Prompted Self-Explanations Improve Learning in Statistics but Not Retention

Abstract

College students often do not retain what they learn in Statistics in order to apply it in Experimental Psychology. Self-explanation, that is, elaborating on what one is trying to learn by asking questions, making inferences, etc., improves learning and may improve retention. The purpose of this study was to determine whether self-explanation was superior to students’ usual study methods specifically for learning some basic concepts in statistics, and, if so, if it was similarly useful for retention a semester after the initial learning. We used 199 college students as participants in a randomized, between participant, two-part experiment examining the effects of training by prompting self-explanations as a potential solution to this applied problem. The self-explanations that we elicited improved initial learning and were superior to students’ usual study methods, but did not benefit retention. Future research on improving the quality of the self-explanations and training with spaced retrieval practice, in order to benefit retention, is suggested. Self-explanation should be implemented for teaching statistics in order to benefit initial learning. However, teachers should explore other methods to accomplish retention.