THE TESTING EFFECT: USING RETRIVAL PRACTICE IN THE CLASSROOM
Thesis submitted to The Graduate College of Marshall University
In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Psychology
by
Karen S. Clifton
Steven P. Mewaldt, Chair David L. Trumpower Marc Lindberg
Marshall University
Summer 2005
ABSTRACT Repeated testing was applied in a college classroom setting to determine whether a single intervening test, which allowed for retrieval practice, would improve performance on a final test compared to a single structured rehearsal of the material. Performance was measured using multiple-choice exams and relatedness rating tests. The findings suggest that a test condition which requires retrieval, when compared to a read-only condition, improves performance on a final test of item-specific knowledge but not on a test of relational knowledge of the same material. The difficulty of retrieval was manipulated using hard and easy questions on the intervening test and did not appear to have an effect. The findings support the use of repeated testing in the classroom and supplies evidence of the beneficial use of retrieval practice in enhancing student learning of classroom material.
Testing effect iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to thank Dr. Steven Mewaldt, Dr. David Trumpower, the undergraduate research team, and all the instructors and students who participated in the study.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER II METHODS CHAPTER III RESULTS CHAPTER IV DISCUSSION REFERENCES APPENDIX A APPENDIX B
ii iii iv v vi 1 6 10 16 23 26 33
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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The main effect for encoding condition using a multiple-choice unit exam...…………………………………………………..……………………..….11 Figure 2. Interaction for encoding condition across time for the multiple-choice unit exams..........................................................................................................................12 Figure 3. The main effect for encoding condition using a relatedness rating test…………………………………………...………...………………..….……..14 Figure 4. Interaction for encoding condition across time for the relatedness rating tests…………………………………………...……………………...…...……….15

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