Do specific relevance instructions promote transfer appropriate processing?

This study examined whether specific relevance instructions affect transfer appropriate processing. Undergraduates (n = 52) were randomly assigned to one of three pre-reading question conditions that asked them what-questions, why-questions, or to read for understanding (i.e., control condition). There were no differences in reading time across conditions for sentences targeted by the pre-reading questions. There were three main findings with respect to cued recall. First, participants in the experimental conditions did better on questions that had greater similarity to relevance instructions than questions that had lesser similarity to relevance instructions. Second, participants in the experimental conditions did better on questions that had greater similarity to relevance instructions than the participants in the other conditions on those same questions. Third, participants in the control condition recalled equal amounts of information for both question. The results suggest that specific relevance instructions promote transfer appropriate processing and affect the quality of memory for text.

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Work Title Do specific relevance instructions promote transfer appropriate processing?
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Matthew T. McCrudden
Keyword
  1. Relevance instructions
  2. Transfer appropriate processing
  3. Text processing
  4. Reading comprehension
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Instructional Science
Publication Date November 4, 2010
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-010-9158-x
Deposited August 09, 2023

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Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Added IS_2011_relevance.pdf
  • Added Creator Matthew T. McCrudden
  • Published
  • Updated Keyword, Description, Publication Date Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Relevance instructions, Transfer appropriate processing, Text processing, Reading comprehension
    Description
    • x
    • This study examined whether specific relevance instructions affect transfer appropriate processing. Undergraduates (n = 52) were randomly assigned to one of three pre-reading question conditions that asked them what-questions, why-questions, or to read for understanding (i.e., control condition). There were no differences in reading time across conditions for sentences targeted by the pre-reading questions. There were three main findings with respect to cued recall. First, participants in the experimental conditions did better on questions that had greater similarity to relevance instructions than questions that had lesser similarity to relevance instructions. Second, participants in the experimental conditions did better on questions that had greater similarity to relevance instructions than the participants in the other conditions on those same questions. Third, participants in the control condition recalled equal amounts of information for both question. The results suggest that specific relevance instructions promote transfer appropriate processing and affect the quality of memory for text.
    Publication Date
    • 2011-11-01
    • 2010-11-04
  • Updated