Repeated testing produces superior transfer of learning relative to repeated studying.

“Numerous studies have shown that a greater degree of initial learning generally increases positive transfer (e.g., Bruce, 1933; see Ellis, 1965), as does increasing the number and variability of training problems (e.g., Bassok & Holyoak, 1989; Gick & Holyoak, 1983; see Kimball & Holyoak, 2000).”

“This dependent measure consisted of 40 questions, 10 on each lecture—two questions in each of five categories adapted from Butler (2010): facts, seduc-tive details, concepts, same-domain inferences (inferences), and new-domain inferences (applications).”

“…testing effect with more meaningful learning materials such as prose passages (e.g., Roediger and Karpicke 2006), more meaningful learning outcomes such as transfer (e.g., Butler 2010; Johnson and Mayer 2009), and more diverse student populations such as young children (e.g., Karpicke et al. 2014).”

“Butler and Roediger (2007) point out that comparing a retrieval practice condition to a noactivity condition is a more realistic replication of a classroom setting. For example, a short quiz before a chapter exam would likely include some (but not all) questions seen on the chapter exam, and would likely not coincide…”

“In another survey on study habits, Karpicke, Butler, and Roediger (2009) asked college students to list their most commonly used study habits (rather than asking directly if they used testing, as in the Kornell and Bjork (2007) survey). When the question was framed in this openended manner, only 11% of students listed…”

“…Kang, McDermott, & Roediger, 2007), slowed forgetting (e.g., Carpenter, Pashler, Wixted, & Vul, 2008), transfer of learning to new situations (e.g., Butler, 2010), generalization to new examples (e.g., Kang, McDaniel, & Pashler, 2011), potentiated subsequent learning (e.g., Arnold & McDermott,…”

“…(with random placement of the target among three lures), other studies have shown that quizzing enhances retention on restated versions of the target questions (McDaniel, Thomas, Agarwal, Roediger, & McDermott, 2011) and on items requiring transfer of knowledge to new situations (Butler, 2010).”

“Butler (2010) has reported four experiments showing that material that has been quizzed leads to greater transfer to new questions than material that was reread (see also McDaniel, Howard, & Einstein, 2009).”

“A large number of experiments on retrieval practice have been done in the lab (see Rawson & Dunlosky (2011) and Roediger & Butler (2011) for recent reviews) and in educational settings.”

“The author would like to thank Stephanie Karpicke for assistance with preparing the manuscript.”

“Practicing retrieval has been shown to improve the application of knowledge to new situations (e.g., Butler, 2010; Dirkx, Kester, & Kirschner, 2014); McDaniel et al., 2013; Smith, Blunt, Whiffen, & Karpicke, 2016); but see Tran, Rohrer, and Pashler (2015) and Wooldridge, Bugg, McDaniel, and Liu…”

“(2016) College Introductory psychology Paper Butler et al. (2014) College Engineering Computerized quizzing Carpenter et al. (2016) College Introductory biology Paper Hopkins et al.”

“Because transfer of knowledge following retrieval practice remains a challenge in the classroom and in the literature (Agarwal 2019; Butler 2010; Pan and Rickard 2018), we encourage more research on retrieval practice and transfer specifically in applied settings.”

“, Butler, 2010; Butterfield & Nelson, 1991; Chen & Mo, 2004; Gentner et al., 2003; Rittle-Johnson, 2006). In contrast, AOT research assumes that people regularly generalize their learning experiences and finds the lack of transfer from the mainstream cognitive perspective understandable, given the large research base…”

“The beneficial effect of tests on knowledge-based inferences was nicely demonstrated in a recent study by Butler (2010). After reading a text passage, participants either restudied it or completed an initial test on it (e.g., question: “Approximately how many bat species are there in the world?”; answer: “More than 1,…”

“Six of the passages and the associated questions were adapted from A. C. Butler (2010), and the rest were created to match.”

“…has been substantiated to some degree by the finding that performance on a criterial test is best when the final test questions are identical to initial test questions (e.g., Butler, 2010; Johnson & Mayer, 2009; McDaniel & Fisher, 1991; see also Brewer, Marsh, Meeks, Clark-Foos, & Hicks, 2010).”

“For instance, Butler (2010) found that subjects given a cued recall test (with feedback) on concepts (e.g., wing structure for bats and birds) performed better on questions requiring transfer of those concepts to new contexts (e.g., wing structure for military aircraft) than did subjects who…”

“Recent research has found that rephrased quiz or test questions do not facilitate transfer to a greater extent than identical questions (Butler, 2010; Pan & Rickard, in press); thus, although rephrased questions would be ideal for examining the flexibility of learning, it is uncertain whether…”

“…transfer (e.g., recalling a word in a sentence that differed from the word that had to be recalled from that same sentence on an initial test) or contained cues that were also present in the original text (i.e., corresponding words or terms) that would invite the correct answer (e.g., Butler 2010).”

“Butler (2010) found that practicing retrieval increases analogical transfer, but he only tested with transfer problems that contained explicit retrieval cues.”

“Furthermore, taking a test can, itself, help promote knowledge retention and transfer (Butler, 2010; Hinze, Wiley, & Pellegrino, 2013; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006; Rohrer & Pashler, 2010).”

“In a follow-up experiment described in the same report, Butler (2010) examined the effects of testing on students’ ability to transfer knowledge to a different domain, again comparing the effects of testing to restudy.”

“In general, the set of applied experiments by McDaniel et al. demonstrates the “flexibility” or transfer of retrieval-based learning, even when quiz and final criterial items differ (see also Butler 2010).”

“The use of retrieval practice as a learning strategy, by teachers and students, has been shown to increase students ’ long-term retention and transfer of knowledge to new situations (Agarwal, Bain, & Chamberlain, 2012; Butler, 2010).”

“In addition, there is growing evidence to suggest that practicing retrieval can improve people’s understanding of the material, thereby facilitating subsequent application of that information to new contexts (e.g., Butler 2010).”

“Test-enhanced learning has been shown on many kinds of criterion measures, including those that primarily measure memory for the practiced items and those that primarily measure comprehension or application of the practiced items (e.g., Butler 2010; Johnson and Mayer 2009; McDaniel et al. 2009).”

“the information provided in the materials (Butler, 2010; Johnson & Mayer, 2009), the focus on recalling knowledge of the solution procedure and then applying that knowledge to execute each step in the procedure constitutes a fundamental difference between learning from worked examples and learning the other kinds of m…”

“However, the way students learn is equally important in that it determines the potential for transfer to occur (Butler, 2010).”

“, Butler, 2010; see Roediger & Butler, 2011). Recent research by Fazio (2011) has suggested that this procedure might be highly effective.”

“We currently know much less about the power of retrieval to enhance the arguably more important outcomes of understanding and comprehension of complex, educationally-relevant learning contents (for discussions on this topic, see Butler, 2010; Carpenter, 2014; Pellegrino, 2012).”

“…and Roediger 2008; Pyc and Rawson 2010; Toppino and Cohen 2009; Vaughn and Rawson 2011; Vaughn et al. 2013), text passages (Agarwal et al. 2008; Butler 2010; Clark and Svinicki 2014; Hinze and Wiley 2011; Kubik et al. 2014; Roediger and Karpicke 2006), and video-recorded lectures (Butler and…”

“…retrieval practice has been well-established for simple and complex materials (for a review see Karpicke and Aue, 2015) and in both laboratory (Butler, 2010; Karpicke and Blunt, 2011; Arnold and McDermott, 2013; Meyer and Logan, 2013; Blunt and Karpicke, 2014; Karpicke et al., 2014) and…”

“One laboratory study examined whether testing would help people transfer information about bat echolocation to a task about how submarines use sonar, which they were able to do successfully.(38) In the study noted previously that involved testing healthcare students using a pen and paper versus standardized patients,(…”

“The results confirm the robust effects of initial tests on the transfer of knowledge (see Butler, 2010), as well as initial tests on delayed retention (Agarwal et al., 2008; Kang et al., 2007).”

“That is, if availability of specific information in memory is a prerequisite for transfer, then any task that enhances the retrievability of this relevant information should lead to superior transfer (see Butler, 2010).”

“Our results support the finding that active, effortful strategies can be effective on a variety of cognitive levels (Butler, 2010; Karpicke and Blunt, 2011; Smith and Karpicke, 2014); and this work extends support of the desirable difficulties framework into biology by finding unique value for…”

“…not hundreds, of studies have shown that retrieving information from memory boosts retention (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006a) and transfer of knowledge (Butler, 2010; Carpenter, 2012), and these effects have been demonstrated in classrooms as well as in the laboratory (Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, Kulik, &…”

“, Butler, 2010; Carpenter, Pashler, & Vul, 2006; Chan, 2010; Chan, McDermott, & Roediger, 2006; McDaniel, Anderson, Derbish, & Morrisette, 2007). In a recent study, Kang, McDaniel, and Pashler (2011) demonstrated that testing can enhance transfer of mathematical function learning. Participants learned the relationship…”

“2008), text passages (Butler 2010; Hinze et al. 2013), and video-based materials (Butler and Roediger III 2007; Endres et al.”

“It is surprising that we did not find a direct testing effect for pop-up questions, since such an effect has been reported by several previous studies (Butler 2010; Glover 1989; Karpicke and Roediger 2008; Szpunar et al. 2008).”

“A few experiments on learning from text have demonstrated benefits of retrieval attempts, with feedback and/or restudy, on these sorts of transfer tests (Butler, 2010; Karpicke & Blunt, 2011; McDaniel, Howard, & Einstein, 2009).”

“Retrieval practice has been shown to improve long-term retention (e.g., Larsen et al., 2013) and transfer of learning to new contexts (e.g., Butler, 2010; for review see Carpenter, 2012).”

“According to Butler (2010), the testing effect also extends to final assessments with new information, denoting a transfer of knowledge.”

“…facts, definitions, and concepts), has namely shown that frequent testing, more variation in test questions/problems, and more time for schema construction bolsters the testing effect—even without taking too much time away from classroom instruction (e.g., Butler, 2010; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006a).”

“…2011; Vaughn, Rawson, & Pyc, 2013; Zaromb & Roediger, 2010), to more complex phrases and text passages (Agarwal, Karpicke, Kang, Roediger, & McDermott, 2008; Butler, 2010; Hinze & Wiley, 2011; Hinze, Wiley, & Pellegrino, 2013; Kubik, Söderlund, Nilsson, & Jönsson, 2014; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).”

“…(Chan, McDermott, & Roediger, 2006), the classification of novel exemplars of earlier-studied natural categories (Jacoby, Wahlheim, & Coane, 2010), knowledgebased inferences (Butler, 2010), and transfer of rules to novel materials within the same knowledge domain (Kang, McDaniel, & Pashler, 2011).”

“In addition, retrieval (relative to rereading) sometimes leads to greater transfer when the same information is needed in a novel circumstance 15,16 , although not always 17,18 .”

“Butler, A. C. (2010). Repeated testing produces superior transfer of learning relative to repeated studying. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36, 1118–1133. Carpenter, S. K. (2012). Testing enhances the transfer of learning.”

“Also, Butler (2010) found that repeated retrieval practice could promote transfer to test questions that were related to, but different from, originally practiced materials (e.g., learning about the aerodynamics of bat wings and answering questions about the design of airplanes on the final test).”

“A large number of studies (e.g., Butler, 2010; Butler, Godbole, & Marsh, 2013; Foley & Kaiser, 2013; MacRae & Skinner, 2011; Thompson, Brooks, & Lizárraga, 2003) have been carried out in education and psychology in order to understand the nature of transfer with regard to learning over the last…”

“…test (or retrieval practice) of previously studied information, learners generally perform better on a delayed memory task than those who studied the same material twice without a test (e.g., Butler, 2010; McDaniel & Fisher, 1991; Mcdaniel, Roediger, & McDermott, 2007; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006a).”

“Butler (2010) found better performance on inference test questions for items that had been tested.”

“In line with prior studies (e.g. Butler, 2010; Butler & Roediger, 2008; Carpenter et al., 2009; Halamish & Bjork, 2011; Karpicke & Roediger, 2007; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006), and especially with studies recruiting children as participants (Carpenter et al., 2009; McDaniel et al., 2011; Roediger et…”

“To transfer a concept from one context to another, a student must first recognize that the previous knowledge is relevant, then recall that knowledge accurately, and finally apply the previous knowledge to the new context (Barnett and Ceci, 2002; Butler, 2010; Wooldridge et al., 2014; Sumeracki et al., 2019).”

“Taking a well-designed practice test can, itself, help promote knowledge retention and transfer and do so more effectively than common approaches to studying (Butler, 2010; Hinze, Wiley, & Pellegrino, 2013; Paul, 2015; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006; Rohrer & Pashler, 2010).”