Department of Psychology, University of Kassel, Hollaendische Str. 36-38, D-34127 Kassel, Germany.
Trends Neurosci Educ. 2020 Jun;19:100130. doi: 10.1016/j.tine.2020.100130. Epub 2020 May 15.
Generating questions by learners might be a potent learning technique but previous research yielded several shortcomings and underlying mechanisms are not well understood.
Students (N = 231) first read an expository text including bold keywords and then generated questions and answers referring to these keywords in three conditions: (1) open-book (i.e., text accessible), (2) closed-book (i.e., text inaccessible), and (3) cued closed-book (i.e., only keywords provided).
In a test after one week, students in the open-book and in the cued closed-book conditions performed better than students in the restudying condition. The number of generated questions and answers was largest in the open-book condition, smaller in the cued closed-book condition and smallest in the closed-book condition and predicted final test performance.
Generating questions and answers is an effective tool to boost retention in university learning when (at least part of) the learning material remains accessible.
学习者生成问题可能是一种有效的学习技巧，但先前的研究存在一些缺陷，其潜在机制也不太清楚。
学生（N=231）首先阅读一篇包含粗体关键词的说明性文本，然后在三种条件下生成与这些关键词相关的问题和答案：（1）开卷（即可访问文本），（2）闭卷（即不可访问文本），和（3）提示闭卷（即仅提供关键词）。
在一周后的测试中，开卷和提示闭卷条件下的学生比复习条件下的学生表现更好。开卷条件下生成的问题和答案数量最多，提示闭卷条件下次之，闭卷条件下最少，且与最终测试成绩相关。
在（至少部分）学习材料可访问的情况下，生成问题和答案是提高大学学习保持力的有效工具。
