Keiichi Kobayashi

Combined Effects of Note‐Taking/‐Reviewing on Learning and the Enhancement through Interventions: A meta‐analytic review

Meta‐analyses of 33 studies were conducted to examine (1) how much the combination of taking and reviewing notes contributes to school learning, and (2) whether interventions in the note‐taking/‐reviewing procedure enhance note‐taking/‐reviewing effects, and if so, how much and under what conditions. Syntheses of findings from note‐taking/‐reviewing versus no note‐taking/‐reviewing comparison studies indicated that the overall effects of note‐taking/‐reviewing were substantial. The advantage of note‐taking with intervention over without intervention was modest but significantly greater than zero. This intervention effect was moderated by two variables: presence of provided notes and academic level of participants. Providing a framework or instructors notes was more effective in the enhancement of note‐taking/‐reviewing effects than pre‐training or verbal instruction only. The participants at lower academic levels gained greater benefits from interventions compared with the participants at a higher academic level.

Strategic Use of Multiple Texts for the Evaluation of Arguments

Two experiments were conducted to examine whether students use arguments with refutation in one text for evaluating the opposite arguments without refutation in another text. Undergraduate students read two conflicting texts in either of the two orders: pro arguments text first and con arguments text first. After reading each text, they evaluated the convincingness of individual arguments in the text. Finally, they wrote argumentative essays concerning controversial issues. Experiment 1 indicated that presentation order affected students’ evaluations of arguments in the case where most of them affirmed the refutational relations in their essays, suggesting the conditional use of multiple texts for argument evaluation. Experiment 2 replicated this result using more natural argumentative texts.

The Influence of Critical Reading Orientation on External Strategy Use during Expository Text Reading.

This study examined the influence of critical reading orientation on use of external strategies such as note‐taking and underlining while reading an expository text. In two experiments, undergraduate students were asked either to review an article on a linguistic policy (critical reading) or to summarise it (less‐critical reading). Experiment 1 indicated that, when permitted to do so, the majority of students used note‐taking and/or underlining strategies for critical reading as well as for less‐critical reading. In Experiment 2, an analysis of think‐aloud protocols, notes, and underlines revealed that critical readers produced more critical notes/underlines and fewer summary notes than did less‐critical readers. Also, critical readers substantially increased their production of critical notes/underlines over the course of reading and decreased highlightings, whereas less‐critical readers increased summary notes and decreased highlightings.

Relational Processing of Conflicting Arguments: Effects on Biased Assimilation

When exposed to conflicting arguments, people tend to evaluate the attitude-congruent arguments favorably and the attitude-incongruent arguments unfavorably. This phenomenon is called biased assimi...