Project Details
Projekt
Improving long-term retention of verbal material by optimally distributing learning sessions across educationally relevant time intervals
Applicant
Dr. Carolina Ellen Küpper-Tetzel
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Term
from 2012 to 2015
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 227619615
Most of the knowledge that people acquire at school or at university is quickly forgotten and cannot be accessed after some time when they need it. Consequently, there is an immense interest in learning strategies that promise long-lasting knowledge maintenance. In the past, research in cognitive psychology has revealed a variety of memory phenomena that represent successful learning strategies and enhance long-term retention. The distributed practice effect is one such promising learning strategy. It refers to the finding that memory is improved if a fixed amount of study time is distributed across learning sessions instead of being massed into one learning episode. The gap between learning sessions can be varied, and former studies have intensively investigated the optimal distribution of two learning sessions. Learners, however, usually engage in more than two learning sessions. Consequently, it is important to understand how three or more learning sessions should be optimally distributed across educationally relevant time intervals, such as several days or weeks, to enhance long-term memory. In general, the investigation of this research question allows comparing three different learning schedules, i.e., equal (constant gaps between learning sessions), expanding (increasing gaps between learning sessions), and contracting (decreasing gaps between learning sessions) schedules. A straightforward question is whether a specific learning schedule produces better long-term retention than another learning schedule. The results of the few studies that have compared these schedules point to different conclusions making it impossible to devise concrete suggestions for learners. Currently, two memory models are being discussed as explanations for the distributed learning effect, the Adaptive Character of Thought-Rational (ACT-R) and the Multiscale Context Model (MCM). Interestingly, recent simulation studies have demonstrated that these models make opposing predictions as to the optimal distribution of three learning sessions. Whereas ACT-R predicts contracting distribution to be best irrespective of test delay (i.e., time between end of learning and final test), MCM favors equal and expanding schedules depending on the test delay. This research project comprises a series of laboratory experiments and a field experiment that examine the effect of different learning schedules on long-term retention of verbatim material to shed light on the validity of existing theories and to provide learners with hands-on strategies to optimize long-term learning outcomes.
DFG Programme
Research Fellowships
International Connection
Canada
