Distributed practice outperforms massed practice for long-term learning, with a possible foreign-language exception¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The overwhelming majority of laboratory and classroom studies support that long-term learning is maximized when instruction is distributed rather than massed. → Andrew C. Butler & Shana K. Carpenter 2015

Evidence¶

Andrew C. Butler & Shana K. Carpenter 2015¶

Andrew C. Butler & Shana K. Carpenter. (2015). Separating Myth from Reality in Education: Introduction to the Special Issue. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9344-0

q2 · i? · review · r2

The editorial reports, citing Rohrer (2015), a review of the widely endorsed spacing principle; the majority of lab and classroom studies support distributed over massed practice for long-term learning.

"He finds that the overwhelming majority of studies in both the laboratory and the classroom support the idea that long-term learning is maximized when instruction is distributed rather than massed"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Long-Term Memory — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Spaced retrieval practice produces better final retention than massed retrieval even though spacing lowers initial retrieval success, and more absolute spacing enhances long-term retention — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Spacing out retrieval practice produces better long-term retention than massing it — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Spaced Practice Improves Retention — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Spaced retrieval practice (successive relearning) produced multi-year retention of foreign language vocabulary in adults, as reported by the review — related
• Spaced Retrieval Improves Retention — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Relearning-to-criterion designs confound distribution of practice with amount of second-session practice — related
• Performance on final tests of learning is improved when multiple study sessions are spaced apart in time rather than massed in immediate succession — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)