Testing as a teaching tool

While testing can be useful as an assessment tool, researchers suggests that the actual process of taking a test can also help us to learn and retain new information over the long-term and apply it across different contexts. New research explores the nuenced interaction between testing, memory, and learning and suggests possible applications for testing in educational settings.
Appropriate multiple choice tests can foster test including learning. The multiple choice tests had one potentially important advantage over tests in which only the question is presented. Multiple choice tests help the testees to recall information related to incorrect alternative.
Testing also engances the transfer of learning. Many studies have shown that having to retrieve information during a test helps you remember that information later on. It promotes not only the direct retention of information but also the application of knowledge to new situation.
Testing can also strengthen short-term memory for cross language information. The repeated testings leads to better long-term memory for information then the repeated study. Studying may strengthen the aspects of a memory trace that pertains to the way words look and sound while testing may strengthen the aspects of a memory trace that have to do with the meaning of words. Also active retrieval promotes meaningful learning.

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