Spacing, Testing, and Feedback: Helping Students Overcome Forgetting

How can students' forgetting be reduced? The spacing effect--a promising strategy from the field of cognitive psychology--might hold some of the answers. Research has demonstrated that information is remembered two to three times better if study sessions are spaced in time rather than massed together. The testing effect is another research-based teaching strategy that is often used in conjunction with spacing to minimize forgetting. Actively recalling information from memory is a harder task than simply re-reading or listening to the information again. This forceful retrieval process aids in strengthening the memory trace, leading to deeper, more meaningful encoding. Finally, providing timely feedback after an incorrect response increases students' performance during the learning session and leads to a significant increase in long-term retention. (Contains 11 endnotes.)