Award Date

1-1-2004

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Psychology

First Committee Member

Gregory Schraw

Number of Pages

101

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the specificity of relevance instructions affects reading time and learning. Sixty-three undergraduates read a passage that described the attributes of two fictitious countries. Before reading, participants read pre-reading questions (specific), were given the goal of deciding whether one of the countries would be a good place to live (general), or to read for understanding (control). The specificity of relevance instructions did not affect reading time or recall. Those receiving relevance instructions tended to recall more than those in the control group, although the differences were not statistically significant. Results are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.

Keywords

Effects; Instructions; Learning; Reading Time; Relevance; Relevance Instructions; Specificity; Text Processing; Time

Controlled Subject

Educational psychology; Individualized reading instruction; Education, Higher

File Format

pdf

File Size

2252.8 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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