Anja Berčič, Eva Esih
Full article (pdf) | 
Written in Slovene | Published: 17. september 2018
Abstract
Successful learning is dependent on a number of factors, among others the organization of the material and the awareness of whether the learned information will need to be retained for a short period only or for a longer time span. The aim of the study was to assess whether the organization of the material, the awareness of the need to retain the acquired knowledge for a longer time, and the interaction between the two affect the learning success. One hundred thirty six participants (53 men) with average age of 18.5 years participated in the study. The participants were given a set of words in an organized or unorganized list and were asked to memorize as many words as possible in 1 minute to then recall them after 15 minutes, and once again after 24 hours. Only half of the participants were informed about the second testing. The results revealed statistically significant effect of organization of the material (participants recalled more words when provided in an organized list), and the time of testing (more words were recalled at first testing) on successfulness of recall. The interaction between the organization of the material and the advance awareness of the second test was also statistically significant, reflecting that participants learning from organized material and being aware that they will be tested again the next day, correctly recalled more words both at first and second testing compared to participants who were not informed about the second testing. For the unorganized material, the effect was smaller and inverse. We can conclude that both the time passed between learning and the organization of the learning material, affects the amount of successfully recalled information. The latter interacts importantly with the awareness of the need to retain information for a longer time, which suggests that it is important to organize the material, especially when it needs to be retained for a longer period of time.
Keywords
learning, recall, the organization of material, awareness of re-use of the acquired knowledge, memory
Cite
Berčič, A. & Esih. E. (2018). Uspešnost učenja v odvisnosti od organiziranosti učnega materiala in zavedanja o ponovni uporabi naučenega znanja [Successfulness of learning depending on material organization and knowledge of future use]. Eksperimentator, 2, 15–20.
About the authors
Anja Berčič in Eva Esih — udergraduate students, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
Mentor — asist. Anka Slana, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana