Subjects reconstructed paragraphs from scrambled passages There were two passages of 240 and 400 words and three conditions (read-only, reconstruct with no feedback, and reconstruct with feedback). The major dependent measures were recall of idea units, recognition of original sentences, and concordance with the original sentence in paragraph clusters. Analysis of variance yielded (1) higher recall for idea units of the shorter passage and reconstruct-no feedback condition, (2) higher recognition of original sentences for the reconstruct-no feedback condition, and (3) greater concordance for the shorter passage. Generally speaking, feedback seemed to intrude into the reconstruction process, and greater concordance did not directly lead to improved comprehension.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BattigW. F. (1966) Facilitation and interference. In BilodeauE. A. (Ed.), Acquisition of skill. New York: Academic Press. Pp. 215–254.
2.
BerlinerD. C.RosenshineB. (1977) The acquisition of knowledge in the classroom. In AndersonR. C.SpiroR. J.MontagueW. E. (Eds.), Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 375–404.
3.
BovairS.KierasD. E. (1981) A guide to propositional analysis for research on technical prose. Tucson, AZ: Univer. of Arizona. (Tech. Rep. No. 8)
4.
BransfordJ. D.FranksJ. J. (1971) The abstraction of linguistic ideas. Cognitive Psychology, 2, 331–350.
5.
BrittonB. K.BlackJ. B. (1985) Understanding expository text: from structure to processes and world knowledge. In BrittonB. K.BlackJ. B. (Eds.), Understanding expository text. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 1–8.
6.
ClarkH. H. (1973) The language-as-fixed-effect fallacy: a critique of language statistics in psychological research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12, 335–359.
7.
FraseL. T. (1969) Paragraph organization of written materials: the influence of conceptual clustering upon level of organization. Journal of Educational Psychology, 60, 394–401.
8.
FrederiksenC. H. (1977) Semantic processing units in understanding text. In FreedleR. O. (Ed.), Discourse processes: advances in research and theory. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Pp. 58–87.
9.
GallagherJ. P. (1981) The effectiveness of man-machine tutorial dialogue for teaching attribute blocks problem-solving skills with an artificial intelligence CAI system. Instructional Science, 10, 291–332.
10.
GetsieR.LangerP.GlassG. V. (1985) Meta-analyses of the effects of type and combinations of feedback on children's discrimination learning. Review of Educational Research, 55, 9–22.
11.
IrwinJ. W. (1982) Effects of coherence explicitness on college readers' prose comprehension. Journal of Reading Behavior, 14, 275–284.
12.
JustM. A.CarpenterP. A. (1987) The psychology of reading and language comprehension. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
13.
KintschW. (1974) The representation of meaning in memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
14.
KintschW. (1988) The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: a construction-integration model. Psychological Review, 95, 163–182.
15.
KintschW.Van DijkT. A. (1978) Toward a model of text comprehension and production. Psychological Review, 85, 363–394.
16.
KintschW.VipondD. (1979) Reading comprehension and readability in educational practice and psychological theory. In NilssonL. (Ed.), Perspectives on memory research. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 33–62.
17.
KulhavyR. W.SchmidR. F.WalkerC. H. (1977) Temporal organization in prose. Review of Educational Research, 14, 115–123.
18.
LangerP. (1983) Modifications of current feedback strategies: a text synthesis approach. Annual Report of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Summer Faculty Research Program. St. Cloud, FL: Southwestern Center for Electrical Engineering Education Press.
19.
LangerP.KeenanV.CullerJ. (1987) Effect of content of feedback in processing discourse. Psychological Reports, 60, 1191–1200.
20.
LangerP.KeenanV.CullerJ. (1988) Effects of signalling and feedback on the comprehension of reconstructed text. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 66, 27–39.
21.
LangerP.KeenanV.Medosch-SchonbeckC. (1986) Some possible limitations of feedback in instruction. Psychological Reports, 59, 731–741.
22.
MannesS. M.KintschW. (1987) Knowledge organization and knowledge text. Cognition and Instruction, 4, 91–115.
23.
MeyerB. J. F.FreedleR. O. (1984) Effects of discourse type on recall. American Educational Research Journal, 21, 121–143.
24.
RederL. M. (1980) The role of elaboration in the comprehension and retention of prose: a critical review. Review of Educational Research, 50, 5–53.
25.
SchultzC. B.DiVestaF. J. (1972) Effects of passage organization and note taking on the selection of clustering strategies and on the recall of textual material. Journal of Educational Psychology, 63, 244–252.
26.
ThorndykeP. W. (1977) Cognitive structures in comprehension and memory of narrative discourse. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 77–110.
27.
TulvingE. (1983) Elements of episodic memory. New York: Oxford Univer. Press.
28.
Van DijkT. A.KintschW. (1983) Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York: Academic Press.
29.
YoungS. R. (1984) A theory and simulation of macrostructure. Boulder, CO: Univer. of Colorado, Institute of Cognitive Science. (Tech. Rep. No. 134).
