title: Long-term memory, sleep, and the spacing effect.
abstract: Many studies have shown that memory is enhanced when study sessions are spaced apart rather than massed. This spacing effect has been shown to have a lasting benefit to long-term memory when the study phase session follows the encoding session by 24 hours. Using a spacing paradigm we examined the impact of sleep and spacing gaps on long-term declarative memory for Swahili-English word pairs by including four spacing delay gaps (massed, 12 hours same-day, 12 hours overnight, and 24 hours). Results showed that a 12-hour spacing gap that includes sleep promotes long-term memory retention similar to the 24-hour gap. The findings support the importance of sleep to the long-term benefit of the spacing effect.
authors.affiliation: a Psychology Department , Santa Clara University , CA , USA.
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Nader
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kawadri
authors.forename: Patricia M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Simone
authors.forename: Melody
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wiseheart
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D057567:Memory, Long-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult