Corrective feedback is often touted as a critical benefit to learning, boosting testing effects when retrieval is poor and reducing negative testing effects. Here, we explore the dark side of corrective feedback. In three experiments, we found that corrective feedback on multiple-choice (MC) practice questions is later endorsed as the answer to…

Retrieving studied materials often enhances subsequent learning of new materials (Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014). However, retrieval has also been shown to impair new learning (Finn & Roediger, 2013). In this article, we attempted to determine when retrieval enhances and when it impairs new learning. We argue that testing impairs new learning…