Effects of self-assessment on retention in rule-based learning

The main purpose of most educational and training programs isthat the person will acquire some specified knowledge, retain it until a later time when it will be retrieved and employed to make decisions, select and execute actions, etc. Previous research has indicated that there might be a positive relation between an individual's certainty about the correctness of learned responses and how well the material is retained over shorter time-periods. In the present study, 39 men and 38 women learned the names of eight different hand pliers; they were also assessing their certainty about the names of the pliers. After the learning session, the participants returned after either 1, 6, or 12 wk. for a retention and relearning session. Analysis showed that higher certainty was associated positively with retention. The men were more prone than the women to rate themselves as being "Extremely sure" of being correct, even when they, in fact, were wrong. Also, men and women learned the material equally fast, but the men required significantly fewer trials than the women to relearn material. Inclusion of ratings of certainty offers a convenient way of assessing when training has been sufficient and facilitates detection of misinformation (sure-but-wrong answers).