This experimental investigation considers how the inherent conceptual structure of external representations influences individuals' knowledge structure, and in addition proposes a measure of global collective knowledge to account for the influence of pre-existing knowledge structure. In two studies, undergraduates in a hospitality management…

This experimental investigation seeks to corroborate a knowledge structure sorting task approach as a measure to more fully account for prior knowledge when reading. A latent semantic analysis (LSA) network derived from thousands of texts typically read by first year college students was used to create a prototypical referent network model of the…

This experimental investigation seeks to confirm and extend previous investigations that resource interdependence vs. independence during problem-solving relatively extends the problem representation phase before convergence on a solution. In this current investigation, ninth-grade Korean native language participants (n = 240) worked online to…

This investigation applies two approaches for representing and comparing text structures as undirected network graphs to describe the influence of narrative and expository lesson texts on readers' knowledge structure elicited as free recall. Narrative and expository lesson texts and undergraduate participants' free recall essays (n = 90)…

This investigation considers the effects of learner-generated headings on memory. Participants (N = 63) completed a computer-based lesson with or without learner-generated text topic headings. Posttests included a cued recall test of factual knowledge and a sorting task measure of structural knowledge. A significant disordinal interaction was…

Essays are an important measure of complex learning, but pronouns can confound an author's intended meaning for both readers and text analysis software. This descriptive investigation considers the effect of pronouns on a computer-based text analysis approach, "ALA-Reader," which uses students' essays as the data source for deriving individual and…

This proof-of-concept investigation describes a computer-based approach for deriving the knowledge structure of individuals and of groups from their written essays, and considers the convergent criterion-related validity of the computer-based scores relative to human rater essay scores and multiple-choice test scores. After completing a…