Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Recent work suggests that optimal spacing in learningrequires adaptive procedures (Mettler, Massey & Kellman,2016). Here, we studied how adaptive techniques might befurther enhanced by combining active and passive learningmodes. Participants learned geography facts that werescheduled using the ARTS (Adaptive Reaction-Time-basedScheduling) system under four conditions involving passiveand/or active trials. Conditions included: a) Passive Onlypresentations of learning items, b) Passive Initial Blocksfollowed by active adaptive scheduling, c) Passive InitialItems followed by active adaptive scheduling for each itemintroduced, or d) Active Only learning with no passivepresentations. We found an advantage for combinations ofactive and passive presentation (by blocks or items) overPassive Only or Active Only presentation. Passive trialspresented in blocks at the beginning of learning showed bestperformance. We discuss possible explanations for thesedifferences and suggest principles underlying optimalcombinations of active and passive modes in adaptivelearning.