The impact of working memory testing on long-term associative memory.

Abstract

The long-term fate of to-be-remembered information depends in part on the conditions of initial learning, including mental operations engaged via working memory. However, the mechanistic role of working memory (WM) processes in subsequent episodic memory (EM) remains unclear. Does re-exposure to word-pairs during WM recognition testing improve EM for those associations? Are benefits from WM re-exposure greater after an opportunity for retrieval practice compared to mere re-exposure to the memoranda? These questions are addressed in three experiments (N = 460) designed to assess whether WM-based recognition testing benefits long-term associative memory relative to WM-based restudying. Our results show null or negative benefits of WM recognition testing minutes later when initial WM accuracy was not considered. An EM benefit of WM recognition testing only emerges when the analyses are limited to pairs responded to correctly during WM. However, even when compared with accurate WM recognition, restudying can lead to similar associative EM benefits in specific experimental conditions. Taken together, the present results suggest that while WM re-exposure to studied pairs is beneficial to long-term associative memory, successful retrieval on initial tests may be a necessary but insufficient condition for the emergence of a "WM-based testing effect." We consider these results in relation to several hypotheses proposed to explain the testing effect in long-term memory (LTM). In view of empirical parallels with the LTM testing effect, we propose that similar processes influence the benefits of practice tests administered within the canonical boundaries of WM, suggesting continuities in memory over the short and long term.