Retrieval practice improves retention of tested information, and it can either impair or facilitate retention of untested information. Here, we investigated how semantic relatedness, episodic context, and sleep-dependent memory consolidation determine the effects of retrieval practice on retention of untested items. Participants studied lists of scene-word associations. Each scene was associated with two different words (“pairmates”) that were either semantically related or unrelated and either in the same (temporally close) or different lists (temporally far). In three experiments, retrieval practice of scene-word associations facilitated retention of unpracticed, temporally close pairmates and impaired retention of temporally far, semantically unrelated pairmates. Critically, retrieval practice impaired retention of temporally far, semantically related pairmates if participants were unable to sleep during the retention interval, but it facilitated retention of these items if participants were able to sleep. Our findings suggest that sleep extends the benefits of testing to related information learned in temporally separate episodes.

检索实践提高了测试信息的保留，它可以削弱或促进未测试信息的保留。在这里，我们研究了语义相关性、情景语境和依赖睡眠的记忆巩固如何确定检索练习对保留未测试项目的影响。参与者研究了场景词关联列表。每个场景都与两个不同的词（“pairmates”）相关联，它们在语义上相关或不相关，或者在相同（时间上接近）或不同列表中（时间上很远）。在三个实验中，场景词关联的检索练习促进了未练习的、时间上接近的配对对象的保留，以及时间远、语义上不相关的配对对象的保留受损。至关重要的是，检索练习损害了暂时远距离的保留，如果参与者在保留间隔期间无法入睡，则语义相关的配对伙伴，但如果参与者能够入睡，则有助于保留这些项目。我们的研究结果表明，睡眠将测试的好处扩展到在时间上分开的事件中学到的相关信息。