The Use of Concrete Examples Enhances the Learning of Abstract Concepts: A Replication Study

Abstract

Background Prior research suggests that the teaching of abstract concepts can be enhanced by the use of concrete examples, but there are few controlled studies. Objective To replicate key findings from experiment one from Rawson et al. (2015). Method Experiment participants studied definitions of abstract concepts from psychology, either with or without concrete examples. The replication differed from Rawson et al. by using a paid online participant pool, of non-psychology students, and a trimmed methodology focused on the key outcome. Results Concrete examples enhanced learning of abstract concepts. The critical finding was enhanced recognition of previously unseen examples matched to learned definitions, thus replicating the results of Rawson et al., with an effect size d = 0.30. Conclusion The use of concrete examples was found to enhance learning of abstract concepts when teaching concepts from psychology to non-psychology students using an online paid participant pool. Teaching Implications The teaching of abstract concepts in psychology could be helped by frequent use of concrete, real-world examples.

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