The main findings of a meta-analysis of 23 research reports were the following: giving behavioral objectives, learning directions, or questions before an instructional text is read leads to some improvement in the learning of goal relevant material; however, these preinstructional acts impede the learning of goal irrelevant materials. (Author/BW)

The results of this investigation are generally supportive of the hypothesis that the learning of prior presented high-order concepts and rules can result in both a facilitation and acceleration of the learning of meaningfully related subject-matter concepts and logical operations. (Author)