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The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of spaced practice and spaced review when implemented structurally within a computer assisted instruction program. It was postulated that spaced practice and spaced review would enhance learning and memory when executed in a computer assisted instruction program. The study viewed the comparison of two levels of the independent variable, computer assisted instruction as instructional treatments.

The instructional treatments were developed as structured, which contained spaced practice and spaced review, and unstructured, which did not contain the spacing effects. The researcher implemented the instructional treatments in a pretest-posttest control-group design. The two levels of the independent variable were measured by the dependent variables of recall and retention.

The statistical analysis used was an Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), to examine significant differences between groups. The pretest served as a covariate to control for subjects having prior knowledge of the information presented, and to determine statistical equivalence among the groups. A T-test of dependent means was conducted to examine within groups data from recall to retention. A significance level of.05 was established prior to analyses to determine rejection of the tested hypotheses.

Findings indicated a statistically significant difference between groups on both dependent variables of recall and retention. Group I, which received the structured CAI program as treatment, performed better than group II, which received the unstructured CAI program as treatment. The finding of significance between groups indicates that the spacing effects of spaced practice and spaced review, when incorporated within computer assisted instruction programs, enhances learning and memory, and more specifically recall and retention.

Findings for within groups data, yielded no significant difference from recall to retention for group I, which received the structured CAI program as treatment. This finding indicates that subjects maintained a level of memory due to the structured CAI program. Findings for within groups, yielded a significant difference from recall to retention for group II, which received the unstructured CAI program as treatment. This finding indicates that subjects did not maintain a level of memory from recall to retention with the unstructured CAI program, which further supports the argument for the implementation of spacing effects within computer assisted instruction programs.

Overall, the data suggested that the spacing effects of spaced practice and spaced review would enhance recall and retention. Therefore, the researcher made conclusions and recommendations for the implementation of spaced practice and spaced review. The researcher concluded that spacing effects enhance learning and memory when incorporated within the structure of computer assisted instruction programs, students recall and retain information better when spacing effects are presented in their educational tasks, and spacing effects the design of educational software which would help innovation in the educational software arena. The researcher's recommendations were for educational software developers to incorporate spacing effects in the design and structure of the computer assisted instruction programs they develop. Further recommendations were made for future educational research studies, specifically as they relate to the development of software functionality.