Do prequestions support learning from text more than learning objectives?

The strategy of presenting students with questions that they mostly cannot answer before they read a text has been shown to improve learning and it is known as prequestions. This prequestion effect has been attributed to focusing of attention as well as to additional benefits of answering attempts. However, in most studies, the control group just reads the text, which limits both theoretical and practical implications. In two preregistered experiments conducted between 2022 and 2024, we included learning objectives as an additional educationally relevant control condition that, like prequestions, should help focus learners' attention, but unlike prequestions, not prompt answering attempts. Participants were presented with open-ended questions or with learning objectives before reading a textbook excerpt or just read the text. In the final test, they answered multiple-choice questions related to the prequestions or learning objectives (old questions) as well as new questions. Bayesian evidence indicates small to medium-sized effects in favor of prequestions compared with reading only and reading with learning objectives in both experiments. Significant differences in frequentist testing were obtained in Experiment 2 and in a joint analysis of both experiments. Overall, the findings indicate that there is indeed a benefit of prequestions over and above focusing of attention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).