Download Elaborative Processing If one were to look for the most effective use

Elaborative Processing
If one were to look for the most effective use of time within a semester of
teaching reading, one do not do better then focusing on elaborative processing.
Adaptive reading relies heavily on (1) developing a deep foundation of factual
knowledge, (2) understanding facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual
framework, and (3) organizing information in ways that facilitate retrieval and
application. Elaborative processing is an absolute essential for this level of
learning to occur.
Teaching students to use elaboration strategies (elaborative processing) is one
of the most positive ways to enhance student use of metacognition for generating
inferences, learning, and transfer.
Keep in mind that metacognition, and internal dialogue have to be taught. They
are not learned naturally. (Bransford) Elaborative processing helps give students
control over their learning.
Need Both Deep Processing (Elaborative Processing) and the Process of
Consolidation
Craik (2002) argued that deep processing is necessary but not sufficient and that
good long-term processing involves both (1) deep processing (elaborative
processing) and (2) a process of consolidation.
(1) Elaboration refers to the process of establishing links between newly
encountered information and previously stored information. It has long
been known that when individuals process items in an elaborative fashion,
such that meaning is extracted from items and inter-item associations are
formed, memory is enhanced.
(2) Rules of Consolidation: Research into how the brain learns clearly
shows that there are three things that learners need to deliberately do
mentally in order to remember new information. These deliberate mental
actions on the part of the reader are called “Rules of Consolidation.”
The Most Powerful Rules of Consolidation Are:
Rules: Deliberately re-expose yourself to the information more (a)
elaborately, and in (b) fixed intervals, if you want the retrieval to be the
most vivid it can be. (Medina)
Fixed Time Intervals for Re-exposing and Elaborating
1. As the reader identifies what is important while reading, stop
re-expose yourself to the information and elaborate on the it
(have an internal dialogue, what do you already know about
what you are reading, write about it (take notes in your own
words), explain it to yourself out loud.
Note: This time interval is specifically for holding and expanding
the time new information has in working memory, which gives you
and your brain more time to manipulate the information before it
can be forgotten.
2. When you have read a new topic or paragraph, explain to
yourself what you have just read; this is re-exposure to the
information.
Note: This time interval and the remaining time intervals take
advantage of the opportunity to strengthen newly grown dendrites.
3. When you finish studying, take a few minutes to re-expose
yourself to the information and elaborate.
4. Within 90 minutes to 2 hours, re-expose yourself to the
information and elaborate.
5. Review again the next day as soon as you can.
From the Research
“When a reader reads nonstop, new information is subject to being
confused with other information. “The probability of confusion is increased
when content is delivered in unstoppable, unrepeated waves. This causes
newly encoded information to reshape (interference) and wear away
previously existing traces. Such interference does not occur if the
information is delivered in deliberately spaced repetition cycles. (This is
where the reader can take control of learning.) Repeated exposure to
information in specifically timed intervals provides the most powerful way
to fix memory into the brain. When the electrical representations of
information to be learned are built up slowly over many repetitions, the
neural networks recruited for storage gradually remodel the overall
representation and do not interfere with neural networks previously
recruited to store similarly learned information. This idea suggests that
continuous repetition cycles create experiences capable of adding to the
knowledge base, rather then interfering with existing knowledge base”
(Medina, 2008).
What we understand is that understanding what one reads is not good enough.
Understanding alone is not enough for transfer to occur, for learning related
information easily, or application of new information learned. Elaborative
Processing is key to learning and making learning useful.
What is Elaborative Processing?
“Elaborative Processing is the extra cognitive processing of information
that helps the learner to integrate the new material with prior information”
(Median, 2009)
Elaborative Processing: To "elaborate" means that users take more time
to analyze and store the information. This extra cognitive processing of
information helps to better integrate the material with prior knowledge,
which helps to improve learning.
Elaborative Rehersal
Elaborative rehearsal is a type of rehearsal proposed by Craik and
Lockhart in their Levels of Processing model of memory. In contrast to
maintenance rehearsal, which involves simple rote repetition, elaborative
rehearsal involves deep sematic processing of a to-be-remembered item
resulting in the production of durable memories.
Encoding Characteristic: “The more we encode information at the
moment of learning, the stronger the memory. When encoding is
elaborate and deep, the memory that forms is much more robust than
when encoding is partial and cursory. (Medina)
Elaboration and Prior Knowledge – Learning and the Brain
At this point, it should be clear that elaborative processing involves creating
interconnections between what s being learned with what the reader already
knows. The brain rule for this process, which is learning is:
Rule: New dendrites, synapses, and neural networks grow (learning) from
what is already there (prior knowledge – older dendrites of stored related
information).
It is the interconnections between what is being read and what the reader already
knows that creates meaning.
Elaboration of Concepts
“Building upon an idea requires the user to elaborate on the concepts or
materials presented. Learners think about the material in a meaningful way by
questioning and expanding upon the ideas presented. This rich encoding of
information will lead to a stronger memory trace and better recall. (Smyth et
al.1994)
Elaborative processing is important because how information is
encoded depends on the level of processing that has occurred. Expanding upon
ideas also results in better memory because it creates redundancy and allows
the user to generate his/her own elaborations. (Anderson, 2000). An example
of elaborative processing is the use of study groups. Individuals participating in a
study group share ideas about information relevant to a class. Elaboration takes
place when one member of the group will share his/her understanding of the
information and other members help to expand upon these ideas by presenting
different perspectives, additional supporting information, or information that
challenges that idea. The level of processing determines the amount of
information that will be remembered. Better learning will result if information is
presented in a context that allows learners to participate in elaborative
processing. As previously stated, creating a "blended" collaborative learning
environment encourages elaborative thinking but teaching this thinking skill can
also be achieved by using an electronic discussion board, like the ones used in
Blackboard. Electronic discussion boards, whether used for distance or blended
learning, will provide learners an opportunity to practice this skill by posting their
own ideas, reading the ideas of others, and questioning or expanding upon those
ideas. This gives learners the opportunity to create their own elaborations, which
is supported by research conducted by Anderson and Bower (1972). Their
research shows that subjects who created their own elaborations were better at
recall.” (Anderson, 2000)
“When people memorize information they are able to recall more of the facts if
they elaborate. In other words, elaboration facilitates recall by providing
additional retrieval inferential paths and by permitting recall by inference and
reconstruction. Memory for a piece of information can be improved by
manipulations that increase the amount of elaboration performed by a person.
Intention to learn is irrelevant to the amount learned. What is relevant is the way
in which the information is processed. People often recall by inferring what is
plausible given that they can remember. Such inferential recall will cause people
to recall what they did not study but will also help them recall more of what they
did study and more rapidly. Memory performance improves the more closely the
context at test matches the context at study. This has been shown to be true with
respect to physical context, emotional and internal context, and the context
provided by other study materials. Methods like the PQ4R method for studying
textbooks are effective because they impose a retrieval structure on the text,
because they enforce spaced study, and because they promote more elaborative
processing of the text.” (Anderson)
Elaborative rehearsal is a type of rehearsal proposed by Craik and Lockhart
(1972) in their Levels of Processing model of memory. In contrast to
maintenance rehearsal, which involves simple rote repetition, elaborative
rehearsal involves deep sematic processing of a to-be-remembered item
resulting in the production of durable memories.
Generating Inferences
“Previous studies have suggested that when learners possess a rich knowledge
base, elaborative interrogation prompts the integration of newly acquired factual
information with the existing base, producing a coherent representation of
learning material. The current study provides empirical evidence that this benefit
is also applicable to less coherent, long expository passages, with the exception
that this benefit is held even when students have little knowledge of the content.
The implication of this study is that elaborative interrogation (asking why
questions) encourages students to generate inferences to a greater degree than
they would in the absence of the condition. These inferences help to rebuild
coherence breaks in the passage and aid students in building a knowledge
network that more closely resembles the experts’ network. This benefit is even
more evident for students who lack other mediums such as interest and
knowledge to prompt learning.” (Interactions Among Elaborative Interrogation,
Knowledge, and Interest in the Process of Constructing Knowledge From Text
Sevgi Ozgungor and John T. Guthrie University of Maryland, 2004)
Elaborative Processing and Text
Studies show benefits of connecting the items to be remembered to other related
information (e.g., elaborating on sentences to be remembered, or rhyming).
Intention does not matter. Subjects in deeper processing conditions do better
regardless of whether they know they will need to remember the processed
items.
Retroactive Interference
Retroactive Interference impedes the retrieval and performance of previously
learnt information due to newly acquired and practiced information. An example
of Retroactive Interference would be if one was to memorize a phone number
and then after a few moments memorize another phone number, practicing the
second phone number more. When the recall of the first phone number is
needed, the recollection will be poor because the last phone number was the
item practiced the most. This Retroactive Interference is found because as the
second phone number was practiced more, the retention for the first phone
number decreases.
“Results of one study of one hundred and eighty undergraduates indicate that
both prior knowledge and elaborative processing operate to diminish retroactive
interference generated by reading a second passage“ (Cunningham).
How to use this information on retroactive interference: When reading and one
identifies what is important to learn, DO NOT proceed to additional related
information until the some elaborative processing strategies have been executed.
For example, do not proceed to a new subheading while reading until one has
engaged in ensuring learning by using elaborative strategies (asked interrogation
questions, said the new information in own words, mind mapping, writing to learn,
etc.). Another example, if creating a mind map while reading, do not begin a new
major branch on the mind map until one can visualize, and explain in own words
the last branch created.
Internal Dialogue Questions focus the mind and help the student to use
elaborative processing:
Internal Dialogue Inquiry Questions
The potential of cognitive strategies is limited if taught in isolation. They
become routine and mechanical devoid of the deep learning potential they
have to take advantage of what is known about how learning occurs.
Internal dialogue (internal discussion and conversation) which is inquiry
driven (questioning) can take a routine cognitive strategy and make into a
dynamic mental process for learning and especially moving toward
developing the strategies and habits of mind that enable a learner to
become competent in an area of inquiry.
John Bransford (2007) has observed, “people are built to be learners who
inquire and interrogate and get feedback as they learn to solve complex
problems. So learning-to-learn and inquiry skills, guided by the ability to
ask relevant questions due to knowledge of the ‘big ideas’ of various
disciplines, are actually the fundamental skills that we need to
emphasize.”
Internal Dialogue Inquiry Questions:
1. What do I already know?
2. Are there examples in the book and do I know any examples of
the concept being considered?
3. How is what I am reading like or different than what I already
know?
4. Can I predict where this is going?
5. How has the author organized the information in this reading
selection and how does it relate to prior readings?
“Elaborative interrogation. Elaborative interrogation is a simple strategy to
enhance memory for facts. The strategy involves reading a fact to-beremembered, asking Why would that be true?, and then trying to generate an
answer. Its primary use seems to be enhancing memory for important facts that
need to be remembered, such as facts about animals, countries, provinces, and
gender differences. For example, the student might read a fact such as During
winter, the snowshoe hare turns white in color. To use elaborative
interrogation to remember this fact, the student would then ask himself or herself
Why would the snowshoe hare turn white in color?, and then try to answer
the question.” To date, the explanation for the effectiveness of the strategy has
been prior knowledge activation. (Seifert)
“Elaborative interrogation goes beyond simple questions and answers
requiring students to explain the underlying reasons behind their answers. For
example, a learner trying to memorize the following fact—elaborative
interrogation produces deep processing, thereby facilitating memory—learns the
fact better if required to explain why elaborative interrogation leads to deeper
processing. Willoughby, Wood, McDermott, and McLaren (2000) demonstrated
that students learned information better when they used elaborative interrogation
as compared to evaluating experimenter-provided elaborations, regardless of
whether they studied interactively in a group or independently. Students who
studied in a group and listened to another member of the group’s elaborations
did not perform as well as the students who actually generated the elaborations.
Thus, instructors incorporating evaluative elaboration into their lectures should
ensure that all students have plenty of time to generate their own elaborations.
Sokoloff and Thornton (1997) employed a variant of elaborative interrogation,
requiring students to predict the outcomes of physics experiments before being
told the results. They found that making predictions helped students to overcome
misconceptions about the physical laws being taught. Providing students with
general rules and strategies for deep processing, such as elaborative
interrogation, has been shown to benefit transfer of learning within the domains
of algebra” (Robertson, 2000) and physics (Dufresne, Gerace, Hardiman, and
Mestre, 1992).