The role of feedback, opportunity for text review, and confidence in subjects' responses was examined using a 25-frame program on heart disease. Undergraduates participated in a pre- post-test design; all subjects received an immediate post-test. Results replicated and extended a model relating feedback, confidence, and post-test response.…

Four levels of notetaking (summary, paraphrase, verbatim, and letter search) were used to control depth of processing of a prose passage with high school students, who then either reviewed their notes or read an interpolated text. Results favored groups with deeper levels of processing on two post-tests. (Author/RD)

The effects of feedback are largely determined by the students' perception of his original response. Feedback is most advantageous when it follows a response in which the student has high confidence. Findings are based on a study of college students working with a programmed text. (MV)

Organizational form significantly affected learning and retention in this name-attribute organizational study. Learning condition affected criterion performance, memory and error rates. An analysis of critical words (names, attributes, values) recalled indicated that hierarchical position influenced word memorability. (Author/MV)

Providing contextual cues leads to more effective learning than depth of semantic processing activity. However, the positive effects of contextual cues are reduced when the subject must search for the theme during the learning activity, as opposed to having it presented before the passage. (CP)

In two experiments, college undergraduates completed a 20-frame instructional program and did or did not receive feedback following each frame response. Feedback groups outperformed the controls on the 20-item criterion test, but subjects who received repeated feedback showed the greatest probability of correcting an instructional error.…

High-Formality and low-formality versions of a passage were read by undergraduate education students who either took notes for a presentation to professionals or to students, or simply read the text. Results of a free-recall test support the encoding function of note taking and its relation to informal prose. (Author/AEF)

Results suggested that: cue encoding leads to greater associative recall; there was no difference in likelihood of associative recall between items encoded in a stable manner and items encoded in an unstable manner; and encouraging to encode cues did not facilitate associative recall. (Authors)

Evidence from the present study indicates that the delay-retention effect is due primarily to the forgetting of interference-producing errors during the delay interval and, secondarily, to the increased time a subject spends studying the feedback after a delay. (Authors)

From evidence of this study it appears that a person will learn more from a prose passage if he forms images of the things and events described in the passage. (Authors/MB)

Two experiments with 129 college undergraduates tested the conjoint retention model by having subjects learn an intact map and text and then see the map as a retrieval cue in its original or reorganized form. Subjects remember more when cued by the original, supporting the conjoint retention theory. (SLD)

In two experiments, undergraduates did/did not create a maplike representation while learning a passage, and were either forced to study the map, instructed to study, or given no map prior to reading. Free-recall data showed that forced map study benefited learners with low vocabulary scores. (Author/GK)

Context orientation and depth of processing were tested as possible explanations for thematic organization. The process of searching for the theme of prose passages was detrimental to recall. Theme statements facilitated recall when provided prior to each passage. The theme search process was beneficial only when the correct theme was identified.…