A model derived from information processing theory is described, which helps to explain the complex verbal learning of students and suggests implications for lecturing techniques. Other factors affecting learning, which are not covered by the model, are discussed in relationship to it: student's intellectual development and effects of individual…

Discusses and refutes Novak's arguments against Piaget's theory of intellectual development in favor of Ausubel's theory of meaningful verbal learning. (GA)

Background: The relationship between the age of reaching infant developmental milestones and later intellectual function within the normal population remains unresolved. We hypothesised that the age of learning to stand in infancy would be associated with adult executive function and that the association would be apparent throughout the range of…

Investigated were the effects of five verbalizing methods (subject speaks, reads, writes, listens, or does not verbalize) on short-term retention of the ability to use discovered generalizations. No significant differences were found among the effects of the verbalizing methods for a retention test. (JP)

The author initially cites the associationistic position of Spiker and the perceptual learning position of E. Gibson and concludes that the existing data does not clearly support either hypothesis. He describes a new approach designed to test these explanations of the role of verbal pretraining on subsequent discrimination learning. It consists of…

Reports on the effectiveness of visual illustrations used in conjunction with oral instructions. Results indicate that the reduction of realistic detail in an illustration does not necessarily reduce its instructional effectiveness and in many cases improves it. There were also significant differences in the effectiveness of different types of…

In planning educational research, recognition needs to be made of five domains of learning: (1) motor skills, (2) verbal information, (3) intellectual skills, (4) cognitive strategies, and (5) attitudes. In being cognizant of these domains, the researcher is able to distinguish the parts of a content area which are subject to different…

Twenty-four educable mentally retarded children (10 to 15 years old) were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions (repetition-control, verbal context, and imagery) to determine the effects of elaboration on paired associate (PA) learning. Data from performances on two lists supported the hypothesis that elaboration in the form of…

Assessed were the effects of verbal placeholding and full verbal rehearsal (verbalizing aloud the critical components and sequence) on the direction following behavior of 14 institutionalized retarded adolescents (mean IQ 48). A control group from the same institution participated in practice sessions without the verbal rehearsal stress. Pre- and…

The bibliography on learning in mentally handicapped persons is divided into the following topic categories: applied behavior change, classical conditioning, discrimination, generalization, motor learning, reinforcement, verbal learning, and miscellaneous. An author index is included. (KW)

Retroactive interference (RI) in prose learning was investigated in an experiment where passages were constructed on the basis of a predetermined logical structure. This structure made it possible to operationally define similarity and assess the effects of RI for inferential information as well as that stated directly in the original passage.…

White and black fifth grade children, representing two levels of self-concept and social class, recalled nouns which they had prerated for likability. High self-concept white children recalled positively rated words more readily than negatively rated words, while high self-concept black children recalled negative words more readily than positive…

THE CENTER FOR RESEARCH IN HUMAN LEARNING WAS ESTABLISHED IN JANUARY, 1964 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TO "DEVELOP A CONTINUOUS AND CLOSE-WORKING RELATIONSHIP AMONG PSYCHOLOGISTS IN VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY DOING RESEARCH ON HUMAN LEARNING AND ON PROCESSES RELATED TO HUMAN LEARNING." THE AIM OF THE CENTER IS TO SERVE BOTH THE…

RESEARCH ON SEQUENCING OF INSTRUCTION CAN BE DIVIDED INTO NINE TYPES ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS ON WHICH THE EXPERIMENTS VARY. SITUATIONS IN WHICH THE LEARNER CONTROLS THE OBJECTIVES ARE DIFFICULT TO EVALUATE EXPLICITLY BECAUSE OF DIFFERING CONTENT LEARNED. AMONG EXPERIMENTER-CONTROLLED LEARNING SITUATIONS, THE WORK OF GAGNE AND HIS…