Constraints on effective elaboration

Two experiments are presented which explore constraints on effective elaboration. Experiment 1 demonstrates that semantic processing of congruous sentences will not always be superior to nonsemantic processing. The results question the adequacy of assumptions about the inherent superiority of semant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 1978-01, Vol.17 (6), p.707-714
Main Authors: Stein, Barry S., Morris, C. Donald, Bransford, John D.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Two experiments are presented which explore constraints on effective elaboration. Experiment 1 demonstrates that semantic processing of congruous sentences will not always be superior to nonsemantic processing. The results question the adequacy of assumptions about the inherent superiority of semantic processing over nonsemantic processing and indicate the need to clarify the conditions under which semantic processing may facilitate comprehension and retention. Experiment 2 demonstrates that effective semantic elaboration cannot be equated with the mere quantity of semantically congruous information. Elaborative information increased performance only when it helped specify the relevance of target information relative to the rest of the sentence. Other types of semantically congruous elaborations actually debilitated retention. The importance of these results for theories of learning and retention is discussed.
ISSN:0022-5371
0749-596X
DOI:10.1016/S0022-5371(78)90423-1