Toward an understanding of why retrieval practice supports the construction of integrated memory representations

学习往往受到需要长时间保持注意力和整合学习内容的限制。克服这一障碍的一个简单而有效的方法是插入扩展的学习序列，如准备考试或观看讲座，让学习者有机会从记忆中检索信息。例如，与其在整个讲座中不间断地进行，不如用记忆测试插入讲座，学习讲座的一小段，回答关于第一段的问题，学习讲座的下一段，回答关于第二段的问题，等等，可以大大提高注意力和学习能力。 除了考虑学习者记住了多少，考虑学习的质量也很重要。例如，学生不仅要从讲座中提取信息，而且要整合他们在整个讲座中学到的知识。有初步的证据表明，内插测试可以帮助学习者在他们的能力，组织学习内容成一个完整的记忆表征。虽然有趣，但很少有人知道插值测试促进知识整合的潜在机制。在本提案中将评估的一种可能机制是研究阶段检索--在研究序列的后期部分期间回想或提醒在研究序列的早期部分中学习的信息。内插测验是否能提高学习阶段检索的发生率？学习阶段检索是否有助于学习者整合学习内容的不同元素？ 使用新的行为和神经成像技术，这一建议代表了第一个系统的，多方法的研究阶段检索，内插测试在唤起学习阶段检索的作用，学习阶段检索的关系，在学习过程中的知识整合。 内插测试已被证明可以改善学术和职业环境中的注意力和学习，以及年轻人和老年人。深入了解学习阶段检索的作用，支持建设综合记忆表征的学习内容将有助于发展更完整的理论的影响插值测试的注意力和学习，也可以优化的好处插值测试的技术发展在健康和记忆受损的人群学习。 拟议的研究还将导致高素质的人才在国家的最先进的学习方法的科学的发展。这些技能将使我们的学员能够追求学术职位和/或将他们的技能转化为旨在提高加拿大学术机构和公司教学和培训学生和员工的效率的行业。

Learning is often limited by the need to sustain attention and integrate study content over extended periods of time. One simple but effective way to overcome this obstacle is to interpolate extended sequences of studysuch as preparing for an exam or viewing a lecturewith opportunities for learners to retrieve information from memory. For instance, rather than progressing uninterrupted through a lecture, interpolating the lecture with memory testse.g., studying a short segment of the lecture, answering questions about the first segment, studying the next segment of the lecture, answering questions about the second segment, and so oncan dramatically improve attention and learning. In addition to considering how much learners remember, it is also important to consider the quality of the learning that has taken place. For instance, it is not only important for students to extract information from a lecture, but also to integrate what they have learned from across the lecture. There is preliminary evidence that interpolated testing can aid learners in their ability to organize the content of learning into an integrated mnemonic representation. While intriguing, little is known about the underlying mechanism(s) by which interpolated testing facilitates knowledge integration. One possible mechanism that will be evaluated in this proposal is study-phase retrievalthe coming back to mind, or reminding, of information learned in an earlier portion of a study sequence during a later portion of a study sequence. Does interpolated testing enhance the occurrence of study-phase retrieval? Do study-phase retrievals help learners integrate disparate elements of study content? Using novel behavioural and neuroimaging techniques, this proposal represents the first systematic, multi-method investigation of study-phase retrieval, the role of interpolated testing in evoking study-phase retrieval, and the relation of study-phase retrieval to knowledge integration during learning. Interpolated testing has been shown to improve attention and learning in academic and vocational settings, and with younger and older adults. Insights into the role of study-phase retrieval in supporting the construction of integrated mnemonic representations of study content would aid in the development of more complete theories of the impact of interpolated testing on attention and learning, and also the development of technologies that could optimize the benefits of interpolated testing for learning in healthy and memory-impaired populations. The proposed research will also lead to the development of highly qualified personnel in state-of-the-art methods of the science of learning. These skills will enable our trainees to pursue academic positions and/or translate their skills to industries that aim to improve the efficacy with which Canadian academic institutions and companies teach and train their students and employees.