The Critical Importance of Retrieval For Learning

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In the article, “The Critical Importance of Retrieval For Learning” the researchers were studying human learning and memory by presenting people with information to be learned in a study period and testing them on the information that they were told to learn in order to see what they were able to retain. They also pointed out that retrieval of information in a test, is considered a neutral event because it does not produce learning. Researchers were trying to find a correlation between the speed of something being learned and the rate at which it is forgotten
When doing the doing the study, the researchers came up with an idea of using foreign language. The hypothesis for this test was that if learning happens exclusively during study periods and if test are neutral assessments, then additional study trials should have a strong positive effect on learning, whereas additional test trials should produce no effect. The article started to talk about the dropout and standard learning conditions. They stated that the standard learning condition is when you present information to a person in a study period, then testing them on what they was given in the study period multiple times. The dropout learning condition is once a item is successfully recalled in a test, it is either dropped from the study period but it will still be tested on or secondly it could be dropped from the test period but still repeatedly studied. Or thirdly the information presented could be dropped from both the test and also the study period.
The way the experiment was set it; the researches got college students to learn a list of foreign words that they have never seen before. They were given a bunch of words in Swahili-English words. The list contained 40 wor...

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...n looking at the results, they found out that the learning curve was exponential. The researchers assumed that learning occurs while people study and encode material into the brain.
Altogether this study has helped us learn more about the brain and memory. Learning is measured thorough when a student can reiterate the right answer to a question. In this study, students in one conditions learned forging language vocabulary words in standard example of recurrent study exam trials. In three other conditions, once a student had correctly formed the language item, it was constantly studied but dropped from further testing. Repeatedly tested but dropped from the further study or just dropped from both the study and also the test. The results reveal the critical part of retrieval practice in combining education and shows that even college students seem naive of the fact.

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