Very Long-Term Memory for Information Taught in School

Abstract

Students who completed a Child Development course (N = 1168) from 3 to 16 years prior to retention testing were tested for recognition and recall of facts and application of mental skills. Students who subsequently served as course tutors were also tested for retention. Fact retention was superior to application retention and retention for both question types declined rapidly from year 3 to year 7 after which it stabilized. Recognition items were superior to recall items for high achieving students only. Tutors retained more than non-tutors for eight years after which there were no differences. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.