Effect of Multiple-choice Testing on Memory Retention – Cue-target Symmetry

• Main Author: Cheng, Cho Kin
• Other Authors: Joordens, Steve
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: testing effect; retrieval practice; multiple-choice test; memory retention; 0633; 0525
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/65649

This thesis investigated the testing effect, which is the tendency of testing to enhance learning and memory retention. Specifically, the thesis examines the extent to which test-induced retention benefits extend to the questions as well as the answers; are these benefits symmetrical? The results in the laboratory experiment (Experiment 1) demonstrated that the symmetry in retention benefits is highly dependent on the accuracy in the initial test. For the items students answered correctly in the initial test, the retention benefit was found to be symmetrical across the questions and answers supporting the retrieval hypothesis of the testing effect. However, for initially incorrect items, the retention performance was substantially better for the questions than the answers suggesting an asymmetrical effect from testing, a result that is also consistent with the retrieval hypothesis. These results were replicated using educationally-relevant materials with a delay up to five and a half months in two hybrid studies combining actual classroom experiences with controlled assessments in the laboratory (Experiment 2A & 2B). A series of follow-up studies were conducted to examine the difference in retention performance of the questions and the answers for the initial incorrect items. Particularly, the experiments focused on investigating various factors that might contribute to or eliminate the difference in retention performance, including prior study (Experiment 3), verification feedback (Experiment 4A & 4B) and answer feedback (Experiment 5). The thesis also touched upon various issues related to the temporal dimension of the testing effect. The previous notion that testing slows down forgetting rate is not supported by the data. Instead, testing seems to provide a short-term insulation against immediate forgetting, but then memory for the tested materials decays in the same way as the non-tested materials.