Corkill, A. J., Bruning, R. H., & Glover, J. A. (1988). Advance organizers: Concrete versus abstract. Journal of Educational Research, 82(2), 76-81.

Corkill, A.; Bruning, R.; Glover, J.

1988

Corkill, A. J., Bruning, R. H., & Glover, J. A. (1988). Advance organizers: Concrete versus abstract. Journal of Educational Research, 82(2), 76-81.

1-2

Examined the relative effects of concrete and abstract advance organizers on students' memory for subsequent prose in 2 experiments. In Exp I, 44 elementary education majors were tested with a 1,200 word essay. Students who effectively encoded a concrete organizer recalled significantly more of the content of a brief subsequent text than did students who effectively encoded an abstract organizer or who read the passage without an organizer. Exp 2 replicated Exp 1 with a 5,000-word passage tested on 47 undergraduate secondary education majors. The results of the 2nd experiment confirmed those of the first. Concrete, written advance organizers (but not abstract advance organizers) facilitated students' memory for brief and longer prose segments.

The results of the two experiments reported in this study seem straightforward. Concrete, written advance organizers (but not abstract advance organizers) facilitate students' memory for both brief and longer segments of prose.

44

1