College students received either one half of the objectives for a certain test or no objectives at all. The subjects with objectives performed better than those without on posttest items referenced to their objectives (relevant learning) and less well on items not covered (incidental learning). Findings conflict with previous research. (Author/SE)

Examines the relationship between the number of learning goals and decreased performance on goal-relevant test items, and explores characteristics of goal-descriptive directions that influence the recall of incidental information from text. (BJG)

The purposes of this study were to replicate and extend the list learning results in a prose context, and to explore both the learning of incidental material and the effect of a text organization pretest and posttest information about passage structure. One hundred twenty-eight college undergraduates read a 460 word prose story, which mentioned…

Subjects received either specific or general objectives before or after the four sections of the audiotaped lecture. A control group received no objectives. Results on the use of objectives with written text showed that the before position increased intentional learning more than the after position. Incidental learning was significantly higher…

Intentional learning was found to be more efficient with reward than punishment. Incidental learning results showed no reward- punishment differences. (DG)