Difference between spacing and testing effect: an eye tracking study

• Grant number: 20/01671-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2020
• End date: October 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Dario Cecilio Fernandes
• Grantee: Francisco Carlos Specian Junior
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (FCM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 18/15642-1 - Investigating the impact of assessment strategies on medical students' learning, AP.JP

Abstract

Retaining medical skills is essential for an adequate professional practice. Understanding the underline cognitive process of skill acquisition may help us build a basis for a good education in which professionals who are graduates are able to integrate multiple skills, something essential for patient care. There are two teaching strategies that have shown to improve skill retention, the testing and spacing effects. Spacing refers to the information that is better retained when it is repeated in a distributed way, instead of being presented in a single time. Testing effect refers to the retention advantage of tested material over additional restudy. Thus, the objective of this project is to investigate the cognitive difference in knowledge retention in relation to the effect of spacing and testing using eye tracking. A randomized experiment will be carried out consisting of two groups of 25 students each. The first session will be the same for both groups, with the students studying the material and later being evaluated. After 11 days, one group will re-study the material and the other group will be tested again. After 35 days after the last session, students will answer the same knowledge test and a transfer test with different questions about the same content. The eye tracker will be used when one group is studying and another is being tested. In this experiment, the data will be analyzed using Student's t-test to compare the two different groups both for retention and for eye tracking measurements. (AU)