Effects Of Retrieval Practice Research Articles

Prior knowledge level dissociates effects of retrieval practice and elaboration

Prior knowledge level varies between individuals and influences the effectiveness of learning strategies. This study tested the influence of prior knowledge level on effects of retrieval practice and elaboration. Psychology major students (more familiarity with psychology key terms) and non-psychology major students (less familiarity with psychology key terms) learned five lists of psychology key terms under three conditions: retrieval practice, elaboration, and control. The result revealed an interaction between prior knowledge level and learning strategy. There was no significant difference in proportion of final recall between psychology major students and non-psychology major students in the retrieval practice condition, but proportion of final recall was notably higher in psychology major students than non-psychology major students in the elaboration condition. Therefore, prior knowledge level influenced effects of retrieval practice and elaboration due to differences in their underlying mechanisms, supporting the episodic context account.

Retrieval Practice Benefits Deductive Inference

Retrieval practice has been shown to benefit learning. However, the benefit has sometimes been attenuated with more complex materials that require integrating multiple units of information. Critically, Tran et al. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 135–140 (2015) found that retrieval practice improves sentence memory but not the drawing of inferences from the same sentences. In three experiments, we investigated whether this lack of benefit of retrieval practice for inferential ability was due to the presentation format of the material. Participants studied four sets of seven to nine related sentences by practicing retrieval for two sets and rereading the other two sets. A final test was given 2 days later. When sentences were presented one at a time during study/practice as in Tran et al., we found no effect of retrieval practice on a test requiring inferential reasoning. When sentences in a set were presented simultaneously during study/practice, retrieval practice in the form of fill-in-the-blank testing (experiments 1 and 2) and free recall (experiment 3) aided later deductive inference more than rereading. Our findings suggest that retrieval practice can improve deductive inference, but in order to optimize its utility, the format in which the material is presented during practice must not hinder relational processing of the individual sentences.

Benefits from retrieval practice are greater for students with lower working memory capacity

ABSTRACTWe examined the effects of retrieval practice for students who varied in working memory capacity as a function of the lag between study of material and its initial test, whether or not feedback was given after the test, and the retention interval of the final test. We sought to determine whether a blend of these conditions exists that maximises benefits from retrieval practice for lower and higher working memory capacity students. College students learned general knowledge facts and then restudied the facts or were tested on them (with or without feedback) at lags of 0–9 intervening items. Final cued recall performance was better for tested items than for restudied items after both 10 minutes and 2 days, particularly for longer study–test lags. Furthermore, on the 2-day delayed test the benefits from retrieval practice with feedback were significantly greater for students with lower working memory capacity than for students with higher working memory capacity (r = −.42). Retrieval practice may be an especially effective learning strategy for lower ability students.

Retrieval-Based Learning: Positive Effects of Retrieval Practice in Elementary School Children.

A wealth of research has demonstrated that practicing retrieval is a powerful way to enhance learning. However, nearly all prior research has examined retrieval practice with college students. Little is known about retrieval practice in children, and even less is known about possible individual differences in retrieval practice. In three experiments, 88 children (mean age 10 years) studied a list of words and either restudied the items or practiced retrieving them. They then took a final free recall test (Experiments 1 and 2) or recognition test (Experiment 3). In all experiments, children showed robust retrieval practice effects. Although a range of individual differences in reading comprehension and processing speed were observed among these children, the benefits of retrieval practice were independent of these factors. The results contribute to the growing body of research supporting the mnemonic benefits of retrieval practice and provide preliminary evidence that practicing retrieval may be an effective learning strategy for children with varying levels of reading comprehension and processing speed.

Retrieval Practice and Spacing Effects in Naming Rehabilitation: A Theory of Learning

Retrieval Practice and Spacing Effects in Naming Rehabilitation: A Theory of Learning

Retrieval practice can insulate items against intralist interference: Evidence from the list-length effect, output interference, and retrieval-induced forgetting.

This study sought to determine whether nonselective retrieval practice after study can reduce memories' susceptibility to intralist interference, as it is observed in the list-length effect, output interference, and retrieval-induced forgetting. Across 3 experiments, we compared the effects of nonselective retrieval practice and restudy on previously studied material with regard to these 3 forms of episodic forgetting. When study of an item list was followed by a restudy cycle, recall from a longer list was worse than recall from a shorter list (list-length effect), preceding recall of studied nontarget items impaired recall of the list's target items (output interference), and repeated selective retrieval of some list items attenuated recall of other nonretrieved items at test (retrieval-induced forgetting). In contrast, none of these effects arose when study of the list was followed by a nonselective retrieval cycle. The findings are consistent with a combination of contextual variability theory and a variant of study-phase retrieval theory that assumes that retrieval can create more distinct context features for retrieved items than restudy does for restudied items, thus reducing items' susceptibility to interference relative to restudy cycles. The findings add to the view that nonselective retrieval practice can stabilize and consolidate memories.

Retrieval-induced forgetting in item recognition: Retrieval specificity revisited

Abstract Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) refers to the finding that retrieval practice on a subset of studied items can induce later forgetting of related unpracticed items. Although previous studies indicated that RIF is retrieval specific – i.e., it arises after retrieval practice but not after reexposure cycles -, the results of more recent work suggest otherwise, indicating that some reexposure formats can induce RIF very similar to how retrieval practice does. Whereas this prior work employed recall at test, here we revisited retrieval specificity of RIF employing item recognition. The results of three experiments are reported, which examined the effects of retrieval practice and some of the recently suggested reexposure formats on unpracticed items’ recognition. In each of these experiments, we showed RIF after retrieval practice but did not find any evidence for RIF-like forgetting after reexposure. These findings demonstrate retrieval specificity of RIF in item recognition, challenging strength-based accounts of RIF and indicating a critical role of inhibition in RIF. Together with the results from the recent recall studies, which we replicated in three further experiments, the present findings are consistent with a two-factor account of RIF, which assigns a role for both inhibition and strength-based blocking in RIF. While both inhibition and blocking may contribute to RIF in certain recall formats, only inhibition may induce RIF in item recognition.

Retrieval practice enhances the accessibility but not the quality of memory.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that retrieval from long-term memory (LTM) can enhance subsequent memory performance, a phenomenon labeled the retrieval practice effect. However, the almost exclusive reliance on categorical stimuli in this literature leaves open a basic question about the nature of this improvement in memory performance. It has not yet been determined whether retrieval practice improves the probability of successful memory retrieval or the quality of the retrieved representation. To answer this question, we conducted three experiments using a mixture modeling approach (Zhang & Luck, 2008) that provides a measure of both the probability of recall and the quality of the recalled memories. Subjects attempted to memorize the color of 400 unique shapes. After every 10 images were presented, subjects either recalled the last 10 colors (the retrieval practice condition) by clicking on a color wheel with each shape as a retrieval cue or they participated in a control condition that involved no further presentations (Experiment 1) or restudy of the 10 shape/color associations (Experiments 2 and 3). Performance in a subsequent delayed recall test revealed a robust retrieval practice effect. Subjects recalled a significantly higher proportion of items that they had previously retrieved relative to items that were untested or that they had restudied. Interestingly, retrieval practice did not elicit any improvement in the precision of the retrieved memories. The same empirical pattern also was observed following delays of greater than 24 hours. Thus, retrieval practice increases the probability of successful memory retrieval but does not improve memory quality.

Differential retrieval of past and future autobiographical experiences.

Selective retrieval can both impair and enhance memory. In this study we analysed the effects of retrieval practice in the recall of past and future experiences. The participants generated past autobiographical experiences or imagined future experiences using recall cues of typical autobiographical experiences obtained in a previous study. The experiences were presented either in chronological or random order. Regardless of presentation order, retrieval practice produced facilitation in the free recall of practised past and future experiences. No retrieval-induced forgetting was observed for past experiences in the ordered presentation, showing that the temporal organisation of autobiographical experiences prevents the activation of inhibitory processes. Conversely, inhibition was significant in the free recall of future experiences presented in chronological order, possibly because future experiences present less welldefined temporal organisation, impairing the integration that suppresses inhibitory processes. Thus, retrieval-induced forgetting was evident in the random presentation of past and future autobiographical experiences.

The Testing Effect Is Alive and Well with Complex Materials

Van Gog and Sweller (2015) claim that there is no testing effect—no benefit of practicing retrieval—for complex materials. We show that this claim is incorrect on several grounds. First, Van Gog and Sweller’s idea of “element interactivity” is not defined in a quantitative, measurable way. As a consequence, the idea is applied inconsistently in their literature review. Second, none of the experiments on retrieval practice with worked-example materials manipulated element interactivity. Third, Van Gog and Sweller’s literature review omitted several studies that have shown retrieval practice effects with complex materials, including studies that directly manipulated the complexity of the materials. Fourth, the experiments that did not show retrieval practice effects, which were emphasized by Van Gog and Sweller, either involved retrieval of isolated words in individual sentences or required immediate, massed retrieval practice. The experiments failed to observe retrieval practice effects because of the retrieval tasks, not because of the complexity of the materials. Finally, even though the worked-example experiments emphasized by Van Gog and Sweller have methodological problems, they do not show strong evidence favoring the null. Instead, the data provide evidence that there is indeed a small positive effect of retrieval practice with worked examples. Retrieval practice remains an effective way to improve meaningful learning of complex materials.

Retrieval practice and spacing effects in young and older adults: An examination of the benefits of desirable difficulty.

In the present study, we examined how the function relating continued retrieval practice (e.g., one, three, or five tests) and long-term memory retention is modulated by desirable difficulty (R. A. Bjork, 1994). Of particular interest was how retrieval difficulty differed across young and older adults and across manipulations of lag (Exp. 1) and spacing (Exp. 2). To extend on previous studies, the acquisition phase response latency was used as a proxy for retrieval difficulty, and our analysis of final-test performance was conditionalized on acquisition phase retrieval success, to more directly examine the influence of desirable difficulty on retention. The results from Experiment 1 revealed that continued testing in the short-lag condition led to consistent increases in retention, whereas continued testing in the long-lag condition led to increasingly smaller benefits in retention for both age groups. The results from Experiment 2 revealed that repeated spaced testing enhanced retention relative to taking one spaced test, for both age groups; however, repeated massed testing only enhanced retention over taking one test for young adults. Across both experiments, the response latency results were overall consistent with an influence of desirable difficulty on retention. The discussion focuses on the role of desirable difficulty during encoding in producing the benefits of lag, spacing, and testing.

Towards a Theory of Learning for Naming Rehabilitation: Retrieval Practice, Retrieval Effort, and Spacing Effects

Towards a Theory of Learning for Naming Rehabilitation: Retrieval Practice, Retrieval Effort, and Spacing Effects

The benefit of retrieval practice over elaborative restudy in primary school vocabulary learning

The testing effect is the phenomenon that retrieval practice of learning material after studying enhances long-term retention more than restudying. We examined retrieval practice in primary school vocabulary learning in two experiments. Nine-year-old children studied word definitions and completed exercises according to three learning conditions: pure restudy, elaborative restudy or retrieval practice. Children in the pure restudy condition reread and partly copied the definitions. In the elaborative restudy condition children reread the definitions and connected semantically related words to the target words. Children in the retrieval practice condition recalled the words based on their definitions. Overall, on the fill-in-the-blank test after one week children in the retrieval practice condition outperformed children in the other conditions, but on the multiple-choice test there were no differences. Retrieval practice may be effective for primary school vocabulary learning, but there is uncertainty about the practical value and the magnitude of the retrieval practice effect.

Quizzes and conversations: exploring the role of retrieval in medical education

Editor’s note: This article is part of a series in Medical Education entitled ‘Dialogue’. Each publication in the series will be a transcription of an e-mail discussion about a current issue in the field held by two scholars who have approached the issue from different perspectives. For further details, see the editorial published in Med Educ 2012;46(9):826–7. In this issue, Douglas P Larsen, Director for Medical Student Education for the Division of Paediatric Neurology, Washington University in St Louis, and Tim Dornan, Professor of Medical Education, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, discuss the roles that testing, broadly defined, and social interaction play in the acquisition and retention of medical knowledge.

The Effect of Retrieval Practice in Primary School Vocabulary Learning

SummaryThe testing effect refers to the finding that retrieval practice leads to better long‐term retention than additional study of course material. In the present study, we examined whether this finding generalizes to primary school vocabulary learning. We also manipulated the word learning context. Children were introduced to 20 words by listening to a story in which novel words were embedded (story condition) or by listening to isolated words (word pairs condition). The children practised the meaning of 10 words by retrieval practice and 10 words by restudy. After 1 week, they completed a cued recall test and a multiple choice test. Words learned by retrieval practice were recalled better than words learned by additional study, but there was no difference in recognition. Furthermore, the children in the word pairs condition outperformed the children in the story condition. These results show that retrieval practice may improve vocabulary learning in children. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Advantage Effect of Retrieval Practice on Memory Retention and Transfer: Based on Explanation of Cognitive Load Theory

A wealth of researches has indicated that retrieval practice can be used as an effective means to improve memory. Recently the effects of retrieval practice have captured the attention of contemporary researchers who are interested in educational applications of retrieval practice. Some researchers have examined the effectiveness of retrieval practice relative to elaborative studying with concept mapping, and found that practicing retrieval produces greater gains in meaningful learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping which has received comment and query by researchers advocating constructivism who thought, compared with practice retrieval, concept mapping is too complex to master. In view of these criticism, the current research examined the effectiveness of retrieval practice and concept mapping from the perspective of cognitive load, it is hypothesized that the intrinsic load of study task which depends on learners’ prior knowledge level has different influence on retrieval practice and concept mapping, and the concept mapping strategy is more complex than retrieval practice, so it could produce more extraneous load on learner and influence the effectiveness. Two experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. In experiment 1, 120 college students were engaged in a 2 (prior knowledge level: high vs. low) × 3 (study strategy type: retrieval practice vs. concept mapping and repeated study) between-subjects design of experiment, which was aimed to study the different influence of prior knowledge level on the effectiveness of three types of strategies. In experiment 2, 43 college students participated in a within-subjects design of experiment, each student completed a partial concept mapping of one science text and practiced retrieval of a second text which was designed to study the influence of strategy’s complexity on strategy’s effectiveness. The results indicated that on correct rate of memory retention and transfer, the main effect of prior knowledge level wasn't significant, but there was an interaction between learning strategies and prior knowledge level: under the condition of retrieval practice strategy, there is no significant difference on the correct rate of retention and transfer between participates with high prior knowledge and participates with low prior knowledge; as the concept mapping strategy concerned, the participates with high prior knowledge were significantly higher than participates with low prior knowledge on the correct rate of retention and transfer. In addition, the complexity of the strategy would increase learners' extraneous load, but it didn't have decisive influence on the effectiveness of the strategy. In terms of result, it was concluded that the reason why retrieval practice could produce more memory retention and transfer than concept mapping is not because of that its strategy is easier to be master, it is that the concept mapping strategy was very dependent on learner's prior knowledge level. Relatively, retrieval practice is not dependent on learner's prior knowledge level. The results have some important implications. Firstly, retrieval practice is an effective tool to promote retention and transfer, it indeed can enhance subsequent recall more than concept mapping. Thus, educators should pay more attention to the effectiveness of retrieval practice rather than view it as an assessment device to measure what a student knows. Secondly, the findings support the theory that retrieval practice enhances learning by retrieval-specific mechanisms rather than by elaborative study processes.

Neural Signatures of Test-Potentiated Learning in Parietal Cortex

Testing, or retrieval practice, is beneficial for long-term memory both directly, by enhancing performance on tested information, and indirectly, by facilitating learning from subsequent encounters with the information. Although a wealth of behavioral research has examined the "testing effect," neuroimaging has provided little insight regarding the potential mechanisms that underlie the benefits of retrieval practice. Here, fMRI was used to examine the effects of retrieval practice on later study trials. Human subjects studied pairs of associated words, which were then tested, restudied, or neither tested nor restudied. All pairs were then studied once more in expectation of a final test. We asked how this Final Study episode was affected by prior history (whether the pair had been previously tested, restudied, or neither). The data revealed striking similarities between responses in lateral parietal cortex in the present study and those in a host of studies explicitly tapping recognition memory processes. Moreover, activity in lateral parietal cortex during Final Study was correlated with a behavioral index of test-potentiated learning. We conclude that retrieval practice may enhance learning by promoting the recruitment of retrieval mechanisms during subsequent study opportunities.

Free recall enhances subsequent learning

Testing, or retrieval practice, has become a central topic in memory research. One potentially important effect of retrieval practice has received little attention, however: It may enhance, or potentiate, subsequent learning. We introduce a paradigm that can measure the indirect, potentiating effect of free recall tests on subsequent learning, and then test a hypothesis for why tests may have this potentiating effect. In two experiments, the benefit of a restudy trial was enhanced when prior free recall tests had been taken. The results from a third, correlational study suggested that this effect might be mediated by the effect of testing on organization. Not only do encoding conditions affect later retrievability, but also retrieval attempts affect subsequent encoding effectiveness.

Retrieval-induced forgetting: Dynamic effects between retrieval and restudy trials when practice is mixed

Results from numerous previous studies suggest that when subjects study items from different categories and then repeatedly retrieve, or restudy, some of the items from some of the categories, repeated retrieval, but not repeated study, induces forgetting of related unpracticed items. We investigated in two experiments whether such effects of pure retrieval and pure study practice generalize to mixed practice-that is, when retrieval and restudy trials are randomly interleaved within a single experimental block. Experiment 1 employed cued recall; Experiment 2 employed item recognition testing. In both experiments, pure repeated retrieval, but not pure repeated study, caused forgetting of related unpracticed items, which is consistent with the prior work. In contrast, with mixed practice, both retrieval and restudy induced forgetting. Thus, whereas retrieval caused forgetting regardless of practice mode, restudy caused forgetting with mixed practice, but not with pure practice. The finding provides first evidence for dynamic effects between retrieval and restudy trials when practice is mixed. It is consistent with the view that, with mixed practice, subjects engage in more retrieval during restudy trials, so that restudy trials may trigger similar processes as retrieval trials and, thus, induce forgetting of related, not restudied, items.

Test-potentiated learning: distinguishing between direct and indirect effects of tests.

The facilitative effect of retrieval practice, or testing, on the probability of later retrieval has been the focus of much recent empirical research. A lesser known benefit of retrieval practice is that it may also enhance the ability of a learner to benefit from a subsequent restudy opportunity. This facilitative effect of retrieval practice on subsequent encoding is known as test-potentiated learning. Thus far, however, the literature has not isolated the indirect effect of retrieval practice on subsequent memory (via enhancing the effectiveness of restudy) from the direct effects of retrieval on subsequent memory. The experiment presented here uses conditional probability to disentangle test-potentiated learning from the direct effects of retrieval practice. The results indicate that unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance the effectiveness of subsequent restudy, demonstrating that tests do potentiate subsequent learning.