Prefer distributing study across days with varied but congruent texts, and treat repeated rereading of one text with caution because it inflates confidence without durable gains¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 6 claims (6 for) · 3 studies (2 causal, 1 review), q3 · 1 of 3 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description¶

This strategy follows from the article's own findings: distributing reading over three days — whether by reading three different congruent texts or by rereading one — produced significantly better one-week retention than a single reading, while the single-reading group's representation faded over a week. The article also warns that rereading inflates confidence: its participants were overconfident, whereas multiple text readers were "underconfident about the knowledge they acquired". Learners and instructors should therefore favour spaced sessions with additional varied sources when available, and not rely on the felt ease of rereading as a signal of mastery.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Three texts on the same topic with congruent content, equally elaborating the key concepts, and spaced learning sessions on consecutive days

Constraints¶

• The one-week MTR advantage over rereading was not formally significant; differences on a one-day delayed test were also non-significant

Target Learners¶

• psychology students and other higher-education learners studying textual material

Target Learning Goals¶

• knowledge retention and comprehension depth

Claims¶

• On a one-week delayed test, multiple text reading and rereading both outperform single reading, but on a one-day delayed test the differences are non-significant [+W]
• Multiple text reading shows more stable retention than rereading: non-significantly higher one-week scores and a smaller decline from one day to one week [+W]
• Delayed JOL bias: multiple text readers are underconfident, rereaders overconfident at one day, and single readers overconfident at one week [+W]
• Reading approach and test delay each significantly affect knowledge-test performance, with no significant interaction (ηp2 = 0.02) [+W]
• Rereading raises judgements of learning after each reading while multiple text reading raises them only after the second reading (significant interaction, ηp2 = 0.07) [+W]
• Rereading Is A Low Utility Study Strategy [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Rereading

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Peter Seban, Kamila Urban, Radovan Sikl. (2025). Comparing the effectiveness of multiple text reading and rereading on knowledge retention and metacognitive accuracy. Instructional Science, 53, 337–364. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-024-09686-4