First Name:
Kerry
Last Name:
Bartlett
Major Department:
Psychology
Thesis Director:
Andrew Smith
Date of Thesis:
May 2013
Tests are more than tools to appraise learning, they can also facilitate the learning process itself. Numerous studies have shown that giving people an initial quiz tends to enhance their performance on a later test (e.g., Marsh et al., 2007; Richland et al., 2009; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006a). What is not known, however, is whether the initial quiz should be given before or after a person has had an opportunity to study the material. This study compared the impact of quiz placement on performance on a final test. One-hundred and two college students participated in this study for class credit. Some participants took a quiz before they studied material, some took a quiz after they studied material, and some were given extra time to study the material. The participant's retention of the material was assessed in a final test. We found that people who were quizzed on the material scored better on the final test than people who were given extra time to restudy the material. There was, however, no difference in performance between people who took the initial quiz before or after studying the material. This means that giving a test before or after learning new information will likely increase retention of studied material.