Training seventh graders to elaborate produced better long-term recall than questions stimulating elaboration, and the training transferred to new passages¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q2
Currency · newest study 1981 · 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 a design page cites it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Seventh graders trained to elaborate recalled more countries after three days and more propositions from a Superman passage after one day than a control group given elaboration-stimulating questions. → Gagne 1981

Evidence¶

Gagne 1981¶

Gagne, Ellen D. (1981). Comprehension and the Long-Term Recall of Information. Final Report. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED221831

q2 · i? · causal · r?

In the training study, some seventh graders were trained in elaborative processing and directed to elaborate on a list of 15 countries and a Superman passage; a control group received questions stimulating elaboration production. The trained group "recalled more countries after three'laYs" and more Superman propositions after one day.

"The group that had been trained toelaboratlelyprocess recalled more countries after three'laYs and. more-propositions-from-the Superman passage after one day thandid the control group."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Prompting learners to self-explain, one generative strategy, improves learning by a moderate average amount; other generative activities are not tested by the evidence recorded here — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Low reading-group first graders read far fewer words than high-group peers, limiting elaboration — related
• Elaborative processing of prose enhances later retrievability, accounting for roughly 30% of variance in one-month recall when original learning is controlled — related
• Elaborative Interrogation Improves Learning — related
• Across ten learning techniques, distributed practice and practice testing have the largest effects and underlining and summarization the smallest — related