A cognitive psychologist was interested in the relationship between the balance of self-directed active retrieval practice hours and teacher-led review hours, and student performance on an end-of-unit history exam.
As part of her research, she conducted a pilot study. A unit on medieval history was divided into 12 equal one-hour study sessions.
Twelve students, who were matched for their high level of interest in medieval history, took part in the study.
All 12 students completed all 12 hours of study. They were allocated to different combinations of self-directed active retrieval practice and teacher-led review.
Each student was randomly assigned a letter from A to L. This determined the number of hours they spent on active retrieval and teacher-led review. The combinations are shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1: The numbers of hours each student (labelled A – L) spent on active retrieval and teacher-led review sessions
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of active retrieval hours | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Number of teacher-led review hours | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
Explain why it was important to match the students on their high level of interest in medieval history.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Scientific processes with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 689 questions, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.
