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Across three experiments adults were presented either base sentences containing arbitrary relations (e.g., The fat man read the sign) or base sentences accompanied by a precise elaboration that made clear the significance of the particular type of man doing the action {e.g., The fat man read the sign warning about thin ice). Subjects either read the sentence alone or answered a question accompanying the sentence. Why did that particular man do that? accompanied base sentences; How does the last part of the sentence make clear why that particular man did (hat? accompanied precisely elaborated sentences. Both intentional and incidental learning were studied. The positive effects of providing precise elaborations were moderate in size and confined to incidental learning. Much larger incidental and intentional learning gains followed generation of elaborations in response to questions, with generated precise elaborations facilitating acquisition slightly better than generated imprecise elaborations.Much contemporary cognitive research is directed at analysis of learning from written texts and verbal discourse (e.g., Bransford et al., 1982;van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983). For instance, Stein, Bransford, and their associates (Stein & Bransford, 1979;Stein, Littlefield, Bransford, & Persampieri, 1984) reported a series of experiments in which adult subjects were presented with text that contained (a) arbitrary relations with intersentence confusions likely (base sentences), (b) elaborations that made the otherwise arbitrary relations more understandable (precise elaborations), or (c) elaborations that were consistent with the meaning of the sentence but did not clarify the significance of the relation specified in the sentence (imprecise elaborations). The following is a subset of Stein's and Bransford's base sentences:The hungry man got into the car. The strong man helped the woman. The brave man ran into the house.These arbitrary sentences can be expanded, however, with precise elaborations:The hungry man got into the car to go to the restaurant.

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