As technology continues to evolve, authentic multimedia-based teaching materials are widely used in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. However, they may lie beyond most language learners' proficiency level. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of advance organizers in conjunction with the cognitive theory of…

Whether preview and recall sentences affected readers' memory of text material in separate chapters was studied in seven experiments using a total of 130 undergraduate students. Hypotheses for the causes of the beneficial effects of preview signals and recall sentences on memory are postulated. (SLD)

Two experiments investigate whether advance organizers (1) help subjects with good reasoning skills compensate for poor memory or information overload; and (2) compensate for distractions. Findings suggest that the organizer technique does not help compensate for processing deficits related to information overload or distracting study conditions.…

Two experiments investigated to what extent schema activation is involved in any facilitative effect that headings may have on multiple-choice test performance following the reading of a passage. In the first experiment, 1,116 college students read a 1,760-word passage on human sexuality with headings either present or absent. An analysis of the…

In this study on the interactive effects of advance organizers and reasoning skills, 112 undergraduates read a literature text preceded by either a comparative advance organizer or a placebo introduction. Results suggest that instructional organizers produce neither serious loss nor substantial benefits for many purposes of communication. (BS)

Investigated cognitive assembly processes underlying speech production. Reported results of two experiments demonstrating that when students used an organizing device (an abstract problem-solution sequence) in preparing, practicing, and delivering speeches, they exhibited less silent pausing. (PD)

Examines the effect that learners' prior knowledge has on long-term retention of information. Study (200 undergraduates) found no differences in long-term retention when prior knowledge was controlled, no interaction between prior knowledge and advance organizer strategies, no increased long-term retention with advance organizers, and no increased…

The effects of prepassage questions quizzing information of different structural importance on college students' memory for expository prose passages were compared. Results indicated that questions which direct the subjects' attention to material at the top of the organizational structure facilitate the effective encoding of the central…

This study investigated the effect on learning of the interspersing of questions with sections of written discourse. A 5,200-word passage was divided into seven sections, from each of which several completion questions were derived. A pair of questions was inserted before, after, or both before and after the section. These questions also formed an…

Three experiments examined the effects of outlines prefacing text and headings inserted in the text on the recall of prose by 178 undergraduates. Results indicate that a combination of outlines and headings best benefit readers' recall. Results are discussed from a schema activation perspective. (SLD)

College undergraduates read stories from one of two directed perspectives or no directed perspective. An idea's significance in terms of the assigned perspective affected both initial learning and recall one week later. Schemata, or conceptual frameworks, were assumed to aid in memory and retrieval. (Author/GDC)

To provide a test of the notion that criterial task knowledge facilitates learning and, consequently, performance in studying, a study examined the effects of an explicit prereading task directive and an explicit postreading criterion on the studying behaviors of 40 college undergraduates. After presentation of a prereading task directive prepared…

Discusses five instructional strategies for increasing the meaningfulness of technical or scientific information. These include organization of prose, use of concrete analogies as advance organizers, use of inserted questions in prose, elaboration activities such as note-taking and discovery learning. (JN)

Two assessment endeavors were undertaken to determine the relative impact of alphanumeric and graphic instructional mediators upon intentional and incidental learning outcomes in applied instructional contexts. The intent of these investigations was to determine the feasibility of embedding strategic organizational cues within instruction to…

In an analysis of a processing activities model of memory applied to connected discourse, 206 college students assigned to eight conditions in two studies evidenced significantly greater recall when provided with semantic level tasks than either surface feature analysis or reading control (intentional and incidental) conditions. Additionally,…