Prior knowledge moderates the effectiveness of erroneous and contrasting erroneous examples, with low-prior-knowledge learners benefiting in several studies but findings contradictory¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? With low prior knowledge, correct examples were more beneficial, while Con-ErrEx were more beneficial for high-prior-knowledge learners in far transfer. → Sonja Dieterich 2025 q2 i? In other comparisons, low-prior-knowledge students profited most from Con-ErrEx for conceptual knowledge. → Sonja Dieterich 2025 (2)

Evidence¶

Sonja Dieterich 2025¶

Sonja Dieterich, Stefan Rumann, Marc Rodemer. (2025). Conditions for Effective Learning from Erroneous Examples: A Systematic Review. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10071-x

q2 · i? · review · r3

Table 1 entry for Große and Renkl (2007) Experiment 1, a Con-ErrEx vs CorrEx comparison on calculation-path errors, reports "Con-ErrEx more benefi- cial for HPK" for far transfer tasks, and highlighting errors helped LPK students for near transfer.

"Con-ErrEx more benefi- cial for HPK. For near transfer, only students with LPK learn significantly more in the group with errors highlighted than without highlighting errors."

Sonja Dieterich 2025 (2)¶

Sonja Dieterich, Stefan Rumann, Marc Rodemer. (2025). Conditions for Effective Learning from Erroneous Examples: A Systematic Review. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-025-10071-x

q2 · i? · review · r3

Table 1 entry for Booth et al. (2015a, b), a Con-ErrEx vs PS comparison on calculation-path errors, reports "LPK students profit from Con-ErrEx for conceptual knowledge". For procedural knowledge both prior-knowledge groups benefitted with no significant interaction.

"LPK students profit from Con-ErrEx for conceptual knowledge. For procedural knowledge, both LKP and HPK benefitted, no significant interaction of PK and condition"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Students with high initial performance profit more from area-specific practice while students with low initial performance profit more from general practice
• Prior knowledge moderates non-interactive teaching: low conceptual knowledge learners profit more, but very low-knowledge learners may not benefit at all — related
• Contrasting erroneous examples were more often effective than correct examples and problem-solving, sometimes equally or more effective than erroneous examples — related
• Erroneous examples show no general learning benefit over correct examples in most comparisons, but outperform them for negative knowledge in some studies — related
• In the acquisition of negative knowledge, erroneous examples outperformed correct examples — related
• Erroneous examples improve conceptual understanding by forcing comparison with correct models. — related
• Erroneous examples benefit learners with more prior knowledge, while correct-only solutions better serve low-prior-knowledge learners — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)