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Distributed and massed practice: From laboratory to classroom
Abstract
The benefit to memory of spacing presentations of material is well established but lacks an adequate explanation and is rarely applied in education. This paper presents three experiments that examined the spacing effect and its application to education. Experiment 1 demonstrated that spacing repeated presentations of items is equally beneficial to memory for a wide range of ages, contrary to some theories. Experiment 2 introduced ‘clustered’ presentations as a more relevant control than massed, reflecting the fact that massed presentation of material is uncommon in education. The scheduling of clustered presentations was intermediate between massed and distributed, yet recall was no different than for massed. Experiment 3, a classroom-based study, demonstrated the benefit of distributed over clustered teaching of reading through modification of the scheduling of everyday lessons. Thus, the effectiveness of teaching may be improved by increasing the degree to which lessons are distributed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... The effect of distance has been confirmed in several learning areas, such as mathematics, for knowledge recall (Rohrer & Taylor, 2006), acquisition of L1 vocabulary by children ( (Childers & Tomasello, 2002); ), recall details about physics and pronouncing pictures (Toppino, 1991). In-text processing assignments, distance effects have also been shown to be efficient ( (Rogers, 2017); (Seabrook et al., 2005)). ...
... Miles & Kwon, 2008); (Nakata, 2015)) , and reading ((S. Miles & Kwon, 2008); (Nakata, 2015)) (Seabrook et al., 2005). There is emerging evidence that distance distribution training in the preservation of target language constructs is greater than mass distribution training, that is, when learning is assessed after a delayed post-test test. ...
... The results showed that spacing training strengthened the learning outcomes of Indonesian education students. The results are consistent with previous cognitive psychology experiments (Seabrook et al., 2005) that verify the impact of the spatial distribution of teaching across various learning disciplines. In addition, these findings also validate several types of previous research (for example, (SW Miles, 2014); (S. ...
This study is comparing the effects of spacing instruction and massed instruction on Indonesian education students. To fulfill this objective, two intact classes were selected; one as a spacing group and another one as a massed group. Afterward, researcher administering a pre-test measured the skills of participants Islamic education. After that, only then did they receive treatment. In mass classes, the material is taught in an intensive 90-minute session, while the material is taught to space groups in three short sessions (each 30-minute session). After the instructions were carried out, a post-test was carried out in both groups, both mass classes and space groups. Then the post-test result data were analyzed using paired and independent sample t-test. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the post-test spacing group and the mass group. The results of this study indicated that the spacing group significantly outperformed the mass group at the final test. Finally, the implications of the study are discussed. Keywords: Learning Outcomes, Massed instruction, Spacing instruction, education skills;
... The researchers, however, postulate that there are occasions where learners are not eager enough to pay money for such a way of learning, nor do the teachers like to spend time being on call. Also, studentinitiated use of language supported by teachers can foster vocabulary learning by increasing the 'Cognitive Involvement Load' (Hulstijn & Laufer, 2001, p. 542) through the'Spacing Effect' (Greene, 1989;Dempster, 1996;Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). By using the word to make a sentence, sending it at spaced intervals to teachers via text-message, and receiving the feedback learners can build a net of well-connected and well-practiced paths and thus retrieve the target word more easily. ...
... The spacing effect also sheds light on the present study. Based on research on memory and learning, for an item to be stored in long-term memory, distributed practice is superior to massed practice (Dempster, 1996;Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). Study conditions in which repetitions of items to be acquired or learned appear in spaced or distributed sequences have been found to lend themselves better to subsequent retention than presentations in which repetitions occur quickly (Braun and Rubin, 1998;Cuddy and Jacoby, 1982;Dempster, 1987;Greene, 1989;Hintz-man, 1976;Seabrook, Brown & Solity, 2005). ...
... Based on research on memory and learning, for an item to be stored in long-term memory, distributed practice is superior to massed practice (Dempster, 1996;Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). Study conditions in which repetitions of items to be acquired or learned appear in spaced or distributed sequences have been found to lend themselves better to subsequent retention than presentations in which repetitions occur quickly (Braun and Rubin, 1998;Cuddy and Jacoby, 1982;Dempster, 1987;Greene, 1989;Hintz-man, 1976;Seabrook, Brown & Solity, 2005). This phenomenon has been known as the spacing effect which further argues that memory for items which are presented and then immediately repeated, i.e., massed practice, is worse than for items which are repeated after some intervening items have appeared, i.e., distributed practice. ...
p>The present research investigates the effectiveness of text-message vocabulary learning on EFL freshmen. The results of the pretreatment interview with EFL learners showed that many of them have difficulty learning vocabulary through the traditional paperand-pencil way; therefore, text-message vocabulary learning was hypothesized to be a potential way to help EFL learners consolidate their vocabulary knowledge. To this end, 43 participants from among 85 freshmen studying in Torbat-e-Heydarieh Azad University participated in the study. The participants were divided into two groups of 21 and 22 on the basis of their proficiency. The book Check Your Vocabulary for Academic English by David Porter (2001) was taught to both groups, and they were told to make some sentences in the class to become familiar with these words; they were requested to work cooperatively in small groups of 3 or 4 in order to have the opportunity to talk more about these words. Fifteen to 20 words were introduced and taught to these students on each session. Then, the participants in the experimental group sent the researcher one text-message containing an original sentence for each word covered in the class. They were also asked to send a text-message containing a sentence to their three predetermined partners. The participants in the control group wrote one sentence using each covered word, and they were also asked to write one sentence to exchange with their three partners and bring their assignments to the class next session. The results of independent samples t-test for the post-test and the delayed post-test showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the initial vocabulary learning and the retention of the vocabulary between the two groups.</p
... The spacing effect was verified in many learning domains, including mathematics (e.g., Rohrer & Taylor, 2006), L1 vocabulary acquisition among children (Childers & Tomasello, 2002;Namaziandost, Sabzevari, & Hashemifardnia, 2018), recalling facts of physics, and memorizing pictures (e.g., Toppino, 1993), to remember information. The spacing effect was also proven to be effective in performing text tasks (e.g., Seabrook, Brown & Solity, 2005;Namaziandost, Rahimi Esfahani, & Ahmadi, 2019). Also, the spacing effect can be effective in developing complex skills beyond rotary memorization. ...
... Whereas, several previous studies demonstrated the greater learning ability of spaced teaching in mass education in grammar learning (Miles, (Miles & Kwon, 2008;Nakata, 2015;Shakibaei, Shahamat, & Namaziandost, 2019), and reading (Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). Recent evidence indicates that spaced delivery instructions are better than mass distribution instructions in maintaining target language constructs, i.e. when learning is measured after a delayed posttest (Miles, 2014;. ...
... The findings imply that spacing instruction enhanced Iranian EFL learners' collocation learning. The findings are in line with previous studies in cognitive psychology (Seabrook et al., 2005) which confirmed the effect of spaced distribution instruction in different domains of learning. Moreover, the results are also corroborating some previous studies (e.g., Miles, 2014;Miles & Kwon, 2008;Namaziandost, Rahimi Esfahani, & Hashemifardnia, 2018;Rohrer & Pashler, 2007;Namaziandost, Nasri, Rahimi Esfahani, & Keshmirshekan 2019) showing that the spaced distribution instruction improved foreign language learning. ...
This study compared the impact of spaced instruction and massed instruction on learning collocations among Iranian EFL learners. To do so, 60 Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners were selected among 90 students based on the results of Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The selected participants were then non-randomly divided into two equal experimental groups; spaced group and massed group. Afterwards, the researcher measured the participants' collocations knowledge by administering a collocation pre-test. Then, 100 English collocations were instructed to the both experimental groups in the treatment phase of the study. After the instruction, a collocation post-test was administered to both groups and finally the data were analyzed by using paired and independent samples t-tests. The obtained results indicated that there was a significant difference between the post-tests of spaced and massed groups. The findings indicated that the spaced group significantly outperformed the massed group (p < .05) on the post-test. The implications of this study can make the teachers aware that teaching through spaced intervals can provide better results than teaching through one massed session.
... To be able to do the top throw quickly and precisely, every player must do the exercises systematically, regularly and continuously with the right principles of training. The training method that can be used to improve the ability of these throws is to use the method massed practice and distributed practice using the method Throwing massed practice exercises are exercises that are carried out repeatedly and continuously, without breaks or very short periods of rest (Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). Exercises with the method distributed practice are exercises that are carried out repeatedly, where intervals are interspersed with sufficient time. ...
... Learning methods are Massed practice generally used to improve a movement technique due to short periods of rest (Ab Razak et al., 2018) because in the player will remember the movements that were previously carried out and will be carried out for the next movement to correct the movement (Mustofa & Agustiyanto, 2017). While the method of learning distributed practice, in the implementation of the movement interspersed with a relatively long rest period, then the previous movement's memory has been lost, so that it cannot obtain a backup to improve the next movement (Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). ...
... In order to recall knowledge, the spacing impact has been validated in a wide variety of learning realms, such as mathematics (e.g., Rohrer & Taylor, 2006), childrenís development of L1 vocabulary (Childers & Tomasello, 2002), the recollection of physical facts (Franzenburg, 2020) and the memorization of images (e.g., Toppino, 1993). The spacing impact has also been shown in the tasks of text processing (e.g., Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). ...
... Meanwhile, a majority of studies have demonstrated the beneficial impacts of spaced instruction over massed instruction in grammar learning (Miles, 2014), vocabulary learning (Nakata, 2015), and reading skills (Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). There is recent evidence that spaced distribution instruction is better than massed distribution instruction in the retention of target language structures, i.e., when learning is measured after administering a delayed post-test (Miles, 2014). ...
This study investigated the impact of spaced and massed instruction on foreign language reading motivation and reading attitude among Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. To fulfil this objective, 60 Iranian participants were chosen among 120 students based on the results of Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The selected pre-intermediate participants were then divided into two equal experimental groups: spaced group and massed group. Afterwards, the researcher measured the participantsí reading motivation and reading attitude by administering a reading motivation questionnaire and a reading attitude survey as a pre-test. Then, both groups received the treatment. During the treatment phase of the study, the massed group was taught the reading comprehension in an intensive 60-minute session, while the spaced group was taught in three short sessions (twenty-minute session). After the instruction, a reading motivation questionnaire and a reading attitude survey as a post-test were carried out to both groups and finally the data were analyzed by running paired and independent sample t-tests. The outcomes demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the post-tests of spaced and massed groups. The findings indicated that the spaced group significantly out performed the massed group (p < .05) on the reading motivation and reading attitude post-test. The implications of this study make teachers know that teaching through spaced periods can produce better outcomes than teaching through one massed session.
... With regard to distributed practice, indications of moderating variables are sparse. While the effect of distributed practice has also been demonstrated for a broad age range including children (e.g., [55]), the role of individual differences with regard to motivational or cognitive variables is less clear. A few studies examined the effect of prior knowledgesome yielding a larger benefit by distributed and interleaved practice for students with low prior knowledge [28,53], while others found no such interaction [47]. ...
... A few studies examined the effect of prior knowledgesome yielding a larger benefit by distributed and interleaved practice for students with low prior knowledge [28,53], while others found no such interaction [47]. Studies on the effect of working memory capacity seem to indicate that there is no interaction with the effect of distributed practice [18,55]. ...
In this study, the effect of distributed practice on the mathematical performance of 7th graders was investigated (N == 81). After a stochastics lesson, one group of students worked three sets of exercises massed on one day, while the other group of students worked the same exercises distributed over three days. Bayesian analyses of the performance two weeks after the last practice revealed no evidence for an effect of practice condition. However, in a test after six weeks, strong evidence for a positive effect of distributed practice was revealed. Exploratory analyses indicated that especially students in the medium performance range benefitted from distributed practice. The results are discussed regarding the question under which circumstances distributed practice proves a useful strategy for mathematical learning.
... In the following section we examine another method for successful repetition trainingthe spacing effect. The spacing effect states that learning proceeds more rapidly when repetitions of a word are spaced over longer periods (e.g., Benjamin & Tullis, 2010;Cepeda, Vul, Rohrer, Wixted, & Pashler, 2008;Dempster, 1987;Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). Expanding the spacing between repetitions of a target L2 word or between retrieval attempts significantly improves vocabulary learning outcomes (e.g., Atkinson, 1972;Bahrick, Bahrick, Bahrick, & Bahrick, 1993;Bahrick & Hall, 2005;Cepeda et al., 2008;Kang, 2016;Pavlik & Anderson, 2005), but the optimal number of repetitions and the optimal spacing between the repetitions or sessions are the subject of ongoing inquiry. ...
This review examines and integrates studies of second language (L2) vocabulary instruction with adult learners in a laboratory setting, using a framework provided by a modified version of the Revised Hierarchical Model (Kroll & Stewart, 1994), the Revised Hierarchical Model-Repetition Elaboration Retrieval. By examining how various training methods promote or fail to promote the development of high-quality orthographic, phonological, and meaning representations, and strong connections between these representations, we reconceptualize the current body of knowledge, and highlight gaps in the existing literature. We review evidence that training methods that only promote L1 to L2 form connections (e.g., massed repetition) are generally ineffective, but can become highly effective when paired with methods that also strengthen L2 form-meaning connections (e.g., spaced repetition training with retrieval practice or semantic elaboration requiring user-generated responses). We discuss the implications of these findings for researchers and educators interested in improving L2 vocabulary learning outcomes.
... intervention sessions with the Spring Term. Futhermore, this fits the notion of distributed practice, which has demonstrated benefits for retention of information (Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). The number of sessions was negotiated with the school, and the decision to deliver the intervention twice each week was based on feasibility considerations, such as timetabling and availability of staffing. ...
Aim: This research aimed to explore the impact of school-based Lego Therapy groups for adolescents with a diagnosis of ASD in mainstream schools. Method/Rationale: School staff were trained in the delivery of the social skills intervention to groups comprising one adolescent with ASD and two typically developing peers. A non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants design was employed to examine the impact of the intervention for six adolescent males with ASD. Findings: Visual analysis, PAND effect sizes and Tau-U statistical analyses demonstrated the large positive impact of the intervention on duration of social engagement and frequency of social initiations, responses and positive social behaviours for five out of six participants. The final participant withdrew from the research. Parents and teachers saw some evidence of generalisation of skill to home and other aspects of school life but this was not consistent for all participants. Fidelity of implementation was maintained, suggesting the approach is appropriate for delivery in school settings by school staff. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that Lego Therapy groups can be an effective school-based social skills intervention for adolescents with ASD. Limitations: This research was limited by the small sample size. Future research should extend the evidence-base of Lego-based social skill groups, examining the impact of the intervention for a wider range of students with differing needs.
... Educational theory strongly supports advantages of spaced learning. [166][167][168][169][170] Potential advantages may include the additional time to reflect and elaborate on the learning content between the learning sessions (eg, constructivist theories) and memory consolidation effects by recall/retraining. ...
For this 2020 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science With Treatment Recommendations, the Education, Implementation, and Teams Task Force applied the population, intervention, comparator, outcome, study design, time frame format and performed 15 systematic reviews, applying the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation guidance. Furthermore, 4 scoping reviews and 7 evidence updates assessed any new evidence to determine if a change in any existing treatment recommendation was required. The topics covered included training for the treatment of opioid overdose; basic life support, including automated external defibrillator training; measuring implementation and performance in communities, and cardiac arrest centers; advanced life support training, including team and leadership training and rapid response teams; measuring cardiopulmonary resuscitation performance, feedback devices, and debriefing; and the use of social media to improve cardiopulmonary resuscitation application.
... Studies have consistently shown that, given the same total learning time, practice which is distributed over a number of learning occasions separated by intervals produces stronger and more lasting memory (see the comprehensive synthesis in Cepeda et al., 2006). In a real classroom setting studied by Seabrook et al. (2005), "children whose teaching [in core literacy skills] consisted of three 2-min sessions per day showed more than six times the improvement of those who were taught for one 6-min session per day. " The implications for language teachers are obvious but in most classroom settings, of course, a series of short sessions requires more complex organization than one single massed session. ...
This paper proposes a framework to guide us in designing and implementing our classroom language pedagogy. It is based on three major principles which the teacher can keep constantly in mind: that the learners need to be engaged, that the language needs to be memorized, and that learning needs to move toward communicative competence. Each principle generates between two and four dimensions which the teacher can use to develop specific strategies.
... The framework is taught through distributed practice (three times a day) rather than massed practice (single session of 54 minutes) (Baddeley, 1997;Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). Mastery is determined by high fluency rather than accuracy, with levels as determined by research on Precision Teaching (Raybould & Solity, 1982). ...
This article explores the ‘reading wars’ from the perspective of instructional psychology, which focuses on the environmental and instructional factors that facilitate students’ progress in learning to read. It draws on research (computational analysis and classroom-based experimental studies) to inform a novel intervention that teaches reading through systematic synthetic phonics and real books, rather than the more traditional phonically decodable reading schemes. The article discusses: (1) the criteria that inform curriculum design, (2) the instructional principles that underpin effective teaching, (3) teaching methodology, (4) an instructional analysis that explains why students are perceived to have difficulties in learning to read, and (5) the implications of instructional psychology for educational psychologists.
... The finding is consistent with previous studies in cognitive psychology Pavlik & Anderson, 2005;Seabrook et al., 2005) which confirmed the effect of spaced distribution instruction in different domains of learning. Moreover, the result also corroborates some previous studies (e.g., Miles, 2014;Rohrer & Pashler, 2007;Smolen et al., 2016) showing that the spaced distribution instruction improved foreign language learning, and specifically vocabulary learning (Goossens et al., 2012;Kornell, 2009;Sobel et al., 2011) These results are in contrast with previous studies (Collins & White, 2011;Lee & Choe, 2014;Miles, 2014;Snoder, 2017), which found no clear advantage of spaced conditions over massed conditions on immediate posttests. ...
The current study investigates the effect of massed and spaced instruction on vocabulary recall and retention. To fulfill this objective, 75 Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners (16 to 19 years) took part in 15 sessions of 60 minutes. The participants were randomly divided into three experimental groups; a spaced distribution group (n = 25), a massed distribution group (n = 25) and a control group (n = 25). The massed distribution group had one intensive session on learning the target vocabulary; the spaced distribution group had three sessions at irregular time intervals, and the control group received no vocabulary-focused instruction. Using a before and after design, students were retested after 5 weeks. To collect data, a receptive vocabulary test was administered as both the pretest and the posttests. The results of One-way ANOVA indicated that the spaced distribution group significantly outperformed the massed distribution group on both immediate and delayed posttests. The results propose that EFL practitioners should synthesize spacing as a beneficial teaching technique into the curricula, instruction and educational materials to promote vocabulary learning in real classroom setting.
... Summations of research efforts conducted by cognitive and educational psychologists and learning scientists have identified principles that produce superior learning outcomes (Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013), including retrieval practice to improve retention and recall (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006) self-explanation to improve Digital Learning Skill Training for Science and Math 7 comprehension (Ainsworth & Burcham, 2007;Renkl, 2000) and the spacing of these learning strategies in order to maximize students' ability to retrieve knowledge when required (Carpenter, et al. 2005, Seabrook, Brown & Solity, 2005. Lessons that provide an overview of these strategies, the evidence for their utility in undergraduate contexts, and activities that help students understand and apply them appear in the first module of The Science of Learning to Learn. ...
... To explicate the interleaving advantage for category induction, two theoretical accounts may be considered. One possibility is that the benefits of interleaving are due to the spacing effect, in which recall is enhanced for information that is repeated spaced apart rather than back to back (e.g., Birnbaum et al., 2013;Cepeda et al., 2006;Dempster, 1996;Seabrook et al., 2005;Vlach et al., 2008). Presumably, spacing aids learning because learners' effortful retrieval of information from memory each time it reoccurs after a time interval promotes deeper processing Pyc & Rawson, 2009), such that increasing the amount of spacing between exemplars improves category learning (Birnbaum et al., 2013). ...
The ability to recognize and distinguish among varying musical styles is essential to developing aural skills and musicianship. Yet, this task can be difficult for music learners, particularly nonexperts. To address this challenge and guide music education practice, this study drew on cognitive psychological principles to investigate the effect of interleaved presentation of music pieces by various classical music composers on learning to identify these composers’ styles. Participants with 4 or fewer years of musical experience were presented with music pieces from six composers in an interleaved manner (alternating between listening to different composers’ works) and music pieces from another six composers in a blocked fashion (listening to works by one composer at a time before moving on to the next). A later test in which participants had to classify novel pieces by the same 12 composers revealed the superiority of interleaved over blocked presentation, although most participants misjudged blocking to be more effective than interleaving. This finding provides evidence for the utility of interleaving in teaching music composers’ styles and extends the literature on the interleaving effect in category induction to the auditory domain. Practical implications and future directions for the use of interleaving in music education are discussed.
... However, in order to provide learners and teachers with recommendations concerning optimal learning strategies, individual differences need to be addressed. We assumed that learners with a poorer working memory capacity might be over-challenged by distributed practice because they may stronger be affected by interferences that might occur between the practice sessions and, therewith, face more problems to maintain the primary task goals (Bui et al., 2013; but see Seabrook et al., 2005;Delaney et al., 2018). Furthermore, in line with deficient processing accounts (e.g., Craik and Lockhart, 1972), we expected participants with difficulties to concentrate on longer tasks to benefit especially from distributed practice because here, the duration of the single learning sessions is shorter and puts less demands on (longer-term) concentration. ...
We investigated the effect of distributed practice and more specifically the “lag effect” concerning the retention of mathematical procedures. The lag effect implies that longer retention intervals benefit from longer inter-study intervals (ISIs). University students (N = 235) first learned how to solve permutation tasks and then practiced this procedure with an ISI of zero (i.e., massed), one, or 11 days. The final test took place after one or five weeks. All conditions were manipulated between-subjects. Contrary to our expectations, the analyses revealed no effect of distributed practice and therewith also no lag effect, even though the sample size was sufficiently large. The only significant effect was that test performance was poorer after 5 weeks than after 1 week. In view of the present results and those of other studies, we assume that distributed practice works differently for declarative and procedural knowledge, with less robust of even absent effects when procedural skills are practiced with ISIs compared to massed practice.
... Spacing effects also occur across age groups, from children to healthy aging and individuals with memory impairments (Balota et al., 2006;Fritz et al., 2007;Kalenberg, 2017). Moreover, spaced learning also provides substantial improvements in longterm memory for learners in real educational settings (Carpenter et al., 2012;Karpicke et al., 2016;Larsen, 2018;Mettler et al., 2016;Seabrook et al., 2005;Sobel et al., 2011). Finally, spacing effects have been shown from very short inter-study intervals such as a few seconds to much longer intervals such as days or weeks (e.g., Dobson et al., 2016;Whitten & Bjork, 1977). ...
Spaced retrieval practice consists of repetitions of the same retrieval event distributed through time. This learning strategy combines two “desirable difficulties”: retrieval practice and spacing effects. We carried out meta-analyses on 29 studies investigating the benefit of spacing out retrieval practice episodes on final retention.
... Spacing effects have been shown from very short inter-study intervals such a few seconds (e.g., ; to much larger intervals such as days or weeks (e.g., Dobson & al., (2016). Spaced learning also provides substantial improvements in long-term memory for learners in real educational settings Karpicke, Blunt, & Smith, 2016;Mettler, Massey, & Kellman, 2016;Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005;Sobel, Cepeda, & Kapler, 2011). Donovan and Radosevich (1999) suggested that increasing the lag between learning episodes produced a greater spacing effect on both free recall and cued recall tasks. ...
L’apprentissage scolaire implique généralement une phase d’étude des cours suivie d'une phase d’évaluation pour mesurer l'efficacité de la première. Dans cette conception, la phase de test sert à quantifier la réussite de l’apprentissage mais n’est pas envisagée comme outil d’apprentissage. Pourtant, de nombreuses études ont montré l’importance des tests comme processus actif pour consolider des connaissances à long terme. Une autre pratique peu utilisée est la distribution d’un même apprentissage dans le temps. Alors que le bachotage favorise la mémorisation à court terme, l’espacement des révisions favorise la consolidation sur le long terme. A l’heure actuelle, ces méthodes sont méconnues des enseignants et des élèves alors que les bénéfices de l’entrainement par récupération en mémoire et de l’espacement ont été répliqués de manière robuste avec des populations et contenus variés. La start-up Didask a créé la plate-forme d’enseignement numérique du même nom en incorporant les résultats de ces recherches menées sur l’apprentissage. En collaboration avec Didask, ma thèse s’est articulée autour de la problématique suivante : quel est l’agencement optimal des phases de récupération en mémoire par rapport à la présentation des contenus d’un cours ? Le premier chapitre est une introduction générale pour contextualiser cette recherche. Le second chapitre compile les résultats de trois méta-analyses portant sur l’effet de l’apprentissage avec tests répétés et espacés dans le temps. La première méta-analyse a montré un bénéfice significatif de l’apprentissage avec tests espacés dans le temps sur la rétention en mémoire par rapport à l’apprentissage avec tests massés dans le temps (g = 0.74). La seconde méta-analyse suggère en revanche un bénéfice non significatif de l’apprentissage avec tests espacés par rapport à l’apprentissage avec relectures espacées dans le temps (g=0.46). La dernière méta-analyse n’a pas démontré de différence entre un planning expansif d’apprentissage avec tests espacés (accroissement progressif de l’intervalle de temps entre les sessions d’apprentissage) et un planning uniforme (maintien du même intervalle entre les sessions, g = 0.032). L’ensemble de ces résultats confirme le net avantage de l’apprentissage avec tests espacés dans le temps, mais le planning d’espacement optimal n’est pas nécessairement expansif. Les chapitres 3, 4, et 5 présentent trois expérimentations menées sur Didask. L’objectif était de mesurer les bénéfices de différents emplacements et planning de tests d’apprentissage sur la rétention en mémoire une semaine à un mois après la session d’apprentissage. Les résultats de l’Expérience 1 ont démontré qu’il est préférable de faire des tests d’apprentissage après la lecture du cours pour une meilleure mémorisation plutôt qu’avant. De plus, l’avantage de faire des tests après la lecture du cours était observé sur les informations non testées lors de l’apprentissage. Les résultats de l’Expérience 2 indiquent que le degré de granularité des contenus importe lors de l’apprentissage par relectures successives : un découpage fin permet une meilleure mémorisation qu’un découpage plus grossier. Par contre, l’importance de la granularité disparait dans la condition avec des tests d’apprentissage. Enfin, l’Expérience 3 a répliqué l’effet de récupération en mémoire mais pas l’effet d’espacement. Contrairement aux hypothèses de départ, l’effet de la combinaison des deux stratégies d’apprentissage n’était pas significatif. Néanmoins, l’apprentissage avec tests espacés permettait en moyenne une meilleure mémorisation que l’apprentissage avec tests massés, avec relectures espacées, et avec relectures massées dans le temps. Les résultats de cette thèse apportent une meilleure compréhension sur la manière d’utiliser l’apprentissage par les tests. Ils suggèrent également de nouvelles pistes de recherche sur l’optimisation des apprentissages pour promouvoir la consolidation de nouvelles connaissances.
... The finding is in line with prior studies in cognitive psychology (Pavlik & Anderson, 2005;Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005) which confirmed the impact of spaced distribution instruction in various realms of learning. Furthermore, the outcome is additionally confirming some former studies (e.g. ...
This study intended to investigate the effect of spaced and massed distribution instruction on vocabulary learning. To fulfil this objective, 68 Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners (14–16 years) participated in 16 sessions. The participants were randomly divided in to two experimental groups; spaced distribution group (n = 34) and massed distribution group (n = 34). The massed distribution group had one intensive session on learning the target vocabulary; the spaced distribution group had three sessions at irregular time intervals. Using a before and after design, students were retested after 8 weeks. To collect data, a vocabulary test was performed as the pretest and posttest. The results of the paired samples t test and One-way ANCOVA indicated that the spaced distribution group significantly outperformed the massed distribution group on the posttest (effect size .75). The results propose that EFL practitioners can synthesize spacing as a beneficial teaching technique into the curricula and educational materials to promote vocabulary learning.
... Distributed learning or spaced learning which stem from the psychology and neuroscience literature, where two or more study periods are separated in time by an inter-study interval, has been hypothesized to have a greater impact on learning outcomes than block learning (Rea & Modigliani, 1985, 1987Seabrook, Gordon, Brown, & Solity, 2005;Solity & Vousden, 2009). This underpins the delivery structure of the vocabulary program where students engage in the program for 15−20 min 3-5 times weekly. ...
This paper presents the research protocol for an efficacy randomized controlled trial of a vocabulary program in primary schools. The program is a workforce development program that supports teachers and teaching assistants develop and deliver targeted vocabulary instruction to children aged 7–10. The protocol outlines a research design to assess whether the program delivered over approximately 20 weeks improves reading outcomes, in a sample of 101 children from 7 schools in three English districts with high socio-economic disadvantage. The outcome measure is a reading standardized test. A process evaluation will measure fidelity and potential for scale-up.
... In an actual language intervention, the clinician would not only increase the quantity of exposures but also their quality. For example, exposures that allow for encoding across modalities visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities (Jewitt, Kress, Ogborn, & Charalampos, 2001;Valenzeno, Alibali, & Klatzky, 2003) are useful and spaced exposures are more helpful than massed exposures (e.g., Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). Second, activities that highlight word forms may be indicated. ...
Background and aims:
Previous investigations of word learning problems among people with developmental language disorder suggest that encoding, not retention, is the primary deficit. We aimed to replicate this finding; test the prediction that word form, not the linking of form to referent, is particularly problematic; and determine whether women with developmental language disorder are better word learners than men with developmental language disorder.
Methods:
Twenty adults with developmental language disorder and 19 age-, sex-, and education-matched peers with typical language development attempted to learn 15 words by retrieval practice. Their retention was measured one day-, one week-, and one month after training.
Results:
The participants with developmental language disorder required more exposures to the word-referent pairs than the participants with typical language development to reach mastery. While training to mastery, they made more errors in word form production, alone or in combination with errors in linking forms to the correct referents, but the number of no attempts and pure link errors did not differ by group. Women demonstrated stronger retention of the words than men at all intervals. The developmental language disorder and typical language development groups did not differ at the one-day- and one-month retention intervals but the developmental language disorder group was weaker at the one-week interval. Review via retrieval practice at the one-day and one-week interval enhanced retention at the one-month interval; the review at one week was more beneficial than the review at one day. Women benefitted more from the review opportunities than men but the developmental language disorder and typical language development groups did not differ.
Conclusions:
Adults with developmental language disorder present with weaknesses in the encoding of new words but retention is a relative strength. Encoding word forms is especially challenging but encoding word-to-referent links is not. We interpret this profile, and the evidence of a female advantage, as consistent with the Procedural Circuit Deficit Hypothesis.
Implications:
When treating a client with developmental language disorder whose goal is to increase vocabulary knowledge, the interventionist should anticipate the need for multiple exposures to new words within activities that highlight the forms of the words and support their memory and production. Periodic review should serve to support long-term retention.
... It is critical that students learn to formulate their own investigative questions and refine them over time (Watson & English, 2017). Students with MD may need explicit guidance on how to formulate questions and many opportunities for practice on this specific skill using a variety of examples and nonexamples (Seabrook et al., 2005). Circle back to the (a) Formulate Questions step as new questions arise throughout the course of the statistical investigation. ...
Being able to understand, interpret, and critically evaluate data is necessary for all individuals in our society. Using the PreK-12 Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education-II (GAISE-II; Bargagliotti et al., 2020) curriculum framework, the current paper outlines five evidence-based recommendations that teachers can use to build understanding of statistical investigation and data analysis for students with mathematics difficulties, including: (1) Explicitly teach important vocabulary related to statistical investigation and data analysis, (2) Introduce the steps and purpose of statistical investigation, (3) Guide students through the statistical investigation process, (4) Link investigative questions to word problem types to solve, and (5) Build understanding of variability throughout.
... Spacing effects also occur across age groups, from children to healthy aging and individuals with memory impairments (Balota et al., 2006;Fritz et al., 2007;Kalenberg, 2017). Moreover, spaced learning also provides substantial improvements in longterm memory for learners in real educational settings (Carpenter et al., 2012;Karpicke et al., 2016;Larsen, 2018;Mettler et al., 2016;Seabrook et al., 2005;Sobel et al., 2011). Finally, spacing effects have been shown from very short inter-study intervals such as a few seconds to much longer intervals such as days or weeks (e.g., Dobson et al., 2016;Whitten & Bjork, 1977). ...
Spaced retrieval practice consists of repetitions of the same retrieBjorkval event distributed through time. This learning strategy combines two “desirable difficulties”: retrieval practice and spacing effects. We carried out meta-analyses on 29 studies investigating the benefit of spacing out retrieval practice episodes on final retention. The total dataset was divided into two subsets to investigate two main questions: (1) Does spaced retrieval practice induce better memory retention than massed retrieval practice? (subset 1); (2) Is the expanding spacing schedule superior to the uniform spacing schedule when learning with retrieval practice? (subset 2). Using meta-regression with robust variance estimation, 39 effect sizes were aggregated in subset 1 and 54 in subset 2. Results from subset 1 indicated a strong benefit of spaced retrieval practice in comparison with massed retrieval practice (g = 0.74). Results from subset 2 indicated no significant difference between expanding and uniform spacing schedules of retrieval practice (g = 0.034). Moderator analyses on this subset showed that the number of exposures of an item during retrieval practice explains inconsistencies between studies: the more learners are tested, the more beneficial the expanding schedule is compared with the uniform one. Overall, these results support the advantage of spacing out the retrieval practice episodes on the same content, but do not support the widely held belief that inter-retrieval intervals should be progressively increased until a retention test.
... In the latter, messages are repeated in different learning classes or sessions (Lowenstein, Foord, and Romano 2009). Spaced repetitions are successful in improving memory (Seabrook, Brown, and Solity 2005). In the present study, spaced repetitions were done at 3 or 6 months intervals. ...
The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of three modes of school dental health education (SDHE) and the two frequencies of reinforcements, on the oral health status of children. Three hundred and sixty school children aged 8 to 9 years participated in this study. Dental caries (dft/DMFT), oral hygiene (OHI-S) and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) scores were recorded by a calibrated investigator. The interventions included three different modes of SDHE (drama, game and flashcards). One mode of SDHE was randomly allotted to each school. Children were randomly sub-divided based on the frequency of reinforcement provided (3 months and 6 months). Post-intervention data were collected after 2 years. There was a significant reduction in the dft [drama (p = 0.006), game (p = 0.001) and flashcards (p = 0.002)] and OHI-S scores [drama and game (p < 0.001) and flashcards (p = 0.01)] and significant improvement in the total OHRQoL scores [drama (p = 0.001), game (p = 0.016) and flashcards (p = 0.023)] in all the three modes. Children who received game mode SDHE every 3 months had a significantly higher number of filled primary teeth (p = 0.03) compared to children who received the reinforcement every 6 months. All three modes were effective in improving the oral health status of school children. Game mode had the highest impact followed by drama and flashcard modes. Reinforcements given every 3 months using the game mode had a positive influence on the oral health of these children. Health educators must focus on child-friendly modes to make the health information more retentive.
... As well, Page 3 of 20 Foot-Seymour and Wiseheart Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (2022) 7:5 there aren't yet enough classroom studies to support use of the spacing effect across the entire range of educational materials. Some of the applied classroombased studies that have been conducted with verbal and factual material show spacing benefits for word and phonics learning (Seabrook et al., 2005), word and fact learning (Carpenter et al., 2009;Sobel et al., 2011), second language learning (Bloom & Shuell, 1981;Küpper-Tetzel et al., 2014), and text comprehension (Rawson & Kintsch, 2005;Verkoeijen et al., 2008). These studies all showed benefits of spacing. ...
Spaced learning—the spacing effect—is a cognitive phenomenon whereby memory for to-be-learned material is better when a fixed amount of study time is spread across multiple learning sessions instead of crammed into a more condensed time period. The spacing effect has been shown to be effective across a wide range of ages and learning materials, but few studies have been conducted that look at whether spacing can be effective in real-world classrooms, using real curriculum content, with real teachers leading the intervention. In the current study, lesson plans for teaching website credibility were distributed to homeroom elementary teachers with specific instructions on how to manipulate the timing of the lessons for either a one-per-day or one-per-week delivery. One month after the final lesson, students were asked to apply their knowledge on a final test, where they evaluated two new websites. Results were mixed, suggesting that classroom noise might lessen or impede researchers’ ability to find spacing effects in naturalistic settings.
... word list learning, paired associates learning, see Cepeda et al., 2006), remembering faces (Xue et al., 2011), and learning various types of information in school, such as in physics (Grote, 1995), biology (Vlach & Sandhofer, 2012), mathematics (Rea & Modigliani, 1985), and for various medical school topics (Kerfoot & Brotschi, 2009). Indeed, spacing has shown promising results not only in laboratory experiments but also in studies conducted in classroom settings (for science lessons, see, for example, Gluckman, Vlach, & Sandhofer, 2014; for reading lessons, see Seabrook, Brown, & Solity, 2005). ...
We investigated whether learning and retaining vocabulary in a second language (L2) can be improved by leveraging a combination of memory enhancement techniques. Specifically, we tested whether combining retrieval practice, spacing, and related manipulations in a ‘multidomain’ pedagogical approach enhances vocabulary acquisition as compared to a typical learning approach. In a classroom-laboratory design, 48 Turkish university students studying L2 English were trained on 64 English words over 17 days. They were assigned to either a ‘typical’ study regimen of (re)studying the words on the first day (initial study) and last day (cramming) of training, or an ‘optimized’ regimen of retrieval practice (retrieving the words), moreover with feedback, spaced throughout the period, moreover with expanding gaps. The target words were tested before training (pre-test) and one and 11 days afterwards (post-tests). Mixed-effects modeling revealed a training-group by test-session interaction, due to greater improvements from optimized training (a striking 18 percentage-point accuracy increase from pre-test to both post-tests) than typical training (an 8 percentage-point increase). Further analyses showed that the optimized training advantages were mainly driven by high (rather than low) frequency words. Overall, the results suggest that a multidomain approach of combining different memory enhancement techniques can lead to substantial gains in both the learning and retention of L2 words, as compared to a typical study pattern. The findings have implications for L2 learning and pedagogy.
... More recently, meta-analyses estimate that about 75% of 400+ verbal learning studies in the distributed practice literature show a spacing advantage (Cepeda et al., 2006). Verbal learning in elementary school, where spaced or distributed learning is used, appears to be most beneficial for learning simple word recall (Seabrook et al., 2005) and word and fact learning (Sobel et al., 2011), including vocabulary and text comprehension. A recent study identified an effect size of +0.85 for the benefit of spaced learning with verbal contents (Wiseheart et al., 2019). ...
This article reports results of a phase 2 exploratory trial of a vocabulary program delivered in elementary schools to improve student’s reading ability, including their comprehension. The intervention was tested as a targeted intervention in classrooms with children aged 7–10 across 20 weeks during one school year, with eligible students learning in small groups of four. Teachers and support staff received training in this cooperative learning approach to develop children’s vocabulary with particular focus on Tier‐2 words. School staff received additional support and resources to equip them to develop and implement the vocabulary instruction sessions to targeted students. The trial was undertaken with a sample of 101 students in seven schools from three English district areas with high levels of socio‐economic disadvantage. A standardized reading test was used to measure reading outcomes, with significant gains found in student’s overall reading ability, including comprehension. Owing to the positive results found in this trial, including positive feedback about implementation of the technique, next steps should be a larger trial with 48 schools to avoid the risk of sampling error due to limited number of schools.
... Across the cognitive sciences, researchers have shown that distributed practice leads to larger effect sizes than concentrated practice (e.g., Warren et al., 2007). Again, research on this hypothesis in reading research is limited and inconclusive, with current research results suggesting that neither concentrated or distributed practice is more beneficial on measures of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, or reading comprehension Seabrook et al., 2005;Ukrainetz et al., 2009;Vaughn et al., 2010). Vaughn et al. (2010) and Denton et al. (2011) also proposed improving active student learning to impact dosage response. ...
Researchers have noted a nonlinear association between reading instruction dosage (i.e., hours of instruction) and reading outcomes for Grade K–3 students with reading difficulties (K–3 SWRD). In this article, we propose a nonlinear meta-analysis as a method to identify both the maximum effect size and optimal dosage of reading interventions for K–3 SWRD using 26 peer-reviewed studies including 186 effect sizes. Results suggested the effect sizes followed a concave parabolic shape, such that increasing dosage improved intervention effects until 39.92 hours of instruction (d max = 0.77), after which the intervention effects declined. Moderator analyses found that maximum intervention effects on fluency outcomes were significantly larger (d max = 1.34) than the overall maximum effect size. Also, when students received 1:1 instruction, the dosage response curve displayed a different functional form than the concave parabolic shape, showing the effect increased indefinitely after approximately 16.8 hours of instruction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
... The results suggest that spaced distribution instruction will have positive and longstanding impacts on EFL learners' vocabulary acquisition and retention. Such findings are in line with those reported in some previous studies in the realm of cognitive psychology (e.g., Carpenter et al., 2012;Pavlik & Anderson, 2005;Seabrook et al., 2005), lending support to the primacy of spaced distribution instruction over massed distribution instruction. Furthermore, there are some previous studies that have demonstrated how spaced distribution instruction can enhance learning foreign languages (e.g., Miles, 2014;Pavlik & Anderson, 2005;Rohrer & Pashler, 2007). ...
There has been an ongoing debate on the effectiveness of spaced and massed distribution instruction in second/foreign language learning. A number of studies in the literature have investigated the impacts of spacing effect on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ vocabulary acquisition. This study aims to expand the body of existing research by exploring the impact of spaced versus massed distribution instruction on EFL learners’ vocabulary recall and retention. To this end, the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT) was administered to 120 Iranian EFL students to determine their level of English proficiency. Accordingly, 75 intermediate students were selected and randomly assigned to three equivalent groups: two experimental groups, namely spaced instruction (n = 25) and massed instruction (n = 25), and one control group (n = 25). After administering a pretest, the participants in both experimental groups received two different modes of instruction. The massed instruction group attended one intensive session to learn each set of target vocabularies; the spaced instruction group, on the contrary, had three sessions at irregular time intervals to learn the same vocabularies. The control group studied the same vocabularies but received no vocabulary-focused instructions. Overall, 180 vocabularies were taught to the students during a 12-week period (15 vocabularies per week). The instructions in each group took 60 min each week. Using a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest design, the students first took a receptive vocabulary pretest before the treatment. One week after the treatment, a receptive vocabulary posttest was administered. Finally, after a 4-week interval, the students took the delayed posttest. The results revealed that the spaced instruction group significantly outperformed the massed instruction group on both immediate and delayed posttests. The findings lend support to the modulation of spaced instruction into the curricula in instructional settings as a valuable vocabulary instruction technique to promote vocabulary learning in real classroom environments.
... When compared to long study sessions, or massing, spacing has been shown to improve transfer [27,43], understanding of prose passages [33,36], logic [15], and inductive reasoning [26]. The benefits of spacing have also been observed in a variety of disciplines, including mathematics [7,24,[37][38][39]47], biology [25,35,44], language learning [4,5,10,14], and especially psychology [6,16,41]. Building upon this research, we examine how spacing interacts with the field of computer science and gender. ...
... In comparison, courses with weekly noncumulative exams may fail to reinforce any added rehearsal until the end of the course, when the cumulative final is delivered. As a result, students in the cumulative exam condition may be more likely to engage in distributed practice in preparation for the final, which has been demonstrated to result in better retention than massed practice (otherwise known as cramming; Rohrer & Taylor, 2006;Seabrook et al., 2005). However, when student survey responses were analyzed in the current study, no significant differences were found between groups with respect to self-reported statements regarding "cramming" for the final or "disregarding" previously learned material. ...
Interteaching is a behavioral teaching method that has been empirically shown to increase student learning outcomes. The present study investigated the effect of combining interteaching with cumulative versus noncumulative exams in two sections of an online asynchronous class. Interteaching was used in both sections of the course. The noncumulative exam section experienced weekly exams with test questions that only covered material learned in that week of class. The cumulative exam section was given weekly exams in which half of the questions were from material learned that current week and the other half were cumulative up to that point in the class. This was followed by a cumulative final exam given to both groups. All exam questions were multiple choice. On average, students in the cumulative exam group scored 4.91% higher on the final exam than students in the noncumulative exam group. Students exposed to weekly cumulative exams also earned more As and Bs on the final compared to the noncumulative exam group. Overall, our experiment provides evidence that interteaching may be further improved when combined with cumulative weekly exams.
This study was aimed at determining the interaction of training methods (distributed practice and massed practice) and motor ability on complex motor skills in soccer. This study used experimental method with factorial design 2x2. The research samples were 28 people. The motor ability data were obtained by using the motor barrow ability test. To measure complex motor skills, the Wall Volley-Test was used. Data analysis technique used variance analysis 2 way design and hypothesis testing was conducted by using tukey test at the significance level α = 0.05. The results of the study conclude that there was a significant interaction effect between training methods and motor abilities on increasing complex motor skills in soccer. Athletes who have high motor abilities are better to have distributed practice exercises. Meanwhile, athletes who have a low motor ability is better to get training in massed practice
This meta‐analysis investigates earlier studies of spaced practice in second language learning. We retrieved 98 effect sizes from 48 experiments (N = 3,411). We compared the effects of three aspects of spacing (spaced vs. massed, longer vs. shorter spacing, and equal vs. expanding spacing) on immediate and delayed posttests to calculate mean effect sizes. We also examined the extent to which nine empirically motivated variables moderated the effects of spaced practice. Results showed that (a) spacing had a medium‐to‐large effect on second language learning; (b) shorter spacing was as effective as longer spacing in immediate posttests but was less effective in delayed posttests than longer spacing; (c) equal and expanding spacing were statistically equivalent; and (d) variability in spacing effect size across studies was explained methodologically by the learning target, number of sessions, type of practice, activity type, feedback timing, and retention interval. The methodological and pedagogical significance of the findings are discussed.
Despite substantial evidence that spacing study opportunities over time improves the retention of learned verbal material compared with study trials that occur consecutively, the influence of temporal spacing on children’s learning of written words has not been investigated. This experiment examined whether temporal spacing influenced Grade 3 and 4 children’s (N = 37; mean age = 8 years 7 months) learning of novel written words during independent reading compared with massing. Children read 16 sentences containing a novel word under either a spaced (sentences appeared once in each of four blocks) or massed conditions (four consecutive trials). After a delay, orthographic learning was assessed using recognition (orthographic choice) and recall (spelling to dictation) measures. Words experienced in the spaced condition were better recognized than those in the massed condition, but there was no effect on recall. These findings suggest that temporal spacing influences the acquisition of new written word forms, extending the potential utility of the spacing principle to reading acquisition.
We examined students’ naturalistic decisions about spacing their study in an undergraduate course (N = 185) and whether self-selected spacing predicted course performance. Usage of two study tools – an online textbook and quiz tool – was recorded daily. We operationalized spacing as how often the tools were used and the timing of their use relative to exams. We found that students increased their study near deadlines and exams, used the textbook more often than the quiz tool, and used the tools infrequently when they were optional (vs. required). Importantly, spaced retrieval practice (via quiz tool) predicted course performance and GPA, whereas spaced reading (via textbook) was a weaker predictor. That is, when students opted for more frequent and early quizzing, they earned higher grades, even controlling for time spent quizzing. Thus, self-selected spaced study – especially spaced retrieval practice – supports student achievement.
How can instructors help students adopt effective learning strategies? In this study, students in a large introductory psychology class completed a “learning how to learn” assignment in which they read one of four randomly assigned empirical articles about the utility of a learning strategy (i.e., distributed practice, rereading, practice testing, or forming mental images) and wrote a paper summarizing, analyzing, and applying the article’s findings. Students relied significantly less on low-utility strategies and significantly more on moderate and high-utility strategies at the end of the semester than at the beginning. Furthermore, students who completed this assignment outperformed their peers in a control semester of the same course, improving by about one-third of a letter grade. Suggestions for effective implementation of a similar assignment are presented.
Background
Psychology courses provide a good opportunity for instructors to teach students effective learning strategies integrated with content.
Objective
This replication and extension study explored changes in students’ self-reported use of learning strategies before and after a term paper assignment and examined the relationships between learning strategy use and academic performance.
Method
Three hundred eighty-five introductory psychology students completed surveys on their use of 11 learning strategies at the beginning and end of the semester, read an empirical article and wrote a term paper about the learning strategy of practice testing, and completed four exams among other assessments.
Results
Replicating prior work, students generally reported improvements in their use of learning strategies over the course of the semester, though improvements were largely attributable to grade point average (GPA). Two learning strategies—self-explanation and practice testing—were positively correlated with course performance in the second half of the semester, over and above the effects associated with GPA.
Conclusion
Teaching students about beneficial learning strategies may increase their adoption of those strategies as well as their course performance, replicating prior research.
Teaching Implications
In order to improve course performance, instructors may consider adapting assignments in ways that increase students’ knowledge and use of effective learning strategies.
When determining whether or not children have a difficulty in learning, the quality of instruction they have received during their school career must be excluded as a possible explanation for their lack of progress. To this end, educational psychologists (EPs) have for some time adopted a model of response to intervention known as assessment-through-teaching (ATT). This article describes an ATT intervention with three low achieving Year 4 students within a single primary school in the UK. Learning outcomes were monitored during a six-week half-term and views of both students and teachers on the intervention were investigated. The intervention group improved their performance in reading accuracy compared to the comparison group, whereas both groups performed less well on post-intervention scores of reading comprehension and motivation, although the decline in the performance of the intervention group was less than the comparison group. Both teacher and student views were positive about the intervention.
This article focuses on the construction of a semantic field in some activities related to the teaching of additional languages through technologies in times of social isolation in the United Kingdom. Semantic field is understood as being one of the variables of the context of situation, defined by Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Linguistics (1978), responsible for the construction of the experience of the world around us and the world created in our consciousness as a result of the social practices we have experienced. The aim of this study is to analyse how the semantic field is constructed through thematic units that aim to teach the syllabus established for compulsory education in the United Kingdom. The article presents some tasks and discusses their purposes and functionality in online activities in remote education and highlights the importance of “spaced practice” as a way to help learners with the construction of linguistic knowledge in terms of vocabulary, linguistic structures, and cultural aspects that come into play within the semantic field.
Students with disabilities are less likely to be proficient with basic academic skills compared to peers, indicating a need for more quality instructional time. Parent tutoring has been identified as a promising practice for supplementing instruction to improve child outcomes. However, educators are not sufficiently prepared to collaborate with and provide guidance to parents in how to support academic goals at home. We describe how an academic assessment and intervention clinic trains future school personnel to work with families to develop and implement explicit instruction parent tutoring interventions. A case example illustrates the process.
Despite substantial evidence that distributing study opportunities over time improves the retention of learned verbal material compared to study trials that occur consecutively, the influence of temporal spacing on children’s learning of written words has not been investigated. This experiment examined whether temporal spacing influenced Grade 3 and 4 children’s (N=37; mean age 8 years, 7 months) learning of novel written words during independent reading, compared to massing. Children read sixteen sentences containing a novel word under either spaced (sentences appeared once in each of four blocks) or massed (four consecutive trials) conditions. After a delay, orthographic learning was assessed using recognition (orthographic choice) and recall (spelling to dictation) measures. Words experienced in the distributed condition were better recognised than those in the massed condition, but there was no effect on recall. These findings suggest that temporal spacing influences the acquisition of new written word forms, extending the potential utility of the spacing principle to reading acquisition.
Aim:
Skill decay is a recognised problem in resuscitation training. Spaced learning has been proposed as an intervention to optimise resuscitation skill performance compared to traditional massed learning. A systematic review was performed to answer 'In learners taking resuscitation courses, does spaced learning compared to massed learning improve educational outcomes and clinical outcomes?'
Methods:
This systematic review followed the PRISMA guidelines. We searched bibliographic databases (Embase, MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL)) from inception to 2 December 2019. Randomised controlled trials and non-randomised studies were eligible for inclusion. Two reviewers independently scrutinized studies for relevance, extracted data and assessed quality of studies. Risk of bias of studies and quality of evidence were assessed using RoB, ROBINS-I tool and GRADEpro respectively. Educational outcomes studied were skill retention and performance 1 year after completion of training; skill performance between completion of training and 1 year; and knowledge at course conclusion. Clinical outcomes were skill performance at actual resuscitation, patient survival to discharge with favourable neurological outcome. This systematic review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42019150358).
Results:
From 2,042 references, we included data from 17 studies (13 randomised studies, 4 cohort studies) in courses with manikins and simulation in the narrative synthesis. Eight studies reported results from basic life support training (with or without automatic external defibrillator); three studies reported from paediatric life support training; five were in neonatal resuscitation and one study reported results from a bespoke emergency medicine course which included resuscitation teaching. Fifteen out of seventeen studies reported improved performance with the use of spaced learning. The overall certainty of evidence was rated as very low for all outcomes primarily due to a very serious risk of bias. Heterogeneity across studies precluded any meta-analyses. There was a lack of data on the effectiveness of spaced learning on skill acquisition compared to maintaining skill performance and/or preventing skill decay. There was also insufficient data to examine the effectiveness of spaced learning on laypeople compared to healthcare providers.
Conclusions:
Despite the very low certainty of evidence this systematic review suggests that spaced learning can improve skill performance at 1 year post course conclusion and skill performance between course conclusion and 1 year. There is a lack of data from this educational intervention on skill performance in clinical resuscitation and patient survival at discharge with favourable neurological outcomes.
Dieses Kapitel beleuchtet theoretische Grundlagen unterrichtlichen Lehrens und Lernens und gibt einen Überblick über wichtige Ergebnisse der Unterrichtsforschung. Dabei wird sowohl auf kognitive als auch auf affektiv-motivationale Merkmale von Schulerfolg Bezug genommen.
For this 2020 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science With Treatment Recommendations, the Education, Implementation, and Teams Task Force applied the population, intervention, comparator, outcome, study design, time frame format and performed 15 systematic reviews, applying the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation guidance. Furthermore, 4 scoping reviews and 7 evidence updates assessed any new evidence to determine if a change in any existing treatment recommendation was required. The topics covered included training for the treatment of opioid overdose; basic life support, including automated external defibrillator training; measuring implementation and performance in communities, and cardiac arrest centers; advanced life support training, including team and leadership training and rapid response teams; measuring cardiopulmonary resuscitation performance, feedback devices, and debriefing; and the use of social media to improve cardiopulmonary resuscitation application.
Object play yields enormous benefits for infant development. However, little is known about natural play at home where most object interactions occur. We conducted frame‐by‐frame video analyses of spontaneous activity in two 2‐h home visits with 13‐month‐old crawling infants and 13‐, 18‐, and 23‐month‐old walking infants (N = 40; 21 boys; 75% White). Regardless of age, for every infant and time scale, across 10,015 object bouts, object interactions were short (median = 9.8 s) and varied (transitions among dozens of toys and non‐toys) but consumed most of infants’ time. We suggest that infant exuberant object play—immense amounts of brief, time‐distributed, variable interactions with objects—may be conducive to learning object properties and functions, motor skill acquisition, and growth in cognitive, social, and language domains.
An advantage has been found for acquiring textbook knowledge by studying textbook summaries rather than reading the original
prose (Reder & Anderson, 1980). Three studies are presented that help to establish the cause of the summary advantage. One
possible cause is that reading summaries allows the subject to reread the main points at spaced intervals, and spaced practice
is superior to massed practice. A second possible cause is that the presence of details distracts the subject’s attention
away from the critical ideas that should be attended to. In Reder and Anderson (1980), these two factors were confounded,
but they are unconfounded in the present studies. The results indicate that both possible causes, spaced practice and the
absence of details, have significant, independent, and positive effects on retention of the central ideas of a passage.
Infants of 5–6 months of age were tested for recognition of briefly presented photographs of faces. The interaction typically
obtained with adults, a beneficial effect on retention due to the temporal spacing of study, was obtained with these infants.
The results suggest that the distribution effect reflects a fundamental and automatic process of human memory.
This article argues that children identified as having special educational needs in mainstream school fail to meet set targets because special education is neither 'special' nor 'educational'. Special education has failed to establish, through classroom-based research, the most effective ways of teaching children perceived to have learning difficulties. Instead, it focuses on resources, provision and administrative procedures and does not require any evidence that these factors enable children to bridge the gap in attainments which exists with their peers. In part, all those working in the education system collude with this scenario through assuming that children's failure to progress results from a difficulty in learning rather than from what or how they have been taught. This article argues that the process of psychological assessment should start from the premise that all children can learn and reach age and skill appropriate targets in literacy and numeracy. The issues discussed are related to teaching literacy, given the number of children perceived to have special educational needs arising from their lack of progress in learning to read. A framework for teaching lower achieving pupils is introduced which is based on the Early Reading Research (ERR), a collaborative project between the University of Warwick and Essex LEA. The ERR is summarised and its implications for raising attainments discussed.
Memory for repeated items on a list improves as a function of the spacing between repetitions. It is shown that spacing effects are eliminated in relative frequency discrimination, absolute frequency estimation, and recognition when items are learned incidentally. Spacing effects in free recall are unaffected by intentionality of learning. The results suggest that spacing effects in tasks in which experimenter-supplied retrieval cues are available are due to a rehearsal strategy that allots fewer rehearsals to items repeated in massed fashion. Spacing effects in free recall are due to a separate process resulting from study-phase retrieval of repeated items.
The spacing effect would appear to have considerable potential for improving classroom learning, yet there is no evidence of its widespread application. I consider nine possible impediments to the implementation of research findings in the classroom in an effort to determine which, if any, apply to the spacing effect. I conclude that the apparent absence of systematic application may be due, in part, to the ahistorical character of research on the spacing effect and certain gaps in our understanding of both the spacing effect and classroom practice. However, because none of these concerns seems especially discouraging, and in view of what we do know about the spacing effect, classroom application is recommended.
Preschool and second-grade children studied a list of either pictures or their corresponding labels (words) and, 48 h later, received a yes/no recognition test involving either the same or the opposite type of stimuli. Some items on the study list were presented twice, with repetitions either massed or distributed (spaced). The results indicated that, when both study and test stimuli were pictures, the children’s recognition was better than when study and/or test stimuli were words. The children also recognized distributed repetitions better than massed repetitions (a spacing effect). However, the spacing effect was not altered by the type of stimuli presented for study and/or test. The results suggest that the spacing effect is mediated by a semantic representation and that, under these circumstances, it is produced by relatively automatic processes.
Spacing between two attempts to learn one item greatly increases the probability that it will be remembered later. We first note that a number of theories that explain this phenomenon also predict that spacing should improve the probability of remembering at least one of two different items each studied once. We then report results of two experiments designed to test this prediction. Subjects studied a series of 300 words. After a short rest they were tested for recognition, or—in the second experiment—free recall and then recognition. As usual a substantial spacing effect was observed for single words presented twice. In contrast the probability of correct recognition or recall of at least one word of a pair of two different words, each presented once, did not depend on their spacing in the study series.
Two experiments examined the effect of spacing repetitions within a word list on the free recall performance of elementary school children. In the first experiment, spacing repetitions facilitated recall, and the function relating recall of repeated items to the spacing between repetitions was the same throughout the age range investigated (first, third, and sixth graders). But, the function for these elementary school children reached asymptote at a much shorter spacing than the function typically reported for adults. The second experiment was designed to test an encoding variability explanation of spaced-repetition effects in elementary school children. Results for both third- and sixth-grade children were consistent with the hypothesis that differential encoding of repetitions facilitates performance and that spaced repetitions are remembered better because they are more likely to be differentially encoded. A theoretical framework was discussed that may be able to encompass both these results and another finding in the literature which indicates that differential encoding can sometimes impair rather than facilitate children's memory performance.
I examined the applicability of the encoding variability hypothesis and the spacing phenomenon to vocabulary learning in five experiments. I manipulated encoding variability by varying the number of potential retrieval routes to the word meanings, using a one-sentence context condition, a three-sentence context condition, and a no-context (definitions-only) control condition. I evaluated the spacing effect by presenting each word with or without intervening words. The results provided no evidence that the opportunity to establish multiple retrieval routes by means of contextual information is helpful to vocabulary learning, a conclusion supported unequivocally by all five experiments. By contrast, spaced presentations yielded substantially higher levels of learning than did massed presentations. I discuss the results largely in terms of educational concerns, including the utility of the learning-from-context approach to vocabulary learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
[discusses] the most effective ways of distributing and managing the conditions of encoding and practice / research suggests that the effectiveness of repetition depends on a number of factors, including the time interval between repetitions, the frequency of repetitions, and even the form of the repetition / a review provides an additional encoding opportunity, whereas a test provides retrieval practice / concluded that the effects of spaced practice, in particular, provide important insights into the basic mechanisms of learning and memory
encoding practice / retrieval practice / theoretical implications [spacing effects, testing effects] / educational implications (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
F. N. Dempster's (see record
1989-03118-001) recommendation that distributed practice be implemented in the classroom fails to consider such impediments as costs and effects on educators' quality of work life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In 2 experiments, preschoolers exhibited a spacing effect in free recall of both pictures and words, even though procedures were very similar to those used in T. C. Toppino and W. DiGeorge's (see record
1985-06329-001) experiment, in which preschoolers had not manifested a spacing effect. Exp 1 consisted of 30 preschoolers (aged 41–62 mo); Exp 2 consisted of 48 preschoolers (aged 47–59 mo). The experimental design was a 2 × 3 (stimulus type × repetition/spacing) mixed factorial, with the last factor manipulated within Ss. Depending on stimulus type, either words or pictures were used as stimuli. The repetition/spacing factor consisted of once-presented items and twice-presented items receiving either massed presentations or distributed presentations. Results indicate support that preschool children typically exhibit a spacing effect in free recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In the reported experiments, the spacing of repetitions improved performance on cued-memory tests (a frequency judgment test and graphemic cued-recall test) when items were studied in an intentional or an incidental-semantic condition but not in an incidental-graphemic study condition. The results imply that spacing effects on cued tests depend on level of processing carried out on the stimuli rather than on intentionality of learning per se, as suggested by R. L. Greene (1989, 1990). The findings undermine a voluntary rehearsal account of spacing effects in cued tests. Alternative accounts are discussed, including the view that involuntary processes akin to semantic (or lexical) priming play a critical role in spacing effects on cued-memory tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Memory for repeated items on a list improves as a function of the spacing between repetitions. It is shown that spacing effects are eliminated in relative frequency discrimination, absolute frequency estimation, and recognition when items are learned incidentally. Spacing effects in free recall are unaffected by intentionality of learning. The results suggest that spacing effects in tasks in which experimenter-supplied retrieval cues are available are due to a rehearsal strategy that allots fewer rehearsals to items repeated in massed fashion. Spacing effects in free recall are due to a separate process resulting from study-phase retrieval of repeated items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The spacing effect would appear to have considerable potential for improving classroom learning, yet there is no evidence of its widespread application. I consider nine possible impediments to the implementation of research findings in the classroom in an effort to determine which, if any, apply to the spacing effect. I conclude that the apparent absence of systematic application may be due, in part, to the ahistorical character of research on the spacing effect and certain gaps in our understanding of both the spacing effect and classroom practice. However, because none of these concerns seems especially discouraging, and in view of what we do know about the spacing effect, classroom application is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
To test the hypothesis that expanded practice is superior to massed practice in a classroom situation, a test series with expanded intervals to teach multiplication facts and spelling lists to 44 Grade 3 students, formed into massed and expanded groups based on their spelling and mathematical abilities, was conducted. Results show that, for multiplication facts, retention in the expanded series condition was almost twice that in the massed series condition; for spelling lists, a significant difference in the same direction was also obtained. These differences were obtained regardless of the level of ability of the Ss. It is suggested that an expanded test series not only engenders effective retention but also maintains a feeling of success throughout and that use of this type of series would therefore have obvious benefit if incorporated into remedial programs or used in learning centers. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The spacing effect refers to the advantage in memory for information that is repeated at separated points of time over information repeated in massed fashion. Spacing effects have been demonstrated on numerous explicit measures of memory. A series of experiments reported here demonstrate spacing effects on 3 implicit memory measures: (1) spelling of homophonic words, (2) word-fragment completion, and (3) perceptual identification. The spacing effect in perceptual identification was not found when materials were studied incidentally or when spacing was manipulated between lists. Also, whereas recognition of synonyms decreased as a function of spacing between synonyms, perceptual identification was uninfluenced by the spacing between synonyms. The results are interpreted as evidence that spacing effects on cued memory tests (both explicit and implicit) reflect optional rehearsal strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
2 experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of (a) amount of S-R repetition and (b) the spacing of periodic review sequences upon retention of academic materials taught to junior-high-school Ss by programed instruction methods. Repetition was varied by constructing programed sequences which contained 3 different levels of stimulus and response repetitions for each of a number of scientific terms being taught. Spaced review consisted of presenting review frames of previously learned materials after Ss had received other interpolated learning tasks. Results indicated that variations in repetition had only transitory effects upon retention, but that spaced review produced a significant facilitation in retention of the reviewed material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested a 2-process theory of the spacing effect in free recall in 4 experiments with a total of 216 college students and paid Ss. The 1st process, differential organization, produces a positive correlation between the spacing of the presentations of repeated words and the number of different retrieval routes that can provide access to the words. The retrieval process interacts with the differential organization to control performance. If the cues used to retrieve the words provide approximately equal access to all retrieval routes, then the function relating spacing to recall will increase monotonically. If only selected retrieval routes are used, then the spacing function will be nonmonotonic. Results supporting this theory are that (a) the monotonic spacing function was most robust when Ss studied the list using an organizational strategy, (b) cuing and directing retrieval with input words resulted in a nonmonotonic effect of spacing when Ss had used an organizational strategy, and (c) directing retrieval by instructions about the order of recall resulted in a nonmonotonic effect of spacing. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Findings from a longitudinal study designed to investigate phonological working memory skills in preschool children are reported. Two phonological memory tests, digit span and nonword repetition, were given to a large cohort of children at 3,4 and 5 years of age. The majority of children at all ages cooperated on both tests even at 3 years of age, indicating that the tasks are in principle suitable for use with young children. Individual differences in nonword repetition scores at 3 years were highly stable across the following two-year period; there was, however, less stability in differences in the children's digit span scores across the same period. It is concluded that phonological memory skills can be reliably assessed in children as young as 3 years, and that the nonword repetition paradigm is highly suitable for this purpose.
Spacing repetitions generally facilitates memory for the repeated events. This article describes a theory of spacing effects
that uses the same principles to account for both facilitatory and inhibitory effects of spacing in a number of memory paradigms.
Increasing the spacing between repetitions is assumed to result in the storage of greater amounts of information of three
types or levels: contextual, structural (associative), and descriptive. Contextual information is encoded automatically, while
the encoding of the structural and descriptive information depends on control processes utilized. Remembering involves accessing
the stored information using retrieval cues containing information on any level that matches the stored information. The ultimate
effectiveness of the spacing is controlled by this matching between the retrieval cues and the stored information. Previous
experiments demonstrating the operation of these principles on the structural and descriptive levels are reviewed. Three new
experiments are reported that illustrate interactions between stored information and retrieval cues based on contextual information.
The revival of interest in the effectiveness of spaced practice, as compared with massed practice, in learning is attributed to the abandonment of the constraints of serial and paired-associate list learning and the discovery of stable benefits from spaced practice in continuous paired-associate learning, short-term memory for individual items, and single-trial free-recall learning. Comments are made about the preceding symposium papers by Underwood, Waugh, and Greeno, and some data on the differential effects of spacing of repetitions in free-recall learning are introduced in an effort to assess the current state of fact and theory.
A differential encoding hypothesis for the lag effect in free recall was tested developmentally. Fourth- and eighth-grade children and college adults were shown a list of words, with some repeated at various lag intervals. Lag functions in repeated word recall were found to vary with age. An encoding hypothesis, modified to provide specificity for the time at which differential encoding takes place, was used to account for the results. Finally, it was suggested that the lag paradigm could be utilized to assess developmental differences in processing strategies, as perhaps a more sensitive, and general, alternative to the overt rehearsal technique.
In Experiment 1, preschoolers, first graders, and third graders were presented a list of pictures that included twice-presented items separated by varying numbers of intervening items. Performance on a subsequent recognition test improved as the spacing between repetitions increased, but the effect of spacing did not interact reliably with grade level. In Experiment 2a, we replicated the spaced-repetition effect in young children and found a similar effect in college students. In Experiment 2b, we varied the conditions under which lists were presented to college students and again found a spacing function that was comparable to that of very young children. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that spaced-repetition effects in recognition are produced by fundamental memory mechanisms that are operational at a very early age and which undergo little change with development.
The effect of spacing repetitions on children's free recall was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, both 4-year-old children and 7-year-old children exhibited a spacing effect in free recall, and the magnitude of the effect did not change with age. In Experiment 2, free recall was examined as a function of spacing, age (3 years old vs. 4 years old) and presentation rate (1 vs. 2 vs. 5 sec per stimulus). A spacing effect was obtained that did not differ as a function of age or presentation rate. Of particular interest was the fact that 3-year-olds exhibited a strong spacing effect even when stimuli were presented at a very rapid 1-sec rate. The results support the hypothesis that fundamental memory mechanisms that operate relatively automatically are sufficient to produce a spacing effect in free recall.
Experiment 1 of the current research failed to replicate Toppino and Di George’s (1984) finding that older children but not
preschoolers showed a spacing effect. Instead, we obtained the spacing effect in all the age groups tested (preschool, kindergarten,
first-grade, and third-grade children). The effect was demonstrated with two types of material, words and pictures. Experiment
2 focused on the role that very brief spacings, with no intervening items between repetitions, play in later retention. Age
groups and materials were the same as in Experiment 1. Four different levels of spacing were included (0-, 1.1-,2.5-, and
5-sec intervals). The spacing effect was again obtained for all age groups with both words and pictures. The results of both
experiments suggest that the spacing effect does not emerge with development.