Authors

  1. Middleton, Erica L.
  2. Schuchard, Julia
  3. Rawson, Katherine A.

Abstract

It is uncontroversial in psychological research that different schedules of practice, which govern the distribution of practice over time, can promote radically different outcomes in terms of gains in performance and durability of learning. In contrast, in speech-language treatment research, there is a critical need for well-controlled studies examining the impact of distribution of treatment on efficacy. In this article, we enumerate key findings from psychological research on learning and memory regarding how different schedules of practice differentially confer durable learning. We review existing studies of aphasia treatment with a focus on naming impairment that have examined how the distribution of practice affects treatment efficacy. We close by discussing potential productive lines of research to elaborate the clinical applicability of distributed practice principles to language treatment.