Why wait if you can switch? A short term testing effect in cross-language recognition.

Taking a memory test after an initial study phase produces better long-term retention than restudying the items, a phenomenon known as the testing effect. We propose that this effect emerges because testing strengthens semantic features of items’ memory traces, whereas restudying strengthens surface features of items’ memory traces. This novel account predicts that a testing effect should be observed even after a short retention interval when a language switch occurs between the learning phase and the final test phase. We assessed this prediction with Dutch-English bilinguals who learned Dutch Deese-Roediger-McDermott word lists through restudying or through testing (retrieval practice). Five minutes after this learning phase, they took a recognition test in Dutch (within-language condition) or in English (across-language condition). We observed a testing effect in the across-language condition, but not in the within-language condition. These findings corroborate our novel account of the testing effect

Can questioning induce forgetting?:Retrieval-induced forgetting of eyewitness information

In eyewitness situations, questioning can be seen as a form of retrieval practice that may have detrimental effects on eyewitness memory. Memory research has demonstrated that retrieval practice may not only enhance memory for practiced information but also induce forgetting of related information. The present study examined the effect of retrieval practice on forgetting in eyewitness memory. First, we investigated whether asking questions about particular offender characteristics can induce forgetting of other offender characteristics. Second, we examined whether this forgetting effect is limited to information from the practiced offender or may also influence memory for characteristics of others present in the crime scene. Third, we studied whether forgetting of eyewitness information occurs in the absence of output interference effects. We found that questioning induced forgetting of offender characteristics. Moreover, the forgetting effect was not limited to information about the practiced offender. Finally, forgetting was found even when output order was experimentally controlled

Forgetting: Inhibition or Interference?

Let’s suppose you are trying to remember the name of the professor that gave you a cognitive psychology class in your first year at university. This may turn out to be quite difficult, because you have had many other classes since then with diff erent professors. Th ere are different accounts of why this forgetting occurs. One explanation is that forgetting occurs because of interference when you are trying to retrieve the professor’s name. Because you have had classes by many other professors, the cue professor has been associated to many other names and faces. These names and faces can interfere when you are trying to remember the name of your cognitive psychology professor. Thus, according to interference accounts, forgetting is caused by the addition or strengthening of competing items in memory (e.g., McGeoch, 1932, 1942; Raaijmakers & Shiffrin, 1981; Mensink & Raaijmakers, 1988). A second account of why you are unable to remember the name of your old professor is inhibition. Over the years, there have probably been many occasions on which you retrieved the names of professors of more recent classes. During these retrieval attempts, the name of your old professor may have been activated and this may have given rise to retrieval competition. Because your old professor was not the name you were looking for, the name of your old professor may have been inhibited to make the correct name more available. Because of this inhibition, the name of your old professor may have become more difficult to retrieve at a later time. Th us, according to inhibitory accounts, forgetting is caused by the active suppression of memory items when these memory items compete with the appropriate response (e.g., Anderson, 2003; Anderson & Spellman, 1995; Levy & Anderson, 2002). In this view, forgetting is not a passive consequence of adding new information to memory, but it is an active process. People can exert inhibitory control over the activation of memory traces

Generating Keywords Improves Metacomprehension and Self-Regulation in Elementary and Middle School Children

Metacomprehension accuracy is typically quite poor; however, recently interventions have been developed to improve accuracy. In two experiments, we evaluated whether generating delayed keywords prior to judging comprehension improved metacomprehension accuracy for children. For sixth and seventh graders, metacomprehension accuracy was greater for the delayed-keyword condition than for a control group. By contrast, for fourth graders, accuracy did not differ across conditions. Improved metacomprehension accuracy led to improved regulation of study

Spreading the Words: A Spacing Effect in Vocabulary Learning

The spacing effect refers to the frequently observed finding that distributing learning across time leads to better retention than massing it into one single study session. In the present study, we examined whether the spacing effect generalises to primary school vocabulary learning. To this aim, children from Grade 3 were taught the meaning of 15 new words using a massed procedure and 15 other new words using a spaced procedure. The 15 words in the massed condition were divided into three sets of five words, and each set was taught three times in one of three learning sessions. In the spaced condition, learning was distributed across the three sessions: All 15 words were practised once in each of the three learning sessions. At the retention tests after 1 week and after 5 weeks we observed that the meaning of spaced words was remembered better than the meaning of massed words

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 enhanceslong-term retention more than restudying. We examined retrieval practice in primary school vocabularylearning in two experiments. Nine-year-old children studied word definitions and completed exercisesaccording to three learning conditions: pure restudy, elaborative restudy or retrieval practice. Children inthe pure restudy condition reread and partly copied the definitions. In the elaborative restudy conditionchildren reread the definitions and connected semantically related words to the target words. Childrenin 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 theother conditions, but on the multiple-choice test there were no differences. Retrieval practice may beeffective for primary school vocabulary learning, but there is uncertainty about the practical value andthe magnitude of the retrieval practice effect

The effects of summarization and factual retrieval practice on text comprehension and text retention in elementary education

When reading a text in school, the goal is both text comprehension and text retention. We examined the effects of the learning strategies summarization and factual retrieval practice on third- and fourth-grade pupils’ text comprehension and retention of factual knowledge from a text, using restudy as a control condition. The experiment was conducted in an authentic classroom setting, with teachers executing the experiment using original course materials. In 2016, 57 regular third- and fourth-grade pupils (M = 9.04 years old) read three different texts, and each applied three different learning strategies (summarization, retrieval practice and restudy, which were counterbalanced across texts) in subsequent practice sessions. After a 2-week delay, a final test was administered. The learning strategy summarization had a larger positive effect on text comprehension than factual retrieval practice, but had a similar effect compared to restudy. The learning strategy factual retrieval practice had a larger positive effect on text retention than both summarization and restudy. Implications for educational practice are discussed

Effectief leren in de handboeken van lerarenopleidingen

Weten hoe leerlingen en studenten goed kunnen leren, wordt steeds belangrijker; immers van hen wordt verwacht dat ze levenslang bijleren en zich steeds nieuwe kennis en vaardigheden eigen maken. Om hen goed te gidsen in hun leerproces is het daarom belangrijk dat leraren in opleiding voldoende kennis hebben van eff ectieve leerstrategieën. De auteurs onderzochten hoe twee belangrijke en bewezen leerstrategieën behandeld worden in handboeken aan lerarenopleidingen

Optimizing the 3R study strategy to learn from texts

Presentation for the Welten Institute research lunch meeting