What makes people study more? An evaluation of factors that affect self-paced study

Abstract

Allocation of study time across items was investigated in three experiments. According to the norm-affects-allocation hypothesis, when studying an item, a person changes the sought-after degree of learning for the item (called the norm of study) in an attempt to achieve task goals. As the norm of study is increased, more time will be allocated for study. This hypothesis was evaluated by having people pace their study of items for an eventual test of recall. As predicted, study time was greater (a) when points awarded for recalling an item increased, (b) when instructions emphasized mastering each item rather than quickly learning each item, (c) when points deducted for each second of study decreased, and (d) when the likelihood an item would be on the test increased. Also, although allocating more study time was usually accompanied by an increase in eventual recall, under several conditions people's allocation of study time appeared sub-optimal. Discussion focuses on current theory of self-paced study and people's apparent sub-optimal allocation of study time.