PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Both multiple-choice (MC) and cued-recall (CR) practice questions are beneficial for learning, but how do students choose to use each format of practice question? Will students' learning choices indicate they believe each format has non-redundant utility? Across three experiments, I proposed and evaluated two hypotheses regarding how students might regulate their use of MC and CR practice questions when they have access to both formats for the same material. Briefly, students might think the two formats are redundant, think the two formats are non-redundant in that both are uniquely beneficial, or think the two formats are non-redundant but that one is better than the other. To assess support for these hypotheses, some student participants had access to both MC and CR optional practice questions and could complete either or both formats as many times as they wanted. I found support for the non-redundant utility hypothesis. Specifically, most participants preferred completing MC questions and used only this format until they got each question correct about one time. However, about one-third of participants used both MC and CR questions for most material, and continued practice until they got each question correct more than one time with each format. In Experiment 3, I found that participants' learning plans indicated they entered the learning task with pre-existing beliefs about the differences in utility of each format of practice question. Thus, participants' learning choices and learning plans indicated that participants believe multiple-choice and cued-recall practice questions have unique utility and provided support for the non-redundant utility hypothesis.

Committee: Katherine Rawson (Committee Chair); Clarissa Thompson (Committee Co-Chair); John Dunlosky (Committee Member); Jeffrey Ciesla (Committee Member); Bradley Morris (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Learners' metacognitive judgments do not always reflect the memorial benefits of practice testing over restudying (i.e., the testing effect), which could limit their effective use of practice testing during self-regulated learning. The current investigation explored the conditions under which students can learn about the relative effectiveness of practice testing versus restudying for memory. Across two learning cycles, participants studied word pairs, practiced each pair through either restudying or testing, predicted how many pairs they would recall by strategy, then completed a critical test on the pairs. During this test, participants either received feedback about the number of restudied and tested pairs they had correctly recalled or made postdictions about their performance by strategy (i.e., generated their own feedback). During both cycles, participants predicted they would recall an equivalent number of tested and restudied pairs, although they actually recalled more of the tested pairs. However, when participants experienced a larger testing effect, they were able to more accurately estimate recall performance for each strategy and updated their knowledge to reflect the testing effect in their predictions on the second learning cycle. Thus, peoples' ability to learn from experience about the testing effect is primarily constrained not by a failure to initiate the metacognitive processes required to monitor and track recall performance by strategy, but by the metacognitive burden of discriminating between small differences in recall between tested versus restudied material. In a follow-up experiment, I investigated the extent to which learners' knowledge about practice testing can be improved via test experience, direct instruction, or a combination of both techniques. Both techniques – independently and in combination – lead to more accurate beliefs about the testing effect, but no technique was more effective than the other. In summary, people can learn (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Dunlosky PhD (Advisor); Rawson Katherine PhD (Committee Member); Thompson Clarissa PhD (Committee Member); Spitznagel Mary Beth PhD (Committee Member); Morris Bradley PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Psychology

Master of Science (MS), Wright State University, 2018, Biological Sciences

In traditional approaches to teaching, examinations and quizzes have been considered secondary activities, designed to assess and motivate learning, but not generally as teaching tools in themselves (Roediger and Butler, 2011). However, abundant psychological research in laboratory settings indicates that the act of taking a quiz or examination on the material can directly enhance retention of that material in ways which are distinct from and often more effective than restudying of the material. This phenomenon is now referred to as the testing effect. The testing effect hypothesis asserts that (1) repeated retrieval attempts have a longer lasting effect on retention than repeated study attempts, (2) this effect is more pronounced in pure retrieval situations than in recognition situations, and (3) the effect is influenced by the timing of the testing relative to the presentation of the material and the timing of feedback on the results of testing (Wheeler et al., 2003; Karpicke and Roediger, 2008; Toppino and Cohen, 2009; Smith and Kimball, 2010). Despite the body of clinical research, the applicability of the testing effect to actual educational settings has not been rigorously demonstrated, in part due to the wide range of educational environments and purposes. The primary objective of this project was to investigate the classroom validity of the testing effect in an undergraduate/graduate Vertebrate Histology class. The aim was to determine whether low-stakes testing (non-graded quizzing) could be used to increase students' retention and final exam scores. A regression discontinuity (RD) design was selected for the research since it offers the treatment hypothesized to be most useful to subjects most in need of such an improved approach (in this case, those with lower test scores). RD is a quasi-experimental design that assigns a cut- off or threshold, with a treatment/intervention allocated to either the above the threshold or the below the threshold group. I (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Barbara Hull Ph.D (Advisor); William Romine Ph.D (Committee Member); Christa Agiro Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Biology

BS, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Although self-testing provides more long-term learning benefits than restudying content in preparation for a test, many students do not use self-testing and rely on restudying. Could task experience with self-testing allow students to update their knowledge of the benefits of testing? In this study, we replicated and extended Tullis, Finley and Benjamin (2013), evaluating two hypotheses (the cognitive load and spontaneity hypotheses) explaining how feedback affected the limited knowledge updating in our participants. Participants studied a list of word pairs through self-testing and restudying. After practicing, they predicted their test performance, then took a final cued-recall test. Each of the three groups of participants received a different type of feedback: one group received feedback on each test item, another group received feedback on each item and global feedback across all test items, and the final group received feedback on each test item and was asked to judge how many items they correctly recalled on the test. They then predicted their performance on another anticipated test, based on a novel set of word pairs. The results indicated that these second predictions showed limited knowledge updating for the item-by-item feedback group and the self-generated feedback group, as well as greater knowledge updating for the global feedback group. These results follow the pattern of data from Tullis, Finley and Benjamin (2013) and supports an interpretation of the cognitive load hypothesis.

Committee: John Dunlosky PhD (Advisor); Bradley Morris PhD (Committee Member); Angela Neal-Barnett PhD (Committee Member); Christopher Was PhD (Committee Member); Michelle Rivers MA (Other) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Educational Psychology; Psychology

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2018, Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical behavior of the composite material T800/F3900, a strengthened epoxy carbon-fiber reinforced polymer is investigated. Tension and shear tests are conducted on the composite at various strain rates. The objective of the project is to generate experimental data for calibrating MAT_213, a constitutive material model in the simulation software LS-DYNA. Material properties and strain rate effects are studied. In order to understand the influence of the constituent resin on the strain rate sensitivity of the composite, tension tests on the epoxy resin are also conducted. Two-dimensional or three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is used to measure full field strains in all tests. Tension tests on the composite are conducted at nominal strain rates of 0.001 s-1, 1 s-1 and 1000 s-1. Dog bone specimens are machined from a 0.125'' 16-ply panel with fibers in the transverse direction. Uniformity of strain distribution in the gage section is shown using DIC. Significant strain rate effect is seen when comparing the stress response in dynamic and quasi-static tests. At quasi-static strain rates of 0.001 s-1 and 1 s-1, the strain rate effect is minimal. Tension tests on resin are conducted at nominal strain rates of 0.001 s-1 and 1000 s-1. Resin specimens have dog bone geometry in two planes and are machined from a 0.25'' panel. Comparison of composite and resin tensile tests at quasi-static rates shows that the resin fails at a much higher strain than the composite. Dynamic tensile tests of the resin show force oscillations at regular intervals that correspond to wave reflections within the specimen. An estimated high strain rate response is presented. Strain rate effect is seen when comparing the stress response of the resin at the quasi-static and dynamic strain rates. Shear tests on the composite are conducted at nominal strain rates of 0.001 s-1 and 1000 s-1. Double notch shear specimens are machined from a 0.125'' 16-ply panel wi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Amos Gilat (Advisor); Carlos Castro (Committee Member) Subjects: Mechanical Engineering

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), University of Findlay, 2017, Education

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher perceptions of the ceiling-effect with their gifted students and how this impacted those students' ability to show growth with their value-added scores on state assessments. Furthermore, the impact that failing to show growth in terms of value-added scores had on teachers' evaluations was explored. Since teachers of math in grades 4-6 now have their students' scores used as part of their evaluations, this study was conducted at a great time in terms of sharing the results with those in the educational community. A quantitative, non-experimental approach was taken that focuses on teacher responses on a survey that includes their perceptions, value-added scores and teacher evaluation rating. Due to concerns with confidentiality, all identifiable information was removed from these responses. Based on this study, regular classroom teachers with high quality professional development had the highest average value-added score which was even higher than replacement courses taught by gifted intervention specialists. Teacher perceptions of working with gifted students showed no significant effect on student growth as seen in value-added scores or teachers' summative OTES evaluation rating. Keywords: gifted students, value-added scores, teacher evaluations, gifted service models, ceiling effect, above-level testing.

Committee: Jon Brasfield (Committee Chair) Subjects: Education

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2014, Psychology

Four experiments are reported on the importance of retrospective judgments of performance (postdictions) on tests. Participants answered general knowledge questions and estimated how many questions they answered correctly. They gave higher postdictions when easy questions preceded difficult questions. This was true when time to answer each question was equalized and constrained, when participants were instructed to not write answers, and when questions were presented in a multiple choice format. Results are consistent with the notion that first impressions predominate in overall perception of test difficulty.

Committee: Robert Greene PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Psychology

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Education : Educational Studies

Reporting effect size to supplement p-value in null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) is highly recommended by scholars, journals and academic associations. The current comprehensive review investigated the most recent effect size reporting and interpreting practices of 1,243 studies published in 14 academic journals from 2005 to 2007. Overall, 49.1% of the articles reported effect size and 56.7% of them interpreted effect size. A series of Chi-square tests suggested that (a) effect size reporting and interpreting practices statistically differ between types of journals; (b) only effect size interpreting practice differs between different NHST methods; (c) neither effect size reporting nor interpreting practice differ between years. The importance of reporting and interpreting effect size is also discussed.

Committee: Wei Pan Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Leigh Wang Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Statistics

PHD, Kent State University, 2012, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences

One way to improve students¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ academic performance is to improve their reading comprehension. Previous investigations demonstrated that testing students on learning material as well as having them use metacognitive strategies have independently improved reading comprehension. The test used in the learning phase in previous investigates has typically been experimenter created. In the proposed study, free recall of recently read text was used as the test in the learning phase. A second important aspect of the current investigation is the inaccuracy of students¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ meta-comprehension judgments. Although use of metacognitive strategies does improve academic performance, students often make inaccurate judgments about what they know and are particularly inaccurate in their assessment of text comprehension. The aim of this study was to determine if free recall was an effective testing strategy for learning of text and long-term retention. Also, this study explored if self-selection of material versus experimenter- selection of restudy material improved long-term retention. Finally, this study explored the relationship between judgments of learning and re-study choices. Free recall did not improve participants reading comprehension, long-term retention and the accuracy of their judgments of learning in comparison to rereading the material. Participants who selected their restudy materials did not outperform those who did not select their restudy materials.

Committee: Christopher Was PhD (Committee Chair); Drew Tiene PhD (Committee Member); John Dunlosky PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Psychology