Abstract:  Retrieval Practice Effect (RPE) means that compared with restudy in the same amount of time, retrieval practice (even without feedback) can effectively help people achieve a better performance in the final memory test. In the early researches, RPE was explained from either encoding or retrieval, and basically those explanations focused on describing RPE in different experimental designs. Recently, researchers integrated encoding and retrieval, the full memory process, to investigate the mechanism of the RPE, and has been supported by more and more research evidences. The article discussed current hypotheses of the RPE, then specifically differentiated the elaborative retrieval hypothesis and the episodic context account, and pointed out the advantage of the latter. Further work could use cognitive neuroscience technique to provide more direct proof for episodic context account. The controversy about the promoting effect of retrieval practice in the short-term and long-term memory remains to be further explained. Meanwhile, the way to put it into use effectively remains to be discovered in practice.

Key words: retrieval practice effect, mechanism, encoding,  retrieval