ERIC Number: EJ1192024
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Oct
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0663
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Sketching and Summarizing to Reduce Memory for Seductive Details in Science Text
Jaeger, Allison J.; Velazquez, Mia N.; Dawdanow, Anastasia; Shipley, Thomas F.
Journal of Educational Psychology, v110 n7 p899-916 Oct 2018
"Seductive details" refers to interesting pieces of information within an expository text that are only tangentially related to the target concept (Garner, Gillingham, & White, 1989). When the presence of this information results in reduced comprehension, this is called the "seductive details effect." Previous work has found the seductive details effect to be resistant to reduction via various instructional manipulations. One avenue that has not been investigated as a tool for reducing the seductive details effect is having students generate sketches. A growing body of research suggests that sketching activities are beneficial for science learning and, moreover, that sketching can improve learning from science text (Ainsworth, Prain, & Tytler, 2011; Van Meter, 2001). The goal of the present research was to investigate the impact of sketching as compared to generating summaries or thinking silently on recall and comprehension of a text that included seductive details. Across two studies, the seductive details effect was replicated; generating sketches did not eliminate it. In Experiment 2, students compared their sketches and summaries to correct ones and were asked to identify differences between them. Results indicated that participants in the summary group recalled the most core concepts and demonstrated the highest comprehension. These results suggest that sketching may not be effective for eliminating the seductive details and that having students generate summaries with feedback may be more successful. These findings inform the design of scaffolding to support learning from naturalistic science text with its distracting details.
Descriptors: Memory, Freehand Drawing, Writing (Composition), Cognitive Processes, Recall (Psychology), Reading Comprehension, Scientific and Technical Information, Expository Writing, College Students, Science Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: SBE1041707; 1640800
Author Affiliations: N/A