A Mastery Approach to Flashcard-Based Adaptive Training

Students often use flashcards to study but they do not always use them effectively. In this experiment, we explored different methods of dropping flashcards to inform the development of an adaptive flashcard-based trainer. Forty-seven U.S. Marine Corps students were randomly assigned to one of three groups in an armored vehicle training task. In the Mastery Drop condition, cards were dropped from training based on objective criteria (i.e., accuracy and reaction time). In the Learner Drop condition, cards were dropped based on the learner’s choice. In the No Drop condition, cards were not dropped during training, which served as a control group. Using a pre-test post-test design, results showed that the Learner Drop condition had the lowest learning gains on the immediate post-test and the delayed post-test (two days after training), perhaps because participants were unsuccessful at self-regulating their learning and completed training too quickly. Although the No Drop condition had the highest learning gains on the immediate post-test, the gains significantly decreased on the delayed post-test. In contrast, the Mastery Drop condition maintained consistent learning gains from immediate to delayed post-test. Although the No Drop condition completed more training trials than the Mastery Drop condition, this additional practice did not significantly aid long-term retention. Finally, the No Drop condition had the highest immediate transfer test scores, which involved identifying images of real-world vehicles, but there were no group differences on the delayed transfer test. These results suggest that adaptive flashcard training should incorporate mastery criteria, rather than learner-driven decisions about when to drop flashcards from the deck.