Students who engage in spaced repetition retain information more effectively than those who cram, demonstrating significantly improved test performanc...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• Students who engage in spaced repetition
  • retain information more effectively than those who cram,
    • demonstrating significantly improved test performance
      • weeks after initial ______ [?]
        • regular review intervals into study schedules
          • strengthens long-term memory formation
          • and reduces cognitive load during examinations.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

"Students who engage in spaced repetition retain information more effectively than those who cram"

• This is telling us that students who use spaced repetition (studying in intervals over time)
  • remember things better than students who cram (study everything at once).

"demonstrating significantly improved test performance weeks after initial learning"

• This part explains HOW we know spaced repetition works better -
  • these students show much better test scores even weeks after they first learned the material.

This is where we have the blank: "weeks after initial learning ______"

Let's look at the choices:

• A adds: semicolon + "by incorporating"
• B adds: period + "Incorporating"
• C adds: comma + "incorporating"
• D adds: no punctuation + "incorporating"

To see what works here, let's read what comes after the blank and understand what it's saying!

"_______ regular review intervals into study schedules strengthens long-term memory formation and reduces cognitive load during examinations."

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• "Incorporating regular review intervals into study schedules"
  • means building in regular times to review material as part of your study plan

• "strengthens long-term memory formation"
  • means it helps create stronger, more lasting memories

• "and reduces cognitive load during examinations"
  • means it makes exams less mentally taxing - you're not straining as hard to remember things

So the complete picture is:

• This part is explaining that building regular review into your schedule helps you form better memories and makes tests less stressful.

What do we notice about the structure here?

Looking at the first part:

• "Students...retain information more effectively than those who cram, demonstrating significantly improved test performance weeks after initial learning."
  • This is a complete thought - it has a subject (Students), a verb (retain), and expresses a complete idea.
  • It could stand alone as its own sentence.

Looking at what comes after the blank:

• "Incorporating regular review intervals into study schedules strengthens long-term memory formation and reduces cognitive load during examinations."
  • This is ALSO a complete thought!
  • "Incorporating regular review intervals into study schedules" is the subject (what we're talking about)
  • "strengthens...and reduces" are the verbs (what it does)
  • This could also stand alone as its own sentence.

So we have two complete sentences here - two separate complete thoughts that need to be properly separated.

When we have two complete thoughts, we need strong punctuation to separate them. A period creates two separate sentences, which is exactly what we need here.

The correct answer is B: learning. Incorporating

This creates two clear, separate sentences:

1. The first sentence tells us about the benefits of spaced repetition.
2. The second sentence explains how incorporating review intervals helps memory and exam performance.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Separating Complete Thoughts (Independent Clauses)

When you have two complete thoughts that could each stand alone as sentences, you need strong punctuation to separate them properly. A complete thought (called an independent clause in grammar terms) has a subject and verb and expresses a complete idea.

Options for separating two complete thoughts:

1. Period - Creates two separate sentences
   • Example: "The experiment succeeded. The results surprised everyone."
   • Each part can stand alone: ✓
2. Semicolon - Keeps them in one sentence (shows close relationship)
   • Example: "The experiment succeeded; the results surprised everyone."
   • Each part can stand alone: ✓
3. Comma + Coordinating Conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so)
   • Example: "The experiment succeeded, and the results surprised everyone."
   • Each part can stand alone: ✓

What doesn't work:

• Comma alone - Creates a comma splice
  • Wrong: "The experiment succeeded, the results surprised everyone." ✗
• No punctuation - Creates a run-on sentence
  • Wrong: "The experiment succeeded the results surprised everyone." ✗

In our question:

• First complete thought: "Students who engage in spaced repetition retain information more effectively than those who cram, demonstrating significantly improved test performance weeks after initial learning."
• Second complete thought: "Incorporating regular review intervals into study schedules strengthens long-term memory formation and reduces cognitive load during examinations."

Since both are complete sentences, we need a period to separate them properly.