Learning from Written Instructive Materials: An Exploration of the Control of Inspection Behavior by Test-Like Events

Abstract

The main purpose of the present experiment was to find out: (a) whether adjunct, test-like questions have generally facilitating effects on learning from written instructional materials and (b) whether it matters where the experimental questions are asked in the course of reading. Rothkopf (1963, 1965) has hypothesized that test-like events, such as questions, have a generally facilitating effect in learning from written material. These effects have been identified with a class of activities called inspection behavior.2 Hershberger and associates (Hershberger, 1963; Hershberger and Terry, 1965a, 1965b) has provided recent evidence that adjunct questions increase the amount learned from a written passage. However the experimental procedures used in these and in other related studies (see McKeachie, 1963, pp. 1154-1156), allow the possibility that the observed facilitated performance was due to specific instructive effects of the experimental questions rather than a generally facilitating learning set. Test-like events with knowledge of results, e.g., the anticipation method in paired-associate learning, are well known to have direct instructive effects, and to produce improvement in recall performance on the material tested. Even without knowledge of results, test-like events have been observed to improve subsequent recall performance (Estes, 1960; Estes, Hopkins, and Crothers, 1960; Levine, Leitenberg, and Richter, 1964). As a consequence, it cannot be decided whether Hershberger's results were due to generally facilitating effects of test question because in his and in other related studies (see McKeachie, 1963, pp. 1154-1156), the subject matter on which Ss tested while reading was identical or closely related to the material on which the final criterion examination was based.