Optimising learning and memory retention: Exploring variations of retrieval-based learning paradigms

This thesis investigates the role of effort in retrieval-based learning (RBL), with a particular focus on the Say-All-Fast-Minute-Every-Day-Shuffled (SAFMEDS) task. Across one theoretical review and four empirical studies, I examine how manipulating task demands, reactivation conditions, and the implementation of a repeated retrieval task impacts learning and memory retention. Drawing on theories of desirable difficulties, retrieval effort hypothesis, and cognitive load theory, this thesis aims to advance our understanding of the most effected protocols of retrieval-based learning. In the review, I propose a new model of difficulty in learning, that highlights the need to take into account individual learner expertise, the inherent nature of the to-be-learnt material, and process by which learning occurs. In the first empirical study, I established normative data for Japanese logographs and their Romanised equivalents. This provided item difficulty data to ensure future studies in this thesis could adopt more tightly controlled measures. In the second study, learning and long term retention was assessed under different timing constraints (time pressure vs no time pressure), with findings suggesting no difference between conditions. In the third empirical study, active vs passive reactivation conditions were compared following a multiple session RBL task. Results showed that passive reactivation was nearly as effective as active retrieval when initial learning was effortful, challenging assumptions that more retrieval is always better. In the final empirical study I used EEG to explore the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of repeated retrieval. Significant reductions in frontal theta activity were observed between initial and final sessions over regions associated with executive control, effort, and prediction error (e.g., Fp1, Fpz and Fp2. These reductions correlated with improved behavioural performance, suggesting increased neural efficiency rather than reduced engagement. These findings provide both behavioural and neurophysiological support for the concept of behavioural agility from Precision Teaching, showing that fluency training via SAFMEDS may promote flexible, efficient retrieval with reduced cognitive effort. In the cognitive literature, this can be likened to the forward testing effect (FTE), and therefore, to the authors knowledge, this study provided the first biomarker for the FTE. Together, the studies offer new insights into the optimisation of learning protocols and the conditions under which effortful retrieval enhances both retention and adaptability.