The Effect Of Retrieval Attempt On The Retention Of Chinese Word Pairs

The previous studies have demonstrated that tests can enhance subsequent learning,and retrieval attempts can enhance subsequent encoding and learning.This study attends to explore whether retrieval attempts have an effect on retention of subsequent learning of Chinese word pairs.In this study,author took college students as subjects,comparing the effects of different types of attempting retrieval on different types of Chinese word pairs through three experiments.In Experiment 1,taking Chinese word pairs as experimental materials,we explored the effect of retrieval attempts on the retention of Chinese word pairs(unrelated word pairs/low related word pairs).The result showed that attempting retrieval enhanced subsequent encoding and recalled of Chinese word pairs.The recall performance of low related word pairs is significantly higher than that of unrelated word pairs.In Experiment 2,we explored the effect of retrieval attempts on the retention of different types of Chinese word pairs(unrelated word pairs/low related word pairs/high related word pairs/synonyms word pairs/near-synonym word pairs/antonyms word pairs).The results showed attempting retrieval enhanced the retention of Chinese word pairs.What's more,the stronger degree of association and distinctiveness of Chinese word pairs,the better learning efficiency.In Experiment 3,we explored the effect of different types of attempting retrieval(attempting retrieval before learning/no attempting retrieval before learning/correct induced before learning/error induced before learning/error interference before learning)on the retention of Chinese word pairs.The result of the experiment showed error induced or error interference before learning can reduce the retention of subsequent learning Chinese word pairs.On the other side,attempting retrieval and correct induced before learning can enhance the retention of Chinese word pairs,and there was no significant difference between each other.