Relearning attenuates the benefits and costs of spacing.

Abstract

The literature on spacing effects is vast, but no prior research has examined the effects of initial spacing when students learn to criterion and then subsequently relearn items. In addition, minimal research has evaluated the costs associated with spaced practice as well as the benefits. Accordingly, in the current research, we examined the benefits and costs of initial spacing using Bahrick's (1979) method of successive relearning. Across 3 experiments, 567 students practiced key term definitions via test-restudy practice until items were correctly recalled 1 or 3 times during initial learning. Practice trials during initial learning were either massed or spaced (including relatively longer lags in all experiments as well as intermediate lags in Experiment 1). All students then relearned items in 2-3 subsequent relearning sessions (across experiments, almost 40,000 short-answer recall responses were collected and hand scored). The benefits of initial spacing were measured by interim cued recall tests and a final test administered days or weeks after relearning, and costs were measured by total practice time across sessions. A consistent qualitative pattern emerged: The benefits of initial spacing were substantial prior to relearning but were significantly attenuated after relearning. Moreover, the costs associated with achieving criterion via spaced practice during initial learning were also substantially attenuated by faster relearning in subsequent sessions.

Applying spaced practice in the schools to teach math vocabulary

“…Retention continued to increase into the final retention check for both spaced practice conditions but dropped in the massed practice condition. This is also consistent with past research (Bahrick, ; Rawson & Dunlosky, ) and supports the finding that spaced practice facilitates retention over time better than massed practice.…”

“…There was a gradual upward trend in the number of words recalled across practice opportunities in all three conditions. This suggests that more word definition practice improves retention and is consistent with past research (Bahrick, ; Rawson & Dunlosky, ), although there is likely to be an eventual ceiling effect. Participants in the massed practice condition showed the highest retention during the three practice opportunities, probably because these three practice opportunities occurred within one practice session.…”

“…Nearly all of the educationally relevant research provided two practice opportunities, one for initial teaching and one for review. Childers and Tomasello (2002) varied the number of practice sessions, using fixed interval spaced practice, and found that 2 years old benefitted from additional practice sessions (the total amount of practice was held constant), consistent with the overall spacing effect literature (Bahrick, 1979;Rawson & Dunlosky, 2013).…”

Evaluating the Theoretic Adequacy and Applied Potential of Computational Models of the Spacing Effect

“…To create greater ecological validity, Rawson and Dunlosky (2013) taught participants a set of concepts and provided review during five sessions on separate days. This deviates from most real-world scenarios where material is reviewed and re-learned on multiple occasions.…”

“…A series of experiments by Rawson and Dunlosky (2013) provide an opportunity to test out-of-sample schedule prediction. A series of experiments by Rawson and Dunlosky (2013) provide an opportunity to test out-of-sample schedule prediction.…”