The testing effect and judgments of learning: Their effects on reading comprehension

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.