Judging the credibility of websites: an effectiveness trial of the spacing effect in the elementary classroom
Open accessAbstract
Spaced learning—the spacing effect—is a cognitive phenomenon whereby memory for to-be-learned material is better when a fixed amount of study time is spread across multiple learning sessions instead of crammed into a more condensed time period. The spacing effect has been shown to be effective across a wide range of ages and learning materials, but few studies have been conducted that look at whether spacing can be effective in real-world classrooms, using real curriculum content, with real teachers leading the intervention. In the current study, lesson plans for teaching website credibility were distributed to homeroom elementary teachers with specific instructions on how to manipulate the timing of the lessons for either a one-per-day or one-per-week delivery. One month after the final lesson, students were asked to apply their knowledge on a final test, where they evaluated two new websites. Results were mixed, suggesting that classroom noise might lessen or impede researchers’ ability to find spacing effects in naturalistic settings.
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Studies aiming to improve students' critical thinking had the additional complexity of explicitly asking students to transfer or apply information to completely new situations.
“Moreover, the studies aiming to improve students’ critical thinking (i.e., Foot-Seymour et al., 2019; Foot-Seymour & Wiseheart, 2022) had the additional complexity of explicitly asking students to transfer or apply information to completely new situations.”
From The Distributed Practice Effect on Classroom Learning: A Meta-Analytic Review of Applied Research (2025) · cites this paper as Foot-Seymour & Wiseheart, 2022
The Method (Procedure; page not provided) says students applied the website-evaluation categories to two websites on the final test, supporting the claim that they used what they learned on new examples. The task remained website evaluation, however, so the paper does not establish transfer to completely new kinds of situations. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredExcept for studies applying distributed practice to critical thinking, distributed practice is yet to be widely applied to 21st-century skills learning.
“except for the studies applying distributed practice to critical thinking (Foot-Seymour et al., 2019; Foot-Seymour & Wiseheart, 2022), distributed practice is yet to be widely applied to 21st-century skills learning.”
From The Distributed Practice Effect on Classroom Learning: A Meta-Analytic Review of Applied Research (2025) · cites this paper as Foot-Seymour & Wiseheart, 2022
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Cites
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Sobel, H. S., Cepeda, N. J., & Kapler, I. V. (2011) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.1747 · Cited by 183 · cited 2× · see citing works
“…and factual material show spacing benefits for word and phonics learning (Seabrook et al., 2005), word and fact learning (Carpenter et al., 2009; Sobel et al., 2011), second language learning (Bloom & Shuell, 1981; Küpper-Tetzel et al., 2014), and text comprehension (Rawson & Kintsch, 2005;…”
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Self-citationSpacing Simultaneously Promotes Multiple Forms of Learning in Children's Science Curriculum
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“For example, the estimated effect size for non-verbal realms is predicted to be a bit lower ( d = 0.5), based on the studies that have been conducted using this type of material (Foot-Seymour et al., 2019; Gluckman et al., 2014; Kapler et al., 2015; Vlach & Sandhofer, 2012).”
BackgroundMethodInfluential
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Distributed Practice Effect on Classroom Learning: A Meta-Analytic Review of Applied Research
Mawson, R. D., & Kang, S. H. K. (2025) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs15060771 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
“While this was overcome in two studies by focusing only on results for retention tests and not those assessing students’ application of critical thinking skills (Foot-Seymour & Wiseheart, 2022; Foot-Seymour et al., 2019), non-independent effects remained in other studies.”
Influential
- Authors
- Foot-Seymour, V., & Wiseheart, M.
- Affiliations
- York University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Wiseheart, Melody
- ORCID
- Wiseheart, Melody
- Venue
- Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
- Published
- 2022-01-17
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 5-5
- ISSN
- 2365-7464 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8763985
- OpenAlex
- W4225739266
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 0.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cognitive Research Principles and Implications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- social sciences and humanities research council of Canada (435-2020-1256)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
- Keywords
- spacing effect, spaced learning, website credibility, information literacy, elementary school students, classroom intervention, memory retention, classroom noise
- MeSH terms
- Curriculum, Humans, Learning, Students
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