Background: The course on cognitive assessment is mandatory for all school psychology programs. However, there have been no published studies that have explored learning objectives for this course. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine content covered and complexity of learning objectives in the cognitive assessment course. Method:…

Background: Research shows distributed practice enhances learning and skill development, but less is known about the effect on perceptions and attitudes toward the material being learned. Objective: This study examined whether distributed practice could improve performance and attitudes in statistics, a subject that students report finding…

The present study hypothesized that requiring use of an integrated learning system (ILS) would yield a learning benefit in a classroom situation. Two sections of an introductory psychology course taught by the same instructor and using the same text and exams differed with respect to whether online quizzing and concept mastery exercises in an ILS…

Undergraduate psychology majors (n = 277) completed a survey assessing their rationale for pursuing either a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS) degree. Only 52.9% correctly identified the differences in degree requirements. Of those, BA students indicated greater science anxiety and avoidance than those pursuing a BS. BS students…

Our study examined whether brief writing-to-learn assignments linked to lower and higher levels in Bloom's taxonomy affected performance differentially on examination performance in assessing these skill levels. Using a quasi-random design, 91 undergraduate students in an introductory psychology class completed eight lower level and eight higher…

The present study investigated the use of multiple digital media technologies, including social networking platforms, by students while preparing for an examination (media multitasking) and the subsequent effects on exam performance. The level of media multitasking (number of simultaneous media technologies) and duration of study were used as…

Analyzes multiple-choice questions provided in test banks for introductory psychology textbooks. Study 1 offered a consistent picture of the objective difficulty of multiple-choice tests for introductory psychology students, while both studies 1 and 2 indicated that test items taken from commercial test banks have poor psychometric properties.…

Conventional wisdom is that some topics in introductory psychology are more difficult for students than others. Such wisdom seems reasonable given mismatches between students' and instructors' expectations and variations in both instructor expertise and student motivation across topical areas. Five instructors pooled students' exam performance…