Verbal and pictorial facilitation of paired-associate learning

Rohwer, William D.; Lynch, Steve; Suzuki, Nancy S.; Levin, Joel R.

doi:10.1016/0022-0965(67)90014-8

Cited by 47 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In the fact-learning literature, there is evidence that a subject's own elaborations are better retained than those provided by the experimenter (e.g., Bobrow & Bower, 1969;Rohwer& Ammon, 1971;Rohwer, Lynch, Levin, & Suzuki, 1967;Rohwer, Lynch, Suzuki, & Levin, 1967). Nonetheless, we suspectthat in a skill-learning domain, reader-generatedelaborations will be less reliable than those the author can provide.…”

Section: Why Do Author-provided Elaborations Impede Fact Learning?mentioning

confidence: 82%

The role of elaborations in learning a skill from an instructional text

1986

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In these studies, we examined the role of elaborations for subjects learning a procedural skill (viz., using a personal computer) from an instructional text. In Experiment 1, we compared two sources of elaborations: those provided by the author and those generated by learners while reading. In the latter condition, subjects were given advance information about the tasks they were to perform so that they would generate more specific task-related elaborations while reading. Each source of elaborations facilitated skill performance. This result contrasts with results of the past experiments testing declarative knowledge in which author-provided elaborations were found to hurt performance. In Experiment 2, the author-provided elaborations were classified into those illustrating the syntax of the operating system commands and those explaining basic concepts and their applicability. Syntax elaborations produced significant facilitation for experienced and novice computer users. Concept elaborations produced no reliable improvement.An important question to both memory theorists and pedagogists is, "What variables will improve the learning and retention of written information?" One such variable that has been the topic of considerable speculation and research is the effect of elaborations (J. R. Anderson & Reder, 1979;Bransford, 1979;Chiesi, Spilich, & Voss, 1979;Craik & Tulving, 1975;Mandl & Ballstaedt, 1981;Mandl, Schnotz, & Tergan, 1984;Reder, 1976Reder, , 1979Weinstein, 1978). In the view of most researchers, there are several reasons why elaborations should help subjects learn and remember the main ideas of a text. Elaborations provide multiple retrieval routes to the essential information by creating more connections to the learner's prior knowledge. If one set of connections is forgotten, it may be possible to retrieve the desired information another way. Furthermore, if the learner forgets an important point, it may be possible to reconstruct it from the information that is still available.Elaborations can arise from two distinct sources: first, the text itself can contain elaborations of the main ideas, and second, the reader can generate them independently while reading. We use the same term for both types, because we define elaborations as any information that supports, clarifies, or further specifies the main points of a text. Elaborations can take many forms, including examples, details, analogies, restatements, and deductions.

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Section: Why Do Author-provided Elaborations Impede Fact Learning?mentioning

confidence: 82%

The role of elaborations in learning a skill from an instructional text

1986

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“…(147) j Milgram (192) j Rohwer et ai. (240,241)]. While it has been shown that context has most of its facilitating effect at the storage rather than retrieval end of the experimental sequence [Rohwer,Shuell & Levin (242)], the nature of the mediating process re sponsible for this effect is stilI far from clear.…”

Section: Cognitive Processesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Developmental Psychology

Flavell¹,

Hill²

1969

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

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age R2 for age when it was considered alone was .158, but the value was reduced to only.035 after the variation in a composite measure of perceptual speed was controlled. These results therefore suggest that almost 807o (i.e., [. I 58 -.035 ]l I 58 = .778) ofthe age-related variance in certain measures offluid cognition is associated with variations in perceptual speed.The research reported in this article was designed with two major goals in mind. One goal was to examine the generality of the speed-mediation phenomenon by including measures of memory in addition to measures of fluid or process aspects of cognition. Extending the research in this direction is ofinterest, because less convincing support for a mediational effect of speed was found with m€asures reflecting memory functioning in the partial correlation analyses reported in Salthouse (l 985a). That is, partialing a measure ofprocessing speed had a smaller effect on the correlations between age and measures of memory than it did on the correlations between age and measures of other types of cognitive functioning. Moreover, additional analyses on the data from the Salthouse et al. (1988) project similar to those summarized in Table I also revealed weaker attenuation ofthe age relations ficr measures representing memory functioning than for measures representing other types of cognitive functioning. For example, the attenuation was only 63.8Vo for a measure of the accuracy of reproducing the identities of items in a matrix, only 4'l .59o for a measure of the accuracy of reproducing the positions of items in a matrix, and only l6.7vo for a measure of paired-associate memory.The smaller attenuation of the age-related memory differences after control of measures of speed raises the possibility that quickness of mental operations may be a less important factor in the age differences in traditional memory tests than in cognitive tests assessing reasoning or spatial abilities. Although this speculation is plausible on the basis ofthe available results, stronger evidence ofthe differential influence ofspeed on cognitive and memory measures is desirable before one can conclude that speed factors have a minimal role in the relations between age and memory. One type of evidence that would be relevant in this regard would be a discovery that substantial age-related effects remained after statistical control of a measure of perceptual speed, or equivalently, a finding that the Speed Mediation of Adult Age Differences in Cognition Timothy A. Salthouse Previous research has established that a large proportion of the adult age-related variance in various measures offluid or process cognition is reduced when statistical control procedures such as hierarchical regression are used to eliminate variation in measures ofperceptual speed. This finding was confirmed in the present study and was extended to include paired-associate and free-recall measures of memory in addition to measures of reasoning and spatial abilities. Most of the speed mediation was associated with s...

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“…It has been suggested that verbal context serves as an aid in inducing imagery [Reese and Lipsitt, 1970, p. 215;R eese, 1970b;Paivio, 1970], that facilitation in the case of imagery is the result of encoding into verbal form [Milgram, 1967b], and that the verbal and visual systems are independent, although with many interconnections [Bower, 1970], D avidson and Adams [1970] note that developmentally one process might precede the other, and so one might still ask which is more effective at different ages. Efforts to discover age trends in visual and verbal effects have generally not been successful, how ever [Reese, 1970a;Rohwer et al, 1967]. Presentation of stimuli in visual form does lead to better recall for young children than presentation in verbal form [Dilley and Paivio, 1968;, particularly if the items are presented in a unitized or compounded form [Reese, 1965[Reese, , 1970aD avidson and Adams, 1970].…”

Section: Visual and Verbal Elaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This particular variable has been further investigated by Horowitz et al [1969] and by Bencomo et al [1971], who have demonstrated better recall for a missing object if it is originally presented as part of a unitized scene rather than as part of a serial presentation. Presentation of stimulus and response terms within verbal contexts can also lead to better recall of the appropriate items, particularly when the words used are concrete or otherwise image-evoking [Paivio and Yuille, 1966;Yuille and Pritchard, 1969;Paivio, 1970], and when the sentences employed as context contain prepositions [Davidson and Adams, 1970] and verbs [Rohwer et al, 1967] rather than conjunctions. Jensen and Rohwer [1965] induced subjects to construct their own sentences using the stimulus and response items in a paired-as sociate task, and found that this facilitated recall for children between 7 and 11 years of age.…”

Section: Visual and Verbal Elaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Development of Memory Abilities in the Individualand Society

Meacham¹

1972

Human Development

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Two themes are emphasized in this review of recent American and Soviet research and theory on the development of memory abilities: (a) Memory is conceptualized as an epiphenomenon of various cognitive activities such as classifying, rehearsing, labeling, visual imagery, and sentence elaboration. The determinants of choice among these activities are considered, and potential hindrances to the development of effective memory performance are discussed. The problem of production deficiencyis given special attention, and interpreted as an activity-specific (rather than age-specific) failure to subordinate a potential mnemonic activity to the goal of remembering, (b) The development of memory abilities is viewed as a consequence of social interactions, and thus dependent upon the particular social-historical context within which these interactions take place. The importance of memory for different cultures and historical periods is discussed.

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Verbal and pictorial facilitation of paired-associate learning

Cited by 47 publications

References 8 publications

The role of elaborations in learning a skill from an instructional text

The role of elaborations in learning a skill from an instructional text

Developmental Psychology

The Development of Memory Abilities in the Individualand Society

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