In this study, we examined students’ natural studying behaviors in massive, open, online course (MOOC) on introductory psychology. We found that, overall, distributing study across multiple sessions—increasing spacing—was related to increased performance on end-of-unit quizzes, even when comparing the same student across different time-points in the course. Moreover, we found important variation on who is more likely to engage in spaced study and benefit from it. Students with higher ability and students who were more likely to complete course activities were more likely to space their study. Spacing benefits, however, were largest for the lower-ability students and for those students who were less likely to complete activities. These results suggest that spaced study might work as a buffer, improving performance for low ability students and those who do not engage in active practices. This study highlights the positive impact of spacing in real-world learning situations, but more importantly, the role of self-regulated learning decisions in shaping the impact of spaced practice.

在这项研究中，我们通过大规模，开放性的在线介绍性心理学课程（MOOC）研究了学生的自然学习行为。我们发现，总的来说，即使在同一课程的不同时间点比较同一学生时，跨多个时段进行的分布式研究（间隔增加）也与单元末测验的成绩提高有关。此外，我们发现在谁更有可能从事间隔学习并从中受益方面存在重大差异。能力较高的学生和完成课程活动的可能性较高的学生更有可能安排学习空间。但是，对于能力较弱的学生和那些不太可能完成活动的学生来说，间隔收益最大。这些结果表明，间隔研究可能会起到缓冲作用，提高低能力学生和那些没有积极练习的学生的表现。这项研究强调了间隔在现实世界中学习环境中的积极影响，但更重要的是，自我调节学习决策在塑造间隔实践的影响中的作用。