Late-afternoon memory work shows relative inefficiency of about 5-6 per cent compared with early-morning work in 13-year-old boys¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 1912 · checked against its sources 2026-10-24 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? The morning group improved 10.7 per cent from preliminary to final tests while the afternoon group improved 5.0 per cent, a difference the author takes as a fatigue effect of between 5 and 6 per cent. → Winch 1912
Evidence¶
Winch 1912¶
Winch, W. H. (1912). Mental fatigue in day school children as measured by immediate memory: Part I. Journal of Educational Psychology, 3(1), 18–28. doi:10.1037/h0070728
q2 · i? · causal · r2
Controlled two-group comparison after equal practice: two initially equal groups (average preliminary mark 240.9 each) worked the same tests, Group A mornings only and Group B afternoons only, over three weeks. Improvement was 10.7 per cent for the morning group versus 5.0 per cent for the afternoon group.
"The "morning group" improves 10.7 per cent, from the preliminary to the iinal tests; whilst the "afternoon group" improves 5.0 per cent, from the preliminary to the final tests. For a class of boys of this age and mental level therefore, the fatigue effect thus calculated appears to be between 5 and 6 per cent."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- About one in seven boys in the afternoon group ceased to improve and tended downwards, compared with one in the morning group — related
- Improvement by practice continues in both morning and afternoon groups, but the morning group improves faster across weeks — related
- Exception: the top section of afternoon workers did better work than the corresponding morning section — related
- In a London boys' school class, the group working problematic arithmetic later in the morning improved about 5 per cent more than the group working it early — related
- In one class of 13-year-old boys, memory scores were kept to a steady rank order by repeated practice (successive tests correlating +.87 to +.90) before fatigue testing began — related
- Psychological methods of fatigue measurement afford useful average values and reliable information about the course and effect of fatigue (Offner) — a broader claim this one bears on
- During the final fatigue test, time per problem rose gradually, then markedly, with no obvious correlation between time and accuracy — related
- In a boys' school where three-fourths of pupils rose early for work, the earlier-working group (9.40 A.M.) improved more (about 14 per cent) than the later-working group (11.30 A.M., 9 per cent). — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
afternoon-memory-fatigue-five-six-percent |
title |
Late-afternoon memory work shows relative inefficiency of about 5-6 per cent compared with early-morning work in 13-year-old boys |
description |
Late-afternoon memory work shows relative inefficiency of about 5-6 per cent compared with early-morning work in 13-year-old boys |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
1912 |
source_checked |
2026-10-24 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-23 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — winch-1912 |
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