Adaptation of quizzing in learning psychology concepts

[en] Background: In the domain of psychology, declarative concepts are a core component of the foundational knowledge that is to be learned. A promising means to enhance retention and comprehension of such concepts is to provide learners with open-ended quiz questions and corrective feedback (i.e., practice quizzing). As adapting quiz question complexity to the individual learners can increase the benefits of practice quizzing, in previous research adaptations based on the real-time process measures of cognitive load ratings and of self-assessed quizzing performance during quizzing have been developed. To date, however, it is unclear whether and, if so, why the two types of adaptation differ in their effectiveness. Aims: The main goal of the present study was to compare the two adaptation mechanisms in learning declarative psychology concepts via practice quizzing. Sample: Participants were N = 177 university students. Methods: After watching an e-lecture on new declarative psychology concepts, the learners were randomly assigned to either note-taking or to responding to quiz questions. The complexity of the quiz questions was increased either according to a preset sequence, or dependent on subjective cognitive load, self-assessed quizzing performance, or both. Results: Cognitive-load-adapted quizzing was most effective. These benefits were mediated via higher levels of knowledge whenever increases in quiz question complexity were suggested by the adaptation mechanism/took place in the preset sequence, which fostered quizzing performance, which, in turn, fostered learning outcomes. Conclusions: This study shows that simple cognitive load ratings are a promising basis for adapting practice quizzing in learning declarative psychology concepts.

Disciplines :

Education & instruction

Author, co-author :

Obergassel, Niklas

Heitmann, Svenja

GRUND, Axel ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > LUCET

Fries, Stefan

Berthold, Kirsten

Roelle, Julian

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Adaptation of quizzing in learning psychology concepts

Publication date :

October 2025

Journal title :

Learning and Instruction

ISSN :

0959-4752

Publisher :

Elsevier, United Kingdom

Volume :

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Focus Area :

Educational Sciences

Development Goals :

4. Quality education

Additional URL :

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2024.102028

Funders :

This work was supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung [(German) Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF)

Funding number :

FKZ 16DHL1004

Available on ORBilu :

since 02 October 2024

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