Explaining the absence of a prequestioning effect for the Climate Change topic

Ascertain why prequestioning failed to produce a significant benefit for the Climate Change lecture topic in the CM3261 Environmental Chemistry course under the study’s implementation of four multiple-choice prequestions with immediate feedback at the end of one lecture followed by corresponding postquestions in the subsequent lecture.

Background

Across ten lecture sessions, the paper generally found higher performance on tested (previously prequestioned) versus untested postquestions, indicating a prequestioning effect. However, for the Climate Change topic, no significant prequestioning effect was observed.

The authors explicitly state that the reason for this exception is unknown and suggest that, as with other learning strategies, benefits may vary across materials. Identifying the cause of this null effect is therefore an unresolved question.