Prose Learning Research Articles

Organizational encodings in the serial learning of prose

E. Martin and D. L. Noreen ( Cognitive Psychology , 1974, 6 , 421–435) concluded that the serial learning of arbitrary sequences of words involves the idiosyncratic organization of word subsequences. In the present study, an attempt was made to identify comparable subjective subsequences in the serial learning of a prose passage and to examine the relationship of such organizational encodings to the variable of structural importance. Following the partial serial learning of a prose passage, the learners attempted free recall and backward anticipation. The results indicated that learners associatively organized the individual prose subunits into subjective subsequences. Additional analysis provided evidence that the associative organization of the subsequences was related to the rated structural importance of the prose units within the subsequence.

Effects on Prose Learning of Frequency of Adjunct Cues and the Difficulty of the Material Cued

The extent to which underlining as an adjunct study aid influenced recall was investigated. Subjects were 64 tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students and 61 college sophomores assigned to one of 5 conditions. The 5 conditions varied on amount of underlining and difficulty of material underlined. For each condition, exposure time was held constant. No significant differences among groups were found. The data indicate that, with time held constant, underlining is of limited value and may only manipulate which parts of a passage may be learned at the expense of other parts.

Facilitative Transfer in Prose Learning over an Extended Time Period

Recent studies by Royer and Cable demonstrated that an initial prose passage which established a relevant knowledge structure into which difficult to learn second passage material could be assimilated would enhance the learning of the second passage material. The purpose of the present study was to determine if this facilitative transfer would occur over a time interval. Subjects read a treatment or control passage and then studied and were tested on a second passage immediately, after two days, or one week later. The results indicated that the previously found facilitative transfer effect did not diminish with time.

Cognitive processing capacity and learning-mode effects in prose learning.

Cognitive processing capacity and learning-mode effects in prose learning.

Cognitive processing capacity and learning-mode effects in prose learning.

Cognitive processing capacity and learning-mode effects in prose learning.

Contributions of existing knowledge structure to retroactive inhibition in prose learning

This experiment tested the hypothesis that prose materials related to existing knowledge structure will be less subject to retroactive interference (RI) than will materials not as easily related to existing knowledge structure. Subjects read successive passages labeled with the names of famous or fictitious characters. In comparison to control groups, subjects receiving initial passages labeled with fictitious names experienced significant RI, whereas subjects receiving famous name initial passages did not.

Pictures, partial pictures, and young children's oral prose learning.

Pictures, partial pictures, and young children's oral prose learning.

The facilitation of meaningful verbal learning in the classroom1

Abstract The assimilation theory of meaningful verbal learning and retention and the distinctions between rote and meaningful learning and between reception and discovery learning are reviewed in the light of some recent research on advance organizers, adjunct questions, and cognitive style. An attempt is made to reply to some of the frequently‐made criticisms of the author's research methodology in his studies of advance organizers and retroactive interference in meaningful prose learning and retention. Finally, an assessment is made of freedom of psychological inquiry in the United States and of equality of access to APA journals; and it is suggested that the neobehavioristic orientation in American school learning theory has been artificially kept alive by editorial bias on the part of APA journals, by neobehavioristic bias on the part of reviewers for research funding agencies, and by implicit pressures exerted on graduate students in educational psychology doctoral programs.

Pictures, partial pictures, and young children's oral prose learning.

Pictures, partial pictures, and young children's oral prose learning.

Cognitive Structure Variables in Prose Learning

Four experiments were performed to determine the relationship between knowledge of meanings for key terms and the acquisition of information from prose. In Experiment I knowledge of meanings significantly influenced prose learning. Control group performance indicated that meaning knowledge did not independently influence test performance. In Experiment II with different materials the same factor, knowledge of meaning, did not facilitate learning from prose as measured by a verbatim-type test. A conceptual measure, however, revealed a facilitative effect attributed to meaning knowledge. Differences in the results of the two experiments are discussed. Experiments III and IV were designed to investigate the discrepancies from the first experiments. Neither the number of unfamiliar key terms nor the ratio of terms to prose, but the ratio of terms to related discussion was a factor which interacted with knowledge of meanings in its effect on learning from prose.

RETROACTIVE INTERFERENCE IN MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Summary. It has been suggested that the phenomenon of retroactive interference, by which retention of verbal materials is decreased by the subsequent presentation of similar interpolated items, occurs only in unstructured items, and not in the meaningful and connected information more commonly encountered in educational learning circumstances. An experiment was undertaken to investigate the possibility of retroactive interference occurring in a structured and meaningful prose learning situation. The sample consisted of 18 university students allocated randomly to two groups. The experimental group studied an original prose passage, followed by two very similar interpolated passages. Their final cued recall scores were significantly lower than the scores of a control group, who learned the identical original prose passage, followed by the dissimilar passages.

Role of performance goals in prose learning.

Role of performance goals in prose learning.

Role of performance goals in prose learning.

Role of performance goals in prose learning.

Illustrations, analogies, and facilitative transfer in prose learning.

Illustrations, analogies, and facilitative transfer in prose learning.

Illustrations, analogies, and facilitative transfer in prose learning.

Illustrations, analogies, and facilitative transfer in prose learning.

Functional Significance of Orienters in Prose Learning

AbstractOrienters were defined as stimuli that activate the focal attentive mechanisms which are considered to be important for deeper processing of information. Several kinds of Orienters were identified. Orienters act by initiating an orienting response which is characterized by two stages—(1) a brief molar phase involving a gross orientation of the receptor, followed by (2) a tonic phase involving a fine scanning of details. The tonic phase was considered to correspond to the activation of focal attentive mechanisms in Neisser’s terminology. It was concluded that Orienters may in fact activate focal-attentive mechanisms, but mere activation of such mechanisms may not necessarily aid retention of information. Retention of information is also dependent upon S’s decision to retain the information to which he has been alerted.

Media effects on prose learning in two populations of children.

Media effects on prose learning in two populations of children.

Imagery training and children's prose learning.

Imagery training and children's prose learning.

Imagery training and children's prose learning.

Imagery training and children's prose learning.

Media effects on prose learning in two populations of children.

Media effects on prose learning in two populations of children.