When administering an in-class exam, a common decision that confronts every instructor is whether the exam format should be closed book or open book. The present review synthesizes research examining the effect of administering closed-book or open-book assessments on long-term learning. Although the overall effect of assessment format on learning…

Graduate anatomy courses should be designed based on several needs. These include preparation for how to study in medical school and other healthcare programs, integrating multiple ways of engaging with the material, including repetition for long-term retention, and training of anatomy educators. Our graduate anatomy course presents an example of…

The forgetting curve is one of the most well known and established findings in memory research. Knowing the pattern of memory change over time can provide insight into underlying cognitive mechanisms. The default understanding is that forgetting follows a continuous, negatively accelerating function, such as a power function. We show that this…

Peer-led team learning is a socially mediated pedagogy where trained peer leaders, students who have completed a course, return to lead students in groups within a targeted course. The effect of peer-led team learning to improve student success in chemistry has been extensively documented but it is unclear if it is just as effective at…

Since Brown and Kulik (1977) coined the term 'Flashbulb memories' (FBMs), there are still heated debates about their nature. We thus considered it useful to take stock of almost 50 years of research by reviewing 57 test-retest studies on FBMs for public events. The review aimed to answer six research questions by examining the target events and…

Simulation technologies are used in simulation-based education however retention of knowledge, skills, and abilities have yet to be determined. This study evolved from areas of research that do not adequately show or address measurements of retention of knowledge, skills, and abilities in the professional environments after training with…

Our aim in the current study was to examine how different diary methods might impact the results of involuntary memory studies. We compared three different commonly used diary methods, record all memories experienced per day, record up to two memories per day, or record only the first two per day. Results showed that the record-all group had the…

This paper describes applying a new brain-based instructional approach called "Tailored Instructions and Engineered Delivery using Protocols" (TIED UP) in an engineering classroom. Brain-based strategies leverage our knowledge about the functioning of the human brain to deliver the course information effectively. Although brain-based…

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of the experiential learning cycle (ELC) and self-regulated learning (SRL), both implemented through a game-based approach (AI 2 Robot City board game), in fostering computational thinking (CT) and understanding of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in university level. The sample consisted of…

Association questions (AQs) are a novel form of multiple-choice questions (MCQs). To answer an AQ, learners must recall the concepts denoted by the given terms, affirm their connections, and then select the term with a denotation that is "less connected" with other concepts. This research hypothesizes that the use of AQ tests for…

Retention is the ability to retain information in the mind, either in short-term or long-term memory. Memory in the long-term is more ideal. Thus, this has become a challenge for educators on how to transfer ideas in short-term memory to long-term memory. To concretize the effect of time on mathematics learning retention, a randomized pre-test…

Retrieval practice is a learning technique that is known to produce enhanced long-term memory retention when compared to several other techniques. This difference in learning outcome is commonly called "the testing effect". Yet there is little research on how individual differences in personality traits and working memory capacity…

The production effect is a well-established finding: If some words within a list are read aloud, that is, produced, they are better remembered than their silently read neighbors. The effect has been extensively studied with long-term memory tasks. Recently, using immediate serial recall and short-term order reconstruction, Saint-Aubin et al.…

Retrieval-based learning, using tests for content review, frequently proves more effective for knowledge retention compared to alternative methods. Extensive research has explored this with older students, often in contrast to more passive techniques like rereading or note rewriting, typically focusing on vocabulary content, in non-classroom…

The testing effect phenomenon occurs when repeated retrieval practice leads to better long-term retention of information compared to repeated re-studying of material, but students tend to prefer repeated studying over testing themselves (Karpicke et al., 2009). We aimed to assess students' preference for who should implement testing -- instructors…