查看文章

Students frequently report difficulty learning information presented at the end of long study sequences. Prior research has shown that information presented earlier in a study sequence interferes with learning of information presented later in a study sequence, but that interpolating study with testing can serve to protect against such buildup of proactive interference (PI). Nonetheless, it remains debated whether interpolated testing improves encoding or retrieval of information presented in later portions of study. In the present study (N= 96), students learned five interrelated lists of words. Students were always tested on the fifth list and then again during a final cumulative test. We used a 2 x 2 design to vary whether or not students were tested on the first four lists (ie, testing versus control) and also the rate of presentation of individual words (4s versus 10s per word). We found that learning of the fifth list was impaired …