Exam at classroom has bidirectional effects on long-term memory for unrelated graphical task.

LOPES DA CUNHA, P; RAMIREZ BUTAVAND, D.; CHISARI, L. B.; BALLARINI F; VIOLA, H

Berlin

Congreso; FENS; 2018

We performed activities with preadolescent students in their classroom, studying the possible effects of a programmed exam on the retention of information about a graphical schema that they had copied the previous day. We used the Rey-Osterrieth?s complex figure task to test graphical long-term memory (LTM) in students who did not have any exam (control group) or those who had one exam either before or after the figure copy (exam groups). The results showed that when control students had a weak memory of the figure, only the exam group of student experiencing the exam one hour after learning improved their LTM. However, in schools where control students showed strong LTM, exam effect was negative and the retention score decreased. These results are according to our recent behavioral data in rodents subjected to a stressful event and it was discussed under the conceptual framework of behavioral tagging hypothesis. The present findings reveal a practical implication in human beings, specifically in educational contexts and alert us about the impact of scholar stress on student LTM.