Perceived Readiness for Examination Performance (PREP) Produced by Initial Reading of Text and Text Containing Adjunct Questions

Abstract

STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS of whether enough has been learned from text to pass a test presumably regulate their processing of textbook material. The authors examine the accuracy of these perceptions associated with initial reading in three experiments. In each study, university students read a textbook chapter and took a test on factual information contained in the reading. Subjects estimated test performance either before reading, after reading, or after testing. There were consistent, although nonsignificant, increases in accuracy of perceived readiness for examination performance (PREP) from before reading to after reading (average gain across the three experiments was 0.52 SD). There were also consistent after-reading to after-testing increases in PREP accuracy, although improvement was statistically significant in only one of the three studies (average of 0.77 SD across experiments). Only the beforereading to after-testing increase in PREP was significant in all three studies. That the first two experiments included only nonsignificant improvements in PREP during reading but significant improvements due both to reading and to testing motivated examination of the effects on PREP produced by adding adjunct questions to text. Thus, Experiment 3 included conditions in which students read text that contained inserted questions. PREP in these conditions was significantly more accurate after reading than before reading and as accurate after reading as after testing. It was clear that adjunct questions can be an important source of metacognitive information during reading.