Testing Effect 071014 - Distributed Pretesting Running Head...

Distributed Pretesting
Running Head: PRE-TESTING IMPROVES EXAM PERFORMANCE
Combined Online and In-Class Pre-testing Improves Exam Performance in General
Psychology
Arnold L. Glass, Gary Brill, and Margaret Ingate
Rutgers University
Correspondence should be addressed to:
Arnold Glass
Rutgers University
Psychology Department
152 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway NJ 08854
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
1

Distributed Pretesting
Abstract
This study examined the effect of distributed questioning on learning and
retention in a college lecture course. A total of 48 pairs of 4-alternative multiple-choice
questions were presented on three block exams and on the final. The two questions in
each pair were related to each other so that knowing the answer to one question usually
implied knowing the answer to the other. One question in each pair was included in an
experimental condition, in which questions were presented on-line, in-class, or both on-
line and in-class, before appearing on exams. These conditions were counter-balanced
across sections. The control questions appeared only on exams. Together, providing the
same question in advance of class online and in class had a significant long-term effect
on the probability of knowing the answers to both experimental and control questions
when they appeared on the block exam and final. These results demonstrate that
together, coordinated online and in-class instruction can significantly improve exam
performance. They are consistent with the hypothesis that distributed instruction creates
more robust memory traces, rather than the hypothesis that it creates additional memory
traces.
Keywords: distributed study, testing effect
2

Distributed Pretesting
Combined Online and In-Class Pre-testing Improves Exam Performance in General
Psychology
The study of learning has revealed several effects of theoretical importance to the
understanding of learning and of potential practical importance to pedagogy. Two of
these effects were the focus of this study. The first of these was the finding that active
study is more likely to produce long-term retention than passive study. The second effect
was the finding that distributed repetition increases the duration of the interval over
which study material is retained.
Distributed Testing.
Active Study . Any task that requires a response to the study material beyond mere
repetition constitutes active study. For example, listening to or reading study material is
passive study. However, answering a question about it or recalling the study material,
after even a short delay, is active study. Much experimental research in cognition has
demonstrated the superiority of active learning. An early example from the laboratory is
the work of Bobrow and Bower (1969), which compared active and passive usage of
linking sentences for learning lists of word pairs. For example, W w hen subjects made up
their own linking sentences that included both for the words of the a study pair to be
remembered