Meaningfulness (m̄) in children's verbal learning
Date
1967
Authors
Mickelson, Norma I.
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Abstract
The function of meaningfulness (m) in children's verbal learning was examined in this thesis. Subjects were 423 children, aged nine in the calendar year, 1967.
A table of meaningfulness was constructed using Noble's production method for 120 nouns.
In addition to meaningfulness, experimental control was exercised over the following variables: form class, list length, item length, frequency of occurrence in the language, specificity, initial alphabetic structure, concreteness-abstractness, and inter-item associative strength.
Four experimental paradigms were used: a free-learning, free-recall paradigm in which a mixed list of high- and low-meaningfulness items was used as the learning task; a free-learning, free-recall paradigm in which separate lists of high- and low-meaningfulness verbal items were used; a paired-associates paradigm in which high-high- and low-low-meaningfulness items were paired and learned in a trials-to criterion task; a serial-order paradigm in which separate lists of high- and low-meaningfulness verbal items were learned in a trials-to-criterion task.
In each of the four experiments, meaningfulness (m) was found to have a facilitating effect on children's verbal learning beyond the .01 level of confidence.
The experimental findings were discussed in terms of learning theory and in terms of their possible implications for further research in curriculum development and instruction in elementary education.