Studies disagree on whether low or high working memory learners benefit more from retrieval practice, and several find no relationship¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (3 entries) · review r2–r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The chapter reports, citing Agarwal et al. (2016), that low working memory subjects benefited more from retrieval practice than high working memory subjects. → Karpicke 2017 q2 i? The chapter reports, citing Tse and Pu (2012), the opposite pattern, with high working memory subjects benefiting more. → Karpicke 2017 (2) q2 i? The chapter reports, citing Brewer and Unsworth (2012), that working memory and attentional control were unrelated to benefits, while low episodic memory subjects showed larger effects. → Karpicke 2017 (3)

Evidence¶

Karpicke 2017¶

Karpicke, J. D. (2017). Retrieval-Based Learning: A Decade of Progress. Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, 2nd edition, Volume 2. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.21055-9

q2 · i? · review · r3

The chapter reports Agarwal et al. (2016) as one side of a mixed literature: "low working memory subjects bene fit more from retrieval practice than high working memory subjects do".

"Some studies have found that low working memory subjects bene fit more from retrieval practice than high working memory subjects do ( Agarwal et al., 2016 )."

Karpicke 2017 (2)¶

Karpicke, J. D. (2017). Retrieval-Based Learning: A Decade of Progress. Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, 2nd edition, Volume 2. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.21055-9

q2 · i? · review · r2

The chapter reports Tse and Pu (2012) finding "the opposite pattern, where high working memory subjects bene fit more than low working memory subjects do".

"Other studies have found the opposite pattern, where high working memory subjects bene fit more than low working memory subjects do ( Tse and Pu, 2012 )."

Karpicke 2017 (3)¶

Karpicke, J. D. (2017). Retrieval-Based Learning: A Decade of Progress. Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, 2nd edition, Volume 2. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.21055-9

q2 · i? · review · r3

The chapter reports Brewer and Unsworth (2012): working memory and attentional control were not related to benefits, but "low episodic memory subjects exhibiting larger retrieval practice effects". Pan et al. (2015) found no working memory relationship.

"Brewer and Unsworth (2012) found that measures of working memory and attentional control were not related to the bene fits of retrieval practice, but a separate measure of episodic memory ability was related, with low episodic memory subjects exhibiting larger retrieval practice effects."

Studies bearing on this claim¶

Do learners with lower working memory capacity gain more, or less, from retrieval practice, interleaving and other desirable difficulties? This table gathers the studies behind this claim and the 2 narrower claims that bear on it: 3 distinct studies (2 review, 1 quant-synthesis), q2, 0 of 3 with an effect size coded. One row per study, codes as each entry records them; no effect is averaged and no verdict is drawn. Built by scripts/synthesize_claim.py from eval/synthesis/; a row that looks wrong is fixed on the claim it comes from.

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Working Memory — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it

Related Claims¶

• Test-enhanced learning generalizes across education levels, from elementary school (g = 0.328) through university/college (g = 0.486). — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Retrieval practice benefits learners regardless of trait anxiety level, but higher trait or induced anxiety is associated with smaller testing effects — related

• Having more multiple-choice alternatives benefits later retention when initial retrieval success is high but hurts learning when it is low
• Evidence on working memory capacity as a moderator of the interleaving effect is mixed, but WM does not appear to be a major barrier to classroom use — related
• Offloading attenuates individual differences linked to unaided ability — related