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EFFECTS OF STRUCTURAL AND PICTORIAL SUPPORT UPON AURAL LEARNING OF CONCEPTS, RULES AND PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS

This study compared the effectiveness of the structural and pictorial elements of a diagram with each other, with no diagram, and with their combined impact upon the immediate and delayed (one week) learning of intellectual skills (concepts, rules and problem-solving) from an audio presentation of learning materials. / The experimental design employed was the post hoc control group only. Seventy vocational students from Pensacola Junior College were randomly assigned to four treatment groups. All received aural instruction; in addition, one group received five pictorial diagrams, another received five structural diagrams and a third received all ten diagrams. / The aural instruction was a unit on using Maslow's Need Hierarchy to solve problems. It taught five concepts, three rules and problem-solving through selection and application of the appropriate rule. Two forms of a thirty-item criterion measure testing the mastery of these concepts rules and problem-solving skills were also developed. The instruction, including the diagrams, and the test were put through a formative evaluation stage before use in the experiment. / The treatments were administered through listening stations. The accompanying diagrams were in booklet form. Immediately after the instruction one form of the test was distributed. One week later subjects completed the second form of the test. / The tests were scored and the resulting data were analyzed using a 1x4 analysis of variance for each separate criterion measure (immediate concepts, delayed concepts, immediate rules, delayed rules, immediate problems, delayed problems). In addition the total immediate and delayed criterial measures were also tested. With (alpha) set at the .05 level, all of the differences among groups were significant on all tests (including total criterial measures) except the immediate problem-solving test. / For learning concepts both treatment groups receiving pictorial diagrams performed significantly better than the others on the immediate test but on the delayed tests all three visualized treatment groups did better than the group receiving aural instruction. / The treatment group receiving both diagrams obtained significantly higher scores than any of the others on both rules tests. / On the immediate problem-solving test no significant differences were found among the groups. This finding may be imputed to a problem with the test since it is inconsistent with the findings on the rules test and not parallel with the results on the delayed test on which the group receiving both diagrams performed significantly better than any of the others. / On the immediate total criterion measure the groups receiving both diagrams and the pictorial diagrams only scored significantly higher than any of the others. On the delayed total criterion measure only the group receiving both diagrams obtained significantly higher scores than any of the others. / On all but one of the criterion measures at least one of the visual treatments was superior to the audio treatment alone. Which treatment(s) were superior depended on the desired learning outcome. Based on these results, it may be concluded that choice of type of diagram for facilitating learning of an intellectual skill depends upon which intellectual skill is being taught. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-01, Section: A, page: 0071. / Thesis (Educat.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74031
ContributorsPERRY, NANCY NEIPERT., The Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText
Format154 p.
RightsOn campus use only.
RelationDissertation Abstracts International

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