Teaching speech acoustics concepts in an undergraduate speech science course: Are distributed or massed practice lab assignments more effective?

Abstract

Educational research holds that individuals learn concepts more effectively when practice applying these concepts is distributed rather than massed. However, few studies have investigated distributed versus massed practice for student learning of a set of related concepts. This study investigated student learning and retention of speech acoustics concepts in an undergraduate speech science course. In one class design, students completed several short speech acoustics labs spaced throughout the semester to practice applying learned concepts as the semester progressed. In another class design, students completed one extensive speech acoustics lab at the end of the semester to apply concepts learned throughout the semester. Students in all courses completed a comprehensive examination at the end of the semester. An analysis of summative assessment data indicates that distributed practice may be more effective in facilitating student learning and recall of individual concepts. However, massed practice may promote broader conceptual learning of related concepts, possibly by facilitating discovery of connections across concepts.