Henry L. Roediger

The Power of Testing Memory: Basic Research and Implications for Educational Practice:

A powerful way of improving ones memory for material is to be tested on that material. Tests enhance later retention more than additional study of the material, even when tests are given without feedback. This surprising phenomenon is called the testing effect, and although it has been studied by cognitive psychologists sporadically over the years, today there is a renewed effort to learn why testing is effective and to apply testing in educational settings. In this article, we selectively review laboratory studies that reveal the power of testing in improving retention and then turn to studies that demonstrate the basic effects in educational settings. We also consider the related concepts of dynamic testing and formative assessment as other means of using tests to improve learning. Finally, we consider some negative consequences of testing that may occur in certain circumstances, though these negative effects are often small and do not cancel out the large positive effects of testing. Frequent testing in the classroom may boost educational achievement at all levels of education.

The nature of remembering: Essays in honor of Robert G. Crowder.

This festschrift in honor of Robert G. Crowder presents thought-provoking new research for scientists in the field of memory and cognition. Authors discuss Crowders far-reaching influence in the field of memory and cognition.

The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention

Learning is usually thought to occur during episodes of studying, whereas retrieval of information on testing simply serves to assess what was learned. We review research that contradicts this traditional view by demonstrating that retrieval practice is actually a powerful mnemonic enhancer, often producing large gains in long-term retention relative to repeated studying. Retrieval practice is often effective even without feedback (i.e. giving the correct answer), but feedback enhances the benefits of testing. In addition, retrieval practice promotes the acquisition of knowledge that can be flexibly retrieved and transferred to different contexts. The power of retrieval practice in consolidating memories has important implications for both the study of memory and its application to educational practice.

Factors that determine false recall: A multiple regression analysis

In the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, subjects study lists of words that are designed to elicit the recall of an associatively related critical item. The 55 lists we have developed provide levels of false recall ranging from .01 to .65, and understanding this variability should provide a key to understanding this memory illusion. Using a simultaneous multiple regression analysis, we assessed the contribution of seven factors in creating false recall of critical items in the DRM paradigm. This analysis accounted for approximately 68% of the variance in false recall, with two main predictors: associative connections from the study words to the critical item (r+.73; semipartialr+.60) and recallability of the lists (r+.43; semipartialr-.34). Taken together, the variance in false recall captured by these predictors accounted for 84% of the variance that can be explained, given the reliability of the false recall measures (r=.90). Therefore, the results of this analysis strongly constrain theories of false memory in this paradigm, suggesting that at least two factors determine the propensity of DRM lists to elicit false recall. The results fit well within the theoretical framework postulating that both semantic activation of the critical item and strategic monitoring processes influence the probability of false recall and false recognition in this paradigm.

Procedures of Mind.

The prevailing metaphor for studies of learning and memory emphasizes the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of “information”; within this framework, mind is often treated as if it were a physical object and information similarly is assumed to have physicalistic properties. Evidence that supports a more process-oriented view of information processing is offered. Mind is described in terms of skill in manipulating symbols and the notion of skills is shown to provide a useful framework for accounting for significant aspects of cognitive processes. Evidence supporting the procedural view includes studies that show that the means of acquisition of information form part of its representation in mind, that recognition varies with the similarity of procedures in acquisition and test, and that transfer between tasks varies with the degree of correspondence of underlying procedures.

Effects of varying modality, surface features, and retention interval on priming in word-fragment completion

Subjects in Experiment i studied a list of words under varying presentation conditions (visual or auditory) and in two typographies within the visual condition (typed or hand printed) and then received a word-fragment completion test (e.g., —YS—E—Y formystery) in which the test cues also varied in typography. The main findings were that (1) priming occurred for all study items, relative to nonstudied items, but greater priming occurred for visual than for auditory presentation, and (2) performance in the visual conditions was better when typographies matched between study and test than when the typographies mismatched, but only for words studied in hand-printed form. These findings were generally replicated when the test was delayed 1 week, although priming declined across this retention interval (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3 subjects studied words that were either in focus or blurred and showed greater priming when test fragments were presented in the same manner as at study. Priming in the word-fragment completion task depends on matching surface characteristics of items between study and test and exemplifies the requirement of performing similar mental operations at study and test for maximizing performance (transfer-appropriate processing).

Norms for word lists that create false memories

Roediger and McDermott (1995) induced false recall and false recognition for words that were not presented in lists. They had subjects study 24 lists of 15 words that were associates of a common word (called the critical target or critical lure) that was not presented in the list. False recall and false recognition of the critical target occurred frequently in response to these lists. The purpose of the current work was to provide a set of normative data for the lists Roediger and McDermott used and for 12 others developed more recently. We tested false recall and false recognition for critical targets from 36 lists. Despite the fact that all lists were constructed to produce false remembering, the diversity in their effectiveness was large—60% or more of subjects falsely recalledwindow andsleep following the appropriate lists, and false recognition for these items was greater than 80%. However, the list generated fromking led to 10% false recall and 27% false recognition. Possible reasons for these wide differences in effectiveness of the lists are discussed. These norms serve as a useful benchmark for designing experiments about false recall and false recognition in this paradigm.

The Relationship Between Working Memory Capacity and Executive Functioning: Evidence for a Common Executive Attention Construct

Attentional control has been conceptualized as executive functioning by neuropsychologists and as working memory capacity by experimental psychologists. We examined the relationship between these constructs using a factor analytic approach in an adult life span sample. Several tests of working memory capacity and executive function were administered to more than 200 subjects between 18 and 90 years of age, along with tests of processing speed and episodic memory. The correlation between working memory capacity and executive functioning constructs was very strong (r = .97), but correlations between these constructs and processing speed were considerably weaker (rs approximately .79). Controlling for working memory capacity and executive function eliminated age effects on episodic memory, and working memory capacity and executive function accounted for variance in episodic memory beyond that accounted for by processing speed. We conclude that tests of working memory capacity and executive function share a common underlying executive attention component that is strongly predictive of higher level cognition.

VERIDICAL AND FALSE MEMORIES IN HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS AND IN DEMENTIA OF THE ALZHEIMER'S TYPE

Five groups of participants (young, healthy old, healthy old-old, very mild Dementia of the Alzheimers Type, Mild Dementia of the Alzheimers Type) studied and were tested on six 12-item lists of words selected from the DRM (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995) materials. These lists of words strongly converged semantically on a nonpresented critical word. The results indicated that both veridical recall and recognition performance decreased both as a function of age of the participants and as a function of dementia severity. However, the recall and recognition of the highly related nonpresented items actually increased as a function of age, and only slightly decreased as a function of DAT. When false memory was considered as a proportion of veridical memory, there was a clear increase as a function of both age of the participants and as a function of disease severity. The results are discussed in terms of (a) age and DAT-related changes in attention and memory performance, and (b) the underlying mec...

Test-enhanced learning in medical education

Context  In education, tests are primarily used for assessment, thus permitting teachers to assess the efficacy of their curriculum and to assign grades. However, research in cognitive psychology has shown that tests can also directly affect learning by promoting better retention of information, a phenomenon known as the testing effect.