AUTHOR=Endres Tino , Renkl Alexander TITLE=Mechanisms behind the testing effect: an empirical investigation of retrieval practice in meaningful learning JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=6 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01054 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01054 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=
The testing effect—more learning by testing as compared to restudying—is a well-established finding. A typical testing procedure in the context of meaningful learning comprises a recall task after an initial study phase. Different theories refer to different mechanisms when explaining the positive effects of such recall tasks. In the context of learning from expository texts, we tested three mechanisms as suggested by a variety of prominent approaches: the elaborative-retrieval theory, the theory of transfer-appropriate processing, and the unspecific-goal perspective. We experimentally varied the type of testing task (short-answer task vs. free-recall task, both compared to a restudy task) in a within-subject design (