Advance Organizers: A Review of the Research—Part I

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Williams ◽  
Earl C. Butterfield
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Expository Text ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Advance Organizers ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Information ◽  
Information Research ◽  
Meaningful Context ◽  
Methodological Problems

This article reviews previous research on advance organizers, introductory text adjuncts intended to provide the reader of expository text with a meaningful context within which to process unfamiliar, or difficult, new information. Research conducted during the past thirty years well documents the fact that advance organizers do, indeed, inspire significant increases in comprehension among readers whose prior knowledge “subsumers” are inadequate to provide a necessary assimilative context. One issue on which theorists yet disagree, however, is the efficacy of advance organizers in facilitating the acquisition of subordinate text detail, or facts. Definitional inconsistencies and methodological deficiencies in previous research have clouded this issue. Subsequently in this journal, Part II of this article will present the results of two empirical studies that resolve these methodological problems and specifically address the question of the effects of advance organizers on the acquisition of text detail.

Effects of Advance Organizers and Reader's Purpose on the Level of Ideas Acquired from Expository Text—Part II

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas R. Williams ◽  
Earl C. Butterfield
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Expository Text ◽  
Text Processing ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Advance Organizers ◽  
Advance Organizer ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Main Effect

Part I of this article, pp. 259–272, reviewed the relevant literature on advance organizers and suggested that methodological problems in previous advance organizer studies has not resolved the question of whether advance organizers facilitate the acquisition of subordinate information from text. This question is not an unimportant issue to technical communicators, whose readers often need to acquire factual information as well as more general concepts from the expository text they read. In two studies we investigated the influences of reader's background knowledge, advance organizers, relative importance of idea units, and idea units' position within a text structure on the recall of textual information. Subjects read introductory and text materials and subsequently were tested for their recognition of idea units that were structurally high and important, structurally high and unimportant, structurally low and important, or structurally low and unimportant. In the first study, forty-eight college students were randomly assigned to conditions consisting of relevant or irrelevant background, organizer or no organizer, and text or no text. There were significant main effects for having read a relevant text and for importance of idea units, and an interaction between structural level and importance. A significant organizer by text or no text interaction and absence of a significant main effect for the organizer indicated that the organizer influenced text processing rather than priming relevant prior knowledge, which is a previously undocumented requirement of advance organizer research. In the second study, conducted with eighty-eight college students, we substituted a purpose, no purpose condition for the text, no text condition of the first study. We observed a significant main effect for importance and a significant four-way interaction involving structure, importance, background, and organizer. The more relevant knowledge a reader had, the less dependent he or she was on text structure, and an advance organizer compensated for the absence of relevant prior knowledge.

scholarly journals Integration of New Information in Memory: New Insights from a Complementary Learning Systems Perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. McClelland ◽  
Bruce L. McNaughton ◽  
Andrew K. Lampinen
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Learning Systems ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Linear Networks ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Brain ◽  
New Item

According to complementary learning systems theory, integrating new memories into the neocortex of the brain without interfering with what is already known depends on a gradual learning process, interleaving new items with previously learned items. However, empirical studies show that information consistent with prior knowledge can be integrated very quickly. We use artificial neural networks with properties like those we attribute to the neocortex to develop a theoretical understanding of the role of consistency with prior knowledge in putatively neocortex-like learning systems, providing new insights into when integration will be fast or slow and how integration might be made more efficient when the items to be learned are hierarchically structured. The work relies on deep linear networks that capture the qualitative aspects of the learning dynamics of the more complex non-linear networks used in previous work. The time course of learning in these networks can be linked to the hierarchical structure in the training data, captured mathematically as a set of dimensions that correspond to the branches in the hierarchy. In this context, a new item to be learned can be characterized as having aspects that project onto previously known dimensions, and others that require adding a new branch/dimension. The projection onto the known dimensions can be learned rapidly without interleaving, but learning the new dimension requires gradual interleaved learning. When a new item only overlaps with items within one branch of a hierarchy, interleaving can focus on the previously-known items within this branch, resulting in faster integration with less inter-leaving overall. The discussion considers how the brain might exploit these facts to make learning more efficient and highlights predictions about what aspects of new information might be hard or easy to learn.

scholarly journals Integration of new information in memory: new insights from a complementary learning systems perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1799) ◽  
pp. 20190637 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. McClelland ◽  
Bruce L. McNaughton ◽  
Andrew K. Lampinen
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Learning Systems ◽  
Training Data ◽  
Nonlinear Networks ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Hierarchical Structure ◽  
The Brain ◽  
New Item

According to complementary learning systems theory, integrating new memories into the neocortex of the brain without interfering with what is already known depends on a gradual learning process, interleaving new items with previously learned items. However, empirical studies show that information consistent with prior knowledge can sometimes be integrated very quickly. We use artificial neural networks with properties like those we attribute to the neocortex to develop an understanding of the role of consistency with prior knowledge in putatively neocortex-like learning systems, providing new insights into when integration will be fast or slow and how integration might be made more efficient when the items to be learned are hierarchically structured. The work relies on deep linear networks that capture the qualitative aspects of the learning dynamics of the more complex nonlinear networks used in previous work. The time course of learning in these networks can be linked to the hierarchical structure in the training data, captured mathematically as a set of dimensions that correspond to the branches in the hierarchy. In this context, a new item to be learned can be characterized as having aspects that project onto previously known dimensions, and others that require adding a new branch/dimension. The projection onto the known dimensions can be learned rapidly without interleaving, but learning the new dimension requires gradual interleaved learning. When a new item only overlaps with items within one branch of a hierarchy, interleaving can focus on the previously known items within this branch, resulting in faster integration with less interleaving overall. The discussion considers how the brain might exploit these facts to make learning more efficient and highlights predictions about what aspects of new information might be hard or easy to learn. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Memory reactivation: replaying events past, present and future’.

scholarly journals Mapping the Landscape and Structure of Research on Education for Sustainable Development: A Bibliometric Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Hallinger ◽  
Vien-Thong Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
English Language ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Education For Sustainable Development ◽  
Intellectual Structure ◽  
Geographic Diversification ◽  
The Past ◽  
K 12

This systematic review of research used science mapping as a means of analyzing the knowledge base on education for sustainable development (ESD) in K-12 schooling. The review documented the size, growth trajectory and geographic distribution of this literature, identified high impact scholars and documents, and visualized the “intellectual structure” of the field. The database examined in this review consisted of 1842 English language, Scopus-indexed documents published between 1990 and 2018. The review found that the knowledge base on ESD has grown dramatically over the past 30 years, with a rapidly accelerating rate of publication in the past decade. Although the field has been dominated by scholarship from Anglo-American_European nations, there is evidence of increasing geographic diversification of the ESD knowledge base over the past 15 years. Citation analyses identified authors who have had a significant influence on the development of this literature. Author co-citation analysis revealed three “schools of thought” that comprise the “intellectual structure” of this knowledge base: Education for Sustainable Development, Developing a Sustainability Mindset, Teaching and Learning for Sustainability. Document content analyses led to the conclusion that the current knowledge base is heavily weighted towards critical, descriptive and prescriptive papers, with an insufficient body of analytical empirical studies. Several recommendations are offered for strengthening this literature.

The Situation of Situation Research: Knowns and Unknowns

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 473-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Rauthmann ◽  
Ryne A. Sherman
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Future Situation ◽  
Person Variables

Over the past 15 years, research on the assessment of psychological situations has flourished. As a result, many basic questions about psychological situations have been answered. We discuss the theoretical and empirical studies that answered these questions, including what situations are; how they can be characterized, taxonomized, and measured; how they relate to person variables; and how persons navigate situations. We first summarize the “knowns” of psychological situation research and then proceed to chart the “unknowns” that have yet to be examined. We conclude with an agenda for future situation research.

Selected studies of the Menopause

1973 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja M. McKinlay ◽  
John B. McKinlay
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trial ◽  
Clinical Observation ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
The Past ◽  
General Report ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
The Subject

SummaryLiterature on the subject of the menopause, primarily from the past three decades, is selectively reviewed in the form of an annotated bibliography. In order to highlight particular methodological problems, the review is presented in three sections, each preceded by a brief discussion, as follows: (a) the general report of clinical observation or experience, (b) the survey, and (c) the clinical trial. Several recommendations are also made for further research in this field.

The Great Depression and the Great Recession in Interwar Greece and Today: A comparison

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Lazaretou
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Past ◽  
Greek Crisis ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Terra Incognita ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Nominal Anchor

AbstractThe past Greek crisis experience is more or less terra incognita. In all historical empirical studies Greece is systematically neglected or included only sporadically in their cross-country samples. In the national literature too there is little on this topic. In this paper we use the 1930s crisis as a useful testing ground to compare the two crises episodes, ‘then’ and ‘now’; to detect differences and similarities and discuss the policy facts with the ultimate aim to draw some ‘policy lessons’ from history. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to study the Greek crisis experience across the two historical episodes. Comparisons with the interwar period show that the recent economic downturn was faster, larger and more severe than during the early 1930s. More importantly, analysing the determinants of the two crises, we conclude that Greece’s problems arose from its inability to credibly adhere to a nominal anchor.

scholarly journals Beyond Mindfulness

Open Theology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas G. Plante
Keyword(s):  
Research Evidence ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Spiritual Values ◽  
Quality Research ◽  
The Past ◽  
Enormous Amount ◽  
Consulting Psychology ◽  
Areas Of Interest

AbstractSince the publication of Bergin’s classic 1980 paper “Psychotherapy and Religious Values” in the Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology, an enormous amount of quality research has been conducted on the integration of religious and spiritual values and perspectives into the psychotherapy endeavor. Numerous empirical studies, chapters, books, blogs, and specialty organizations have emerged in the past 35 years that have helped researchers and clinicians alike come to appreciate the value of religion and spirituality in the psychotherapeutic process. While so much has been accomplished in this area of integration, so much more needs to occur in order for the psychotherapeutic world to benefit from the wisdom of the great religious and spiritual traditions and values. While state-of-the-art quality research has and continues to demonstrate how religious and spiritual practices and values can be used effectively to enhance the benefits of behavioral and psychological interventions, too often the field either gets overly focused on particular and perhaps trendy areas of interest (e.g., mindfulness) or fails to appreciate and incorporate the research evidence supporting (or not supporting) the use of certain religiously or spiritually informed assessments and interventions. The purpose of this article is to reflect on where the field integrating religion, spirituality and psychotherapy has evolved through the present and where it still needs to go in the future. In doing so I hope to reflect on the call for integration that Bergin highlights in his classic 1980 paper.

Houses of cards

2001 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 56-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Bergmann
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Domestic Space ◽  
Behavioral Patterns ◽  
Ad Hominem ◽  
The Past ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
New Information ◽  
Exciting Time

We have reached an important moment in the study of the Roman house. The past 20 years have been extremely active, with scholars approaching domestic space down different disciplinary and methodological avenues. Since the important essay on Campanian houses by A. Wallace-Hadrill in 1988, new excavations and scores of books and articles have changed the picture of Pompeii and, with it, that of the Roman house. Theoretical archaeologists have taken the lead, approaching Pompeii as an "archaeological laboratory" in which, armed with the interpretative tools of spatial and statistical analysis, they attempt to recover ancient behavioral patterns. The interdisciplinary picture that emerges is complex and inevitably contradictory. There is so much new information and such a tangle of perspectives that it is time to consider what we have learned and what kinds of interpretative tools we might best employ. Without doubt this is an exciting time in Roman studies. But two overviews of recent scholarship to appear this year, the present one by R. Tybout and another by P. Allison (AJA 105.2 [2001]), express considerable frustration and resort to ad hominem recriminations that signal a heated backlash, at least among some.

ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CENTERS OF HISTORICAL CITIES (ON THE EXAMPLE OF KOLOMNA, SERGIEV POSAD, DMITROV, ZVENIGOROD)

2021 ◽  
pp. 14-38
Author(s):  
E.L. Belyaeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
The State ◽  
Current Level ◽  
National Project ◽  
The Past ◽  
Target Program ◽  
Environmental Requirements ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
Historic Cities

The issues of assessing the current level of beautification of the centers of historical cities and its quality are relevant in connection with the practical and methodological problems of carrying out such work within the framework of the implementation of the national project "comfortable environment" as well as the target program for the beautification of historic cities. It is during the improvement of historical cities or historical zones of cities in practice that the most complex methodological problems arise, associated with the need to ensure the preservation of valuable historical landscapes, architectural monuments, historical gardens and parks. To make decisions on the improvement and greening of cities, including within the framework of national, regional and municipal projects and programs, it is important to analyze the state and experience of the improvement and greening of a number of cities. As objects of research, four historical cities near Moscow were selected, or rather, the territories of their public centers, and at the same time, the positive and negative aspects of projects implemented over the past 5-10 years were considered in terms of compliance with urban planning regulations for historical zones, environmental requirements and the comfort of the urban environment - Kolomna, Sergiev Posad, Dmitrov, Zvenigorod.

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