Using a volitional help sheet to increase university students' attendance at on-campus lectures: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: A volitional help sheet (VHS) is an intervention that promotes the formation of implementation intentions. Research has established that VHSs can change a range of behaviours, including increased attendance at online university lectures. However, research has not yet tested whether VHSs can increase attendance at on-campus lectures. Additionally, no studies have explicitly tested the extent to which memory improvement techniques can increase the efficacy of VHSs, nor have they tested the dependence of VHSs on memory. However, models of memory dictate that rehearsal of specified implementation intentions should boost their efficacy and that their efficacy should depend on memory ability.

Aims: To test whether: (1) a VHS can increase university students' attendance at on-campus lectures; (2) the efficacy of the VHS could be boosted with an encoding facilitation task requiring rehearsal (articulatory and elaborative) of implementation intentions; and (3) memory ability moderates the effects of the VHS on lecture attendance.

Materials and methods: Students enrolled in an undergraduate Psychology degree programme (N = 252) completed online measures of goal intention to attend lectures and both self-reported and objective memory ability. These students were subsequently randomised to receive a VHS only, a VHS plus encoding facilitation or a control intervention, designed to increase lecture attendance.

Results: Both VHS conditions attended a greater proportion of lectures over the following 11-week teaching semester than did the control condition. There was no difference in lecture attendance rates between the VHS only and VHS plus encoding facilitation conditions. Memory ability did not moderate the effects of the VHS on lecture attendance rates.

Discussion and conclusion: The VHS was efficacious at increasing on-campus university lecture attendance. There was no evidence that the encoding facilitation task boosted the effects of the VHS or that the efficacy of the VHS was dependant on memory ability. VHSs are likely to constitute useful interventions for increasing university students' attendance at on campus lectures. Further research could usefully test the efficacy of memory improvement techniques and the dependency of VHSs in samples with memory difficulties, where there is likely to be more scope for improvement than in the university student populations. Further research is also required to test other ways to boost the efficacy of VHSs.