Studies in retention.

Abstract

The present investigation was planned with special reference to (1) the effect of recall on retention, (2) the relationship between the rate of forgetting and the ability of the subjects, and (3) the effect of item difficulty on the form of retention curves. PROBLEM The importance of retention is shown by the fact that growth or improvement in skills, knowledges, and attitudes is dependent upon the learner's retention of the effects of previous experience. The use of recall as an aid to retention has been emphasized by theorists on methods of study and by investigators in the field of memory. The lack of experimental evidence on the effect of recall on retention where conditions approach those of actual schoolroom practice prompted this investigation. The primary purpose of the investigation was to determine the effect of recall on retention of facts which children acquire through reading when the materials and the methods of study are similar to those used in classroom situations. Two subsidiary problems of the investigation relate to the effect of item difficulty upon the form of retention curves and to the relationship between the learning ability of the students and the rate of forgetting. Related Research.—A number of experimental studies have dealt with various aspects of the problem of this investigation. Myers 8 found that immediate recall in the form of written reproduction was beneficial to later reproduction of a list of unrelated words. An indirect or incidental method of learning the words had been employed. * This article reports, in part, an investigation conducted by the writer as a