Retrieval during Learning Facilitates Subsequent Memory Encoding

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 287 - 297
• Main Authors: Pastotter, Bernhard, Schicker, Sabine, Niedernhuber, Julia, Bauml, Karl-Heinz T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-03-2011
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Attention - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Brain Waves - physiology; Cognitive Measurement; Cognitive Tests; College Students; Correlation; Electroencephalography - methods; Electrophysiology; Experimental psychology; Experiments; Female; Foreign Countries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Germany; Human; Human Information Storage; Humans; Learning; Learning Processes; Learning. Memory; Male; Memory; Mental Recall - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometrics; Reaction Time - physiology; Recall; Recall (Learning); Recall (Psychology); Regression Analysis; Retention (Psychology) - physiology; Semantic Memory; Semantics; Short Term Memory; Spectrum Analysis; Studies; Time Factors; Verbal Learning - physiology; Word Lists; Young Adult; Germany; Human; Memory retrieval; Memory; Central nervous system; testing; Electrophysiology; Cognition; Electroencephalography; Experimental study; encoding; Encephalon; Learning; brain oscillations; Acquisition process; Coding; retrieval; Oscillation
• ISSN: 0278-7393; 1939-1285
• DOI: 10.1037/a0021801

In multiple-list learning, retrieval during learning has been suggested to improve recall of the single lists by enhancing list discrimination and, at test, reducing interference. Using electrophysiological, oscillatory measures of brain activity, we examined to what extent retrieval during learning facilitates list encoding. Subjects studied 5 lists of items in anticipation of a final cumulative recall test and did either a retrieval or a no-retrieval task between study of the lists. Retrieval was from episodic memory (recall of the previous list), semantic memory (generation of exemplars from an unrelated category), or short-term memory (2-back task). Behaviorally, all 3 forms of retrieval enhanced recall of both previously and subsequently studied lists. Physiologically, the results showed an increase of alpha power (8-14 Hz) from List 1 to List 5 encoding when no retrieval activities were interpolated but no such increase when any of the 3 retrieval activities occurred. Brain-behavior correlations showed that alpha-power dynamics from List 1 to List 5 encoding predicted subsequent recall performance. The results suggest that, without intermittent retrieval, encoding becomes ineffective across lists. In contrast, with intermittent retrieval, there is a reset of the encoding process for each single list that makes encoding of later lists as effective as encoding of early lists. (Contains 4 figures.)