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In Exp 1, 21 Ss read and recalled a series of 5 short stories in 1 of 4 plot and style combinations. The stories were written in 1 of 2 styles that consisted of opposing clause orders, tense forms, and descriptor forms. The Ss were able to learn the regularities of both the style and the plot over successive recalls. This is the first demonstration of style learning using an arbitrary novel style. In Exp 2, 48 Ss who, after 5 recalls, either generated a new story or listed the rules that had been followed by the stories read, included ...

For the slides in most technical presentations, presenters choose a single word or short phrase as the headline. This article challenges that practice with experimental evidence showing that using a succinct sentence headline to identify the main assertion of a slide leads to statistically significant increases in audience retention of that assertion. The experimental tests occurred in a large, lecture-based geoscience course that had 200 students per section. For the study, the presenter, over five class periods, used about 100 slides with mostly phrase headlines to communicate the information to two sections of students and then used the same number ...

The study investigated the use of graphic organizers to compensate for text that was less than optimal in its organization. Tenth graders (N = 114) read two versions of an expository passage that differed only in structure (comparison versus description). Both experimental groups studied a graphic organizer that had been constructed to reflect the comparison text structure. On immediate and delayed recall measures, the experimental groups recalled significantly more than the control groups only under the descriptive text condition. Results support assimilation encoding theory and suggest that organizers aid recall when readers must reorganize information but do not help when ...

A study was carried out to investigate the effects of prior knowledge on learning with a non-linear electronic document including an interactive conceptual map. Cognitive Load Theory was used as theoretical framework to investigate effects on cognitive load and disorientation in learning from non-linear documents. Forty-four future high school biology teachers were required to learn the multiplication cycle of a virus from either a hierarchical structure (organisational links) or a network structure (relational links). For the low prior knowledge learners, the results showed that the hierarchical structure supported better free recall performance and reduced feelings of disorientation. In contrast, the ...

Many standardized methods are available with which to evaluate the reading ease and comprehensibility of written material. Techniques depend on mechanical analysis of sentence length, multiple prepositional phrases, direct phraseology, and arrangement of printed materials on the page. Those techniques were used to analyze a pamphlet designed for patient education by the American Academy of Dermatology. The pamphlet scored a reading ease grade of 45, corresponding to what is considered difficult reading and at a level commonly found in academic journals. We rewrote the pamphlet and increased its reading ease score to 62.4, corresponding to material that appears in standard ...

This study compared the effects of three different instructional aids on the acquisition of information from a scientific passage. Different groups of subjects were given: (a) no aids (control group), (b) written instructions providing an overview of the passage, (c) the same instructions plus the task of forming a study outline from the instructions, or (d) an illustration depicting important elements of the passage. After studying the passage, 104 subjects completed an applied problem and a recognition task, either immediately or 24 h after studying the passage. The principal finding was that instructions, outline, and illustration led to a significantly ...

Cognitive load theory states that well-designed learning material minimizes extraneous cognitive load and optimizes germane cognitive load within the thresholds of available cognitive resources. In this study, the extraneous cognitive load is minimized by avoiding temporal split attention with regard to supportive information (i.e., conceptual models or ‘theory’) and the germane cognitive load is optimized by using schematic representations of this information to direct learner’s attention to concepts relevant for learning. A 2 × 2 between-groups design with the factors supportive information (before or during practice) and schematic representation (before or during practice) was used to investigate whether this balance ...

This study examines whether the spatial configuration of two adjunct pictures influences processing of accompanying text as has been found in the case of other types of graphic displays. Forty-eight undergraduates studied a text along with drawings or verbal descriptors portraying the main characters of a story. These adjuncts were spatially arranged on the page with the senior character situated above the junior, or vice versa. Analysis of variance of performance on constructed-response questions showed no effect for configuration. However, significant differences in achievement were noted for questions derived from paraphrased parts of the story versus ones developed from verbatim ...

This study investigated the effects of short, headline-type recaps on the recall of specific information and the gist of the stories in a television news program. A W-item program which included either oral recaps, oral-plus-graphic recaps, or no recaps was viewed by 881 subjects in three strata of educational level. Recaps were found to increase retention of the gist of the stories, but did not affect retention of specific details. No differences were found between the two types of recap. In addition, recaps supplanted rather than supplemented unrecapped items that had been viewed previously. ...

Two experiments were conducted on edited TV newscast sequences to clarify effects of film accompaniment on learning from heard news text. In Experiment 1,150 British subjects viewed a sequence with either film format throughout or alternating film and 'talking head' format between items. Those items that were presented by 'talking heads' in the mixed sequence were learned better with film format, in which the heard text was accompanied by appropriate moving pictures. However, no effect of uniform context was found on the remaining items. In Experiment 2, 91 German subjects viewed one of four versions of a bulletin, one with ...