Elaborations of Introductory Psychology Terms: Effects on Test Performance and Subjective Ratings

Abstract

Undergraduate students participated in an experiment designed to evaluate different types of elaborations on definitions of 16 psychology terms. First, participants received booklets presenting the definition of each term, followed by 1 of several elaborations: an example, a mnemonic, a paraphrase, or a repeated definition (the nonelaborating control condition). Then students received a multiple-choice test consisting of questions both on the definitions and on novel examples of the terms. Compared to repeated definitions, examples and mnemonics—but not paraphrases—improved scores on each type of question. However, students' subjective ratings did not always reflect the effectiveness of the elaborations in improving test performance.