Do prequestions support learning from text more than learning objectives?

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Prequestions, where students answer unanswerable questions before reading, enhance learning.
• The prequestion effect is attributed to attention focus and answering attempts.
• Existing research often lacks robust control groups, limiting implications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the unique benefits of prequestions beyond attention focus.
• To compare prequestions with learning objectives as attention-focusing strategies.
• To determine if prequestions offer advantages over simply reading text or using learning objectives.

Main Methods:

• Two preregistered experiments (2022-2024) with undergraduate participants.
• Conditions included prequestions, learning objectives, and reading only.
• Participants read a textbook excerpt and completed a multiple-choice test with old and new questions.

Main Results:

• Bayesian analysis showed small to medium effects favoring prequestions over control conditions.
• Frequentist analyses confirmed significant benefits of prequestions in Experiment 2 and a joint analysis.
• Prequestions demonstrated advantages over both reading alone and reading with learning objectives.

Conclusions:

• Prequestions provide learning benefits that exceed the effects of attention focus alone.
• The strategy of answering questions before reading enhances learning through mechanisms beyond mere attentional guidance.
• Findings support the efficacy of prequestions as a valuable pedagogical tool.