Abstract
We investigated whether the superior memory performance sometimes seen with delayed rather than immediate feedback was attributable to the shorter retention interval (orlag to test) from the last presentation of the correct information in the delayed condition. Whetherlag to test was controlled or not, delayed feedback produced better final test performance than did immediate feedback, which in turn produced better performance than did no feedback at all, when we tested Grade 6 children learning school-relevant vocabulary. With college students learning GRE-level words, however, delayed feedback produced better performance than did immediate feedback (and both were better than no feedback) when lag to test was uncontrolled, but there was no difference between the delayed and immediate feedback conditions when the lag to test was controlled.
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The research presented here was supported by CASL Grant R305H060161 from the Institute of Educational Sciences, Department of Education, and by Grant 220020166 from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. The authors, however, are wholly responsible for the content of this article.
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Metcalfe, J., Kornell, N. & Finn, B. Delayed versus immediate feedback in children’s and adults’ vocabulary learning. Memory & Cognition 37, 1077–1087 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.8.1077
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.37.8.1077
Keywords
- Correct Answer
- Retention Interval
- Feedback Condition
- Initial Test
- Final Test