ABSTRACT

Research on the pretesting effect has shown that attempting to retrieve or generate information, even when unsuccessful, can potentiate the subsequent learning and remembering of that information. In the current research, we tested the hypothesis that when information can be accessed online, people may be less likely to retrieve or generate information on their own, thus making them less likely to benefit from the pretesting effect. The results of two experiments failed to provide support for this hypothesis. Participants remembered pretested information better than non-pretested information regardless of whether they were required to attempt to retrieve answers from memory or search for the answers using Google. The results suggest that the benefits of pretesting can be observed even when people rely on the internet to answer the questions they encounter.

摘要

对预测试效应的研究表明，尝试检索或生成信息，即使不成功，也可以增强随后对该信息的学习和记忆。在当前的研究中，我们检验了这样一个假设，即当信息​​可以在线访问时，人们可能不太可能自行检索或生成信息，从而使他们不太可能从预测试效应中受益。两个实验的结果未能为这一假设提供支持。参与者比未测试的信息更能记住预先测试的信息，无论他们是否需要尝试从记忆中检索答案或使用谷歌搜索答案。