Retrieval practice enhances performance on final inference and transfer questions relative to restudying, although a single-word fill-in-the-blank task did not¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (4 entries) · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The chapter reports, citing Butler (2010, Experiment 1), that practicing retrieval enhanced performance on new final inference questions relative to restudying, and variable tests were no better than same tests. → Karpicke 2017 q2 i? The chapter reports, citing Hinze and Wiley (2011, Experiment 3), that paragraph recall outperformed fill-in-the-blank tests on a final multiple-choice transfer test 2 days later. → Karpicke 2017 (2) q2 i? The chapter reports, citing Tran et al. (2015), that a fill-in-the-blank task recalling one word per sentence did not enhance final inference performance relative to restudy. → Karpicke 2017 (3) q2 i? The chapter reports, citing Eglington and Kang (2016), positive effects on final inference performance with Tran et al.'s materials when sentences were studied simultaneously and free recall was practiced. → Karpicke 2017 (4)

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 Butler (2010), where students reread texts or took three short-answer tests with feedback; one week later "Practicing retrieval enhanced performance on the final inference questions, relative to restudying".

"Practicing retrieval enhanced performance on the final inference questions, relative to restudying. Interestingly, variable initial test conditions did not lead to better performance than same-test conditions."

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 · r3

The chapter reports Hinze and Wiley (2011), with a transfer test 2 days after learning: "the paragraph recall condition outperformed the fill-in-the-blank condition on the final transfer test".

"The key finding was that the paragraph recall condition outperformed the fill-in-the-blank condition on the final transfer test, demonstrating another advantage of initial retrieval practice with relatively less support."

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 Tran et al. (2015), where subjects studied sentences one at a time: "This retrieval practice task did not enhance performance on final inference questions"; no effect size is printed.

"This retrieval practice task did not enhance performance on final inference questions, relative to a restudy control condition."

Karpicke 2017 (4)¶

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 Eglington and Kang (2016), who reused Tran et al.'s materials and "found positive effects of retrieval practice on final inference performance" under simultaneous study and free recall.

"Eglington and Kang used Tran et al. ’s materials and found positive effects of retrieval practice on final inference performance when subjects studied the sentences simultaneously and when they practiced free recall."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Retrieval Practice Improves Transfer
• Whether prompting students to construct explanations during retrieval adds benefit beyond initial free recall is mixed across studies — related
• Retrieval practice effects on mediator-cued final tests have been positive, but Coppens et al. (2016) concluded the true effect may be only about 0.10 to 0.20 — related
• The benefits of retrieval practice do not depend on an exact match between initial retrieval practice conditions and the final test format — related
• Retrieval practice benefits extend to nonverbal visual materials, spatial map learning, and educational texts with different structures — related
• The argument that retrieval practice effects do not occur with materials high in element interactivity is contested, and the chapter judges its research base not convincing — related
• Transfer of test-enhanced learning is greatest across test formats, to application and inference questions, to medical diagnosis problems, and to mediator and related word cues — related
• On the final cumulative test, JOLs with word stems and retrieval practice improve List-5 recall over restudy, while restudy shows a List-1 advantage — related
• Retrieval practice improved literal premise recall but did not improve deductive inference transfer compared to restudy — reports the opposite
• The testing effect has been demonstrated across a variety of mostly low-element-interactivity materials, but problem-solving tasks had received very little testing-effect research attention — related
• No intervention benefits on source references in students' written conclusions (far transfer question) — related