Adjunct aids such as learning objectives and embedded questions show limited effects and may interfere with competent readers' natural strategies¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 1991 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? A total package of structural aids (learning objectives, previews, summaries, and questions) produced no improvement in readers' performance on immediate and delayed tests. → Mary H. Sawyer 1991 q2 i? Adjunct questions improved performance only on posttest items repeating the questions verbatim, not on paraphrased items. → Mary H. Sawyer 1991 (2)

Evidence¶

Mary H. Sawyer 1991¶

Mary H. Sawyer. (1991). A Review of Research in Revising Instructional Text. Journal of Reading Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1080/10862969109547744

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review reports, citing Zimmer (1985), that a full package of textbook-style structural aids produced no improvement, and Zimmer hypothesized the aids might interfere with competent readers' natural strategies.

"Zimmer (1985) found no improvement in readers' performance on immediate and delayed multiple-choice and cued recall tests. He hypothesized that these aids might actually interfere with competent readers' natural strategies"

Mary H. Sawyer 1991 (2)¶

Mary H. Sawyer. (1991). A Review of Research in Revising Instructional Text. Journal of Reading Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1080/10862969109547744

q2 · i? · review · r3

The review reports, citing Anderson and Biddle's (1975) review of adjunct-question research, that post-passage questions improved only verbatim-repetition posttest items, leaving open the possibility that the effect is trivially specific.

"questions inserted after a section of text consistently improved performance only on those posttest items which repeated the questions at a verbatim level and not on those posttest items which paraphrased the adjunct questions"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Question prompts improve learning — reports the opposite
• Underlining and adjunct questions may hinder rather than help recall in young readers, reflecting a comprehension rather than a metacomprehension deficit — related
• Learner highlighting of text gives a small memory benefit but no reliable comprehension benefit, and evidence on other forms of annotation is not yet recorded here — related
• Recall of passage details is most depressed when children receive both underlining and conceptual postquestions — related
• Self-questioning improves comprehension — related
• Structural signals show no consistent recall benefits but can aid deeper understanding measured by problem-solving tests — related
• Answering inserted adjunct questions with the text available produces higher delayed transfer learning than answering post-reading questions — reports the opposite