Transcribed Image Text: Testing Enhances Retention of Information
The clearest benefit of testing is that it enhances your ability to engage in durable learning of
information. That is, testing increases the chance you will learn information and that this
learning will persist over time. For example, one famous study (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006b)
had students read several short passages about different topics like the sun or sea otters. For
some passages, right after the initial reading, the participants were asked to read the passage
one more time. Because they studied it twice, they can be labeled the study-study group. For
other passages, right after reading, the passage was taken away and participants were asked to
write down as much as they could remember. Because this group studied the passage once and
then took a test, they can be labeled the study-test group. After all of these activities, the
researchers then had everyone take a final test to assess learning for the passage. Some
participants took this test only five minutes after studying/testing on the passages. Others came
back and took the final test two days or one week later, allowing the researchers to examine
learning over time. The researchers measured how many ideas participants could remember
from the initial passage.
This graph shows the results of this study. Two patterns stand out. First, lots of studying in a
short space of time seemed to confer a slight advantage when the final test was given after five
minutes. Second, testing led to much better long-term mation. Specifically, an initial test led to
better memory when the final test was given two days or one week later. Many studies have
shown this pattern, suggesting that the benefits ofretention the final assessment occurs more
than few minutes after initial learning (see Kornell, of testing are most apparent when Bjork, &
Garcia, 2011; Rowland, 2014, for reviews; but see Adesope, Trevisan, & Sundararajan, 2017).
0.90
O Study-study
O Study-test
0.80
0.70-
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
5 minutes
2 Days
1 Week
Time until final test
The percentage of idea units correctly recalled following multiple study opportunities (study-study) or initial
study followed by a test (study-test). Adapted from Roediger and Karpicke (2006b).
Parcent of ideas recalled
Transcribed Image Text: The bottom line is that when it comes to durable, long-lasting learning, testing gives you much
more bang for your buck. That is, your time will be spent much more efficiently when you
practice retrieving information rather than simply reading that information over and over. As an
illustrative example, in one experiment (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008), participants learned
Swahili words and their English translations (e.g., pomba-beer) in cycles. The participants
continuously learned the words and took a test (pomba-?), only to repeat the procedure until all
of the translations could be correctly recalled once. But there was a catch. For some
participants, when a translation was correctly recalled the first time, it was not tested again and
continuously restudied in subsequent cycles. Thus, participants in this group had multiple study
opportunities. For other participants, when a translation was correctly recalled the first time, it
was never studied again and only tested in subsequent cycles. Thus, these participants had
multiple testing opportunities. Everyone then came back and took a final test one week after the
initial learning phase. On average, those who had many testing opportunities correctly
remembered approximately 80% of the translations. Participants who had many study
opportunities remembered approximately 36% of the translations. Thus, lots of testing is much
better for leaming than lots of restudying (but see Soderstrom, Kerr, & Bjork, 2016, for an
analysis of spacing benefits in this experiment). To finish up your own demonstration of the
benefits of testing.
The research literature is filled with findings showing benefits of testing for a variety of
materials. Two recent reviews of the literature confirm this (Rowland, 2014; Adesope et al.,
2017). For example, one review of 159 different studies and thousands of subjects in
experiments showed that participants were about 2.5 times more likely to remember tested
information on a final assessment compared with studying alone (Rowland, 2014). Phrased
differently, given the same amount of time learning the material, engaging in testing makes you
over twice as likely to remember that information.
Choose this following statement, and provide 2 pieces of evidence from the paragraphs
that support it.
1. Testing enhances the retention of information.