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This study demonstrates the spacing effect in a person with impaired episodic memory development and is the first to show long-term benefits of spacing in amnesia. Substantially slower learning-to-criterion suggests an alternate mechanism supporting the spacing effect, perhaps independent of the hippocampus. Spacing should be considered as a candidate memory intervention technique given its effectiveness in both short- and long-term learning settings.

Whether you are an educator or a student, effective time management is critical to achieving success in the formal education system. For educators, the expectation is that a significant amount of curriculum can be covered in a condensed period of time. The goal is to maximize the amount of learning that takes place in the classroom so that students are prepared for the grade level or course that will follow. For students, the expectation is that a range of subject materials will be studied and tested in a short amount of time. This system of learning prioritizes the quantity of knowledge conveyed to students over the quality of students' learningthat is, long-lasting comprehension and retention of the material. In preparation for an upcoming test or exam, teachers and students must decide what material to review and when and how to review it. To maximize the use of limited learning time, it is important to identify learning strategies that will be not only effective but also efficient tools for promoting long-term retention of classroom materials.The field of cognitive psychology offers a wealth of insight on how to enhance knowledge retention. Particularly, researchers have consistently shown the benefit of repetition or reviewing of newly learned information on long-term memory. As explained in the writings of memory researcher Ebbinghaus (1885/1964), "with any considerable number of repetitions a suitable distribution of them over a space of time is decidedly more advantageous than the massing of them at a single time" (p. 89). This phenomenon is called the distributed practice effect or spacing effect, and it refers to the finding that when reviewing previously learned material, distributing or "spacing" a set amount of study time across sessions leads to better memory performance in the long run than "massing" or cramming the same amount of study time into a single session. A typical research design for investigating the spacing effect consists of two study events and one test event. During the first study event, new material is introduced and learned (sometimes to a criterion); during the second study event, the same material is reviewed; and during the test event, the material is tested (Figure 22.1). The time interval between the first and second study events is referred to as the interstudy interval; it can be short/ massed (e.g., immediate or a few seconds later) or long/spaced (e.g., minutes, hours, or days later). The time interval between the last study event and the test event is referred to as the retention interval; it can also be short (e.g., an immediate test or a test in 5 minutes) or long (e.g., a test a month or year away). Therefore, the distributed practice effect can be studied in both single-session experiments as well as multiday experiments. 550