Serendipitously, a former colleague @musingsofadr announces ResearchEd Deutschland @rEdDeutschland, on June 18th 2022 at St George’s Düsseldorf and I stumble upon the research of two German cognitive psychologists Karl-Heinz T. Bäuml and Bernhard Pastötter (@pastotter).
After reading a handful of their papers on the forward effect of testing (potentiated learning or pre-testing) I noted a more recent paper Bauml paper that looked very interesting: “Selective memory retrieval can revive forgotten memories.”
What do we learn?
Selective retrieval can interrupt time-dependent forgetting. Not only that, that selective retrieval induces a more permanent updating of context. As we would expect.
“Selective retrieval can revive forgotten memories and cause lasting recall enhancement.”
Bäuml & Lukas (2022)
What was more interesting was the fact that selective retrieval of studied information can revive the non-retrieved information and bring recall levels back to the levels shortly after study.
“Selective retrieval boosted recall of the nonretrieved information up to the levels observed directly after study.”
Bäuml & Lukas (2022)
Lastly, and “strikingly,” time-dependent forgetting after selective retrieval mimics time-dependent forgetting after study. Which implies that the revival of the forgotten memories is lasting and caused by a reset of the recall process.
What does that mean for teachers
Bauml and Trißl make clear the reference to education. Retrieval of encoded episodes is often selective and is often time-lagged. The findings suggest that selective retrieval can improve memory of the retrieved, but also of the nonretrieved, information. That selective retrieval reactivates the retrieved item’s temporal context during study, which can facilitate recall or “revive” other items that had a similar context at study.
As teachers, we may consider the context in which information is encoded, and then the context in which it is retrieved. Our pupils may benefit from contextually familiar routines.
Finally, there is reference to consider the time delay between study and selective retrieval in the discussion. That the relative contribution of inhibitory processes to recall (interference) decreases and that of context retrieval increases – as the time interval between study and retrieval increases. In other words, ensure there is sufficient time between encoding and retrieval.
Bäuml, Karl-Heinz & Trißl, Lukas. (2022). Selective memory retrieval can revive forgotten memories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119. e2114377119. 10.1073/pnas.2114377119.
I also had to find out what a ‘ß‘ was. Everyday.
For easily “selective retrieval,” or interleaved retrieval – RemebermoreMore