Review of learned material is crucial for the learning process. One approach that promises to increase the effectiveness of reviewing during learning is to answer questions about the learning content rather than restudying the material (testing effect). This effect is well established in lab experiments. However, existing research in educational contexts has often combined testing with additional didactical measures that hampers the interpretation of testing effects. We aimed to examine the testing effect in its pure form by implementing a minimal intervention design in a university lecture (N = 92). The last 10 min of each lecture session were used for reviewing the lecture content by either answering short-answer questions, multiple-choice questions, or reading summarizing statements about core lecture content. Three unannounced criterial tests measured the retention of learning content at different times (1, 12, and 23 weeks after the last lecture). A positive testing effect emerged for short-answer questions that targeted information that participants could retrieve from memory. This effect was independent of the time of test. The results indicated no testing effect for multiple-choice testing. These results suggest that short-answer testing but not multiple-choice testing may benefit learning in higher education contexts.
机器翻译
复习学习材料对学习过程至关重要。一种有望提高学习期间复习有效性的方法是回答有关学习内容的问题，而不是重新学习材料（测试效果）。这种效果在实验室实验中已经确立。然而，目前在教育背景下的研究往往将测试与额外的教学措施相结合，从而妨碍了对测试效果的解释。我们旨在通过在大学讲座中实现最小干预设计（N = 92）来检查其纯形式的测试效果。每个讲座的最后10分钟用于通过回答简短的问题、多项选择问题或阅读关于核心讲座内容的总结声明来回顾讲座内容。三个未宣布的标准测试测量了不同时间（上一次讲座后1周、12周和23周）的学习内容保留率。针对参与者可以从记忆中检索到的信息的简短回答问题，出现了积极的测试效果。这种效果与测试时间无关。结果表明，多项选择测试没有测试效果。这些结果表明，短答测试而不是多项选择测试可能有利于高等教育背景下的学习。