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Psychological Science 2016

Relearn Faster and Retain Longer

Stéphanie Mazza1,2; Émilie Gerbier3,4,5; Marie‐Paule Gustin1,6,7,8,9; Zumrut Kasikci1,2; Olivier Koenig1,2; Thomas C. Toppino10; Michel Magnin1,3,7,11

1 Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 · 2 Laboratoire d’Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs · 3 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · 4 Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique et Technique (CNRST) · 5 Bases, Corpus, Langage · 6 École Normale Supérieure de Lyon · 7 Inserm · 8 Institut des Sciences Biologiques · 9 Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie · 10 Villanova University · 11 Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon

Abstract

Both repeated practice and sleep improve long-term retention of information. The assumed common mechanism underlying these effects is memory reactivation, either on-line and effortful or off-line and effortless. In the study reported here, we investigated whether sleep-dependent memory consolidation could help to save practice time during relearning. During two sessions occurring 12 hr apart, 40 participants practiced foreign vocabulary until they reached a perfect level of performance. Half of them learned in the morning and relearned in the evening of a single day. The other half learned in the evening of one day, slept, and then relearned in the morning of the next day. Their retention was assessed 1 week later and 6 months later. We found that interleaving sleep between learning sessions not only reduced the amount of practice needed by half but also ensured much better long-term retention. Sleeping after learning is definitely a good strategy, but sleeping between two learning sessions is a better strategy.

DOI
10.1177/0956797616659930
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