Read Something Once, Why Read it Again?: Repetitive Reading and Recall

Abstract

Seventy-two college students were instructed that they would be reading a text either once or twice. Then, half of each instruction group were allowed to read the text once, and half were required to read the text twice. All subjects were then tested for factual retention and for transfer. The instruction that a text could be read twice facilitated recall, even if the text was only read once. Reduced anxiety appears to be the simplest explanation for this. Reading a text twice increased factual retention, but on the transfer test, an interaction with ability was found. Only high ability students showed improvement with a second reading on the transfer test. Results are interpreted in terms of Mayer's processing strategies in that good readers benefit both qualitatively and quantitatively from repetition. Poor readers benefit only quantitatively from the opportunity to reread.