Despite attempts to engage students, undergraduate instructors are often challenged by low motivation among students to study outside of the classroom. The current study adapted motivational interviewing, which is often used with therapy clients ambivalent to change, to target college student motivation to study for exams. Findings indicated…

Four sections of introductory psychology participated in a test of personal response systems (commonly called "clickers"). Two sections used clickers to answer multiple-choice quiz questions for extra credit; 2 sections did not. Even though we used clickers very minimally (mainly to administer quizzes and give immediate feedback in…

College instructors are increasingly relying on wireless clicker systems as instructional tools in the classroom. Instructors commonly use clicker systems for such classroom activities as taking attendance, giving quizzes, and taking opinion polls. However, these systems are uniquely well suited for the teaching of psychology and other courses…

We propose that a brief take-home syllabus quiz can be a catalyst for students to read and refer to their syllabus as a source of essential information about the class. In this article, we detail the development of such a quiz and provide evidence that students who complete a syllabus quiz have a better understanding of course policies than…

At the beginning of the undergraduate psychology course, students are informed that a comprehensive makeup final will be required of any student who misses any regularly scheduled exam for any reason. The more exams a student misses, the more heavily the comprehensive makeup is weighted. (RM)

Study concludes that university students perform at higher levels when performance is contingent on extrinsic rewards, i. e., final examination grades, and that intrinsic student interests do not differ as a result of this contingency. Suggests relevant topics for future studies. (KC)

Study 1 assessed students' use and perceptions of acronyms at 3 different exam times in 2 sections of Introduction to Psychology. Acronym use consistently predicted higher performance on acronym related exam items, and I partially discounted 2 possible confounds. Students rated acronyms as helpful in multiple ways, including increasing motivation…

This study examined whether offering daily extra credit quizzes predicted exam performance in an advanced psychology course (n = 36). Results revealed that extra credit performance was a strong predictor of exam performance, above and beyond gender, college grade point average, and ACT scores. In addition, results suggested that nearly half of the…

Explores the impact of unannounced quizzes on students' performance on examinations by comparing course segments with quizzes to segments without quizzes. Finds that test scores following quizzes averaged half a letter grade higher than scores from segments without quizzes; C students demonstrated a grade gain of 84% of a letter grade. (CMK)

Describes a system that involves randomly administered quizzes and offers suggestions for its implementation in classes of any size. Presents data in support of the effectiveness of this technique stating that students completed their assigned reading at impressive rates when motivated by randomly administered quizzes. (CMK)