Exams at classroom have bidirectional effects on the long-term memory of an unrelated graphical task

Exam effects on unrelated graphical long-term memory could be beneficial or deleterious. A schematic representation of the experimental protocol is presented on the top of the figure: students were asked to copy Rey Osterrieth′s figure and they had or not (CTR) an exam before or after it. The figure copy is time zero and the time condition described for the exams are relative to it and expressed in hours. LTM of this figure was tested 24？h later. a Memory Index is shown as mean？±？SEM for weak retrieval CTR groups (CTRw, white bars) and for that groups which had one exam at different times around copying of the figure (EXM groups, black bars). b Memory Index is shown as mean？±？SEM for strong retrieval CTR groups (CTRs, light gray bars) and for that groups which had one exam at different times around copying of the figure (EXM groups, black bars). In all cases the number of participants is written in each bar. Student’s t-test, CTR vs. corresponding EXM group, *p？<？0.05, **p？<？0.01, ***p？<？0.00