Abstract
The acquisition of knowledge through reading text is a common source of learning in an instructional setting. In a typical learning environment, a student must study texts containing information on related topics and situations, and then integrate that information into a coherent knowledge representation. As any educator knows, the knowledge actually acquired by a student in this situation is only a small subset of all information to be learned. This paper investigates the influence of the structure of presented textual information on the learning of related information. In essence, the following question is addressed: When sets of topically related material containing shared knowledge are to be learned, how are they best presented to the learner? The motivation for this research has been to discover techniques for organizing information that will optimize learning.
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Reference Note
Thorndyke, P. Facilitating and interfering transfer effects in memory for narrative discourse. Paper presented at the meeting of the Psychonomic Society, St. Louis, 1976.
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© 1978 Plenum Press, New York
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Thorndyke, P.W. (1978). Knowledge Transfer in Learning from Texts. In: Lesgold, A.M., Pellegrino, J.W., Fokkema, S.D., Glaser, R. (eds) Cognitive Psychology and Instruction. Nato Conference Series, vol 5. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2535-2_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2535-2_10
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