Getting it wrong helps to get it right

Trying to come up with an answer rather than having it presented to you, or trying to solve a problem before being shown the solution, leads to better learning and longer retention of the correct answer or solution, even when your attempted response is wrong, so long as corrective feedback is provided.

Make it Stick – Peter Brown

So we know that the act of retrieving information from long term memory benefits learning.

“An item’s state in memory is modified by its retrieval and, more importantly, that the extent of such modification is a function of the depth or level of the retrieval processes.”

Bjork, (1975)

That retrieval initiates an “associative chain reaction” of activating neural representations that modifies that memory, promotes consolidation (storage), and slows forgetting. But what if learners were a) unsuccessful in retrieving an answer (any answer) or b) making an errorful wrong answer or guesses. And c) pre-testing, being quizzed on knowledge not yet taught?

Why the distinction of a, b and c? What then?

It is extremely difficult to obtain accurate data concerning what and how teachers teach, let alone to manipulate that teaching in a manner that would allow inferences of learner confidence. But it does matter.

What I will share is this thought provoking statement from Stevenson & Stigler (1994):

…praise (being correct) curtails discussion and serves mainly to reinforce the teacher’s role as the authority who bestows rewards. It does not empower students to think, criticize, reconsider, evaluate, and explore their own thought processes.

I will leave you to reflect on that point another time. Back to a, b, and c.

Outcome A: Unsuccessful retrieval

Information has been taught but not retained. Taught but not accessible. No answer provided.

The good news, whilst successful tests play a powerful role in enhancing memory even “attempting to retrieve information, by itself, enhances future learning,” Richland et al., (2009). When participants had absolutely no idea what the answers to factual questions might be but were nevertheless forced to guess, it appears that to be beneficial, Kang et al., (2011).

Recommendation: MCQs in particular should always be designed with corrective feedback. Self-directed quizzing should be accompanied by corrective feedback or more simply, the correct answer.

We will come back to the role of learner confidence in a later post.

Outcome B: Errorful / Guesses

Imprecise retrieval leads to a strengthening of wrong answer or ‘retrieval-induced distortion’ and strengthens both an integrated trace (the wrong answer) and the correct trace. Hence corrective feedback is important, some may say essential.

The surprising finding, replicated many times, is that participants remembered the correct answers considerably better when they had generated an error than when they had not. Why? Two possible explanations, feedback helps make up for the lower level of initial performance and unsuccessful tests encourage deep processing of the initial question.

Recommendation: Encourage participation in lessons. Error generation is not inevitably bad rather error generation appears to foster learning. Second, challenge the view that poor test performance is a signal that learning is not progressing. Rather that, it is the learning.

Outcome C: Pretesting, quizzing knowledge not yet taught

Post testing or test enhanced learning or retrieval practice – the backward effect – is beneficial to learning. But so does pre-testing – the forward effect. Should teachers test their students before teaching? ” Studies have shown that prequestions – asking students questions before they learn something – benefit memory retention,” (Carpenter, Rahman and Perkins, 2018). Pretesting is “highly competitive with posttesting and can yield similar, if not greater, pedagogical benefits,” Pan and Sana, (2021). (I would be more conservative with the use “highly,” even the researchers themselves note that these finding “might seem at odds with the handful of prior studies that included similar comparisons and involved the learning of educationally-relevant materials.”

Given our recent dance with remote and blended learning, it is worth highlighted more recent studies that have begun to explore prequestions and video lectures. Carpenter and Toftness (2017) reported the effectiveness of prequestions, for both the prequestioned and nonprequestioned material. St Hilaire and Carpenter (2020) reported prequestions before viewing a video lecture significantly enhanced learning of the factual information from that lecture, suggestive of a goal-focusing model, whereby prequestions act as cues for specific information. extend broadly across a variety of learning material and contexts

Recommendation: Pretesting helps you ascertain the learners prior-knowledge and cue or potentiate learning. You may wish to start with factual knowledge.

As ever we cross multiple lines of research enquiry, retrieval, feedback, motivation, metacognition and are offered an interesting diversion – the hypercorrection effect. Again, test enhanced learning, both forwards and backwards, pays dividends.

Carpenter, S., Rahman, S. and Perkins, K., (2018). The effects of prequestions on classroom learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 24(1), pp.34-42.

Kang SHK, Pashler H, Cepeda NJ, Rohrer D, Carpenter SK, Mozer MC. 2011. Does incorrect guessing impair fact learning?J. Educ. Psychol. 131:48–59

Kornell N, Hays MJ, Bjork RA. 2009. Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning. J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn. Mem. Cogn. 35:989–98

Pan, S. C., & Sana, F. (2021). Pretesting versus posttesting: Comparing the pedagogical benefits of errorful generation and retrieval practice. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 27(2), 237–257. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000345

Richland LE, Kao LS, Kornell N. 2009. The pretesting effect: Do unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning?J. Exp. Psychol. Appl. 15:243–57

Stevenson H, Stigler JW. 1994. The Learning Gap: Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn from Japanese and Chinese Education. New York: Simon & Schuster

St Hilaire, K.J., & Carpenter, S.K. (2020). Prequestions enhance learning, but only when they are remembered. Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.