Nelson F. DuBois

Note-Taking Functions and Techniques.

This experiment investigated three newly classified note-taking functions: encoding (take notes/ no review), encoding plus storage (take notes/review notes) and external storage (absent self from lecture/review borrowed notes), relative to three note-taking techniques (conventional, linear, matrix)

Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning Constructs.

Demographic variables, findings from the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (Schraw & Dennison, 1994), the Learning Strategies Survey (Kardash & Amlund, 1991), and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich, Smith, Garcia, & McKeachie, 1991), as well as accuracy ratings of test performance, were examined in 2 studies. Findings indicated convergence of self-report measures of metacognition, significant correlations between metacognition and academic monitoring, negative correlations between self-reported metacognition and accuracy ratings, and positive correlations between metacognition and strategy use and metacognition and motivation. Limitations of the studies and implications for theory development and future research are discussed.

A More Equitable Account of the Note-Taking Functions in Learning from Lecture and from Text.

Previous research investigating the encoding, encoding-plus-storage, and extermal-storage functions of note taking has failed to equate processing opportunities among the groups. The present studies did so by having the encoding group take notes on two occasions without review, the encoding-plus-storage group take notes one time and review notes the next, and the external-storage group twice review a set of borrowed notes. Three forms of note taking were used: conventional, and note taking on skeletal and matrix frameworks. In both Experiment 1, involving lecture learning, and Experiment 2, involving text learning, an advantage was found for the encoding-plus-storage function on tests involving factual-recall and recognition performance but not on tests measuring higher-order performance. With respect to note-taking forms, no advantage existed for any form when information was acquired from lecture. When text material was used there was some advantage for conventional notes and a clear advantage for not taking notes at all, but instead twice reading the material. These findings were explained relative to observed note-taking behaviors, the opportunity for review, and the processing demands proposed by the combination of reading and note taking, particularly when notes must be classified into an existing framework.

Supplementing floundering text with adjunct displays

Three experiments compared the learning potential of text versus outline and matrix displays. In Experiments 1 and 2, college students read or heard a passage about fish and then studied the text, an outline, or a matrix. In Experiment 3, students heard a passage about wildcats, and then studied text, outline, or matrix displays. In all experiments, the text, outline, and matrix formats were informationally equivalent. However, the two-dimensional matrix appeared more computationally efficient than the linear organized text or outline because it (a) positioned related information about fish or wildcats in closer proximity so that local relations within a single category (such as “size”) were learned, and (b) organized information spatially so that global relations across categories (such as size and diet) were learned. The learning potential of text, outline, and matrix displays was also examined in combination with variations in thematic organization, amount of study time, and time of testing. The most important and consistent findings were that (a) outline and matrix displays produced greater relational learning than the text, and (b) matrix displays produced greater relational learning than outlines.

Effects of Advance Organizers and Repeated Presentations on Students' Learning

Abstract An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of advance organizers and repeating a lecture on test performance. Participants viewed a videotaped lecture about the process of radar once, twice, or three times. Before each viewing, they studied one of three different advance organizers—a conventional organizer that summarized the main steps of the radar process as a list, a linear organizer that summarized the steps and subordinate information in outline form, and a matrix organizer that summarized the steps and subordinate information in matrix form. Repeated presentations of the lecture increased note taking, recognition of isolated facts, and overall recall to some degree. Advance organizers had a test-appropriate effect The advance organizers that integrated subtopic information (linear and matrix) increased recall of subtopic information, whereas the more general organizer (conventional) aided overall recall, especially general topic information. No performance differences were observed ...

The (in)effectiveness of visual representations as an aid to solving probability word problems

This article presents the findings of two experimental studies designed to investigate the use of different kinds of visual representations of mathematical relationships in helping college students solve probability word problems. Two types of multiple-event probability problems were presented: joint probability of independent events; and total probability of non-mutually exclusive events. Two treatment groups were created: the specific-representations group that was instructed in how to use tree and Venn diagrams; and the matrix group that was trained to use a matrix (a two-dimensional table). A control group was instructed only in the formulation of equations. Results from two separate experiments indicated that the control group outperformed the specific-representations group on their ability to transfer the problem-solving strategies they had learned to novel situations and that there was no difference between the matrix group and the other two groups on their ability to do this. Results further indic...

Using a Spatial System for Teaching Operant Concepts

This article demonstrates how to teach operant concepts by means of a spatial representation system. The system is useful for teaching any set of related concepts.

Introduction to special issue on studying

Twelve years ago, William Rohwer (1984) extended an invitation to educational researchers to forge an educational psychology of studying on par with the fields interest in and investigations of instruction. Rohwer argued that students are increasingly expected to learn independently as they proceed from elementary to secondary to post-secondary schools. Col lege students, Rohwer pointed out, are expected to spend at least twice as much time studying as they spend attending class. Rohwer contended that there was considerable work to be done but that the work was worthwhile and necessary. The phenomena of study, then, invite a commitment to an arduous, complex and protracted effort, an affair more like a house-raising than a house-warming. Yet, if differences in the effectiveness of study are a primary source of differences in educational success, the invitation to build an educational psychology of studying is surely worth accepting. By all indications, Rohwers invitation was widely accepted. A special interest group on studying was formed in the American Educational Re search Association. Investigators examined social, motivational, and strate gic aspects of studying under the rubric of self-regulated learning (e.g., Pintrich and DeGroot, 1990; Zimmerman, 1989, 1990). And, texts detailing how to study flourished (e.g., Gardner and Jewler, 1989; Longman and At