Hitting a high note on math tests: Remembered success influences test preferences.

Abstract

Remembered utility is the retrospective evaluation about the pleasure and pain associated with a past experience. It can influence choices about repeating or avoiding similar situations in the future (Kahneman, 2000). A set of 5 experiments explored the remembered utility of effortful test episodes and how it impacted future test choices. Experiments 1-3 mimicked Kahneman, Fredrickson, Schreiber, and Redelmeier's (1993) cold pressor study, but used a challenging test experience in place of submerging one's hand in painfully cold ice water. Participants took a short and an extended test of difficult math problems. The short test was made of 30 difficult math problems. The extended test used 30 difficult problems plus 10 moderately difficult problems. Participants made retrospective evaluations about the tests and chose which kind of test (short or extended) they wanted for their next test and for a hypothetical test 1 day later. Results showed that a challenging test episode extended by a more moderate interval was preferred to an unextended interval. Future test choices reflected this preference. This pattern was evidenced even when points were awarded only to correctly answered difficult items but not to moderately answered difficult items. Experiment 4 directly compared preferences for a moderate end versus a moderate start test, and Experiment 5 contrasted those test conditions with a moderate middle test condition. The findings demonstrated test-takers' bias in favor of test experiences that start or end on a high note. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mental effort and discomfort: Testing the peak-end effect during a cognitively demanding task

“…These results suggest that how a cognitive task ends is critically important to retrospective memories and preferences for subsequent tasks. Recently, Finn & Miele [ 18 ] provided additional evidence showing that math tests that begin or end easier are more preferred than tasks which have easier items embedded in the middle. Taken together Finn’s work suggests that both easier beginnings and endings might play key roles in determining how mentally effortful tasks are remembered.…”

Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning

“…A number of disparate but intriguing effects also point to the potency of success with challenge, particularly over challenge alone. For example, Finn and Miele (2015) found that test takers preferred longer tests of difficult math problems with starting or ending sets of moderately difficult (successful) items to shorter tests of the same difficult math problems only. Interestingly, in the hippocampus, learning, but not training per se, rescues or increases the survival of newly generated cells into differentiated neurons to the extent that the learning experience is new, effortful, and importantly successful (Shors, 2014).…”

How to bring the news … peak-end effects in children’s affective responses to peer assessments of their social behavior

“…To conclude, this study indicates that children's memory of emotional experiences is very sensitive to endings and that the process of peer assessments can be improved by ending with the most positive aspect of the feedback. This study thereby contributes to a growing body of literature exploring practical applications of the peak-end effect in contexts relevant for learning (Finn, 2010;Finn & Miele, 2016;Hoogerheide & Paas, 2012).…”

“…These findings beg the question whether the same mechanism applies to contexts relevant for learning. Recent studies showed that this can indeed be the case for students studying foreign vocabulary for a test (Finn, 2010;Hoogerheide & Paas, 2012) and for students taking a difficult math test (Finn & Miele, 2016).…”