A 23-item-ISI dropout schedule achieved final cued-recall performance similar to conventional schedules while using significantly fewer test-restudy trials in two experiments¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2007 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? In Experiment 1, the 23-drop group achieved the same level of final test performance as conventional 5-5-5 and 1-5-9 groups using significantly fewer than 72 trials. → Pyc 2007 q3 i? In Experiment 2, the 23-drop group replicated this efficiency advantage over both conventional groups. → Pyc 2007 (2)

Evidence¶

Pyc 2007¶

Pyc, M. A., & Rawson, K. A. (2007). Examining the efficiency of schedules of distributed retrieval practice. Memory & Cognition, 35(8), 1917-1927. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03193420

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Controlled experiment with 161 undergraduates randomly assigned to five schedule groups learning 24 Swahili-English pairs. The 23-drop group used significantly fewer than 72 trials, t(32) = 3.38, p = .002, and showed "a slight numerical advantage over the conventional groups" at final test.

"Examination of the overall pattern in Figure 1 suggests that the 23-drop group was the most efficient, given that significantly fewer test-restudy trials were used to achieve the same level of performance as that in the conventional schedule groups."

Pyc 2007 (2)¶

Pyc, M. A., & Rawson, K. A. (2007). Examining the efficiency of schedules of distributed retrieval practice. Memory & Cognition, 35(8), 1917-1927. https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/BF03193420

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Replication experiment with 66 undergraduates in three groups (5-5-5, 23-23-23, 23-drop). The authors conclude that "the dropout schedule did so in significantly fewer trials than the conventional schedules", t(20) = 5.8, p < .001.

"Results from a one-sample t test indicated that the 23-drop group again used significantly fewer than 72 trials"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Dropping initially correct items incurred a cost relative to a long-ISI conventional schedule in Experiment 2, but this was offset by gains on initially incorrect items — related
• The effectiveness of dropout schedules depends critically on the length of the interval between presentations of an item — a broader claim this one bears on
• The dropout schedule was particularly effective for initially incorrect items, an advantage not attributable to initial ISI length and, the authors judge, unlikely to be due to item difficulty in Experiment 2 — related
• A short-ISI dropout schedule (5-drop) used significantly fewer trials but yielded lower final test performance than conventional schedules in Experiment 1 — related
• The authors' findings add to evidence that expanding-interval schedules are not more effective than fixed-interval schedules of practice — related
• Repeated test-restudy trials produced higher final cued recall than study-only or single test-restudy controls across both experiments — related
• Expanding interstudy intervals led to better recall than fixed intervals, but conclusions are tentative — related
• Self-regulated dropping of already-known items during restudy conferred no significant learning advantage and was sometimes mildly detrimental — related