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The memorial consequences of multiple-choice testing.

Elizabeth J Marsh1, Henry L Roediger, Robert A Bjork

  • 1Department of Psychology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0086, USA. emarsh@psych.duke.edu

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|August 19, 2007
PubMed
Summary
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Taking multiple-choice tests enhances learning and improves future test performance. While some false facts may be learned, the benefits of testing outweigh these drawbacks for educational assessment.

Area of Science:

  • Educational Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Assessment

Background:

  • Multiple-choice tests are widely used for assessment.
  • The impact of testing on knowledge acquisition is a key area of educational research.
  • Understanding potential drawbacks, such as learning misinformation, is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the act of taking a multiple-choice test influences knowledge acquisition.
  • To determine the extent to which testing effects apply to different levels of cognitive complexity.
  • To examine the phenomenon of learning false information from test items.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of test performance between students who took a multiple-choice test and a control group.
  • Evaluation of test items across varying cognitive levels, including SAT II and higher-order concepts from Bloom's Taxonomy.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analysis of the persistence of incorrect information (lures) on subsequent general knowledge tests.

    • Main Results:

    • Taking a multiple-choice test significantly improves performance on subsequent assessments compared to not being tested.
    • This testing benefit extends to complex questions, not just simple recall items.
    • Students can retain incorrect information presented in multiple-choice options, a phenomenon linked to faulty reasoning.

    Conclusions:

    • The positive impact of multiple-choice testing on learning and performance is substantial.
    • While the learning of false facts is a potential cost, it is outweighed by the overall benefits of testing.
    • Multiple-choice tests serve as a learning tool, not solely a measurement instrument.