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Category: Project

Description: This study explored the effects of episodic and semantic retrieval, and feedback presentation, on learning of new complex material. Participants read a text divided into three parts, between which they have engaged in (i) content-related (episodic retrieval) or (ii) general- knowledge testing (semantic retrieval), or (iii) reread the previous part. Some participants in the two retrieval conditions were assigned to receive feedback on their interpolated test achievement. We have measured learning through a multiple choice test, but also tried to capture proactive interference by designing the distractors in a specific way. Planned analyses have shown that participants in the episodic retrieval condition scored higher on the final test than participants in the other two groups. We found no evidence for an effect of feedback, nor for an interaction effect of interpolated activity type and feedback. Also, no effect of either independent variable on the number of proactive intrusions was found, although the existence of an effect cannot be rejected, which is reflected in exploratory Bayesian analyses.