John A. Glover

Improving Readers' Estimates of Learning from Text: The Role of Inserted Questions.

Abstract The current study examined the effect of inserted questions in text with and without feedback on students’ estimates of posttest performance. The literature examining students’ estimates of posttest performance consistently has reported very low relationships between students’ estimates of performance and their actual posttest performance. The current study found that requiring students to answer inserted questions during reading and then providing students feedback on their responses led to significantly more accurate student estimates of posttest performance than reading without inserted questions. The theoretical and applied implications of the results are described.

Advance Organizers and Study Questions.

AbstractThree experiments were conducted to determine how the careful reading of advance organizers affected the answers that students constructed for study questions. In the first experiment, those middle-school students who read and paraphrased an advance organizer prior to study correctly answered significantly more lower order study questions than did students not encountering the organizer. In Experiments 2 and 3, middle-school and college students, respectively, were used. In both experiments, students who read and paraphrased the advance organizer constructed significantly better answers for higher order study questions than did those students who had no access to the organizers.

Advance Organizers: Delay Hypotheses.

Three experiments examined the utility of inserting a delay between the reading of an advance organizer and its related text

The “Testing” Effect and Restricted Retrieval Rehearsal

Four experiments examined two alternative views of retrieval events. The results of Experiment 1 were equivocal because of an apparent “ceiling effect.” The results of Experiments 2, 3, and 4, in which changes were made in basic procedures, seemed to indicate that the act of retrieval itself had an effect on the memorability of words.

The selective displaced rehearsal hypothesis and failure to obtain the generation effect

Following a series of four experiments in which the generation effect was not obtained, a selective displaced rehearsal hypothesis, as described by Slamecka and Katsaiti (1987), was tested. The results of the experiments based on this hypothesis agreed with Slamecka and Katsaiti’s predictions; that is, the generation effect appeared only in within-group designs that did not control subjects’ displacement of rehearsal.

Another look at number signals and preview sentences

The combined effect of number signals and preview sentences on readers’ recall of text material was examined. Subjects who read a passage in which both types of signals were used recalled significantly more signal-relevant information than did subjects in a number-signals only, a preview-sentence only, or a control condition. The effectiveness of number signals is discussed in terms of both encoding and retrieval effects. The influence of preview sentences is discussed in terms of how these devices may guide readers’ attention.

“Advance” advance organizers

Two experiments were conducted in which subjects read and paraphrased an advance organizer under one of three conditions: (1) 48 h prior to reading organizer-relevant text, (2) 1 h prior to reading organizer-relevant text, and (3) immediately prior to reading organizer-relevant text. A fourth condition (4) was a control in which no organizer was available. The results of both experiments indicated that subjects in the experimental conditions recalled significantly more text content than subjects in the control conditions. Significant quadratic trends were observed among the experimental conditions in both experiments. The results support a knowledge activation and integration view of advance organizers.