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Using Practice Testing, Public Speaking, and Source Monitoring to Examine the Influences of Learning Strategies and Stress on Episodic Memory
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Published on: June 14, 2019

Repeated retrieval practice and item difficulty: does criterion learning eliminate item difficulty effects?

Kalif E Vaughn1, Katherine A Rawson, Mary A Pyc

  • 1Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA, kvaughn4@kent.edu.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|April 17, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Retrieval practice aids memory, but even with equal successful recalls, difficult items are remembered less than easy ones. This memory difference is linked to associative memory, not cue or target memory.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Educational Psychology
  • Memory Research

Background:

  • Retrieval practice is a proven method for enhancing memory retention.
  • Successful retrieval is a key factor in memory improvement.
  • The impact of item difficulty on retrieval practice effectiveness is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if successful retrieval practice benefits easy and difficult items equally.
  • To determine if equating successful recalls eliminates difficulty-related memory differences.
  • To diagnose the memory components (cue, target, associative) affected by item difficulty.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments used Lithuanian-English word pairs, varying in difficulty.
  • Participants engaged in test-restudy practice until a set number of successful recalls (1-11) were achieved for each item.
  • Delayed cued-recall, cue recognition, target recognition, and associative recognition tests were administered.

Main Results:

  • Difficult items showed lower performance than easy items on the final cued-recall test, despite equated successful practice recalls.
  • No differences were found in cue recognition, and difficult items even showed an advantage in target recognition.
  • A disadvantage for difficult items was observed specifically in associative recognition.

Conclusions:

  • Equating retrieval success during practice does not eliminate memory differences between easy and difficult items.
  • The memory disadvantage for difficult items appears to stem from associative memory deficits.
  • Item difficulty continues to influence memory outcomes even when retrieval success is controlled.