The Impact of Prior Knowledge on Students' Notetaking, Learning, and Judgments of Learning

Abstract

The impact of reading a text on students’ notetaking during a lecture is a novel issue that has not been examined. According to the generative hypothesis, reading a text prior to viewing a lecture may facilitate processing and aid students’ notetaking. According to the metacognitive hypothesis, reading a text prior to viewing a lecture may cause overconfidence and lead to poor notetaking. In Experiment 1 participants did or did not read a text about to-be-learned material prior to a lecture. Participants gave a judgement of learning (JOL) predicting their memory performance and took a multiple-choice test. Experiment 2 replicated and extended outcomes by adding a group who read an unrelated text prior to watching the lecture. In both experiments, reading a text prior to viewing a lecture did not impact students’ notes, JOLs, or test performance. Overall, reading prior to viewing a lecture does not impact notetaking during a lecture.