Contribution of degraded perception and insufficient encoding to decisions to mass or space study

EXPRESS: Going Beyond the Spacing Effect: Does it Matter How Time on a Task is Distributed?

We assessed the effects of removing some constraints that characterize traditional experiments on the effects of spaced, rather than massed, study opportunities. In five experiments-using lists of to-be-remembered words-we examined the effects of how total study time was distributed across multiple repetitions of a given to-be-remembered word. Overall, within a given list, recall profited from study time being distributed (e.g., four 1-second presentations or two 2-second presentations versus one 4-second presentation). Among the implications of these findings is that if students choose to engage in massed studying (by virtue of constraints on their study time or a failure to appreciate the benefits of spaced study sessions), then studying the information twice but for half the time may produce memory benefits in a single study session.

What Is the Mechanism Underlying the Interleaving Effect in Category Induction: An Eye-Tracking and Behavioral Study

Interleaved practice (i.e., exemplars from different categories are intermixed within blocks) has been shown to enhance induction performance compared to blocked practice (i.e., exemplars from the same category are presented sequentially). The main aim of the present study was to examine explanations of why interleaved practice produces this benefit in category induction (known as the interleaving effect). We also evaluated two hypotheses, the attention attenuation hypothesis and the discriminative-contrast hypothesis, by collecting data on participants’ fixation on exemplars, provided by eye-tracking data, and manipulating the degree of discriminative-contrast. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were instructed to learn the style of 12 new artists in blocked and interleaved practice in fixed-paced and self-paced learning conditions, respectively. We examined fixation durations for six positions (temporal sequence of exemplars presented in each block) using eye-tracking. The results of the two experiments, based on eye-tracking data, suggested that attention attenuation may not be the primary mechanism underlying the interleaving effect in category induction. In Experiment 3, we manipulated the degree of discriminative-contrast to examine the impact on the interleaving effect in category induction. The results showed that the main effect of the degree of discriminative-contrast was significant, and performance in the high-contrast condition was significantly better than those in the medium-contrast and low-contrast conditions. Thus, the current results support the discriminative-contrast hypothesis rather than the attention attenuation hypothesis.

Examining the effects of training on young and older adult implementation of spaced retrieval strategies

Although the benefits of spaced retrieval are well established, research suggests that young and older adults often fail to optimally implement this strategy. The present study examined how task experience with feedback influenced participant-implemented spaced retrieval and its effect on short and long-term memory retention. Young and older adults were instructed to either equally space or expand their retrieval of face-name associations throughout an ongoing reading task. Participants were then provided feedback on the accuracy with which they implemented experimenter instructions. Results showed that feedback improved utilization of retrieval practice in both young and older adults. Moreover, both age groups successfully produced a pattern of expanded retrieval when instructed to do so, but failed to properly implement equal spacing. Consistent with extant research utilizing experimenter-determined spaced retrieval schedules, our study showed that the inclusion of a longer spacing interval immediately following acquisition resulted in reduced forgetting across the retention interval.

Metacognitive control over the distribution of retrieval practice with and without feedback and the efficacy of learners' spacing choices

In two experiments on self-regulated learning, participants studied word pairs, made judgments of learning (JOLs), and decided whether to continue practicing after a long or short spacing interval prior to a final cued-recall test. When practice involved restudying, learners preferred a long spacing interval. However, when retrieval practice was involved, learners preferred a short spacing interval for items with low and medium JOLs and a long interval for high-JOL items, regardless of whether retrieval practice was followed by feedback or not. Taking retrieval practice after a short rather than a long spacing interval was efficacious when no feedback followed practice tests, leading to superior recall. Given that retrieval practice was successful, a long spacing interval led to better recall than a short one, but learners were insufficiently accurate in determining which items should be given a long spacing interval for this strategy to be effective. Presenting feedback after retrieval practice did not alter learners' spacing strategy, and the frequent selection of short spacing intervals impaired subsequent recall.

Metacognitive control in self-regulated learning: Conditions affecting the choice of restudying versus retrieval practice

In two experiments, learners studied word pairs one or two times and took a final cued recall test. They studied each pair upon its initial presentation and decided whether they would restudy it later, take a practice test on it later (retrieval practice), or forego all further practice with the pair. Whether learners preferred restudying or testing depended upon conditions. Regardless of whether practice tests were followed by feedback, they chose to take practice tests relatively more often when items were easy and the lag or spacing interval between the first and second occurrence was short, whereas they chose to restudy relatively more when items were hard and the lag was long. That is, they preferred testing under conditions in which successful retrieval on the practice test was likely. In Experiment 2, we varied the number of points each item was worth if recalled on the final test. A high point value led to a marked increase in both the preference for testing when the lag was short and the preference for restudying when the lag was long. Results support the hypothesis that learners appreciate at some level that retrieval practice can be a more effective learning strategy than restudying. However, they appear to believe that successful retrieval is necessary to reap the benefits of retrieval practice. As a consequence, their tendency to choose testing is influenced by conditions (item difficulty and spacing interval) that affect the likelihood of successful practice-test retrieval.