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When further learning fails: Stability and change following repeated presentation of text
Author(s) -
Fritz Catherine O.,
Morris Peter E.,
Bjork Robert A.,
Gelman Rochel,
Wickens Thomas D.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1348/000712600161952
Subject(s) - recall , presentation (obstetrics) , psychology , schedule , cognitive psychology , verbal learning , test (biology) , recall test , free recall , cognition , computer science , medicine , neuroscience , paleontology , biology , radiology , operating system
Kay (1955) presented a text passage to participants on a weekly basis and found that most errors and omissions in recall persisted despite repeated re‐presentation of the text. Experiment 1 replicated and extended Kay s original research, demonstrating that after a first recall attempt there was very little evidence of further learning, whether measured in terms of further acquisition or error correction, over three more presentations of the text passages. Varying the schedule of presentations and tests had little effect, although performance was better when intermediate trials included both presentation and test than when only presentations or tests occurred. Experiment 2 explored whether this ‘failure of further learning’ effect could be overcome by (a) warning participants against basing their recall on their previous recall efforts and specifically directing them to base their recall upon the passages, (b) making each presentation more distinctive, or (c) drawing participants’ attention to areas that would benefit from further learning by requiring them to tally their omissions and errors. The effect persisted in all cases. The findings have serious implications for the learning of text material.