Direct and indirect effects of fluid intelligence on the retrieval practice effect

In this study, participants (N = 144) first studied 40 word pairs, then restudied half of the word pairs and practiced retrieval with feedback on the other half. In separate sessions, they then completed cued-recall and fluid intelligence (gF) tests. Three main objectives were addressed. First, we sought to generalize two findings reported by M. Minear et al. (2018): During the final-test phase, the high gF group exhibited a greater retrieval practice effect for difficult items compared to easy items, while the opposite pattern was observed for the low gF group; and, during the practice phase, the advantage of the high gF group over the low gF group increased across cycles for difficult items but not for easy items. Overall, we successfully extended their results. Second, we investigated whether gF is related to the amount of new items recalled during the practice phase. Consistent positive relationships were found in Cycles 1-3 (rs between .30 and .43). Third, we tested and found an indirect effect of gF on the retrieval practice effect mediated by performance during the practice phase. One possibility is that learners with higher gF may be particularly skilled at generating effective mediators and at monitoring and replacing less effective ones after retrieval failures. We recommend the following research agenda: measure the production, shift, and retrieval of mediators; manipulate the number of retrieval practice opportunities; probe the retrieval practice effect with free-recall tests; and adopt procedures based on learning to a criterion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).