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ADJUNCT AIDS AND MOTIVATION APPLIED TO THE MEMORY OF SELF-HELP READING MATERIAL
Abstract
Adjunct aids have been an area of research relevant to increasing the retention of written materials. Of the four types of aids, only one, response modes, seems to have no theoretical underpinning. Much of the adjunct aid literature to date has involved questions, objectives, and advanced organizers and has relied upon a theoretical base to explain "why" they might have the effects they do rather than using that theoretical orientation to generate new techniques. The present research focused attention on the usefulness of applying the evolving theoretical construct of "depth of processing" as proposed by Craik and Lockhart (1972) in the area of memory research to generate new response modes for increasing memory of self-help reading material. Additionally, the study of adjunct aids generally, and response modes specifically, has seldom included consideration of subject characteristics, despite the interactional emphasis of contextualism which generated the interest in adjunct aids initially. Attention was drawn here to the effect of the subject variable, motivational level of readers, as it influenced the impact of response modes on memory of self-help reading material. Three response modes were generated and compared to a control group: (1) application of the reading material to oneself; (2) application to others; and (3) paraphrasing the reading material. Retention was assessed by measures of short-term and long-term (two weeks) cued recall, problem-solving, and free recall. Results did not support the hypotheses of: (1) motivated subjects who applied the material to themselves scoring highest on measures of retention, followed by those who applied the material to others, those who paraphrased the material, and the controls; (2) unmotivated subjects not being significantly effected by the treatments; and (3) no significant differences being obtained when motivation of subjects was not considered. It was concluded from an analysis of the means that: (1) control subjects scored unexpectedly high, possibly from the interference of the response modes with usual strategies used by readers, or because of the prerequisite learning necessary to use the aids themselves before they could be effectively applied to increase retention; (2) the application to self treatment was increased by the subject variable of motivation and should be further explored; and (3) that more focus should be directed towards the characteristics of different measures of comprehension since they result in varying outcomes.
Subject Area
Educational psychology
Recommended Citation
ANDERSON, TERENCE NEAL, "ADJUNCT AIDS AND MOTIVATION APPLIED TO THE MEMORY OF SELF-HELP READING MATERIAL" (1980). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8109977.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8109977