Long-term Retention of Information Following Learning from Prose

Abstract

The long-term retention of information is important for a variety of reasons. It is often important to remember information for its own sake (e.g., one's spouse's birthday). Also, known, retrievable information forms a basis for many cognitive processes, such as comprehension, implementation of intellectual skills, creative thinking, and attitude change. It is difficult to explain these cognitive processes completely without first explaining the retention of relevant information. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some factors that have been proposed to be necessary for the long-term retention of information and to review available studies in light of these factors with the hope of identifying important areas for future research. For two reasons, this review focuses primarily on long-term retention following learning from text as opposed to other instructional modes such as lectures. The first reason is that text is a major medium of learning in literate cultures. It is a relatively cheap, accessible, and flexible source of learning and hence will probably continue to be a major source of instruction for some time to come. The second reason is that there is a substantial body of data already available on learning from prose (cf. Frase, 1972, 1975; Carroll, Note 1), and many of the powerful variables affecting this form of learning are known (Rothkopf, 1976). Recently, several systems of formal analysis of the prose stimulus