To recall educational content from a lecture or textbook is an efficient way to learn (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011), which is referred to as retrieval practice (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). It is currently seldom used among students (Karpicke, Butler, & Roediger, 2009), even though it provides benefits such as reducing test anxiety (Agarwal, D’Antonio, Roediger III, McDermott, & McDaniel, 2014), longer lasting memories (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011), and also benefit future learning (Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014). But, in order for retrieval practice to work efficiently, the students must not fail to recall too much of the educational content (Kornell, Bjork, & Garcia, 2011). So in order to help students use retrieval practice, I suggest they are provided with an outlining of the educational content, as this probably helps them remember and recall more of it. In this thesis, I conclude with an experimental approach that it is possible to help students remember such knowledge outlines, and how it can be done. Furthermore, since knowledge such as knowledge about the human anatomy, can be catalytic in the sense that it can enhance future learning (Hattie, 2009; Van Overschelde & Healy, 2001), I also suggest that catalytic knowledge should be identified and made memorable by educators using similar techniques as in this study.

The present study was designed to examine differences between subtypes of readers and spellers in their performance on several phonological, orthographic, and memory tasks. A central question involved whether subtypes of readers and spellers could be distinguished based on their performance across the tasks administered. Based on their performance on a standardized achievement test, fourth and fifth grade children (N=50) were classified as having no difficulties with reading and spelling (good readers and spellers), difficulties with spelling, but not reading (mixed readers and spellers), or difficulties with both reading and spelling (poor readers and spellers). Each student was given a series of tasks to assess their use of phonological and orthographic information for memory and spelling. These tasks included: 1) rhyme judgment, 2) cued recall, 3) reading pronounceable pseudowords, 4) deciding which of. two pseudowords looks most like a real word, and 5) reporting on the kinds of strategies used to spell words. An error analysis was also conducted. Students with reading and spelling difficulties performed consistently lower than good and mixed readers and spellers on tasks assessing their use of phonological information. Good and mixed readers and spellers were not distinguishable on these tasks. Students with no reading and spelling difficulties or with spelling difficulties only performed better than poor readers and spellers on some tasks assessing orthographic processing. Specifically, mixed readers and spellers were distinguishable from good readers and spellers by their poorer recall of visually similar words. Good and poor subtypes were not distinguishable on this task. Poor readers and spellers also achieved comparable scores to the good and mixed readers and spellers on a measure of orthographic awareness. Overall results provided evidence supporting subtypes of reading and spelling ability groups. Students with no reading and spelling difficulties, or difficulties with spelling but not reading were similar in their use of phonological information. However, students with reading and spelling difficulties were more similar to the good readers and spellers in their use of orthographic information in memory. The findings from the present study have implications to subsequent research examining spelling ability, provide further evidence of the unique processing characteristics of the paradoxical good reader but poor speller, and suggest the possibility of unique programming needs to remediate spelling difficulties in mixed and poor readers and spellers.

Cognitive aging research has demonstrated reliable declines in memory ability with age, and, in response, several memory enhancement programs have been developed to address these concerns. Most research indicates that these programs are beneficial. However, research into the predictors of memory enhancement outcomes is limited. In brief, age, cognitive status, and memory ability have been shown to be influential. Only a few studies have investigated other potentially important psychosocial influences such as personality, metacognition, and coping styles. The goal of this study was to identify potentially important demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial influences on memory enhancement intervention outcomes. Thirty-nine older adults completed a multifaceted memory enhancement program that included psycho-education, memory compensatory strategy instruction, and discussion aimed at addressing metacognitive concerns and ageist stereotypes. Eighteen participants served as delayed-treatment controls. Predictor variables included demographic, cognitive (3MS, HVLT, Buschke Cued Recall Protocol), personality characteristics (NEO-PI-R), coping styles (Brief Cope), and metacognitive measures (MCI, MIA). Dependent measures including subjective (MMQ) and objective (Face/Name Recall, Grocery List Recall, Story Detail Recognition, Strategy Application) memory measures were obtained pre- and post-intervention. The current memory enhancement program was effective in improving both subjective and objective memory functioning immediately following program completion. Results revealed individual variation in outcomes ranging from 30 to 60 percent of participants showing improvement depending on the measure assessed. Improvements in subjective memory functioning were maintained at three-month follow-up. Investigation of predictors of individual differences in outcome indicated that memory performance scores were the most consistent predictor of objective memory functioning improvement, although metacognitive factors were also influential. Immediate improvement in subjective memory functioning was associated with both metacognitive ratings and memory performance scores whereas only metacognitive ratings were associated with lasting subjective improvement. In general, metacognitive constructs of memory efficacy, controllability, and locus of control appeared to be associated with positive intervention outcomes. An unexpected finding of higher levels of memory-related anxiety being associated with positive outcomes was noted. Personality characteristics (e.g., openness, neuroticism) were predictive of immediate increases in memory strategies usage. Implications for cognitive rehabilitation and social cognitive theory and clinical application are discussed.

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 69). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

The present study was designed to examine differences between subtypes of readers and spellers in their performance on several phonological, orthographic, and memory tasks. A central question involved whether subtypes of readers and spellers could be distinguished based on their performance across the tasks administered. Based on their performance on a standardized achievement test, fourth and fifth grade children (N=50) were classified as having no difficulties with reading and spelling (good readers and spellers), difficulties with spelling, but not reading (mixed readers and spellers), or difficulties with both reading and spelling (poor readers and spellers). Each student was given a series of tasks to assess their use of phonological and orthographic information for memory and spelling. These tasks included: 1) rhyme judgment, 2) cued recall, 3) reading pronounceable pseudowords, 4) deciding which of. two pseudowords looks most like a real word, and 5) reporting on the kinds of strategies used to spell words. An error analysis was also conducted. Students with reading and spelling difficulties performed consistently lower than good and mixed readers and spellers on tasks assessing their use of phonological information. Good and mixed readers and spellers were not distinguishable on these tasks. Students with no reading and spelling difficulties or with spelling difficulties only performed better than poor readers and spellers on some tasks assessing orthographic processing. Specifically, mixed readers and spellers were distinguishable from good readers and spellers by their poorer recall of visually similar words. Good and poor subtypes were not distinguishable on this task. Poor readers and spellers also achieved comparable scores to the good and mixed readers and spellers on a measure of orthographic awareness. Overall results provided evidence supporting subtypes of reading and spelling ability groups. Students with no reading and spelling difficulties, or difficulties with spelling but not reading were similar in their use of phonological information. However, students with reading and spelling difficulties were more similar to the good readers and spellers in their use of orthographic information in memory. The findings from the present study have implications to subsequent research examining spelling ability, provide further evidence of the unique processing characteristics of the paradoxical good reader but poor speller, and suggest the possibility of unique programming needs to remediate spelling difficulties in mixed and poor readers and spellers. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

The gramophone's function in literature has generally been examined in relation to media studies and Walter Benjamin's discussion of the reproduction of art through mechanical means, emphasizing the gramophone’s playback of recorded materials. This particular methodology, however, only deals with half of the machine's potential. My project mediates the links between media studies and “thing theory.” By making a distinction between the gramophone as an instrument (through which we access or hear a recording) and the gramophone as a "thing" (an object which draws attention to itself by not behaving as expected, thereby forcing us to confront the object's irreducibility), I trace connections between the physical “thing” as well as its embedded or recorded cultural archives of history, trauma, and identity for Modernist authors and their contemporary audiences. As both a voiced and mute object, the gramophone amplifies embedded accounts of a culture frequently traumatized through violence and disruption; it also bears physical testimony to the scars left behind by those traumatic encounters. My project takes Irish Modernism as its primary focus, and it identifies ways in which the traumas represented by phonograph and gramophone are tied to cultural traumas specific to Ireland. Again to briefly quantify, in my work I discuss (to varying degrees) over 20 Irish texts that evoke the gramophone as an object of some significance and in relation to some aspect of cultural trauma. For instance, in Dracula, the oral traditional of Ireland is under attack by the undead oralities of the phonograph: a machine that presumably preserves living oral culture, is essentially killing what it attempts to preserve. In George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, the gramophone is feminized in the context of gendered colonial politics. In Elizabeth Bowen’s The Last September and Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock the machine is imbued with the physical and psychological violence of Ireland at war. And in works like Flann O’Brien’s At Swim-Two-Birds and Brian Friel’s The Gentle Island the gramophone is a manifestation of post-war tensions—both psychological and political—that can erupt in violence when left unresolved.

No description available.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves final 1-8).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves final 1-8).

Studien bottnar i en insikt om att universitetsstudier samt inlärning av kurslitteratur kan vara svårt för studenter. Syftet är att undersöka vilka faktorer som är viktiga vid design av en mobilapplikation som är till för att underlätta för studenter vid inläsning av kurslitteratur. I denna studie har fakta från tidigare forskning kombinerats för att skapa en prototyp. Prototypen har sedan testats av potentiella användare. Testet kompletterades med frågeformulär, skattningsskalor samt intervjufrågor. Avgränsningar i den här studien har inneburit att i prototypen endast testa en liten del av vad som sägs hjälpa kring minnestekniker och priming för att lättare ta till sig en text. Färdiggjorda primingövningar eller stödbilder skapades utan användarna för att se om primingen av ord kunde hjälpa vid inläsning av kurslitteratur. Tidigare forskning belyser studenters svårigheter inför mängden kurslitteratur som behöver läsas in. Inspiration har hämtats från olika typer av minnestekniker, så kallade mnemonics, med en förhoppning om att dessa ska underlätta vid inläsning av ny litteratur och på så vis öka eller bibehålla motivationen. Andra aspekter som tas upp är bilder och memorering, priming för att ta till sig en text lättare, mobilapplikationer med miniövningar för dagens pressade scheman samt motivation. I teorin har vi tittat på motivation, främst inre motivation med stöd från Kellers ARCS modell som bygger på uppmärksamhet, relevans, självförtroende och tillfredsställelse. Resterande teoridel tar upp inlärning, feedback och studiestrategier. Detta är en kvalitativ studie där fakta har samlats in från litteratur för att skapa en prototyp med primingövningar. Prototypen och övningarna hade som syfte att förbereda en student inför läsning av en text. Resterande empiriska data har samlats in från fem potentiella användare. Resultatet visar hur de potentiella användarna upplevde användningen av prototypen samt belyser deras allmänna åsikter om sina egna studier. Användarnas upplevelse av prototypen visar inte en helt klar fördel för en sådan här typ av hjälpmedel. En del användare fann inte nyttan av applikationsprototypen fullt ut, vissa graderade nyttan med värdet 4 av 7 eller högre i skattningsformuläret och en person visade en tendens till att prototypen gjorde nytta även för motivation till fortsatta studier. Utöver detta visade intervjuer på att en motivation till att studera var att öka möjligheten till jobb i framtiden. Det visade sig även att kurslitteratur inte alltid användes utan studenterna tog in information på annat sätt. Tre av deltagarna angav att förberedelser inför en examination ofta skedde dagarna innan deadline, dock är det oklart hur deltagarna tolkade meningen av “förbereda sig inför”. En reflektion till denna studie är att förbättra tydlighet angående mobilövningarna och koppling till texten som hörde till övningarna. Om detta var mycket oklart för användarna kan detta ha påverkat resultatet. / The study is based on the fact that university studies and reading course literature can be difficult for students. The purpose is to investigate what factors are important in designing a mobile application that is designed to facilitate students when reading course literature. In this study, the facts of previous research have been combined to create a prototype. The prototype was tested by potential users. The test was supplemented with questionnaires, estimates and interviews. Delimitations in this study was that in the prototype only parts of memory techniques and priming is being tested. The exercises used in the test were put together without any involvement from the users to see if priming of words can help students with learning. Previous research addresses the problem of absorbing knowledge from a large amount of course literature. Inspiration has been taken from different types of memory techniques, so-called mnemonics, with the hope that these will facilitate the reading of new literature, thus increasing or maintaining motivation. Other aspects that are addressed include images and memorizing, priming for understanding a text easier, mini-exercises in smartphones tailored for today's pressed schedules as well as motivation. In theory, we have looked at motivation, primarily intrinsic motivation, supported by Keller's ARCS Model based on attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction. The additional theory part takes up learning, feedback and study strategies. This is a qualitative study where facts have been gathered from literature to create a prototype with priming exercises. The prototype and exercises were intended to prepare a student for reading a text. The empirical data was collected from five potential users. The result shows how the potential users perceived the use of the prototype as well as briefly about their general opinions about their own studies. The user's experience of the prototype does not clearly show the benefit of such a type of device. Some users did not fully find the utility of the app, some found it moderately helpful, and one person showed more clearly the prototype also contributed to motivation for further studies. In addition to this, the interviews showed that motivation to study was to increase the possibility of getting a job in the future. It also turned out that course literature was not always used but the students found the necessary information in another way. Most participants indicated that preparation for an examination often occurred the days before the deadline, however, it is unclear how the participants interpreted the meaning of "prepare yourself". A reflection of the study is to improve clarity regarding the mobile exercises and connection to the text that belonged to the exercises. If this was very unclear to users, it may affect the result.