In educational settings students are often expected to learn the definitions of pairs of concepts (e.g., fluid and crystallized intelligence). For many students these concepts are difficult to learn because they have similar definitions that are easy to confuse. The challenge of learning these similar yet often confused concepts is complicated by the fact that tests are often inundated with questions that assess differences between the concepts. The purpose of this theoretically motivated research is to examine the efficacy of a new strategy for learning similar, yet often confused concepts, namely differential-associative processing (i.e., D-A). Each set of proposed studies includes ecologically valid stimuli adapted from textbooks and students who vary in ethnicity and SES. The first three sets of studies assess the effectiveness of D-A, determine whether D-A transfers to neutral conditions, and test the duration of knowledge. The final set of studies examines whether D-A compensates for smaller working memories, naive beliefs about learning, and low meta-cognitive awareness. The value of D-A is two-fold: practical application of existing cognitive theories and practical value for students and teachers. There are a number of cognitive theories about learning (e.g., Encoding Specificity, the distinctiveness hypothesis). Although many of these theories are well established, researchers have tended to study these theories using stimuli with limited ecological validity;for example, word pairs like """"""""beer-wine."""""""" The present project seeks to apply these theories to educationally relevant (and ecologically valid) stimuli, namely definitions of similar pairs of concepts. From the student-teacher perspective, learning similar concepts is a pervasive problem in educational settings, and it is quite possible that D-A may lead to richer and more robust memory traces that should not only reduce future relearning of important concepts but should also provide a mental framework for integrating future knowledge. Moreover, D-A may encourage students to use important integration processes that are used for extending working memory and reading comprehension. Finally, D-A may help students from poorer educational backgrounds by providing them with a valuable strategy for learning. Future proposals will seek to apply D-A in tutorials sessions (i.e., teacher-learner sessions) offerred at a university level, and will seek to apply D-A to younger populations, including pre-readers.
| Hannon, Brenda (2013) The Influences of Pre-testing Reviews and Delays on Differentialassociative Processing versus A Condition in which Students chose their Learning Strategy. J Educ Train Stud 1:286-297 |
| Hannon, Brenda (2012) Differential-associative processing or example elaboration: Which strategy is best for learning the definitions of related and unrelated concepts? Int J Educ Res 22:299-310 |
