Bruce K. Britton

Effects of Time-Management Practices on College Grades

A prospective study tested the hypothesis that college grade point average would be predicted by time-management practices. Ninety college students completed a time-management questionnaire in 1983; their high school Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores were obtained from college records. Principal-components analysis of the 35-item time-management instrument revealed 3 components. In 1987, 4 years later, each students cumulative grade point average was obtained from college records. Regression analyses showed that 2 time-management components were significant predictors of cumulative grade point average (R 2 =.21) and accounted for more variance than did SAT scores (increment in R 2 =.05). It is concluded that time-management practices may influence college achievement

Using Kintsch's Computational Model to Improve Instructional Text: Effects of Repairing Inference Calls on Recall and Cognitive Structures.

The goal of this study was to link a computational psychological model to instructional practice. Kintschs (Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978; Miller & Kintsch, 1980) reading comprehension model was used to identify locations where inferences were called for in a 1000-word expository text. Then each location was repaired to produce a principled revision

What Happens When Students Read Multiple Source Documents in History

Some educators (e.g., Ravitch, 1992) have suggested that students use multiple source documents to study history. Such documents could be primary sources, such as legislative bills or eyewitness accounts; secondary sources, such as editorials; or tertiary sources, such as textbooks. This study examined the processes used when high school students were presented documents about a controversial incident in U.S. history, the Tonkin Gulf Incident and its aftermath. These students were asked to read these either to describe or develop an opinion about the incident or the Senate action on the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. We were interested in (a) whether students could develop a rich, mental model of a historical event, (b) what they would do with the document information, (c) how the task influenced their processing of information, (d) how students integrated information across texts, and (e) whether students engaged in corroborating, sourcing, and contextualizing in evaluating historical materials. We found that the mental models created by these students were more internally consistent after reading at least two documents, but did not become more consistent after that. When compared to knowledgeable readers, they failed to make any growth after a first reading. Examining their notes, we found that students tended to take literal notes, regardless of the final task, suggesting that they were using the initial readings to garner the facts about the incident or the resolution. If students were asked for a description, they tended to stay close to the text. If asked for an opinion, however, they tended to ignore the information in the texts they read, even though they may have taken copious notes. Our observations suggest that high school students may not be able to profit from multiple texts, especially those presenting conflicting opinions, without some specific instruction in integrating information from different texts. ALGUNOS EDUCADORES (por ej. Ravitch, 1992) han sugerido que los estudiantes usan documentos de diversas fuentes para estudiar historia. Estos documentos pueden ser fuentes primarias, como por ejemplo declaraciones del Congreso o relatos de testigos presenciales, fuentes secundarias, como por ejemplo editoriales, o fuentes terciarias, como los libros de texto. Este estudio examino los procesos usados por estudiantes de escuela secundaria al presentarseles documentos acerca de un incidente controvertido de la historia de los Estados Unidos, el incidente del golfo de Tonkin y sus consecuencias. Se solicito a los estudiantes que leyeran estos documentos para describir o desarrollar una opinion acerca del incidente o de la accion del Senado respecto de la Resolucion del golfo de Tonkin. Nos interesaba investigar: (a) si los estudiantes podian desarrollar un modelo mental rico sobre un evento historico, (b) que harian con la informacion de los documentos, (c) como influenciaba la tarea el procesamiento de la informacion, (d) como integraban los estudiantes la informacion de distintos textos y (e) si los estudiantes procedian a corroborar, buscar las fuentes y contextualizar durante la evaluacion de los materiales historicos. Encontramos que los modelos mentales creados por estos estudiantes eran mas consistentes internamente luego de la lectura de al menos dos documentos, pero su consistencia no aumentaba despues de eso. Cuando se los comparo con lectores conocedores del tema, no lograron hacer ningun progreso despues de una primera lectura. Al examinar sus notas, encontramos que los estudiantes tendieron a tomar nota literalmente, sin tener en cuenta la tarea final, lo que sugiere que usaron las lecturas iniciales para reunir el conjunto de los hechos acerca del incidente o la resolucion. Cuando se les pidio una descripcion, tendieron a permanecer muy ligados al texto. Cuando se les pidio una opinion, sin embargo, tendieron a ignorar la informacion de los textos, aun cuando hubieran tomado abundantes notas. Nuestras observaciones sugieren que los estudiantes de escuela secundaria parecen no poder beneficiarse con el uso de multiples textos, especialmente aquellos que presentan opiniones conflictivas, si no se les da instruccion especifica acerca de la integracion de informacion de distintos textos. EINIGE PADAGOGEN (z.B. Ravitch, 1992) schlugen vor, das Schuler/innen unterschiedliche historische Quellen zum Studium der Geschichte lesen sollten. Solche Dokumente konnen Primarquellen sein, z.B. Kongresakte oder Augenzeugenberichte, Sekundarquellen, wie z.B. Zeitungsberichte, oder Tertiarquellen, wie z.B. Lehr- oder Geschichtsbucher. Diese Studie untersuchte die Vorgange, als Highschool-Schuler/inne/n Dokumente uber kontroversielle Ereignisse der amerikanischen Geschichte, z.B. den Vorfall am Tonkin-Golf und dessen Nachwirkungen, vorgelegt wurden. Die Schuler/innen wurden gebeten, diese Dokumente zu lesen und diese zu beschreiben, oder sich eine Meinung uber den Vorfall oder die Masnahmen des Senats in Form der Tonkin-Golf-Resolution zu bilden. Unser Interesse richtete sich darauf, ob a) die Schuler/innen eine reiche, geistige Vorstellung von dem historischen Ereignis entwickeln konnten; b) was sie mit den Informationsquellen machten; c) wie die Aufgabenstellung ihren Wissenserwerb beeinfluste; d) wie die Schuler/innen die Informationen der einzelnen Texte transferierten und e) ob die Schuler/innen sich in der Auswertung des historischen Materials engagierten, indem sie dieses bestatigten, ausfindig machten und Sinnzusammenhange herstellten. Wir fanden heraus, das das Geschichtsbild, das sich die Schuler/innen geschaffen hatten, gefestigter war, wenn mindestens zwei Dokumente gelesen wurden, aber mit mehr nicht besser wurde. Verglichen mit gutinformierten Lesern zeigten sie keinen Wissenzuwachs nach dem ersten Lesen. Bei der Untersuchung ihrer Bemerkungen fanden wir heraus, das Schuler/innen dazu neigten, wortgetreue Bemerkungen zu machen, ohne auf das Lernziel zu achten, was den Schlus nahelegt, das sie die ersten Leseeindrucke verwendeten, um die Fakten uber den Vorfall oder die Resolution im Gedachtnis zu speichern. Wenn die Schuler/innen um eine Beschreibung gefragt wurden, tendierten sie dazu, nahe am Text zu bleiben. Wenn sie um ihre Meinung gefragt wurden, neigten sie jedoch dazu, die im Text gelesenen Informationen zu negieren, auch wenn sie sich umfangreiche Notizen gemacht hatten. Unsere Beobachtungen legen den Schlus nahe, das Higschool-Schuler/innen noch nicht imstande sind, von verschiedenen Informationsquellen zu profitieren, besonders wenn diese einander widersprechende Meinungen ergeben und wenn keine ausdruckliche Anweisung erfolgt, Informationen aus verschiedenen Texten miteinander zu kombinieren.

Effects of prior knowledge on use of cognitive capacity in three complex cognitive tasks

Prior knowledge was varied in problem solving, thinking, and reading tasks in three experiments. The hypothesis was that the prior knowledge used in a cognitive task uses capacity in the same limited capacity active processing system that is used to process the ongoing task. In a reading experiment, prior knowledge about a target page was manipulated by controlling the preceding pages. In an experiment dealing with problem solving in the context of a chess game, prior knowledge was controlled by comparing experts with novices. In a third study subjects thought about personality descriptions of persons and groups, and about womens fashions and football plays; it was assumed that persons have more prior knowledge concerning the personality of persons than the personality of groups, that women have more prior knowledge about womens fashions, and that men have more prior knowledge about football. In all experiments, use of cognitive capacity in task performance was observed with a secondary task technique. The results of all three experiments were consistent with the hypothesis that prior knowledge uses capacity in the active processing system. The prior knowledge hypothesis is consistent with some aspects of current cognitive theory but not consistent with others. The results also suggest a fundamental and unexpected limit on the cognitive processing of experts.

Analogical Reasoning and Problem Solving in Science Textbooks

People’s frequent use of analogies to explain everyday phenomena underscores their potential value as instructional tools. Such expressions as “Let me give you an analogy ...,” “It’s just like ...,” “It’s the same as ...,” “It’s no different than ...,” “Think of it this way ...,” are commonplace in casual conversation.

Reading and cognitive capacity usage: Adjunct question effects

Cognitive capacity usage during reading was measured in two experiments. During reading of a 27-page passage on marine biology, text-relevant inserted questions, irrelevant questions, or no questions were answered by undergraduates. Cognitive capacity usage increased when text-relevant questions began but not when irrelevant questions began or when no questions were given. The increase in cognitive capacity usage was largest on pages immediately following questions. Cognitive capacity is used in the elaborative stages of text processing.

Instructional Texts Rewritten by Five Expert Teams: Revisions and Retention Improvements.

700 undergraduates were tested in 3 experiments on original or rewritten versions of 52 instructional texts about Army job tasks, general science, philosophy, and history. 5 experts had rewritten various sets of the texts and stated hypotheses about the efficacious features of their revisions. We tested their hypotheses and several others. Recall and recognition tests were given immediately and after a 24-hr delay. Some of our hypotheses about the revision features were supported, but different features were effective for different sets of texts. It was concluded that some experts have effective knowledge about improving instructional text, but it exists primarily in procedural form

Use of Cognitive Capacity in Reading: Effects of Some Content Features of Text.

Use of cognitive capacity was measured during reading of text in six experiments. Content features of the texts were varied. A secondary task technique was used to measure use of capacity. In all experiments, capacity was filled more completely while reading narrative text than while reading expository text. The finding was generalized over two pools of passages, over two modalities of secondary task probes— auditory and tactile—and over two secondary tasks—simple reaction time and choice reaction time. Three hypotheses for the narrativity effect were investigated. Not supported were an hypothesis based on the interest value of the passages and the hypothesis that difficult to comprehend passages induced problem solving cognitive operations that filled capacity. The results were consistent with a comprehensibility hypothesis, which states that when more meaning is produced in the readers cognitive system while reading a text, more cognitive capacity is filled by reading it. Narrative passages produce mor...

The Impact of Inferences on Instructional Text

Publisher Summary This chapter examines the way inferences are related to the retention of information contained in instructional text. When natural instructional texts are written so that the reader must make many inferences to link different parts of the texts, the texts are retained poorly. This is probably because many of the readers fail to make the inferences. Because those readers do not link some parts of the text; therefore, they are unable to retrieve the information from those parts. When revised versions of the original natural texts remove the call to make inferences, the revised versions are retained significantly better than the originals. High-quality objects are constructed by experts who use imagination and judgment. The chapter describes the creation of an expertise-based theory of learnable instructional text. The expert writers of instructional text typically begin with an information base, often in the form of an original version. The inferences are defined algorithmically by a computer program using Kintschs propositionalization concepts. According to this, there are two types of inferences: (1) inferences requiring prior knowledge from outside the text and (2) inferences requiring prior knowledge from earlier in the text that had not been kept in mind.

Effects of text organization on memory: Test of a cognitive effort hypothesis with limited exposure time

Cirilo and Foss (1980) found that subjects spent more time reading important information than unimportant information in 12 stories. Important information was also free recalled better, reconfirming the ‘levels effect’. The reading time differences are consistent with a processing time hypothesis for the levels effect. This paper reports three experiments that support an alternative hypothesis based on cognitive effort. In Experiment 1, Cirilo and Fosss reading time findings were replicated. Then the subject‐controlled reading times observed in Experiment 1 were used in Experiments 2 and 3 to limit exposure times for important information to values less than those that had been self‐selected by the average subject. Experiment 2 showed that the levels effect in free recall was still present with exposure times limited. In Experiment 3, a secondary task technique was used to measure cognitive effort during the processing of important and unimportant information. Results showed that responses to secondary t...