Prior knowledge has a marked effect on learning outcomes. Researchers typically rely on a number of methodologies to control for that factor in learning research, including the use of fictional stimuli and domain-novice subjects. The experiments reported here demonstrate that such methodological controls may be insufficient. In Experiment 1, students read texts about fictional places and events. In Experiment 2, novice students in a cognition course were asked to read several advanced texts. In both experiments, prior knowledge accounted for a large portion of the subjects' posttest performance. The data demonstrate that methodological approaches intended to control for prior knowledge may be insufficient to prevent that variable from influencing learning outcomes. Thus researchers are urged to include measures of prior knowledge in their analyses.

The Keyword Method (KWM) of vocabulary learning is a mnemonic method designed to help students learn foreign vocabulary. It has been shown to be effective over several other memorization strategies. The present experiment was designed to explore the cognition underlying the effectiveness of the KWM. Specifically, both the degree of cognitive engagement with the method and visual encoding were examined as possible sources. Subjects were tested in a 2 (imagery level)×2 (processing strategy) mixed design. Each subject was asked to memorize 30 Latin vocabulary words, divided evenly among high- and low-imagery value words. Subjects were either provided with both keywords and interactions (the Given condition) or instructions to generate their own keywords and interactions (the Self-Generated condition). Retention was tested in both immediate and delayed post-tests. Results revealed a strong effect of imagery level in both post-tests. No significant main effect of processing strategy or interactions between imagery and processing were observed in either post-test. Results indicate that the KWM is effective because it provides a meaningful visual image upon which to base memory for a new word’s meaning. They suggest that there is some flexibility in how the KWM is used.

Advance organizers have been used successfully to augment the learning outcome for students engaged in traditional text-based learning [l] and those engaged in hypermedia-assisted learning [2]. Prior research has shown that this effect may occur because the organizer provides cues to prior knowledge which is then used as an elaborative tool for the new information [3]. Novices are uniquely challenged, however, in that they have little or no prior knowledge to aid in the learning process. The present study used interactive overviews (IOs), a type of advance organizer, to explore the effect of the interaction between organizer structure and prior knowledge on novices' ability to meet particular learning goals. Subjects were recruited who displayed some knowledge of animal family resemblances but very little about interspecies relationships within ecosystems on pretests. They were then asked to learn about a world of fictitious animals with the aid of a hypermedia program which provided an I 0 arranged either by animal families or ecosystems. They were also assigned the goal of learning about either animal families or ecosystems. Outcome measures focused on subjects' ability to meet their learning goals. Results indicated that the ecosystem I 0 aided learners in meeting an ecosystems learning goal, about which they had no prior knowledge. The effect was strong enough to produce incidental learning effects, as those assigned to learn about animal families also learned about ecosystems when exposed to the ecosystem 10. In the presence of prior animal family knowledge, however, the animal families I 0 had no facilitative effect. It is argued, though, that this may have been an epiphenomenon of the pretesting procedure which activated subjects' existing animal family knowledge. Results are discussed with reference to Kintsch's construction integration model as well as classroom application [4].

In three experiments, the causes offorgetting of verbatim information in discourse were investigated. In Experiment 1, we tested the view that the surface form of a sentence decays when linguistic elements are integrated into larger discourse structures. Contrary to such a view, the results showed that when text could be integrated, both content and verbatim memory improved. In Experiment 2, we examined the possibility that task instructions could influence the level of memory for exact wording and content. The results showed that although task did influence the amount of verbatim memory, it did not affect memory for content. Experiment 3 was an investigation of the degree to which subjects would spontaneously encode surface information on the basis of the social interactiveness of the sentences. Past research has shown that verbatim memory for insults, jokes, and other personal utterances is quite good. In this experiment, identical sentences were tested in texts that had high versus low interactiveness. Verbatim memory was much higher for the same sentences in the highly interactive context. A pragmatic account of verbatim memory is given to explain how content and instructions influence the encoding of surface form.Since the seminal work of Sachs (1967), it has become a commonplace that memory for the surface form of text (verbatim memory) is rather poor. Sachs showed that readers could recognize the exact wording of a sentence only with immediate testing; after 80 syllables of intervening text, their verbatim memory had faded, even though their memory of the meaning of the sentence was virtually intact. This demonstration has been repeated numerous times with variations

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