Can successive relearning enhance performance on application-based exam questions?

Abstract

Successive relearning (a combination of retrieval practice and distributed practice) can boost student performance in memory-based knowledge, such as key-term definitions. The current classroom experiments sought to extend this finding to application-based exam questions. As part of students’ coursework, they completed assignments in which they successively relearned class concepts in one of three formats: examples, definitions, or a mix of both. Then, students took course exams containing novel application-based questions about concepts they had successively relearned, as well as business-as-usual concepts that were covered in class lectures but were not included in the successive relearning assignments. Performance on the novel exam questions did not differ between the three successive relearning formats, but students did perform about 10 percentage points higher on concepts they had successively relearned compared to business-as-usual concepts. Thus, successive relearning can improve performance on application-based questions regardless of whether students practice examples or definitions.