More Study Won First; Trying to Remember Without the Passage Won Later

The same final task crowned two winners

In two college studies with short texts, more study won within minutes, while trying to remember without the text won days later.

Researchers call that second method free recall.

Henry L. Roediger III and Jeffrey D. Karpicke asked students to learn short texts. In the first study, one plan used more study. Another showed the text once, then asked for free recall three times.

Repeated study led on the final recall test after five minutes. The three-recall schedule led on final passage recall after two days and one week.

A second study changed the mix of study and recall. It found the same reversal between a test after five minutes and a test after one week.

A practice test can change later memory

The testing effect means that a practice test helps memory later instead of only measuring it. Christopher A. Rowland reviewed practice tests against more study and found an average gain after a wait.

Rowland found larger gains after recall tests than after tests that offered answer choices. He saw support for effortful retrieval: working to bring back an answer without seeing it.

The account does not make every quiz useful. The gain changed with the material, the delay, and the kind of test.

Transfer was less certain after one adjustment

Transfer means using something learned on a new kind of task. Steven C. Pan and Timothy C. Rickard reviewed that harder outcome.

The gain was stronger when practice and final tasks asked people to produce answers in similar ways. It was also stronger when people explained answers and scored higher on the first practice test.

In a different check, the reviewers asked if missing studies made the overall gain look too large. After that check, their starting estimate could not rule out no transfer gain. This did not erase the task patterns or show that transfer could not happen.

Fluent study and later use run on two clocks

The passage was out of view in every final test. The task stayed free recall. What changed was the delay between learning and that test.

The studies did not measure how study felt. One practical reading is that smooth study now and recall later are two clocks for judging a method. Rereading may feel easy while the words are present. Recall days later asks what can be rebuilt after time.

For these short texts, the useful clock matches when the facts will be needed. A plan for days later should answer to later recall, not only to how study feels now.

Choosing a study plan also means choosing its clock. The time of use decides which result matters.