Year: 2023
Type: preprint
Abstract: The testing effect is a well-established phenomenon in which memory is better for information that has been enhanced through practice tests rather than through restudying. However, this phenomenon has been studied almost exclusively with verbal or semantically meaningful material. We explored whether the testing effect holds for abstract visual material that lacks both meaning and verbal labels. In a series of six experiments, no evidence for a testing effect was found. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results, which suggest either that the testing effect relies on properties that our stimuli did not possess – e.g., semantic content, high-dimensional content, or pre-existing representations in neocortex – or that eliciting a testing effect for visual material requires radically different task parameters than for verbal material.
Authors: Anna McCarter, David E. Huber, Rosemary Cowell
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4376875844