Factors in massed and distributed practice.

Abstract

In an earlier paper I concluded from an analysis of the data on massing and distribution of practice that there was experimental evidence for a dual division of learning into 'achievement of insight' on the one hand and 'fixation' on the other. I also predicted that if (and as long as) a novel configuration were unstable, massing of repetitions would be more economical than distribution, since if the configuration were once lost the preliminary process of problemsolving must be gone through again. On the other hand, the fixation process was said to be favored by distributed practice. Two experiments with puzzles were reported supporting this prediction, showing massed practice more economical in early, and distribution in later, trials, with distribution having still more advantage when the task was relearned after a delay of several weeks (i).Since that paper was published, however, I have found reason to believe that (a) the primary factor in the advantage of massing is not achievement of insight as such, but the instability of the configuration. In other words, those materials which show a sharp drop in the forgetting curve should profit by massing of repetitions, particularly in the early trials. Now, a rapid drop near the beginning of the forgetting curve is not peculiar to puzzle-solving, nor indeed would this be selected by most observers as the most typical example. Far more familiar is the rapid forgetting of nonsense materials. It seemed probable, therefore, that nonsense materials would also show advantage for massed practice, provided the time interval between trials in the distributed procedure were considerably greater than the two-minute period shown by Ward (8) to yield reminiscence rather than forgetting. 1 In addition, it appeared plausible that two secondary factors might also favor massed procedure, (b) The first of these is freedom from interfering impulses set up within the learning process. It

Distributed practice and rote learning in concept formation.

“…Some degree of distribution of practice has facilitated the learning of a wide variety of lower-order tasks (7), but the effect on the more complex tasks has not been clearly demonstrated. Studies of mental mazes (2), problem solving (3), and puzzle solving (1) indicate that massed practice is superior to distributed practice, but the intertrial interval used in the distributed condition was never less than 24 hr. Oseas and Underwood (6), using vals, found that distribution tended to facilitate simple concept learning, but the differences were not statistically significant.…”

“…The authors wish to express their gratitude to Dr. B. J. Underwood, who assisted with the study 2. Now at Training Research Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois.…”

The Effect of a Final Exam on Long-Term Retention

“…Specifically, at the very beginning of experimental psychology, Ebbinghaus (1985) found that retrieving study material caused savings during relearning of that material and the basic finding that spaced (or distributed) retrieval practice results in better retention than massed practice has been replicated many times since (e.g., Cook, 1944;Ericksen, 1941;Underwood, 1961). It predicts that making a study item the target of a voluntary action will improve understanding and increase retention over a condition in which the study item is seen or heard with no specific response required.…”

Time Patterns in Motor Learning

“…In a follow-up study Longley (12) used a "Massed-evenly spaced" time pattern (1,2,3,8,15,22,29,36,43) which, when compared with Miller's (15) four time patterns gave the following results:…”

“…This group was called the Additive-Group. 3. Practice for the next group was conducted on a daily basis including Saturday and Sunday.…”