It was predicted that verbalization of prose materials would produce greater anxiety but would also result in greater retention of the passages, that prior knowledge of the verbalization requirement would lead to better retention, and that induced expectancy to verbalize would result in better retention than would no expectancy. Results indicated…

The idea was explored that different subjects may use qualitatively different encoding strategies with the same information presented within the same experimental situation. The premise was also studied that different strategies may be evoked by subtle differences in advance instructions or in the context of the task. (Author/MH)

Concludes that information retention varies with subjects' reactions to feedback and the kind of immediate practice. (RB)

This investigation examined in the laboratory the type of learning commonly found in the school situation--the formalized acquisition of concepts. A verbal concept-learning task suitable for college students was devised which permitted the externalizing and quantifying of behavior at 6 points in the learning process. A pilot study evaluated the…

Previous research has found that spoken rehearsal is superior to silent rehearsal during verbal discrimination learning. The frequency theory posits that verbal discrimination (VD) learning improves as the frequency differential between the correct and incorrect member of each pair increases. Erlebacher, Hill, and Wallace (1967) tested this…

Reports the results of two experiments on the effect of delay of informative feedback, immediate tests, and forms of informative feedback upon seven-day retention. (RB)

This book is an introduction to the psychological study of basic learning processes in children. Written for students who are not majors in psychology and who do not have much familiarity with the technical vocabulary of psychology, it has two themes: even the most basic kinds of learning are included by cognitive processes or mental activities;…

The effect of supplementary questions on learning from textual materials was investigated in a sample of 94 college juniors. Each subject was given a 1,500-word passage describing the concept of measurement. One treatment group was asked to identify characteristics of the concept; another was asked to identify examples from the text; a third…

Forced-choice items, investigating the performance of 80 undergraduates on verbal classification and verbal analogy, were sequentially presented, allowing independent estimates of the accuracy of four principle component processes: inference, application, recognition, and distraction. Within-task performance showed substantial individual variation…

Investigators assessing the effect of motivation on performance rarely report the effect of performance on motivation. College students (N=48), preselected by anxiety scores, were tested on adjective pairs lists; additionally, anxiety was measured before and after task performance. Results showed that anxiety had a marked effect on verbal learning…

The purpose of the experiment was to test the prediction that non-specific facilitated learning of a second prose passage will occur in the situation where an initial passage read by the subjects contained concrete referents designed to increase the comprehension of a difficult to understand second passage. Two-hundred and forty subjects…

Four presentations in two recall conditions (immediate and one-week delay) were used to investigate the combined effects of imagery and semantic organizational strategies on the free recall of 80 college undergraduates. Both imaginal and semantic organization were comparably manipulated presenting each response noun simultaneously with an imagery…

In two experiments, undergraduates who completed the last words of sentences they read learned more than subjects who simply read whole sentences. This facilitation was observed even with a list of sentences that were almost always completed with the wrong words. (Author/GDC)

Two experiments investigated learners' procedures in acquiring knowledge from maps. The better learners used successful techniques for encoding spatial information, evaluating their progress, focusing attention on unlearned information, and partitioning the map by spatial region or concept. Visual memory ability was also important. (Author/GDC)

From a total enrollment of 440 students in business communication classes, 270 voluntarily participated in a study of the relationship between the placement of performance objectives and reading comprehension. Students were tested for reading comprehension and were randomly assigned to one of two experiments and to pre-, post-, or no-objective…