Studying textbooks: Effects of learning styles, study task, and instruction

Abstract This study was aimed at clarifying the influence of instructional support (focusing on metacognitive or cognitive levels of task accomplishment) and task constraints (exam preparation or searching for a particular text unit) on the way students with different learning styles (deep processing versus surface processing) completed a study task in a hypertext reading environment. We expected deep processing students to benefit from metacognitive support and surface processing students to learn from cognitive support. In Experiment 1 these expectations were partly confirmed. Strategic hints (metacognitive level) had little effect, apparently because the students did not possess any domain knowledge at the outset. An advance organizer (cognitive level) proved harmful to deep processing students but beneficial to surface processing students. Experiment 2 showed that students who combined self-regulation with deep processing and students who combined external regulation with surface processing outperformed students with complimentary combinations of regulation style and processing style. It is argued that selection skills may underlie both regulation and processing styles for studying expository texts.

[1]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  Problem Solving and Reasoning. , 1984 .

[2]  Jos Beishuizen.  Modelling Search Strategies in a Database Support System , 1992 .

[3]  Noel Entwistle,et al.  Motivational Factors in Students' Approaches to Learning , 1988 .

[4]  Valerie Anderson,et al.  Producing Written Summaries: Task Demands, Cognitive Operations, and Implications for Instruction , 1986 .

[5]  Robert F. Lorch,et al.  College students' conditional knowledge about reading. , 1993 .

[6]  Walter P. Vispoel,et al.  Knowledge Acquisition for Application: Cognitive Flexibility and Transfer in Complex Content Domains. Technical Report No. 409. , 1987 .

[7]  Selecting and cueing key phrases in instructional texts , 1990 .

[8]  David Reinking,et al.  Computer-Mediated Text and Comprehension Differences: The Role of Reading Time, Reader Preference, and Estimation of Learning. , 1988 .

[9]  Gunnar C. Kunz,et al.  On-Line and Off-Line Assessment of Self-Regulation in Learning from Instructional Text and Picture. , 1989 .

[10]  W. Kintsch,et al.  Strategies of discourse comprehension , 1983 .

[11]  B. Meyer.  The organization of prose and its effects on memory , 1975 .

[12]  John R. Hayes,et al.  The Complete Problem Solver , 1981 .

[13]  J. Vermunt,et al.  Analysis and development of students' skill in selfregulated learning , 1988 .

[14]  Mariam Jean Dreher,et al.  Cognitive Processes in Textbook Chapter Search Tasks. , 1990 .

[15]  A. D. D. Groot.  Thought and Choice in Chess , 1978 .

[16]  M. Just,et al.  The psychology of reading and language comprehension , 1986 .

[17]  U. Neisser.  Cognition and reality: principles and implications , 1976 .

[18]  Donald F. Dansereau,et al.  Development and Evaluation of a Learning Strategy Training Program. , 1979 .

[19]  Jos Beishuizen,et al.  Domain expertise and knowledge acquisition from “nonlinear” expository text , 1994 .

[20]  D. Dansereau,et al.  The Development of a Learning Strategies Curriculum , 1978 .

[21]  P. Alexander,et al.  The Interaction of Domain-Specific and Strategic Knowledge in Academic Performance , 1988 .

[22]  Allen Newell,et al.  Human Problem Solving. , 1973 .

[23]  Scott G. Paris,et al.  The Development of Inferential Comprehension. , 1977 .

[24]  John E. Laird,et al.  Symbolic architectures for cognition , 1989 .

[25]  E. Corte,et al.  Using eye movements and retrospective data to study the use of clever strategies in children's mental arithmetic , 1992 .