Introduction

	Basic Biological Processes
	Sec. A7, R 12:30 - 1:50

Reading Reports of Empirical Studies

The purpose of the Introduction is to describe the problem, develop the theoretical and empirical background for the research questions, and elaborate a rationale for all parts of the study. In order to understand why the research was conducted, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

What are the research questions?
Where did these research questions come from?
Is the research important? Why or why not?

These questions set up the context and rationale for the study. Read the Introduction section of the published article and see if you can answer these questions. Then work through the summary of the introduction below. Help in addressing the questions can be found in the left column.

What are the research questions? Where did they come from?

Is this research important?

Practice Versus Review Exams and Final Exam Performance

William R. Balch

Have you ever walked out of an exam thinking, "Whoa, I thought I knew the material but I sure blew that exam!"? In this report of empirical research, Balch (1998) investigates what he terms the assessment-accuracy hypothesis as an explanation for this phenomenon

Assessment-accuracy refers to how well an individual can assess his or her knowledge. Most of us overestimate what we know. While studying, for example, we might read a section of the text and think, "Oh, I know that." When we miss that item on the test, we then realize we didn't know the information as well as we thought we did. According to this hypothesis, taking a practice test will help us determine how well we really do know the information.

To help students develop an accurate assessment of their preparation for an exam, Balch gave some students in his intro classes a practice exam. Other students got the same exam but didn't actually answer the questions in a test-taking format.

Balch discusses his findings in terms of both an assessment-accuracy hypothesis and a levels-of-processing hypothesis.

Levels-of-Processing refers to how deeply an individual processes information. According to this hypothesis, the more deeply we process information, the more likely we are to remember it later. According to this hypothesis, taking a practice test and then checking our answers will help us process the information more thoroughly than if we simply glance at the questions and answers. Fergus Craik, University of Toronto, is one of the original developers of this widely accepted hypothesis about memory.

	Reading the Research			Questions to Consider
	Title	Abstract	Introduction	Method	Results	Discussion	References