The effect of test expectation, subject matter, and passage length on study tactics and retention

Abstract

This experiment investigated the effects of length of passage, type of test readers were told to expect, and subject matter on three outcome variables: retention of information, reading speed, and highlighting patterns. College students read either a long or a short version of one of two passages then took a multiplechoice test containing main point and detail questions. Reading speed and highlighting were affected substantially by passage length. There was also a subject matter by length effect on retention. The study provides evidence that much of the previous reading comprehension research may not permit conclusions about studying textbooks for classroom type tests. Implications for further research are also discussed.

College Students' Study Strategies as a Function of Testing: An Investigation into Metacognitive Self-Regulation

“…Several studies have not supported the finding that students' expectations about an exam affect performance (Feldt & Ray, 1989;Hakstian, 1971;Kumar, Rabinsky, & Pandey, 1979;Suber, 1992). However, several studies have supported the hypothesis that expectations about an exam can influence performance (D'Ydewalle, et al, 1983;Foos, 1992;Sax & Collet, 1968).…”

The Effects of Reading Goals on Learning in a Computer Mediated Environment

“…With four-line pages, headings were sufficiently surrounded by text and also were short enough to provide a better measure of reading times than fewer, longer pages. This particular configuration has been used effectively in a number of previous studies (Schoeller & Surber, 2003;Surber, 1992Surber, , 1994.…”

“…In previous research when this same text was presented on a computer, the 'page' size varied from single words at a time (for very short passages less than one print page) to entire screens. The argument has been made (Surber, 1992(Surber, , 1994) that any unit size is to some extent arbitrary (book pages often end in mid-sentence). The decision of 'page' length in this context became a matter of timing: many short pages would allow for fine-grained reading times; while a smaller number of pages would contain more text with less fine-grained reading times.…”

Informing Public Perceptions About Climate Change: A ‘Mental Models’ Approach

“…The Flesch-Kincaid readability statistic can be used to assess the reading level needed to understand the presented text, and has been applied to evaluate the readability of surveys (Velez and Ashworth 2007), insurance policies (Dubay 2004), medical consent forms (Tait et al 2005), and patient education (Daraz et al 2011;Finnie et al 2010). This statistic has been reliably correlated with other established measures of readability, such as average word familiarity and passage length (Golinkoff 1975(Golinkoff -1976Kesselman et al 2007;Ley and Florio 1996;Spyridakis and Standal 1987;Surber 1992;Tuinman 1973). Word processing programs such as Microsoft Word can be set to assess the Flesch-Kincaid readability as part of their grammar and spelling check.…”