Delay of Information Feedback in an Applied Setting

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Undergraduates (N = 94) enrolled in an educational psychology course read an assigned article of about 3, 700 words. A 30-item multiple-choice test was then administered and followed by one of four treatments: 1.) no feedback, 2.) immediate feedback, 3.) one day or, 4.) seven days delayed feedback. A retention test, consisting of the original items and distractors randomly reordered, was administered seven days after the feedback. No overall differences in performance were observed. Likewise, there were no significant differences for the test items analyzed according to initial performance or according to item difficulty. Questionnaire data indicated that immediate feedback stimulated the most rereading. These results bring into question the importance of controlling feedback intervals carefully in applied instructional settings.