Journal article
Field Tests of Learning Principles to Support Pedagogy: Overlap and Variability Jointly Affect Sound/Letter Acquisition in First Graders
Journal of cognition and development, Vol.20(2), pp.222-252
03/15/2019
DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2018.1526176
PMCID: PMC8153404
PMID: 34045926
Abstract
Many details in reading curricula (e.g., the order of materials) have analogs in laboratory studies of learning (e.g., blocking/interleaving). Principles of learning from cognitive science could be used to structure these materials to optimize learning, but they are not commonly applied. Recent work bridges this gap by "field testing" such principles: Rather than testing whole curricula, these studies teach students a small set of sound-spelling-regularities over a week via an Internet-delivered program. Training instantiates principles from cognitive science to test their application to vowel acquisition, a critical part of reading. The current study follows up on two prior studies, which found differing effects of consonant variability for learning vowels. In addition to investigating this discrepancy, this study examined a new principle: blocking/interleaving. Although interleaved training is typically beneficial, this is difficult to apply in reading where there are many regularities. We compared a fully interleaved regime (six vowels) to two blocked regimes teaching two vowels on each block. Blocked conditions differed on whether vowels overlapped (EA with OA) or not (EA with OU). Blocking was crossed with consonant variability. Four hundred seventeen first graders were pretested on six vowels, and underwent three to five days of training, followed by a posttest and retention test. Blocking had little effect. However, there was a variability benefit when overlapping vowel strings were blocked together, and no effect of variability for interleaved training. Thus, benefits may only be observed if blocking highlights contrast between regularities. When applied to real-world skills, learning principles from cognitive science may interact in complex ways.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Field Tests of Learning Principles to Support Pedagogy: Overlap and Variability Jointly Affect Sound/Letter Acquisition in First Graders
- Creators
- Bob McMurray - University of IowaTanja C Roembke - University of IowaEliot Hazeltine - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of cognition and development, Vol.20(2), pp.222-252
- DOI
- 10.1080/15248372.2018.1526176
- PMID
- 34045926
- PMCID
- PMC8153404
- NLM abbreviation
- J Cogn Dev
- ISSN
- 1524-8372
- eISSN
- 1532-7647
- Publisher
- Psychology Press
- Grant note
- 1330318 / Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (10.13039/100000169) EDIES15C0023 / Institute for Education Sciences
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/15/2019
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders; Linguistics; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science; Otolaryngology
- Record Identifier
- 9984065474402771
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