Media and symbol systems as related to cognition and learning.

Salomon, Gavriel

doi:10.1037/0022-0663.71.2.131

Cited by 69 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…One way to view the entire pattern of results is that pictures enable the extraction and retention of information that readers, under ordinary circumstances, do not encode well enough to recall, even though they may have the requisite abilities to do so (see Salomon, 1974Salomon, , 1979. More skilled readers may not have concentrated on all of the information in a passage any more efficiently than less skilled readers did under the current task demands, but the more skilled group was capable of activating the appropriate encoding processes if it seemed important to do so.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pictorial enhancement of text memory: Limitations imposed by picture type and comprehension skill

Waddill

McDaniel

1992

Memory & Cognition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We examined the kinds of information in a prose passage that is better remembered when depictive illustrations are embedded in the passage than when the passage contains no illustrations. Experiment 1 showed that (1) pictures depicting details effectively increased recall of those details and (2) pictures depicting relationships effectively increased recall of that relational information (relative to a no-picture control condition). In Experiment 2, comprehension skill was found to modulate the general effects obtained in Experiment 1. Detail pictures enhanced the recall of targeted details for all skill levels. Relational pictures enhanced recall of pictured relational information for highly skilled and moderately skilled comprehenders, but not for less skilled comprehenders. Because there were no recall differences across the different skill levels in the nopicture control condition, it is suggested that pictures may serve to enable processing in which readers would not necessarily engage under ordinary circumstances. Pictures, however, did not appear to compensate for limitations reflected in lower scores on a standardized test of reading comprehension.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pictorial enhancement of text memory: Limitations imposed by picture type and comprehension skill

Waddill

McDaniel

1992

Memory & Cognition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are a plethora of data indicating that children do engage in abstraction at that level of complexity. For instance, Salomon (1974Salomon ( , 1976Salomon ( , 1979aSalomon ( , 1979b has documented that some cognitive operations can be internalized from watching television programs that incorporate the operations into their formats (e.g., operations such as spatial transformations and changing points of view). Also, a variety of cognitive rules can be abstracted from simple exposure to models exhibiting behaviors consistent with the rules (e.g., syntactical principles, quantitative concepts).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Meaningful Materials Easier to Learn: Lessons from Cognitive Strategy Research

Pressley¹

1983

Springer Series in Cognitive Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

By this point in the volume, it should be apparent that cognitive psychologists (and more specifically, the authors contributing to this book) are bullish on the position that use of strategies can increase learning. Nonetheless, it should also be obvious that learners (especially children) do not always use cognitive strategies that they could use, and that sometimes strategy usage is difficult even when strategy usage instructions are provided. That does not mean, however, that when learners cannot or do not execute strategies, cognitive strategy researchers have nothing to offer. In fact, cognitive strategy research includes a plethora of data on how to modify materials so that they are easier to comprehend and learn. In this chapter that research will be selectively reviewed.The principal concern in the chapter is with children's processing of meaningful materials including prose, television programs, and oral communication. The focus on these types of materials follows from my own research interests, as well as an awareness that much of cognitive psychology in recent years has been conducted in these content areas. However, readers should not assume that materials modifications recommendations based on cognitive research are limited to these domains. I hope that by explicating the relevance of cognitive research to materials development in the areas considered here, I will stimulate researchers with other substantive interests to reexamine research in their own problem areas with an eye toward materials development. Learning Materials and ResearchWell-intentioned educators and curriculum specialists have made many suggestions as to how to modify materials. One need only peruse any of a number of methods textbooks in language arts in order to generate a lengthy list of comments M. Pressley about how to prepare materials. Despite this large volume of suggestions, and even though publishers are constantly revising materials that are presented to children (e.g., Willows, Borwick, & Hayvren, 1981), evidence that materials modifications positively affect children's learning is scant (e.g., Levin & Pressley, 1981;Pressley, Levin, Kuiper, Bryant, & Michener, 1982). The research literature that does exist does little to inspire confidence in the wisdom of the armchair educator-analysts. For instance, many classroom tried and true vocabulary-learning techniques are no more effective than what learners do spontaneously (Levin, McCormick, Miller, Berry, & Pressley, 1982;Pressley, Levin, Kuiper, Bryant, & Michener, 1982). Moreover, in these same studies it has been demonstrated that techniques derived from conventional wisdom are impotent compared to alternatives based on cognitive learning approaches to vocabulary instruction. Such empirical failures reinforce the impression that many materials recommendations in the curriculum literature are probably wrong.That would not be so bad if children's learning of meaningful materials were proceeding smoothly. For readers uninitiated into the deficiencies evidenced and problem...

show abstract

“…Educational research has demonstrated that individuals can incorporate "perceptual operations" such as focusing on details and mental rotation from exposure to a film simulating these operations (Salomon, 1974(Salomon, , 1979. Similarly, films that simulate effective attentional strategies in a variety of environments, especially if supplemented with verbal instruction and/or practice, might allow viewers to incorporate these strategies into their repertoire for learning new environments.…”

Section: Simulating Navigation Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%