Hitting a high note on math tests: Remembered success influences test preferences.
Abstract
Remembered utility is the retrospective evaluation about the pleasure and pain associated with a past experience. It can influence choices about repeating or avoiding similar situations in the future (Kahneman, 2000). A set of 5 experiments explored the remembered utility of effortful test episodes and how it impacted future test choices. Experiments 1-3 mimicked Kahneman, Fredrickson, Schreiber, and Redelmeier's (1993) cold pressor study, but used a challenging test experience in place of submerging one's hand in painfully cold ice water. Participants took a short and an extended test of difficult math problems. The short test was made of 30 difficult math problems. The extended test used 30 difficult problems plus 10 moderately difficult problems. Participants made retrospective evaluations about the tests and chose which kind of test (short or extended) they wanted for their next test and for a hypothetical test 1 day later. Results showed that a challenging test episode extended by a more moderate interval was preferred to an unextended interval. Future test choices reflected this preference. This pattern was evidenced even when points were awarded only to correctly answered difficult items but not to moderately answered difficult items. Experiment 4 directly compared preferences for a moderate end versus a moderate start test, and Experiment 5 contrasted those test conditions with a moderate middle test condition. The findings demonstrated test-takers' bias in favor of test experiences that start or end on a high note. (PsycINFO Database Record
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Test takers preferred longer tests of difficult math problems with starting or ending sets of moderately difficult successful items to shorter tests of the same difficult math problems only.
“For example, Finn and Miele (2015) found that test takers preferred longer tests of difficult math problems with starting or ending sets of moderately difficult (successful) items to shorter tests of the same difficult math problems only.”
From Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (2016) · cites this paper as Finn & Miele, 2015
Cites
Still being checked.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Wulf, G., & Lewthwaite, R. (2016) · Psychonomic Bulletin & Review · doi:10.3758/s13423-015-0999-9 · Cited by 1,238 · see citing works
Ben‐Eliyahu, A. (2019) · Educational Psychologist · doi:10.1080/00461520.2019.1582345 · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Reber, R., & Greifeneder, R. (2017) · Educational Psychologist · doi:10.1080/00461520.2016.1258173 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Gifted students and self-regulated learning: The MASRL model and its implications for SRL
Efklides, A. (2018) · High Ability Studies · doi:10.1080/13598139.2018.1556069 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Passeggia, R., Testa, I., Esposito, G., Picione, R. D. L., Ragozini, G., & Freda, M. F. (2023) · Innovative Higher Education · doi:10.1007/s10755-023-09674-5 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Increasing the Pleasure and Enjoyment of Exercise: A Novel Resistance-Training Protocol
Hutchinson, J., Zenko, Z., Santich, S., & Dalton, P. C. (2020) · Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology · doi:10.1123/jsep.2019-0089 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Carpenter, S. K. (2023) · Educational Psychology Review · doi:10.1007/s10648-023-09811-8 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Exploring interactions between motivation and cognition to better shape self-regulated learning.
Finn, B. (2020) · Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.08.008 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Self-citationMental effort and discomfort: Testing the peak-end effect during a cognitively demanding task
Hsu, C., Propp, L., Panetta, L., Martin, S. M., Dentakos, S., Toplak, M. E., & Eastwood, J. D. (2018) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0191479 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
All’s Bad That Ends Bad: There Is a Peak-End Memory Bias in Anxiety
Müller, U. W. D., Witteman, C. L. M., Spijker, J., & Alpers, G. W. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01272 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Hoogerheide, V., Vink, M., Finn, B., Raes, A. K., & PAAS, F. G. W. C. (2017) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699931.2017.1362375 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Self-citationEEG Correlates of Engagement During Assessment
Halderman, L. K., Finn, B., Lockwood, J. R., Long, N. M., & Kahana, M. J. (2021) · ETS Research Report Series · doi:10.1002/ets2.12312 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Self-citationCarpenter, S. K., Witherby, A. E., & Tauber, S. K. (2020) · Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.04.003 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Fraundorf, S. H., Caddick, Z. A., Nokes‐Malach, T. J., & Rottman, B. M. (2023) · Cognitive Research Principles and Implications · doi:10.1186/s41235-023-00508-8 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Finn, B. (2015) · Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2015.06.001 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Self-citationTime's Influence: A Systematic Review of Biases in Intertemporal Decision-Making
Tas, P. G., Maknoon, Y., & Rezaei, J. (2025) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-091924-040158 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Cho, K. W. (2021) · Educational Psychology · doi:10.1080/01443410.2021.1934404 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
The impact of remembered success experiences on expectancies, values, and perceived costs
Finn, B., Miele, D. B., & Wigfield, A. (2022) · Contemporary Educational Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2022.102143 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationTime is a great healer: Peak-end memory bias in anxiety – Induced by threat of shock
Müller, U. W. D., Gerdes, A. B. M., & Alpers, G. W. (2022) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2022.104206 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Finn, B. (2015) · Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2015.10.001 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Self-citationWhat more can we learn from teaching evaluations?
Finn, B. (2020) · Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2020.02.002 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Self-citationWagner, D., & Eastwood, J. D. (2025) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0332505 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Augmenting training–learning experience by design: a conceptual framework
Shree, S. (2020) · Industrial and Commercial Training · doi:10.1108/ict-09-2019-0086 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
L'autorégulation motivationnelle
Valérie, I. (2023) · doi:10.51363/unifr.lma.2023.003 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Boundary Conditions of the Remembered Success Effect
Finn, B., & Miele, D. B. (2021) · Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2021.07.009 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationPhysics of Experiential Now: Effort of Atomic Action
Lubashevsky, I., & Plavinska, N. (2021) · Understanding complex systems · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-82612-3_5
Tackling Math Anxiety: Are Short Interventions Effective?
Cho, K. W. (2026) · The Journal of Experimental Education · doi:10.1080/00220973.2026.2666579
- Authors
- Finn, B., & Miele, D. B.
- Affiliations
- Educational Testing Service (US)
- Boston College (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
- Published
- 2016
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 17-38
- ISSN
- 0278-7393 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1285
- OpenAlex
- W1698485476
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 1.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Education, Achievement, and Giftedness
- Keywords
- test-taking behavior, test difficulty, test length, retrospective evaluation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Choice Behavior, Education, Emotions, Female, Humans, Judgment, Male, Memory, Psychological Tests, Time, Mathematical Concepts
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
