Proactive and retroactive effects of novelty and rest on memory

Novel experiences appear to benefit memory for unrelated information encoded shortly before or after. Other research suggests that memory is impaired by effortful tasks following encoding, compared to simply resting. This registered report explicitly tested the proactive and retroactive effects of novel exploration and wakeful rest. Four groups of participants explored a novel or familiarised virtual environment, either shortly before or shortly after encoding a list of unrelated words. A fifth 'wakeful rest' group performed a low-effort attention task before and after encoding. Memory was tested with immediate free recall, delayed (next day) free recall and delayed recognition with confidence judgements (from which recollection and familiarity were estimated). Bayes factors provided evidence against both proactive and retroactive benefits of novelty across all measures of memory, but provided evidence for a retroactive benefit of rest for immediate recall. In exploratory analysis, we also found evidence for a proactive benefit of rest on immediate recall. We argue that the bidirectional benefits of wakeful rest are more easily explained by Temporal Distinctiveness theory than Consolidation theory. Overall, wakeful rest surrounding learning may represent a useful intervention for improving memory, while novel exploration may not.