On this page, we offer short summaries of research and commentaries related to the use of examples in teaching. We hope you find them useful in helping you to decide how and when to employ examples in class. The articles are presented in order of publication, starting with the oldest ones which, as you will see, found that giving students examples of concepts, or asking them to generate their own examples, did not contribute significantly to learning those concepts. However, these results appear due largely to research designs that did not create significantly different between-group conditions. So if you like to use examples, don’t be discouraged; the news gets better as research designs improve.

1. Hamilton, R. J. (1989). The effects of learner-generated elaborations on concept learning from prose. The Journal of Experimental Education, 57, 205–217.

In this study, undergraduates read four paragraphs, each of which presented a concept in operant conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. The paragraphs defined each concept, provided four examples of it, and explained how each example illustrated the concept. After reading each paragraph, the students answered multiple-choice questions that measured their ability to recognize and apply the concept. Students in an example-generation group were also asked to write two examples of the concept in their own lives. All students then took a test of their knowledge of the concepts. The example generation group outperformed the provided-example control group on problem-solving test items in which students had to apply an operant conditioning concept to address disruptive classroom behavior. However, the two groups did not differ on other measures, including recall of the concept definitions, recall of the provided examples, or classification of new examples. You can find the article here.

2. Hamilton, R. (1990). The effect of elaboration on the acquisition of conceptual problem-solving skills from prose. Journal of Experimental Education, 58, 5–17.

In this study, undergraduates read a short instructional text that introduced four concepts (positive and negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment). The text included the definition and four examples for each concept. The students responded to several questions about the concepts, after which half of the students were given three additional examples of each concept, while the other half were told to come up with three examples of their own. All students then completed a recall test for the definitions, a classification test in which they were presented with novel examples of the concepts and asked to identify which concept each example illustrated, and then a problem-solving test describing two classroom scenarios for which students were to explain how they would reduce a disruptive behavior. Providing examples produced a small but significant benefit over self-generated examples, but only on problem-solving performance; the groups did not differ on either of the other measures. The lack of large between group differences might be attributable to the fact that both groups were provided with examples in the first phase of the study. You can find the article here.

3. Griffin, M. M. (1993). Do student-generated rational sets of examples facilitate concept acquisition? Journal of Experimental Education, 61, 104–115.

In this experiment, students in four sections of an educational psychology course heard the same classroom lecture on interpreting criterion-referenced and norm-referenced test scores. Students then worked in small groups to complete a worksheet that either provided examples of each concept or asked students to generate their own examples.Finally, the students took an exam that required them to classify new examples of test scores. There were no significant differences overall in the test performance of students in the provided vs. self-generated example conditions, but a pairwise comparison found that students who generated their own examples did significantly less well at classifying one category of test scores. You can find the article here.

4. Hamilton, R. J. (1997). Effects of three types of elaboration on learning concepts from text. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 22, 299–318.

In two experiments, undergraduates studied a passage of text and were asked them to either create personal examples of concepts presented in the passage, contrast the concepts, or expand on the effects of the concepts. The students then took a test of their ability to recall definitions and examples of each concept, classify novel examples as belonging or not belonging to the concept, correctly address problem-solving scenarios relevant to the concept. In both experiments, students’ scores on this test were significantly higher for those who were asked to contrast the target concepts than for those who generated their own examples or who expanded on the concepts. You can find the article here.

5. Lee, A. Y., & Hutchison, L. (1998). Improving learning from examples through reflection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 4(3), 187–210.

This article describes experiments designed to test how elaborations of case examples and various types of reflection questions affect learning. Results suggested that annotated examples produced learning beyond what students could achieve on their own. Carefully posed reflection questions also resulted in better learning, but the quality of the students’ responses was more important for learning than the mere act of making those responses. The authors concluded that examples alone may not provide all the instruction that students need and that instruction can be improved by providing additional explanations within examples as well as reflection questions at the end of examples. You can find the article here.

6. Hamilton, R. J. (1999). The role of elaboration within a text processing and text adjunct context. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 363–376.

This study employed the same basic procedure described above in the Hamilton (1990) study and found no significant differences between groups of students who did or did not generate their own examples in terms of their ability to recall concept definitions and teaching examples, classify novel examples, or correctly address problem-solving scenarios. You can find the article here.

7. Hamilton, R. J. (2004). Material appropriate processing and elaboration: the impact of balanced and complementary types of processing on learning concepts from text. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 221–237.

This study is an extension of Hamilton (1999), above, in which students read text material and were then tested on its concepts. Results showed that, compared to students who studied additional provided examples or who were asked to compare and contrast concepts, test performance on some learning measures was lower for students who generated their own examples of concepts. You can find the article here.

8. Balch, W.R. (2005). Elaborations of introductory psychology terms: Effects on test performance and subjective ratings, Teaching of Psychology, 32:1, 29-34,

In this study, undergraduate students used one of four elaboration strategies in learning the definitions of 16 psychology terms: a provided example, a mnemonic, a paraphrase of the definition, or a repetition of the definition (a non-elaborative control). Then students took a multiple-choice test containing questions about the definitions of the terms and about novel examples of the terms. Students who received either provided examples or mnemonics did better on the final exam than those who received paraphrased or repeated definitions. You can find the article here.

9. Chew, S. L. (2007). Designing effective examples and problems for teaching statistics. In D. S. Dunn, R. A. Smith, B. Beins (Eds.), Best practices for teaching statistics and research methods in the behavioral sciences (pp. 73-91), Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

This chapter presents a review of the pre-2007 research literature on creating and using examples effectively, especially in statistics courses, along with a discussion of what students learn from examples. Also included are suggestions for how statistics teachers can create and use examples in a more systematic way. You can find the article here.

10. Dornisch, M., Sperling, R. A., & Zeruth, J. A. (2011). The effects of level of elaboration on learners’ strategic processing of text. Instructional Science, 39, 1–26.

Two experiments found that, compared to simply restudying concepts, students learned more if they either studied provided examples of the concepts or generated their own examples. You can find the article here.

11. Rawson, K. A., Thomas, R. C., & Jacoby, L. L. (2015). The power of examples: Illustrative examples enhance conceptual learning of declarative concepts. Educational Psychology Review, 27(3), 483–504.

Three experiments are reported in which students studied definitions of concepts followed either by illustrative examples of those concepts or by additional study of the definitions. When later presented with examples and asked to identify which concept each example illustrated, students did better if they had studied illustrative examples vs. those who had only studied definitions. However, the effects of illustrative examples on concept learning depended in part on the extent to which examples of different concepts were interleaved and whether definitions were presented along with the examples. You can find the article here.

12. Braithwaite, D.W., & Goldstone, R.L. (2015) Effects of variation and prior knowledge on abstract concept learning, Cognition and Instruction, 33:3, 226-256.

The authors point out that learning abstract concepts through concrete examples may promote learning at the cost of inhibiting transfer. They tried to solve this problem by varying features of the examples used. Participants learned to solve problems involving a mathematical concept by studying either superficially similar or varied examples. In Experiment 1, less knowledgeable participants learned better from similar examples, while more knowledgeable participants learned better from varied examples. In Experiment 2, prior to learning how to solve the problems, some participants received a pre-training aimed at increasing students’ attention to the structural relations underlying the target concept. These participants, like the more knowledgeable participants in Experiment 1, learned better from varied examples. Thus, the utility of varied examples depends on prior knowledge and, in particular, ability to attend to relevant structure. The authors conclude that increasing this ability can prepare learners to learn more effectively from varied examples. You can find the article here.

13. Rawson, K. A., & Dunlosky, J. (2016). How effective is example generation for learning declarative concepts? Educational Psychology Review, 28(3), 649–672.

Three experiments investigated the effects of example generation on concept
learning and examined factors that may moderate its effectiveness. All students read a short text that introduced eight concepts, and then either generated their own examples of each concept followed by further study of the concept’s definition, or merely the restudied the definitions. Two days later, all students completed final tests involving example generation and definition-cued recall. Results suggested that example generation yields learning outcomes that are better than restudy alone, but not as good as retrieval practice (the testing effect). You can find the article here.

14. Zamary, A., Rawson, K.A. (2018). Are provided examples or faded examples more effective for declarative concept learning? Educational Psychology Review 30, 1167–1197.

These two experiments compared the effectiveness of provided examples to that of faded examples (i.e., first studying provided examples, then completing partial examples, then generating examples), on learning concepts. Two days after studying using one of these two methods, participants took two kinds of tests of their learning: a novel example classification test and an example generation test. Performance on both tests was similar following provided examples and faded examples practice; however, provided examples took much less time to implement during practice. The authors suggest that, when efficiency is taken into account, provided examples are more effective than faded example techniques. You can find the article here.

15. Zamary, A., Rawson, K.A. (2018). Which technique is most effective for learning declarative concepts—Provided examples, generated examples, or both? Educational Psychology Review, 30, 275–301.

These two experiments compared the effectiveness and efficiency of three example-based techniques for learning concepts. In both experiments, students learned 10 concepts in social psychology by either studying examples provided by the instructor, generating their own examples, or through some combination of both techniques. Two days later, all students took an example classification test and a definition cued-recall test). In both experiments, long-term learning and study efficiency were greater following the study of provided examples compared to the other two techniques. You can find the article here.

16. A 2-minute YouTube video posted in 2016 offers two young professors’ advice to students about the pros and cons of seeking provided examples vs. self-generated ones. Their advice reflects the results of many of the studies listed above.

17. Finn, B., Thomas, R. & Rawson, K.A. (2018). Learning more from feedback: Elaborating feedback with examples enhances concept learning. Learning and Instruction, 54, 104-113.

These researchers investigated whether elaborating practice-test feedback with conceptual examples would increase students’ understanding of psychology terms and their definitions. During a practice test phase, the definition was presented and participants attempted to recall the corresponding concept term. Immediately after responding, half of the participants were given feedback that provided the correct term. The rest were shown the correct term, followed by presentation of an example of it (elaborated feedback). All students then took a cued recall test in which they were presented with either the previously studied definition or a new example and were asked to provide the correct concept term. The results showed that elaborated feedback enhanced performance on tests of both the definitions and the new examples, suggesting that presentation of examples during feedback bolstered performance across all test types and formats. You can find the article here.

18. Corral, D., & Carpenter, S. K. (2020). Facilitating transfer through incorrect examples and explanatory feedback. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73(9), 1340–1359.

Two experiments explored the question of whether studying correct vs. incorrect examples produces differential learning of concepts in research methods. Participants were shown hypothetical research designs and asked to say whether each was a true experiment. In Experiment 1, some participants saw only correct examples, some saw only incorrect examples, and saw some of both kinds. After responding to each design, half the participants were given explanatory feedback (i.e., the correct answer, along with a detailed explanation of why the answer was correct. The rest got no feedback. Everyone then took a test that described novel research designs. Some test items asked respondents to say whether the designs were true experiments (classification questions), and some asked them to identify design flaws or to indicate how the design could be fixed (application questions). Experiment 2 used a similar design, but compared explanatory feedback with corrective feedback. In both experiments, as long as some form of feedback was provided, subjects in the mixed example condition achieved the best classification performance. Furthermore, subjects in the incorrect and mixed example conditions performed best on application questions, particularly when explanatory feedback was provided. The authors interpret these findings as offering insights into mechanisms that might underlie learning from incorrect examples. You can find the article here.

19. Funkhouser, A. & Nicoladis, E. (2023). A really good example helps learning about an abstract concept. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 17, 1, Article 12.

The primary purpose of this study was to test whether exposure to multiple examples would lead to better learning of an abstract concept (semiotics) than exposure to a single example. Introductory psychology students were given either three different examples of the concept or given three presentations of a single example. Exposure to three different examples did not result in better learning (as measured by self report, ability to define the concept, and recognition of a new example of the concept) than three exposures to the same particularly good example. These results suggest that you need not necessarily give numerous examples if you have a really good one, but you still might want to do it because (a) giving three examples did not result in less learning, and (b) we don’t always know which of several examples will be the best one for all students. You can find the article here.

20. Micallef, A., & Newton, P. M. (2024). The use of concrete examples enhances the learning of abstract concepts: A replication study. Teaching of Psychology, 51(1), 22-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/00986283211058069

In this study, non-psychology students in a paid, online participant pool studied definitions of abstract concepts from psychology, either with or without concrete examples. Results showed that concrete examples enhanced learning of the concepts, and enhanced recognition of previously unseen examples matched to learned definitions. These results replicated those of the Rawson, Thomas, & Jacoby (2015) study listed above and supported the conclusion that the use of concrete examples enhances the learning of abstract psychological concepts in paid, non-psychology students. You can find the article here.