Self-generated retrievals while multitasking improve memory for names

We used a translational research paradigm to investigate whether distributed retrievals could benefit name learning in social situations. Undergraduates (N=64) were trained to generate distributed retrievals while they were multitasking. Students learned to generate distributed retrievals according to either an expanding or a uniform schedule. Their self-generated distributed retrievals while they were multitasking were effective in improving name recall for both retrieval schedules. The increase with self-generated retrievals while multitasking was greater (η2 =.76) than the increase that Helder and Shaughnessy ( 2008 ) found with experimenter-controlled retrievals while multitasking (η2 =.42). These findings provide evidence that the beneficial effect of distributed retrievals can extend to learning names in a social situation.