Schedule declarative learning (e.g., vocabulary) in the afternoon and procedural skill practice (e.g., music, sports) in the late evening for adolescents¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 5 claims (4 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The authors translate their differential consolidation findings into a scheduling recommendation for adolescent learning: declarative material such as vocabulary should be studied in the afternoon, roughly 7.5 hours before night-time sleep, while motor skills such as soccer or piano should be trained in the late evening, directly before sleep. They state: "we propose that declarative memories, such as vocabulary words, should be studied in the afternoon and motor skills, like playing soccer or piano, should be trained in the late evening."

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• An overnight sleep interval following learning, as in the study's sleep-laboratory design

Constraints¶

• The declarative half of the recommendation rests on a finding the authors themselves call less robust, not sustained at 7 days (P = 0.053)
• Findings are restricted to female adolescents aged 16-17 investigated in the follicular phase; translation to male adolescents and adults remains unclear

Target Learners¶

• Adolescents aged 16-17 (post-pubertal female adolescents in the study)

Target Learning Goals¶

• Declarative memory consolidation (e.g., vocabulary)
• Procedural motor skill consolidation (e.g., music, sports)

Claims¶

• Adolescents trained on word pairs in the afternoon show higher word-pair retention after 24 hours than evening-trained adolescents, but the difference is not sustained at 7 days [+W]
• Evening-trained adolescents show greater gains in finger-tapping accuracy (reduced error rate) than afternoon-trained adolescents at both retention intervals [+W]
• Adolescents trained on a finger-tapping task in the evening show greater off-line gains in tapping speed than afternoon-trained adolescents at both 24 hours and 7 days [+W]
• Learning timing produces Group X Time interactions in both memory systems: declarative consolidation time courses differ between afternoon and evening groups, and finger-tapping speed and accuracy show highly significant Group X Time interactions [+W]
• Polysomnographic sleep parameters did not differ between afternoon- and evening-trained groups and did not correlate with memory consolidation measures [~W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Holz J, Piosczyk H, Landmann N, Feige B, Spiegelhalder K, Riemann D, Nissen C, Voderholzer U. (2012). The Timing of Learning before Night-Time Sleep Differentially Affects Declarative and Procedural Long-Term Memory Consolidation in Adolescents. PLoS ONE 7(7): e40963. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0040963