Dear Jean,
There is a long history in experimental psychology of the
study of massed versus distributed practice, starting
with Ebbinghaus. If one spaces ones studying across
many separate episodes, one retains more information
longer than if one crams the same amount of studying into
fewer episodes. Thus, at least, final exams allow for
distributed practice of the course material, in that students
must study the material for the relevant in-semester exam
and then again for the final. Distributed practice effects
are a strong influence on my policy to have short
quizzes distributed throughout every course.
In addition to Ebbinghaus (and many others), many
interesting and more "ecological" studies of distributed
practice were done by Bahrick with respect to retention
of school material.
-Mike
*****************************************************
Michael J. Kane
Psychology Department
Georgia State University
University Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
phone: 404-651-0704
fax: 404-651-0753
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing
is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good,
as it is not to care how you got your money as
long as you have it."
-- E.W. Teale
