Forward Effect Of Testing In Future Learning Of Key-term Definitions: The Moderating Role Of Working Memory Capacity And Test Anxiety In Young Adults - Info and Reading Options

The Internet Archive:

Retrieval practice can enhance encoding and subsequent retrieval of new information relative to restudy or no additional practice (Chan et al., 2018; Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014; Yang et al., 2018). Multiple mechanisms related to the encoding, retrieval, and context of the newly encoded information, as well as motivational and metacognitive factors may contribute this so-called forward effect of testing (FET). While the FET has been shown with different materials, there is little research on the FET with educationally relevant materials, such as learning key-term definitions. The first objective of this study is to replicate and generalize the FET with key-term definitions in younger adults. The assignment of the participants to the two practice conditions is random, allowing to compare the size of the FET in Session 1 as a between-subjects effect and across sessions as a within-subjects effect. While we predict the FET to occur both as between- and within-subjects effect, the FET is expected to be larger between-subjects. due to potential transfer effects from Session 1 to Session 2 (cf. Kubik, Hahne, & Hausman, 2020; Pastötter & Frings, 2019) or due to a decreasing motivation and interest in fully engaging in Session 2, compared to Session 1. For this reason, we will also make corresponding predictions selectively for Session 1 as between-subjects comparisons and test these predictions. In Objectives 2–5, we examine the potential mechanisms underlying the FET. Here, we are specifically interested how retrieval practice may motivate learners to invest and sustain attention and mental effort during subsequent encoding of multiple new lists of key-term definitions. As a second objective, we examine the effects of the FET on self-reported cognitive effort during the initial encoding key-term definition in Learning Blocks 1–3. Based on the metacognitive account (Chan et al., 2018), interim-tests facilitate learners to adjust their encoding strategies, which can lead them to exert more cognitive effort to the learning task ahead and thus result in better future recall performance, compared to restudy practice. This leads to a smaller decline or even a maintenance of cognitive effort over the learning blocks in the retrieval-practice condition, as a result of more attention being directed towards the task (Jing et al., 2016) or expecting another test (Szpunar et al., 2007). Also, the overconfident participants may be surprised by their underperformance in an interim test, which may in turn lead to more cognitive effort in the following learning blocks (Cho et al., 2017; Lee & Ahn, 2017). As a result, retrieval practice (elicited by interim-tests) can enhance the criterial recall performance of the final text via sustained cognitive effort, compared restudy practice. The third objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that retrieval practice may attenuate the decline in attentional control or attention directed to the learned lists of key-term definitions across learning blocks. It is assumed that retrieval practice should reduce the number of lapses of attention and the occurrence of mind-wandering during the course of the learning phase, which should in turn facilitate new learning. As an index for attentional control, we will solicit a mind-wandering prompt during the initial learning phases of List 1 and List 3 of new six key term-definitions to probe participants’ current thoughts. Only a few studies investigated the effect of retrieval (vs. restudy) practice on the occurrence of mind-wandering as a self-reported proxy for attentional control, however, largely in relation to video materials on statistics (Pan et al., 2020; Szpunar, Khan, & Schacter, 2013; Szpunar, Jing, & Schacter, 2014). We predict that with the time-dependent decrease in attentional control, mind-wandering will occur more frequently during the initial study phase of Learning Block 3 compared to Learning Block 1; furthermore, we expect that retrieval practice will reduce this increase in mind-wandering during the initial study phase from Learning Blocks 1 to 3, compared to restudy practice. A fourth objective is to examine whether the size of the FET is moderated by test anxiety. There is the assumption that participants with higher rates on test anxiety may benefit less or even suffer from low-stake interim tests as participants may devote their limited cognitive resources to balance their state test anxiety (cf. Tse & Pu, 2012). There are a few studies on the role of test anxiety on the size of the backward testing effect, reporting rather mixed findings in young adults. Participants with high test anxiety scores profited either less from retrieval practice (Mok & Chans, 2016), more from retrieval practice (Clark et al., 2018) or to a similar degree as from restudy practice (Tse & Pu, 2012). To our knowledge, there is currently only one study the potential moderating role on test anxiety on the FET (Yang et al., 2020) with young adults, showing that this benefit on retrieval learning does not substantially modulate levels of trait and state test anxiety and neither does of trait and state test anxiety moderate the size of the FET. The aim of this study is to conceptually replicate this study and to assess the moderating role of trait and state anxiety on the FET with more complex learning materials (i.e., key-term definitions) in a within-subject design. Furthermore, we assess whether (repeated) retrieval practice via low-stake interim tests may decrease state test anxiety and thereby recall performance in Learning Block 3, compared to restudy practice. Given the limited knowledge on this topic, we do not formulate any specific predictions and only explore the role of trait and state test anxiety on FET and vice versa. A fifth objective is to explore the role of fluid intelligence for the FET. There are so far only very few studies on individual differences in young adults, with one study on the backward effect of testing revealing that learners with high fluid intelligence exhibit a larger testing benefit for difficult over easy items, and with low fluid intelligence showing the opposite results pattern (Minear et al., 2018). Two other recent studies on the FET showed that working memory played no role (Pastötter & Frings, 2019) or only a minor role (Yang et al., 2020) in modulating the size of the FET. However, these prior studies have used rather artificial materials of simple word materials in a lab-based study, while the present study uses more complex learning materials (i.e., key-term definitions). Given the few studies and the little theoretical work so far, we do not yet formulate any specific predictions but rather explore the potential role of fluid intelligence on the FET. To address the above-mentioned objectives, a blocked multiple-list learning paradigm (cf. Chan et al., 2018; see also Kubik, Hahne, & Hausman, 2020; Kubik, Lackner, & Hahne, 2020) is employed during two sessions of an online experiment. Dependent on the experimental group, participants are informed that in total 18 key-term definitions will be presented in each session. Participants are also instructed that they will have to remember all three lists of 6 key-term definitions at the end of each experimental session. Each of the three lists is presented for 50 seconds in an initial study phase, followed by a 30-s math distractor task, in which participants solve picture puzzles. For the Learning Blocks 1–2, the initial study phase is followed by either a 50s phase of retrieval or restudy practice. In the retrieval-practice condition, participants will attempt to recall the definitions of the just studied six definitions provided with the respective key term; in the restudy condition, they will be asked to study the list of key-term definitions again. In Learning Block 3, all participants will be asked after an initial study phase to recall the definitions of the just studied third list of key terms (as the criterial recall test). In the final tests, participants are instructed to recall the definitions of List 1–3 of key-term definitions. The same experimental procedure will be applied after seven days in Session 2, with the only difference of changing practice type (i.e., from retrieval practice to restudy practice or vice versa). At the end of Session 1 and 2, participants finish each session with a test of fluid intelligence. Self-reports of mind-wandering are prompted in the middle of the initial study phases of Learning Blocks 1 and 3. Furthermore, self-reported measures of cognitive effort (cf. Schmeck et al., 2015) are given immediately after the initial learning phases of Learning Blocks 1 and 3. In addition, before Learning Block 1, participants fill out a short form of the Test Anxiety Inventory (Wacker et al., 2008) to measure self-reported trait test anxiety (i.e., the tendency to perceive testing situations as threatening or frightening) as well as a one-item scale to measure state test anxiety (cf. Yang et al., 2020) before the criterial List-3 test and before the final tests of Lists 1–3. After the final recall phase of List 1 and List 2 of key-term definitions, participants provide self-reports about prior knowledge to each of the previously presented key-term definitions. Employing a within-subjects design of practice type provides the opportunity to examine individual differences of the FET in relation to cognitive and noncognitive factors, as measured by cognitive effort, mind-wandering, fluid intelligence, as well as state and trait test anxiety.

Search for “Forward Effect Of Testing In Future Learning Of Key-term Definitions: The Moderating Role Of Working Memory Capacity And Test Anxiety In Young Adults” downloads:

Visit our Downloads Search page to see if downloads are available.

Find “Forward Effect Of Testing In Future Learning Of Key-term Definitions: The Moderating Role Of Working Memory Capacity And Test Anxiety In Young Adults” in Libraries Near You:

Read or borrow “Forward Effect Of Testing In Future Learning Of Key-term Definitions: The Moderating Role Of Working Memory Capacity And Test Anxiety In Young Adults” from your local library.

• The WorldCat Libraries Catalog: Find a copy of “Forward Effect Of Testing In Future Learning Of Key-term Definitions: The Moderating Role Of Working Memory Capacity And Test Anxiety In Young Adults” at a library near you.