Describes four experiments that examined the influence of an information units' category membership, normative importance, and goal-relatedness on its perceived importance. Results suggest that category membership and goal-relatedness did affect perceptions of importance.(HOD)

Concludes that if students are provided with background information about topics included on the comprehension section of a standardized reading test, they will score higher on the test than will those not exposed to the information. (FL)

Finds that a story mapping procedure significantly improved fifth-grade students' comprehension, but finds no difference between a typical basal lesson using a discussion of oral and written questions as a review and a story map as a review to improve comprehension. (FL)

Whether interest improved students' metacognition was studied with 33 nursing students and 51 college freshmen. With differences in prior knowledge controlled, nursing students, for whom the content was related to interest, made more accurate metacognitive judgments than college freshmen. Results emphasize the effects of prior knowledge in…

Questionnaire results indicate that, although first-year, undergraduate science students (n=109) recognize the correct sources of energy for organisms, they simultaneously hold misconceptions about other essential, but nonenergy-supplying, conditions as sources of energy supply. Occurrence rates for these misconceptions vary with the students'…

This study, with 48 students (including 16 eighth graders with learning disabilities (LD), 16 age level peers, and 16 reading level peers), found that all groups, but especially LD students, benefited from experimenter activation of prior knowledge on reading comprehension tasks testing inferential reading ability. Experimenter activation of prior…

Reconsiders interpretive and theory versions of children's theory of mind. Shows that many college students provide interpretive explanations on theory of mind tasks and that young children rely on background experientially-based knowledge to interpret such tasks. Argues that a logical-causal theory of human action based on mental states is a…

Demonstrates how talking with children can provide an awareness of the "funds of knowledge" they bring to school. Examines the talk of a young girl from a culturally diverse background to gain insight into her cultural scientific knowledge; explores an adult's ability to collaborate with the student in pursuit of the topic; and offers…

The views of the author's students about history caused her to reflect on her teaching, specifically, what she was lacking in her attempts to teach civic competence through history. This process led her to research historical thinking and design a study in which she exposed her students to the rigors of history. Grant's (2001) study of 9th grade…

Factors affecting performance on base-10 tasks were investigated in a series of four studies with a total of 453 children aged 5-7 years. Training in counting-on was found to enhance child performance on base-10 tasks (Studies 2, 3, and 4), while prior knowledge of counting-on (Study 1), trading (Studies 1 and 3), and partitioning (Studies 1 and…

Physicians and possibly psychologists are likely to be at the center of clinical care for persons with Tourette's Syndrome (TS). To date, it is unclear (a) how much basic knowledge these health care providers possess about the disorder, (b) how much incorrect or untested information is believed about the disorder, (c) what the perceived role of a…

This study investigates how different types of prior knowledge influence student achievement and how different assessment measures influence the observed effect of prior knowledge. We introduce a model of prior knowledge that distinguishes between different types of prior knowledge and uses different assessment measures to assess different types…

A study involving 120 undergraduate students attending the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul (Minnesota) was undertaken to test the interactive effect of instructional strategy (structured versus constructed) with learner's prior domain knowledge in concept acquisition. Previous instructional design research on concept learning has focused on…

Noting that many prereading discussions lead teachers to "mis-estimate" students' prior knowledge about a particular topic, this paper describes the Pre-Reading Plan (PReP) designed to help both students and teachers become aware of what students already know about a specific topic. Following an introduction, the first portion of the…

Case studies of eight graduate students were designed to seek indirect evidence for the role of explicit and tacit knowledge in interpreting a series of reading selections. The general hypothesis was that formal schooling would be used in nonschool and postschool situations in the following ways: (1) replicative--a situation that elicits a school…