Abstract
In three experiments, we investigated the role of transfer-appropriate processing and elaborative processing in the testing effect. In Experiment 1, we examined whether the magnitude of the testing effect reflects the match between intervening and final tests by factorially manipulating the type of intervening and final tests. Retention was not enhanced for matching, relative to mismatching, intervening and final tests, contrary to the transfer-appropriate-processing view. In Experiment 2, we examined final retention as a function of the number of cues needed to retrieve items on intervening cued recall tests. In this case, fewer retrieval cues were associated with better memory on the final test. Experiment 3 replicated the findings of Experiment 2 while controlling for individual item difficulty and directly manipulating the number of cues present. These findings suggest that an intervening test may be most beneficial to final retention when it provides more potential for elaborative processing.
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Experiment 2 was closely based on a master’s thesis submitted by the first author, portions of which were presented at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, Denver, April 11–13.
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Carpenter, S.K., Delosh, E.L. Impoverished cue support enhances subsequent retention: Support for the elaborative retrieval explanation of the testing effect. Memory & Cognition 34, 268–276 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193405
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193405