Sayre, Eleanor C.Franklin, Scott V.Dymek, StephanieClark, JessicaSun, Yifei2012-05-232012-05-232012-04-10http://hdl.handle.net/2097/13851We present data from a between-student study on student response to questions on Newton’s third law given in two introductory calculus-based physics classes (Mechanics and Electromagnetism) at a large northeastern university. Construction of a response curve reveals subtle dynamics in student learning not capturable by pretesting and post-testing. We find a significant positive effect of instruction that diminishes by the end of the quarter. Two quarters later, a significant dip in correct response occurs when instruction changes from the vector quantities of electric forces and fields to the scalar quantity of electric potential. When instruction returns to vector topics, performance rebounds to initial values.This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/Response curves methodStudent learningForgettingInterferenceNewton’s third lawArticle (publisher version)