Domain-specific prior knowledge and learning: A meta-analysis

Simonsmeier, Bianca A.; Flaig, Maja; Deiglmayr, Anne; Schalk, Lennart; Schneider, Michael

doi:10.1080/00461520.2021.1939700

Cited by 96 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 128 publications

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“…The influence of congruency on memory has been inconclusive in the literature ( Simonsmeier et al, 2022 ). Studies have revealed memory enhancement related to both congruent and incongruent conditions ( Poppenk et al, 2010 ; Greve et al, 2019 ), and have found both positive and negative effects of congruency on memory ( Umanath and Marsh, 2014 ; Brod and Shing, 2019 ; Webb and Dennis, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Double-Edged Sword: The Role of Prior Knowledge in Memory Aging

Chen

Varghese

2022

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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IntroductionPeople accumulate knowledge throughout their lifespan and the accumulated knowledge influences how we encode and retrieve information in memory processing. This study aims to investigate the role of knowledge in associative memory across the adult lifespan, and specifically examines the effects of two material properties that interact with prior knowledge: congruency – whether the material is congruent with people’s prior knowledge, and ambiguity – whether the material is ambiguous to interpret based on prior knowledge.Method273 participants (aged 22–70 years old) completed an incidental memory task online. Participants were shown pictures depicting an object in a scene and judged if the object was likely or unlikely to be in the particular scene. Later, in the recognition test, participants were asked to identify if the exact picture was presented earlier. The pictures were manipulated to have varying levels of congruency, meaning that some depicted likely object–scene pairs and some unlikely. We also measured how different the likely/unlikely judgment for each object–scene pair was across all participants to determine the ambiguity level of the object–scene pair: some were more likely to receive diverse responses across people, whereas others are unambiguously consistent (or inconsistent) with common knowledge shared by most people. We used mixed-effects logistic regressions to predict memory outcome for each trial as a function of age, age2, congruency/ambiguity, and their interactions.ResultsThe object–scene pairs perceived as congruent had higher hit rates than incongruent ones, as well as higher false alarm rates, especially in middle-aged and older people. Higher ambiguity was also related to both greater true and false memory, independent of age. Finally, the effect of ambiguity only emerged when the object–scene pair was perceived incongruent.DiscussionThe results suggest that people rely on prior knowledge to process new information and that this reliance improves hit responses, but also induces false memories particularly for middle-aged and older people, suggesting a double-edged role of knowledge in associative memory and its disproportionate influence on memory aging. Over-reliance on knowledge in older adults, which has been suspected in other cognitive processes, may be one of the mechanisms underlying associative memory decrease in aging.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Double-Edged Sword: The Role of Prior Knowledge in Memory Aging

Chen

Varghese

2022

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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“…While convincing on a theoretical level, the empirical evidence for the Matthew effect is mixed (e.g., Simonsmeier et al, 2021), even for applications with a strong cumulative character such as reading acquisition (e.g., Pfost et al, 2014). Studies conducted with high-school students often seem to favor the compensation rather than the Matthew effect (e.g., Schroeders, Schipolowski, et al, 2016; Skibbe et al, 2008).…”

Section: The Cumulative Effect Of Prior Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Structural invariance of declarative knowledge across the adult lifespan.

Watrin¹,

Schroeders²,

Wilhelm³

2022

Psychology and Aging

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We have no conflicts of interest to disclose. We confirm that the work conforms to Standard 8 of the American Psychological Association's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. We thank Diana Steger for developing the large item pool that we partially used in this study and Alexander Robitzsch for the implementation of the joint estimation procedure in the sirt package. This research was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to Ulrich Schroeders and Andrea Hildebrandt (SCHR 1591/1-1 and HI 1780/4-1) as part of the Priority Program 1646 "Education as a Lifelong Process". Data from this study has partly been used in Schroeders et al. (2021). Both the research question and the methodology differ substantially. The data and materials supporting the findings of this study are available at https://osf.io/46gh7/.

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“…This would suggest that a principles text may serve as an advance organizer and that it would be beneficial for it to appear first in a multiple text set because the principles may serve as an overarching framework for subsuming exemplars. Ausubel’s work has received considerable attention very recently (Brod, 2021; Simonsmeier et al, 2022). Thus, it is important to investigate whether a principles text in a multiple text set can serve as an advance organizer when presented before exemplar texts.…”

Section: Reading To Learn From Multiple Textsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting integration and learning from multiple complementary texts.

McCrudden¹,

Kulikowich²,

Lyu³

et al. 2022

Journal of Educational Psychology

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In this experiment we investigated whether the presentation of domain principles within one text facilitates reading to learn from multiple exemplar texts that feature the importance of the principles. There were five texts about natural selection: a principles text, which described principles of natural selection, and four exemplar-based texts about specific animals. These exemplar texts illustrated natural selection in different species but did not explicitly reference natural selection. Undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three groups: principles-text-first (n = 27), principles-text-last (n = 27), or no principles text (n = 27). Participants completed different topic knowledge tests before and after reading. During reading, we used a think-aloud protocol to assess cognitive processing. The principles text promoted learning and readers’ attempts to integrate ideas between texts, but only when the principles text appeared before the exemplar texts. The three conditions did not differ in their use of intertext bridges between the exemplar texts, nor did they differ in their use of knowledge-based bridges (elaborations). However, the principles-text-first group generated more bridges between the principles text and the exemplar texts than the principles-text-last group. This suggests that a principles text can be an advance organizer that supports the integration of text ideas and learning from multiple complementary texts when students read a principles text first.

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Domain-specific prior knowledge and learning: A meta-analysis

Cited by 96 publications

References 128 publications

A Double-Edged Sword: The Role of Prior Knowledge in Memory Aging

A Double-Edged Sword: The Role of Prior Knowledge in Memory Aging

Structural invariance of declarative knowledge across the adult lifespan.

Promoting integration and learning from multiple complementary texts.

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