Abstract

Previous research has shown that taking a test facilitates memory retention on later retesting, although facilitation is stronger when retesting is delayed. On the basis of the finding that testing prevents later forgetting without affecting memory recovery, we investigated immediate effects of taking a test on retrievability of a tested item. In two experiments, forty participants recalled studied items, then performed a retest of the studied items (test condition) and a non-episodic-memory task (distractor condition), and immediately afterward re-recalled the items. The test condition elicited more item losses (i.e. forgetting) than the distractor condition, whereas there were no condition differences in the number of item gains (i.e. remembering) and recall clustering. These results suggest that taking a test on a target item facilitates forgetting of the very same item for a short interval of time, a possible reason for the late appearance of the testing effect.

摘要

先前的研究表明，参加测试有助于在以后重新测试时保持记忆，尽管延迟重新测试时更容易。基于测试可以在不影响记忆恢复的情况下防止以后遗忘的发现，我们调查了进行测试对测试项目可检索性的直接影响。在两个实验中，40 名参与者回忆了所研究的项目，然后对所研究的项目（测试条件）和非情景记忆任务（干扰条件）进行了重新测试，然后立即重新回忆了这些项目。测试条件比干扰条件引起更多的项目丢失（即遗忘），而项目获得（即记忆）和回忆聚类的数量没有条件差异。