Department of Neurology, Washington University in St Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
Med Educ. 2009 Dec;43(12):1174-81. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03518.x.
Laboratory studies in cognitive psychology with relatively brief final recall intervals suggest that repeated retrieval in the form of tests may result in better retention of information compared with repeated study.
Our study evaluates if repeated testing of material taught in a real-life educational setting (a didactic conference for paediatric and emergency medicine residents) replicates these findings when measured at a more educationally relevant final recall interval of 6 months.
Residents participated in an interactive teaching session on two topics: (i) status epilepticus, and (ii) myasthenia gravis. Residents were randomised to two counter-balanced groups which either took tests on status epilepticus and studied a review sheet on myasthenia gravis (SE-T/MG-S group) or took tests on myasthenia gravis and studied a review sheet on status epilepticus (MG-T/SE-S group). Testing and studying occurred immediately after teaching and then at two additional times at intervals of about 2 weeks. Residents received feedback after each test. Tests consisted of short-answer questions and the review sheets consisted of information identical to that on the answer sheets for the tests. At about 6 months residents took a final test on both topics.
Nineteen residents in the SE-T/MG-S group and 21 residents in the MG-T/SE-S group completed the study. Collapsing across groups, repeated testing produced final test scores that were an average of 13% higher than those produced by repeated study (39% versus 26%) at > 6 months after the initial teaching session (t[78] = 3.93, standard error of the difference = 0.03, P < 0.001, d = 0.91).
Repeated testing with feedback appears to result in significantly greater long-term retention of information taught in a didactic conference than repeated, spaced study. Testing should be considered for its potential impact on learning and not only as an assessment device.
认知心理学的实验室研究表明，以测试的形式进行重复检索可能会比重复学习更好地保留信息，这些研究的检索间隔时间相对较短。
我们的研究评估了在更具教育相关性的最终回忆间隔 6 个月时，在现实教育环境（儿科和急诊医学住院医师教学会议）中对所学材料进行重复测试是否复制了这些发现。
住院医师参加了关于两个主题的互动式教学课程：（i）癫痫持续状态，和（ii）重症肌无力。住院医师被随机分配到两个平衡的组，一组在癫痫持续状态测试后学习重症肌无力复习表（SE-T/MG-S 组），另一组在重症肌无力测试后学习癫痫持续状态复习表（MG-T/SE-S 组）。教学后立即进行测试和学习，然后在大约 2 周的间隔内另外进行两次测试和学习。每次测试后，住院医师都会收到反馈。测试由简答题组成，复习表包含与测试答案相同的信息。大约 6 个月后，住院医师对两个主题都进行了最终测试。
SE-T/MG-S 组有 19 名住院医师和 MG-T/SE-S 组有 21 名住院医师完成了研究。跨组合并，重复测试的最终测试分数比重复学习的最终测试分数平均高 13%（39%对 26%），在初始教学课程后 6 个月以上（t[78] = 3.93，差异标准误差 = 0.03，P < 0.001，d = 0.91）。
与重复、间隔学习相比，带反馈的重复测试似乎导致在教学会议中教授的信息具有显著更长的长期保留。测试应被视为其对学习的潜在影响的一种手段，而不仅仅是作为评估工具。
