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

Related Concept Videos

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective.
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant factor...

Purposive Learning

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...

Metacognition

Metacognition

Metacognition is a conscious process where individuals are aware of their cognitive and executive processes, such as planning before solving a problem or self-monitoring during reading. For instance, a writer may need help with composing a piece. The situation involves a writer who is working on a piece of writing, but while doing so, they realize that something is missing. They notice that their characters lack depth or details. This realization occurs because the writer is reflecting on their...

Hindsight Biases

Hindsight Biases

Hindsight bias leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t. In other words, you knew all along that things would turn out the way they did. Can you relate this to the phrase "Hindsight is 20/20" now?

Statistical Significance

Statistical Significance

Once data is collected from both the experimental and the control groups, a statistical analysis is conducted to find out if there are meaningful differences between the two groups. A statistical analysis determines how likely any difference found is due to chance (and thus not meaningful). In psychology, group differences are considered meaningful, or significant, if the odds that these differences occurred by chance alone are 5 percent or less. Stated another way, if we repeated this...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by

Same author

Why Empirical Forgetting Curves Deviate from Actual Forgetting Rates: A Distribution Model of Forgetting.

Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)·2025

Same author

Does Memory Accessibility Affect How Much We Learn from Studying?

Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)·2025

Same author

Answering a factual question today increases one's confidence in the same answer tomorrow - independent of fluency.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2021

Same author

How the wisdom of crowds, and of the crowd within, are affected by expertise.

Cognitive research: principles and implications·2021

Same author

How to activate students' natural desire to test themselves.

Cognitive research: principles and implications·2019

Same author

Audiovisual quality impacts assessments of job candidates in video interviews: Evidence for an AV quality bias.

Cognitive research: principles and implications·2018

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 9, 2026

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Published on: June 30, 2020

Attempting to answer a meaningful question enhances subsequent learning even when feedback is delayed.

¹Williams College.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition

|July 17, 2013

Summary

Retrieval practice enhances learning, especially with meaningful questions. Delayed feedback still benefits learning when questions have rich content, easing educational concerns about immediate feedback necessity.

More Related Videos

Problem-Solving Before Instruction (PS-I): A Protocol for Assessment and Intervention in Students with Different Abilities

Problem-Solving Before Instruction (PS-I): A Protocol for Assessment and Intervention in Students with Different Abilities

Published on: September 11, 2021

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

Published on: August 25, 2023

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 9, 2026

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Published on: June 30, 2020

Problem-Solving Before Instruction (PS-I): A Protocol for Assessment and Intervention in Students with Different Abilities

Problem-Solving Before Instruction (PS-I): A Protocol for Assessment and Intervention in Students with Different Abilities

Published on: September 11, 2021

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

Published on: August 25, 2023

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Educational Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Retrieval practice is known to enhance subsequent learning.
Prior research indicated this benefit requires immediate feedback.
Previous studies used cues without intrinsic answers.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if retrieval practice enhances learning with delayed feedback.
To determine if question meaningfulness moderates the feedback delay effect.
To examine the impact of retrieval on learning meaningful trivia.

Main Methods:

Experiment 1: Replicated prior word-pair retrieval studies.
Experiment 2: Used meaningful trivia questions with delayed study.
Experiment 3: Extended delayed study up to 24 hours.

Main Results:

Meaningful trivia questions enhanced learning even with delayed study.
Learning benefits persisted with up to 24-hour delays in feedback.
Less meaningful cues only enhanced learning with immediate feedback.

Conclusions:

Retrieval practice with meaningful content supports learning irrespective of feedback delay.
Educational practices involving testing without immediate feedback can be effective.
Question type significantly influences the necessity of immediate feedback for learning gains.