Cepeda Nicholas J, Vul Edward, Rohrer Doug, Wixted John T, Pashler Harold
York University.
Psychol Sci. 2008 Nov;19(11):1095-102. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02209.x.
To achieve enduring retention, people must usually study information on multiple occasions. How does the timing of study events affect retention? Prior research has examined this issue only in a spotty fashion, usually with very short time intervals. In a study aimed at characterizing spacing effects over significant durations, more than 1,350 individuals were taught a set of facts and--after a gap of up to 3.5 months--given a review. A final test was administered at a further delay of up to 1 year. At any given test delay, an increase in the interstudy gap at first increased, and then gradually reduced, final test performance. The optimal gap increased as test delay increased. However, when measured as a proportion of test delay, the optimal gap declined from about 20 to 40% of a 1-week test delay to about 5 to 10% of a 1-year test delay. The interaction of gap and test delay implies that many educational practices are highly inefficient.
为了实现持久记忆，人们通常必须多次学习信息。学习活动的时间安排如何影响记忆呢？先前的研究只是零散地考察了这个问题，通常时间间隔非常短。在一项旨在刻画较长时间段内间隔效应的研究中，超过1350人学习了一组知识，在长达3.5个月的间隔后进行复习。最终测试在再延迟长达1年时进行。在任何给定的测试延迟情况下，学习间隔的增加起初会提高，然后逐渐降低最终测试成绩。最佳间隔随着测试延迟的增加而增加。然而，以测试延迟的比例来衡量时，最佳间隔从1周测试延迟的约20%至40%下降到1年测试延迟的约5%至10%。间隔与测试延迟的相互作用表明许多教育实践效率极低。
