Vernon C. Hall

The influence of concept training on letter discrimination.

72 kindergarten children, randomly assigned to 1 of 3 warm-up groups(1) orientation relevant, (2) orientation irrelevant, and (3) control-were required to discriminate among the letters b, d, p, and q on a task similar to Davidsons (1935) Letter Perception Test. While Ss in group 2 made significantly more confusion errors than those in group 3, Ss in group 1 made significantly fewer errors than those in group 3. The results are interpreted in terms of the adequacy of analysis of the discrimination task, that so the appropriateness of the Ss concept of same and different, rather than perceptual ability and/or attentional factors.

Does performance on memory for order correlate with performance on standardized measures of ability? A meta-analysis

Abstract For over a century psychologists have been interested in measures of memory for order (MFO), and the relationship of MFO with measures of general ability. The results have been many and varied; thus, a meta-analysis was performed to determine the nature and degree of such relationships. Specifically, 225 hypothesis tests relating measures of MFO with performance on standardized tests of ability were included in the meta-analysis. The combined effect size was found to be moderate and highly significant. In addition, separate meta-analyses were performed for standardized achievement and aptitude tests, partial and whole recall MFO tasks, and for each of the 11 MFO tasks included in the overall analysis. Other task and subject characteristics were coded and used to predict effect size. It was found that the relationship between partial recall and standardized achievement tests was significantly higher than other relationships involving partial and whole recall with achievement and aptitude tests. Age was not found to predict effect size in a systematic manner. Quality of the MFO task was a significant predictor of effect size.

Deciding where knowledge comes from depends on where you look.

The purpose of this investigation was to replicate the findings of K. E. Stanovich and A. E. Cunningham (1993) concerning the antecedents of declarative knowledge, using different measures of general ability and TV exposure. In addition, the authors were interested in the relationship between epistemological knowledge and these measures. Ninety-seven introductory psychology students participated. Results showed that measures of both general ability and TV exposure exhibited a stronger relationship to declarative knowledge than that found by K. E. Stanovich and A. E. Cunningham. These differences in results concerning TV exposure were explained by suggesting the possibility that watching educational TV increases literacy whereas watching noneducational TV may actually limit it. The epistemological beliefs of simple and certain knowledge were statistically related to composites of knowledge, ability, and both types of exposure.

Relative Importance of Aptitude and Prior Domain Knowledge on Immediate and Delayed Posttests.

Two groups of college students were given a pretest covering basketball knowledge and asked to read a passage about basketball history. One group (IDP) took an immediate posttest of 27 items and a delayed posttest 1 week later of the original items and 27 new items. The 2nd group (DPO) took only the delayed posttest of 54 items. Finally, a control group simply took the pretest and the 54-item posttest and scored at chance level on the posttest. Correlational analyses determined that, for the IDP group, pretest scores were significantly related to the immediate posttest

A developmental study of children's ability to adopt perspectives and find errors in text

Abstract Research on comprehension monitoring using the error detection paradigm indicates that children have difficulty monitoring their comprehension of text. In past studies children have not been specifically asked to apply their knowledge while listening to or reading text. Consequently, children may not have been listening or reading for meaning. Perspective taking is an example of a task which can encourage children to apply what they know to information they are encoding. In the present study, two stories were used, each of which could be read from two distinct perspectives. Each story contained information relevant to each perspective. In the first of two studies it was shown that second- and fourth-graders can successfully rate passage content from each of two perspectives. In the second study, two errors were placed in each story, one relevant to each perspective. Second- and fourth-graders were asked to adopt perspectives and then listen to each story. Error detection was recorded. In addition, subjects ware asked to recall the stories. Fourth-graders detected more perspective-relevant errors and recalled more perspective-relevant information. It is argued that, while second- and fourth-graders have the knowledge necessary to identify errors, fourth-graders are more likely to apply it on-line during comprehension.

The relationship between memory for order and other cognitive tasks

Abstract Measures of memory for order were correlated with measures requiring mental manipulation, achievement, and aptitude using college and fifth grade students. Memory for order was not significantly related to measures of mental manipulation nor achievement measures for college students. For fifth graders memory for order was significantly related to mental manipulation, intelligence, and achievement measures. It is suggested that the nature and capacity of short-term memory changes with age.

The effects of setting, thematic familiarity, and type of contradiction on comprehension monitoring

Abstract The purpose of the present research was to determine the effects of setting, thematic familiarity, and type of contradiction on efficiency of comprehension monitoring. In the first study, third graders were told they were evaluating material for either a reading or a math class. They were presented themes which were either familiar or unfamiliar and contained either logical or numeric inconsistencies. It was found that children performed significantly better on familiar themes containing numeric inconsistencies. These findings were replicated in a second study which corrected for design problems in the first study. These results are consistent with the automatic-control processing model of attention.

The effects of age and overlearning in an A-B, A-C design using high- and low-H value

This experiment using a verbal paired-associate A-B, A-C transfer paradigm was designed to determine the effects of age and first-list practice on transfer. In addition, within-lists comparisons were made to determine the effect of entropy (H) value of stimulus and response words upon acquisition. Four-pair lists including two high- and two low-H pairs were aurally presented to kindergarten and second-grade S s. All S s were run to one perfect recitation on the first list with overlearning groups receiving ten or 20 additional trials. Significant interference was found with the second-grade S s only. The manipulation of first-list practice had no significant effect on the transfer task. Kindergarten S s made significantly more errors on the low-H pairs in the acquisition of both the first and second lists, while the second-grade S s made significantly more errors on the second list only.

Reflections of an Aging Educational Psychologist

It is suggested that the graduate training program in educational psychology fits well into an all inclusive psychology department. I go on to submit that the label of the graduate psychology degree is less important than some would lead us to believe. In addition, I propose two types of undergraduate educational psychology courses: one in the college of arts and sciences designed to make students better educational consumers and another in the college of education designed to provide prospective teachers an in-depth understanding and appreciation of the field. This latter course would benefit from a laboratory component. Finally, I list two research problems deserving attention: (a) How do educators foster life-long learning, and (b) how does one develop an accurate self concept?

Acquisition and transfer differences between Kindergarteners and Second-graders on aurally and visually presented paired-associates using an A-B, A-C design

Abstract Kindergarten and second-grade children were trained in an A-B, A-C paired-associate task using five pairs and two modes (aural and visual) of presentation. It was found that, contrary to expectations, acquisition on the first list was significantly faster for the visual mode. In addition, both Kindergarteners and Second-graders exhibited significant negative transfer.