http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/3462/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26415/ 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z Retrieval practice of previously studied information seems to be more effective in the long run than restudying the information - a phenomenon called the testing effect. In the present study, we investigated whether individual differences in the testing effect can be attributed to variation in gist trace processing. One-hundred-thirty-one participants (7-13. years old children) studied twelve DRM word lists in a within-subject design with learning (restudying vs. taking an intervening free recall test) as a factor. Each of the participants took a final yes/no recognition test 1. week after the study phase. A latent class analysis on the final-test data revealed three classes. One class of children did not show a testing effect. In the other two classes strong testing effects emerged, but the magnitude of the effect differed in these two classes. Furthermore, the three classes differed in false recognition of semantically related distractors, suggesting that the testing effect is related to differences in gist processing. We interpreted our findings in terms of fuzzy trace theory. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26619/ 2011-05-01T00:00:00Z The testing effect (i.e., long-term memory is improved more by intermediate testing than by restudying the information) has been studied using a variety of materials. However, almost all testing effect studies to date have used purely verbal materials such as word pairs, facts and prose passages. The testing effect has not yet been established using symbol-word pairs. In the present study symbol-word pairs were used as to-be-learned materials to demonstrate the generalisability of the testing effect to symbol learning. The results showed that there was no difference in final memory-test performance after a retention interval of 5 minutes, but after a retention interval of a week tested pairs were retained better than repeatedly studied pairs. Hence, the present research suggests that the testing effect can also be obtained in symbol learning. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26519/ 2011-03-01T00:00:00Z In this study, we compared two instruction methods on spelling performance: a rewriting instruction in which children repeatedly rewrote words and an ambiguous property instruction in which children deliberately practiced on a difficult word aspect. Moreover, we examined whether the testing effect applies to spelling performance. One hundred eighty-six Dutch elementary-school students (grades 3, 4, and 5) participated in this study. a mixed design was used in the present study, with age group and instruction as between-subject variables and relearning as a within-subject variable. We showed that after a 2-day retention interval, the rewriting condition outperformed the ambiguous property condition on spelling performance in all grades. The effect of relearning type was not significant nor was the instruction x relearning interaction. An error analysis showed that relative to the rewrite instruction, the ambiguous property instruction led to more errors on the non-practiced part of the words. By contrast, the rewrite instruction and ambiguous property instruction did not differ with respect to the errors on the practiced part of the words. The findings provide strong evidence for the superiority of a rewriting study instruction over an ambiguous property study instruction with respect to the performance on a delayed spelling test. Results from the conditional error analyses suggest that the beneficial influence of rewriting emerges because rewriting requires children to process the whole word rather than only a part of the word. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17023/ 2009-09-01T00:00:00Z Using 5 experiments, the authors explored the dependency of spacing effects on rehearsal patterns. Encouraging rehearsal borrowing produced opposing effects on mixed lists (containing both spaced and massed repetitions) and pure lists (containing only one or the other), magnifying spacing effects on mixed lists but diminishing spacing effects on pure lists. Rehearsing with borrowing produced large spacing effects on mixed lists but not on pure lists for both free recall (Experiment 1) and recognition (Experiment 2). In contrast, rehearsing only the currently visible item produced spacing effects on both mixed lists and pure lists in free recall (Experiment 3) and recognition (Experiment 4). Experiment 5 demonstrated these effects using a fully within-subjects design. Rehearse-aloud protocols showed that rehearsal borrowing redistributed study from massed to spaced items on mixed lists, especially during massed presentations. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/14287/ 2008-11-01T00:00:00Z A recently proposed theory of the spacing effect [Raaijmakers, J. G. W. (2003). Spacing and repetition effects in human memory: application of the SAM model. Cognitive Science, 27, 431-452.] suggests that the spacing effect is conditional on study-phase retrieval leading to two groups of students showing different magnitudes of the spacing effect. This bimodality was also observed in histograms of spacing-effect data. In this study, we used latent class regression analysis to investigate whether these groups can be detected in existing datasets (Experiment 1). Specific hypotheses about the magnitude of the spacing effect in the latent classes were assessed in Experiment 2. Latent class regression analysis in both experiments showed that the fit of the two-class model was considerably better than the (1-class) ANOVA model. Moreover, the results of Experiment 2 showed, in line with our predictions, that when the presentation rate changed from 1 s to 4 s the increase in spacing effect was larger for the low-performing class than for the high-performing class. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9342/ 2006-04-27T00:00:00Z An experiment was conducted in the context of a problem-based learning course to investigate the influence of a learning-goal-free problem scenario on the quality and quantity of individual study. In half of the tutorial groups, the problem scenario was constructed in such a way that it provided useful learning issues (goal-specified condition), whereas in the other half of the tutorial groups, the problem scenario did not provide learning issues (goal-free condition). It was demonstrated that students in the goal-free condition read more articles, studied longer, and spent more time reporting the studied literature than their peers in the goal-specified condition. These findings suggest that the use of goal-free problems has a positive effect on the students’ individual study and the extensiveness of the tutorial group meeting. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9319/ 2005-11-24T00:00:00Z The spacing effect refers to the finding that memory for repeated items improves when the interrepetition interval increases. To explain the spacing effect in free-recall tasks, a two-factor model has been put forward that combines mechanisms of contextual variability and study-phase retrieval (e.g., Raaijmakers, 2003; Verkoeijen, Rikers, & Schmidt, 2004). An important, yet untested, implication of this model is that free recall of repetitions should follow an inverted u-shaped relationship with interrepetition spacing. To demonstrate the suggested relationship an experiment was conducted. Participants studied a word list, consisting of items repeated at different interrepetition intervals, either under incidental or under intentional learning instructions. Subsequently, participants received a free-recall test. The results revealed an inverted u-shaped relationship between free recall and interrepetition spacing in both the incidental-learning condition and the intentionallearning condition. Moreover, for intentionally learned repetitions, the maximum free-recall performance was located at a longer interrepetition interval than for incidentally learned repetitions. These findings are interpreted in terms of the twofactor model of spacing effects in free-recall tasks. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9316/ 2005-09-01T00:00:00Z Background This study was directed at illuminating a well known phenomenon in the medical expertise literature, the 'intermediate effect' in clinical case recall. This robust phenomenon consists of the finding that medical students of intermediate levels of expertise outperform both experts and novices in clinical case recall after diagnosing cases. It deals in particular with the findings of some researchers who have reported a monotonically increasing recall with level of expertise. Purpose To address possible causes for this anomaly in medical expertise and to experimentally demonstrate how data elaboration can cause expertise effects in clinical case recall. Method Expert nephrologists, intermediate level students and novices were presented with 6 medical cases under 3 different conditions: laboratory data cases without special instructions, laboratory data cases with instructions to elaborate, and cases with laboratory data and a relevant clinical context. Results Only when participants were required to elaborate on each of the information units presented to them did case recall show an expertise effect. If laboratory data are framed within the context of a patient's history and physical examination data, the 'intermediate effect' appears. Conclusions The instructions used in the elaboration condition seem to have induced a deeper, more detailed, analysis of the patient case. It is therefore interesting to note that these instructions only affected the recall of the experts and had no effect on the novices' or intermediates' recall. We might conclude from this that expertise effects in clinical case recall are only produced when the normal processing of patient information is disrupted. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9313/ 2005-05-01T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/1899/ 2005-03-24T00:00:00Z http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9258/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z In this study, the authors examined the influence of prior knowledge activation on information processing by means of a prior knowledge activation procedure adopted from the read–generate paradigm. On the basis of cue-target pairs, participants in the experimental groups generated two different sets of items before studying a relevant list. Subsequently, participants were informed that they had to study the items in the list and that they should try to remember as many items as possible. The authors assessed the processing time allocated to the items in the list and free recall of those items. The results revealed that the experimental groups spent less time on items that had already been activated. In addition, the experimental groups outperformed the control group in overall free recall and in free recall of the activated items. Between-group comparisons did not demonstrate significant effects with respect to the processing time and free recall of nonactivated items. The authors interpreted these results in terms of the discrepancy reduction model of regulating the amount of processing time allocated to different parts of the list. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10790/ 2004-07-01T00:00:00Z Two experiments were conducted to determine the mechanism underlying the spacing effect in free-recall tasks. Participants were required to study a list containing once-presented words as well as massed and spaced repetitions. In both experiments, presentation background at repetition was manipulated. The results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that free recall was higher for massed items repeated in a different context than for massed items repeated in the same context, whereas free recall for spaced items was higher when repeated in the same context. Furthermore, a spacing effect was shown for words repeated in the same context, whereas an attenuated spacing effect was revealed for words repeated in a different context. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2 under a different presentation background manipulation. Both experiments seem to be most consistent with a model that combines the contextual variability and the study-phase retrieval mechanism to account for the spacing effect in free-recall tasks. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/10791/ 2004-06-01T00:00:00Z BACKGROUND: Based on cognitive psychological research, a number of theoretical frameworks have been put forward to describe the structure of experts' medical knowledge and to explain experts' case-processing. PURPOSE: To provide evidence for the theory of knowledge encapsulation, which states that medical knowledge constitutes of interlinked biomedical and clinical knowledge. METHODS: Fourth-year medical students, clerks and medical experts evaluated six case descriptions, consisting of laboratory data either with or without a clinical context. For each case description, the participants were required to study the case, to formulate a diagnosis, and to write down everything they could remember of the case. RESULTS: When the laboratory data were not embedded within a clinical context, medical experts' case-processing increased and their diagnostic accuracy became worse. Furthermore, laboratory data recall of medical experts was more elaborate in cases where the laboratory data were presented without a clinical context. Similar results were obtained for students and clerks. CONCLUSIONS: The findings are only partially consistent with a prediction made by the theory of knowledge encapsulation. Further research, using a different paradigm than the traditionally used method of free recall, is required to unearth whether medical experts use qualitatively different knowledge structures than novices while solving cases. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/2855/ 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z In this report, the method of free recall is put forward as a tool to evaluate a prototypical statistical learning environment. A number of students from the faculty of Health Sciences, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, were required to write down whatever they could remember of a statistics course in which they had participated. By means of examining the free recall protocols of the participants, insight can be obtained into the mental representations they had formed with respect to three statistical concepts. Quantitative as well as qualitative analyses of the free recall protocols showed that the effect of the constructive learning environment was not in line with the expectations. Despite small-group discussions on the statistical concepts, students appeared to have disappointingly low levels of conceptual understanding. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/9255/ 2002-01-01T00:00:00Z In this report, the method of free recall is put forward as a tool to evaluate a prototypical statistical learning environment. A number of students from the faculty of Health Sciences, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, were required to write down whatever they could remember of a statistics course in which they had participated. By means of examining the free recall protocols of the participants, insight can be obtained into the mental representations they had formed with respect to three statistical concepts. Quantitative as well as qualitative analyses of the free recall protocols showed that the effect of the constructive learning environment was not in line with the expectations. Despite small-group discussions on the statistical concepts, students appeared to have disappointingly low levels of conceptual understanding.