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<p>Contemporary language learning applications such as Duolingo and Rosetta Stone often introduce vocabulary through guessing-with-feedback exercises in which learners match words and pictures. We investigated whether that process might yield a <i>pretesting effect</i>—that is, the phenomenon where guessing with correct answer feedback (pretesting) enhances memory. Across four experiments, adult online learners engaged in multiple-choice pretesting to learn Spanish word translations shown in word–image (Experiments 1–2) or image–word (Experiments 3–4) format. Relative to a read-only condition, pretesting yielded statistically significant performance improvements on subsequent cued recall (Cohen’s <i>d</i> = 0.18–0.40) and, in most cases, multiple-choice tests (<i>d</i> = 0.25–0.67), regardless of whether test formats were separately presented or intermixed. Participants also reported preferring pretesting over reading for learning second-language vocabulary, especially for word–image learning. Together, these findings extend the pretesting effect to visual and verbal materials, offering theoretical insights and substantiating word–image and image–word guessing-based approaches of language learning.</p>

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Duolingo-inspired pretesting with words and pictures improves vocabulary learning

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月6日

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  • Tabitha J. E. Chua,
  • Steven C. Pan

摘要

Contemporary language learning applications such as Duolingo and Rosetta Stone often introduce vocabulary through guessing-with-feedback exercises in which learners match words and pictures. We investigated whether that process might yield a pretesting effect—that is, the phenomenon where guessing with correct answer feedback (pretesting) enhances memory. Across four experiments, adult online learners engaged in multiple-choice pretesting to learn Spanish word translations shown in word–image (Experiments 1–2) or image–word (Experiments 3–4) format. Relative to a read-only condition, pretesting yielded statistically significant performance improvements on subsequent cued recall (Cohen’s d = 0.18–0.40) and, in most cases, multiple-choice tests (d = 0.25–0.67), regardless of whether test formats were separately presented or intermixed. Participants also reported preferring pretesting over reading for learning second-language vocabulary, especially for word–image learning. Together, these findings extend the pretesting effect to visual and verbal materials, offering theoretical insights and substantiating word–image and image–word guessing-based approaches of language learning.