Contextual Prerequisites for Understanding - Essay Example

Summary of Research Papers Summary of Research Papers Summary of “Contextual Prerequisites for Understanding: Some Investigations of Comprehension and Recall” Bransford and Johnson (1972) sought to establish the factors that determine a subject’s comprehension of a passage. Specifically, they wanted to determine the effect of contextual prerequisites offered to subjects on both comprehension and recall. Their study was based on the argument that there was a possibility of prerequisite contextual knowledge to improve the rate of comprehension and recall. In order to determine the effect of prerequisite contextual knowledge, the researchers carried out several experiments. In the first experiment, the researchers sought to determine the effect of presenting subjects with contextual information in the form of a picture of understanding the passage that was read later. The experiment comprised of five groups of subjects. Two of the groups were not presented with any prerequisite context. Another group was presented with the context before the passage was read. The third group saw the picture after hearing the passage. The fourth group only saw a partial picture that presented them with partial context of the passage. In the experiment, two, one group was not presented with a topic, but only had a passage. The second group was presented with a topic after hearing the passage while another group received the topic before hearing the passage. In the third experiment, there were two groups with one hearing the topic after the passage while another one received the topic before the passage. In the fourth experiment, there were three groups with the first one not receiving the topic, the second one receiving the topic after the passage and the third one receiving the topic prior to the passage. In all the experiments, subjects were tested for comprehension and recall, which were the main dependent variable. The independent variables are as described above in each experiment. The authors established that subjects who received prerequisite contextual knowledge exhibited a higher capacity of comprehension and recall compared to those who did not receive any prerequisite knowledge. The authors concluded that comprehension and recall do not only depend on sentence structures, but also on any contextual knowledge presented to a participant before reading, or hearing a passage. One of the aspects I like about the article is that the authors relied on practical experiments that can be easily repeated by other researchers (Bransford & Johnson, 1972). Summary of “Imitation of Film-mediated Aggressive Models” Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963) sought to determine whether children exposed to film-mediated aggressive models were likely to imitate the aggressive behaviors observed. The study was based on the argument that different forms of media have been described as having the capacity to trigger behavioral changes in children. Specifically, media forms that depict violence are likely to motivate children to imitate the aggressive behaviors observed. In order to determine whether this was true, the authors conducted three different experiments. They identified 48 boys and 48 girls who were divided into four groups. The first group of participants was exposed to real-life aggressive conditions by observing a model demonstrating aggressive behaviors with a Bobo doll. The second group of participants was exposed to human film-aggression conditions. The children watched a color movie accompanied by a tape recording of the soundtrack, which depicted similar aggressive behaviors as those, observed in the real life conditions. The third group of participants was exposed to cartoon film-aggression. The children watched a cartoon program on television with the main character in the cartoon program exhibiting aggressive behaviors. The fourth group of participants was not exposed to any form of aggressive models. The authors sought to determine the level of aggression instigation, delayed or immediate imitation, partial imitation of aggressive behaviors, and finally non-imitative aggression. The findings from this study revealed that exposing children to either real life of film aggressive models increased the rate of aggression that they would present if they became as frustrated as the model. It emerged that both girls and boys imitated the aggressive behaviors observed. The control group was less aggressive in all the measures. The study also revealed that boys were more likely to exhibit high levels of aggression. The study did not present any significant relationships between aggression, anxiety, frequency of aggression, and the experimental aggression measures. The study confirms that exposure to aggressive film content may account for the deviant behavior exhibited by children. Notably, such children imitate the observed aggressive behavior through social learning. Although the children in the study were not deviant, 88% of the participants exposed to real-life and human film conditions imitated the aggressive behavior observed. Additionally, 79% of the participants who viewed the cartoon film also imitated aggressive behaviors. It is evident that there should be a regulation of the media content because exposing children to aggressive content can motivate them to exhibit similar aggressive behaviors. I like the fact that the studies adopted a straightforward approach, making the experiments easily understandable (Bandura, Ross, & Ross,1963). Summary of “The Visual Perception of Objective Motion and Subjective Movement” Gibson (1954) sought to understand the visual perception of objective motion and subjective movement. He identified three unanswered questions of psychology related to the perception of motion. The first question was to understand how human beings see the emotion of an object. The second question was human beings see the stability of the environment. The final question concerned how people perceive themselves as moving objects in a stable environment. The author presents the basis for each of the three critical questions in order to elaborate the aspects of focus in the study. The author undertakes a review of existing literature from past experiments that sought to understand the perception of motion and movement. In the review, the author explores the different apparatus used in different experiments that seek to explore the perception of motion and movement. Some of the identified apparatus include the stroboscope and variation of the same device, the moving belt, usually viewed through an aperture, a rotating disk, other devices of casting the shadows of moving or rotating objects, as well as other devices used in the rotation of disks with spiral lines. The author explores the findings from the use of each device in an effort to understand the motion of a patented surface, the deformation of the shadows and perception of depths, the controllable complex movements, the stable environment, and movement of the observer including locomotion. From the extensive literature review, it emerges that visual motion denotes a sensory variable of experience. Visual motion has a specific intensity as well as direction. It may also exhibit absolute thresholds with both lower and upper thresholds. The retina is the critical part in visual motion because the part of the retina under stimulation determines what an individual can see. Visual motion can exhibit a measure of constancy in both size and shape. Worth noting is the fact that visual motion does not correspond to physical stimulus presumed for it. From the existing experiments, it is possible to suggest that the retina can respond in both an adjacent and successive order. Other experiments reveal that the stimulus for motion is in a relational manner. The stability of motion depends on the stimulation arrays and not on receptor location. The article develops future research hypothesis that may yield more knowledge on the perception of objective motion and subjective movement (Gibson, 1994). Summary of “Creating False Memories: Remembering Words not presented in Lists” Roediger III and McDermott (1995) sought to understand how people create false memories by remembering words not been presented in a list. In the recent past, psychologists have given attention to the fact that people have the capacity to create false memories of events that never took place or presenting a modified version of what happened. The researchers base their experiments on those of Deese in 1959. In the first experiment, the authors identified 36 university students from Rice and developed six lists from some of the materials used by Deese. For each critical word that Deese used, the researchers also established a corresponding list. The authors tested the participants in a group, highlighting that all the participants would hear lists of words and that a test would follow immediately. The test required them to record the last words they had heard from the list and present a list of the other words in the order of their preference. The researchers urged the participants to ensure that each word they wrote had occurred in the list. After the reading of all the six lists, the researchers held a conversation for two minutes with the participants highlighting the importance of the recognition test. The participants were expected to put up their hands at the end of the experiment if they had successfully identified six words. The second experiment was a modification of the first one with the researchers developing 24 lists of 15 items each. The purpose of the second experiment was to extend the participant’s ability to recall and recognize as highlighted in the first experiment. The authors wanted to determine the effect of recall on subsequent recognition tests. The third reason for carrying out the second experiment was to establish the false alarm rate involved in the recognition of non-presented items. The fourth reason was to determine the views of the participants on their phenomenological experience as they recognized some of the non-presented items. From the findings of the experiments, it became evident that there were high levels of false recall in the first experiment. In the second experiment, false recalls were rated at 55%. It emerged that many of the participants were very confident when giving false recognition responses. The act of recall served to increase both correct recognition of the listed items as well as the false recognition of non-listed items. The authors concluded that participants were likely to associate words such as “hot”, with its opposite “cold”. For this reason, associative models explain why false recall and false recognition occur. One of the aspects that I find intriguing in the article is that it studies a highly debated topic that has seen many people give false evidence in the therapy sessions (Roediger III & McDermott, 1995). References Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Imitation Of Film-Mediated Aggressive Models. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 66(1), 3. Bransford, J. D., & Johnson, M. K. (1972). Contextual prerequisites for understanding: Some investigations of comprehension and recall. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 11(6), 717-726. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(72)80006-9. Gibson, J. J. (1994). The visual perception of objective motion and subjective movement. Psychological Review, 101(2), 318-323. Roediger III, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory & Cognition, 21(4), 803. Read More