Long-Term Maintenance of Knowledge HARRY P. BAHRICK Historical Background ‘The retention of knowledge was a neglected domain of memory research before the 1970s Dbocause memory scholars remained commit ‘ed to an experimental paradigm that could not accommodate the long poriods invoved i. ‘the aoguisition and maintonance of know!- ‘edge. Semb and Ellis (1994) reviewed eazlier scholarship dealing with the retention of Knowledge acquired in schools; however, these investigations had litle impact boceuse thoy were widely scattered, they covered rele- tively short retention intervals, and they lacked essential controls. Memory research fo- ‘cused on the retention of episodic content ‘over short timo poriods. As a rosult, memory scholarship could not address the needs of od- ‘ucators, whose memory-related concems per tain to tho maintenance of knowledge, not to memory for events (Kintsch, 1974). Neisser (2978) doscribed this neglect as “scandalous.” “The zeitgeist of the 1960s demanded that scientific scholarship become more respon- sive to the solution of sociotal problems, and memory scholars responded to this demand by adopting more eclectic methods. Mainte- natice of knowledge became a viable domain of resoarch when computor technology facili- tated naturalistic investigations thet combino largo sample sizes and multiple regresston analyses to compensate for the loss of exper ‘mentel controls. As recently as 1980 tho use of naturalistic methods in memory research was evaluated nogatively (Banal. & Crowder, 1989), but memory scholars now ganerally see exporimental and naturelistic methods as complementary—that is, naturalistic strate- gies supplement experimental mothods (Bah- Hk, 1989; Bruce, 1991; Klstrky, 1901; Nels- ser, 1001; Tulving, 1993). Contral remains the hallmark of sclentific investigations, and @x- periments therefore continue to bo tho pro- ferrod method. However, it is now generally agreed that important questions about memory should not be ignored just beceuse they are tot amenable to laboratory exploration. In- stoad, they should be investigated under the ‘best available conditions of control. This prag- matic view has apened now domains oft retical and applied inquiry, including research concerned with eyewitness testimony and var- {ous espects of autobiographical memory con- fent. As a consequences, momory scholarship hhas now become Felovant to « broad rango of proviously noslacted concoms of educators, Hstosians, jurists, and psychotherapist. ‘Adopting an etlectic mothodalogy not only ‘made memory research more responsive to the anoods of society but also challenged the devel- opment of memory theory. Theories of mem- ‘ory now must accommodate a wide range of 347348 phonomene and findings that emerged from {Investigations of semantic. and autobiograp! cal memory content, such as the distribution of autobiographical momories across the life span, systematic distortions of autobiographi- cal memory content, and the pormanence of uunrehearsed knowledge. The task of develop- ing theories that can accommodate such wide range of phenomena is formidablo, and comprehensive memory theories will re- emerge only after the current theories de- signed to accommodate the findings of spe- cific subdomains can be integrated. ‘The review of the research related to main- tenance of knowledge is organized on the ba- sis of the following categories of variables: (1) conditions of training and acquisition; (2) re- hhearsel conditions—that is, interventions oc- curring after the acquisition period; (8) indi- vidual differences; and (8) variables associated with the type of memory content. The meth ‘odological and theoretical issues are discussed ‘#8 they ariso in connection with individual in- vestigations. The review focuses om research using retention intervals of soveral years. In- vestigations of shorter duration are discussed when their results axe neoassazy to clarify a significant issue, Conditions of Training and Acquisition ‘The results of memory experiments often con- fiom what common senso would predict, The life span of memory content depends upon how well the content was originslly learned, Tae beneficial effect of “overlearning” on retention was among the earliest findings 10- ported from laboratory investigations of mem- ory (bbinghaus, 1685). The early investiga- tions examined’ relatively short retention intervals, reflecting the aforementioned con- straints ofthe experimental paradigm, The life span of knowledgo systems can extend over many years, and cross-sectional, naturalistic comparisons are needed to establish relovant funetional relations. Bahrick, Bebrick, and ‘Witlinger (1975) described such reletions in a study of 50 years of memory for the namos and 1008 of high school classmates. The investiga- tion showed that 35 years after graduating ‘rom high school, the participants were able to recognize 90% of the portrails of their class- ‘ates. Recognition of the names of classmates was nearly equally good, end performance was langely independent ofthe size of graduat- [MEMORY IN LIFE ing classes. The moan class size was 204 grad ates, Figure 22.1 shows a finding from a leter in- vestigation (Bahrick, 1984a) of the mainte- nance of knowledge’ of the Spanish language acquired in U.S. high schools and colleges. ‘The figure shows projected retention func- tions for the recall of Spanish-English and English-Spanish vocabulary. The functions show that for individuals trained to level five (cquivalont to five college courses of Spanish), approximately 50% of their original recall vo- cabulary is projected to bo retained 25 years after their training terminates. Tho projected performance is statistically adjusted to reflect no rehearsals of the language during the reton- tion interval. In contrast, individuals trained to level one (a single semester of college Span- ish) ate projected to havo lost all of their initial rocell vocabulary within 3 to 5 years, Comparisons based upon tests of seading com- prehension and other aapects of language rec- ognition also yiold large differences in the same direction, although thoy show somewhat better long-term retention for individuals with lower levels of original training. Analogous findings are obtained whon the level of origi nal training is defined on the besis of the etter grade received in the course, Students trained to a lovel of three courses end who eared a grado of A will maintain reading comprehen- sion scores that aro substantially higher than students who earnod a grado of C. Tho differ- ‘ence remains stable for 50 years, ‘These naturalistic investigations, and se eral others (Bahrick, 1983; Babrick & Hall, 1991; Babrick, Hall, Goggin, Babrick, & Ber ger, 1994), make use of a common method, A large number of individuals (usually between 500 and 1,000) participete, and they have ac- quired the same typo of knowledge at various {intervals ranging from a few days to 50 years pxlor to boing tested. Reliable indicents must bbe available to estimato (1) thoir original level ‘of knowledge; (2) the length of the retention interval; (3) the amount and type of rahoareal of the knowledge during the retention inter- val; and (4) the amount of knowledge at tho time of testing by the investigator. In the study of retention of Spanish, the estimate of the de- ‘gree of original knowledge was based upon ‘the number of courses taken and the grades re- ceived. The retention interval was the elapsed time between completion of the last course and the administration of the rotention test ‘The amount of rehearsal was estimated from ‘answers to a questionnaire in which partici-LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF KNOWLEDGE 349 'SPANISH-ENGLISH RECALL TEST SCORE © LeveL oF TaAMne § 3 Level oF TAMING 3 1G LEVEL OF TRAM 1 ENGLISH-SPANISH RECALL TEST SCORE EE Ef LOG(TIME+!) IN YEARS Figure 22.1 Projected recall scores on Spanish-English and English- ‘Spanish Vocabulary tosts as a function of the level of original train- ‘ng (ator Bahriok, 19844). pants indicated tho frequency and recency of various types of uses of the Spanish language. ‘The data bank is entered into a computer and analyzed by hierarchical multiple regres- ‘sion. The criterion variable is performance on ‘the languago rotontion test, and tho predictor vvasiables aro indicants of original knowledge, of rehearsals, and of the length of the retention interval. Higher order terms for all of these variables, and the interactions among the veri ables, are also used as predictors. The mul ple regression equation is evaluated for suc- Cessive increments of the retention interval, using various levels of the predictor variable of interest and holding other predictor vari- ables constant at a desirod level. Figure 22.1, illustrates rotontion functions projected in this ‘manner. Tho magnitude of the multiple cor- relation indicates how well these functions represent actual retention performance. The investigation of the retention of Spanish lan- guage yielded conelations from .67 to .77 for predicting retention on various subtests of Spanish. A comparable investigation of rmain- tenance of knowledge of high achool algebra (Bobrick & Hall, 19918) over a 50-year period yyiolded a comolation of .80. The relisbility of these comolations is very high, since they are based upon a large number of participants. Considering the many possitile sources of er zor in naturelistic investigations, tho high va- lidity of predicting performance on a reteation test was unexpected. It may be attributed to the relatively high reliability of the retention test and of the indicants of the degree of origi- nl learning used in these investigations, In contrast, singlo‘trial indicants of recall cr rec- cognition commonly used as the dopondent ‘variable in laboratory experiments of learning and momory have much lower reliabilities ‘that limit the validity of predicting retention Gabrick, 1977),‘An alternative treatment of the data in cross-sectional investigations involves statisti cal adjustments of the maan retontion scores obtained by subgroups of participants tested at various retention intervals (Bahrick, Bah- rick, & Wittlingor, 1975). Because these sub- groups may differ in regard to the avorago Jovol of original taining, rehearsals, and so on, their rotention performance is adjusted on. the basis of the multiple regression analysis so. as to reflect tho ovorall mean level of the un. controlled variables. Figure 22,2 shows reten- tion data for Spanish language treated in this way (Bahrick, 1984a). The disadvantage of this ‘method is that it fails to revoal important find ings—for example, the influence of the degree of original training on the level at which reten- ton stabilizes. This influence is apparent in figure 22.1, where it can he seen that projected performance of individuals with different do- tees of truining stabilizes at different levels. ‘The influence is not apparent in figure 22.2, whero the retention functions stabilize at a level that reflects tho overall mean level of original training that happens to, characterize the group of participants. Tho significance of the phenomenon of stabilized long-term roton- ton is elaborated below. PERCENT OF ORIGINAL SCORE of participants tested at 350, MEMORY IN LIFE ‘The spaced practice offect is another find- Jng of laboratory memory rogoarch that is greatly enhanced in investigetions of mainte- nance of knowledge. The conclusion that @ given amount of practice yiolds better reten tion if training sessions aro spaced over a longer time-period is one of the oldest and bbost-documented findings of memory research (Bruce & Bahtick, 1992; Dempster, 1990; Ebb- Anghaus, 1885; Clenborg, 1992). The large ef fects shown in figure 22.1 actually roflect the combined influence of the amount of training and the spacing of training. Individuals who lake several courses in Spanish gonerally do not tke them at the samo time, Rather, they az likely to take one Spanish course por se- roster, s0 that those who have taken five ‘courses wil also have spaced thelr acquisition of Spitish over five semesters. Bocause the amount and the spacing of acquisiti confounded in all of the investigetions that have been cited, their data do not permit soxt- ing out tho respective contributions of these two variables to the long-term retention of Knowledge. ‘An independent assossment is possible, however, on the basis of longitudinal inves: tigations’ designed for this puspose. In ono weece 5 £ LOG (TIME +1) IN YEARS Figure 22.2 Retention on Spanish language subtests by nine groups various retention intervals; adjustod to ‘equate the level of training (after Bahrick, 1984).LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF KNOWLEDGE 351 ‘such study (Bahrick, 1979), colloge students Jeaed and relearned 50 English-Spanish ‘word pairs in successive training sessions, speced either at intervals of a few seconds, 1 day, or 30 days. Cumulative leaning was somewhat fester with shorter intersession in- tervals, but retention between training 205- sions was nearly perfect aftor soven retraining sessions, even with a 30-day intersession in- terval. When a 30-day interval was introduced for tho frst time, it yielded substantial forget- ting for subjects trained with shorter interses- sion intervals. That same 30-day interval yielded improved performance for individuals ‘who were trained with that interval all along. Figure 22.3 shows the crossover effect ob- tained when the 30-day intorva is introduced aftor six practice sessions. In « follow-up re tontion test administarod oight years later (Ba hick & Phelps, 1987), students who wore trained with the 30-day intorval still recalled 15% of the original word pairs, thoso trainod with a 1-day interval recalled 6%, and those trained with the shortest interval recalled 6%, ‘The effectiveness of practice sessions spaced at unusually long intervals was dem- onstrated by Bahick, Babrick, Bahrick, and Bahrick (1998). Four individuals learned and releamed 900 English-foroign lmguage word pairs and were tested for retention over a 5- ‘year period. The training program varied both ‘the number of relearning sessions (13 or 26) and the interval between sessions (14, 28, or 56 days), This design allowed an evaluation of how retention is affected by a given number of training sessions spaced at the three intervals, or the effect of additional training sessions spaced at the same interval. The results showed that both the mumber of treining ses- sions and the spacing of traning sessions have largo, independent effects on long-term reton tion. Figure 22.4 shows that the large effect of the interval between sessions is maintained vor the 5-yoar rotontion period. Current theories of the spacing effect wore developed to account for findings obtained with relatively short spacing intervals. These theories are not easily applied to the very long SS 7 7 aa i i. ‘ 5 “ f . s 7 = 6 ‘rating Seasons Figure 22.3 Moan percent of correct recall of Spanish words on first test trials as a function of the intersession interval (after Bahrick, 1979). tiene nts sesamiae352 14 Day Interval £28 Day Interval ‘56 Day Interval Percent Words Recalled Figure 22.4 Retention of foreign language vo- cabulay a function ofthe spacing between releaming cossions during acquisition (after Babrick, Babich, Bahrick, and Babric, 1993). intervals usod in investigations of mainte- nance of knowledge. Theories of enooding variability (eg., Glenberg, 1979; Madigan, 41969; Melton, 1970) stipulate that wider tem: oral spacing between successive presenta of the same targot items increases the likelihood that learners will encounter @ new and different encoding context at each succes- sive presontation. Tho greater variability of cues present during encoding is assumed to yield a higher probability of recall in a variety ‘of retrieval contoxts, This explanation is plaur sible when the intervals between successive presentations range from a few eeconds to sev. eral minutes. It is much loss plausible as an explanation of the effect obtained in compar- ing a presentation interval of 28 days with one Of 56 days beceuse there is no plausible basis for assuming that the retrieval context hes changed more during 56 than during 28 days. Diminished processing theories of the spac ing effect (og., Brogman, 1967; Cuddy & Ja- coby, 1982; Greeno, 1970) hold that learners dovote less) processing time and attention to . Tepected presentations of tho“samo content ‘when repetitions of content follow at short in- tervals versus longer intervals, and that the di- minished processing yields poorer encoding and ultimately poorer retention, Again, thi assumption is plausible when intervals be- tween successive presontations are zelatively short (ag., seconds or minutes), whereas dif- forentiel effects for intervals of 28 versus 56 MEMORY IN LIFE days are not easily accounted for on the basis. of this rationale. The large and long-lesting spacing offacts observed in investigations of the maintenan of knowledge are better accounted far on the basis of augmented opportunities for selecting effective encoding strategies during acquisi son or instene' individual tine lnm 50 English-Spanish word pairs with 1-day in tersession intervals connot find out whether ‘their encoding stratogios for a particular word pair aro offective in maintaining access for Jonger than 1 day until they encounter a 30- day interval for the first time. Accordingly, as can be seen in figure 22.3, tholr performance declines at that time, because some of their strategies tum out to be inadequate for long- term retention. In contrast, individuals trained ‘with a 30-day interval receive this feedback on the first trial of each retraining session, and therefore have the opportunity to modify or replace strategies that failod. After the soventh session their performance Ls nearly porfect— that is, almost all tholr strategies work for this interval (Bahrick & Phelps, 1987). Those who were trained for seven sessions with a 1-day interval also show perfect performance after seven sessions, but their performance declines sharply whon a 30-day interval is introduced for the first timo. By extending this principle, it is reasonable to assume that stratogios so- lected on the basis oftheir effectivenoss for in- tervals of 30 days will bo more succoseful than strategies selected on tho basis of their effoo- tiveness for 1 day, when a retention interval of several years is usod 2s the criterion test, st us consider again the phenomenoa of stabilized retention functions cbserved in fig- ure 22.1. The original purpose of that investi- gation (Behrick, 1964a) was to determine the Kind and amounts of rehearsal activitios dur- ing the retention interval that would suffice to maintain the level of Spanish vocabulary, reading comprehension, and other skills ac- quired at the end of training, It turned out that the overwhelming majority of participants re- ported little or no rehearsal, and an intercorre- lation matrix of rehearsal activities and perfor- ‘mance on the retention test showed that the effects of those rehearsal levols on retention ‘were negligible. The regrossion equation was then adjusted to remove these minor effects from the projected rotention functions by set- ‘ting tho level of all rohearsal variables to zero, so that the functions in figure 22.1 show only the projected effects of varying levels of origi nal learning, The important finding is that theLONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF KNOWLEDGE 353. decline of performance comes to @ halt within 8 to 6 years after training, and performance then remains stable for approximately 25 years. Further, when the stabilized perfor. mance level is expressed as a portion of the score obtained at the end of training, this pro- portion largely reflects the original training lovel. To wit, retention of Spanish-English re- call vocsbulary stabilizes at a level of 0%. 20%, and 63% of the original score for those who were trained to level ono, three, or five, respectively. These percentages are certain t© be affected by the difficulty level of the test and other variables; however, they underline the strong inffuence of the level of original training on what we-have called the perma- store content, the contont destined to survive for 25 yoars or longer in the absonco of ro hhearsal activities. ‘Thus, the widely spaced, extended train yields content that withstands the normal pro- ess of forgetting. Although the influence of extended training and spaced practice was demonstrated many years ago in laboratory ex- periments, the cross-sectional, naturalistic in- ‘vestigations of the maintenance of knowledge document substantial enhancoment of these offects, as well as tho evidence that thelr inter actions can yield semipermenent knowledge. ‘On @ theoretical level, the data also permit an inference about the process by which mem- ‘ory content acquires permastore longevity. ‘One may transform the projected retention functions shown in figure 22.1 into frequency distributions of the life span of individual word pairs in the participant's English-Span- ish lexicon (Bahrick, 1984). The transfosma- tion makes it apparent thet @ portion of the typical lexicon has @ life spen of 0 to 5 years, another portion has a life span of more then 30 years, and none of the lexicon has a life span between 5 and 30 years, If we assume that the prospective life span of English-Span- sh word pairs increases during extended ‘raining, it follows that the increases may be gradual as life spans extend from 0 to 5 yoars. However, the transition must be discroto when life spans extend from 5 years to over 30 yoars; cthorwvise, some portions ofthe lexicon would hhave life spans of 10, 15, 20, or 25 yours. It ‘would appear that ate certain point during ex- tended taining, esocitoneeequte pormast ore longevity. Stabilized, long-term retention functions hhave now been documented in several other investigations of the retention of knowl and skill. Conway, Coben, and Stanhope (1991) report no decline after the third year in tests of the retention of course content in cog- nitive psychology. Schmidt, Peeck, Peas, and ‘van Broukelen {in press) tested reiention of streets leamed incidentally by students of a Dutch elementary school. They found that ro- call was steble for over forty years, following an initial decline, Healy et al. (1992) report nearly perfect long-term retention in « variety of overleamed tasks and skills, as do Fleish- man and Parker (1962) in a simulated flying task, Rubin (1977) for complex text (eg. the 23rd Psalm), and Noice and Noice (1997) for the long-term retention by actors of theatrical roles. ‘A significant difference betweon the stabi lized functions found by Bahrick (1984a) and Conway, Cohen, and Stanhope (1901), but not by Babrick et al. (1978), Bahrick and Hall (29918), Hoaly ot al. (1992), or Fleishman and Parker (1962), pertains to losses of retention sustained during the first 5 to 5 years of the retention interval, No such losses aro observed in the latter investigations; rather, thoy repart that retention remains nearly perfect from the outset. Whether or not easly rotontion losses are ‘obtained depends upon whethar 2 portion of ‘tho memory content was added late during the oquisition period, so that it could not receive the amount or the distribution of practice re- quired to attain permastore stability. This ost recently acquired content is subject to “normal” forgetting, during the first 3 to 5 ‘years, and only after access to thet content has ‘been lost does the retention function stabilize. in the investigations by Bobrick and Hell (29912) and Bahrick ot al. (1975), all of the ‘memory content was subject to’ extended, spaced acquisition, and subsequently none of the content was lost during the early part of the retention period. It should be @ high priority for educators and trainers to explore and implement condi- tions of acquisition that promote permastore stability of content, So far, this has not oc- curred. Bjork and his associates (Christina & Bjork, 1991; Chodsinn, Bjork, & Benjarain, 1997) have emphasized that the conditions employed in training programs frequently hhave adverso effects on the long-term reten~ tion of knowledge and skills. This occurs be- ‘cause training conditions are often arranged so as to enhance performance during acquisition, and the conditions that benefit rapid acquisi= tion may be detsimeatal to Tong-term mainte- nance and retention. Results of two invostiga-356 tions cited earlier (Babrick & Phelps, 1987; Bahrick et al., 1993) confirm this claim. Pax: formance during training is degraded—that is, acquisition of knowledge is slowed down ‘when training sessions are spaced at long in- tervals. This happons bocause more forgetting ‘occurs during long intervals between training sessions, and the loss requires some addi: tional relearning time at tho outset of each ses- sion. The results show, however, that long- term retention is greatly enhanced, ‘The spacing effect is only one of several conditions discussed by Bjork and his associ- ates in this context. Other conditions that impair performance during acquisition, but support longterm maintenance, are reduced frequency of feedback to trainees (Schunid, 1991) and variable practice—that is, experi ence with several versions of a task or materi als during practice, as opposed to constant practice with only one version of a tesk, The effect of these conditions is also discussed in ‘en important reviow of the literature by Healy and Sinclair (1996). Tests that roquire retriev- als are potent learning events ifthe retrieval is successful (Izanra, 1970). Rather then being Joft in the same state it was in prior to being recalled, the retrievod information becomes more recallable in the futuro than it would have been without having bean accessed Giork, 1988), ‘Making training too quick and easy has the additional disadvantage of giving trainees an ‘unrealistically inflated metacogaitive self-as- sessment of present knowledge end of the likelihood of long-term retention. Bjork (1996) and Jacoby, Bjork, and Kelley (1994) point out that Tearner’s metacognitive assessment of mastery may determine whethor trainees will, ‘ongage in additional practice or maintenance ‘reining. Overestimations of competence can hhave disastrous consequences in particular ‘work environments—for example, aintrafflc control, police or military operations, or nu- clear power plants (Bjork, 1994). Christina and Bjork (1991) concluded that “The effective- ness ofa training program should be measured not by the spood of acquisition of a task during training or by tho level of performance reached at the end of training, but, rather, by the learaer’s performance in the post-training tasks and real-world settings that are the targot of training” (p. 47) Im their review of the recent literature, Healy and Sinclair (1996) offer guidelines con: ccerning the conditions of training and instruc- tion designed to improve long-term retention [MEMORY IN LIFE of knowledge and skills. In addition to the fac tors already discussod, they recommend the use of reinstatable procedures and of condi ‘tions that promote automaticity during leaming. The Effects of Rehearsal Conditions It is not always possible to mako a cloar dis- tinction between acquisition or training on the one hand and rehearsals or maintenance inter ventions on the other. Acquisition continues as long as new content is added to a knowl edge domain; but aoguisition sessions may also be limited to continued training with pro- viously presonted content, with the goal of ima- proving. performance (Healy, Fondrich, & Proctor, 1990). Typically, rohoersel interven: tions do not inckude new, additional content; their goal is not to improve performance, but rather to maintain it Also, intervals betwaen, raintenance interventions sre usually louger than intervals between acquisition sessions, In practice, however, in the case of high-level Iusical or athlotic skills and the like, it may bo difficult to distinguish categorically be- toween acquisition and maintonance sessions The following stratogios have boon used to find rehearsal conditions thet economically maintain levels of knowledge or ski (2) sta tistical estimetes of rehearsal that maintain knowledge; (2) experimental. investigations comparing the effects of various types or schedules of maintenance interventions; and (6) invectigations of the msintenance of access to marginal knovrledge. Statistical Estimates of Rehearsal that ‘Maintain Knowledge ‘This strategy is illustrated: with data from a naturalistic investigation (Behrick, 1983) in which 851 students and alumni of university took @ test of their memory for the names and locations of stroots end buildings in the city where the university is located. The alumni, who had graduated from 1 to 50 years prior to taking the test, also filled out a questionnaire in which they indicated the frequency, dura- tion, and recency of visits to the city daring the retention period. The data obtained from the questionnaire were the source of indicants of rehearsal activities.LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF KNOWLEDGE 355 Multiple regression equations prodicted each aspect of performance on the retention ‘est as a function of the time since graduation and of the various rehearsal activities. Those ‘equations were then reevaluated so as to de- termine the level of rehearsal activities neces- sary to maintain the mean score on the reten- tion test obtained by graduating seniors. The evaluations were made for one rehearsal vari- able at a timo, using arbitrarily fixed levels of othor rohoarsel variablos. Fer example, a fixed Jovel of 2 days was sot for tho duration of each visit, with the most recent visit set at 2 months earlier, and the regression equation was evalu ated to determine the number of annual visits needed to maintain the tost score attained at graduation, Table 22.1 gives the resulting sta- tistical estimates of the mumber of visits per ~ year needed to maintain zecall of the strest so- ‘quence at tho graduation level, assuming vari- ‘ous values for the duration of visits and for the most recent visit. The validity of this technique depends ‘upon observing a number of constraints, and ‘upon the tenability of assumptions. The most important constraints preclude extrapolating from the available data. The values in all of the cells of tablo 22.1 must correspond to the data obtained from some of the participants, For example, ifno participants averaged mare than 8 visite par year, then the estimates of all cells with valuos of more than 8 visits por your lack Validity. interpolations of data are loss problematic than extrapolations; for instance, If some participants visited 6 times per yaat ‘and others visited times per year, cells that estimate a required § smnual visits have rea- sonable credibility. ‘An obvious constraint refers to the evalua tion of hypotheses about the effects of re- ‘Teblo 22.1 Number of visits per yoar needed to maintain recall of stroet soquonce at the graduation level (after Bahrick, 1979). Most Rocont ‘Visit, Duration of Bach Visit (Days) (Months) 1 2 8 4 5 0 1158 7.55 5.60 4.45 3.70 50 1172 764 5.87 451 3.74 1001182 7.71 5:72 455 3.77 180 1190 7.76 5.76 458 3.80 2.00 14.96 7.80 5.79 4.60 3.82 hhsarsal variables that aro not represented in tho data. For examplo, it is nat possible to evaluate whether evenly opeced vis varus visits spaced at an expanding timo schedulo ‘yield superior maintenance of knowledge, un- Jess significant numberof participants report cach of the two types of rehearsal schedales. ‘An important assumption ofthis technique is the homogeneity of regression across the re- tention interval. This assumes that the infhu- cece of rehearsal variables on retention test porformence dooa not systematically change ‘with time. To test this assumption, partie pants wore assigned to one of nine groups ‘secording to the timo elapsed sinco their grad- uation, and soparate multiple regression equa- tions were obtained for each group. Overall e- gression weights were used only after it was termined that the regression weights ob- tained for the various groups did not differ systematically. Experimental Evidence Pertaining to Rehearsal Schedules Bjork (1988) discusses the inffuence of 1e- trieval practice on the maintenance of know!- ‘edge. He points out that, in contrast to a com puter, the state of information in human memory is altered by the act of retrieval, and that the key to maintaining access to know!- edge in memory isto retrieve that information periodically. (it has already boon pointed out that certain conditions of acquisition will yield exceptions to this rule—i.o., conditions that yield permastore content, assuring somi- permianent retrievability in the absence of fur- ther rehearsals.) Given that the maintenance of most mem- ory content requires periodic retrieval, ques tions arise in rogard to the optimum spacing of retriovals. Several considerations guided Landauer and Bjork (1978) in exploring these ‘questions: (1) the spacing effect suggests that, other things being equal, rotrioval rehearsals should be spaced as far apart as possible; (2) rehearsals are only effoctive if they involve successful retrieval, and therefore they need to cocur before retrieval fails; and (8) successful retrievals facilitate future retrievals, and a cu- rulative effect may permit longer intervals Extween successive resievals without risking retrieval failures. On this basis Landauer and Bjork hypothe- sized that retrievals should be spaced as far apart as possible without retrieval failures,356 and thet cumulative retrieval effects would Perit implenionting this prineiplo on the ba- sis of en expanding retrieval schedule. The of foctiveness of an expending retrieval schedule hhad boon demonstrated earlier by Spitzer (2939), who showed that such a schedule be- {woun successive tests was successful in mate taining academic memory content. Landauer and Bjork (1978) systematically vatied retrieval schedules in a name-learning task and compared the effects of uniform, contracting, and expanding tohearsal sched: ules on a delayed (30-minute) retention test. They found, in accord with their hypathess, hat tho expanding retrieval schedule yielded ‘optimum retention. Their findings were con- Bemed by Rea and Modigliani (1905, 1968), who tested the expanding schedule with class: oom materials Although the available experimental data ae based on time-compressed, longitudinal gations, there is 10 reason to question tho goneral epplicability of an expanding re- teieval principle to the long-term maintenance of knowlodgo. What tho time-compressed ex- periments cannot tll us isthe order of magat- tude of expanding rotrioval intervals that are appropriate for maintaining access to knowl edge over much longer periods, In addition, the previously reported findings suggest the intriguing possbility that expanding retrieval schedules ‘may ultimately yield. permastore stability of access. ‘Maintenance of Access to Marginal Knowledge A portion of semipermanent memory content is dependably available on tests of recogni- tion, but is recalled unseliably, Success and failure of attempts at retrieval fluctuate, do- ponding upon the momentary retrieval con- text. This memory content has been labeled ‘marginal (Behrick & Hall, 1991b), and itis evi- dent that a large portion of semantic memory Content is marginal. For example, the number of words we can relisbly recall in any lan- guage is only a portion of the much larger lexi- on available to comprebension and under- stood on a recognition level. ‘The cross-sectional investigation of mom- ory for Spanish language (Bahrick, 19848) showed that recall of unrehearsed vocabulary stabilizes 3 to 6 yoars after the acquisition pe. tiod ends. It therefore seemed paradaxioel that MEMORY IN LIFE ropeated testing of participants who had ter- inated acquisition many years ago showed a substantial numbor of fluctuations of recall on successive tests for the same words. ‘he con- flict between the longitudinal and cross-sec- tional findings is resolved if the fluctuations are symmetrical—that is, if the number of tar get items not recalled in test 1, but recalled in fest 2 equals the number of items recalled in test 1, but not recalled in test 2, s0 that the overall performance lovel on successive tests is stable. Ln actual fact, however, fluctuations are not symmotrical; rather, the mimber of upyrard fluctuations eubstantialiy exceeds the umber of downward fluctuations (Bahrick & Hall, 1991b; Hermann, Buschko, & Gall, 1987). This observation leads to the conclusion ‘hat the asymmetry of fluctuations on succes- sive tists of a stable memory content reflects hypermnnesia induced by the retrieval practice effect of testing, Absent any retrieval intorven- tions, the upward and downward fluctuations of accessibility must be symmetrical for an overall stable performance level, and the ob- served asymmotry of fluctuations must be due to retrieval practice of marginal targot items ‘The timely retrieval has the effect of prevent- fing, for a time, downward fluctustions thet otherwise would have occurred as the re- trieval context changes. Bahrick and Hall la- beled this « preventive maintenance effect, and reasoned that one could infer the magni tude and the duration of this effect by observ- Ing how long an interval between successive tests would be required to reestablish symme- ‘uy of upward and downvrard fluctuations ‘The Babrick and Hall findings confirmed that the degree of asymmetry of fluctuations diminishes as the intarval between repeated tests is prolonged; however, the rate of dimi- ution is astonishingly slow. ‘Table 22.2 shows the total number of up and down fuo- tuations for thres types of memory content ro- tested aftor 2 hours and after 1 month. Pooled for three knowledge domains (foreign la guage vocabulary, gonoral knowledge quo: tious, and naming portraits of famous individ- uals), down fluctuations constituted 22% of up fluctuations for the 2-hour interval and 39% of up fluctuations for the t-month in- terval ‘The preventive maintonance effect has dis- sipated when the number of down fluctua- tions equals the number of up fluctuations. After one month, more than half of the effect (61%) persists. Thus, a single retrieval prac-LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF KNOWLEDGE 357 Table 22.2 Asymmetry of up vorsus down fluctuations and the preventive ‘maintenance effect (after Babrick and Hill, 19911 ‘Hour Intery Month Interval Mean ‘Mean Prop. of, Prop. of Observed Symmetry Up Down Down Up Down Down PIC 7% 10 12 «86 27s GEN e28 12 88. 28 24 vor 6324 2 72 8888 142 ay 2s Preventive ‘Maintenance Index 78% 1% *PIG-=Porvats famous peoples GEN = Gonaral lnowledg VOC Forign vocabulary, tice of a marginal item leamed several years earlier prevents for 1 month more than 50% of access failures that would otherwise have ‘occurred. These findings are uniquely true for stabilized marginal memory content; they would not apply to marginal contant that was acquired recently and has thorefore not yet stabilized. The findings suggest intriguing possibilities for stabilizing access to marginal memory content on the basis of parsimoni- ously scheduled retrieval practice. I we apply the principles of expanding retrieval sched- ules (Landauer & Bjork, 1978) to the domain of stabilized marginal knowledge, it is reason- able to assume that a few appropriately echod- ued retrievals might stabilize accoss to that content for many years, given that the half-life of the initial retrieval effoct exceeds 1 month. Content domains of educetion that are not fre- quently accessed (eg. foreign language vocab- ulary, mathematical content) could remain ac- cessible, and thorefore much more useful, by implomenting brief, appropriately spaced re- ‘rieval practice sessions. ‘A study by McKenna and Glondon (1985) illustrates the critical nood for implementation cof appropriately spaced rehearsal practice. ‘Theso authors investigated the retention of cardiopulmonary resuscitetion (CPR) skill over a three-year period. First ald volumtesrs who had mastered the technique of reviving individuals who had suffered a hoart attack ‘were retested on the manikin used for train- ing. The manikin records the subject's perfor- ‘mance during training and provides feedback. ‘The prodioted survival rate of the resuscitable patient dropped from 100% to 15% during the rst year of the retention interval. Individual Differences Principles of knowledge maintenance are sub- ject to individual differences, as are all aspects, of human experience. Although this topic has received relatively litle attention, several ine vestigations have explored the influence of age, gender, and traits on the maintenance of knowledge. Age Effects ‘The Babrick (19642) data confound the age of the individual with the ago of the memory trace, as is the caso for ell invostigations of ‘memory, During any retontion interval, indi- viduals age, and investigators do not sart out changes of the memory trace that are duo to the eging process from cognitive changes thet operate on the memory trace, Independent of biological aging. Although this confound theo- retically affects all invostigetions of memory, the problem is trivial when the retention inter. val is messured in minutes or hours, because thero fg littlo reason to assume that aging of tho organism significantly affects memory over such short periods. When the rotention {ntarval is 50 yoars, the problom requires seri- ‘ous consideration. Fortunately, one outcome of the Bahrick (19848) investigation answers « part of the question, During the 25-phus years of stability of permastore knowledge, there is apparently no significant effect due to aging. When no losses of content are observed, the problem of ‘apportioning losses among various causes dis- eppears. The Behrick (19840) data show de- clines in performance beginning about 35358, years after acquisition terminates and acct ‘ting during tho remaining 10 years of the 50- year retention interval. The participants who ‘were of college age during acquisition axe ap- proximately 57 yesrs old at the time a decline Of performance ‘resumes. It appears probable that this decline reflects an aging effect. This interpretation is also supported by results ‘rom the study of retention of names and faces of colloge classmates (Bahrick et al., 1975). ‘Those retention functions show declines of performance at approximately the same age. ‘However, the study of maintenanco of tae con- tent of high school algebra (Babrick & Hall, 198ta) shows no decline for the entire 50-yoar period for individuals who used the content in subsequont higher mathematics courses. It is possible thet the differential zetention fanc- tions reflect interactions of aging effects and contont variables. ‘Age was an indepondent variable in only ‘one study of maintenance of knowledge (Bak- ick, 1984b), in which collego teachers ware tested for rotontion of names and faces of their students. Three groups of teachers, whose mean ages were 39, 84, and 68 years at the time they taught the students, were tested 1,4, and 8 years later. They had taught the students ina single course with an average class size of 40. Performance level was not high immedi- ately after teaching tho course; only on a name recognition test did the participants average above the 80% corrct lava. Peformance do- clined steadily during the 8-yoar rotontion pe- riod and showed no evidence of stabilizing, The three age groups did not differ signifi- cantly in their performance on any of the re- tention tests. A similar result is reported by Cohen, Stan- ‘hope, and Conway (1992), They investigated retention of knowledge ftom an undergraduate ‘course in cognitive psychology by former stu- dents aged botween 25 and 77 at the time they took the course. Their rotention intervals ranged from 3 months to 12 years, They found no age differences in the rate of forgetting, and Soucuded thet intelligent, highly motivated eldezly people show very little deficit in the retention of formally acquired knowledge. ‘The absence of significant aging effects in these investigations does not rule out age-re- lated declines in access to knowiedge that had previously been stablo for many years, nor does it rule out ago-rolated declines in the per- formance of skills. These questions can be an- ‘swered only on the basis of an investigation in ‘which diffarent age groups acquired the samo (MEMORY IN LIFE Jnowledge or skill toa level that yielded stabi- lized retention. If subsequent declines of re- tention occur when all groups reach the same age, the decline can be ascribed to bialogtcal ‘aging, rather than aging of the memory traces. Gender Effects Gonder effects have been examined in savoral of the investigations of maintenance of know|- edge (Bahrick etal, 1975; Bahrick, 1983; Bah- rick & Hall, 1981a) and were generally found to be small, reflecting primauily motivational, ot intorest variables, rather than differential cognitive processes. Stanhope, Cohen, and Conway (1903) found no gender differences in long-term retention of the content of a novel In the study of memory for the names and fot of igh schol clasmates Sai et 1975), the average performance of fomale sub. jects was somewhat superior to the perfor mance of male subjects. However, the differ: ace reflected superior acquisition rather than superior retention, suggesting that motive- tional and interest variables may be responsi- blo. Evidence for the role of motivational vari- ables is strong in regard to the froo recall of ‘names in that investigation. Malo participants recalled nearly twice as many male names as female names. Female participants recalled more female names than male names, but the difference was much sinaller. Gender differ: fences in the retention of the map of city were small, favoring males, but the differences dis- appeared when adjustmonts were made for differential aoquisition end rehearsals (Bah- rick, 1983). Males were more likoly to have driven a car on campus and to havo made more visits during the retention interval Only the test of retention of high school al- gebra content (Bahrick & Hall, 198%) yielded ‘gender differences thal appear to reflect cogn!- tive processes unrolated to differential lovels of acquisition or reheersel. For individuals ‘who took no mathematics courses at or ebove tho level of calculus and who had received an average grade of A, no gonder differences in performance appeared to exist at the end of the lest algebra course. However, over time, the performance of women declined more than that of men. Rehearsal conditions wore controlled (set at zero) to the extent thet they were reflected by answers to a questionnaire. It is possible, of course, that differences in re- hhearsels that are not reflected in the answers to questionnaires may affect the dataLONG-TERM MAINTENANCE OF KNOWLEDGE Trait Effects Noveh-Benjamin, Lavi, McKeachie, and Lin (1997) examined the effects of test anxiety on long-term retention of knowledge. They tested rotontion ofthe content of a high school litra- ture course up to 7 years after course comple= tion, and retention of « cologe-Lovel learning torleam course for intorvale of up to 3 year® after course completion. Students who 30 ported high test’ anxiety performed mare poorly at the end of acquisition, but not after longer retention intervals. Tho authors con- chided that test amxlety intosforos with re- ‘rieval of information, but not with storage ot ‘maintenance of knowledge. Once the anxiety hhas dissipoted there is no evidence of diminu- tion ofthe retained content. Noico (1993) escriboo the superior, vesba: {um rotontion by professional actors to their learning strategies. These ovezloamed strate- nelude integrating the vorbal text with codes (Notice & Noico, 1907) and orgee ing each theatrical volo hierarchically as 8 series of subgoals based upon the intentions ofthe assigned character. Whon nonactors use these stratogios they recall only the gist of ma- toric], but fal to show officiont verbatim roten- tion, Type of Content ‘Tho offect of the type of content on mainte- nance of knowledge has been examined in a number of investigations. The results can be valuable for designing instructional programs that will yield longovity of content areas in ac cord with educational priorities. The theorati- cal interprotation of findings, however, is dif- ficult because differential rates of forgetting of various content domains reflect not only di forential retentivity of these content catego- ries, but also differing degroos of original Iearning/overleaming. These variables are in- extricably confounded not only in naturalistic investigations but also in woll-contzolled ox: poriments. Underwood (1964) showed that this limitation even precludes intorpreting dif ferential rates of forgetting of nonsense sylla- bles in memory experimonts that control the level of acquisition by terminating training ‘when a common performance criterion is reached, ‘Tho Bahrick ot al. (1975) study shows that picture recognition of classmatos is somewhat superior to name recognition 35 yoars after 359 graduation, although performance on both tasks wes approximately 90% correct at gradu: ation. It is not possible to ascribe this differ: ence to superior retentive properties of por traits, however, because the high performance lovel at graduation may conceal differential dogrees of overlearning, fevoring porteits over ramos of classmates. Similarly, the Bebrick (1080) study of maintenance of knowledge of Spanish lan- guage shows differential ratos of loss for sub- tests dealing with vocabulary, grammer, idi- toms, reading comprehension, and so on. Since there is no way of equating the level ar degree ‘of acquisition for various aspects of know!- ‘edge of the language, one cannot attribute dif ferential rates of forgetting to the inherent cheracteristice of the content. The same caveat applies to tho Conway et al. (1981, 1992) in- vestigation of long-term retontion of tho con- tent of a cognitive psychology course. Names, concepts, and terms yield differential rates of forgetting, but it is impossible to ule out dif- ferential degrees of overiearing as the cause. Naveh-Benjamin (1988) examined changes over two years in the structure of knowledge acquired in a rosoarch methods course. Tho course content was organized hierarchically, and Naveh-Benfamnin found that most memory losses occurred for relations among concepts at the lowest level of the hierarchy. There were only slight changes in the retained struc- ture after the first year, and Naveh-Benjamin concluded that this aspect of content may have stabilized early during the retention in- terval. Although findings of differential retention of contont cannot be ascribed to intrinsfe char- ‘acteristics of content becauso of the inability to equate the degree of acquisition, those find- {ings may still be of practical value to educa- tors who can adjust their emphasis during ac- quisition and rehearsals in accord with their priorities for Jong-term retention of content. From an. applied point of view, it may not ‘matter whether the findings regarding differ- ential forgetting rofloct inherent chazacteris- tics of content, or the degree of emphasis given during the couse. Tho retention deta Can be useful in plamning tho emphasis during acquisition so as to yield long-torm retention ‘that reflects the educational priorities. Concluding Comments In contrast to research on leaming, memory research has had little impact on education.360 This is uifortanate, since the valu of educe- tion depends largely upon the Ifo span of ‘what has boon leaned’ "The fat seme to bo divided between memory slots and oduct. tors. Memory scholars have focused thor search on the shorter retention of episodic Gentont, domain thet has only litle rele vance tothe concerns of educators. Educators have emphasiand tho immediate achievements of students, paying litle attention to the ef fects of thelr instruction om long tem rotn. thon of conten, Tavetigations of the maintenance of know! edge hve now yielded taformation that Is Bighly olovant to the goals of educators, Once iti established that instructional content may stabilize in memory for many yeas without tho bonofit of further rehearsal itis ncam bent on educators to promote conditions of sinsction that yield such loag-tem retention, ly appropriate revision of insructional strat egjs, cunicular modifications, and. s0 0m Now that itis established that instrationa tochniques thet favor yp looming may yield Door sstention, appropiate revisions of theao techniques should be a pionty. When fei own that spaced rehearsals can dramat cally enhance the accessibility of morginal content fr long periods of timo, appropriate rehearsal schedules for critical aspects of Sinsctfonal content should be butt into the Curiculum. One cbvious oxample is to give Cumulative rather then noneumulative nel Sourse examinations for maiataining informe. tion leamed before the midterm Tats simple technique f frequently not cbverved, The findings of knowledgermatntonance - search also have significant innplications for romory theory. Existing theories ofthe spac ing effect aro not suitable to expinin the efost whan very long intervals ae involved, but the Observed effects aze in accord with an exp baton sed on oppatniesoevate nd Tevise encoding strategie during aoqusiom. Curent memory thecries cannot ely ae count for the finding that « single rtsfoval practice of old, marginal targets can stabilize Access fo suck targets fr several months, The tothod of asymmetry of Sucuations makes Possible to examine the very long-term conse: ‘quenes of retsoval practice of argo, se. Mantle momory content, and to develop ap. proptato theory. Memory research, should How have a significant impact on education. ‘The impct car be evatuted by assossng in creasos inthe life span of kaovlodgo thet are Schioved a an acceptable cost MEMORY IN LIFE Acknowledgments Preparation of this manu script was supported by National Science Foundation Grant SBR-9119800. The author wishes to thank Tom Nelson and Cameron Hewitt for many helpful suggestions. References Batch. (2077): Rliblity of measure: ‘ment in investigations of leazaing and temny. nf Bib & Parker fs), Alcohol and human memory. Hillsdale, Nj: Erlbaum. Bahrick, HP. (1970). Maintonance of knowl- rdge: Questions about memory we foagot to ask, Journal of Experimental Psychol- ogy: General, 108, 296-308. Bahrick, H. P. (1983). Tho cognitive map of a city: 60 years of learning and memory. In G. Bower (Bd), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advanees in research and theory (Vol. 17; pp. 125-163). New York: Academic Praga Babtick, H. P. (19640). 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