Distributed practice (also known as loopback or spacebar training ) is a learning strategy, where practice is broken down into short sessions - over time longer. Humans and animals study items in a list more effectively when they are studied in multiple sessions spread over a long period of time, rather than learning over and over in a short period of time, a phenomenon called distance effects. Conversely, a mass exercise, consisting of fewer and longer training sessions. This is generally a less effective method of learning. For example, when studying for exams disseminating your learning more frequently over a larger period of time will result in more effective learning than intensive learning the night before.
Video Distributed practice
History
Influential German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus first looked at the effects of distributed learning, and published his findings in Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. Using himself as the subject, Ebbinghaus studied an unreasonable list of syllables to control nuisance variables like his previous knowledge, allowing him to discover the effect of distance and effect of serial positions.
A more recent study examining the effects of distributed practice was carried out by Alan Baddeley and Longman in 1978. They examined the effectiveness of distributed practice by teaching postmen how to type using new systems on typewriters and comparing mass and spaced learning schedules. Baddeley found that although the bulk exercise would appear to be a more effective method of learning because participants would be able to learn the material in less time, the postman taught using shorter sessions stretched for several days studying the material better than those with more training long. session. Those who learn how to type with shorter learning sessions, more days spaces end up with more accurate and faster typing.
Maps Distributed practice
Methodology
Some psychological functions are responsible for the beneficial effects of distributed practice. The most common are procedural learning, priming effects, and retrieval developing.
procedural learning
Procedural learning is the act of repeating complex activities over and over again, until all relevant nervous systems work together to automatically generate activity. Distributed practice is the most efficient method of procedural learning. By distributing the number of exercise activities given during the same time period, you will increase the efficiency of learning that skill.
Priming
Priming is the effect in which the initial (often short) exposure to the stimulus affects subsequent reminders or perceptions. This effect is most important when dealing with semantic knowledge, but also applies to the acquisition of general skills. In relation to distributed practice, increasing the number of exercises while learning will result in increased priming effects for the next practice session. This leads to an increase in memory memory, which is equivalent to an increase in learning. This helps explain why distributing your practice sessions equally, rather than collecting them in one session, enabling greater learning.
Extending the exercise
Extending the exercise refers to the learning schedule where the item was initially tested after a short delay, with pre-test delays increasing gradually in subsequent trials. This phenomenon relies on the strength of consolidated memory to improve efficacy and learning efficiently. Poorly consolidated memories through inefficient practice will be harder to remember, and will reduce the lessons learned through widespread retrieval. Distributed practice directly affects the efficiency of recall expansion, as it provides the strongest base for memory consolidation, from which to draw the required information.
Theory
Free recall and cue-memory task
Different theories explain the effect of distance in free recall and in explicit cued-memory tasks. Robert Greene filed a two-factor report on the effect of distance. The effect of distance in a free recall task is recorded by a phase-study search account. Because free memories are sensitive to contextual associations, spaced items benefit from additional encoding of contextual information. Thus, the second occurrence of an item on the list reminds the learner of the first appearance of the same item and the contextual features that surround the item. When items are distributed, different contextual information is encoded with each presentation, while for bulk items, the differences in the context are relatively small. This leads to more spaced gestures encoded with spaces rather than with compacted objects, which leads to improved memory.
Memory tasks (eg, memory recognition, and frequency estimation tasks) rely more on item information and less on contextual information. Greene proposes that the effect of distance is due to an increase in the number of voluntary exercise of space items. This is supported by findings that distance effects are not found when items are learned through incidental learning.
Semantic and priming analysis
The study also showed a reliable spatial effect in the task of remembering cued in incidental learning conditions, where semantic analysis is driven through task orientation. Bradford Challis found the effect of distance for the target words after the words were coincidentally analyzed semantically. However, no spacing effect is found when superficial target words are encoded using the task of grapheme studies. This suggests that semantic priming underlies the effect of distance in the cued memory task.
When items are presented in bulk, the first appearance of the target to be memorized, the semantic becomes the mental representation of the target, so that when the second event occurs immediately after the first, there is a reduction in its semantic processing. The semantic priming fades after a period of time, which is why there is less semantic priming than the second occurrence of a distant item. Thus, in the semantic priming account, the second presentation is stronger prime, and receives less semantic processing when the reps are compacted, than when the shorter spaced lag presentation. This semantic priming mechanism provides words spaced with wider processing than compacted words, producing distance effects.
Implications with unreasonable stimuli
From the explanation of the effect of distance, this effect should not occur with unreasonable stimuli that have no semantic representation in memory. Numerous studies have shown that priming approach to semantically-based repetition can not explain the effect of distance in memory recognition for stimuli, such as foreign faces, and non-words that disagree with semantic analysis. Cornoldi and Longoni even found a significant distance effect in the memory task of introducing forced option when unreasonable forms were used as target stimuli. Russo proposes that with the cued memory of foreign stimuli, the mechanism of short-term-based recurrence mechanisms supports the effect of distance. When unknown stimuli are used as targets in memory tasks, memory depends on retrieving the structural perceptual information about the target. When an item is presented in mass mode, the first occurrence of the second prime number occurs, leading to a decrease in the perceptual process of the second presentation. The short-term repetition-priming effects for non-keywords are reduced when the lag between the prime and target experiments is reduced, thus following a broader perceptual process given on the occurrence of both items whitespace relative to those given for bulk items. Therefore, unreasonable items with mass presentations receive less extensive perceptive processing than distant items; thus, the retrieval of such items is impaired in memory-cued tasks.
In line with this view, Russo also pointed out that changing the fonts in which nonformed recurring presentations are presented reduces perceptions of short-term perceptions of such stimuli, especially for mass items. After memory recognition tests, no spatial effects were found for words presented in different fonts during the study. These results support the hypothesis that short-term perceptual priming is a mechanism that supports the effect of distance in cued memory tasks when foreign stimuli are used as targets.
Furthermore, when the font is changed between the repeated presentation of words in the study phase, there is no reduction in the effect of distance. Resilience to font manipulation is expected with this two-factor account, because the semantic processing of the research determines performance in later memory tests, and font manipulation is irrelevant to this form of processing.
Mammarella, Russo & amp; Avon also points out that changing the facial orientation between repeated presentations is presented to eliminate the effect of distance. The foreign faces have no representation stored in memory, so the effect of distance to this stimulus will be the result of a perceptual priming. Changing the orientation serves to alter the physical appearance of the stimulus, thereby reducing the perceptual priming on the occurrence of both faces when presented en masse. This causes the same memory for faces presented in mass and spaced mode, thus eliminating the effect of distance.
Encoding variability
The encoding of variability and assuming the benefits of distances arises because spaced presentations lead to more variations in encoded contextual elements. In addition, the encoding of variables is considered as a direct result of contextual variation not present in mass reps.
To test the theory of encoding variability, Bird, Nicholson and Ringer (1978) presented subjects with lists of words that have mass repetitions or spaces. Subjects are asked to perform various "task-oriented" tasks that require subjects to make simple judgments about the item list (ie fun or unpleasant, active or passive). Good subjects perform the same task for each occurrence of different words or tasks for each event. If the theory of coding variability is correct, then different orientation assignments must provide variable coding, even for mass repetition, resulting in a higher withdrawal rate for mass reps than would be expected. The results show no such effect, providing strong evidence for the importance of coding for variability.
Phase-study capture
The research phase's pull theory has gained a lot of appeal recently. This theory assumes that the first presentation of an item is taken during the second presentation. This leads to the elaboration of the first memory footprint. Mass presentation does not generate profit because the first trace is active in seconds, so it is not retrieved or deciphered.
Practical apps
Ads
The distance effects and underlying mechanisms have important applications for the advertising world. For example, the effect of distance determines that it is not an effective advertising strategy to present the same back-to-back commercial (repetitive repetition). If the variability encoding is an important mechanism of distance effects, then a good advertising strategy may include distributed presentations from multiple versions of the same ad. Appleton-Knapp, Bjork and Wickens (2005) examined the effect of distance on advertising. They found that the sequential repetition of the ads was more influenced by the phase-search process than the encoding of variability. They also found that at long intervals, varying the presentation of the given advertisement was ineffective in generating a higher recall rate among the subjects (as predicted by variable coding). Despite these findings, recognition is not affected by variations in ads at long intervals.
Individuals with memory deficit
Research shows individuals with traumatic brain injury often experience memory deficits due to disruption in the acquisition phase. They take more trials to achieve predetermined learning criteria, but after learning something, their ability to take it is proportional to healthy control. It is therefore important to assist them in acquiring new skills and memories. A relatively small study has examined how learning strategies that benefit healthy people apply to individuals with TBI. Goverover et al. examining the application of distance effects in enhancing functional tasks, such as route learning. Initial task performance is better for bulk training, but delayed memory is better for information learned using distributed practice. The longer the delay, the greater the distance effect. This suggests that the practice distributed has a role in rehabilitation, especially in helping patients with TBI maintain new skills.
In clinical settings, using word lists, distance effects have proven to be effective with populations of people with memory deficits, including those with amnesia, multiple sclerosis, and TBI.
Long-term retention
Not much attention was paid to the study of distance effects in long-term retention tests. Shaughnessy found that the effect of the distance was not strong for the item presented twice after a 24-hour delay in the test. The distance effect exists, for items presented four or six times and tested after a 24 hour delay. This seems like a strange result and Shaughnessy interprets it as proof for the multi-factorial account of the distance effect.
Long-term effects of distance have also been assessed in the context of learning a foreign language. Bahrick et al. examine the retention of foreign words of foreign vocabulary learned over a period of 9 years, varying both the number of sessions and the distance between them. Both the number of re-learning sessions and the number of days between each session have a major impact on retention (repetition and distance effects), but the two variables do not interact with each other. For all three difficulty ratings of foreign words, remember the highest for the 56 day interval compared to the 28 day or 14 day interval. In addition, 13 separate 56-day sessions resulted in retention comparable to 26 sessions at 14-day intervals. These findings have implications for educational practice. The curriculum rarely provides opportunities for periodic acquisition of previously acquired knowledge. Without a separate repetition, students are more likely to forget the foreign language vocabulary.
Learning system
Distributed learning has proven to be an effective means of improving learning, and has been applied to many different learning methods, including Pimsleur and Leitner systems.
Pimsleur Method
The Pimsleur method, or Pimsleur language learning system, is a commercially-available language acquisition system developed by Paul Pimsleur. The Pimsleur method is based on four principles: interval memory, anticipation principle, core vocabulary, and organic learning. The point of the recall interval is based on the concept of distributed learning, in which learners are presented with information learned with a gradual increase in the length of time between presentations. It uses the idea that learning can be optimized with an exercise schedule.
Leitner
The Leitner system is a widely used method efficiently using flashcards proposed by German science journalist Sebastian Leitner in the 1970s. This exemplifies the principle of repetition of spaces, where cards are reviewed at increasing intervals.
In this method, the cards are sorted into separate boxes based on how well you know the material on the card. If you manage to remember the answer on the card, it is moved to the next box, and if you fail to move to the previous box (if any). The farther into the chain the card box goes, the longer you have to wait before trying to remember the solution. The Leitner method is another example of studying strategies that utilize distributed practice and related principles, in this case a separate repetition.
Anatomy of learning
The central biological constructions involved in any learning are important for memory formation, especially those involved with semantic knowledge: the hippocampus and the surrounding Rhino cortex. Each plays an important role in learning, and therefore in learning techniques such as distributed practice.
Hippocampus
The hippocampus has long been considered the center of all memory, and is therefore responsible for most of the learning. Located in the ventral-medial temporal area of ​​the brain, its importance concerns the consolidation of new memory, and thus learning new things, is demonstrated by the famous case of HM, a man who has both temporal medial regions of his brain removed. This results in his inability to form new long-term memories.
Despite the numerous evidence provided by the HM case for hippocampal centrality to memory and learning, it can still benefit from the effects of distributed practice on certain tasks. During HM's formal assessment, he showed important improvements in tasks related to unconscious learning such as mirror image tests, in which patients had to trace the stars by looking at their hands in the mirror. Improvements in this and other tasks illustrate that the hippocampus is not important for all forms of learning, including the ability to derive the benefits of distributed practice. Without it, the improvements are limited. For example, he showed an increase in the Block-Tapping Memory-Span test, but only for a maximum of 5 blocks, implying his ability to improve through practice persisted, but that did not replace damage to other aspects of the long-term memory formation he suffered after surgery.
The effectiveness of distributed learning seems to rely more on one's work memory than one's ability to shape long-term memory. In a study involving the task of Morris water labyrinth, mice with hippocampal lesions that showed a large decrease in working memory showed a slight increase in the tests they performed, despite their previously intact ability to form long-term memory. This suggests that the effects of exercise can be essentially removed through reduction of working memory
Racial cortex
The rhinal cortex is the area of ​​the brain that surrounds the hippocampus. Various trials on various animal species have shown it as, if not more important for the existence of different types of memory and learning, than the hippocampus. It is divided into two parts, the peririnal cortex and the entorhinal cortex. Distributed practice exists to some degree in animals after hippocampal removal, if the Rhinal cortex is not damaged.
In short, damage to the hippocampus or rhinal cortices, which causes memory deficits in different areas, also results in limited effects of distributed practice on learning and memory consolidation, but never completely eliminates them. This suggests that the ability to improve learning through distributed practice is not entirely dependent on the hippocampus or rhinal cortices but depends on the interaction between working memory capacity and the ability to shape long-term memory, whether semantic or episodic, conscious or subconscious.
See also
- Distance learning
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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