Resting after learning or repeating the learned?

The formation of new memories can be influenced by the activities that immediately follow learning. Previous research has shown that several minutes of wakeful resting after learning can enhance memory retention compared to engaging in unrelated tasks, likely by facilitating memory consolidation. However, the relative efficacy of wakeful resting compared to other potentially memory-enhancing post-learning activities, like post-learning repetition, remains unclear. We conducted two experiments examining the effects of wakeful resting and repetition on memory retention. Participants studied three auditorily presented word lists. Each word list was immediately followed by one of three 7-min post-learning interventions: (1) repetitive listening to the word list, (2) wakeful resting, or (3) engaging in a new task. Across both experiments, memory performance was highest in the repetition condition, followed by the wakeful resting condition, with the lowest performance observed in the distraction condition. These findings were observed 12 min after acquisition and remained stable after 1 day. Our results highlight the differential effects of post-learning activities on memory retention. Wakeful resting is an effective and easy-to-implement strategy for facilitating memory consolidation, but in direct comparison, repetition appears to be even more effective for optimising memory retention.