Skip to main content
Article
Retrieval-induced facilitation: Initially nontested material can benefit from prior testing of related materia
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2006)
  • Jason C.K. Chan, Washington University in St Louis
  • Kathleen B. McDermott, Washington University in St Louis
  • Henry L. Roediger III, Washington University in St Louis
Abstract

Classroom exams can assess students' knowledge of only a subset of the material taught in a course. What are the implications of this approach for long-term retention? Three experiments (N = 210) examined how taking an initial test affects later memory for prose materials not initially tested. Experiment 1 shows that testing enhanced recall 24 hr later for the initially nontested material. This facilitation was not seen for participants given additional study opportunities without initial testing. Experiment 2 extends this facilitative effect to a within-subjects design. Experiment 3 demonstrates that this facilitation can be modulated by conscious strategies. These results have implications for educational practice and the theoretical developments of the testing effect, associative memory, and retrieval inhibition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Disciplines
Publication Date
November, 2006
Publisher Statement
This is a manuscript of an article from Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 135 (2006): 553, doi:10.1037/0096-3445.135.4.553. Posted with permission. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
Citation Information
Jason C.K. Chan, Kathleen B. McDermott and Henry L. Roediger III. "Retrieval-induced facilitation: Initially nontested material can benefit from prior testing of related materia" Journal of Experimental Psychology: General Vol. 135 Iss. 4 (2006)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jason_chan/4/