Attending Less and Forgetting More: Dynamics of Simultaneous, Massed, and Spaced Presentations in Science Concept Learning

• Published in: Journal of applied research in memory and cognition Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 361 - 373
• Main Authors: Vlach, Haley A., Kaul, Megan, Hosch, Alexis, Lazaroff, Emma
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washigton Educational Publishing Foundation 01.09.2022; Elsevier Inc; Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition
• Subjects: Categorization; Classification (Cognitive Process); Cognitive Science; Comparison; Concept Formation; Conceptual development; Female; Forgetting; Forgetting-as-abstraction; Human; Learning; Male; School Learning; Science Education; Science learning; Sciences; Spaced learning; forgetting-as-abstraction; comparison; categorization; conceptual development; science learning; spaced learning; Spaced learning; Science learning; Forgetting-as-abstraction; Comparison; Categorization; Conceptual development
• ISSN: 2211-3681; 2211-369X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2021.10.007

Research on children's categorization presents seemingly paradoxical results: Presenting exemplars at the same time (simultaneously) and presenting exemplars apart in time (spaced) have both been argued to support learning. This research was designed to explain these results by examining the visual attention and forgetting dynamics underlying various presentation schedules. Across three experiments, preschool-aged children (N = 292) were presented with science category exemplars on simultaneous, massed, and spaced schedules. The first experiment revealed that children had the strongest generalization performance in the spaced condition at the delayed post-test. In subsequent experiments, children visually attended less and forgot more during spaced learning. These results are discussed in the context of several theoretical accounts in cognitive science and applied implications for science education. General Audience Summary Generalization, the ability to transfer knowledge from one context to another context, is a critical cognitive process that drives learning and development. Educators are encouraged by federal guidelines, such as the Next Generation Science Standards, to present students with multiple examples of a concept so that learners can engage in the cognitive process of generalization. However, federal guidelines do not provide specific recommendations of when and how to present examples of concepts to students. The extant literature presents a seemingly paradoxical recommendation with regards to presentation timing: Examples should be presented at the same time, and examples should be presented apart in time. The research in this paper clarifies these seemingly conflicting results by directly comparing children's acquisition and generalization of science concepts on simultaneous, massed, and spaced learning schedules. We found that the timescale in which children generalize matters: At an immediate test, there was no difference between the schedules. At the delayed test, the spaced learning schedule promoted children's generalization to a greater degree than the other schedules. We also examined how the learning schedules affected children's visual attention and forgetting and found that the spaced actually led to less visual attention and more forgetting during learning. These results clarify theoretical accounts of generalization in cognitive science and have implications for science education. Science educators should use spaced practice and not get discouraged if they notice students visually attending less or forgetting during learning.