Effect of temporal locus of a recitation attempt on learning and retention

Martin, Edwin; Fleming, Frederick G.; Nally, Patrick D.

doi:10.3758/bf03197456

Cited by 2 publications

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“…While we do not wish to deny the possibility of such a straightforward interpretation, we do not think that it can account for all of the test effects observed. In particular, we agree with Martin, Fleming, and Nally (1978) that "pure" study effects are more likely to exist in free recall procedures.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Cue discrimination and forgetting

1981

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Subjects learned paired associate lists in which word triads were paired with nouns to a partial criterion; they were then given both an immediate and a I-week delayed recognition test for discrimination among the triads and a cued recall test. Recall after 1 week was slightly poorer than that occurring immediately, but it was unaffected by various patterns of element identity among the triads. Discrimination improved somewhat over the I-week interval. Further experiments showed that the immediate test was responsible for both reducing forgetting and improving discrimination, but both effects were independent of identity structure. Forgetting cannot be attributed to loss of differentiation of cues.The primary purpose of this research was to examine the role of discrimination among cues in producing forgetting. The design necessary to accomplish this is straightforward. Subjects learn paired associate lists varying in similarity among cues and then return to the laboratory 1 week later to be retested. The testing procedure consists of a test of associative recall and an independent assessment of discrimination among the items composing the stimulus set.Several experiments from the University of Alberta laboratory have shown a relationship between the number and position of identical elements in the cue terms of paired associates and the difficulty of learning the associates (Runquist, 1972). The most common interpretation of these effects has been in terms of learning discriminations among cues (Anderson & Bower, 1973;Gibson, 1940). It is not clear, however, whether element identity (similarity) affects forgetting. The bulk of the evidence has denied any effect (Underwood, 1961). However, Joinson and Runquist (1968) found that similarity retarded forgetting, and Battig (1966) has persistently maintained that interference during acquisition should facilitate long-term retention.Irrespective of the effect of similarity on forgetting, it is important to determine whether discrimination among cues, once established, is retained over long time intervals or whether it shows the forgetting characteristic of associative information. We might add that forgetting is not a foregone conclusion. Ellis and Daniel (1971) have shown that the ability to distinguish new nonsense shapes from well-studied prototypes does not deteriorate over a 28-day interval. It is possible that intralist discriminations show the same stability. EXPERIMENT 1 MethodThe experiment consisted of five parts and was identical for all subjects. There were four different conditions, but these were This work was supported by Grant A088 from the National Research Council of Canada. James Tousignant, Caroline Renney , and Carrie MacWilliams aided in the collection of the data. defined only by the structure of the list learned. The first part of the experiment was a practice task, the purpose of which was to familiarize the subject with the testing procedure. Subjects were given study-test sequences on six pairs composed of a geometrical form and a two-digit n...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Cue discrimination and forgetting

1981

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“…In this case, the processes involved in forgetting may not be comparable. Furthermore, it is possible that the mechanisms involved may depend upon the task demands of a particular situation (Martin, Fleming, & Nally, 1978).…”

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Some effects of remembering on forgetting

1983

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Three experiments investigated the effect of testing for recall on forgetting. One experiment demonstrated that the effect of testing is restricted to the items tested. A second experiment showed that the difference between tested and untested items increased with longer retention intervals. Increasing the study time had no effect on the retention of tested items. but increased the recallability of untested items. A third experiment ruled out rehearsal during the retention interval as an explanation. It was concluded that the critical aspects of a test are the retrieval operations themselves. Suggestions are made as to how these operations attenuate forgetting.Both common sense and countless experiments indicate that information in memory becomes less accessible when it is not activated or utilized for some time. This decrease in accessibility is commonly called "forgetting." It is also well established that retrieving information from memory renders that information more accessible upon some later occasion.The research reported in this paper was concerned with testing effects on the course of forgetting over relatively long periods of time. The experiments were motivated primarily by certain conceptual and methodological problems involved in the study of forgetting, but the results have important implications for the understanding of testing effects in general.The problem originates with the very definition of forgetting. Conceptually, the notion of forgetting implies that information that was once accessible can no longer be retrieved. Operationally, then, the measurement of forgetting requires two retrieval tests separated by a time interval. Working under the assumption that any event that is perceived is immediately available (e.g., Tulving, 1964), some researchers may not provide the initial test, but forgetting can only be demonstrated by determining the actual accessibility of that information at two different times. Normally, the first test is given as close to the end of input as is possible, but there is no logical necessity for this restriction, and forgetting may be validly measured between any two points in time.Although the general operations required to measure forgetting are straightforward, the realization of concrete procedures presents somewhat of a problem. Two kinds of design are available. One procedure is to give both tests to the same person at two different times.

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Effect of temporal locus of a recitation attempt on learning and retention

Cited by 2 publications

References 18 publications

Cue discrimination and forgetting

Cue discrimination and forgetting

Some effects of remembering on forgetting

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