Clark Spenser A, Rivers Michelle L, Overono Acacia L
Department of Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA.
Department of Psychology, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Apr 6;15(4):477. doi: 10.3390/bs15040477.
Multiple-choice (MC) tests are widely used in educational settings but have been criticized for promoting passive recognition rather than active retrieval. Our research explores how adding a simple component to MC tests-answer justification-influences test performance and metacognitive accuracy. Across two experiments, university students studied a textbook chapter and completed either a standard MC test (MC-only group) or an MC test requiring them to justify their answers (answer justification group). Participants also provided predictive and postdictive metacognitive judgments. The results showed that the answer justification group significantly outperformed the MC-only group on an immediate test (Experiments 1 and 2) and scored numerically higher on a delayed test two days later (Experiment 2). Further, some initial evidence suggested that metacognitive accuracy was influenced by test type, but future research is needed. These findings support a retrieval-based explanation: generating answer justifications increases test performance by strengthening memory through elaborative retrieval. This study demonstrates that incorporating answer justification into MC tests may improve learning and metacognitive accuracy. We also offer practical suggestions for classroom implementation, considering that answer justification boosts test performance but also imposes a time cost compared to standard MC tests.
多项选择题（MC）测试在教育环境中被广泛使用，但因其促进被动识别而非主动检索而受到批评。我们的研究探讨了在MC测试中添加一个简单的组成部分——答案论证——如何影响测试成绩和元认知准确性。在两项实验中，大学生学习了教科书的一个章节，并完成了要么是标准的MC测试（仅MC组），要么是要求他们为答案提供论证的MC测试（答案论证组）。参与者还提供了预测性和事后的元认知判断。结果表明，答案论证组在即时测试（实验1和2）中显著优于仅MC组，并且在两天后的延迟测试（实验2）中得分在数值上更高。此外，一些初步证据表明元认知准确性受测试类型的影响，但还需要未来的研究。这些发现支持了基于检索的解释：通过详细检索来加强记忆，生成答案论证会提高测试成绩。这项研究表明，将答案论证纳入MC测试可能会提高学习效果和元认知准确性。考虑到答案论证虽然提高了测试成绩，但与标准MC测试相比也带来了时间成本，我们还为课堂实施提供了实用建议。
