Using tests to enhance 8 th grade students’ retention of U.S. history facts

SUMMARY Laboratory studies show that retention of information can be powerfully enhanced through testing, but evidence for their utility to promote long-term retention of course information is limited. We assessed 8th grade students' retention of U.S. history facts. Facts were reviewed after 1 week, 16 weeks or not reviewed at all. Some facts were reviewed by testing (Who assassinated president Abraham Lincoln?) followed by feedback (John Wilkes Booth), while others were re-studied. Nine months later, all students received a test covering all of the facts. Facts reviewed through testing were retained significantly better than facts reviewed through re-studying, and nearly twice as well as those given no review. The best retention occurred for facts that were reviewed by testing after a 16-week time interval. Although the gain in item was numerically small, due to floor effects, these results support the notion that testing can enhance long-term retention of course knowledge

Does multitasking impair studying? Depends on Timing”.

Summary: It is often said that contemporary students frequently study while 'multitasking'. However, this rather diffuse term encompasses situations that vary as to the whether the learner controls the pace at which educational materials are provided. On the basis of prior cognitive research, we hypothesize that this may well be a critical determinant of interference. Three studies required students to read or listen to several short historical narratives and also to engage in five to eight very short conversations (akin to an instant messaging conversation). In Experiment 1, subjects read the narratives; here, multitasking marginally increased total time spent reading the narratives, especially when it occurred at random times. However, final memory for the narratives was not significantly affected. Similar results were obtained when the narratives were presented in audio format and the learner could pause them while conversing (Experiment 2). By contrast, when audio narratives did not pause, interruptions reduced comprehension performance (Experiment 3)

When the Choice Is Ours: Context and Agency Modulate the Neural Bases of Decision-Making

The option to choose between several courses of action is often associated with the feeling of being in control. Yet, in certain situations, one may prefer to decline such agency and instead leave the choice to others. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we provide evidence that the neural processes involved in decision-making are modulated not only by who controls our choice options (agency), but also by whether we have a say in who is in control (context). The fMRI results are noteworthy in that they reveal specific contributions of the anterior frontomedian cortex (viz. BA 10) and the rostral cingulate zone (RCZ) in decision-making processes. The RCZ is engaged when conditions clearly present us with the most choice options. BA 10 is engaged in particular when the choice is completely ours, as well as when it is completely up to others to choose for us which in turn gives rise to an attribution of control to oneself or someone else, respectively. After all, it does not only matter whether we have any options to choose from, but also who decides on that

Author Correction: A consensus-based transparency checklist.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

Attending to a misoriented word causes the eyeball to rotate in the head

Torsional eye movements are triggered by head tilt and a rotating visual field. We examined whether attention to a misoriented form could also induce torsion. 36 observers viewed an adapting field containing a bright vertical line, followed by a display composed of two misoriented words (one rotated clockwise, the other counterclockwise, 15, 30 or 45 degrees). Subjects were instructed to attend to one of the words. Their adjustments of a reference line to match the tilt of the afterimage showed that attending to a misoriented word produced a torsional eye movement (verified with direct measurements on four additional individuals). The eye movement reduced the retinal misorientation of the word by about 1 degree. The results reinforce the linkage between selective attention and eye movements, and may provide a useful tool in dissecting different forms of “mental rotation” and other adjustments in internal reference frames

A consensus-based transparency checklist

We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository