Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 15 February 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5865, pp. 966 - 968
DOI: 10.1126/science.1152408

Reports

The Critical Importance of Retrieval for Learning

Jeffrey D. Karpicke1* and Henry L. Roediger, III2

Learning is often considered complete when a student can produce the correct answer to a question. In our research, students in one condition learned foreign language vocabulary words in the standard paradigm of repeated study-test trials. In three other conditions, once a student had correctly produced the vocabulary item, it was repeatedly studied but dropped from further testing, repeatedly tested but dropped from further study, or dropped from both study and test. Repeated studying after learning had no effect on delayed recall, but repeated testing produced a large positive effect. In addition, students' predictions of their performance were uncorrelated with actual performance. The results demonstrate the critical role of retrieval practice in consolidating learning and show that even university students seem unaware of this fact.

1 Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
2 Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: karpicke{at}purdue.edu

Read the Full Text



THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Quiz Factor.
D. J. Klionsky (2008)
CBE Life Sci Educ 7, 265-266
   Full Text »    PDF »



ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products


Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)