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Interpolated retrieval enhances the learning of new information—a finding known as the forward testing effect. The context change account suggests that learning benefits are due to a shift in internal context, which can be triggered through the retrieval of either content-relevant or content-irrelevant information. In two experiments, we examined whether interpolated episodic, autobiographical, and semantic retrieval would enhance new learning of a video lecture, compared to interpolated review. Participants watched a STEM topic lecture divided into three ~5 min segments and completed their assigned interpolated activity after the first two segments. Across both a laboratory (Experiment 1, N = 249) and online setting (Experiment 2, N = 246), only episodic retrieval enhanced the learning of new material; autobiographical and semantic retrieval (content-irrelevant) did not improve new learning. Critically, we introduced a measure of context change to determine whether the level of engagement in these interpolated activities predicted recall. Engagement correlated with criterial test performance when controlling for effort (seriousness). Our results support a multi-factor explanation for the forward testing effect, providing evidence for both the context change and strategy change accounts, although we emphasize that support for context change should be interpreted with caution.

Witnesses are likely to describe a crime many times before testifying or encountering misinformation about that crime. Research examining the effect of retrieval on later suggestibility has yielded mixed results. LaPaglia and Chan manipulated whether misinformation was presented in a narrative or misleading questions, and they found that retrieval increased suggestibility when misinformation was presented in a narrative, but reduced suggestibility when the same misinformation was presented in questions. In the current study, we aimed to address why these differences occurred. Specifically, we examined whether contextual detail and narrative coherence during misinformation exposure influenced the relation between retrieval and suggestibility. Participants watched a robbery video and some were questioned about the event afterwards. They were then exposed to misinformation presented in a narrative (Experiment 1) or questions (Experiment 2) before taking a final memory test. Testing enhanced suggestibility when the misinformation phase reinstated contextual information of the event, but not when the misinformation phase included few contextual details-regardless of whether the misinformation was in a narrative or questions. In Experiment 3, disrupting narrative coherence by randomizing the order of contextual information eliminated retrieval-enhanced suggestibility. Therefore, context processing during the post-event information phase influences whether retrieval enhances or reduces eyewitness suggestibility.

Research has consistently shown that concealing facial features can hinder subsequent identification. The widespread adoption of face masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical and urgent need to discover techniques to improve identification of people wearing face coverings. Despite years of research on face recognition and eyewitness identifications, there are currently no evidence-based recommendations for lineup construction for cases involving masked individuals. The purpose of this study was to examine identification accuracy of a masked perpetrator as a function of lineup type (i.e., unmasked or masked lineups) and perpetrator presence (i.e., absent or present). In both experiments, discriminability was superior for masked lineups, a result that was due almost exclusively to higher hits rates in target-present conditions. These data suggest that presenting a masked lineup can enhance identification of masked faces, and they have important implications for both eyewitness identification and everyday face recognition of people with face coverings.

Test anxiety is a major concern in education because it causes uncomfortable feelings in test-anxious students and may reduce the validity of exam scores as a measure of learning. As such, brief and cost-effective interventions are necessary to minimize the negative impact of test anxiety on students’ academic performance. In the present experiment, we examine two such interventions: expressive writing (Experiment 1) and an instructional intervention (Experiment 2), with the latter developed from a similar intervention for stereotype threat. Across four authentic exams in a psychology class, students alternated between completing the intervention and a control task immediately before completing the exams. Neither intervention was effective at reducing test anxiety or improving exam performance. The present results suggest that these interventions may not be successful in addressing the impacts of test anxiety in all classroom settings.

Online classes are now integral to higher education, particularly for students at two-year community colleges, who are profoundly underrepresented in experimental research. Here, we provided a rigorous test of using interpolated retrieval practice to enhance learning from an online lecture for both university and community college students ( N  = 703). We manipulated interpolated activity (participants saw review slides or answered short quiz questions) and onscreen distractions (control, memes, TikTok). Our results showed that interpolated retrieval enhanced online learning for both student groups, but this benefit was moderated by onscreen distractions. Surprisingly, the presence of TikTok videos produced an ironic effect of distraction—it enhanced learning for students in the interpolated review condition, allowing them to perform similarly to students who took the interpolated quizzes. Moreover, we showed in an exploratory analysis that the intervention-induced learning improvements were mediated by a composite measure of engaged learning, thus providing a mechanistic account of our findings. Finally, our data provided preliminary evidence that interpolated retrieval practice might reduce the achievement gap for Black students. Interpolating a lecture with quiz questions enhanced online learning for both community college and university students. The benefit is influenced by level of distraction, is associated with engagement, and can reduce racial achievement gaps.

During the past decade, a large body of research has shown that memory traces can become labile upon retrieval and must be restabilized. Critically, interrupting this reconsolidation process can abolish a previously stable memory. Although a large number of studies have demonstrated this reconsolidation associated amnesia in nonhuman animals, the evidence for its occurrence in humans is far less compelling, especially with regard to declarative memory. In fact, reactivating a declarative memory often makes it more robust and less susceptible to subsequent disruptions. Here we show that existing declarative memories can be selectively impaired by using a noninvasive retrieval–relearning technique. In six experiments, we show that this reconsolidation-associated amnesia can be achieved 48 h after formation of the original memory, but only if relearning occurred soon after retrieval. Furthermore, the amnesic effect persists for at least 24 h, cannot be attributed solely to source confusion and is attainable only when relearning targets specific existing memories for impairment. These results demonstrate that human declarative memory can be selectively rewritten during reconsolidation.

ObjectivesTo comprehensively assess diabetic retinopathy neurodegeneration (DRN) as quantified by retinal neuronal and axonal layers measured with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) in subjects with diabetes mellitus (DM).MethodsArticles on the topic of examining macular ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (m-GCIPL), macular retinal nerve fibre layer (m-RNFL), macular ganglion cell complex (m-GCC), and peripapillary RNFL (p-RNFL) measured with SD-OCT in DM subjects without DR (NDR) or with non-proliferative DR (NPDR) were searched in PubMed and Embase up to November 31, 2019. Standardized mean difference (SMD) as effect size were pooled using random-effects model.ResultsThirty-six studies searched from online databases and the CUHK DM cohort were included in the meta-analysis. In the comparison between NDR and control, macular measures including mean m-GCIPL (SMD = −0.26, p = 0.003), m-RNFL (SMD = −0.26, p = 0.046), and m-GCC (SMD = −0.28; p = 0.009) were significantly thinner in the NDR group. In the comparison between NPDR and NDR, only mean p-RNFL was significantly thinner in the NPDR group (SMD = −0.27; p = 0.03), but not other macular measures.ConclusionsThinning of retinal neuronal and axonal layers at macula as measured by SD-OCT are presented in eyes with NDR, supporting DRN may be the early pathogenesis in the DM patients without the presence of clinical signs of DR. In the future, these SD-OCT measures may be used as surrogates of DRN to stratify DM patients with a high risk of DR, and may be used as a therapeutic target if neuroprotection treatment for DR is available.

People's later memory of an event can be altered by exposure to misinformation about that event. The typical misinformation paradigm, however, does not include a recall test prior to the introduction of misinformation, contrary to what real-life eyewitnesses encounter when they report to a 911 operator or crime-scene officer. Because retrieval is a powerful memory enhancer (the testing effect), recalling a witnessed event prior to receiving misinformation about it should reduce eyewitness suggestibility. We show, however, that immediate cued recall actually exacerbates the later misinformation effect for both younger and older adults. The reversed testing effect we observed was based on two mechanisms: First, immediate cued recall enhanced learning of the misinformation; second, the initially recalled details became particularly susceptible to interference from later misinformation, a finding suggesting that even human episodic memory may undergo a reconsolidation process. These results show that real-life eyewitness memory may be even more susceptible to misinformation than is currently envisioned.

Taking a test on previously learned material can enhance new learning. One explanation for this forward testing effect is that retrieval inoculates learners from proactive interference (PI). Although this release-from-PI account has received considerable empirical support, most extant evidence is correlational rather than causal. We tested this account by manipulating the level of PI that participants experience as they studied several lists while receiving interpolated tests or not. In Experiments 1 and 2 , we found that testing benefited new learning similarly regardless of PI level. These results contradict those from Nunes and Weinstein ( Memory , 20 (2), 138–154, 2012), who found no forward testing effect when encoding conditions minimized PI. In Experiments 3 and 4 , we failed to replicate their results. Together, our data indicate that reduced PI might be a byproduct, rather than a causal factor, of the forward testing effect.

Prior testing can facilitate subsequent learning, a phenomenon termed the forward testing effect (FTE). We examined a metacognitive account of this effect, which proposes that the FTE occurs because retrieval leads to strategy optimizations during later learning. One prediction of this account is that tests that require less retrieval effort (e.g., multiple-choice relative to cued-recall) should lead to a smaller benefit on new learning. We examined the impact of interpolated multiple-choice or cued-recall testing (relative to no prior testing) on new learning of a four-section STEM text passage. The effect sizes associated with the FTE were numerically, though not significantly larger when the prior tests were cued-recall than multiple-choice, but only when interpolated judgments of learning were not queried. Further, when multiple-choice tests were made more difficult through lure similarity, the FTE was similarly increased. Finally, the FTE was eliminated entirely when participants provided four JOLs after reading each text section. We believe this elimination of the FTE stemmed from an increase in performance for the control participants induced by reactivity from repeated metacognitive queries requiring deep metacognitive reflection. Taken together, these experiments support a metacognitive account of FTE and have important implications for how educators and students should employ retrieval practice and leverage the benefits of metacognitive reflection to improve new learning.