A Comparison of Pre- or Post- Retrieval Testing Strategies and their Relation to Emotions and Motivation in a Higher Education Setting

Abstract

The testing effect shows that being tested on new content is more effective than re-studying it. However, it is unclear which type of application of testing is most beneficial for learning and how emotional or motivational responses to testing are affecting learning gains in different testing strategies. We studied which testing strategy (i.e., before or after receiving new information) is more beneficial in an applied higher education setting and why. Participants were 121 student teachers in two pairs of psycholinguistics courses.In a counterbalanced within-subjects design, students participated in retrieval practice either before (pre-test) or after (post-test) receiving input on four subtopics during a block course (T1). For each topic, students reported their emotional and motivational responses to retrieval practice at T1. After one week (T2), students' retention was tested. There was no significant retention advantage for either strategy. Notably, post-tests were associated with higher motivation and more positive emotions than pre-tests, which in turn predicted retention at T2. In addition, general emotional or motivational responses across all topics predicted the outcome in untrained applied transfer questions. Consistent with these findings, most students estimated higher learning gains in the post-test than in the pre-test condition. In conclusion, there was no advantage for either strategy, but motivational and emotional processes that may support learning were clearly aligned with the post-test strategy. We conclude that eliciting positive emotions or motivation and using post-test retrieval testing to provide feedback on learning gains may be a successful strategy for higher education settings.