Two routes to the same place: learning from quick closed-book essays versus open-book essays

Knowing when and how to most effectively use writing as a learning tool requires understanding the cognitive processes driving learning. Writing is a generative activity that often requires students to elaborate upon and organise information. Here we examine what happens when a standard short writing task is (or is not) combined with a known mnemonic, retrieval practice. In two studies, we compared learning from writing short open-book versus closed-book essays. Despite closed-book essays being shorter and taking less time, students learned just as much as from writing longer and more time intensive open-book essays. These results differ from students’ own perceptions that they learned more from writing open-book essays. Analyses of the essays themselves suggested a trade-off in cognitive processes; closed-book essays required the retrieval of information but resulted in lower quality essays as judged by naïve readers. Implications for educational practice and possible roles for individual differences are discussed.

Duke Scholars

Author Elizabeth J. Marsh Psychology & Neuroscience