When people make judgments of learning (JOLs) after studying paired associates, the process they engage in to monitor their learning can directly enhance learning for some types of material (Soderstrom et al. 2015). The current experiments investigated whether JOLs directly enhance learning educationally relevant texts. Across 5 experiments (N =…

This naturalistic basic interpretive inquiry study investigated what individual and social meanings students constructed while engaging with paired picture books presented in two different languages: One in English and the other in Arabic. The research aimed to uncover how middle grade male students interpreted and comprehended the narratives and…

This article focuses on the early research domains investigated by Michael Pressley, along with the integrations and initiatives that were inspired by them. These research domains include verbal and imagery elaboration memory strategies, and developmental aspects of them; interrogative elaboration; pictorial strategies for language and literacy…

The extant picture-learning research does not address confusing word pairs that are not concrete (e.g., in and into). In this study, university students viewed 11 timed Web pages containing information on confusing word pairs. Each page addressed one word pair and distinguished the words with examples (example group), examples and rules (rule…

Adults learned the meanings of rare words (e.g., gloaming) and then made meaning judgments on pairs of words. The 1st word was a trained rare word, an untrained rare word, or an untrained familiar word. Event-related potentials distinguished trained rare words from both untrained rare and familiar words, first at 140 ms and again at 400-600 ms…

This study was designed to assess whether negative transfer in children's paired-associate learning could be reduced by changing the levels of meaning at which stimuli were encoded on the two lists. It was hypothesized that changes in meaning levels from a first to a second list would result in less interference than conditions where stimuli…

A rationale was developed for researching reading comprehension based on information gain. Previous definitions of comprehension which were reviewed included operational vs. nonoperational and skills vs. processes. Comprehension was viewed as an informational processing event which includes a constellation of cognitive and learning processes. Two…

This paper reports on one study in a research program trying to extend existing findings on elaborative mediation in paired-associate learning into the domain of prose learning. Ten third graders and 22 fourth graders from an inner-city Catholic school served as subjects. A paraphrase recall pretest was administered which involved reading a…

This study sought to determine whether an individual learns relatively better from pictures than from words and whether such information can be applied to the learning of prose materials. A paired-associate learning task consisting of both pictorial and verbal items from which different types of learners could be reliably identified was developed.…

Two studies were performed to investigate the effects of material and task variations in the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies. Groups of undergraduate students were taught to use mental imagery, meaningful elaboration, and grouping. The type of training task or the order of training and test materials differed for each of the…

The effects of a diversified imaginal and verbal elaboration strategy training program upon the learning and retention (efficiency) of ninth-grade students was investigated. The results, using free recall, modified serial recall, paired-associate learning, and reading comprehension tests, indicate that students can be trained to use elaboration to…

As part of a research program to identify training methods which optimize skill acquisition and retention, three studies were conducted to assess the effects of type of training, amount of practice, and guided discussion in cognitive learning strategies training programs. Undergraduate students enrolled in educational psychology courses were…

The Learning Activities Questionnaire (LAQ) was designed and developed to identify which of the following learning strategies were used by individuals in a variety of academic and training environments: rote (passive and active); physical; elaboration; and grouping. After undergoing two pilot tests, the final version of the LAQ was administered to…

Three studies were performed to investigate the effects of training versus instructions in the acquisition of cognitive learning strategies. Groups of undergraduate students were taught to use one or more strategies. The amount and type of training differed for each of the experimental groups. Strategies taught included the method of loci,…

The keyword method, originally developed as an instructional technique in foreign language acquisition, was tested for its application in other school learning tasks and as a self-initiated study strategy. Two classes containing a total of 40 eighth grade students served as the experimental and control groups. The tasks were learning to pair…