Britton, B. K., & Gulgoz, S. (1991). Using kintsch's computational model to improve instructional text: Effects of repairing inference calls on recall and cognitive structures. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(3), 329-345.

Britton, B.;Gulgoz, S.

1991

Britton, B. K., & Gulgoz, S. (1991). Using kintsch's computational model to improve instructional text: Effects of repairing inference calls on recall and cognitive structures. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(3), 329-345.

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The goal of this study was to link a computational psychological model to instructional practice. W. Kintsch's (Kintsch and T. A. Van Dijk, 1978; J. R. Miller and Kintsch, 1980) reading comprehension model was used to identify locations where inferences were called for in a 1,000-word expository text. Then each location was repaired to produce a principled revision. In an experiment with 170 undergraduates (N=170), free recall of the principled revision was much increased over that of the original version. Also, the author of the original text and 7 subject-matter experts provided measures of the shape of the original text's intended cognitive structure. The author's and experts' cognitive structure shapes correlated above .5 with the shapes provided by US Air Force recruits who read the principled revision but only .1 with recruits who read the original version. Apparently, the principled revision carried out the author's intentions better than the author's original text. It is concluded that Kintsch's model can be used to improve instructional text.

The results showed that the principled revision not only produced more free recall than did the original version and more learning per unit of study time, but also produced a mental representation closer to the one intended by the author and specified by subject-matter experts. These results provide additional support for Kintsch's model and show that it can be used to control text, as well as to predict learning.

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