The effects of adjunct questions in prose for deaf and hearing students at different reading levels.

In two studies, the author investigated interactions among adjunct question position, reading ability, and direct versus indirect learning outcomes for deaf postsecondary and hearing middle-school students. Adjunct questions were inserted immediately preceding or following brief sections of instructional prose for the purpose of focusing and cognitively activating the readers. Different effects were observed for deaf and hearing readers and for different levels of assessed reading ability. The findings are discussed in terms of reading ability, adjunct activities while reading prose, and direct versus indirect instructive effects.     

The Effects of Adjunct Questions and Feedback on Improving the Reading Comprehension Skills of Learning-Disabled Adolescents

Adjunct question research has typically focused on the effects of adjunct questions on improving the learning of college students. This study investigated the effects of inserted and massed postquestions (inference, main idea, and detail), with and without feedback, on improving the comprehension skills of adolescents labeled as reading disabled. Students practiced using adjunct questions for 6 weeks. The results suggested that inserted questions (and to a lesser extent massed postquestions) were beneficial in improving the comprehension of texts that did not contain adjunct questions. Specifically, the results indicated that (a) inserted questions were more effective than massed postquestions or no questions, (b) massed postquestions were more effective than no questions, and (c) the effects of inserted questions on comprehension increased over the time of treatment. The beneficial effects of feedback were limited to inference and main idea questions. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Effects of incorporating retrieval into learning tasks: The complexity of the tasks matters

In an experiment with N = 192 university students, we examined whether the effects of incorporating retrieval into learning tasks depend on the learning tasks' complexity. The learning tasks consisted of adjunct questions that were provided together with expository texts relating to the domain of chemistry. We varied (a) whether the adjunct questions required the learners to summarize (low complexity) or generate inferences on the basis of provided information (high complexity) and (b) whether the adjunct questions were implemented in a closed-book style that required learners to engage in retrieval or in an open-book style that did not require learners to engage in retrieval while responding to the questions. Afterwards, all learners took either an immediate or a delayed criterion test. We found that the effect of incorporating retrieval depended on the complexity of the adjunct questions; the net benefit of incorporating retrieval was higher for the low complexity ones.     

Role of adjunct questions and reading ability levels on rote and conceptual learning from prose

This research evaluated the effect of question type (rote, conceptual) and adjunct question response mode (multiple choice, short answer) on rote and conceptual learning outcomes of high and low ability readers. Subjects were 98 freshman students of a small, historically black, undergraduate institution. Students studied a passage containing either rote- or conceptual-level adjunct questions or no questions. They were then administered a rote and a conceptual post-test over the presented concepts. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was used. The results indicated, contrary to most other research, that rote adjunct questions were more helpful to readers than conceptual adjunct questions on both rote and conceptual post-tests. As expected, high reading ability students performed better than low reading ability students within treatments. There were no significant aptitude-treatment interactions.     

How can comprehension adjunct questions focus students' attention and enhance concept learning of a computer-animated science lesson?

Two focusing hypotheses were evaluated. First, do adjunct questions, focusing on science concepts and inserted after computer-animated sequences, selectively alter students' attentional or practice processing and thus produce differential learning effects? Theoretically, such questions selectively focus students' attention and enhance concept learning of focused concepts. Second, do these questions still provide enough metacognitive scaffolding to produce differential learning effects when only the first 8 out of 12 sequences are followed by focusing questions? Eighth-grade students (n = 160) were randomly assigned to a control group (lesson alone) or one of four treatment groups (lesson plus 12 questions focusing either on heat or on temperature, or lesson plus the same first 8 questions on heat or temperature followed by 4 placebo questions). Two significant two-way interactions with widely varying F ratios supported the differential focusing hypotheses (12 questions—more robust interaction, 8—less robust interaction).     

Adjunct questions in prose: a question position-by-reading ability interaction

Immediate factual learning performance of profoundly deaf postsecondary students was compared as a result of pre-, post- or no adjunct questions interspersed throughout a passage of prose. Analyses revealed a position-by-reading ability interaction. While pre-questions yielded the highest learning performance for low ability readers, post-questions resulted in significantly greater learning performance for high ability readers. Findings are discussed in terms of question position, student's reading ability, and text difficulty.     

Adjunct question effects with review

The effects on retention of adjunct questions either placed at the end of a passage or inserted after their respective paragraphs within the passage were examined. The high school subjects were encouraged to review the materials after encountering the questions, a departure from traditional procedures in the field. Both treatments led to superior retention of the previously questioned facts when compared to a passage-only control group, but did not increase retention of previously unquestioned facts. The position of the adjunct questions did not differentially affect performance. The discrepancy of the results from those traditionally reported are interpreted in terms of the procedures employed.     

Adjunct aids in instructional prose: a multimedia study with deaf college students

A computer-based science lesson was administered to 144 deaf college students grouped into low, middle, and high reading ability levels. Five instructional conditions were compared: (1) text only, (2) text and content movies, (3) text and sign movies, (4) text and adjunct questions, and (5) all of these together (full condition). The low reading level subjects in the adjunct question and full conditions demonstrated immediate, factual learning performance comparable to that of the high reading level subjects in the text-only condition. These and other results of this investigation suggest the compensatory potential of adjunct aids and associated mathemagenic activities to improve factual learning from instructional prose for low reading ability students.     

Inserted questions as aids to reading text

There has been a major shift in the psychology of language from a behavioristic to a cognitive view of learning. One important reason for this shift in thinking was that behavioristic theory simply could not account for language behavior as portrayed in Chomsky's theory of language. Within educational psychology, instructional research has assumed a more cognitive posture as well, particularly research involving the stimulation of prose processing through interspersing questions in text. Originally based on the associative or behavioristic model, early (1965–1970) adjunct question research can be characterized as having a variables orientation. Within this orientation, primary consideration was given to examining the effects of manipulating question position (before or after text segments) and question frequency on text comprehension. In this early research, inserted questions were invariably pitched at a rote or verbatim learning level. Since the onset (c. 1970) of the cognitive revolution, however, adjunct question research has been focussed on examining the effects of different cognitive levels of inserted questions on text comprehension, and on developing methods for assessing processes produced by adjunct questions. However, the degree to which cognitive levels as operationalyzed in the experiments reviewed here captures the richness of cognition as it occurs in the schools is, of course, open to question. Other areas of cognitively-oriented research include the assessment of the relationship between individual differences and adjunct question treatments, and the generation of questions by subjects while reading. This more recent thrust in adjunct question research can be termed a processes orientation. Research associated with both the variables orientation and the processes orientation are reviewed. Finally, some remarks are made concerning the paucity of theory in adjunct question research, the possible use of semantic memory theories as a basis for future research within the adjunct question paradigm, and the need for new question paradigms that more closely match question answering in general.Appreciation is extended to Michael Macdonald-Ross for his critical comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this paper.     

Ecological validity of adjunct questions in a college biology course

To validate their use in a natural environment with realistic learning materials and conditions, the efficacy of adjunct questions was tested in a college biology course with a double-crossover design. Mixed results were obtained. On the one hand, students using adjunct questions during the second half of the course scored significantly higher than control students on a variety of measures obtained on the final examination. Significant indirect as well as direct effects were obtained, and significant effects were demonstrated on comprehension as well as verbatim-recall examination questions. On the other hand, during the first half of the course evidence was also obtained that some students did not follow instructions on the proper use of adjunct questions, and that for those students adjunct questions actually impaired learning. Such vagaries may be common in natural experimental settings as opposed to highly controlled laboratory settings. It is concluded that, rather than requiring all students to use adjunct questions, it would be better to make them optional. Presumably, adjunct questions would be used, under an optional condition, only by students who were motivated to use them properly after receiving strong warnings concerning their possible misuse.     

In‐Text Questions: A Note on an Experiment in Instructional Design

The use of instructional design is increasingly being discussed in the distance education and higher education literature. This paper reports an experiment in which self study questions are inserted in the text of lecture note material for external students. An evaluation revealed that students who received notes with in‐text questions were no different from those who received the standard lecture notes as judged by both performance and attitudinal criteria. Possible reasons for the perverse findings are given and it is concluded that professional instructional design assistance would be of value to subject matter experts.     

Teaching critical questions about argumentation through the revising process: effects of strategy instruction on college students’ argumentative essays

The effects of self-regulated strategy development revising instruction for college students that targeted the use of argumentation schemes and critical questions were assessed in three conditions. In the first condition, students were taught to revise their essays by asking and answering critical questions about the argument from consequences and argument from example schemes while writing about controversial topics. In the second condition, students were taught to revise their essays by using argumentation schemes to justify their standpoint, but did not learn the critical questions. In the third condition, students received no instruction about either the argumentation schemes or the critical questions. Compared to students in the contrasting conditions, those who were taught to ask and answer critical questions wrote essays that were of higher quality, and included more counterarguments, alternative standpoints, and rebuttals. These findings indicate that strategy instruction that includes critical standards for argumentation increases college students’ sensitivity to alternative perspectives.     

Detrimental effects of immediate explanation feedback

Adjunct questions are a common means to foster learning from instructional explanations. As the benefit of adjunct questions is mitigated if learner performance on them is low, it is also common to provide feedback as an add-on if learners fail to correctly respond to them. However, if adjunct questions are highly demanding, feedback might not only beneficially affect learning because it helps learners revise their comprehension difficulties; at the same time, it could also detrimentally affect learning by causing learners to invest less time in responding to subsequent adjunct questions, which lowers learner performance on these questions. This, in turn, could reduce learning outcomes. To address these potential detrimental effects of feedback, we experimentally varied whether N?=?59 students received immediate feedback after they responded to highly demanding adjunct questions. We found that the feedback did indeed have detrimental effects: At least for the learners who perceived the task of responding to the adjunct questions as highly demanding, the feedback decreased both the time the learners invested in responding to the adjunct questions and their performance on them. This detrimental effect on the performance on the adjunct questions, in turn, entailed a detrimental effect on learning outcomes. We conclude that immediate feedback is not necessarily a beneficial add-on to adjunct questions in all situations.     

On inserting questions before or after segments of text

It has been concluded in all major reviews of adjunct question research that a group given questions after related text segments (postquestions) yields greater recall than a group given questions before related text segments (prequestions) or one not given any questions at all. However, closer examination of the earlier research and an analysis of recent research reveals that for certain types of verbatim questions and for certain high level questions, postquestions produce recall equivalent to or less than prequestions. Moreover, in many studies wherein postquestions exceed prequestions, the postquestion group equals the reading-only control group in recall of nonquestioned (incidental) material. Hence, despite frequent pronouncements to the contrary, no firm recommendation can be made regarding the optimal placement of adjunct questions in text material.     

The effects of instructional context and reasoning complexity on mathematics problem-solving

The focus of this study was on the effects of relevance in instructional context and reasoning complexity on mathematics problem-solving achievement, transfer, and attitude. Forty-six fifth graders participated in the five-day study. Students received either contextualized or decontextualized instruction involving either simple or complex reasoning. Two types of achievement questions were used, context-rich and context-poor, which required either single or multiple computational steps to solve. An interaction was found between complexity of treatment and complexity of questions. Students who studied simple problems in decontextualized contexts performed best on one-step questions, while students who studied complex problems in contextualized contexts performed best on multi-step questions (p = .003). A complexity effect was also found for student attitudes toward perceived lesson difficulty (p = .0001) as well as for perceived relevance of mathematics (p = .015). Students who studied simple problems perceived lesson difficulty and mathematics relevance more favorably than those who studied complex problems. These findings suggest that rich mathematical instructional contexts best support mathematics problem-solving, but simple, decontextualized instruction yields the most favorable attitudes.     

The Study Habits of Failing and Successful Students in the First Two Years of College

This research evaluated the effects of asking subjects to create personal examples of target concepts on their ability to recall, classify, and apply their conceptual knowledge. Subjects were 48 undergraduates at a large midwestern university. All subjects studied a passage on four psychological principles that contained application adjunct questions preceded by definition adjunct questions inserted after selected paragraphs. Application questions asked subjects to identify novel examples of target concepts, and definition questions asked subjects to identify appropriate definitions. One-half of the subjects also received instructions after each set of adjunct questions to write down two personal examples of the target concept (i.e., elaborate their conceptual knowledge). Subjects were also separated into high and low ability groups based on their performance on a series of ability tests. The results indicated that elaboration produced a significant main effect and ability by treatment interaction only on the application of the target concepts to problemsolving scenarios. An ability main effect was found for number of teaching examples recalled, number of novel examples correctly classified, and for number of concepts correctly applied to problem-solving scenarios.     

Differential effects of verbal aptitude and study questions on comprehension of science concepts

Selective attention models predict that verbatim study questions can divert students from meaningfully encoding attributes of science concepts. The aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI) hypothesis predicts that such questions can be particularly dysfunctional to low-ability students. These predictions assume the measurement of true comprehension of concepts as a criterion. Eighth-grade students (n = 217) were randomly assigned to a text-only, text-question or a placebo treatment. The text verbally described five fossil types. The questions consisted of 28 fill-in-the-blank queries about the text. The posttest required students to visually identify and discriminate 40 fossil specimens as to fossil type. Comprehension of the concepts clearly took place-a fact substantiated by the very low scores obtained by the placebo group. As predicted (p < 0.05), low-verbal students performed better when provided with a text-only rather than a text-question treatment. In contrast, high-verbal students were less effected by the verbatim study questions. Main effects among these groups were also detected. Apparently such questions can overprompt students, resulting in their copying of words from a text to an answer-blank without semantically encoding (i.e., comprehending) the copied words.     

Children’s Preferences In Picture Story Book Variables

Abstract

Many assessment procedures used in the classroom fail to measure the student's comprehension of text materials. Using constructing- algorithms to develop the testing instruments, three quizzes and a posttest measuring both critical and incidental content were given to three fourth grade and three sixth grade classes. Three levels of student comprehension were tested: verbatim, paraphrased, and transformed paraphrased. Significant increases in performance over tests, and superior incidental recall by sixth graders indicated that as the learner's sophistication increases, deeper and more comprehensive instructional encoding can be measured by rule-based assessment systems.     

The effect of cognitive style,age, gender and structure on the recall of prose passages

Two-hundred 10–15 yr old students from a school in the UK for children from a Yemeni background were assessed for cognitive style by means of the Cognitive Styles Analysis. Based on their scores, students were placed on two dimensions: Wholist–Analytic and Verbal– Imagery. Half of the sample read three prose passages with a 20-question recall test after each. The other half received the same passages augmented with additional structuring features, (a) format structure as paragraph headings (Passage 2), and (b) conceptual structure as a summary inserted either after or before the main passage (Passages 1 and 3, respectively). The results suggested that pupils improved most with age on the content that suited their style, female Wholists and male Analytics benefitted most from the addition of structure, and, finally, with age the Verbalizers gained more with a summary added after the main passage and the Imagers with it inserted before. The results are discussed in terms of style effects on developmental trends in strategy development and gender differences in information processing.