ABSTRACT

Testing of previously studied information potentiates subsequent learning of new information, a phenomenon referred to as the forward testing effect (FTE). The current study aimed to investigate the developmental trajectory of the FTE and whether the reset-of-encoding process contributes to the FTE. Younger children, older children, and adults were instructed to study four lists of unrelated words, then either restudied or were tested following studying each of Lists 1–3, and took an interim test on List 4. Results demonstrated that interim testing on Lists 1–3 enhanced learning of List 4 for younger children, older children, and adults. Importantly, this enhancement varies with items’ serial list position in both younger children and older children. Early List 4 items at list primacy positions benefited more from interim testing than later ones at non-primacy positions. Overall, this is the first study demonstrating that (1) the FTE generalizes to younger children, older children, and adults, suggesting the FTE emerges quite early in human life; (2) the reset-of-encoding process contributes to the FTE in both younger and older children.

摘要

对先前研究的信息的测试会增强后续对新信息的学习，这种现象被称为前向测试效应（全职）。目前的研究旨在调查 FTE 的发展轨迹以及编码重置过程是否有助于 FTE。要求年幼的儿童、年长的儿童和成人学习四个不相关的单词列表，然后在学习列表 1-3 后重新学习或进行测试，并对列表 4 进行临时测试。结果表明，对列表 1 的临时测试–3 加强了对年幼儿童、年长儿童和成人的清单 4 的学习。重要的是，此增强功能会随着项目在年幼儿童和年长儿童中的序列列表位置而异。列表首要位置的早期列表 4 项目比非首要位置的后期测试更受益于临时测试。总体而言，这是第一项表明（1）FTE 泛化到年幼儿童、年长儿童和成人的研究，表明 FTE 出现在人类生命的早期；(2) 编码重置过程有助于年幼儿童和年长儿童的 FTE。