麻豆影院

Researchers from 麻豆影院 State Say Practice Tests Improve Memory

A wealth of research has shown that testing can actually improve learning, according to two researchers from 麻豆影院

Although most people assume that tests are a way to evaluate learning, a wealth of research has shown that testing can actually improve learning, according to two researchers from 麻豆影院. Dr. Katherine Rawson, associate professor in 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 Department of Psychology, and former 麻豆影院 State graduate student Mary Pyc publish their research findings in the Oct. 15, 2010, issue of the journal Science.

Dr. Katherine Rawson

 

鈥淭aking practice tests 鈥 particularly ones that involve attempting to recall something from memory 鈥 can drastically increase the likelihood that you鈥檒l be able to remember that information again later,鈥 Rawson said. 鈥淕iven that hundreds of experiments have been conducted to establish the effects of testing on learning, it鈥檚 surprising that we know very little about why testing improves memory.鈥

In the article titled 鈥淲hy Testing Improves Memory: Mediator Effectiveness Hypothesis,鈥 Rawson and Pyc reported an experiment indicating that at least one reason why testing is good for memory is that testing supports the use of more effective encoding strategies.

Rawson offered this illustration. 鈥淪uppose you were trying to learn foreign language vocabulary,鈥 she said. 鈥淚n our research, we typically use Swahili-English word pairs, such as 鈥榳ingu 鈥 cloud.鈥 To learn this item, you could just repeat it over and over to yourself each time you studied it, but it turns out that鈥檚 not a particularly effective strategy for committing something to memory. 

鈥淎 more effective strategy is to develop a keyword that connects the foreign language word with the English word. 鈥榃ingu鈥 sounds like 鈥榳ing,鈥 birds have wings and fly in the 鈥榗louds.鈥 Of course, this works only as well as the keyword you come up with. For a keyword to be any good, you have to be able to remember your keyword when you鈥檙e given the foreign word later. Also, for a keyword to be good, you have to be able to remember the English word once you remember the keyword.鈥

The research done by Rawson and Pyc showed that practice tests lead learners to develop better keywords. People come up with more effective mental hints or keywords, called mediators, when they are being tested than when they are studying only. 

Rawson joined 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 faculty in the fall of 2004. Her grant-funded research, undertaken with colleague Dr. John Dunlosky, psychology professor and director of Experimental Training at 麻豆影院 State, seeks to identify effective study strategies and study schedules for students to learn classroom material in a durable and efficient manner.

Earlier this year, Rawson traveled to the White House and received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Nominated by the U.S. Department of Education, Rawson was one of 100 beginning researchers named by President Barack Obama to receive this prestigious award. She resides in Stow, Ohio.

Pyc received her master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees from 麻豆影院 State. She worked in Rawson鈥檚 cognitive psychology lab. Pyc鈥檚 research interests involve promoting student learning, including when retrieval practice is beneficial for memory, evaluating theoretical accounts for why retrieval practice is beneficial for memory, how students self-regulate learning, and how students鈥 metacognition is related to their self-regulated learning. She is now a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University.

Find more information about 麻豆影院 State鈥檚 Department of Psychology

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Media Contact:
Emily Vincent, evincen2@kent.edu, 330-672-8595

POSTED: Thursday, October 14, 2010 01:52 PM
Updated: Thursday, December 8, 2022 12:37 PM
WRITTEN BY:
The Department of Psychological Sciences