HEADINGS WITHIN MULTIPLE-CHOICE TESTS AS FACILITATORS OF TEST-PERFORMANCE

Summary. Undergraduate students (N = 287) taking a multiple‐choice test were either provided with headings during the test or completed the test without headings. Students were also tested for field‐independence and later completed a questionnaire concerning their beliefs about the effects of headings in tests. Headings did not facilitate test performance, nor was there any association with field‐independence. However, the majority of students believed that headings would increase their test score as a function of activation of prior knowledge. Taken together with previous research, the findings suggest that the facilitative effects of headings occur at encoding rather than retrieval. 1990 The British Psychological Society