An exploratory field study of students’ memory for written feedback comments

Feedback information can be a powerful influence on learning, yet there is currently insufficient understanding of the cognitive mechanisms responsible for these effects. In this exploratory study, students (N = 279) received teacher feedback on a practice exam paper, and a few days later we assessed the amount and type of feedback information they successfully remembered. Overall, students performed relatively poorly, recalling on average just 25% of the coded feedback comments they had received. We found that students were more likely to remember critique comments over praise, and more likely to recall critique that was process-focused rather than task-focused. In contrast with recent laboratory studies, though, we found minimal evidence of a memory advantage for evaluative critique over directive critique. We call for greater understanding and measurement of learners’ cognitive processing of feedback information, as a means to develop more robust scientific accounts of how and when feedback is impactful.