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

学习常常因为需要长时间保持注意力和整合学习内容而受到限制。克服这一障碍的一种简单而有效的方法是在学习过程中插入扩展的序列，比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，与其不间断地完成一节课，不如在课中穿插记忆测试。例如，学习讲座的一小部分，回答关于第一部分的问题，学习讲座的下一部分，回答关于第二部分的问题，等等——可以极大地提高注意力和学习能力。除了考虑学习者记住了多少，考虑已经发生的学习的质量也很重要。例如，对学生来说，不仅要从讲座中提取信息，而且要整合他们从讲座中学到的知识。有初步的证据表明，内插测试可以帮助学习者将学习内容组织成一个完整的助记表示的能力。虽然很有趣，但对于内插测试促进知识集成的潜在机制知之甚少。在这个提议中，一个可能被评估的机制是学习阶段检索——在一个学习序列的后一部分中回想起或提醒在一个学习序列的前一部分中所学到的信息。内插检验是否提高了学习阶段检索的发生？学习阶段检索能帮助学习者整合学习内容的不同元素吗？利用新的行为和神经成像技术，本研究首次系统地、多方法地研究了学习阶段检索，内插测试在唤起学习阶段检索中的作用，以及学习阶段检索与学习过程中知识整合的关系。插值测试已被证明可以提高学术和职业环境中的注意力和学习能力，并适用于年轻人和老年人。深入了解学习阶段检索在支持构建学习内容的综合助记表征中的作用，将有助于发展更完整的内插测试对注意力和学习影响的理论，也有助于开发能够优化内插测试对健康和记忆受损人群学习益处的技术。拟议的研究还将导致培养具有最先进的学习科学方法的高素质人才。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 study-such as preparing for an exam or viewing a lecture-with opportunities for learners to retrieve information from memory. For instance, rather than progressing uninterrupted through a lecture, interpolating the lecture with memory tests-e.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 on-can 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 retrieval-the 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.