Summary: Researchers Doug Rohrer and Hal Pashler studied ways to improve long-term retention of knowledge without requiring more study time. They found that continuous study after mastering material (overlearning) may not provide lasting benefits, while spacing study sessions can enhance retention. These findings suggest that distributing study time is more effective for long-term learning, especially in subjects like mathematics.
Our results suggest that a single session devoted to the study of some material should continue long enough to ensure that mastery is achieved but that immediate further study of the same material is an inefficient use of time. (View Highlight)
The continuation of study immediately after the student has achieved error-free performance is known as overlearning. (View Highlight)
overlearning often increases performance for a short while, the benefit diminishes sharply over time. (View Highlight)
The concentration of all similar problems into the same practice set constitutes massing, and the sheer number of similar problems within each practice set guarantees overlearning. (View Highlight)
A sizable body of evidence suggests that retrieval practice is usually a wise strategy (e.g., Roediger & Karpicke, 2006), with the caveat that learners receive the correct answer after an error ( (View Highlight)