Skip to main content
Short Research Article

Re-Watching Lectures as a Study Strategy and Its Effect on Mind Wandering

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000412

Abstract. Material re-exposure (e.g., re-reading) is a popular mnemonic strategy, however, its utility has been questioned. We extend research on re-reading to re-watching – an emerging mnemonic technique given the increased use of recorded lectures today (e.g., in online courses). Consistent with findings from recent investigations of re-reading, there were no benefits of massed re-watching on memory for lecture material and re-watching increased rates of mind wandering. We discuss implications for understanding the cognitive consequences of re-exposure-based mnemonics.

References

  • Amlund, J. T., Kardash, C. A. M. & Kulhavy, R. W. (1986). Repetitive reading and recall of expository text. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 49–58. https://doi.org/10.2307/747959 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Barnett, J. E. & Seefeldt, R. W. (1989). Read something once, why read it again? Repetitive reading and recall. Journal of Literacy Research, 21, 351–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/10862968909547684 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Benjamin, A. S. & Tullis, J. (2010). What makes distributed practice effective? Cognitive Psychology, 61, 228–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2010.05.004 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Bloom, K. C. & Shuell, T. J. (1981). Effects of massed and distributed practice on the learning and retention of second-language vocabulary. The Journal of Educational Research, 74, 245–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.1981.10885317 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Buxton, K., Jackson, K., De Zwart, M. J., Webster, L. & Lindsay, D. F. (2006). Recorded lectures: Looking to the future. In L. MarkauskaiteP. GoodyearP. ReimannEds., Who's learning? Whose technology? Proceedings of ASCILITE (pp. 101–104). Sydney, Australia First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Callender, A. A. & McDaniel, M. A. (2009). The limited benefits of rereading educational texts. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34, 30–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.07.001 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Carrier, L. M. (2003). College students’ choices of study strategies. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 96, 54–56. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.2003.96.1.54 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T. & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 354–380. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • D’Mello, S. K. (in press). What do we think about when we learn?. In K. MillisJ. MaglianoD. LongK. WiemerEds., Understanding deep learning, educational technologies and deep learning, and assessing deep learning. Abington, UK: Routledge/Taylor and Francis. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Farley, J., Risko, E. F. & Kingstone, A. (2013). Everyday attention and lecture retention: the effects of time, fidgeting, and mind wandering. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00619 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Feng, S., D’Mello, S. & Graesser, A. C. (2013). Mind wandering while reading easy and difficult texts. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 586–592. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-012-0367-y First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Figlio, D. N., Rush, M. & Yin, L. (2010). Is it live or is it Internet? Experimental estimates of the effects of online instruction on student learning (No. w16089). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w16089 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Forster, S. & Lavie, N. (2009). Harnessing the wandering mind: The role of perceptual load. Cognition, 111, 345–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2009.02.006 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Gorissen, P., Van Bruggen, J. & Jochems, W. (2012). Students and recorded lectures: Survey on current use and demands for higher education. Research in Learning Technology, 20, 297–311. https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0.17299 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Guo, P. J., Kim, J. & Rubin, R. (2014, March). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of mooc videos. In L@S 2014 (Ed.), Proceedings of the first ACM Conference on Learning@ Scale Conference (pp. 41–50). New York, NY: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556325.2566239 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Karpicke, J. D., Butler, A. C. & Roediger, H. L. III (2009). Metacognitive strategies in student learning: do students practise retrieval when they study on their own? Memory, 17, 471–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210802647009 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Krug, D., Davis, T. B. & Glover, J. A. (1990). Massed versus distributed repeated reading: A case of forgetting helping recall? Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 366–371. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.82.2.366 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Larkin, H. E. (2010). “But they won’t come to lectures …” The impact of audio recorded lectures on student experience and attendance. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26, 238–249. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1093 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Li, N., Kidzinski, L., Jermann, P. & Dillenbourg, P. (2015). How do in-video interactions reflect perceived video difficulty? In U. CreesC.D. Kloos (Eds.), Proceedings of the European MOOCs Stakeholder Summit 2015. Barcelona, Spain: PAU Education, 112–121. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Mannes, S. (1994). Strategic processing of text. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 577–588. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.86.4.577 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Martin, F. G. (2012). Will massive open online courses change how we teach? Communications of the ACM, 55, 26–28. https://doi.org/10.1145/2240236.2240246 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Mason, G. S., Shuman, T. R. & Cook, K. E. (2013). Comparing the effectiveness of an inverted classroom to a traditional classroom in an upper-division engineering course. IEEE Transactions on Education, 56, 430–435. https://doi.org/10.1109/TE.2013.2249066 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • McVay, J. C. & Kane, M. J. (2009). Conducting the train of thought: Working memory capacity, goal neglect, and mind wandering in an executive-control task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 35, 196–204. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014104 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Moss, J., Schunn, C. D., Schneider, W., McNamara, D. S. & Van Lehn, K. (2011). The neural correlates of strategic reading comprehension: Cognitive control and discourse comprehension. NeuroImage, 58, 675–686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.06.034 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Moss, J., Schunn, C. D., Schneider, W. & McNamara, D. S. (2013). The nature of mind wandering during reading varies with the cognitive control demands of the reading strategy. Brain Research, 1539, 48–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2013.09.047 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Mrazek, M. D., Franklin, M. S., Phillips, D. T., Baird, B. & Schooler, J. W. (2013). Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. Psychological Science, 24, 776–781. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612459659 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Ojennus, D. D. (2016). Assessment of learning gains in a flipped biochemistry classroom. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 44, 20–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.20926 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Olney, A. M., Risko, E. F., D’Mello, S. K. & Graesser, A. C. (2015). Attention in educational contexts: The role of the learning task in guiding attention. In J. FawcettE. F. RiskoA. KingstoneEds., Handbook of attention (pp. 2338–2357). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.1177/0301006617710034 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Phillips, N. E., Mills, C., D’Mello, S. & Risko, E. F. (2016). On the influence of re-reading on mind wandering. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1107109 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Pennarola, F. & Caporarello, L. (2013). Enhanced class replay: will this turn into better learning. In C. WankelP. BlessingerEds., Increasing student engagement and retention using classroom technologies: Classroom response systems and mediated discourse technologies (pp. 143–162). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Randall, J. G., Oswald, F. L. & Beier, M. E. (2014). Mind-wandering, cognition, and performance: A theory-driven meta-analysis of attention regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 1411–1431. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037428 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Rawson, K. A. (2012). Why do rereading lag effects depend on test delay? Journal of Memory and Language, 66, 870–884. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2012.03.004 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Rawson, K. A., Dunlosky, J. & Thiede, K. W. (2000). The rereading effect: Metacomprehension accuracy improves across reading trials. Memory & Cognition, 28, 1004–1010. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03209348 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Rawson, K. A. & Kintsch, W. (2005). Rereading effects depend on time of test. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 70–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.97.1.70 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Risko, E. F., Anderson, N., Sarwal, A., Engelhardt, M. & Kingstone, A. (2012). Everyday attention: Variation in mind wandering and memory in a lecture. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 26, 234–242. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1814 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Risko, E. F., Buchanan, D., Medimorec, S. & Kingstone, A. (2013). Everyday attention: Mind wandering and computer use during lectures. Computers & Education, 68, 275–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.05.001 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Roediger, H. L. & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17, 249–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Schooler, J. W. (2004). Zoning out while reading: evidence for dissociations between experience and metaconsciousness. In D. T. LevinEd., Thinking and seeing: Visual metacognition in adults and children (pp. 204–226). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Seabrook, R., Brown, G. D. & Solity, J. E. (2005). Distributed and massed practice: From laboratory to classroom. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19, 107–122. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1066 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Seli, P., Risko, E. F. & Smilek, D. (2016). On the necessity of distinguishing between unintentional and intentional mind wandering. Psychological Science, 27, 685–691. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616634068 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Seli, P., Risko, E. F., Smilek, D. & Schachter, D. L. (2016). Mind-wandering with and without intention. Trends in Cognitive Science, 20, 605–617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.05.010 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Seli, P., Wammes, J. D., Risko, E. F. & Smilek, D. (2016). On the relation between motivation and retention in educational contexts: The role of intentional and unintentional mind wandering. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23, 1280–1287. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0979-0 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Siemens, G. (2013). Massive open online courses: Innovation in education. In R. McGrealW. KinuthiaS. Marshall (Eds.), Open Educational Resources: Innovation, research and practice (pp. 5–15). Athabasca, USA: Commonwealth of Learning, Athabasca University. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D. & Simonsohn, U. (2012). A 21 word solution. Retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2160588. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2160588 First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Skylar, A. A. (2009). A comparison of asynchronous online text-based lectures and synchronous interactive web conferencing lectures. Issues in Teacher Education, 18, 69–84. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Smallwood, J. (2011). Mind‐wandering while reading: Attentional decoupling, mindless reading and the cascade model of inattention. Language and Linguistics Compass, 5, 63–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2010.00263.x First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Smallwood, J. (2013). Distinguishing how from why the mind wanders: A process-occurrence framework for self-generated mental activity. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 519–537. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030010 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Smallwood, J., Fishman, D. J. & Schooler, J. W. (2007). Counting the cost of an absent mind: Mind wandering as an underrecognized influence on educational performance. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 230–236. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194057 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Smallwood, J., McSpadden, M. & Schooler, J. W. (2007). The lights are on but no one’s home: Meta-awareness and the decoupling of attention when the mind wanders. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 527–533. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194102 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Smallwood, J. & Schooler, J. W. (2015). The science of mind wandering: empirically navigating the stream of consciousness. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 487–518. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015331 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Smallwood, J. & Schooler, J. W. (2006). The restless mind. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 946–958. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.6.946 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Soong, S. K. A., Chan, L. K., Cheers, C. & Hu, C. (2006). Impact of video recorded lectures among students. In L. MarkauskaiteP. GoodyearP. ReimannEds., Who’s learning? Whose technology? Proceedings of ASCILITE (pp. 101–104). Sydney, Australia. First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Szpunar, K. K., Khan, N. Y. & Schacter, D. L. (2013). Interpolated memory tests reduce mind wandering and improve learning of online lectures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, 6313–6317. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1221764110 First citation in articleCrossref MedlineGoogle Scholar

  • Unsworth, N., Brewer, G. A. & Spillers, G. J. (2012). Variation in cognitive failures: An individual differences investigation of everyday attention and memory failures. Journal of Memory and Language, 67, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2011.12.005 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar

  • Velegol, S. B., Zappe, S. E. & Mahoney, E. (2015). Successful flipped classes. ASEE Prism, 24, 41. Retrieved from http://www.asee-prism.org/advances-from-aee-marapr/ First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Wyman, R. (2009). Demographic transition in Europe; mortality decline. [Video Lecture]. Retrieved from http://oyc.yale.edu First citation in articleGoogle Scholar

  • Yoon, C. & Sneddon, J. (2011). Student perceptions of effective use of tablet PC recorded lectures in undergraduate mathematics courses. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 42, 425–445. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2010.543165 First citation in articleCrossrefGoogle Scholar