The effects of computer-based instruction on college students’ comprehension of classic research

Abstract

Our purpose in this research was to determine the extent to which computer-based instruction can replace conventional teaching in experimental psychology. In Experiment 1, students from an advanced cognition and thinking course participated in a simulation of Schallert’s (1976) study of the role of context in prose comprehension and in a simulation of Carpenter and Just’s (1975) study of sentence-picture verification latencies. Half of the students completed each experiment with the computer, and half were taught traditionally. Comprehension of the purpose and design of the experiments was tested immediately after the laboratory session and 1 month later during the final examination. There were no significant differences between the groups. Several students in Experiment 1 appeared to rush through the experiments and pay little attention to the explanations. In Experiment 2, we studied the effectiveness of computer-based instruction in experimental laboratory sections that did or did not require a follow-up assignment. The second variable was introduced so that some factor of seriousness or importance of the laboratory exercise could be measured. Results from this study indicated that, regardless of the perceived importance of a laboratory exercise, students who studied classic research in a traditional setting comprehended the purpose and design of the experiment better than did the students who worked on the computer. In addition, the students assigned to write up the experiment performed better than did the students who were given no follow-up assignment.