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Title
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The effect of prior knowledge and metamemory on the acquisition of a reading comprehension strategy.
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Creator
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Gaultney, Jane F., Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Psychology
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Abstract/Description
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This experiment examined the impact of knowledge base and declarative metamemory knowledge on the acquisition of a reading comprehension strategy. Fourth- and fifth-grade boys who were poor readers were tested for their baseball knowledge and declarative metamemory knowledge. Those boys who were designated as baseball experts were included in the experiment. The boys were pretested for strategy use and comprehension, received two days of training in the use of the strategy, and then were...
Show moreThis experiment examined the impact of knowledge base and declarative metamemory knowledge on the acquisition of a reading comprehension strategy. Fourth- and fifth-grade boys who were poor readers were tested for their baseball knowledge and declarative metamemory knowledge. Those boys who were designated as baseball experts were included in the experiment. The boys were pretested for strategy use and comprehension, received two days of training in the use of the strategy, and then were later tested twice: once within 3 days of training, then again 2-3 weeks later. The boys were divided into four groups. The T-BB (training, baseball stories) group received training in the use of the strategy using baseball stories. The T-NB (training, nonbaseball) group received equivalent training but used nonbaseball sports stories. Two control groups received equal time with the experimenter and equal reading practice with either baseball or nonbaseball stories, but were not taught the strategy. Because there were no differences in the level of strategy use or comprehension of the two control groups they were later combined into one control group. The target strategy was the asking of "why" questions in response to facts in the text. The asking of "why" questions has been hypothesized to activate relevant schema which are then used to facilitate the memorization of new material. Poor readers often do not utilize their existing knowledge to process new information. Children who received training with baseball stories (T-BB) demonstrated greater strategy acquisition than both other groups when tested both 2-3 days later (near posttest), and also when tested 2-3 weeks later (distant posttest). Group membership (T-BB, T-NB, or Control) did not impact free or cued recall. Declarative metacognitive knowledge impacted strategy acquisition and recall. Higher-metacognitive children asked more "why" questions than did lower-metacognitive children, demonstrated greater free recall, and were more likely to benefit from the strategy training in terms of cued recall. An unexpected finding was that children in the T-BB group asked more "why" questions in response to nonbaseball rather than baseball stories. This was discussed in terms of an appropriate increase of monitoring by the children who were trained within their area of expertise. Overall, children recalled more of the baseball than the nonbaseball stories. While both training groups had significant correlations between strategy use and free recall at the distant posttest, indicating a recall benefit associated with strategy use, only T-BB children had significant correlations at the near posttest.
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Date Issued
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1992
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12304
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Subject Headings
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Psychology, Developmental, Psychology, Experimental
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Format
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Document (PDF)
