AN INVESTIGATION OF SEMANTIC INTEGRATION: THE EFFECTS OF MATERIALS, INSTRUCTIONS, AND AGE ON THE PRODUCTION OF INFERENCES.
Item
-
Title
-
AN INVESTIGATION OF SEMANTIC INTEGRATION: THE EFFECTS OF MATERIALS, INSTRUCTIONS, AND AGE ON THE PRODUCTION OF INFERENCES.
-
Identifier
-
AAI8103922
-
identifier
-
8103922
-
Creator
-
COSTA, NORMAN DENNIS.
-
Contributor
-
Prof. Barry Zimmerman
-
Date
-
1981
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Education, Educational Psychology
-
Abstract
-
This research examines the effects of different materials, instructions, and age on children's ability to produce inferences from stories they read. The objectives of this research were to answer the following: (1) Are inferences encoded during acquisition or are they processed from the primary input during the retrieval phase? (2) Is there a developmental trend in the semantic integration process, as indicated by time to produce an inference on query, time to encode input material, and production of a correct response?;Other studies, particularly the Bransford research, have investigated semantic integration but there have been problems in the interpretations of the findings. A methodology was tested in this study which would provide evidence of semantic integration if transfer to implications, inferences, and conclusions could be observed.;Fifteen (15) hypotheses were tested in two experiments. The first experiment was designed to investigate the relationships of Materials and Age to inferential thinking. Making an inference from stimulus materials was presumed to reflect semantic integration. The second experiment was designed to investigate the relationships of Instructions and Age to inferential thinking.;The results indicated that: (1) Inference production took place in retrieval rather than acquisition; (2) The relationships of age with encoding time, correctness of response, and response time did not show any consistent results; (3) There were no qualitative differences in the production of inferences across the age range studied; and (4) Instructions to integrate verbal material did not influence the production of inferences.;These results supported a highly specific and detailed model of memory and not one of dynamic and spontaneous integration. Students were not constructing wholistic representations of ideas from partial or fragmentary elements--at least not during acquisition and passive storage. Only when confronted with a problem-solving task did the students retrieve the original elements, integrate the semantic content, and then produce an inference. The educational implications of this research are discussed.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Educational Psychology
