Abstract
Psychological research shows that learning can be powerfully enhanced through testing, but this finding has so far been confined to memory tasks requiring verbal responses. We explored whether testing can enhance learning of visuospatial information in maps. Fifty subjects each studied two maps, one through conventional study, and the other through computer-prompted tests. For the tests, the subjects were repeatedly presented with the same map with one feature deleted (e.g., a road or a river), and they tried to covertly recall the missing feature and its location. Subjects’ map drawings after 30 min were significantly better for maps learned through tests in comparison with maps learned through the same amount of time devoted to conventional study. These results suggest that the testing effect is not limited to the types of memory that require discrete, verbal responses, and that utilizing covert retrievals may allow the effect to be extended to a variety of complex, nonverbal learning tasks.
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This work was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences (Grant R305H040108 from the U.S. Department of Education) and the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant R01-MH61549 to H.P.).
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Carpenter, S.K., Pashler, H. Testing beyond words: Using tests to enhance visuospatial map learning. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 14, 474–478 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194092
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194092