Retrieval and sleep both counteract the forgetting of spatial information.
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Repeatedly studying information is a good way to strengthen memory storage. Nevertheless, testing recall often produces superior long-term retention. Demonstrations of this testing effect, typically with verbal stimuli, have shown that repeated retrieval through testing reduces forgetting. Sleep also benefits memory storage, perhaps through repeated retrieval as well. That is, memories may generally be subject to forgetting that can be counteracted when memories become reactivated, and there are several types of reactivation: (i) via intentional restudying, (ii) via testing, (iii) without provocation during wake, or (iv) during sleep. We thus measured forgetting for spatial material subjected to repeated study or repeated testing followed by retention intervals with sleep versus wake. Four groups of subjects learned a set of visual object-location associations and either restudied the associations or recalled locations given the objects as cues. We found the advantage for restudied over retested information was greater in the PM than AM group. Additional groups tested at 5-min and 1-wk retention intervals confirmed previous findings of greater relative benefits for restudying in the short-term and for retesting in the long-term. Results overall support the conclusion that repeated reactivation through testing or sleeping stabilizes information against forgetting.
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Previous work has indicated that restudied but not retested materials are better remembered after a night of sleep than a day of wakefulness.
“Consistent with this view, previous work has indicated that restudied but not retested materials are better remembered after a night of sleep than a day of wakefulness [24,25].”
From Sleep bolsters schematically incongruent memories (2022) · cites this paper as [25]
The Results (‘Sleep aided restudied more than retested information, but only at the 12-h interval’) report a significant interaction: sleep relative to wake preferentially benefited restudied information. However, the direct sleep–wake comparison for restudied items was not statistically significant (P = 0.11), so the claim overstates the evidence that those items were better remembered after sleep on their own. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe sample size of N = 60 was chosen based on a power analysis using an effect size from Antony & Paller (2018), with a minimum of N = 20 for 95% power, and increased from N = 20 to mitigate noise associated with online data collection.
“However, because Antony & Paller (2018) [25] conducted their study in the laboratory, we believed it reasonable to increase our sample to N = 60 to mitigate any noise associated with online data collection.”
From Sleep bolsters schematically incongruent memories (2022) · cites this paper as Antony & Paller (2018) [25]
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Sleep bolsters schematically incongruent memories
Ashton, J. E., Staresina, B. P., & Cairney, S. A. (2022) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269439 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
- Authors
- Antony, J. W., & Paller, K. A.
- Affiliations
- Northwestern University (US)
- Venue
- Learning & Memory
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Published
- 2018-05-15
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 258-263
- ISSN
- 1072-0502 (ISSN-L)
- 1549-5485
- PMC
- PMC5959224
- OpenAlex
- W2803953788
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Learning & Memory (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- NIH (T32-AG020418, F31-MH100958)
- NSF (BCS-1461088)
- Northwestern University
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- forgetting, spatial memory, memory reactivation, sleep-dependent memory consolidation, testing effect, restudy, object-location associations, memory stabilization
- MeSH terms
- Memory Consolidation, Association Learning, Female, Humans, Male, Practice, Psychological, Mental Recall, Sleep, Wakefulness, Young Adult, Spatial Memory
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