was studied, thus experimentally dissociating the general (list-level) from the differential (item-level) FTE. The findings may suggest that retrieval practice, but not semantic generation, induces a reset of the encoding process which promotes attentional encoding such that a more pronounced FTE arises for early than middle and late serial positions in the critical list. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, digital flashcards – that is, computer programmes, smartphone apps, and online services that mimic, and potentially improve upon, the capabilities of traditional paper flashcards – have grown in variety and popularity. Many digital flashcard platforms allow learners to make or use flashcards from a variety of sources and customise the way in which flashcards are used. Yet relatively little is known about why and how students actually use digital flashcards during self-regulated learning, and whether such uses are supported by research from the science of learning. To address these questions, we conducted a large survey of undergraduate students (n = 901) at a major U.S. university. The survey revealed insights into the popularity, acquisition, and usage of digital flashcards, beliefs about how digital flashcards are to be used during self-regulated learning, and differences in uses of paper versus digital flashcards, all of which have implications for the optimisation of student learning. Overall, our results suggest that college students commonly use digital flashcards in a manner that only partially reflects evidence-based learning principles, and as such, the pedagogical potential of digital flashcards remains to be fully realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of retrieval practice on learning are robust and have transferred from laboratory findings to many real-world educational settings. We report two experiments that investigated a novel retrieval practice technique for remembering arbitrary associations (image-word pairs), with and without reward as a motivator. As well as typical retrieval practice and restudy conditions, we added a third condition of graded retrieval practice in which the image cue was partially released in a progressive process. Experiment 1 found significant benefits of retrieval practice over restudy, with an additional benefit of graded retrieval practice compared with standard retrieval practice after a 48-hour delay between study and retrieval. Experiment 2 included a reward manipulation by giving participants money based on their memory performance. The findings replicated the retrieval practice effects observed in Experiment 1, including a robust advantage for graded retrieval practice. Reward neither changed the additive advantage of graded recall nor the benefit of retrieval practice. The present study adds to the literature indicating that retrieval with progressive retrieval cues can boost the benefit of retrieval practice by generating repeated retrieval attempts. This benefit occurs most for items that are neither too easy nor too challenging to retrieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The testing effect is often considered a recollection-related phenomenon. However, recent work has observed a benefit of testing to both recollection and familiarity on immediate and delayed final tests. Further, although aging populations show marked declines in recollection, older and younger adults often benefit similarly from testing. This finding suggests that the testing effect in older adults may function via relatively preserved familiarity and lends further support to the hypothesis that the testing effect does not function solely via recollection-related processes. The current study builds on this work to better understand the mechanisms from the dual-process perspective that underlie the testing effect in both younger and older adults. To this end, younger (18–22 year old) and older (65–82 year old) adults studied words, took cued-recall tests on half of the words, and took a final Remember-Know recognition test on all words immediately or after a 1-day delay. At both delays, older and younger adults exhibited a testing effect in both recollection and familiarity, although the magnitude of the testing effect in recollection was reduced for older relative to younger adults. Implications for theories of the testing effect and its application in older adult populations are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is the phenomenon whereby remembering a subset of learned items can reduce memory for other related items. There are two main explanations for this effect: the competition account and the inhibition account. Most research to date has favoured the inhibition account, though two potential confounds have been identified in the evidence for key predictions of the account: (1) Using binary measures of accuracy may make it difficult to detect correlations between the magnitude of RIF and the increase in recall for practised items that is predicted by the competition account (strength dependence), and (2) typical non-competitive restudy may be too weak a form of practice to elicit detectible RIF effects. The present study aimed to test these contentions by adapting the RIF paradigm to allow a more graded measurement of memory strength and a more active form of non-competitive practice. We trained participants (N = 87) to draw sets of novel shapes from memory, using colour as a category cue and overlaid patterns as individual item recall cues. Responses were graded based on the number of features present and items underwent retrieval practice, copying practice (as a more effective form of restudy), or no practice. The results demonstrated RIF in the retrieval practice condition, but no evidence of RIF in the restudy condition, despite a large memory gain for practised items, supporting the notion of retrieval specificity. There was no evidence of strength dependence in any condition. Our results are consistent with the forgetting in this experiment being driven by inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adult participants learned homographic cue words and weakly associated targets. Each target was in the dominant (expected) sense of the cue (e.g., habit – daily) or the subordinate (surprising) sense (e.g., habit – nun). Attempting to guess the target before reading it produced better target retention than did simply reading the cue and target without guessing. Replicating recent studies, recall accuracy was also higher for expected than surprising targets, whether the cue + target reading time was fixed (Experiment 1) or under participants' control (Experiment 2). A new result was that this advantage was larger in the guess than the read condition. In Experiment 3, all targets were in the dominant sense of the cue, and prime phrases activated the dominant or subordinate sense before the target was either guessed or presented. Experiment 3 thus disentangled guess-target congruence from target sense. When the analysis was restricted to trials with a guess consistent with the prime, subordinate primes (incongruent with the targets) produced substantially lower target recall accuracy. This result suggests that guess-target congruence aids learning, and that the results of Experiment 1 and 2 were not due to pre-existing differences in the characteristics of dominant and subordinate targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tests given to learners before they study new information can enhance the learning of that information. When responding to these pretests, learners typically generate answers that are incorrect but that are nevertheless helpful for improving the learning of the correct answers. The present research examined how providing learners with context prior to pretesting can enhance the benefits of pretesting. Across two experiments, participants were given a pretest for half of the to-be-learned information and then asked to read a passage about a fictional topic, an alien civilisation known as Yoffas (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2), or a unique fruit called the Anona (Experiment 2). Participants who read a short paragraph contextualising the to-be-learned information exhibited a significantly larger pretesting effect than participants who did not, with this interaction being observed regardless of whether memory was tested after a 5-min delay or 1-week delay, and regardless of whether contextualisation was manipulated between-subjects or within-subjects. These results suggest that what learners know prior to a pretest can have an impact on the extent to which learners benefit from that pretest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpolated testing can reduce mind-wandering and proactive interference, and improve note-taking. However, recent research using face-name-profession triads, has also shown that interpolated testing can impair new learning (Davis, Chan, & Wilford, 2017). In the current study, we further examined the impact of switching from testing to new learning, but with objectively-true materials. The study employed a 2 (Interpolated task: Test vs. Restudy) × 3 (Task-switch frequency: 0, 11, 35) between-participants design. In two experiments, participants restudied or retrieved originally-learned flag-country associations and learned new flag-capital (Experiment 1) or flag-export (Experiment 2) associations. Task-switch frequency varied such that participants switched to new learning trial(s) after every restudy/test trial (35-switches), after every three restudy/test trials (11-switches), or did not switch at all (0-switch). The results further demonstrate that retrieving previously-learned material can impair learning of new associations by replicating Davis et al. (2017) with objectively-true materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keyword mediators are an effective memory technique to encode novel vocabulary: learners link a novel word form to its meaning with a mental image that includes a keyword that resembles the word form (e.g., nyanya = tomato; keyword mnemonic: the ninja chops the tomato in half). Prior research suggests that such mediated form-meaning associations become less dependent on keywords after retrieval practice. The present study investigated if retrieval-induced decreases in mediator use predict word retention. Thirty participants learned novel vocabulary using experimenter-provided keywords and repeatedly retrieved the words from memory while thinking aloud. As expected, keyword use decreased with practice: learners stopped mentioning keywords for 21.6% of the words (on average after 8.27 retrievals). Shifting to direct, unmediated retrieval predicted higher form and meaning recall on a retention test after 6–8 days. Continuing retrieval practice until a shift has occurred to direct retrieval thus seems beneficial for retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests testing improves the retention of previously learned information. Here, we examined whether this might be due (in part) to the fact that tests help learners stay on task during the review stages of learning. In two experiments, participants encoded a list of words and later had an opportunity to review the material via a free recall test or re-reading the words. During review, participants provided self-reports as to whether their minds were on or off task. Results from both experiments show testing decreased mind-wandering. Importantly, this reduction in mind-wandering was associated with improved performance on a final memory test. These results suggest the mnemonic benefits associated with testing may stem not only from act of retrieval itself, but also from the fact that taking tests encourages a more efficient and engaged review of the material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The testing effect refers to improved memory after retrieval practice and has been researched primarily with visual stimuli. In two experiments, we investigated whether the testing effect can be replicated when the to-be-learned information is presented auditorily, or visually + auditorily. Participants learned Swahili-English word pairs in one of three presentation modalities – visual, auditory, or visual + auditory. This was manipulated between-participants in Experiment 1 and within-participants in Experiment2. All participants studied the word pairs during three study trials. Half of participants practiced recalling the English translations in response to the Swahili cue word twice before the final test whereas the other half simply studied the word pairs twice more. Results indicated an improvement in final test performance in the repeated test condition, but only in the visual presentation modality (Experiments 1 and 2) and in the visual + auditory presentation modality (Experiment 2). This suggests that the benefits of practiced retrieval may be limited to information presented in a visual modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although previous research on retrieval practice (RP) has predominantly featured stimuli with discrete right-or-wrong answers, continuous measures offer potentially greater sensitivity in assessing the effects of RP on memory precision. The present study used a colour gradient (125 points ranging from magenta to yellow) as a continuous response variable. The colours of different images were learned through either RP or restudy and either one or three cycles of practice after initial study. On a delayed final test, participants' memory was assessed for each item's colour. Participants also created per-item intervals representing the region where they believed the correct colour most likely to have been. We found that repeated rounds of RP enhanced the correspondence between responses and the correct colour. In addition, RP led to participants creating more accurate (correct answers were more likely to be within the participant-specified intervals) and more precise (narrower) intervals relative to restudy, suggesting that RP enhances the precision of memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experimental studies have shown that testing promotes better long-term retention than repeated rereading. Regarding implications for educational practice, based on a survey study seemingly showing that students prefer repeated rereading over testing when studying [Karpicke, J. D., Butler, A. C., & Roediger, H. L. (2009). Metacognitive strategies in student learning: Do students practise retrieval when they study on their own? Memory, 17, 471–479. doi:], it has been concluded that increasing the number of tests may boost students' achievement. However, a closer look at the survey study reveals that "repeated rereading" has been operationalised in terms of "restudying" which represents a term that may subsume a variety of study strategies. We reexamined the study behaviour of students in a more fine-grained way by surveying both their hypothetical (Study 1) and real (Study 2) study behaviour when restudying texts. Results showed that rereading is preferred only by few students early in the learning process, with almost all shifting to testing late in the learning process, and that rereading is mainly performed in terms of "rereading not understood parts", and rarely in terms of "repeated rereading". These results indicate that the implications of the testing effect for educational practice may have to be reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of Retrieval Practice refers to the phenomenon that taking a practice test is more effective for learning than re-study, probably due to the benefit from processes underlying successful retrievals during practice. However, it is rarely studied whether other processes (e.g., metacognitive monitoring) during retrieval practice may also play an important role. In two experiments, we examined whether the effectiveness of retrieval was affected by subjects' confidence in their retrieval success. Subjects studied word-pairs and rated their confidence after each practice test trial (cued-recall in Exp.1, multiple choice in Exp.2), or re-study trial. In both experiments, we observed the classic retrieval practice effect. Moreover, in Exp.2, the benefits differed as a function of subjects' confidence in their retrieval performance: the effect of retrieval practice only emerged for high-confidence trials with higher than 56% confidence. In summary, the retrieval practice only facilitates the retention of correct answers with high confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spaced retrieval practice results in better long-term retention than massed retrieval practice. The episodic context account of this effect suggests that updated representations of the more distinct temporal contexts associated with spaced retrievals facilitate later recall. We examined whether environmental context, in addition to temporal context, may also play a role in retrieval-based learning. Participants studied and then attempted to retrieve the English translations of Swahili words during four acquisition blocks of trials. They were then randomly assigned to practice retrieving items three more times in one of the following conditions: massed practice with the same environmental context scene; massed practice with different environmental context scenes; spaced practice with the same environmental context scene; or spaced practice with different environmental context scenes. After a one-week delay, measures of recall, forgetting, and the joint probabilities between study session recall and final recall performance all indicated enhanced retention for both the spaced and different environmental context conditions. Indeed, after retrieving items in the study session, forgetting them during final recall was 371% more likely in the same context than in the different context conditions. These findings redefine and refine previous accounts of the episodic context model of retrieval-based learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, we have shown that two types of initial testing (recall of a list or guessing of critical items repeated over 12 study/test cycles) improved final recognition of related and unrelated word lists relative to restudy. These benefits were eliminated, however, when test instructions were manipulated within subjects and presented after study of each list, procedures designed to minimise expectancy of a specific type of upcoming test [Huff, Balota, & Hutchison, 2016. The costs and benefits of testing and guessing on recognition memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 42, 1559-1572. doi:10.1037/xlm0000269], suggesting that testing and guessing effects may be influenced by encoding strategies specific for the type of upcoming task. We follow-up these experiments by examining test-expectancy processes in guessing and testing. Testing and guessing benefits over restudy were not found when test instructions were presented either after (Experiment 1) or before (Experiment 2) a single study/task cycle was completed, nor were benefits found when instructions were presented before study/task cycles and the task was repeated three times (Experiment 3). Testing and guessing benefits emerged only when instructions were presented before a study/task cycle and the task was repeated six times (Experiments 4A and 4B). These experiments demonstrate that initial testing and guessing can produce memory benefits in recognition, but only following substantial task repetitions which likely promote task-expectancy processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested the effects of repeated testing and feedback on recollection accuracy in first graders, third graders, and adults. All participants studied a list of words and pictures, and then took three recollection tests, with each test probing different words and pictures from the earlier study phase. On the first and third tests no feedback was given, whereas on the second test, some subjects received item-level feedback throughout the recollection test. Recollection confusion scores declined across successive tests in all age groups. However, explicit feedback did not improve recollection accuracy or reduce recollection confusions in any age group. We also found that all age groups were able to use picture recollections in a disqualifying monitoring strategy without task experience or feedback. As a whole, these findings suggest that children and adults can use some aspects of retrieval monitoring without feedback or practice, whereas other aspects of retrieval monitoring can benefit from test practice in children and adults. We discuss the potential roles of metacognitive learning and unintended social feedback on these test practice effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arnold and McDermott [(2013). Test-potentiated learning: Distinguishing between direct and indirect effects of testing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition,39, 940–945] isolated the indirect effects of testing and concluded that encoding is enhanced to a greater extent following more versus fewer practice tests, referred to astest-potentiated learning. The current research provided further evidence for test-potentiated learning and evaluated thecovert retrieval hypothesisas an alternative explanation for the observed effect. Learners initially studied foreign language word pairs and then completed either one or five practice tests before restudy occurred. Results of greatest interest concern performance on test trials following restudy for items that were not correctly recalled on the test trials that preceded restudy. Results replicate Arnold and McDermott (2013) by demonstrating that more versus fewer tests potentiate learning when trial time is limited. Results also provide strong evidence against thecovert retrieval hypothesisconcerning why the effect occurs (i.e., it does not reflect differential covert retrieval during pre-restudy trials). In addition, outcomes indicate that the magnitude of the test-potentiated learning effect decreases as trial length increases, revealing an unexpected boundary condition to test-potentiated learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correcting errors based on corrective feedback is essential to successful learning. Previous studies have found that corrections to high-confidence errors are better remembered than low-confidence errors (the hypercorrection effect). The aim of this study was to investigate whether corrections to low-confidence errors can also be successfully retained in some cases. Participants completed an initial multiple-choice test consisting of control, trick and easy general-knowledge questions, rated their confidence after answering each question, and then received immediate corrective feedback. After a short delay, they were given a cued-recall test consisting of the same questions. In two experiments, we found high-confidence errors to control questions were better corrected on the second test compared to low-confidence errors – the typical hypercorrection effect. However, low-confidence errors to trick questions were just as likely to be corrected as high-confidence errors. Most surprisingly, we found that memory for the feedback and original responses, not confidence or surprise, were significant predictors of error correction. We conclude that for some types of material, there is an effortful process of elaboration and problem solving prior to making low-confidence errors that facilitates memory of corrective feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the effects of retrieval practice for students who varied in working memory capacity as a function of the lag between study of material and its initial test, whether or not feedback was given after the test, and the retention interval of the final test. We sought to determine whether a blend of these conditions exists that maximises benefits from retrieval practice for lower and higher working memory capacity students. College students learned general knowledge facts and then restudied the facts or were tested on them (with or without feedback) at lags of 0–9 intervening items. Final cued recall performance was better for tested items than for restudied items after both 10 minutes and 2 days, particularly for longer study–test lags. Furthermore, on the 2-day delayed test the benefits from retrieval practice with feedback were significantly greater for students with lower working memory capacity than for students with higher working memory capacity (r = −.42). Retrieval practice may be an especially effective learning strategy for lower ability students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We investigated whether expectations for different kinds of memory tests induce qualitatively different encoding strategies. In Experiment 1, participants studied four lists of words and after each list completed a cued-recall test that contained either all semantic or all orthographic cues so as to build up an expectancy for receiving the same type of test for the fifth critical study list. To rule out that the test-expectancy effects in Experiment 1 were due to differences in retrieval practice, in Experiment 2, participants received three practice tests each for both cue-types. Participants’ test expectancy for all lists was induced by telling them before each list the type of cue they would receive for the upcoming study list. In both experiments, the critical test contained both expected and unexpected cues. In Experiment 1, participants who expected semantic cues had better recall to the semantic cues than to the orthographic cues and vice versa for those who expected orthographic cues. However, in Experiment 2, there was no effect of test expectancy. These findings suggest that the test-expectancy effects in Experiment 1 were due to more retrieval practice on the expected than unexpected tests rather than to qualitatively different test-expectancy-induced encoding strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The testing effect is the finding that taking a review test enhances performance on a final test relative to restudying the material. The present experiment investigated transfer-appropriate processing in the testing effect using semantic and orthographic cues to evoke conceptual and data-driven processing, respectively. After a study phase, subjects either restudied the material or took a cued-recall test consisting of half semantic and half orthographic cues in which the correct response was given as feedback. A final, cued-recall test consisted of the identical cue, or a new cue that was of the same type or different type of cue (semantic/orthographic or orthographic/semantic) as that used for that target in the review test. Testing enhanced memory in all conditions. When the review cues and final-test cues were identical, final recall was higher for semantic than orthographic cues. Consistent with test-based transfer-appropriate processing, memory performance improved as the review and final cues became more similar. These results suggest that the testing effect could potentially be caused by the episodic retrieval processes in a final memory test overlapping more with the episodic retrieval processes in a review test than with the encoding operations performed during restudy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The testing effect refers to the retention benefit conferred by prior retrieval of information from memory. Although the testing effect is a robust phenomenon, a common assumption is that reliable memory benefits only emerge after long retention intervals of days or weeks. The present study focused on potential test-induced retention benefits for brief retention intervals on the order of minutes and tens of seconds. Participants in four experiments studied lists of words. Some of the items were subjected to an initial cued recall test, and others were re-presented for additional study. Free recall tests were administered in each experiment following retention intervals ranging from 30 s to 8 min. When initial retrieval practice was successful (Experiments 1 through 3), or feedback compensated for unsuccessful retrieval (Experiment 4), significant testing effects emerged at all retention intervals. Results are discussed in the context of a bifurcated item-distribution model and highlight the importance of initial test performance and the type of analysis employed when examining testing effect data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose that we encode and store information as a function of the particular ways we have used similar information in the past. More specifically, we contend that the experience of retrieval can serve as a powerful cue to the most effective ways to encode similar information in comparable future learning episodes. To explore these ideas, we did two studies in which all participants went through study–test cycles of single category lists while we manipulated the nature of the recognition tests. The recognition tests either included only same-category lures or only different-category lures. The experience of repeated testing leads participants to avoid conceptual-based strategies but only when conceptual knowledge was poorly diagnostic for recognition (i.e., in the same-category lures condition). In a second study with a similar manipulation, we showed that repeated testing with lures from the same category as study items improved performance in a final recall surprise test compared to conditions in which different-category lures were used. Such a difference is akin to the one obtained when encoding instructions focus on distinctive item features compared to cases in which the focus is on relational processing. We suggest that testing requirements lead to adaptive changes at encoding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Retrieval practice improves meaningful learning, and the most frequent way of implementing retrieval practice in classrooms is to have students answer questions. In four experiments (N=372) we investigated the effects of different question formats on learning. Students read educational texts and practised retrieval by answering short-answer, multiple-choice, or hybrid questions. In hybrid conditions students first attempted to recall answers in short-answer format, then identified answers in multiple-choice format. We measured learning 1 week later using a final assessment with two types of questions: those that could be answered by recalling information verbatim from the texts and those that required inferences. Practising retrieval in all format conditions enhanced retention, relative to a study-only control condition, on both verbatim and inference questions. However, there were little or no advantages of answering short-answer or hybrid format questions over multiple-choice questions in three experiments. In Experiment 4, when retrieval success was improved under initial short-answer conditions, there was an advantage of answering short-answer or hybrid questions over multiple-choice questions. The results challenge the simple conclusion that short-answer questions always produce the best learning, due to increased retrieval effort or difficulty, and demonstrate the importance of retrieval success for retrieval-based learning activities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We used a translational research paradigm to investigate whether distributed retrievals could benefit name learning in social situations. Undergraduates (N=64) were trained to generate distributed retrievals while they were multitasking. Students learned to generate distributed retrievals according to either an expanding or a uniform schedule. Their self-generated distributed retrievals while they were multitasking were effective in improving name recall for both retrieval schedules. The increase with self-generated retrievals while multitasking was greater (η2=.76) than the increase that Helder and Shaughnessy (2008) found with experimenter-controlled retrievals while multitasking (η2=.42). These findings provide evidence that the beneficial effect of distributed retrievals can extend to learning names in a social situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two experiments we tested whether providing retrieval opportunities while people were multitasking would improve memory for names. College students (n=195) in Experiment 1 did addition problems and intermittently were “introduced” to 12 face-name pairs to learn. For half the names students were given three within-list retrieval opportunities. Name recall (cued with the faces) was tested either immediately or after 24 hours. Retrieval opportunities improved name recall with both immediate and delayed tests. Experiment 2 more closely resembled the multitasking required in a real-life social situation. College students (n=98) viewed a videotape and were asked to learn the names of 12 dormitory residents who were introduced during an ongoing conversation. Retrieval opportunities were provided for 8 of the 12 residents by having them appear three additional times in the video without repeating their names. Retrieval opportunities improved name recall, but the effect was much smaller than in Experiment 1. The present research demonstrates that distributed retrieval can be effective when people are multitasking including when the multitasking involves a conversation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]