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Investigating the Effects of Exam Length on Performance and Cognitive Fatigue

This study examined the effects of exam length on student performance and cognitive fatigue in an undergraduate biology classroom. Exams tested higher order thinking skills. To test our hypothesis, we administered standard- and extended-length high-level exams to two populations of non-majors biolog...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jensen, Jamie L., Berry, Dane A., Kummer, Tyler A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3741288/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23950918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070270
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author Jensen, Jamie L.
Berry, Dane A.
Kummer, Tyler A.
author_facet Jensen, Jamie L.
Berry, Dane A.
Kummer, Tyler A.
author_sort Jensen, Jamie L.
collection PubMed
description This study examined the effects of exam length on student performance and cognitive fatigue in an undergraduate biology classroom. Exams tested higher order thinking skills. To test our hypothesis, we administered standard- and extended-length high-level exams to two populations of non-majors biology students. We gathered exam performance data between conditions as well as performance on the first and second half of exams within conditions. We showed that lengthier exams led to better performance on assessment items shared between conditions, possibly lending support to the spreading activation theory. It also led to greater performance on the final exam, lending support to the testing effect in creative problem solving. Lengthier exams did not result in lower performance due to fatiguing conditions, although students perceived subjective fatigue. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to assessment practices.
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spelling pubmed-37412882013-08-15 Investigating the Effects of Exam Length on Performance and Cognitive Fatigue Jensen, Jamie L. Berry, Dane A. Kummer, Tyler A. PLoS One Research Article This study examined the effects of exam length on student performance and cognitive fatigue in an undergraduate biology classroom. Exams tested higher order thinking skills. To test our hypothesis, we administered standard- and extended-length high-level exams to two populations of non-majors biology students. We gathered exam performance data between conditions as well as performance on the first and second half of exams within conditions. We showed that lengthier exams led to better performance on assessment items shared between conditions, possibly lending support to the spreading activation theory. It also led to greater performance on the final exam, lending support to the testing effect in creative problem solving. Lengthier exams did not result in lower performance due to fatiguing conditions, although students perceived subjective fatigue. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to assessment practices. Public Library of Science 2013-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC3741288/ /pubmed/23950918 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070270 Text en © 2013 Jensen et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jensen, Jamie L.
Berry, Dane A.
Kummer, Tyler A.
Investigating the Effects of Exam Length on Performance and Cognitive Fatigue
title Investigating the Effects of Exam Length on Performance and Cognitive Fatigue
title_full Investigating the Effects of Exam Length on Performance and Cognitive Fatigue
title_fullStr Investigating the Effects of Exam Length on Performance and Cognitive Fatigue
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the Effects of Exam Length on Performance and Cognitive Fatigue
title_short Investigating the Effects of Exam Length on Performance and Cognitive Fatigue
title_sort investigating the effects of exam length on performance and cognitive fatigue
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3741288/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23950918
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070270
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