Instructors often use Microsoft PowerPoint lectures and handouts as support tools to provide students with the main concepts of the lectures. Some instructors and researchers believe that PowerPoint encourages student passivity. We conducted 2 studies to determine whether the use of contentbased questions (CBQs) would enhance learning when combined with traditional PowerPoint lectures. Our results indicated significantly higher quiz scores and exam scores when students used CBQs in comparison to using only the traditional PowerPoint lecture and handouts. The results suggest that it is possible to incorporate effective active learning methods into PowerPoint-based lectures.
Efforts to find missing or wanted individuals have been characterized as an example of event-based prospective memory called prospective person memory. We examined prospective person memory in the context of missing children. Participants studied 4 or 12 mock missing child posters. In Experiment 1, we equated total time per poster and found no difference between conditions in prospective person memory accuracy. In Experiment 2, we equated total time for all posters and found evidence of a decrease in prospective person memory accuracy in the 12-poster condition. In Experiment 3, we allowed free study and also found a decrease in prospective person memory accuracy. Across all three experiments, we also found evidence of a more liberal response bias in the 12-poster condition. Results are discussed in terms of both practical and theoretical implications.
Previous research has shown that preexisting inappropriate highlighting of text could impair reading comprehension. In addition to replicating this effect, the authors investigated the impact of preexisting highlighting on measures of metacognition. In a 3 x 2 between-subjects factorial design, participants were 180 undergraduate college students randomly assigned to read passages that varied by type of highlighting (none, appropriate, or inappropriate) and text difficulty (low vs. high). Comprehension scores and metacognitive accuracy were impaired by inappropriate highlighting. Results show that when reading inappropriately highlighted passages, students' ratings of how well they had comprehended the text and how accurately they had answered comprehension questions were negatively correlated with their performance on a comprehension test. Inappropriate highlighting appeared to impair text comprehension and metacognitive accuracy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.