Gary D. Phye

Inductive Reasoning: A Training Approach

Researchers have examined inductive reasoning to identify different cognitive processes when participants deal with inductive problems. This article presents a prescriptive theory of inductive reasoning that identifies cognitive processing using a procedural strategy for making comparisons. It is hypothesized that training in the use of the procedural inductive reasoning strategy will improve cognitive functioning in terms of (a) increased fluid intelligence performance and (b) better academic learning of classroom subject matter. The review and meta-analysis summarizes the results of 74 training experiments with nearly 3,600 children. Both hypotheses are confirmed. Further, two moderating effects were observed: Training effects on intelligence test performance increased over time, and positive problem-solving transfer to academic learning is greater than transfer to intelligence test performance. The results cannot be explained by placebo or test-coaching effects. It is concluded that the proposed strategy is theoretically and educationally promising and that children of a broad age range and intellectual capacity benefit with such training.

Delayed retention effect: Attention, perseveration, or both?

Abstract A widely accepted explanation of the delay retention effect (DRE) is the Kulhavy-Anderson (1972) interference-perseveration hypothesis. An alternative hypothesis is students pay less attention to immediate than to delayed feedback. The attention and interference-perseveration hypotheses were examined by comparing the DRE under typical conditions where subjects are presented with feedback and conditions where subjects were required to rerespond to items missed after receiving feedback. Consistent with the attention hypothesis, the response requirement substantially reduced the size of the DRE. In addition, contrary to what would be predicted from the interference-perseveration hypothesis, students in the immediate feedback conditions did not make more perseverative errors on the post-test than did students in the delayed feedback conditions. These results suggest that both attention and interference factors play a role in the DRE, but that attention factors play a more important role in producing the DRE than do interference factors.

Feedback complexity and practice: Response pattern analysis in retention and transfer

Feedback effectiveness and efficiency were investigated using immediate and delayed memory retention or near-transfer tasks. One hundred twenty college age subjects in four experiments practiced 40 difficult vocabulary items. Data were analyzed from an information processing perspective that recommends the analysis of both correct response and error data when studying informative feedback and practice effects. Effectiveness and efficiency of informative feedback were defined in terms of correct response and error correctability data. Effectiveness was attested to by significant (p <.01) improvement on both memory retention and near-transfer tasks following practice with feedback. This was the case for performance on both immediate and delayed post-tests (p <.01). These results also provide partial support for previous findings of an inverse relationship between error correctability and complexity of feedback (Kulhavy, White, Topp, Chan, & Adams, 1985). These data address the efficiency issue. Feedback efficiency results are discussed in terms of a limited capacity model of general working memory (Baddeley, 1986).

Inductive Problem Solving: Schema Inducement and Memory-Based Transfer.

Studies of delayed transfer have been infrequent in contemporary work. Studies of immediate transfer have identified a general schema and a procedural schema as the basis for the transfer of analogical reasoning skills. This study addresses the question of memory-based processing when transfer is delayed. Ss were 183 college students. The training-for-transfer paradigm used to study immediate transfer (Phye, 1989) was employed

Learning and Remembering: The Basis for Personal Knowledge Construction

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the basics of personal knowledge construction by learning and remembering. It illustrates classroom learning, remembering, personal knowledge construction, academic problem solving, developing a problem solving environment, and promoting personal knowledge construction. Emphasis is placed on the construction of personal knowledge at the psychological level of analysis called constructivism. Acquisition is the study of how new information is acquired. The discrepancy between personal and formal knowledge defines the nature of classroom learning. Remembering is the conscious awareness of memory processing that involves memory search and retrieval. Affordance is a reciprocal relationship between a person and his or her environment. Domain knowledge is a more formal subset of content knowledge, a realm of knowledge that broadly encompasses a field of study or thought. Declarative knowledge involves knowledge of facts, concepts, vocabulary, and other bits of information that are stored in memory. Procedural knowledge is demonstrated when a student can combine, incorporate, or assimilate declarative knowledge so that it can be used procedurally. From a students perspective, assessment involves the need to successfully gain access to and use prior knowledge that is stored in long-term memory.

Strategic transfer: A tool for academic problem solving

Within the context of classroom learning, strategic transfer can be viewed as a tool for academic problem solving. Strategic transfer is defined as the spontaneous access and retrieval (remembering) of previously learned formal procedures for the successful solution of a problem. The transfer-appropriate processing encoding model (Morris, Bransford, and Franks, 1977), and the transfer-appropriate procedures retrieval model (Roediger, Weldon, and Challis, 1989) are reviewed. An integration of the two models is proposed through the development of a training-for-transfer paradigm (Phye, 1990). By integrating encoding and retrieval processing in a single transfer paradigm the issue of accessing prior knowledge (Bransford, 1990) that is also referred to as the inert knowledge problem (Whitehead, 1929) can directly be addressed.

Problem-Solving Instruction and Problem-Solving Transfer: The Correspondence Issue.

R. E. Mayer and M. C. Wittrock (1996) have raised the specificity-generality issue as it applies to the teachable aspects of problem-solving transfer. Simply put, do the instructional practices that foster more efficient acquisition-learning of problem-solving strategies automatically foster more efficient problem-solving transfer? On the basis of the present findings the answer is no. Four instructional conditions differing in levels of specificity produced different levels of acquisition. However, when the same students engaged in a delayed problem-solving task, comparable levels of problem-solving transfer performance were observed. In this case, a general approach to problem-solving instruction produced significantly poorer acquisition-learning performance but equally good problem-solving transfer performance. Results are discussed within the context of investigating prior knowledge (F. Dochy, M. Segers, & M. M. Buehl, 1999) and the identification of source memory (A. Koriat, M. Goldsmith, & A. Pansky, 2000) as a viable tool in this effort.

The processing of informative feedback about multiple-choice test performance☆

Abstract From a cognitive perspective, informative feedback is assumed to be confirmatory or corrective. However, feedback is not always effective and errors persist. In cases where errors persist, an analysis of errors as well as correct responses is recommended in order to better understand the processing of informative feedback. A model of multiple-choice processing is introduced to provide the context for a consideration of the role of error analysis. Data from experiment 1 demonstrate the use of semantic retrieval cues in multiple-choice performance. While informative feedback improves post-test performance, it is difficult to demonstrate a differential effect for type of feedback. Experiment 2 suggests a threshold effect for informative feedback. Information beyond that which is necessary for the confirmation of a correct response and/or the correction of an error has a deleterious effect on post-test performance. Error analysis indicated a disproportionate number of perseverative errors when the use of a retrieval process was not required at post-test.

Advice and feedback during cognitive training: Effects at acquisition and delayed transfer

Abstract Effects of advice and feedback during training on the acquisition and transfer of inductive problem solving strategies by college students was investigated. Subjects (108) were randomly assigned to one of three training conditions or a no-treatment control group. Advice in the form of a general procedural strategy or informative feedback from which a specific solution strategy could be inferred was presented singly or in combination during training. Training involved multiple practice and study sessions. A delayed transfer task followed training. Results indicate significant effects of advice and feedback on transfer performance even though differential effects during training were observed. The greatest impact of training on delayed transfer performance was observed in the condition that received only informative feedback during training. Results extend findings demonstrating successful immediate transfer of problem solving strategies (Phye, 1989) by young adults. Implications for instructional practice are discussed within the context of domain-specific problem solving and transfer.

Effects of delayed retention on multiple-choice test performance

Abstract In two experiments, immediate feedback defined as feedback following the completion of a 40-item multiple-choice test and delayed feedback (received 48 hr later) were examined in a simulated classroom situation with college students. As defined, delayed feedback was not superior to immediate feedback, as would be predicted by the delayed retention effect. Also, feedback in the form of correct answer only was superior to correct answer plus distractors lending partial support to the frequency theory of recognition memory. In addition to not finding the delayed retention effect, an analysis of errors in experiment two did not support the interference—perseveration hypothesis as an explanation for the type of error committed following immediate feedback.