How do Students Regulate Their Use of Multiple Choice Practice Tests?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Multiple-choice practice tests are a common learning tool for students.
• Understanding how students self-regulate the use of these tests is crucial for optimizing learning outcomes.
• Previous research highlights the benefits of practice testing but less is known about student-driven regulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how undergraduate students regulate their use of multiple-choice practice tests.
• To compare the effectiveness of self-regulated multiple-choice testing versus experimenter-controlled testing.
• To evaluate the efficiency of self-regulated practice in terms of learning performance and time investment.

Main Methods:

• Undergraduate participants studied German-English word pairs and chose between restudying, taking a multiple-choice test, or removing items.
• A comparison group used cued-recall practice questions under self-regulated conditions.
• Experimenter-controlled groups completed practice tests until a higher number of correct answers were achieved.

Main Results:

• Self-regulated multiple-choice practice resulted in lower final test scores compared to experimenter-controlled groups.
• However, participants in the self-regulated multiple-choice group spent significantly less time practicing.
• When considering performance relative to time spent, self-regulated multiple-choice testing proved comparatively effective.

Conclusions:

• Students' self-regulation of multiple-choice practice testing, aiming for approximately one correct answer per item, is a time-efficient strategy.
• While not maximizing absolute performance, this approach offers a practical balance between effort and learning gains.
• Findings suggest that self-regulated practice testing can be an effective learning strategy when time efficiency is considered.