Talk:Spacing effect

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 September 2019 and 18 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Curryl.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:55, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 25 February 2020 and 2 May 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cb401.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:55, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Suggest merging with Distributed learning
Archived: The merge was carried out in this edit last week. Moonraker12 (talk) 06:25, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

The two concepts seem sufficiently closely related that a single article is appropriate. Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 07:16, 3 September 2009 (UTC)


 * "Distributed and massed learning" might be a better title for the merged article (thanks Tony) . Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 13:52, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Distributed learning should be merged into Spacing effect because the former is easily confusable with distance learning. 99.38.150.200 (talk) 05:07, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

If any merge is needed, I would lean toward the "Memory" topic as it relates to Long-term memory retention. At the very least, this topic should be a related topic link under "Memory." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.161.121.117 (talk) 21:37, 2 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, of course Distributed learning should be merged with Spacing effect. They both mean the same thing.
 * Also, there maybe should be a subtopic section created at Memory but there should not be a merger of that page with this one.
 * If this issue has not been resolved as of yet then anyone who sees this should feel free to resolve it by performing the merger themselves. makeswell (talk) 18:28, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

Spacing effect should be the primary name; I did a bunch of reading for http://www.gwern.net/Spaced%20repetition#literature-review and I hardly ever ran into 'distributed learning'. --Gwern (contribs) 19:38 29 October 2011 (GMT)
 * I agree with Gwern. The phrase 'distributed learning' is extremely uncommon. Kadesoto (talk) 15:04, 1 November 2011 (UTC)


 * Merged with this edit on 11 February 2013. Archived today. Moonraker12 (talk) 06:25, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Suggest rephrase of spacing effect definition
I suggest that the first sentence exclude "animals (including humans)". The target audience for the spacing effect is humans and does not need to be explicitly stated. It might be better to say, "The spacing effect is the phenomenon that when repeatedly learning information spaced out over a period of time makes learned items easier to remember." Jh470 (talk) 15:21, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

I would be careful about labeling it as "easier to remember" as the learning itself will be harder. Rather it's more likely to be remembered. Elizareader (talk) 16:22, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

The first sentence is confusing. Elizareader (talk) 16:23, 23 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Does this make sense? "Long term memory of information can be improved by spaced learning contributing to the spacing effect."Jh470 (talk) 17:01, 23 March 2016 (UTC)


 * The first sentence is still somewhat awkward. I would suggest reworking it by avoiding partial use of the defined term in the original definition. I also believe there may be a grammatical issue (excluding "when" might help).

I might propose an alternative option: "The spacing effect is the increased likelihood of remembering something when the information is reviewed repeatedly over an extended period of time." Redmach197 (talk) 13:16, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

I think that suggested definition still may be a little unclear as to what is meant by "reviewed repeatedly over an extended period of time." This definition needs to clarify that there must be an extended period of time between sessions. Perhaps a minor change to this suggested definition could be "The spacing effect is the increased likelihood of remembering something when the information is studied with a certain amount of time between each session." Ackelleher17 (talk) 19:12, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

An extremely minor change: I would say "...information is studied several times with a certain..." just to clarify that it is a repeated presentation of the information Jasonbrovich (talk) 20:34, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Reference to distributed practice
The distributed practice page is very similar to this page, with many overlapping paragraphs. At the very least, distributed practice should be linked at the bottom of the page in "see also." I'd also like to mention that spaced effects can be evaluated by lag effects, which varies on how long the spacing is in between learning sessions. Longer lag yields better long-term memory, while short term lag is no more effective than massed practice. Samliu365 (talk) 01:48, 12 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Definitely include distributed practice in "see also." That is a great idea. Where are you suggesting to put the discussion lag effect? There is a mention of lag in the semantic priming section, but no direct mention of the lag effect, which is an important aspect of spacing effect. At the very least, there should be an explanation of what "lag" means in the context of this topic, before the sentence "short-term repetition-priming effects for nonwords are reduces when the lag between prime and target trials is reduced from zero to six." This language is much too technical when there is no definition of "lag" included. KieraMolloy18 (talk) 19:39, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

I will attempt to clean up the language that you pointed out so it is easier to understand, but I think the discussion of lag effect should be under 'learning and pedagogy' under the practical effects and long term retention header. Samliu365 (talk) 01:55, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Introduce a couple related studies
Kornell and Bjork(2008) study on Learning Concepts and categories shows that in inductive learning - learning from observing examplars - spaced practice was more effective than massed practice. Participants were asked to judge a number of paintings and identify the artist based on certain artist's painting characteristics. Massed study feels easier and more fluent, yet the difficulties presented to the participants were desirable difficulties that resulted in better learning. Another study (Bude, Imbos, Van de Wiel, Berger 2011) comparing a statistics course taught at Maastricht University over 6 months and 8 weeks showed a distinct advantage when material was spaced over 6 months. I found this helpful source of information http://www.indiana.edu/~pcl/rgoldsto/courses/dunloskyimprovinglearning.pdf Samliu365 (talk) 02:17, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I think it would definitely be helpful to include a discussion of some studies related to the spacing effect, and the ones you found would all be great. However, since primary sources are unable to be used because of potential biases the experimenters might have, it would be a good idea to use secondary sources like reviews of the studies or textbooks, rather than the studies themselves.  Darcy.watts (talk) 17:12, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Just as the comment above states, I think that by adding in studies to support the evidence of the effectiveness of the spacing effect would be very advantageous and bolster the process. As another example, you can add in making cumulative finals and mixing units together, so not all of one topic is learned at a time. It would probably be better to look up science magazine articles on these types of studies so you can include them in your page. Ashley (talk) 17:24, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I agree with the above comments. I would also suggest looking for journals that have information regarding spaced practice versus massed practice. Even books may be a good place to look, such as Make it Stick, since it has a lot of information on that topic as well as being a reliable source. That way you will be less likely to run into trouble. I also suggest maybe expanding on how it is more effective. For example, explaining how a desirable difficulty will help rather than only explaining the result.Jh470 (talk) 01:25, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I think that including a couple of examples would definitely add support to the page. Also, in relation to the comment above, comparing and contrasting spaced practice against massed practice could provide readers more information regarding both practice techniques. Since spaced practice is a desirable difficulty, I feel as if a discussion on this aspect of spaced practice would help add to the article as well. Alex21golf (talk) 00:58, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Suggestions
Citations throughout the article are used in several different formats, making it a bit challenging to find the original source for the reader. The article would benefit from using Wikipedia's built-in tools that would direct readers to specific sources immediately with links. The semantic priming section includes interesting information, but it is challenging to read and inaccessible for individuals with little or no familiarity with the concepts presented there. It would be useful for this section to have more simplified language. SofiaM80 (talk) 04:04, 20 April 2020 (UTC)

Merge conversation
Hi all. Having looked at the previous suggestion about merging with distributed practice I think the discussion needs to be restarted as spaced repetition is also a page that repeats the same information. Fields of research use different terms, which is why distributed practice isn't seen much in teaching literatures, and the same can be said for the spacing effect or spaced repetition in sport coaching literature. The essence of the 3 terms are the same, with extremely similar background theory, and practical application. I don't see a need to have 3 separate articles but am open to thoughts. DannyHatcher (talk) 19:51, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

The Semantic Priming and Deficient Encoding Sections Describe the Same Phenomenon!
Section on semantic priming explains the spacing effect through gesture to the following phenomenon: "When items are presented in a massed fashion, the first occurrence of the target semantically primes the mental representation of that target, such that when the second occurrence appears directly after the first, there is a reduction in its semantic processing." That's...deficient processing: "massed repetitions lead to deficient processing of the second presentation". Propose the two sections be merged.