Hi Annette-

Re overlearning you may want to take a look at

Doug Rohrer, Harold Pashler (2007)
Increasing Retention Without Increasing Study Time
Current Directions in Psychological Science 16 (4), 183-186.
doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00500.

ABSTRACT--Because people forget much of what they learn, students could 
benefit from learning strategies that yield long-lasting knowledge. Yet 
surprisingly little is known about how long-term retention is most 
efficiently achieved. Here we examine how retention is affected by two 
variables: the duration of a study session and the temporal distribution 
of study time across multiple sessions. Our results suggest that a 
single session devoted to the study of some material should continue 
long enough to ensure that mastery is achieved but that immediate 
further study of the same material is an inefficient use of time. Our 
data also show that the benefit of distributing a fixed amount of study 
time across two study sessions--the /spacing effect/--depends jointly on 
the interval between study sessions and the interval between study and 
test. We discuss the practical implications of both findings, especially 
in regard to mathematics learning.

-Don.


[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

>I have tried psychinfo and google for two things with no luck:
>
>I am looking for evidence to support the advice we often give to students to 
>use (a) acrostics, (b) acronyms as study aids. I can find very many websites 
>that offer this advice and how to do it, but none that back up the advice with 
>an evidence that this really works. I had hoped to find something in the rehab 
>literature but couldn't pin anything down on psychinfo.
>
>Next I have been looking for data to back up the often given advice of 
>overlearning. I have found only one reference that found only a very short 
>term benefit for overlearning, but no long term benefit. Again, do any of you 
>have any real evidence for this advice?
>
>As much as possible I think students need to know why we tell them to do these 
>things.
>
>I appreciate any help in this regard.
>
>Annette
>
>
>Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D.
>Professor of Psychology
>University of San Diego
>5998 Alcala Park
>San Diego, CA 92110
>619-260-4006
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>---
>  
>

-- 
Don Allen
Department of Psychology
Langara College
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
V5Y 2Z6

604-323-5871


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