Every published introductory psychology textbook includes boldfaced terms throughout the chapters. These boldfaced terms are theoretically included to help students learn the material. Are they really beneficial for student learning? An experimental/control group designed study was conducted to answer this question. Volunteers were provided with a chapter excerpt. The experimental group received the excerpt with no boldfaced terms included (the bold type had been removed), whereas the control group received the excerpt as it normally appeared in the textbook, boldfaced terms included. Both groups were quizzed using a 10-item multiple-choice quiz.
Statistical analyses showed that those who studied the excerpt with boldfaced terms included scored significantly higher, F(1, 180) = 5.68; p = .02; partial รง2= .03, with an effect size of .32. This study and the resulting conclusions provide support for the inclusion of boldfaced terms in textbooks to aid student study and learning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-1444 |
| Date | 01 May 2009 |
| Creators | Drysdale, Michael J. |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@USU |
| Source Sets | Utah State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | All Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu). |
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