The Explanation Of Retrieval Practice Effect—from The Perspective Of Temporal Context And Semantic Mediator

Retrieval practice effect is a widely established phenomenon in learning,however,of which underpinning mechanism is unknown.Among the proposed theories,elaborative retrieval hypothesis has been drawing a lot of attention.Recently,some researcher have advanced episodic context account.The episodic context account underscores the importance of temporal context in retrieval practice effect,whereas the elaborative retrieval hypothesis focus on the importance of semantic mediators.Both two theories shares the ideas that compared to restudy,retrieval practice will result in more salient positive push to the memory through heightened temporal context or semantic mediators.This paper attempt to discuss the above two theories.Study 1,2 are experiments in learning conditions without retrieval practice and study 3 is experiment in learning condition with retrieval practice.Study 1 used diverse interitem time to vary the temporal context.A total of 38 undergraduates leaned Chinese characters with high word frequency.The result displayed that the temporal context exhibited non-significant influence on the free recall performance.Study 2 compared the refutation text and non-refutation text to explore the contribution of semantic mediator.A total of 34 undergraduates learned 8 expository texts about common psychological misconceptions.The result showed that semantic mediator can facilitate conceptual change,which demonstrate in the higher conceptual change rate of subjects reading texts with semantic mediator than subjects reading texts without semantic mediator.Study 3 employed a revised retrieval practice paradigm,in which subjects do not need to retrieve the entire target but accompanied semantic mediator or temporal context.Study 3 used refutation text and non-refutation text to manage the semantic mediator and interitem time to manage the temporal context.A total of 62 undergraduates learned 2 expository texts about common psychological misconceptions.The results showed that semantic mediator can significantly improve performance whereas temporal context can hinder learning.In sum,compared to temporal context,semantic mediator show more reliable improvement on learning,which in favor of elaborative retrieval hypothesis.