Hundreds of studies carried out since have established the power of what is now known as the “spacing effect” – how people can better remember faces, words and historical facts if they spread out their study time rather than attempting one long cram session.

But most of the experiments have involved adults, said 91��ɫ psychologist Nicholas Cepeda [Faculty of Health], who has begun to study the spacing effect in Ontario classrooms. He wants to come up with simple recommendations that will help teachers capitalize on the effect to improve how much students learn and retain.

Cepeda's studies include: What kind of spacing is most effective? Should lessons and subsequent review sessions be a week apart? Or is a gap of several months better? Are cumulative tests an effective teaching tool because they cover material taught earlier in the year as well as the most recent lessons?

Cepeda is probing deeper questions as well. What is it about the brain that makes the spacing effect so powerful? What can it tell us about how memory works? Cepeda was recently awarded a $100,777 grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation to buy equipment that will allow him to measure the electrical activity in the brains of children when they learn something for the first time, compared to when they study it again several months later.

He expects that re-learning material a second or third time is the result of different, more intense brain activity. “If you have forgotten the material, the brain may think it has to pay more attention.”

Cepeda also wants to assess the value of cumulative tests, which include questions on material students learned earlier in the year and could be a valuable teaching tool.

He said it is frustrating how little research is done to translate the discoveries psychologists and neuroscientists make about memory and learning into effective teaching strategies. In the United States, the Institute of Education Sciences funds this kind of research, but there is no equivalent agency in Canada, said Cepeda, who has applied to the US institute to do more studies in Toronto classrooms.

“As psychologists, we are sometimes scared to tell teachers what to do because we may end up telling them to do something that works in the lab that doesn’t work in the real world. We really do need to be testing these things in the classroom.”

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has awarded 91��ɫ $274,689 in infrastructure funding to support the research of three 91��ɫ professors.

, professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Health and a member of the Muscle Health Research Centre, will receive $79,260 to support his research on muscle microcirculation in health and diseases. Birot’s research examines how peripheral vascular disease (PVD) affects key molecular mechanisms that regulate the formation of blood vessels in muscles. PVD is characterized by insufficient blood supply in leg muscles, leading to suffering, reduced mob ility and eventually amputation.  PVD affects more than one million Canadians and is a frequent complication for patients with obesity, Type 2 diabetes or chronic heart failure.

Right: Olivier Birot

Nicholas Cepeda, professor in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Health, will receive $100,777 to establish a developmental cognitive neuroscience laboratory for research on learning and memory, cognitive flexibility and musical training. His research has shown a 300 per cent improvement in students’ long-term recall of factual information, merely by changing the timing of when a particular curriculum item is taught and re-taught − with no increase in teaching time. The project’s musical training research will provide information about the brain functions of musicians and non-musicians, including processing speed, working memory, inhibition, attentional control and task-switching skills.

Left: Nicholas Cepeda

, professor and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator in the Department of Biology in 91��ɫ's , will receive $94,652 to support multi-faceted research in integrative neuroendocrinology and physiology. His research on the neuroendocrine regulation of growth, reproduction and body weight in fish could help aquaculture industry to improve the feeding, growth and reproduction of cultured fish. The funding also provides critical equipment for cutting-edge research on the neuroendocrine defects underlying diabetes and obesity, and may help to develop innovative pharmacological and cell-based therapies to help Canadians and others in their fight against these metabolic diseases.

Left: Suraj Unniappan

“These projects demonstrate 91��ɫ’s excellence in health and science research,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “The questions Professor Birot's and Cepeda's projects explore concerning muscle health and learning and cognition reflect the relevance and disciplinary strengths of our psychology and kinesiology researchers, while Professor Unniappan's project illustrates the industrial applications that may flow from support for basic research. We fully support the importance of the CFI’s investments in state-of-the-art infrastructure and the world-class research they enable at 91��ɫ.”

91��ɫ’s projects were part of a in 's Leaders Opportunity Fund, which provides Canadian researchers with the necessary tools to carry out a range of frontier research. The funding supports 339 leading researchers and 245 projects at 48 Canadian research institutions.

Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science & technology), made the announcement in Ottawa, Ontario on Jan. 21. “Supporting science is key to Canada’s future economic growth,” said Goodyear. “Our government's commitment to helping universities attract and retain world-leading research talent will lead to discoveries that improve Canadians' quality of life and create new jobs."

“Access to modern, cutting-edge equipment and facilities is imperative in the 21st century," said Gilles Patry, president & CEO of the CFI. “For more than a decade, the CFI has provided thousands of world-class researchers with the tools they need to do their work. Without the right infrastructure, they simply wouldn't be in Canada.”

A complete list of CFI recipients is available on the website.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of Janice Walls and Melissa Hughes

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