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.     

Patterns of interdependence in cooperative work of elementary children

Following a theoretical analysis of factors which foster interpersonal cooperation, this study explored conditions conducive to school children's working together harmoniously and productively. Seventy-six like-sexed triads of fourth- and fifth-graders were asked to cooperate in making a block picture on a round board. Five conditions were created, varying in patterns of interdependence. All conditions included goal interdependence; they differed systematically in the presence of task requirements, task roles, and group roles. Behavior was precoded into various group oriented and individual oriented categories. An index of quality of performance was constructed. As hypothesized, while goal interdependence was sufficient to bring about friendly interactions, it did not maximize occurrence of group oriented behavior. Children worked together most, and performance was significantly better, under conditions where taks requirements, task roles, and group roles were present together. A strong consistent pattern of sex differences was found, with boys showing greater independence from experimental role inductions than did the girls, whose cooperative work pattern and performance increased systematically as their interdependence was strengthened in the five conditions. Implications for instructional practice are examined.     

Eye movement analysis of information processing under different testing conditions

The study reported herein was designed to use eye movement data, collected during solution of complex figural analogies, to test the premise that enhanced feedback mechanisms and opportunities for dual coding of figural stimulus information result in the allocation of an increased percentage of information-processing resources to rule application activities. Subjects were given items from the Advanced Progressive Matrices under elaborated feedback, subject verbalization, or standard procedures. Results indicate that elaborative testing conditions, involving elaborated feedback or subject verbalization, enhance the rule-governed nature of information processing during inductive reasoning by augmenting feedback and dual coding.     

Expectancy and halo effects as a result of artificially induced teacher bias

This investigation examined the effects of deviancy labels on teachers' expectations of child behavior and their ability to evaluate child behavior objectively. One hundred elementary school teachers were randomly assigned to one of four label groups. Each group dealt with one label (emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, mentally retarded, normal), and each group participated in two separate treatment phases. During Phase I teachers identified behaviors they expected to be displayed by hypothetical children characteristic of the label condition. They were asked to complete a referral form for either a hypothetical normal, mentally retarded, learning disabled, or emotionally disturbed child. During Phase II, each group saw the same videotape of a normal fourth grade boy and completed a second referral form based on the behaviors displayed during this presentation. Experimental procedures were identical for the four groups, except each group was told the child was a member of a different category.Results indicated that teachers hold negative expectancies toward children categorized with a deviancy label and maintain expectancies even when confronted with normal behavior, behavior inconsistent with the stated label. Maintenance of this bias is sufficient to cause teachers to misinterpret actual child behavior, resulting in a halo effect. Results further indicated that the label of educable mentally retarded generated a greater degree of negative bias than did the labels learning disabled or emotionally disturbed, although all three deviancy labels produced negative expectancies and halo effects significantly different from those found under control conditions.     

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.     

Effects of knowledge of semantic roles on summarizing written prose

College students wrote summaries of eight short passages as a test of their ability to identify important information. After pairing naive summaries according to length and original passage, those summaries which judges identified as “better” were found to contain significantly more of the major semantic roles, such as Agent and Instrument, than did summaries judged “not as good.” It was also found that students wrote significantly better summaries when instructed to base the summaries on the major semantic roles within the passage. These summaries were significantly better than summaries based upon the traditional paragraph analysis of “topics” and “main ideas,” and they were significantly better than summaries written without any special instructions.     

A comparison of sentence-learning errors in children of different achievement levels

Theoretical analyses of the multiple-choice test format suggest that a test constructor should give serious consideration to the form in which correct and incorrect alternatives are presented. In this experiment, third and fourth graders were tested for previously exposed information by multiple-choice items in which: (a) correct alternatives were stated in either verbatim or synonym form; and (b) incorrect alternatives consisted of plausible responses that were either familiar or new. Comparisons of errors and error patterns were made between high and low achieving students who had been given one of two different information-processing strategies. Based on a dual test function argument, it was concluded that synonym correct alternatives combined with plausible new responses are the most desirable of the four multiple-choice variations studied here. In particular, such items were sensitive to achievement level and strategy differences without systematically increasing students' likelihood of retaining misinformation.     

Effects of two types of letter rehearsal on word memory in skilled and less skilled beginning readers

Skilled and less skilled beginning readers were taught to read and define 10 printed pseudowords. Then they rehearsed the spellings of the words in one of two ways. Experimental subjects performed activities to retain spellings in memory as orthographic images. Control subjects rehearsed the letters similarly but with the correct spellings in view. Post-tests revealed that experimentals remembered spellings better than controls. This indicates that the activity of committing letters to memory is better for learning spellings than copying letters which is what most spelling programs have learners do. Experimental subjects' superior knowledge of spellings, however, did not enable them to read the words faster or more accurately than controls, possibly because of overlearning. Comparison of good and poor readers' word-learning behavior revealed greater deficiencies in phonological than in semantic processes. Correlational analysis indicated that background skills are much more powerful than specific learning experiences in accounting for individual differences in reading and spelling performances.     

Controversy within a cooperative or competitive context and cognitive perspective-taking

Forty-five undergraduates discussed a moral issue with a confederate who had the same opinion (no controversy) or opposite opinion (controversy). Subjects in the controversy conditions discussed within either a cooperative or a competitive context. Subjects in the controversy conditions indicated more conceptual conflict or uncertainty, engaged in more information seeking behavior, and were more accurate in taking the cognitive perspective of the confederate than were subjects in the no-controversy condition. These results support Piaget's and Kohlberg's views of the role of controversy in perspective-taking and cognitive development and Berlyne's theory of conceptual conflict and epistemic curiosity. Subjects in the competitive-context conditions experienced more uncertainty, engaged in more information-seeking behavior, and were more accurate in cognitive perspective-taking than were subjects in the cooperative-context condition. Subjects in the competitive-context condition also experienced more cognitive dissonance, derogated the confederate and the confederate's position and arguments to a greater extent, and indicated greater closed-mindedness in responding to the confederate and the confederate's arguments than did subjects in the cooperative-context or the no-controversy conditions.     

Help seeking in elementary classrooms: An observational study

This study was undertaken to explore how elementary school children employ help seeking as a means of problem solving in the classroom. In-depth naturalistic observations were made of high-, average-, and low-ability students in reading and math classes at the first-, third-, and fifth-grade levels. Overall, children's rates of help seeking were higher in math than in reading. Boys and girls did not differ overall in the amount of help sought. Boys and girls did differ, however, in the type of help they requested. Children of different ability levels were found to vary not only in rate of help seeking and type of help requested, but also in the type of responses elicited from their helper choices. Implications of these findings for children's achievement, learning, and social adjustment in the classroom are discussed.     

Teacher verbal behavior following student success and failure

Undergraduate subjects taught identifying traits of animals (fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals) to a fifth grade student confederate over a microphone. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in which they failed (F) or succeeded (S) in teaching five animal comparison problems. The four conditions were (a) F, S, S, S, S; (b) F, F, F, S, S; (c) S, F, F, F, S; and (d) S, S, S, F, S. The teaching sessions were tape recorded and analyzed for Teaching Time, Word Rate, and Voice Amplitude. Analyses revealed increased Teaching Time and decreased Word Rate following failure. Voice Amplitude increased across teaching sessions independent of success or failure. Findings were interpreted as more consonant with frustration-aggression than frustrative nonreward energizing theory.     

The usefulness of teachers' characteristics in predicting teachers' ratings of racially and linguistically different students

The study was designed to determine whether professional experiential characteristics or stereotyped expectations best predict teachers' ratings of racially and linguistically different children. Sixty-eight white elementary school teachers rated 12 speakers who differed in race and dialect. Biographical information concerning teachers' training experience teaching black students was collected as were stereotyped expectancies. Results of maximum R² improvement techniques revealed that professional characteristics were unrelated to teachers' ratings, but that stereotyped attitudes predicted the teachers' performance. The results are discussed with reference to the implication for success of disadvantaged children in the educational system and for future in-depth research.     

Sources of interference when testing for students' learning from sentences

The present study helps to clarify and extend earlier findings concerning multiple-choice assessment of students' learning from sentences. Interference arising from intersentence similarity was found here to be a function of both the kind of learning strategies students were instructed to employ and the kind of strategies they reported having employed spontaneously. Two major new conclusions follow from the present data: (a) Instructors and test constructors need worry only about certain types of potentially interfering information that is embedded in a set of learning materials: (b) Even when the conditions are right for substantial interference to occur, such interference can be eliminated if students are induced to employ beneficial sentence-processing strategies.     

A review of reliability procedures for measuring observer agreement

The present article reviews the procedures that have been developed for measuring the reliability of human observers' judgments when making direct observations of behavior. Measures such as the percentage of agreement, Cohen's kappa, and phi have been used to measure observer agreement; however, these coefficients have serious limitations. In addition to specifying the deficiencies that exist with these excessively used reliability measures, the present article discusses recently developed univariate and multivariate agreement measures that are based on quasi-equiprobability and quasi-independence models and estimates. Improvements in precision are provided by such models and estimates since they (1) yield a probability based coefficient of agreement with a directly interpretable meaning, (2) correct for the proportion of “chance” agreement, and (3) allow the partitioning of the agreement and disagreement estimates within the models.     

Reader and nonreader conception of the spoken word

The development of the concept of word in readers and nonreaders was investigated. Five reader and nonreader male students from four age groups (6.5–7.5; 7.6–8.5; 8.6–9.5; 9.6–10.5) were tested using the procedures developed by J. Downing and P. Oliver (Reading Research Quarterly, 1973–1974, 9, 581–586). Results from an analysis of variance indicated significant effects for reading levels (p < .001), age (p < .05), stimuli (p < .01), and a significant interaction between reading level and stimulus class (p < .05). Evidence indicates nonreaders may be confused about the differences between a short word and phonemes, syllables, sentences, and long words.     

Utilizing intact and embedded headings as processing aids with nonnarrative text

This study examined the utility of intact (i.e., topic outline format) and embedded (i.e., appropriately positioned within the text) headings as processing aids with nonnarrative text. The argument was advanced that headings potentially provide useful cues for both input and output processing but that little empirical evidence exists to either support or refute this proposition. It was further argued that each of the prior studies reviewed were subject to one or more methodological criticisms which may attenuate the generality of the findings. The results of the present study indicated that no advantage accrued to students on the basis of training; however, limitations of this finding are discussed in terms of the amount of training provided and the time available to the students for integrating the new strategies with their existing techniques. The major result of this investigation was that students provided with text containing intact and embedded headings significantly outperformed students whose text did not contain these processing aids. The major benefits were observed at delayed testing; the text-with-headings students recalled approximately 11% more information at immediate testing and 44% more information at delayed testing than the text-without-headings students. Implications of these results and future research issues are discussed.     

Cerebral laterality effects in the dual processing of prose

The degree to which the concreteness of prose material presented in an auditory fashion would interact with learners' lateral preference under different right hemispheric presentation conditions was investigated with 96 normal adults. Forty-eight subjects with consistent right preference patterns and a like number of bilateral individuals were either instructed to image, given a visual-spatial interference task, or given no instructions before listening to passages which differed in abstractness. As predicted across conditions, learners recalled a significantly greater number of ideas when the passage was concrete. Importantly, the abstractness was found to interact with subjects' inferred cerebral dominance. Whereas instructions to image and visual interference had little significant effect on mixed dominant subjects, for more consistently lateralized subjects imagery instructions increased and right-hemispheric interference decreased concrete recall. The results were interpreted in terms of visual and verbal encoding concomitant with cerebral lateralization.     

Overt and covert use of objectives of different cognitive levels

College students provided objectives along with a study passage scored significantly lower on a multiple-choice post-test than students given the same objectives plus an overt task for the content of each objective. Scores on lower level post-test questions were significantly higher than scores on higher level questions. Students did not perform better on the post-test on content for which they had been given higher level objectives than on content for which lower level objectives were provided. This finding was not in keeping with what would be predicted from learning from text studies employing inserted study questions of different levels.     

Prose organization and recall

In two experiments, subjects read prose materials with various organizations of the superordinate and subordinate conceptual structure of the passage. Variables included organizational salience, massed versus distributed repetition of the passage, nature of the cueing at recall, and number of exposures. In Experiment I, distributed repetition resulted in superior recall, extending the generality of that effect to prose materials; and an advance organizer treatment resulted in lower recall for scrambled materials, contrary to Ausubel's (1960) cognitive theory. High ability subjects recalled more categories than low ability subjects, but the same amount of within-category information. In Experiment II, materials which increased the salience of the organizational structure of the passage were better recalled than scrambled materials after three exposures, or on a test which cued the major categories in the passage. Cueing was detrimental to performance for subjects reading the scrambled passage. Results are discussed in terms of implications for educational practice.