COMMITMENT TO STUDY AS A TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE EXAM PERFORMANCE

Randomly selected college students from 11 psychology classes made wri tten commitments to study for an exam. Students in the commitment cond ition reported significantly more study time than controls and also pe rformed significantly better on the exam. The effect was strong across all upper division classes, but no effect was found on either reporte d study time or exam performance for students in introductory psycholo gy classes. The discussion includes several implications of these find ings for the student affairs practitioner as well as some suggestions for future research.