Article
Metacognitive Control Over the Distribution of Practice: When is Spacing Preferred?
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
(2009)
Abstract
The authors clarify the source of a conflict between previous findings related to metacognitive control over the distribution of practice. In a study by L. Son (2004), learners were initially presented pairs of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) vocabulary words and their common synonyms for 1 s, after which they chose to study the pair again immediately (massed practice), later (spaced practice), or not at all (done). Learners chose spaced practice less as pair difficulty increased. A. S. Benjamin and R. D. Bird (2006), using different materials and procedures and a longer presentation duration (5 s), concluded just the opposite. The authors adopted Son’s materials and procedures and replicated her findings with a 1-s stimulus duration. However, the declining choice of spacing as item difficulty increased largely reflected learners’ failure to fully perceive items with brief presentations. With longer presentations, ensuring full perception, the choice of spaced practice increased with greater pair difficulty, in agreement with Benjamin and Bird. Theoretical implications are discussed in the context of discrepancy-reduction and proximal-learning perspectives.
Keywords
- metacognition,
- spacing effect,
- metacognitive control,
- distributed practice
Disciplines
Publication Date
September, 2009
DOI
10.1037/a0016371
Citation Information
Thomas C. Toppino, Michael S. Cohen, Meghan Caulfield and Amy C. Moors. "Metacognitive Control Over the Distribution of Practice: When is Spacing Preferred?" Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition Vol. 35 Iss. 5 (2009) p. 1352 - 1358 ISSN: 1939-1285 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/meghan-caulfield/1/