Listening and note taking: II. Immediate and delayed recall as functions of variations in thematic continuity, note taking, and length of listening-review intervals.

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted in which subjects listened to a passage divided into six segments of 5 minutes each. Manipulations were made of thematic relatedness of content, listen-study intervals, and note taking. More ideas were recalled when note taking was not permitted and when the material was on different topics or unconnected than when the material was on the same topic and/or connected. These effects were noted especially on a delayed-recall test administered 1 week following the listening period. No significant effects due to variations in listen-study intervals were found. The hypothesis that note taking is beneficial for subjects with high memory span but not for subjects with low memory span was provided some support. The results were interpreted in terms of less interference in discontinuous themes than in continuous themes. Implications of the study for further research on note taking were discussed.

Textual Organization, Advance Organizers and the Retention of Prose Material

“…Finally Frase (1969) found that varying passage organization required subjects to vary their information processing activities; as a result subjects retained some passage content better than others. This last study suggests a particular explanation for the results we have described above and also possibly the results of DiVesta and Gray (1973). When subjects are given no organizational information in the form of advance organizers or passage structure (whole condition) they are forced to carry out activities aimed at generating their own structure for the passage presented.…”

“…This somewhat startling comment would have been dismissed had it not coincided so well with our findings. The issue was raised strikingly again in DiVesta and Gray's (1973) recent finding that their scrambled passage was remembered significantly better than a completely logical ordering of the passage. While they explained their finding as due to release from proactive inhibition the general argument we will now advance would also account for their finding.…”

“…Meyer and McConkie (1973) have noted that measures of passage organization are highly related to the recall of material from a prose passage. DiVesta and Gray (1973) scrambled the order of paragraphs of material and significantly altered the subjects' ability to recall.With few exceptions no systematic rationale or procedure has been generated for the exploration of the interaction of such organizational characteristics with other variables thought to influence prose retention. It is quite possible that the influence of passage organization on recall will be modulated by other variables.…”

“…Meyer and McConkie (1973) have noted that measures of passage organization are highly related to the recall of material from a prose passage. DiVesta and Gray (1973) scrambled the order of paragraphs of material and significantly altered the subjects' ability to recall.…”

Speed of writing and printing

“…If the listener is to have a complete record of the lecture (one that can subsequently be accurately decoded), either some way of encoding the message other than spelling out each word completely must be used (e.g., abbreviation, speedwriting, shorthand) or the lecturer (perhaps in response to a signal from the listener) must speak very slowly or repeat the message. Although note taking during a lecture has been shown to enhance learning (DiVesta & Gray, 1973), information is lacking about both the effect of (1) message variables (e.g., speed and structure of the lecture) on the way in which the listener graphically encodes it and (2) the method of encoding on recall. Future research on these problems seems desirable.…”