Tweet: Learning benefits of confidence weighted testing

Taking multiple-choice practice tests with competitive incorrect alternatives can enhance performance on related
but different questions appearing on a later cued-recall test https://t.co/OJqjHUln1t pic.twitter.com/nyOMFy0xJs

— Kiran Johny (@johnywrites) August 13, 2018

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This study shows that MCQ tests with competitive incorrect choices can improve performance on related but different questions appearing on a later cued recall test.

This benefit of MCQ testing, which does not occur when the practice test is a cued recall test, appears attributable to participants attempting to retrieve not only why the correct alternative is correct but also why the other alternatives are incorrect.(Bjork Study)

Thus they get to learn WHAT IS and WHAT IS NOT 

Example:
The city known as the “IT capital” of India is:
Bangalore
Mumbai
Delhi
Hyderabad

From this question learners are also able to learn the following connected information.

Which of the following are not the “IT capital” of India :
Bangalore
Mumbai
Delhi
Hyderabad

The concept of cued recall used in this paper means the retrieval of memory with the help of cues. For instance, in remembering the word feather, the word bird may be used as a cued recall.

This study results point to ways to make MSQ testing a more powerful tool for learning.