Long Term Memory for Knowledge Taught in School

Abstract : This study examined students' retention of knowledge-based college course content after 4- and 11-months. Retention was evaluated for group-paced and self-paced instructional delivery. The study focused on the ability to recognize information learned in school. There were no measures of the ability to recall information or solve problems. The results indicated that: (1) students scored approximately 85 percent after 4 months and about 80 percent after 11 months; (2) self-paced students performed significantly better on all tests at both intervals than did group-paced students; (3) the amount of information lost did not differ significantly between groups across the two retention intervals and; (4) the amount of information lost relative to initial learning did not differ significantly between groups across the two retention intervals. Because the multiple-choice and true-false test item formats used in this study are identical to those used in most Navy introductory technical courses and because of the similarities in the type of information taught in the college course and Navy courses (e.g. names, definitions, principles), it can be concluded that students will be able to recognize knowledge learned in Navy technical classrooms even after an 11-month retention interval. Further research is planned to investigate students' ability to recall information learned in school. Keywords: Long term memory, Self-paced instruction, Retention.