Learning from tests: Effects of spacing

The effects of delaying an immediate test, a rehearsal opportunity, or a second presentation on long-term free recall were investigated in an experiment combining features of the Brown-Peterson and free-recall paradigms. Each trial consisted of: (a) initial presentation of a word double (P1); (b) 4, 8, or 14 seconds on a digit shadowing task; (c) either a second presentation of the word-pair (P2), an overt recall test of that pair (T), or an opportunity to covertly rehearse the pair (R); and (d) 13, 9, or 3 seconds of shadowing. A free-recall test was given after each block of 12 trials. The end-of-block recall increased as a function of the second event delay for P1-P2 and P1-T conditions but not for P1-R conditions. A proposed model assumes that both repetitions and tests promote learning and that the effectiveness of both is a function of the current state of memory at the time of the repetition or test.

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