Cognitive Aspects of Learning in Arbitrary and Non-Arbitrary Contexts: Acquisition of Knowledge from Natural-Language Discourse. Final Report.

This research was concerned with the processes which enable individuals to acquire semantic information from natural-language diScourse, Specific objectIvesvere: (1) to represent semantically the structual meaning of English discourse in terms of a well-defined semantic model, (2) to develop a procedure for using,the semantic representation of a text as a structural model against which a subject's acquired knowledge can be scored, (3) to develop a process model for discourse comprehension, and (4) to investigate hypotheses concerning effects of certain contextual conditions designed to induce inferential operations on text content on knowledge structures acquired from'a text. The task involved obtaining repeated written reconstructions of knowledge acquired from a text. Three experimental contexts were used: (1) an "arbitrary" context, (2) a "problem solving" context, and (2) an incidental memory condition (three problem solving trials followed by incidental recall). Groups one and two wrote four recalls; all groups were tested one week later. Basic data consisted of the relative frequencies of classes of response obtained from a semantic analysis of recall protocols. Results were consistent with a model of comprehension consisting primarily of "generative" rather than purely "interpretive" processes. Sources of individual differences were also studied. Part II contains a detailed development of a semantic, structural model of English discourse; and an associated technique for measuring semantic information acquired from discourSe.

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