Exploring Spaced Practice

Spacing out study sessions over multiple days, even weeks, and spacing out questions within a study session develops long-term memory, therefore, durable learning. Cramming for the same or longer overall amount of time creates surface level memory and understanding that diminishes quickly after immediate recall. Each time information is accessed and interacted with, new connections are made, and depth of meaning, relevance and understanding increases. Spaced practice allows for information to be engaged with repeatedly, over a period of time, resulting in deep, durable learning.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this module, you will be able to:

1. Explain the principle of spaced practice
2. Describe how spaced practice improves learning
3. Identify the barriers to using spaced practice
4. Demonstrate how to use interactive learning tools to support spaced practice

Understanding Spaced Practice

Spaced practice is best explained as a comparison to cramming, a test preparation habit students frequently engage in: intense studying over a short period of time before a test or exam. Rather than squeezing studying in over one or two days, or a few hours, before a test, spaced practice involves spreading study sessions out over several days or weeks. This allows studying to be interspersed with sleep. Sleep allows information to be consolidated and transferred from short-term to long-term memory. There is something to be said for the expression “sleep on it”.

The spaced distribution of studying inevitably results in some information being forgotten between study sessions. As a result, students are challenged more when trying to recall information during spaced study sessions than they are when they are cramming.  When students cram, information is stored in short-term memory, which is only temporary. Here it is easily accessed over a brief period, like during a test the next day, but it is then forgotten within days, hours or even minutes after completing the assessment. With spaced practice, information is transferred to and stored in long-term memory, making it more challenging to recall initially but resulting in more durable learning over time. Spacing out study sessions allows students to see what information they have truly learned and what has yet to be transferred into long-term memory.

Spaced Practice – Video

The following two minute video is an introduction to spaced practice. It explores what interleaving is and how it can support students in their learning. Feel free to include this short video into your own courses to guide students as they explore effective learning techniques. You can find this video at the following link: Tactic 1: Spaced Practice Video

The following are some interesting and creative ways to use this video:

• Present it in class and model to your students how they can use spaced practice with your course content
• Develop a sample study schedule that uses spaced practice and discuss how learning is enhanced through spacing
• Embed it in a review quiz

Spaced Practice – Infographic

Spaced Practice Infographic.pdf

Attribution- Creative Commons-NonCommercial-NoDerivs by The Learning Scientists

Barriers to Spaced Practice

Within this section we explore some roadblocks that can prevent students from engaging in this particularly learning technique. These can be used in a number of ways:

1. establish a reflective checklist for students to assist them in assessing their previous habits and methods of studying
2. support discussions about progress and next steps with students
3. as a means of feedback to support students while they build their competency with learning

Resistance to Using Spaced Practice

• Habit or past practice. Many students have progressed through their education, starting in high school, by engaging in just-in-time studying. This has created a sense of familiarity and comfort. Changing learning and studying practices can be worrisome and uncomfortable until they are supported by positive evidence that they work for the student.
• Cramming feels easier than spaced practice. When students see the same information repeatedly during a study session, they begin to recognize it and think they have learned it. Spaced practice requires more effort, which can cause a student to feel like they aren’t learning the information as well as they do when cramming.
• Incorporating spaced practice into a course requires planning on the part of the professor and a redistribution of how they will use class time and resources.
• Students don’t understand how or know that spaced practice improves retention. When students are provided with homework or practice resources for a topic, they tend to complete the entire activity in one sitting. Providing students with homework or practice resources with fewer questions, over a spaced-out period of time, will require students to revisit the content repeatedly consequently demonstrating the positive impact of spaced practice.

Challenges Students May Face Using Spaced Practice

• Students will forget information when using spaced practice – initially. This can result in students feeling like they aren’t learning the information, negatively impacting their sense of accomplishment and engagement with the course. It is important for instructors to let students know that forgetting is normal  and that their learning and understanding will be strengthened each time they relearn it during a study or practice session.
• Spaced practice requires students to plan ahead. Students who struggle with time management or executive functioning will find it difficult to create and stick to a study schedule. Offer students a suggested review schedule, particularly for times leading up to a high stakes assessment. Recommend that students work with their student/academic advisor, learning strategist, tutor or friend to develop a spaced student schedule that works for them.

References

Photography on this page used with permission from the Durham College Online Photo Database.

Carpenter, S.K., & Agarwal, P.K. (2020). How to use spaced retrieval practice to boost learning. RetrievalPractice.org. http://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/SpacingGuide.pdf

Dunlosky, J. (2013). Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning. American Educator, 37(3), 12–21. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1021069.pdf

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, M.J., & Willingham, D.T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266

Karpicke, J. D., & O’Day, G. M. (in press). Elements of effective learning. In M. J. Kahana & A. D. Wagner (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Human Memory, Volume II: Applications. Oxford University Press. https://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/inpress_Karpicke_ODay_Oxford_Handbook.pdf

Rohrer, D., & Pashler, H. (2007). Increasing retention without increasing study time. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(4), 183-186. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00500.x

The Learning Scientists. (n.d.). Spaced practice. The Learning Scientists. https://www.learningscientists.org/spaced-practice

Weinstein, Y., Madan, C.R. & Sumeracki, M.A. (2018). Teaching the science of learning. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0087-y

Weinstein Y., & Smith, M. (2016, July 21). Learn how to study using… spaced practice. The Learning Scientists. https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/7/21-1

© Durham College. All rights reserved.