Compared with other learning strategies, retrieval practice seems to promote superior long-term retention. This has been found mostly in conditions where learners take tests after being exposed to learning content. However, a pre-testing effect has also been demonstrated, with promising results. This raises the question, for a given amount of time dedicated to retrieval practice, whether learners should be tested before or after an initial exposure to learning content. Our experiment directly compares the benefits of post-testing and pre-testing relative to an extended reading condition, on a retention test 7 days later. We replicated both post-testing (d = 0.74) and pre-testing effects (d = 0.35), with significantly better retention in the former condition. Post-testing also promoted knowledge transfer to previously untested questions, whereas pre-testing did not. Our results thus suggest that it may be more fruitful to test students after than before exposure to learning content.

与其他学习策略相比，检索练习似乎可以促进长期记忆。这种情况主要发生在学习者在接触学习内容后参加测试的情况下。然而，预测试效果也已得到证实，并取得了可喜的结果。这就提出了一个问题，在给定的用于检索练习的时间内，学习者是否应该在初次接触学习内容之前或之后进行测试。我们的实验在 7 天后的保留测试中直接比较了后测试和预测试相对于扩展阅读条件的好处。我们复制了测试后（d  = 0.74）和测试前（d  = 0.35）的效果，在前一种情况下保留率明显更好。后测试还促进了对先前未测试问题的知识转移，而预测试则不然。因此，我们的结果表明，在接触学习内容之后对学生进行测试可能比在接触学习内容之前进行测试更有效。