Influence of Distributed Practice and Daily Testing on Weekly Spelling Tests 1

Four studies compared different means of presenting spelling words to students. The dependent variable for all studies was the youngsters’ scores on weekly review tests. Experiments I, II, and HI demonstrated that students did better on the weekly review tests when they received a portion of the words each day and were tested daily, than when they received alt words at the beginning of the week and did not have daily tests. Experiment IV indicated that receiving a portion of the words each day without daily testing, was inferior to receiving a portion of the words each day with daily testing, but better than receiving all words at the beginning of the week without daily testing.