Can Multiple-Choice Testing Induce Desirable Difficulties? Evidence from the Laboratory and the Classroom.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review and theoretical discussion of laboratory and classroom research (by design analogy, not clinical CEBM)
PubMed 26255442 · doi:10.5406/amerjpsyc.128.2.0229
What was done
The authors reviewed existing laboratory and classroom research examining whether multiple-choice testing can trigger effective retrieval processes and serve as a "desirable difficulty" to enhance long-term retention and transfer, similar to cued or free recall tests. They outlined theoretical question design features and student metacognitive strategies required to optimize learning from multiple-choice tests.
What was found
The abstract reports no quantitative data or specific numerical outcomes. It conceptually discusses that while retrieval practice benefits are typically attributed to free or cued recall, multiple-choice questions can be structured to foster similar productive retrieval processes.
Why it matters
Multiple-choice tests are ubiquitous in education and high-stakes assessments, yet are often viewed as passive recognition tasks rather than active learning tools. Framing how to design multiple-choice questions to engage active retrieval could make standard educational testing more instructionally beneficial.
Limits
This is a narrative discussion and theoretical review rather than an empirical trial or systematic meta-analysis; no sample sizes, specific search criteria, effect sizes, or quantitative results are provided in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Introducing desirable difficulties—conditions that make learning more challenging and effortful—leads to superior long-term memory retention compared to easy learning conditions.