Educators stress the importance of listening and attempt to train students to listen more efficiently. Researchers have investigated variables which influence listening and the effectiveness of listening training. The results of their research do not demonstrate clearly that listening efficiency can be improved by instruction, or that listening is separable from other cognitive skills. Other research suggests that listening to a lecture may consist of listening for details and listening to make inferences, two behaviors which are similar to the lower levels of cognitive processing suggested by an established educational taxonomy. / A review of the field of listening research suggests that listening is an ill-defined construct, with marginal validity. This study sought to find evidence of a distinguishable lecture-listening ability and to ask whether this ability contains component skills similar to the taxonomic levels of knowledge and comprehension. / Sixty-one college students listened to three lectures which differed somewhat in content, length, and number of points covered but were similar in other respects. The tests asked both knowledge and comprehension level questions. / It was predicted that test scores would correlate positively at a higher level ((GREATERTHEQ) .6) than cognitive measures generally correlate with each other, suggesting an underlying lecture-listening skill. It was also predicted that test items would cluster in a factor analysis by taxonomic level. / The obtained correlations among the tests were only (.2 to .3) and thus failed to provide evidence of listening as cognitive skill. However, the low test reliability and the violation of two assumptions of parametric statistics dictate that interpretation of these results must be tentative. The factor analysis results (first test only) were not clearly interpretable because of the small sample size. However, these results do suggest that lecture-listening behavior may be influenced more by the specific topics within a lecture rather than the type of cognitive processing required. / Recommendations for further study included replication using the video-tapes made during this study, the development of tests with greater reliability, and further investigation of the influence of the factors of length, message density and topic--heretofore unidentified as factors influencing listening behavior. / This study does not provide a clear answer to whether a lecture-listening ability exists nor whether components of lecture-listening behavior are similar to cognitive taxonomic levels. The results do cast doubt on the existence of such a listening ability. These results also suggest that listening behavior may be related to topics rather than taxonomic level. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-07, Section: A, page: 2827. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74209 |
| Contributors | HOLLEY, FRANCES SAYERS., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 128 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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