Mark Sadoski

Effects of Rote, Context, Keyword, and Context/Keyword Methods on Retention of Vocabulary in EFL Classrooms

In the present study, the effects of rote rehearsal, context, keyword, andcontext/keyword methods on immediate and long-term retention of English as a foreign language(EFL) vocabulary in natural classroom settings was examined. 8 intact 9th-grade EFL classes were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 learning conditions: rote rehearsal, context, keyword, and context/keyword condition. Cued recall was assessed either immediately or after a 1-week delay. Results showed that the context/keyword method produced superior recall to any of the other 3 methods after 1 week, suggesting a very promising educational value for this method.

A Dual Coding View of Vocabulary Learning

ABSTRACT A theoretical perspective on acquiring sight vocabulary and developing meaningful vocabulary is presented. Dual Coding Theory assumes that cognition occurs in two independent but connected codes: a verbal code for language and a nonverbal code for mental imagery. The mixed research literature on using pictures in teaching sight vocabulary is briefly reviewed, and a possible resolution suggested. The use of concrete, high-imagery words and both verbal and nonverbal contexts are found to be important factors in teaching sight vocabulary along with word decodability. Effective methods of teaching meaningful vocabulary that are consistent with Dual Coding Theory are briefly reviewed, including self-generated imagery, the use of illustrations, the keyword method, and verbal-associative methods. Results are relevant for both normal readers and those experiencing reading problems.

Learning basic surgical skills with mental imagery: using the simulation centre in the mind

Context  Although surgeons and athletes frequently use mental imagery in preparing to perform, mental imagery has not been extensively researched as a learning technique in medical education.

Do study strategies predict academic performance in medical school

Medical Education 2011: 45: 696–703

Toward a Unified Theory of Reading.

Despite nearly 40 years of scientific theorizing about reading, the field remains fragmented with little progress toward unification. In this article, we (a) emphasize the privileged position of unified theories in all science, (b) compare the growth of theory in cognitive science and reading, (c) identify the phenomenal domain of a unified scientific theory of cognition in reading, (d) propose five general principles for evaluating such theories, and (e) discuss selected influential theories and their potential for contributing to a unified theory of cognition in reading. Our purpose is to extol reading theory and encourage increased attention to developing powerful, unified theories.

Effects of a Theoretically Based Large-Scale Reading Intervention in a Multicultural Urban School District:

In 1997, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes partnered with Pueblo School District 60 (PSD60), a heavily minority urban district with many Title I schools, to implement a theoretically based initiative designed to improve Colorado Student Assessment Program reading scores. In this study, the authors examined achievement in Grades 3–5 during the years 1998–2003. PSD60 schools and schools statewide were compared through a series of repeated measures analyses of covariance controlling for school size, percentage of minority students enrolled, socioeconomic status, and the amount of time a school was included in the intervention. Statistically significant and increasing gains favoring the Lindamood-Bell reading intervention were found both overall and in analyses of Title 1 schools.

A Causal Model of Sentence Recall: Effects of Familiarity, Concreteness, Comprehensibility, and Interestingness

This study presents and tests a theoretically derived causal model of the recall of sentences. One group of undergraduate students rated 40 sentences about historical characters for content familiarity, concreteness, comprehensibility, and interestingness. A second group read the sentences and provided written recalls immediately after reading and again after five days. Using predictions derived from schema theory and from dual coding theory, a causal model was derived that identified familiarity and concreteness as causes of comprehensibility; familiarity, concreteness, and comprehensibility as causes of interestingness; and all the identified variables as causes of both immediate and delayed recall. Path analysis procedures indicated that concreteness strongly affected comprehensibility and recall, and that both concreteness and familiarity affected interestingness. The results suggest support for a dual coding theory account of sentence comprehension and recall.

IMAGINATION IN STORY READING: THE ROLE OF IMAGERY, VERBAL RECALL, STORY ANALYSIS, AND PROCESSING LEVELS

The spontaneous use of imagery and its relationship to free verbal recall were investigated. Community college students read a 2,100-word story under one of three sets of instructions and then recalled the story and reported their images immediately and 48 hours later. A new methodology for classifying imagery reports was developed. Results indicated that separate categories of imagery reports and verbal recalls were not highly correlated. Principal components analysis yielded factors predominated by imagery variables. Further, whereas total verbal recall declined over the retention interval (i.e., forgetting), imagery did not. Experimental instructions to readers designed to manipulate processing depth in an externally valid fashion did not result in significant differences in imagery reporting and recall, suggesting that a strict levels of processing view may be untenable for ecologically valid reading situations. Other results indicated that a significant relationship existed between imaging a story segment and the story grammar macro-structure of that segment, and that imagery of the climactic event was the most common. This study contributes to a series of studies using various texts and methodologies that suggest that imagery is a distinctive aspect of reading, viable for study in its own right.

Commentary: The Natural Use of Imagery in Story Comprehension and Recall: Replication and Extension

The purpose of this study was to reexamine the findings of Sadoski (1983) regarding the relationships of imagery self-reports to a variety of story comprehension and recall measures. The present study substantially replicates the methodology of the original study using a different story with students at different grade levels; it also extends this line of research to unillustrated text while attempting to exceed certain methodological limitations in the original exploratory study.

Concreteness and imagery effects in the written composition of definitions.

Concreteness and imagery effects have been found to be among the most powerful in explaining performance on a variety of language tasks. Concreteness and imagery effects involve the capacity of concrete language to evoke sensory images in the mind (e.g., juicy watermelon), whereas abstract language has relatively less capacity to do so (e.g., agriculturalproduce). The effects of concreteness and imagery on reading and text recall have been well-established (e.g., Goetz, Sadoski, Fatemi, & Bush, 1994; Paivio, 1971, 1986; Paivio, Walsh, & Bons, 1994; Sadoski, Goetz, & Avila, 1995; Sadoski, Goetz, & Fritz, 1993a, 1993b). Concrete words, phrases, sentences, and texts have been found to be more imageable, comprehensible, memorable, and interesting than abstract language units even when other relevant contextual variables are carefully controlled. These results can be consistently interpreted by dual coding theory (Paivio, 1971, 1986, 1991), which maintains that cognition involves the operation of two separate but interconnected systems, one for verbal representations and processes and one for nonverbal (imagery) representations and processes.