ERIC Number: EJ1215788
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2295-3159
EISSN: N/A
Effectiveness of Self-Generation during Learning Is Dependent on Individual Differences in Need for Cognition
Schindler, Julia; Schindler, Simon; Reinhard, Marc-André
Frontline Learning Research, v7 n2 p23-39 2019
Self-generated information is better recognized and recalled than read information. This so-called generation effect has been replicated several times for different types of stimulus material, different generation tasks, and retention intervals. The present study investigated the impact of individual differences in learners' disposition to engage in effortful cognitive activities (need for cognition, NFC) on the effectiveness of selfgeneration during learning. Learners low in NFC usually avoid getting engaged in cognitively demanding activities. However, if these learners are explicitly instructed to use elaborate learning strategies such as self-generation, they should benefit more from such strategies than learners high in NFC, because self-generation stimulates cognitive processes that learners low in NFC usually tend not to engage in spontaneously. Using a classical word-generation paradigm, we not only replicated the generation effect in free and cued recall but showed that the magnitude of the generation effect increased with decreasing NFC in cued recall. Results are consistent with our assumption that learners higher in NFC engage in elaborate processing even without explicit instruction, whereas learners lower in NFC usually avoid cognitively demanding activities. These learners need cognitively demanding tasks that require them to switch from shallow to elaborate processing to improve learning. We conclude that selfgeneration is beneficial regardless of the NFC level, but our study extends the existing literature on the generation effect and on NFC by showing that self-generation can be particularly useful for balancing the learning disadvantage of students lower in NFC.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Individual Differences, Cognitive Processes, Difficulty Level, Learning Strategies, Recall (Psychology), College Students, Accuracy, Cues, Incidental Learning, Intentional Learning
European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction. Peterseliegang 1, Box 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. e-mail: info@frontlinelearningresearch.org; Web site: http://journals.sfu.ca/flr/index.php/journal/index
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Germany
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Need for Cognition Scale
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A