Immediate post-testing of high school students after they studied a prose passage improved their memory significantly. (JD)

Fifty-seven secondary school students were involved in a study that examined the effects of three types of initial tests on later retention: a short answer test, a multiple choice test, and a full free recall test. Questions on the first two of these tests covered only half of the passage contents. The subjects studied a brief history text before…

Discusses three roles of textbook illustrations--to arrest the reader's attention and arouse interest, to provide explanation and clarification of complex verbal descriptions, and to aid retention of the information presented in the text. It is recommended that illustrations be designed with their specific role(s) in mind. (EAO)

High school students studied a brief history text, then either took a test on the passage, spent equivalent time reviewing, or went to an unrelated task. A test given two weeks later indicated that the test condition resulted in better retention than either the review or control conditions. (Author/GK)

Describes the results of a study of the retentional role of illustrations in a text and their effect on enhancing long-term memory with 15-year-old secondary school students. Seven references are listed. (CHC)

The effects on retention of adjunct questions either placed at the end of a passage or inserted after their respective paragraphs within the passage were examined. Both treatments led to superior retention of the previously questioned facts. The position of the adjunct questions did not differentially affect performance. (Author/BW)

Taking a test on a passage one has just studied is known to enhance later retention. This effect was influenced by the type of initial test used. It was evident in the case of the initial short-answer test, but not in the case of multiple choice and free recall tests. (Author/RD)

To establish the joint effects of the orienting factors of structure, learning objectives, and time on the recall of the content of a prose passage, an experiment involving 108 college students was conducted. The study combined two levels of structure (ideationally high and ideationally low) with three conditions of objectives (ideationally high,…

The testing effect is a phenomenon that may be described as follows: following the reading of a prose passage, a group of students who are given a posttest on the passage immediately or shortly afterward will later recall more of the passage on a retention test than will a similar group of students who are not given the posttest. Testing as a…