Abstract
Using unfamiliar, real-world knowledge as to-be-learned material, this study examines the effectiveness of three learning strategies: Replacing a subsequent study opportunity with a test, explicitly making a metamemory judgment at study, and temporally spacing study opportunities. Spacing was manipulated within the other two learning strategies. In Experiments 1a and 1b, compared to a standard study--study condition, no positive effects were obtained for replacing the second study opportunity with a test or having the participants make explicit metamemory judgments at both study opportunities. However, leaving a longer interval between the two study opportunities was consistently shown to be more effective than leaving a shorter interval. It was also found in Experiment 2 that the spacing effect was not significantly affected by the type and difficulty of the tasks interpolated between the study opportunities. Given the robustness and ecological validity of the spacing effect demonstrated in the present study, it is suggested that distributed practice can effectively be incorporated with other learning strategies, because it can be expected to provide an additional incremental effect.
