Retrieval during learning facilitates subsequent memory encoding.

In multiple-list learning, retrieval during learning has been suggested to improve recall of the single lists by enhancing list discrimination and, at test, reducing interference. Using electrophysiological, oscillatory measures of brain activity, we examined to what extent retrieval during learning facilitates list encoding. Subjects studied 5 lists of items in anticipation of a final cumulative recall test and did either a retrieval or a no-retrieval task between study of the lists. Retrieval was from episodic memory (recall of the previous list), semantic memory (generation of exemplars from an unrelated category), or short-term memory (2-back task). Behaviorally, all 3 forms of retrieval enhanced recall of both previously and subsequently studied lists. Physiologically, the results showed an increase of alpha power (8–14 Hz) from List 1 to List 5 encoding when no retrieval activities were interpolated but no such increase when any of the 3 retrieval activities occurred. Brain–behavior correlations showed that alpha-power dynamics from List 1 to List 5 encoding predicted subsequent recall performance. The results suggest that, without intermittent retrieval, encoding becomes ineffective across lists. In contrast, with intermittent retrieval, there is a reset of the encoding process for each single list that makes encoding of later lists as effective as encoding of early lists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tests enhance the transfer of learning.

Numerous learning studies have shown that if the period of time devoted to studying information (e.g., casa-house) includes at least 1 test (casa-?), performance on a final test is improved—a finding known as the testing effect. In most of these studies, however, the final test is identical to the initial test. If the final test requires a novel demonstration of learning (i.e., transfer), prior studies suggest that a greater degree of transfer reduces the size of the testing effect. The authors tested this conjecture. In 2 experiments, 4th- or 5th-grade students learned to assign regions or cities to map locations and returned 1 day later for 2 kinds of final tests. One final test required exactly the same task seen during the learning session, and the other final test consisted of novel, more challenging questions. In both experiments, testing effects were found for both kinds of final tests, and the testing effect was no smaller, and actually slightly larger, for the final test requiring transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spaced retrieval: Absolute spacing enhances learning regardless of relative spacing.

Repeated retrieval enhances long-term retention, and spaced repetition also enhances retention. A question with practical and theoretical significance is whether there are particular schedules of spaced retrieval (e.g., gradually expanding the interval between tests) that produce the best learning. In the present experiment, subjects studied and were tested on items until they could recall each one. They then practiced recalling the items on 3 repeated tests that were distributed according to one of several spacing schedules. Increasing the absolute (total) spacing of repeated tests produced large effects on long-term retention: Repeated retrieval with long intervals between each test produced a 200% improvement in long-term retention relative to repeated retrieval with no spacing between tests. However, there was no evidence that a particular relative spacing schedule (expanding, equal, or contracting) was inherently superior to another. Although expanding schedules afforded a pattern of increasing retrieval difficulty across repeated tests, this did not translate into gains in long-term retention. Repeated spaced retrieval had powerful effects on retention, but the relative schedule of repeated tests had no discernible impact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognitive control and strategy selection: Deciding to practice retrieval during learning.

Retrieval practice is a potent technique for enhancing learning, but how often do students practice retrieval when they regulate their own learning? In 4 experiments the subjects learned foreign-language items across multiple study and test periods. When items were assigned to be repeatedly tested, repeatedly studied, or removed after they were recalled, repeated retrieval produced powerful effects on learning and retention. However, when subjects were given control over their own learning and could choose to test, study, or remove items, many subjects chose to remove items rather than practice retrieval, leading to poor retention. In addition, when tests were inserted in the learning phase, attempting retrieval improved learning by enhancing subsequent encoding during study. But when students were given control over their learning they did not attempt retrieval as early or as often as they should to promote the best learning. The experiments identify a compelling metacognitive illusion that occurs during self-regulated learning: Once students can recall an item they tend to believe they have “learned” it. This leads students to terminate practice rather than practice retrieval, a strategy choice that ultimately results in poor retention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bilateral eye movements enhance the retrieval of episodic memories.

Two experiments examining effects of eye movements on episodic memory retrieval are reported. Thirty seconds of horizontal saccadic eye movements (but not smooth pursuit or vertical eye movements) preceding testing resulted in selective enhancement of episodic memory retrieval for laboratory (Experiment 1) and everyday (Experiment 2) events. Eye movements had no effects on implicit memory. Eye movements were also associated with more conservative response biases relative to a no eye movement condition. Episodic memory improvement induced by bilateral eye movements is hypothesized to reflect enhanced interhemispheric interaction, which is associated with superior episodic memory (S. D. Christman & R. E. Propper. 2001). Implications for neuropsychological mechanisms underlying eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (F. Shapiro, 1989, 2001), a therapeutic technique for posttraumatic stress disorder, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring automatic retrieval.

A variety of procedures have been used to assess automatic retrieval effects on memory, including implicit memory tests and the process dissociation approach. Theoretical concerns with each are summarized prior to describing a procedure for evaluating automatic retrieval that is based on retrieval speed. Specifically, in a speeded implicit task, participants were encouraged to complete word stems using strictly automatic retrieval by presenting several practice test trials that did not allow responding based on previously studied items, and by encouraging speed of responding. This speeded implicit task was compared with a condition in which conscious retrieval of studied information was not possible and a condition in which conscious retrieval was required, providing converging evidence to support the hypothesis that the speeded implicit procedure can yield pure estimates of automatic retrieval. Furthermore, evidence from a standard implicit memory task yielded comparable data that suggests that participants engaged automatic retrieval processes on this task also. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expanding retrieval practice promotes short-term retention, but equally spaced retrieval enhances long-term retention.

Expanding retrieval practice (T. K. Landauer & R. A. Bjork, 1978) is regarded as a superior technique for promoting long-term retention relative to equally spaced retrieval practice. In Experiments 1 and 2, the authors found that expanding retrieval practice of vocabulary word pairs produced short-term benefits 10 min after learning, conceptually replicating Landauer and Bjork's results. However, equally spaced retrieval produced superior retention 2 days later. This pattern occurred both with and without feedback after test trials. In Experiment 3, the 1st test occurred immediately or after a brief delay, and repeated tests were expanding or equally spaced. Delaying the first test improved long-term retention, regardless of how the repeated tests were spaced. The important factor for promoting long-term retention is delaying initial retrieval to make it more difficult, as is done in equally spaced retrieval but not in expanding retrieval. Expanding the interval between repeated tests had little effect on long-term retention in 3 experiments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A testing effect with multimedia learning.

A testing effect occurs when a learner performs better on a retention test after studying the material and taking a practice-retention test than after studying the material twice. In the present study, 282 participants watched a narrated animation about lightning formation and then watched the presentation again (restudy), took a practice-retention test (practice-retention), or took a practice-transfer test (practice-transfer). First, the testing effect was replicated with multimedia material, such that the practice-retention group outperformed the restudy group on a delayed retention test. Second, a testing effect was found for taking a practice-transfer test, such that the practice-transfer group outperformed the restudy group on a delayed transfer test. Third, the results supported a transfer-appropriate processing explanation of the testing effect, in which the practice-retention group outperformed the practice-transfer group on delayed retention but the opposite pattern was obtained on delayed transfer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cue strength as a moderator of the testing effect: The benefits of elaborative retrieval.

The current study explored the elaborative retrieval hypothesis as an explanation for the testing effect: the tendency for a memory test to enhance retention more than restudying. In particular, the retrieval process during testing may activate elaborative information related to the target response, thereby increasing the chances that activation of any of this information will facilitate later retrieval of the target. In a test of this view, participants learned cue–target pairs, which were strongly associated (e.g., Toast: Bread) or weakly associated (e.g., Basket: Bread), through either a cued recall test (Toast: _____) or a restudy opportunity (Toast: Bread). A final test requiring free recall of the targets revealed that tested items were retained better than restudied items, and although strong cues facilitated recall of tested items initially, items recalled from weak cues were retained better over time, such that this advantage was eliminated or reversed at the time of the final test. Restudied items were retained at similar rates on the final test regardless of the strength of the cue–target relationship. These results indicate that the activation of elaborative information—which would occur to a greater extent during testing than restudying—may be one mechanism that underlies the testing effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Repeated testing produces superior transfer of learning relative to repeated studying.

The present research investigated whether test-enhanced learning can be used to promote transfer. More specifically, 4 experiments examined how repeated testing and repeated studying affected retention and transfer of facts and concepts. Subjects studied prose passages and then either repeatedly restudied or took tests on the material. One week later, they took a final test that had either the same questions (Experiment 1a), new inferential questions within the same knowledge domain (Experiments 1b and 2), or new inferential questions from different knowledge domains (Experiment 3). Repeated testing produced superior retention and transfer on the final test relative to repeated studying. This finding indicates that the mnemonic benefits of test-enhanced learning are not limited to the retention of the specific response tested during initial learning but rather extend to the transfer of knowledge in a variety of contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of motivations on the availability and retrieval of memory traces.

A review which analyzes a vast array of studies relating motivation and memory is presented. Investigations in which the motivational manipulation occurred during trace formation are distinguished from studies in which the manipulation occurred during trace storage or trace retrieval. Includes a series of investigations by the author which varied the incentive for retaining stimuli. The general conclusion is that many studies in the area are methodologically inadequate, and have yielded conflicting results. However, there are studies which provide strong evidence that memory can be influenced by nonassociative factors. (3 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Familiarity and retrieval processes in delayed judgments of learning.

Two processes are postulated to underlie delayed judgments of learning (JOLs)--cue familiarity and target retrievability. The two processes are distinguishable because the familiarity-based judgments are thought to be faster than the retrieval-based processes, because only retrieval-based JOLs should enhance the relative accuracy of the correlations between the JOLs and criterion test performance, and because only retrieval-based judgments should enhance memory. To test these predictions, in three experiments, the authors either speeded people's JOLs or allowed them to be unspeeded. The relative accuracy of the JOLs in predicting performance on the criterion test was higher for the unspeeded JOLs than for the speeded JOLs, as predicted. The unspeeded JOL conditions showed enhanced memory as compared with the speeded JOL conditions, as predicted. Finally, the unspeeded JOLs were sensitive to manipulations that modified recallability of the target, whereas the speeded JOLs were selectively sensitive to experimental variations in the familiarity of the cues. Thus, all three of the predictions about the consequences of the two processes potentially underlying delayed JOLs were borne out. A model of the processes underlying delayed JOLs based on these and earlier results is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encoding modality can affect memory accuracy via retrieval orientation.

Research indicates that false memory is lower following visual than auditory study, potentially because visual information is more distinctive. In the present study we tested the extent to which retrieval orientation can cause a modality effect on memory accuracy. Participants studied unrelated words in different modalities, followed by criterial recollection tests that selectively oriented retrieval toward one study modality at a time. Memory errors were lower when oriented toward visual than toward auditory information, thereby generalizing the modality effect to an explicit source memory task. Moreover, these effects persisted independent of the test presentation modality, indicating that retrieval orientation overrode the potential cuing properties of the test stimulus. An independent manipulation check confirmed that visual recollections were subjectively experienced as more distinctive than auditory recollections. These results suggest that retrieval orientation is sufficient to cause a modality effect on memory accuracy by focusing monitoring processes on the recollection of studied features that are diagnostic of prior presentation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of memory in concept learning.

Studies manipulating variables in the attempt to produce different memory requirements in concept learning are reviewed. Many of them have tested Underwood's theoretical position of response contiguity. Performance is generally improved by increasing the availability of previous stimulus information. The degree to which instances of the same concept occur contiguously directly affects acquisition of the concept. Attempts to demonstrate inferior performance with spaced practice have not been successful, although procedural problems make any conclusion tentative. There is some suggestion that memory effects could be classified as proactive and retroactive inhibition. A basic problem concerns the indirect type of question posed by investigators. (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parallel memory retrieval in dual-task situations: II. Episodic memory.

Three experiments asked whether subjects could retrieve information from a 2nd stimulus while they retrieved information from a 1st stimulus. Ss performed recognition judgments on each of 2 words that followed each other by 0, 250, and 1,000 msec (Experiment 1) or 0 and 300 msec (Experiments 2 and 3). In each experiment, reaction time to both stimuli was faster when the 2 stimuli were both targets (on the study list) or both lures (not on the study list) than when 1 was a target and the other was a lure. Each experiment found priming from the 2nd stimulus to the lst when both stimuli were targets. Reaction time to the 1st stimulus was faster when the 2 targets came from the same memory structure at study (columns in Experiment l; pairs in Experiment 2; sentences in Experiment 3) than when they came from different structures. This priming is inconsistent with discrete serial retrieval and consistent with parallel retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress impairs retrieval of socially relevant information.

Several studies have reported that stress impairs memory retrieval, even though findings are not unequivocal. Moreover, memory for socially relevant information was not previously investigated. The present study aimed to test the effects of stress on the retrieval of social memory (e.g., memory concerning names, birthdays, or biographies). In a randomized cross-over experiment, the cognitive performance of 29 subjects (15 women) was tested twice. Social memory was tested in a stress session, in which participants were exposed to a brief standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor between encoding and retrieval. Performance was compared with a stress-free control session. Stress exposure caused an increase in cortisol concentrations and changes in several mood measures. Social memory retrieval was reduced in the stress compared with the control session. An association between the cortisol stress response and poorer retrieval was significant in responders, that is, those participants displaying a cortisol rise after stress onset. Thus, similar to other forms of declarative memory, the retrieval of declarative memory for socially relevant information learned from biographical notes is impaired after acute stress exposure. This effect is linked to the stress-induced cortisol increase. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time course of object-feature retrieval in recognition.

The time course of perception and retrieval of object features was investigated. Participants completed a perceptual matching task and 2 recognition tasks under time pressure. The recognition tasks imposed different retention loads. A stochastic model of feature sampling with a Bayesian decision component was used to estimate the rate of feature perception and the rate of retrieval of feature information. The results demonstrated that retrieval rates did not differ among object features if only a single object was held in memory. If 2 objects were retained in memory, differences among retrieval rates of features emerged, indicating that features that were quickly perceived were also quickly retrieved. The results from the 2-object retention condition are compatible with process reinstatement models of retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of learning methods on collaboration: Prior repeated retrieval enhances retrieval organization, abolishes collaborative inhibition, and promotes post-collaborative memory.

Research on collaborative memory has unveiled the counterintuitive yet robust phenomenon that collaboration impairs group recall. A candidate explanation for this collaborative inhibition effect is the disruption of people's idiosyncratic retrieval strategies during collaboration, and it is hypothesized that employing methods that improve one's organization protects against retrieval disruption. Here it is investigated how one's learning method during the study phase—defined as either repeatedly studying or repeatedly retrieving information—influences retrieval organization and what effects this has on collaborative recall and post-collaborative individual recall. Results show that repeated retrieval consistently eliminated collaborative inhibition. This enabled participants to gain the most from re-exposure to materials recalled by their partners that they themselves did not recall and led to improvements in their individual memory following collaboration. This repeated retrieval advantage stemmed from the preferential manner in which this learning method strengthened retrieval organization. Findings are also discussed that reveal a relationship between retrieval organization and the interaction observed between learning method and short versus long delay seen in the testing effect literature. Finally, results show that the elusive benefits of cross-cuing during collaboration may be best detected with a longer study–test delay. Together, these findings illuminate when and how collaboration can enhance memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term outcomes of memory retrieval under stress.

Previous studies have found impairing effects of stress hormones on memory retrieval. So far, it is unknown whether these impairments are temporary, persistent throughout time, or whether the strength of the memory trace changes after retrieval because of the effects of stress hormones on memory processes during retrieval. In the present study, delayed cued recall (6 months after initial learning) was compared between male participants who had retrieved previously learned word pairs during stress or a control condition. Retrieval (with or without stress) had taken place either 1 day or 5 weeks after initial encoding. The group that had retrieved words under stress 5 weeks after encoding performed worse on long-term recall than the comparable control group. However, when words were retrieved under stress 1 day after encoding, no long-term effect was found, although performance at 6 months in relation to performance under stress was slightly increased compared to the control group. These results support previous findings in animals that stress may affect memory during reactivation. It further suggests that time intervals between encoding and reactivation may play an important role. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Test-enhanced learning of natural concepts: Effects on recognition memory, classification, and metacognition.

Three experiments examined testing effects on learning of natural concepts and metacognitive assessments of such learning. Results revealed that testing enhanced recognition memory and classification accuracy for studied and novel exemplars of bird families on immediate and delayed tests. These effects depended on the balance of study and test trials during training. Metacognitive measures provided results suggesting that participants were aware of the beneficial effects of testing. A new measure of metacognition at the level of categories is introduced and shown to be potentially useful for theory and applied purposes. It is argued that focusing on optimizing the learning of natural concepts encourages the convergence of theorizing about memory, concept learning, and metacognition and holds promise for the development of applications to education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)