THE EFFECT OF AN OUTLINE ON THE LEARNING AND RETENTION OF FACTS AND INFERENCES.
Item
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Title
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THE EFFECT OF AN OUTLINE ON THE LEARNING AND RETENTION OF FACTS AND INFERENCES.
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Identifier
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AAI8023732
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identifier
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8023732
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Creator
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SEGAL, CECILE POLLACK.
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Contributor
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Barry J. Zimmerman
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Date
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1980
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Education, Educational Psychology
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Abstract
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The primary purpose of this research was to examine the effect of an outline on the learning and retention of information from prose text. Factual and inferential knowledge acquisition was measured. A secondary purpose of the research was to document outline utilization at two points in time with the aid of the dependent measures of underlining and clustering. It was hypothesized that an outline of the hierarchical relational network that connects the concepts in the prose text would interact with text components and result in knowledge acquisition.;One hundred fifty-seven undergraduate students who were enrolled in education courses participated in the study. Students were randomly assigned to one of six groups. The basic design was a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial (Outline x Underlining x Time of Testing) with repeated measures on the last factor. This design included four experimental groups: (1) Outline/Underlining, (2) No Outline/Underlining, (3) Outline/No Underlining, and (4) No Outline/No Underlining. Students in the experimental groups read a series of 5 passages dealing with information about specific minerals. In addition, there were two control groups: (1) a dangling control to test for independent outline effects, and (2) a naive control to test for prior familiarity.;The most significant finding of the study is that an outline facilitates inferencing at immediate retention and after a 48-hour delay. The implications of this finding for education are discussed.;Another finding of the study is that evidence of forgetting depends on the exact type of testing procedure that is used. Factual recall showed a decline after a 48-hour delay. The 48-hour delay did not affect recognition scores or inference scores, however.;The present study did not replicate earlier findings that an outline improved factual recall. The results of the present study cast doubts about the generalizability of the earlier findings. A possible explanation for these differences should be explored in future research.;The two "process" measures of outline use, underlining and clustering, revealed discrepant results. It was evident from analyses of the students' underlining that the outline was used. However, no outline effects emerged from the clustering results. A possible explanation for these discrepant findings should be explored in future research.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Education
