The effects of structural, presentation, and response variables on storage and recall of simple prose materials

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to examine structural, presentation and response variables on storage and recall of simple prose materials. Frase (1969) using materials organized by concept name (N) or attribute (A) had found subjects preferred to organize by name. Studies which followed Frase's (1969) initial study yielded mixed results; with Friedman and Greitzer (1972), Perlmutter and Royer (1973) and Meyers, Pezdek, and Coulson (1973) showing indications of attribute superiority; while Schultz and Di Vesta (1972) and Di Vesta, Schultz and Dangel (1973) favored name presentations. The present study identified structural factors, presentation factors and response factors which had varied in the preceeding study and in two related experiments using N-A matrices sought to control or explicitly vary them. For experiment one 72 undergraduate students from Texas Christian University were randomly assigned to four treatment groups. Factors of interest were: passage organization (Name (N) and Attribute (A); Repeated Items (non-repeated (NR), Low Distance between repeated Items (LO), and High Distance between repeated items (HD); and trials. In addition each subject received two size presentations. Results of Experiment one indicated free recall following name presentations to be superior to attribute. A serial scoring procedure in which subjects were given credit for writing down names or attributes, regardless of whether they correctly paired the two, confirmed that the original score superiority was due not to recalling more items but to the ability to correctly pair them. In Experiment one a post hoc analysis of subject's recall strategies was also performed in which name listing (NL) was found to be both an effective and popular strategy. Experiment two was conducted to ascertain the effects of switched vs. same presentations on free and integrated recall measures. Thirty-six undergraduate students from Texas Christian University were randomly assigned to same (NNN and AAA) or switched (ANA and NAN) presentation conditions. Factors were passage organization (NNN, AAA, ANA, and NAN) and trials. Results of free and integrated recall for experiment two indicated NNN presentations to be significantly better learned than AAA with switched presentation results at mid-points. As in experiment one a post hoc analysis of subject recall strategies was made which again showed NL to be an effective strategy.