This dissertation addressed the schema concept as it is used in cognitive psychology. Fifteen experimental studies which focused on the effects of schema activation with adult learners were summarized and analyzed. These studies showed that schema activation conducted prior to learning, whether accomplished through context cues, thematic titles, or more active methods such as knowledge mobilization, appears to enhance both learning and recall. / This dissertation study was designed to investigate the effects of two methods of schema activation, knowledge mobilization and thematic statements, on memory for two different types of stimulus materials. Two consecutive experiments were conducted; one employed stimulus materials consisting of ambiguous sentences, while the second utilized connected prose. Both immediate and delayed recognition testing were used to assess short-term and long-term memory for both the content and technical accuracy of the stimulus materials. / While it was anticipated that, in both experiments, the combination of knowledge mobilization and a thematic statement would produce the highest level of performance, the results did not support this expectation. The results of the first experiment, in which an ambiguous passage was used, revealed no significant differences on immediate or delayed recognition test scores among the four groups. / The results of the second experiment, which used connected prose as the stimulus material, revealed that subjects in the groups with both mobilization and theme, theme statement alone, and controls all performed significantly better on the overall test than subjects using mobilization only. Subjects using the thematic statement alone and the controls performed significantly better than subjects using mobilization only on the delayed content items, which demanded long-term memory for meaning. The results of the two experiments provided only weak support for the favorable effects of these schema activation methods upon a recognition task. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 0913. / Major Professor: Harold J. Fletcher. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77140 |
| Contributors | O'Kon, Jeanne Louise., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 176 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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