Immediate and delayed recall of information presented in a live and a televised lecture

This paper describes a study investigating medical students' responses and levels of recall from a live and televised version of the same lecture. Although no difference in immediate recall was found, a significant difference was found one week later. The groups who had seen the live lecture were able to recall significantly more from the lecture than those who had seen the televised transmission. No differences were observed in the amount and type of note-taking and in the levels of attention and interest of the two groups of students. Some possible reasons for this significant effect on delayed recall are discussed and directions for future work are identified.