The effects of student expectations about the cognitive complexity of test items on study strategies and on memorization and cognitively complex test item performance

Two studies were completed that examined the effects of expectations about the level of cognitive complexity of examination items on study strategies and on performance on items at varying levels of cognitive complexity. The first was an experimental study in which students in classroom testing courses were randomly assigned to two treatments. The treatments were a complex condition in which students were told to expect cognitively complex items and a memory condition in which students were told to expect items that require memorization of information. The number of students in the complex and the memorization conditions was 61 and 62, respectively. Analysis of variance and covariance procedures were used to evaluate group mean differences in study strategies and performance on items requiring both cognitively complex and memorization skills. The study generally supported the hypothesis that students expecting cognitively complex examination items use a deeper approach to studying and perform better on complex examination items than students expecting memorization items on the examination.;A field study was additionally employed to assess the effects of expectations about the cognitive complexity of test items on student study approaches. It was anticipated that student study approaches would correlate more highly with their expectations about the cognitive complexity of test items in a specific course than with general study strategies. Thirty-two instructors and 60 students in their courses were interviewed to assess student expectations about the cognitive complexity of test items on an upcoming examination. The volunteer students were asked to complete two study strategies questionnaires which addressed how the students generally studied and how they planned to study for the next major examination in the class from which they volunteered. Correlations between the students' expectations and each of the study strategies questionnaires were compared. Although not significantly different, the near-zero correlation between student expectations and general study strategies and the positive correlation between student expectations and specific study strategies differed in the expected direction.;Based on the two studies, it was concluded that expectations about the cognitive complexity of test items can influence study strategies and performance under well controlled conditions. The field study correlations between expectations and study strategies specific to a course and general study strategies differed in the expected direction, however, the nonsignificant results indicated that other variables besides expectations are needed in a model explaining student choices about studying and their performance.