Errorful learning of trivia questions and answers: The role of study time

Abstract Errorful learning—asking questions and forcing responding even before the correct answers are presented for study—has recently been proposed as a way of maximizing the effectiveness of study. However, much support for the superiority of errorful learning over standard learning via reading comes from studies employing pairs of words as study materials, which remain of little educational relevance. Studies using materials affording richer semantic processing, such as trivia questions and their answers, have shown benefits of errorful learning only when the errorful learning condition is granted additional time for formulating guesses. In the present study, we systematically examined the role of timing when comparing errorful learning and reading strategies applied to study of trivia questions and their answers. In Experiments 1 and 2, we obtained evidence for the superiority of errorful learning over reading when additional time was given to formulate guesses, but this superiority was abolished when the overall time to study was equated between the two learning strategies. We further examined the role of answer familiarity in Experiment 3, showing that incorrect guessing produced no benefit for learning regardless of whether the to-be-learned concepts were familiar or not. In Experiments 4 and 5, no benefits of errorful learning emerged when participants were required to guess responses to two different questions that shared a common set of possible answers. We conclude that the benefits of errorful learning for trivia questions emerge only when guessing gives more time to process target questions.