The spacing effect in immediate and delayed free recall
Abstract
Spacing repetitions improves learning relative to massing repetitions (the spacing effect). While most studies have examined the spacing effect at short retention intervals, there are contradictory claims about its fate at a delay. Certain empirical findings suggest that the spacing effect persists at a delay. However, a recent theoretical account proposes that in free recall the spacing effect should disappear at a delay. The few studies that have examined the spacing effect at a delay are sub-optimally designed, preventing an unbiased conclusion. The current study used incidental learning and controlled recency and encoding strategy in order to examine the effect of delay on the recall of spaced items within a free recall paradigm. The results demonstrated that the spacing effect persists after a delay. The results point to an important dissociation between intentional forgetting and context-change designs (which produce more forgetting of spaced than massed items) and the passage of time (which produces similar forgetting of spaced and massed items).
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Spaced learning is more effective than massed learning for facts, concepts and lists, skill and motor learning, classroom education including science and vocabulary learning, and generalization of conceptual knowledge in children.
“For example, spaced learning is more effective than massed learning for facts, concepts and lists2–4, skill learning and motor learning5,6, in classroom education (including science learning and vocabulary learning)7–9, and in generalization of conceptual knowledge in children10.”
From The right time to learn: Mechanisms and optimization of spaced learning (2016) · cites this paper as [3]
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- Authors
- Godbole, N. R., Delaney, P. F., & Verkoeijen, P. P. J. L.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro (US)
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Godbole, Namrata R.
- Venue
- Memory
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2013-05-23
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 462-469
- ISSN
- 0965-8211 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0686
- OpenAlex
- W1996399480
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Memory (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- spacing effect, free recall, delayed recall, retention interval, incidental learning, recency effect, encoding strategies, forgetting, intentional forgetting, context change
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Learning, Mental Recall, Retention, Psychology, Time Factors
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