Retrieval practice as a learning strategy for individuals with Down syndrome A preliminary study

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Remembering recently studied materials (i.e., retrieval practice) is more beneficial for learning than restudying these materials. Objective: To investigate whether retrieval practice benefits learning for individuals with Down syndrome. Methods: Eighteen individuals with Down syndrome (mean age=21.61 years, SD=5.93) performed a task entailing a first read of an encyclopedic text covering a series of target words. After reading the text twice, participants recalled half of the target words (retrieval practice), and reread the other half (restudy). After 48 hours, participants answered a multiple-choice test including all target words. Subsequently, WASI’s Vocabulary and Matrix reasoning subtests were administered to estimate intelligence. Results: The benefit of retrieval practice for learning was numerically greater than the benefit of restudy, although this advantage did not reach statistical significance. Inspection of individual data suggested that the benefit of retrieval practice was greater than the benefit of restudy for the majority of the participants, independently of the participants’ vocabulary or reasoning abilities. Conclusion: Although more research is needed before retrieval practice can be recommended as a learning strategy for individuals with Down syndrome, the data suggest that retrieval practice can be a useful teaching tool for at least part of this population.

Teaching Individuals with Down Syndrome and Moderate or Severe Intellectual Disability with The Aim of Their Acquiring, Retaining and Recalling Knowledge: An Intervention Programme for Discovering and Understanding The Environment

“…Although recall practice is beneficial for long-term learning, only a few studies have been conducted to date to determine whether it can be a beneficial learning strategy for people with varying cognitive and developmental characteristics (Starling et al, 2019). This issue, namely the recall of memory in people with DS, was also investigated in the studies of Milojevich and Lukowski (2016) and Roberts and Richmond (2015).…”

“…It is a fact that education helps people with DS enhance their memory skills (Bennett, Holmes, & Buckley, 2013;Costa et al, 2015;Lanfranchi, Pulina, Carretti, & Mammarella, 2017;Pulina, Carretti, Lanfranchi, & Mammarella, 2015), which is why memory training is so vital. Training in strategies that can enhance memory is also crucial, because retrieving current information is more beneficial for learning than re-studying it (Starling, Moreira, & Jaeger, 2019). One of the essential demands of people with DS is to exercise memory through repetition or the use of strategy (Minan-Espigares, 1999, as cited in de la Iglesia et al, 2005).…”

Retrieval practice enhances memory for names in survivors of stroke.

“…Alternatively, it is possible that some stroke survivors may not benefit from the use of retrieval practice (compared with spaced restudy) over the longer term, due to individual and stroke-related characteristics. Some authors have suggested that the magnitude of retrieval practice may vary due to factors such as age, intelligence, and the complexity of material to be learned (Brewer & Unsworth, 2012; Minear, Coane, Boland, Cooney, & Albat, 2018; Tse, Balota, & Roediger, 2010); however, this area of research remains in its early stages (Starling, Moreira, & Jaeger, 2019). Further, the heterogeneity of memory difficulties in our stroke group due to different lesion sites may have diluted the magnitude of retrieval practice effects over the longer term.…”

Retrieval Practice and Word Learning in Children with Hearing Loss

“…More recently, retrieval practice has been shown effective for clinical populations such as children with traumatic brain injury (Coyne et al, 2015), Down Syndrome (Starling et al, 2019), or developmental language disorder (DLD; Gordon, 2020;Gordon et al, 2021;Haebig et al, 2019;Leonard et al, 2019;Leonard & Deevy, 2020). For example, Leonard and colleagues (2019) assessed the learning (label and meaning) of eight words in 10 children with DLD and 10 children with typical development.…”