The present study examined the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and comprehension on a multiple text assessment from the ACT test for college preparedness in which texts are available during question answering. Specifically, it was of interest whether differences in relations would be seen across different question types. Only…

Many studies have demonstrated that testing students on to-be-learned materials can be an effective learning activity. However, past studies have also shown that some practice test formats are more effective than others. Open-ended recall or short answer practice tests may be effective because the questions prompt deeper processing as students…

The present experiment explored the independent effects of refutations and summaries to prevent student misunderstandings when learning from an introductory psychology text on cognitive dissonance. Explicitly presenting and refuting a common misconception about cognitive dissonance did not improve performance on comprehension questions that…

Past research has suggested that there may be benefits in learning from expository science text when students study with the expectation that they will need to teach another student. The present experiments were designed to extend prior work by testing whether an effect would be seen on both immediate tests (similar to those used in most prior…

Past research has suggested that there may be benefits in learning from expository science text when students study with the expectation that they will need to teach another student. The present experiments were designed to extend prior work by testing if an effect would be seen on both immediate tests (similar to those used in most prior studies)…

Teachers may wish to use open-ended learning activities and tests, but they are burdensome to assess compared to forced-choice instruments. At the same time, forced-choice assessments suffer from issues of guessing (when used as tests) and may not encourage valuable behaviors of construction and generation of understanding (when used as learning…

Engaging in explanation while studying expository science texts can improve comprehension. The present study varied the timing of explanation activities and restudy opportunities before taking final comprehension tests on a set of 6 topics studied as part of a course in Introduction to Psychology. When students had the opportunity to restudy in…

Learning from expository science texts is challenging. These studies explore whether difficulties can be attributed to poor memory or poor reasoning. To eliminate the need for memory during testing, some students took the tests with the texts available. To test for the effects of reasoning on performance, some students were prompted to engage in…

The Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) learning cycle improves understanding of the connection between empirical results and theoretical concepts when students engage in hands-on experimentation. This study explored whether training students to use a POE strategy when learning from social science texts that describe theories and experimental results…

Past work has shown that generating explanations can improve both comprehension and metacomprehension outcomes. Although practice testing may sometimes improve comprehension, it is unclear if it affects metacomprehension (the ability to monitor one's understanding). The current study tested whether online homework activities involving practice…

In order for a person to comprehend metaphoric expressions, do metaphor-irrelevant aspects of literal information need to be inhibited? Previous research using sentence-verification paradigms has found that literal associates take longer to process after reading metaphorical sentences; however, it is problematic to infer inhibition from this…

A set of four experiments assessed the effects of establishing a comprehension-test expectancy (in contrast to a memory-test expectancy) on relative metacomprehension accuracy. Typically readers show poor relative metacomprehension accuracy while learning from text (i.e., they are unable to discriminate topics they have understood well from topics…

A set of four experiments assessed the effects of establishing a comprehension-test expectancy (in contrast to a memory-test expectancy) on relative metacomprehension accuracy. Typically readers show poor relative metacomprehension accuracy while learning from text (i.e., they are unable to discriminate topics they have understood well from topics…

Successful algebraic problem solving entails adaptability of solution methods using different representations. Prior research has suggested that students are more likely to prefer symbolic solution methods (equations) over graphical ones, even when graphical methods should be more efficient. However, this research has not tested how representation…

Learning by invention is an alternative approach to teaching statistics where students are tasked with attempting to solve a problem before being taught the canonical formula for solving it, often resulting in increased understanding of material compared with traditional instruction. The first study, conducted in a college statistics classroom…