Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

The simultaneous learning effect: why does simultaneous task learning improve retention?

Daniel J Burns¹, Mara V Ladd

¹Department of Psychology, Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308, USA. burnsd@union.edu

The American Journal of Psychology

|October 26, 2006

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Evidence for proactive interference effects in repetitive checking tasks.

Memory (Hove, England)·2025

Same author

Not all checking decreases memory confidence: Implications for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry·2020

Same author

Dying scenarios improve recall as much as survival scenarios.

Memory (Hove, England)·2013

Same author

Dying to remember, remembering to survive: mortality salience and survival processing.

Memory (Hove, England)·2013

Same author

Adaptive memory: the survival scenario enhances item-specific processing relative to a moving scenario.

Memory (Hove, England)·2012

Same author

Large-scale analysis of high-speed atomic force microscopy data sets using adaptive image processing.

Beilstein journal of nanotechnology·2012

Same journal

Attributing social meaning to animated shapes: A new experimental study of apparent behavior.

The American journal of psychology·2021

Same journal

Scientific Study of Magic: Binet's Pioneering Approach Based on Observations and Chronophotography.

The American journal of psychology·2018

Same journal

Child and Ancient Man: How to Define Their Commonalities and Differences.

The American journal of psychology·2018

Same journal

Adolescent Aggression as Predicted from Parent-Child Relationships and Executive Functions.

The American journal of psychology·2018

Same journal

The Effect of Collective Transitions on the Organization and Contents of Autobiographical Memory: A Transition Theory Perspective.

The American journal of psychology·2018

Same journal

The Development and Validity of a Chinese Version of the Compound Remote Associates Test.

The American journal of psychology·2018

See all related articles

Simultaneous learning of word lists significantly slows forgetting compared to single-list learning. This effect is not due to short-term memory but rather retrieval cues from concurrently learned items.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Memory Research
Learning Science

Background:

Few encoding variables impact verbal material forgetting rates.
Simultaneous learning of multiple word lists reduces forgetting compared to single-list learning.
The simultaneous learning effect is substantial but understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate the mechanisms behind the simultaneous learning effect on forgetting.
Test the role of short-term memory in this phenomenon.
Explore retrieval cueing as an explanation for reduced forgetting.

Main Methods:

Conducted experiments varying learning conditions (single vs. simultaneous lists).
Manipulated factors to minimize short-term memory contributions.

Related Experiment Videos

Varied item overlap across lists during simultaneous learning trials.

Main Results:

Simultaneous learning advantage persisted even when short-term memory influence was minimized.
The effect was larger when simultaneously learned items were consistent across trials.
Findings suggest retrieval cueing plays a key role.

Conclusions:

The simultaneous learning effect is not primarily driven by short-term memory.
Retrieval cueing from concurrently learned items significantly reduces forgetting rates.
This highlights the importance of retrieval processes in memory retention.