Effects of Content‐related Attitude on the Comprehension and Retention of Expository Text

Henk, William A.; Holmes, Betty C.

doi:10.1080/0270271880090303

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Interest does not cover emotions like distress, disgust or delight. Research on attitudes in educational contexts shows that, students learn information regardless of their own attitude (Henk and Holmes, 1988 ; Hollingsworth and Reutzel, 1990 ). However, research on emotions during the learning process shows that emotions do influence learning (e.g., Ainley et al, 2005 ; Holstermann et al, 2012 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prior knowledge in recalling arguments in bioethical dilemmas

2015

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Prior knowledge is known to facilitate learning new information. Normally in studies confirming this outcome the relationship between prior knowledge and the topic to be learned is obvious: the information to be acquired is part of the domain or topic to which the prior knowledge belongs. This raises the question as to whether prior knowledge of various domains facilitates recalling information. In this study 79 eleventh-grade students completed a questionnaire on their prior knowledge of seven different domains related to the bioethical dilemma of prenatal diagnostics. The students read a text containing arguments for and arguments against prenatal diagnostics. After 1 week and again 12 weeks later they were asked to write down all the arguments they remembered. Prior knowledge helped them recall the arguments 1 week (r = 0.350) and 12 weeks (r = 0.316) later. Prior knowledge of three of the seven domains significantly helped them recall the arguments 1 week later (correlations between r = 0.194 and 0.394). Partial correlations with interest as a control item revealed that interest did not explain the relationship between prior knowledge and recall. Prior knowledge of different domains jointly supports the recall of arguments related to bioethical topics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prior knowledge in recalling arguments in bioethical dilemmas

2015

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“…Bower (1978) attributed this effect to the readers' perspective before reading, while Read and Rosson (1982) and Reutzel and Hollingsworth (1991) attributed it to attitude; but none of these studies explain why a perspective or attitude can have this effect on reading comprehension. This is particularly important because a number of studies on attitude have failed to find that a perspective or attitude leads to confirmation bias (Brigham & Cook, 1969;Greenwald & Sakumura, 1967;Henk & Holmes, 1988;Hymes, 1986;Judd & Kulik, 1980;Smith & Jamieson, 1972;Spiro & Sherif, 1975;Waly & Cook, 1966). Thus, the question remains as to why attitudes sometimes lead to confirmation bias and other times do not.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has been a substantial amount of research related to this hypothesis with conflicting findings. Many studies confirm the selective recall hypothesis (e.g., Hastorf & Cantril, 1954;Jones & Aneshansel, 1956;Levine & Murphy, 1943;Read & Rosson, 1982;Roberts, 1984aRoberts, , 1984b, while many others fail to confirm this hypothesis (e.g., Brigham & Cook, 1969;Greenwald & Sakumura, 1967;Henk & Holmes, 1988;Smith & Jamieson, 1972;Spiro & Sherif, 1975;Waly & Cook, 1966).…”

Section: Research Related To Emotional Involvement: Attitudes and Egomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One consideration that helps explain the conflicting results of attitude-memory research is the confounding effect of prior knowledge (Fortner & Henk, 1991;Reutzel & Hollingsworth, 1991). When subjects' prior knowledge regarding a target issue has been controlled (Fitzgerald & Ausubel, 1963;Henk & Holmes, 1988;Reutzel & Hollingsworth, 1991;Waly & Cook, 1966), the selective recall hypothesis has only been partially confirmed on one occasion (Reutzel & Hollingsworth, 1991). This suggests that some of the findings that have confirmed the selective recall hypothesis may be attributable to varying prior knowledge, and therefore, future studies of attitude need to account for this prior knowledge if the readers of those studies are to have any confidence that the results are truly a function of attitude and not prior knowledge.…”

Section: Research Related To Emotional Involvement: Attitudes and Egomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While it is widely accepted that attitude-emotionally laden knowledge-can affect memory for and understanding of communications (e.g., Bartlett, 1932;Fortner & Henk, 1991;Pratkanis, 1989;Sherif & Cantril, 1947), there have been relatively few literacy studies that have attempted to assess the effects of emotional involvement on subjects' recall and understanding of texts (Fortner & Henk, 1991;Henk & Holmes, 1988;Reutzel & Hollingsworth, 1991). Reading researchers have documented that people do become emotionally involved while reading (Brewer & Lichtenstein, 1981Hansen, 1986;Sadoski, Goetz, & Kangiser, 1988), but no published studies have statistically analyzed the effects of subjects' emotional involvement with a particular issue on their reading comprehension when reading connected texts pertaining to that issue.…”

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confidence: 99%

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“That's Just How It Was”: The Effect of Issue‐Related Emotional Involvement on Reading Comprehension

Gaskins

1996

Reading Research Quarterly

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S The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of issue‐related emotional involvement on reading comprehension. Three groups of 24 eighth graders from the Philadelphia and Boston areas read silently a text about a basketball game which ended in a fight. The subjects in two of these groups were highly emotionally involved with one of the teams in the text they read. The subjects in the third group were not emotionally involved with either of the teams in the text they read. After reading the text, students recalled the passage from memory and answered three questions pertaining to the text. Students' responses to the questions were combined to form a score representing the degree and direction of bias represented in their interpretation of the text that they read. Group means were then calculated and compared using a single factor analysis of variance. Pairwise comparisons were conducted using the least significant difference test. Students' comments throughout the sessions were examined and provided as data to support and clarify the quantitative analyses. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the way the three groups interpreted the text. The two high emotional involvement groups interpreted the text in line with their affiliation, and the control group interpreted the text more neutrally. These findings support the hypothesis that emotional involvement can have an important impact on how we interpret texts. Implications of this study are discussed in relation to theories of text processing, critical thinking, and conceptual change. EL PROPÓSITO de este estudio fue investigar el efecto del compromiso emocional con el tema sobre la comprensión en lectura. Tres grupos de 24 niños de octavo grado de las áreas de Filadelfia y Boston leyeron en silencio un texto acerca de un partido de básquet que terminó en una pelea. Los sujetos de dos de estos grupos estaban muy involucrados emocionalmente con uno de los equipos que aparecían en el texto. Los sujetos del tercer grupo no estaban involucrados emocionalmente con ninguno de los equipos sobre los que leían. Luego de la lectura del texto, los estudiantes hicieron un relato oral del texto a partir de su recuerdo y respondieron tres preguntas referentes al texto. Las respuestas de los estudiantes a las preguntas fueron combinadas para formar un puntaje que determinaba el grado y la dirección del sesgo representado en su interpretación del texto leído. Luego se calcularon las medias de los grupos y estas se compararon usando un análisis de variancia de factor único. Se hicieron comparaciones entre pares mediante el test de la menor diferencia significativa. Los comentarios de los estudiantes a través de las sesiones fueron examinados y proporcionaron datos para dar apoyo y clarificar el análisis cuantitativo. Los resultados mostraron una diferencia significativa en la forma en que los tres grupos interpretaron el texto. Los dos grupos involucrados emocionalmente interpretaron el texto de acuerdo con sus simpatías y el grup...

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