Testing can improve later recall of information. However, much less is known about the potential use of testing in promoting the transfer of learning. In this study, we investigated whether testing improves decision-making performance on a transfer task in a sample of 98 university students using a between-subjects design. After studying several…

Based on cognitive load theory, this paper reports on two experiments investigating the variability effect that occurs when learners' exposure to highly variable tasks results in superior test performance. It was hypothesised that the effect was more likely to occur using high rather than low levels of guidance and testing more knowledgeable than…

We investigated 7- to 10-year-old children's productive extension of semantic memory through self-generation of new factual knowledge derived through integration of separate yet related facts learned through instruction or through reading. In Experiment 1, an experimenter read the to-be-integrated facts. Children successfully learned and…

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…

Individuals with ADHD often show performance deficits in motor tasks. It is not clear, however, whether this reflects less effective acquisition of skill (procedural knowledge), or deficient consolidation into long-term memory, in ADHD. The aim of the study was to compare the acquisition of skilled motor performance, the expression of…

The purpose of this article is to examine the literature on teaching statistics for useful ideas that teachers of language testing courses can draw on and incorporate into their teaching toolkits as they see fit. To those ends, the article addresses eight questions: What is known generally about teaching statistics? Why are students so anxious…

There has been a recent upsurge of interest in exploring how choices of methods and timing of instruction affect the rate and persistence of learning. The authors review three lines of experimentation--all conducted using educationally relevant materials and time intervals--that call into question important aspects of common instructional…

This study examined the effect of distributed questioning on learning and retention in a college lecture course. A total of 48 question pairs were presented over four exams. The 16 question pairs associated with each of the three blocks of the course appeared on the block exams, and all 48 appeared on the final exam. The two questions in each pair…

Investigates the instructional effect of using selected testing sequences and gaming methods on students' delayed retention. Results of instructional treatments and criterion tests of 87 students indicated significant preferences for specific instructional strategies. The treatments were functionally identical in that they did not instigate levels…

The aim of the 2018 International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA) conference was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There have been advances in both cognitive…

In the dance studio, the mirror can play a large role in the dancer's learning process. Research on learning and memory shows that reducing the amount of feedback during training enhances long-term motor skill retention and that more externally focused attention may aid performance. Research testing the effectiveness of training with a mirror as a…

This working paper, which reviews the experimental literature on learning skills to provide background information to the staff of the Skills Essential to Learning Television Project (a multi-level series of video and print resources for classroom use), covers four areas: study skills, instructional development and design, cognitive psychology,…

Certain aspects of the performance of adults on verbal reasoning tasks were studied. The four main objectives of the study were: to develop a self-instructional booklet for use in teaching adults the functional rules of classification; to construct a reliable instrument for use in assessing the capability of adults to perform verbal classification…

Using Guilford's model, the text reviews the structure of the intellect (SOI) and its operations, contents, and products. Those operations and components are further described, including the factors of cognition, memory, evaluation, convergent-production, and divergent-production. For each factor, the figural, symbolic, and semantic dimensions are…

Proponents of the cognitive approach to language teaching list linguistic competence as the primary instructional objective and attribute considerable importance to listening comprehension. For the student, linguistic competence would be knowledge of grammatical components of the language and its vocabulary. Understanding oral messages is an…