ERIC Number: EJ1049588
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Nov
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Sleep Can Reduce the Testing Effect: It Enhances Recall of Restudied Items but Can Leave Recall of Retrieved Items Unaffected
Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T.; Holterman, Christoph; Abel, Magdalena
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v40 n6 p1568-1581 Nov 2014
The testing effect refers to the finding that retrieval practice in comparison to restudy of previously encoded contents can improve memory performance and reduce time-dependent forgetting. Naturally, long retention intervals include both wake and sleep delay, which can influence memory contents differently. In fact, sleep immediately after encoding can induce a mnemonic benefit, stabilizing and strengthening the encoded contents. We investigated in a series of 5 experiments whether sleep influences the testing effect. After initial study of categorized item material (Experiments 1, 2, and 4A), paired associates (Experiment 3), or educational text material (Experiment 4B), subjects were asked to restudy encoded contents or engage in active retrieval practice. A final recall test was conducted after a 12-hr delay that included diurnal wakefulness or nocturnal sleep. The results consistently showed typical testing effects after the wake delay. However, these testing effects were reduced or even eliminated after sleep, because sleep benefited recall of restudied items but left recall of retrieved items unaffected. The findings are consistent with the bifurcation model of the testing effect (Kornell, Bjork, & Garcia, 2011), according to which the distribution of memory strengths across items is shifted differentially by retrieving and restudying, with retrieval strengthening items to a much higher degree than restudy does. On the basis of this model, most of the retrieved items already fall above recall threshold in the absence of sleep, so additional sleep-induced strengthening may not improve recall of retrieved items any further.
Descriptors: Recall (Psychology), Sleep, Memory, Cognitive Processes, Testing, College Students, Foreign Countries, Cognitive Tests, Statistical Analysis, Inhibition, Time, Interference (Learning)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Germany
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A