Retrospective utility of educational experiences: Converging research from education and judgment and decision-making

• Several studies are described that bridge theory on achievement motivation and decision making.
• Retrospective evaluations of learning and testing experiences are sensitive to primacy and recency effects.
• Memory of learning experiences influence students’ future learning choices.

The review discusses recent findings that bridge the research traditions of achievement motivation and judgment and decision making to ask how building opportunities for students to be successful into the design of learning and assessment tasks (without making them less challenging) affects students’ memories of their experiences. The success or failure of an academic outcome matters to student motivation. But the final score is not all that students consider as they evaluate their previous academic experiences. Beyond a specific end state of an academic experience (i.e., the final score), the manner in which students acquire or demonstrate information has a potent influence on their memories and as a result, their achievement preferences and behaviors.