Stabilizing Access to Marginal Knowledge in a Classroom Setting

• In Event: 29.083 - Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: 29.083-4 - Poster Session 3: Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Students acquire a vast amount of knowledge as they progress through education, but over time much of this knowledge becomes inaccessible, requiring remediation during valuable class time. Although such “marginal” knowledge cannot be retrieved without assistance, laboratory research suggests that taking a multiple-choice test can stabilize access to this knowledge. We investigated how taking a multiple-choice test affects access to marginal knowledge in an authentic classroom setting. Pharmacy students in a first-year bridging course completed a fill-in-the-blank pre- and post-assessment with an interim multiple-choice test on half of the material. Performance on the post-course assessment showed that a single exposure to a multiple-choice question without feedback was sufficient to stabilize access to marginal knowledge that was inaccessible before the course.

Authors

• Andrew C. Butler, Washington University in St. Louis

• Kathryn Campbell, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Adam M. Persky, University of North Carolina