Theories of memory must account for memory performance during both the acquisition (i.e., ongoing learning) and retention (i.e., following disuse) stages of training. One factor affecting both stages is whether repeated encounters with a set of material occur with no delay between blocks (massed) or alternating with another intervening task (spaced). Whereas the retention advantage for spaced over massed practice is well accounted for by some current theories of memory, theories of decay or general interference predict massed, rather than spaced, advantages during acquisition. In a series of 3 experiments, we show that the effects of spacing on acquisition depend on the relationship between primary and delay tasks. Specifically, massed acquisition advantages occur only in the presence of code-specific interference (the engagement in two alternating tasks both emphasizing the same processing code, such as verbal or spatial processing codes; e.g., learning letter-number pairs and reading text), whereas spaced acquisition advantages are observed only when code-specific interference is absent. These results present a challenge for major theories of memory. Furthermore, we argue that code-specific interference is important for researchers of the spacing and interleaving effects to take into consideration, as the relationship between the alternating tasks used has a substantial impact on acquisition performance.

To study the relative merits of three training principles – difficulty of training, specificity of training, and variability of training – subjects were trained to follow navigation instructions to move in a grid on a computer screen. Subjects repeated and then followed the instructions by mouse clicking on the grid. They were trained, given a short distractor task, and then tested. There were three groups, each receiving different message lengths during training: easy (short lengths), hard (long lengths), and mixed (all lengths), with all subjects given all lengths at test. At test, the mixed group was best on most lengths, the easy group was better than the hard group on short lengths, and the hard group was better than the easy group on long lengths. The results support the advantages of both specificity and variability of training but do not support the hypothesis that difficult training of the form used here would lead to overall best performance at test.

OPINION article Front. Psychol., 04 March 2014Sec. Cognition Volume 5 - 2014 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00186

There are three forms of task engagement that are the basis of successful training for expertise—acquisition, retention, and transfer—and three corresponding goals of training—efficiency, durability, and generalizability. This paper reviews training conditions that facilitate acquisition, enhance retention, and promote transfer to contexts not encountered during training. Diligent practice under these training conditions can lead eventually to an elite level of performance or to expertise. In this review of training principles, we emphasize those that are derived from work in our laboratory. We have found that developing training that optimizes efficiency, durability, and generalizability, however, is something of a balancing act because what promotes efficient training often comes at a price in durability, and durable training is not always generalizable (see Healy et al., 2012; Bourne and Healy, 2014). These tradeoffs are due in part to the fact that training might involve two different types of knowledge—declarative and procedural. Declarative knowledge consists of facts, whereas procedural knowledge consists of skills, or ways to use the facts, and these two types of knowledge differ in terms of their durability and generalizability.

Four sets of cognitive psychology experiments are aimed to identify and empirically support principles of training intended to increase training effectiveness. Each set supports a different training principle: strategic use of knowledge (learning and memory are facilitated whenever preexisting knowledge can be used as a mediator in the process of acquisition), training difficulty (conditions that cause desirable difficulties during learning might facilitate later retention and transfer), mental practice (mental practice can retard forgetting and promote transfer of training, sometimes to a larger extent than can physical practice), and cognitive antidote (adverse effects of prolonged work on routine tasks can be mitigated by adding cognitive complications). The first 2 principles are focused on knowledge acquisition and the last 2 on skill acquisition. Nevertheless, the principles converge on similar prescriptions: Contrary to intuition and common practice, the trainer is recommended to increase the complexity of the training situation rather than use the simplest methods available.

Athletic skills are often executed better when learners focus attention externally (e.g., on the trajectory of the ball after a tennis serve), rather than internally (e.g., on the position of their arm) (e.g., Wulf, 2007a). The current study explored the effects of attention focus on learning of speeded responses, and examined whether these benefits hold for retention and transfer. Participants performed a computerized speeded aiming task while focusing on the direction of the cursor (external focus) versus the direction in which their hand moved the mouse (internal focus). One week later, half of the participants performed the same task again (retention), and half performed the task under conditions in which the mouse movements were changed (transfer). Relative to internal focus, external focus led to faster acquisition and better maintenance of speeded responses over the retention interval. (C) 2012 Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Summary The clicker technique is a newly developed system that uses frequent testing in the classroom to enhance students' understanding and provide feedback to students and teachers. Using a laboratory model of the clicker technique, Experiment 1 explored the effects of the clicker technique, via its potential for compressing learning time and its partially individualized instruction, on the acquisition, retention, and generalization of knowledge at immediate and delayed tests. Results supported the clicker technique as a viable method for instructors to promote generalizable learning and to conserve teaching time. Experiment 2 examined the clicker technique in terms of its components, studying and testing, to determine which components are crucial to its effectiveness. Results indicated that the combination of studying and testing promotes superior performance only during acquisition, relative to either studying or testing alone, and neither study, test, nor the combination of study and test led to a retention advantage. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Contents: A.F. Healy, L.E. Bourne, Jr., Preface. Part I:Introductory Overview. A.F. Healy, I. Barshi, R.J. Crutcher, L. Tao, T.C. Rickard, W.R. Marmie, V.I. Schneider, A. Feldman, C.J. Buck-Gengler, S.G. Romero, N.B. Sherrod, J. Parker, L.E. Bourne, Jr., Toward the Improvement of Training in Foreign Languages. Part II:Vocabulary and Concept Acquisition. A. Feldman, A.F. Healy, Effect of First Language Phonological Configuration on Lexical Acquisition in a Second Language. V.I. Schneider, A.F. Healy, L.E. Bourne, Jr., Contextual Interference Effects in Foreign Language Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention. R.J. Crutcher, The Role of Prior Knowledge in Mediating Foreign Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention: A Process Analytic Approach. M. Serwatka, A.F. Healy, On the Status of the Count-Mass Distinction in a Mental Grammar. S.E. Gathercole, A.S.C. Thorn, Phonological Short-Term Memory and Foreign Language Learning. Part III:Language Comprehension. I. Barshi, A.F. Healy, Misunderstandings in Voice Communication: Effects of Fluency in a Second Language. L. Tao, A.F. Healy, Anaphora in Language Processing: Transfer of Cognitive Strategies by Native Chinese, Dutch, English, and Japanese Speakers. I. Barshi, D. Payne, Argument Structure and Maasai Possessive Interpretation: Implications for Language Learning. M.F. St. John, M.A. Gernsbacher, Learning and Losing Syntax: Practice Makes Perfect and Frequency Builds Fortitude. Part IV:Reading Processes. J. Moravcsik, A.F Healy, Highlighting Important Words Leads to Poorer Comprehension. C.J. Buck-Gengler, S.G. Romero, A.F. Healy, L.E. Bourne, Jr., The Effect of Alphabet and Fluency on Unitization Processes in Reading. A.T. Gesi Blanchard, Transfer Effects of First Language Proficiency on Second Language Reading. Part V:Bilingualism. M. Brauer, Stroop Interference in Bilinguals: The Role of Similarity Between the Two Languages. A. Miyake, N.P. Friedman, Individual Differences in Second Language Proficiency: Working Memory as "Language Aptitude." J.F. Kroll, E. Michael, A. Sankaranarayanan, A Model of Bilingual Representation and Its Implications for Second Language Acquisition. Part VI:Commentary. B. McLaughlin, Second-Language Learning Revisited: The Psycholinguistic Perspective.

Two experiments examined transfer of a prospective, time production skill under conditions involving changes in concurrent task requirements. Positive transfer of the time production skill might be expected only when the attentional demands of the concurrent task were held constant from training to test. However, some positive transfer was found even when the concurrent task at retraining was made either easier or more difficult than the concurrent task learned during training. The amount and direction of transfer depended more on the pacing of the stimuli in the secondary task than on the difficulty of the secondary task, even though difficulty affects attentional demands more. These findings are consistent with the procedural reinstatement principle of skill learning, by which transfer from one task to another depends on an overlap in procedures required by the two skills.

In a continuous memory-updating paradigm, subjects studied name-color associations and were tested later for the color associate given the name. The default color response was made in one location, but on predesignated trials the response was required to be made in a special location. Memory for the color associated with a given name was assessed after short and long retention intervals when both default and special responses were required. Separate measures were examined of memory for the intention to respond in a particular way (default or special) and of memory for the color associations paired with the names. Memory for color associates was better overall with short than with long retention intervals and was better when special (rather than default) responses were required, especially at the long retention interval. These results imply that the requirement to respond in a special way protects associations from loss due to forgetting.

Three experiments simulating military RADAR detection addressed a training difficulty hypothesis (training with difficulty promotes superior later testing performance) and a procedural reinstatement hypothesis (test performance improves when training conditions match test conditions). Training and testing were separated by 1 week. Participants detected targets (either alphanumeric characters or vehicle pictures) occurring among distractors. Two secondary tasks were used to increase difficulty (a concurrent, irrelevant tone-counting task and a sequential, relevant action-firing response). In Experiment 1, involving alphanumeric targets with rapid displays, tone counting during training degraded test performance. In Experiment 2, involving vehicle targets with both sources of difficulty and slower presentation times, training under relevant difficulty aided test accuracy. In Experiment 3, involving vehicle targets and action firing with slow presentation times, test accuracy tended to be worst when neither training nor testing involved difficult conditions. These results show boundary conditions for the training difficulty and procedural reinstatement hypotheses. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In a speeded aiming task, participants were trained to move a cursor with a mouse from a start position to target locations when the mouse-cursor relationships were either normal or reversed (vertically, horizontally, or both vertically and horizontally). Testing, which occurred after a 5-min delay, involved either the same or a different reversal condition. Response times improved across training, but no transfer occurred when reversal conditions were changed between training and testing. Specificity of training effects extended even to performance with the highly familiar normal mouse. Normal mouse use was slowed by a factor of two to three with training on a reversed mouse although the effect was transient in that case. To contend with a reversed mouse, participants apparently adopt a global inhibition strategy, suppressing all normal movements (and replacing them with sensorimotor remapped movements) but disinhibiting movements along any nonreversed dimension (selectively disengaging the sensorimotor remapping).

Any technique that conserves classroom instructional time without sacrificing the amount learned is of great educational value. This research compared a laboratory analogue of the clicker technique to analogues of other classroom pedagogical methods that all involve repeated testing during teaching. The clicker analogue mimics the classroom practice of dropping material that is understood by the majority of the class, as revealed by testing with clicker questions, from further lecture. A fact learning and retrieval paradigm was used, in which college students learned facts about unfamiliar countries. Compressing instruction time based on group-level performance produced as much learning as no compression and as compression based on individual-level performance. Results suggest that the clicker technique is an efficient and cost-effective method of conserving instructional time without loss of amount learned.