The testing effect in a social setting: Does retrieval practice benefit a listener?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• The testing effect demonstrates that retrieval practice enhances memory retention compared to restudying.
• Social learning contexts may alter the efficacy of retrieval practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of social contexts on the testing effect.
• To compare the memory benefits of overt (speaker) versus covert (listener) retrieval practice.

Main Methods:

• Participants studied vocabulary in pairs, engaging in restudy and retrieval practice.
• Retrieval practice involved one participant acting as speaker (overt) and the other as listener (covert).
• Listener engagement was manipulated in Experiment 3 to focus on self-retrieval.

Main Results:

• Overt retrieval practice by speakers significantly improved recall over restudying after a two-day delay.
• Covert practice by listeners yielded smaller recall benefits than overt practice in Experiments 1 and 2.
• When listeners focused on their own covert retrieval, both overt and covert practice showed similar memory benefits.

Conclusions:

• Memory retrieval benefits are not equivalent for speakers and listeners in social learning.
• Classroom questioning strategies may require adjustments to ensure active, effortful covert retrieval for all students to maximize learning.