Testing Effect on High-Level Cognitive Skills

The testing effect is one of the strongest learning techniques documented to date. Although the effects of testing on high-level learning are promising, fewer studies on this have been done. In this classroom application of the testing effect, we aimed to 1) determine whether a testing effect exists on high-level testing; 2) determine whether higher-level testing has an effect on low-level content retention; and 3) determine whether content knowledge, cognitive skill, or additional components are responsible for this effect. Through a series of two experiments, we confirmed a testing effect on high-level items. However, improved content retention due to testing was not observed. We suggest that this high-level testing effect is due to a better ability to apply specific skills to specific content when this application process has appeared on a previous exam.