How Inspecting a Picture Affects Processing of Text in Multimedia Learning

We investigated how a picture fosters learning from text, both with self‐paced presentation and with short presentation before text. In an experiment, participants (N = 114) learned about the structure and functioning of a pulley system in one of six conditions: text only, picture presentation for 150 milliseconds, 600 milliseconds, or 2 seconds, or self‐paced before text, or self‐paced concurrent presentation of text and picture. Presenting the picture for self‐paced study time, both before and concurrently with text, fostered recall and comprehension and sped up text processing compared with presenting text only. Moreover, even inspecting the picture for only 600 milliseconds or 2 seconds improved comprehension and yielded faster reading of subsequent text about the spatial structure of the system compared with text only. These findings suggest that pictures, even if attended for a short time only, may yield a spatial mental scaffold that allows for the integration with verbal information, thereby fostering comprehension. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cooperative Learning Groups at the College Level: Differential Effects on High, Average, and Low Exam Performers

A repeated-measures mixed-design was used in examining the effects of cooperative learning study teams on exam performance for 378 undergraduate students enrolled in one of 10 large sections of an introductory educational psychology course over a two-semester period. Students were assigned to 5-member cooperative groups based on previous exam achievement (low, average, high). Bonuses (20% of exam score) were offered to groups who improved their mean exam performance to a pre-established criterion in the cooperative-group phase. Results yielded an overall effect size of 0.42 for cooperative study versus individual study. Students who had obtained low and average scores on the preceding exam improved significantly during cooperative study, but the previously high achievers decreased somewhat.     

Reexamining the Nature of Learner Control: Dimensionality and Effects on Learning and Training Reactions

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to advance learner control as a psychological construct by reexamining its dimensionality and effects on learning and reactions in the context of technology-delivered training.

Design/methodology/approach

Learners (n=384) completed a 2-h web-based Microsoft Excel training. The amount of instructional and scheduling control was manipulated in order to introduce variance in control perceptions. Outcome measures included off-task attention, declarative knowledge, and training reactions.

Findings

Learner control is a multidimensional construct with differential effects on training outcomes. By focusing on learners’ perceptions of control, we found that instructional control perceptions decreased learning by increasing off-task attention, while scheduling control perceptions increased learning.

Implications

Though both dimensions of perceived learner control are positively related to training reactions, they differentially predict learning. Combined with factor analytic evidence, our study suggests that learner control research should differentiate between objective and perceived learner control, and between instructional and scheduling control perceptions. Organizations should consider how learner control affects learning prior to designing training.

Originality/value

Scheduling control is an often used but rarely researched form of learner control. We address this gap by expanding the construct domain of learner control to include scheduling control. Further, this study provides the first empirical examination of learner control perceptions. Despite calls for learner control literature to differentiate between objective and perceived control, no study had previously examined control perceptions directly. Our results may be used to inform organizational decisions regarding the amount and type of control included in training.     

不同阅读水平与文章熟悉程度条件下文章标记效应的研究

探讨文章阅读过程中读者的阅读水平与文章熟悉程度对文章标记效应的影响。结果表明,文章标记与文章主题熟悉程度存在显著的交互作用,文章标记对熟悉文章的信息保持无明显的促进效应．但对不熟悉文章信息保持的促进效应非常明显;文章标记对不同阅读水平读者的文章信息保持都有显著的促进效应,但对阅读水平高的读者的促进效应大于对阅读水平低的读者的促进效应。文章阅读中的结构搜索加工的观点得到初步证明。     

学习不良儿童的策略信念与理解水平

使用结构访谈法对120名儿童(其中学习不良儿童60名)的策略信念与策略理解水平进行了研究。结果显示:学习不良儿童组与一般儿童组的差异更多体现在对具体策略的元认知因果解释水平上,他们更多持有较低水平的“信息获得”解释,而对照组儿童则更多持有较高水平的“信息加工”解释,提示对策略理解水平的差异可能是导致学习不良儿童难以将新学到的策略主动应用到其它情景中去的一个重要原因。     

Individual Accountability in Cooperative Learning Groups at the College Level: Differential Effects on High,Average, and Low Exam Performers

Over a three-semester period in a large undergraduate human development course, students were assigned to 5–7 member groups to work together in preparing for an exam in one of the five content units in the course. Their exam performance was tracked over three units: a baseline unit in which students worked only individually, a unit in which they worked in cooperative teams, and a follow-up unit in which the formal cooperative team structure was removed. Three different bonus-credit contingencies were used in the cooperative learning unit across the three semesters: (a) awarding full bonus credit to each individual in the group if the group as a whole improved its exam performance by the specified amount, (b) awarding partial bonus credit to each individual in the group if the group as a whole improved it exam performance by the specified amount and full bonus credit to each individual who also improved by the specified amount, and (c) awarding full bonus credit to an individual in the group if both the group and the individual improved exam performance by the specified amount. The three contingencies produced somewhat similar patterns of change for low and average performers, but the high performers fared better under the last two contingencies than under the group-only contingency.     

Job Design and the Employee Innovation Process: The Mediating Role of Learning Strategies

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to examine whether employee learning strategies is a mechanism through which job design affects the employee innovation process. In particular, we test whether work-based learning strategies mediate the relationship between job design characteristics (job control and problem demand) and key components of the innovation process (idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were collected from a survey of 327 employees in a UK manufacturing organization.

Findings

Structural equation modeling confirmed the mediating role of learning strategies in the relationship between job design and idea generation. The effects of job control on idea generation were mediated by work-based learning strategies and the effects of problem demand on idea generation were partially mediated by work-based learning strategies. Problem demand also had a direct relationship with idea generation and idea promotion. The findings provide support for the general idea that learning is a mechanism thorough which job design affects outcomes.

Implications

The results of the study show practitioners that creating jobs with high control or high problem demand can help to promote the employee innovation process; and that this is partly due to the role that such jobs play in stimulating the use of learning strategies at work.

Originality/Value

This article develops and tests a new theoretical model that explains how learning is a route through which job design influences employee innovation.     

The Effects of Real-World Knowledge on Text Processing Among Older Adults

In the present study, the effects of knowledge on text processing were investigated among older adults. Past research has shown that knowledge reduces processing time among older readers, however, this finding was based on schematic knowledge. Schematic knowledge is a highly prescribed knowledge that draws on commonly held general world knowledge. Domain knowledge, on the other hand, is specialized real-world knowledge within a particular area (e.g., chess, physics, cooking). Past research has shown that domain knowledge engages additional processing resources among younger adults. If this is true of the elderly, then this type of knowledge may pose a challenge to older adults. Regression analyses were used to investigate word-by-word reading time patterns among high- and low-knowledge older adults. Older high-knowledge readers did in fact increase resource allocation to texts that drew on domain knowledge and in turn showed higher levels of recall. These data suggest that knowledge promotes the productive allocation of processing resources among older adults, thus enabling them to take full advantage of knowledge.     

Examining the Relationship Between Text Processing and Text Comprehension in Fourth Grade Readers

This research investigates the relationship among various processing behaviors and their link to comprehension. Thirty-four students from three fourth-grade classrooms orally read the first chapter of a short story. The reading was followed by an unaided recall and probes by the researcher. Each clause as finally read was evaluated for semantics (acceptable/unacceptable) and maintenance of author's meaning (yes/no). Finally, words read per minute and number of total, corrected, and uncorrected miscues was calculated. The impact of miscues on retelling performance on the clause and story event level was evaluated using nonparametric, parametric, and multivariate analyses. On the clause level, findings indicate that a similar proportion of clauses were recalled irrespective of whether the clause had been read with no miscues, corrected miscues, or uncorrected miscues. There was a significant difference, however, in the proportion of recalled clauses depending on miscue type. Uncorrected semantically unacceptable/meaning disrupting clauses were less likely to be recalled, whereas clauses containing uncorrected miscues that did not change meaning were more likely to be recalled than clauses read with no miscues. On the story level, strong retellings were associated with fewer meaning changing and meaning disrupting miscues and with more corrected miscues and reading speed. Total number of miscues, miscues that did not change meaning, and reading grade level were not significantly associated with strong story retellings. These findings suggest that the concept of accuracy may not be as significant as miscue meaningfulness and that speed is best understood as part of a matrix of behaviors associated with strong comprehension.     

文本组织和结构化水平对中文信息搜索的影响

以高结构化中文信息为实验材料,探讨文本组织和结构化水平对信息搜索的影响。以文本组织形式为自变量,以材料的结构化水平为控制变量,以搜索时间和迷路指数为因变量。结果发现：线性文本的搜索时间显著长于低层次的超文本,但迷路程度显著低于所有类型的超文本;3种超文本无显著差异;对层次型超文本来说,4层次的搜索时问显著短于11层次。综合以前研究的结果提出,信息结构化水平虽然对层次深度的效应具有调制作用,但并不是影响超文本信息搜索的最主要因素。     

Effects of Differential Instructions and Anxiety Level on Discrimination Learning

Seventy-seven nonconserver-conserver dyads and 53 nonconserver-nonconserver dyads were given a conservation of length task which encouraged conflicting judgments from the nonconserving dyad. Ss were boys and girls aged 4 through 8. Control tasks for social dominance/compliance were also administered. All sessions were videotaped. The nonconserver-nonconserver dyads did not tend to produce the correct answer by perspective coordination and showed little posttest gain. Nonconservers who had been paired with conservers showed posttest gain on length, mass, liquid, and number conservation problems. Being the winner of an interaction session was associated with opposing the partner's judgment and with producing justifications in conserver-nonconserver dyads, but only with social compliance in nonconserver-nonconserver dyads. Justifications in support of conservation judgments were invariably by logical principles but very rarely so in support of nonconservation judgments. The results are discussed in terms of the relative importance of cognitive conflict and transmission as crucial social experiences in cognitive development, and in terms of the possibility that nonconservers may lack the notion of objective correctness relative to conservers.     

多媒体互动插图对科学说明文学习的影响

48名 1 3岁中学生被分为高低两种学习能力 ,每种被试又被分成两组分别学习配有两种插图 (多媒体静态插图和多媒体互动插图 )的一篇生物说明文 ,结果表明 :( 1 )在重在考查插图加工水平的图片测验上 ,学习能力和插图类型主效应均显著 ,但两者之间不存在显著交互作用 ;( 2 )在重在考查文图整合加工水平的文字测验上 ,学习能力和插图类型之间存在显著的交互作用 ,即只有当学习能力高时 ,两种插图之间存在显著差异。 ( 3 )在被试的填图过程中 ,被试的尝试次数与其插图加工时间及学习效果之间存在显著的相关。这说明 ,多媒体互动插图可促进所有被试对插图的加工 ,但只能促进学习能力高者对图文的整合加工 ,而且多媒体互动插图对学习的促进效果与被试加工插图时的实际加工深度有关     

Effects of Cooperative Learning on Perceived Status of Male and Female Pupils

Abstract

The effects of cooperative and individualistic learning experiences on the status of male and female American pupils were compared. Expectation states theory predicts that male pupils would have higher status than female pupils and, therefore, be more active and more influential. Social interdependence theory predicts that interaction within cooperative learning groups would result in a process of acceptance characterized by equal status of male and female pupils. Seventy-five sixth-grade boys (n = 43) and girls (n = 32) were randomly assigned to three cooperative conditions and one individualistic condition stratifying for sex, ability level, and original classroom. They participated in the study for 55 min per day for 14 instructional days. Cooperative learning resulted in greater retention and higher level learning than did individualistic learning. Although there were initial achievement differences between boys and girls, and although boys gained in status over girls in the individualistic condition, at the end of the study in the cooperative conditions there were no differences between them in achievement, verbal participation in the group, perceived leadership, and status. These results are consistent with the predictions of social interdependence theory and inconsistent with the predictions of expectation states theory. The results were basically the same in male-majority, female-majority, or equal-sex groups.     

合作学习研究的综述

合作学习(cooperative learning)是目前世界上许多国家都普遍采用的一种富有创意和实效的教学理论与策略体系。文章主要阐述了合作学习的概念、类型、方法,及理论。最后,指出我国合作学习研究出现的问题和未来展望。文章认为强化实验研究、探讨与课堂教学相结合的研究,及重视教师在合作学习的作用是今后该领域发展的主要方向。     

Effects of Level of Processing on Implicit and Explicit Memory in Depressed Mood

Recently, several studies have addressed the question of whether depression affects priming in implicit memory tasks. The main aim of this experiment was to assess the presence of a bias for negative information in explicit memory (free recall) and implicit memory (word-stem completion) tasks among subclinically depressed subjects compared to nondepressed subjects, using the typical levels of processing manipulation. The results of this study show the existence of a mood-congruent memory bias for both implicit and explicit memory in depressed subjects. The theoretical implications of these findings for implicit and explicit memory biases associated with depressed mood are discussed.     

The Effects of Text Structure Discrimination Training on the Writing Performance of Students with Learning Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine whether teaching three participants with learning disabilities to name and identify critical components (i.e., opening sentence, detail sentences, and key words) for four expository text structures, and to discriminate between well-written and poorly written components would improve their expository writing performance. After instruction, one participant immediately improved her expository paragraph writing skills. However, two participants needed additional instruction and feedback on their writing before their paragraph writing improved. Social validation of the study outcomes was assessed by comparing participants' paragraphs before and after instruction to paragraphs produced by same age peers without disabilities. After instruction, participants' paragraph scores were above the mean score of the normative comparison group. Implications for teaching writing skills to students with learning disabilities, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Levels of Processing and Retrieval: Recency Effects After Incidental Learning in A Reaction Time Task

In their development of the levels-of-processing approach to memory Craik and Jacoby (1975) proposed a dual-process theory of retrieval which involves both the scanning of recent episodic memory and a process of reconstruction in semantic memory. The theory predicts that a depth of processing effect will emerge only when the latter retrieval process is employed. Two experiments tested this prediction under the “conveyor-belt” assumption that scanning will be adopted for recent items while earlier items must be retrieved by reconstruction. An incidental-learning paradigm was employed, in which subjects performed an orienting reaction-time task on a sequence of word-pairs. Each word-pair was judged at either a semantic, phonemic or (in Experiment I) orthographic level of coding. In the first experiment half the subjects subsequently attempted free recall while half performed a recognition task; in the second experiment subjects were cued for recall in the last six serial positions, followed by free recall of the remaining items. A consistent “levels” effect emerged in both recall and recognition and this was particularly clearly observed in recency positions. A significant difference also emerged between positive and negative judgements. Although it is argued that these effects might emerge even in scanning it is concluded that these experiments provide no support for the proposal of two distinct retrieval modes.     

动态图像对文本学习的作用研究

本研究通过实验考察了计算机动态图像对文本学习的作用,发现其作用既与学习材料的性质有关,也与评价学习的方法有关。动态图像对具体性文本材料的理解、识记和保持都无明显作用;而对抽象性文本材料的理解有明显帮助,进而促进记忆的保持效果,其作用明显大于印刷品条件静止图像的作用。但对抽象性文本材料中关键词的识记则有明显不利的影响。     

文章主题论述长度对文章标记效应的影响

探讨文章阅读过程中文章主题论述长度对文章主题信息和从属信息的保持效果。结果表明：文章主题论述长度影响着文章标记的效应,在有文章宏观标记条件下,文章主题论述长短对主题的通达无显著影响;但在无宏观标记条件下,论述长的文章主题的记忆效应显著优于论述短的主题;文章宏观标记对短主题从属信息的保持存在显著的扩散效应。