Can the testing effect, in part, be explained by organizational benefits?
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The testing effect refers to the phenomenon that, relative to restudying, being tested on a previously learned material leads to better retention. The present study investigated the hypothesis that part of the testing effect in free recall, can be explained by increased memory organization due to testing. Forty-one participants learned either semantically related or unrelated words. The words were either repeatedly studied six times, or recalled from memory three times and studied three times, with each test trial following a study trial. Following the learning session, all participants conducted two free recall tests, one after five minutes and one after seven days. The study did not replicate the testing effect and therefore no conclusions could be drawn about the hypothesis. The results did, however, indicate that the related material facilitated later retrieval, relative to the unrelated material. Furthermore, opposite to what was predicted, restudying lead to higher rates of category clustering compared to testing.
Author: Andreas Jemstedt
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W126983094