An investigation of how incorrect examples can enhance tax rule comprehension

Abstract

Based on Popper's (1962) falsification theory, this study tests whether tax students perform better when examples that fail to satisfy technical requirements are presented rather than examples that do satisfy the requirements. Rule application problems were given to the students immediately after instruction, a few days later, and at the end of the semester. To test for potential intervening effects, GPA and overall course performance were statistically controlled. The results indicate that presenting examples which do not satisfy certain tax rules generally leads to better test performance than presenting correctly applied examples. Moreover, this tended to be true for all students, regardless of their overall course performance.