Information at higher levels of an acquired hierarchical organization is recalled better than information at lower levels¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 1979 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on an ERIC document (a report, conference paper or thesis). It is kept because 4 design pages cite it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In Experiment 2 free-recall summaries, recall scores declined from highest to lowest hierarchy levels, with the steepest drop for information placed low by the acquired organization. → Eylon 1979 q2 i? In Experiment 3 oral-recall protocols, average proportions of knowledge units recalled also declined from the first to the third level in both organizations. → Eylon 1979 (2)

Evidence¶

Eylon 1979¶

Eylon, Bat-Sheva; Reif, F. (1979). Effects of Internal Knowledge Organization on Task Performance. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED171804

q2 · i? · no effect size printed; the entry gives recall percentages by hierarchy level only (50%, 50%, 27%, about 5%), with no test or effect size · causal · r2

Experiment 2 free-recall summaries, written two weeks after treatment and analyzed as traversals of the postulated organization, showed level-graded recall; among A-organization subjects only 3 out of 10 mentioned historical information at all. B-organization subjects recalled 65%, 47%, and 44% for the first three levels.

"the recallscore was 50% for the first or highest level, 50% for the second level, 27% for the thirdlevel, and about 5% for the lowest level including historicalinformation."

Eylon 1979 (2)¶

Eylon, Bat-Sheva; Reif, F. (1979). Effects of Internal Knowledge Organization on Task Performance. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED171804

q2 · i? · no effect size printed; the entry gives mean proportions recalled by level only (63%, 45%, 9%; 75%, 36%, 43%), with no test or effect size · causal · r2

Experiment 3: eight paid volunteers from an introductory college physics course, studied individually, recalled unaided two weeks later; tape-recorded protocols were mapped onto the presumed organization. In the historical organization the average proportions recalled were 75%, 36%, and 43% for the three levels.

"the average proportion of knowledge units recalled was 63% from the first or highest level, 45% from the second level, and 9% from the third level."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Advance organizers produce a small average learning benefit, larger for high-ability than for low-ability learners — related
• The g-factor's relationship to the higher taxonomy levels declines across grade levels — related
• A hierarchical internal knowledge organization facilitates performance on complex recall and problem-solving tasks more than a single-level organization of the same knowledge — a broader claim this one bears on
• Ability moderates the hierarchical-organization advantage: low-ability subjects showed no significant benefit, while medium-ability subjects did — related
• A hierarchical organization facilitates tasks only when matched to the task domain: organization A aids deductive tasks and organization B aids historical tasks — related
• Training in text structure improves college students' summaries, but summarizing has not been shown here to improve recall or writing more than rereading or other active reading — related
• Proportions of variance explained follow a curvilinear pattern across the six taxonomy levels — related
• Kit+TA students spontaneously transferred the TA's hierarchical spatial organization to open-ended post-test answers, unlike Kit-Only students — related
• Participants in higher hierarchy positions were more active and showed better learning performance than those at lower levels — related
• Strong acquisition tasks explicating the organization produce better internalization than weak tasks asking only for a structured summary — related
• Adding a teachable agent to the standard science curriculum improved fourth-graders' learning gains on both curriculum tests and researcher-designed hierarchical reasoning tests — related