The Spacing Effect on the Task of Memorizing Japanese Sentences in Chinese Students Learning Japanese as a Second Language : Experimental study on full processing hypothesis

The present study aims at examining the effects of intervals in repeated presentations of sentences by second language learners of Japanese. Twenty Chinese-speaking intermediate and advanced learners were asked to read aloud Japanese sentences and memorize them. Four conditions, the massed condition, the first-distributed condition, the last-distributed condition and the distributed condition were set. In all conditions, target sentences were presented three times, but the interval between the presentations varied depending on the conditions. The results showed that no significant main effects were found for the advanced learners, but for the intermediate learners, the recall performance on the massed condition was significantly poorer than the other conditions. Also, the advanced learners outperformed the intermediate learners on the massed condition, the first-distributed condition, and the last-distributed condition, but not on the distributed condition. These results were compatible with the full processing hypothesis