the cedar ledge

A Case Study in the Failure to Apply the Results of Psychological Research

Date: June 8 2020

Summary: A critique of possible reasons for why the Spacing Effect is not applied in American educational settings.

Keywords: ##bibliography #spacing #effect #critique #education #system #archive

Bibliography

F. N. Dempster, "A Case Study in the Failure to Apply the Results of Psychological Research," American Psychologist, p. 8, 1988.

Table of Contents

    1. Issues regarding the adoption of the spacing effect into classroom settings.
    2. Miscellaneous Concepts
  1. How To Cite
  2. References
  3. Discussion:

Issues regarding the adoption of the spacing effect into classroom settings.

These are the most concerning issues concerning usage of the spacing effect:

  1. Ahistorical character of research on the spacing effect

  2. Some failures to obtain the effect with school-like activities

  3. Paucity of impressive classroom demonstrations of the phenomenon

  4. Limited knowledge of classroom practice

  5. Incomplete understanding of the psychological bases of the spacing effect

Probably the most legitimate barrier to utilization of the spacing effect in educational settings is the scarcity of in class demonstrations of its usage.

However, these four issues are not considered as such strong impediments to the implementation of the spacing effect in classroom settings:

  1. Is not new and has been studied

  2. Continues to receive recent documentation

  3. Can assist in addressing educational issues

  4. Is demonstrated to lend itself well to school-like activities

Miscellaneous Concepts

Lag effects are believed to occur when performance on a memory task improves as the number of intervening items between successive presentations increases.

Jost's Law: If two memories are equal in how well they were learned but at differing times, the older memory will gain more out of a review than the new one. [1]

How To Cite

Zelko, Jacob. A Case Study in the Failure to Apply the Results of Psychological Research. https://jacobzelko.com/06082020234244-dempster-critique. June 8 2020.

References

[1] J. A. McGeoch, “The psychology of human learning.” 1942.

Discussion:

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