The Testing Effect as a Function of Explicit Testing Instructions and Judgments of Learning

• Published in: Experimental psychology 2012-01, Vol.59 (5), p.251-257
• Main Authors: Jönsson, Fredrik U, Hedner, Margareta, Olsson, Mats J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Cues; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Human Information Storage; Humans; Judgment; judgments of learning; Learning; Learning. Memory; Male; Memory; Memory, Long-Term; Mental Recall; Metacognition; Middle Aged; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometrics; Psykologi; Reaction Time; Recall (Learning); Retention (Psychology); SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP; SOCIAL SCIENCES; Socialvetenskap; Testing; testing effect
• ISSN: 1618-3169; 2190-5142; 2190-5142
• DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000150

During study, people monitor their learning; the output of this monitoring is captured in so-called judgments of learning (JOLs). JOLs predict later recall better if they are made after a slight delay, instead of immediately after study (the delayed JOL effect). According to the self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) hypothesis delayed JOLs are based on covert retrieval attempts from long-term memory, and successful retrieval attempts in themselves enhance learning (the testing effect). We compared memory for 40 Swahili-Swedish paired associates after a week as a function of three different learning conditions, namely study plus (i) explicitly instructed self-testing, (ii) delayed JOLs, or (iii) less self-testing. We showed that repeated delayed JOLs lead to a memory improvement that does not differ significantly from a comparable condition where the participants are explicitly testing memory, and both the latter groups performed reliably better than a group that self-tested less. The results suggest that delayed JOLs improve long-term retention as efficiently as explicit memory testing and lend support to the SFP hypothesis.