title: Effects of testing on subsequent re-encoding and long-term forgetting of action-relevant materials: On the influence of recall type.
abstract: Testing one's memory of previously studied information reduces the rate of forgetting, compared to restudy. However, little is known about how this direct testing effect applies to action phrases (e.g., "wash the car") - a learning material relevant to everyday memory. As action phrases consist of two different components, a verb (e.g., "wash") and a noun (e.g., "car"), testing can either be implemented as noun-cued recall of verbs or verb-cued recall of nouns, which may differently affect later memory performance. In the present study, we investigated the effect of testing for these two recall types, using verbally encoded action phrases as learning materials. Results showed that repeated study-test practice, compared to repeated study-restudy practice, decreased the forgetting rate across 1 week to a similar degree for both noun-cued and verb-cued recall types. However, noun-cued recall of verbs initiated more new subsequent learning during the first restudy, compared to verb-cued recall of nouns. The study provides evidence that testing has benefits on both subsequent restudy and long-term retention of action-relevant materials, but that these benefits are differently expressed with testing via noun-cued versus verb-cued recall.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.|Stockholm Brain Institute, Sweden.
authors.forename: Veit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kubik
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Brain Institute, Sweden.|Karolinska Institutet, Aging Research Center, Sweden.|Umeå University, Umeå Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lars-Göran
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.|Stockholm Brain Institute, Sweden.|Swedish Collegium of Advanced Study, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jonas K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Olofsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden.
authors.forename: Fredrik U
authors.initials: FU
authors.lastname: Jönsson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Testing effect; action phrases; recall type; test-potentiated learning