Organizational Processes Contribute to the Testing Effect in Free Recall

In educational contexts, tests not only assess what students know, they can also directly improve long-term retention of subject matter relative to restudying it. More importantly, the memorial advantage of testing is not limited to select information that was tested earlier. Research has shown that testing can serve as a versatile learning tool by enhancing the long-term retention of non-tested information that is conceptually related to previously tested information; stimulating the subsequent learning of new information; and permitting better transfer of learning to new knowledge domains. We further investigated the potential benefits of testing on learning by asking whether testing can also improve students\u27 learning and retention of the conceptual organization of study materials, and if so, whether processes involved in mentally organizing information during learning contribute to the memorial advantage of testing. In three experiments with categorized lists, we asked whether the testing effect in free recall is related to enhancements in organizational processing. In the first experiment, different groups of subjects studied a list either once or twice before a final criterial test or they studied the list once and took an initial recall test before the final test. Prior testing enhanced total recall of words and reduced false recall of extra-list intrusions relative to restudying. In addition, testing increased the number of categories accessed, the number of items recalled from within those categories, and improved category clustering. In two additional experiments, manipulating the organizational processing that occurred during initial study and test trials affected delayed recall and measures of output organization. Testing produced superior long-term retention when initial test conditions promoted the use of semantic relational information to guide episodic retrieval, and measures of category clustering and subjective organization were correlated with delayed recall. The results suggest that the benefit of testing in free recall learning arises, at least in part, because testing creates retrieval schemas based upon categorical knowledge and recollections of previous recall attempts that guide and facilitate episodic recall

We Made History: Citizens of 35 Countries Overestimate their Nation’s Role in World History

Inspired by the work of Ross and Sicoly (1979) and others (e.g., Epley and Caruso, 2004; Schroeder, Caruso, and Epley, 2016 Tanaka, 1993) showing egocentric tendencies of individuals to overestimate their remembered contributions to small group activities, our research investigates whether similar tendencies occur at a national level, whereby individuals tend to overestimate the remembered contributions of their country to shaping the course of world history. Specifically, we asked over 6,000 university students from 35 countries “What contribution do you think the country you are living in has made to world history? The students provided estimates ranging from 0-100%, where 0% indicated that the country made no contribution to world history and 100% indicated that all contributions came from the country. This question was included towards the end of a survey about world history and identity that was administered in most of the 35 countries between 2007 and 2008, with several countries added between 2010 and 2013 (Liu et al., 2012; Hanke et al., 2015). The primary project was directed by James Liu, Dario Paez, and Alberto Rosa, and several papers have already been published from this large dataset on other aspects of the data. A paper on the current study is in press (Zaromb et al., 2018; see https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211368118300202)

Age dissociates recency and lag recency effects in free recall

The temporal relations among word-list items exert a powerful influence on episodic memory retrieval. Two experiments were conducted with younger and older adults in which the age-related recall deficit was examined by using a decomposition method to the serial position curve, partitioning performance into (a) the probability of first recall, illustrating the recency effect, and (b) the conditional response probability, illustrating the lag recency effect (M. W. Howard & M. J. Kahana, 1999). Although the older adults initiated recall in the same manner in both immediate and delayed free recall, temporal proximity of study items (contiguity) exerted a much weaker influence on recall transitions in older adults. This finding suggests that an associative deficit may be an important contributor to older adults ’ well-known impairment in free recall. This article examines the temporal associative processes governing memory retrieval in free recall by using a decomposition technique that elucidates the distinct contributions of recency and contiguity (Howard & Kahana, 1999; Kahana, 1996). Recency refers to the pervasive finding that the retrievability of previously experienced stimuli or events diminishes with the passage of time and the concomitant presence of interfering activity. Temporal contiguity of events also influences the ease of memory retrieval. If two events, A and B, are experienced in temporal proximity, information about A facilitates retrieval of B, and vice versa. To introduce our dissociation technique, we first illustrate how free recall can be decomposed into separable recency and contiguity components. We then introduce the notion of scale invariance and the idea that contiguity effects in free recall could be a consequence of the retrieval of temporal context. Finally, we introduce the notion that a comparison of younger and older adults—two groups well-known to differ in episodic memory performance—may inform this theoretical distinction between recency and contiguity processes in free recall

Situational Judgment Tests as a method for measuring personality: Development and validity evidence for a test of Dependability

Gefördert durch den Publikationsfonds der Universität Kasse

Cross-cultural dimensions of meaning in the evaluation of events in world history? Perceptions of historical calamities and progress in cross-cultural data from 30 societies

The universality versus culture specificity of quantitative evaluations (negative-positive) of 40 events in world history was addressed using World History Survey data collected from 5,800 university students in 30 countries/societies. Multidimensional scaling using generalized procrustean analysis indicated poor fit of data from the 30 countries to an overall mean configuration, indicating lack of universal agreement as to the associational meaning of events in world history. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified one Western and two non-Western country clusters for which adequate multidimensional fit was obtained after item deletions. A two-dimensional solution for the three country clusters was identified, where the primary dimension was historical calamities versus progress and a weak second dimension was modernity versus resistance to modernity. Factor analysis further reduced the item inventory to identify a single concept with structural equivalence across cultures, Historical Calamities, which included man-made and natural, intentional and unintentional, predominantly violent but also nonviolent calamities. Less robust factors were tentatively named as Historical Progress and Historical Resistance to Oppression. Historical Calamities and Historical Progress were at the individual level both significant and independent predictors of willingness to fight for one’s country in a hierarchical linear model that also identified significant country-level variation in these relationships. Consensus around calamity but disagreement as to what constitutes historical progress is discussed in relation to the political culture of nations and lay perceptions of history as catastrophe

Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Meaning in the Evaluation of Events in World History? Perceptions of Historical Calamities and Progress in Cross-Cultural Data From Thirty Societies

The universality versus culture specificity of quantitative evaluations (negative-positive) of 40 events in world history was addressed using World History Survey data collected from 5,800 university students in 30 countries/societies. Multidimensional scaling using generalized procrustean analysis indicated poor fit of data from the 30 countries to an overall mean configuration, indicating lack of universal agreement as to the associational meaning of events in world history. Hierarchical cluster analysis identified one Western and two non-Western country clusters for which adequate multidimensional fit was obtained after item deletions. A two-dimensional solution for the three country clusters was identified, where the primary dimension was historical calamities versus progress and a weak second dimension was modernity versus resistance to modernity. Factor analysis further reduced the item inventory to identify a single concept with structural equivalence across cultures, Historical Calamities, which included man-made and natural, intentional and unintentional, predominantly violent but also nonviolent calamities. Less robust factors were tentatively named as Historical Progress and Historical Resistance to Oppression. Historical Calamities and Historical Progress were at the individual level both significant and independent predictors of willingness to fight for one’s country in a hierarchical linear model that also identified significant country-level variation in these relationships. Consensus around calamity but disagreement as to what constitutes historical progress is discussed in relation to the political culture of nations and lay perceptions of history as catastroph