The spacing effect in older and younger adults: does context matter?

Preservation of long-term memory in older adults using a spaced learning paradigm

How much information we retain depends on type/schedule of training. It has been widely acknowledged that spaced learning is advantageous compared to massed learning for cognitively healthy young adults and should be considered an educational standard. Literature would suggest that the spacing effect is preserved with age, though it is unclear whether this effect translates to more ecologically valid concepts such as face-name associations, which are particularly susceptible to deterioration with age. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of spacing across recent/remote retention intervals, and the effect of age on spacing in cognitively healthy older adults using the Face-Name Pairs task. Experiment 1 results suggest that the beneficial memory effects of spacing are particularly observed with long-term memory. Experiment 2 results suggest that older adults are impaired at learning compared to younger adults, that the spacing effect influences both older and younger adults at longer intervals, and that spaced-trained participants display similar forgetting patterns at longer intervals, irrespective of age. These results may have some implications regarding improving the conditions under which optimum retention occurs (namely, whether spacing is beneficial when learning ecologically valid concepts at longer intervals outside of laboratory settings), and may provide insight into the effect of age on our ability to learn and remember face-name associations.

Spacing and Interleaving Effects Require Distinct Theoretical Bases: a Systematic Review Testing the Cognitive Load and Discriminative-Contrast Hypotheses

Spaced and interleaved practices have been identified as effective learning strategies which sometimes are conflated as a single strategy and at other times treated as distinct. Learning sessions in which studying information or practicing problems are spaced in time with rest-from-deliberate-learning periods between sessions generally result in better learning outcomes than massed practice without rest-from-deliberate-learning periods. Interleaved practice also consists of spaced sessions, but by interleaving topics rather than having rest-from-deliberate-learning periods. Interleaving is usually contrasted with blocking in which each learning topic is taught in a single block that provides an example of massed practice. The general finding that interleaved practice is more effective for learning than blocked practice is sometimes attributed to spacing. In the current paper, the presence of rest-from-deliberate-learning periods is used to distinguish between spaced and interleaved practice. We suggest that spaced practice is a cognitive load effect that can be explained by working memory resource depletion during cognitive effort with recovery during rest-from-deliberate-learning, while interleaved practice can be explained by the discriminative-contrast hypothesis positing that interleaving assists learners to discriminate between topic areas. A systematic review of the literature provides evidence for this suggestion.

Hippocampal and anterior cingulate cortex contribution to the processing of recently-acquired and remotely stored spatial memories in rats trained during preadolescence

Preadolescent development is characterized by a reorganization of connectivity within and between brain regions that coincides with the emergence of more complex behaviors. The hippocampus is one such region that undergoes extensive preadolescent remodeling and as this process continues, spatial memory functions emerge. The current work investigated whether preadolescent spatial memories persist beyond 24 h and stabilize into the postadolescent period as remote memories supported by cortical networks in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Male Long Evans rats were trained on the Morris water maze at different time frames from postnatal day (P) 18-26 and compared to P50 rats. Testing occurred at either a recent (24 h) or remote (3 weeks) timepoint. Spatial learning was evident in all age groups (P18, P20, P22, P24 and P50) across the 3 training days but only the P22 and P24 groups showed spatial learning that matched the P50 group. In light of this, the only group to show intact remote (3 week) memory was the P50 group. Spaced training in the P18 group did not improve retention at the recent or remote testing intervals. The P18 and P50 groups tested at 24 h showed more CA1 hippocampal c-Fos labeling than groups tested at 3 weeks. The P50 group tested at 3 weeks showed elevated c-Fos labeling in the anterior cingulate (ACC) compared to the P18 group tested at 3 weeks and the P50 group tested at 24 h. Spaced training in the P18 group was associated with elevated c-Fos labeling in the ACC at the 3-week test. Groups trained at P20, 22, and 24 showed more c-Fos labelling in the ACC than in the CA1. Results suggest that while spatial information processing emerges around P18/P20, remote spatial retention and the neural substrates that support retention are not in place until after P26 in rats.