For Long-Term Retention Testing Beats Studying
by Steven B. Just

Why do we test? Ask trainers that question and you’ll get a number of answers:

• To ensure student competency
• As part of the evaluation of training programs
• To improve training programs by diagnosing areas of learning weakness
• As outcomes data to justify training budgets

Now a study done at Washington University in St. Louis suggests another reason:

• To improve learning

According to Washington University professor Henry L. Roediger III, Ph.D., "Incorporating more frequent classroom testing into a course may improve students' learning and promote retention of material long after a course has ended."

Roediger conducted a study (“Test-Enhanced Learning. Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention” Henry L. Roediger, III, Jeffrey D. Karpicke Psychological Science, 2006, Volume 17, Issue 3: 249-255) in which one group of students was allowed to repeatedly study material and a second group of students was repeatedly administered quizzes. Not only did the “quizzed” group do better on a delayed test of knowledge, but the study found that the “study only” group actually had a false sense of confidence in their mastery of the material.

In the study, a group of students studied a prose passage for five minutes. One sub-group (the study-test-test-test group) was then given a series of three immediate recall tests, with no feedback of test results. Another sub-group (the study-study-study-study group) was not tested at all but was given the opportunity to study for five minutes each time the other group was in a testing session. Recall tests were then given five minutes, two days and one week later to both groups.

On the immediate test (five minutes after the last study session) the study-only group outperformed the study-test-test-test group, 81% to 75%. Two days later the study-test-test-test group slightly outperformed the study-only group. One week later, the study-test-test-test group outperformed the study-only group 61% to 40%. This is a remarkable difference when one considers that on average the study-only group read the passage 14 times and the study-test-test-test group read it only 3.4 times.

Roediger’s conclusion: "Clearly, testing enhances long-term retention through some mechanism that is both different from and more effective than restudy alone."

All of this argues for more frequent use of quizzes and formative evaluations. Your students may not like it, but, as they saying goes, it’s for their own good.