Evaluating students' acquisition of factual material when studying independently or with a partner

The present study compared the potency of a why‐questioning strategy called elaborative interrogation to self‐selected strategies and repetition when students studied familiar and unfamiliar materials independently or in an interactive study context. Introductory psychology students ( N =120) were randomly assigned to one of three strategy conditions (elaborative interrogation, self study, or repetition) and one of two study contexts (dyad or individual). Dyad members were told to work together to learn the 60 facts about animals. Students in the elaborative interrogation (EI) conditions were instructed to answer ‘why’ questions about each fact. Students in the repetition condition rehearsed each fact. In the self‐study condition, students used any strategy(ies) that they thought would help them to remember the information. Both the EI and self study students outperformed repetition for facts about familiar animals. There were no significant differences between EI and self study. A greater number of repetition based strategies were generated when studying unfamiliar materials. In contrast, more higher order strategies were generated when studying familiar materials. Most important, the findings clearly support the effectiveness of interactive learning

Cognitive psychology · Context (archaeology) · Contrast (vision) · Developmental psychology · Dyad · Interrogation · Linguistics · Repetition (rhetorical device) · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Education and Critical Thinking Development · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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