EDUCATIONAL

PSYCHOLOGY
A COGNITIVE VIEW
 By the Same Author

Ego DEVELOP^tI;^T and the PmsosALm Disorders A Deselopmental

APPROAOITO PSYCHOPATIIOLOCV, 1952
Theory and Problems of Adolescent Development, 195-1

Theory and Problems of Child Development, 1958

Drlg Addiction Physiological, Psychological, and Sociological Aspects,
1938

The V&YcitoLOGY of Mlamncevil Verbal Learning An IsTRODUcnos

TO School Learning. 196$
Rfadincs in the Psychology of Cocnitios (hjiH R C Anderson), 1965

Maori \outh A Psychoethnoujcical Study of Cultural Deprivation,

I9G5

The Pern and the Tiki An American View of New Zealand National
Character, Social Amruots, and Race Relations, 1965
EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY
A COGNITIVE VIEW

DAVID P. AUSUBEL
Office of Research and Evaluation, Division of Teacher Education
The City University of New York

MLSU • CENTRAL LIBRARY

iiiiiiriniiiiJiPiiii

63761CL

HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON, INC.

Nezo York • Chicago San Tranctsco • Atlanta • Dallas
Montreal • Toronto • London
CopjTi^^ by Hrfi Rmcbart nni \Sjnrton Iwt
All Rights Resen ed
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-20077

269&109

Ptinled in the Untied Stales of America

123456789
 To
Pearl, Fred, and Laura
 If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just
one principle, I would say this The moil important single
factor influencing learning is what the learner already
knows Ascertain this and teach him accordingly
 PREFACE

The basic premise underlying this book is that educational psychology is

primarily concerned with the nature, conditions, outcomes, and evaluation
of classroom learning Unhke most of its predecessors in the field, it does
not conceive of educational psychology as an amalgam of learning theory,
developmental psychology, mental hygiene, and educational and psycho
logicalmeasurement Alore specifically this text differs from these other
works in the following six respects
does not consider such topics as child development, adolescent
First, It
psychology, the psychology of adjustment, mental hygiene, personality, and
group dynamics as ends in themselves It considers them only insofar as
they bear on and are directly relevant to classroom learning This criterion
of relevance has, of course, also been adopted by other textbooks in the
field, but more in theory than m actuality I have endeavored to include m
this volume only psychological theory, evidence, problems, ami issues tliat
are of direct concern either to the serious student of education or to the
future teacher in his role as facilitator of school learning
Second, it eliminates entirely many normally covered topics drawn
from general and developmental psychology winch bear little or no rela
tion to classroom learning Examples include the nature and development
of needs, general determinants of behavior, reactions to frustration, de-
velopmental tasks, mechanisms of adjustment, parent child relaiionslnps,
noncognitive development during infancy and the preschool years, and
physical development It is true, for example, that physical development
during childhood affects motor coordination, writing, and popularity in
the peer group, and that physical changes in adolescence affect the self
concept emotional stability, peer relations^ and athletic skills But an edii
catioml psychology textbook cannot cover everything Prospective primary
 I refaie

sdiool leaclm !»': => ““y” yl"'*'

vsill presrimaUy base a course

in
prospectiiE secondary scl.ool teacliers
certain asyiccts ot motisation ore o.
adolescent psycholoB, Similarly
learning bin a general iliiciission ol needs
viously relesant lor classroom
function development and clasMficaiion
such is ssoiild be
iheir nature
seems necessary
appropriate in a course in general psjcliology Inrdiy
of leiming
Third this text is prmapally concerned with the kinds
symbolic learning—
lliat take place in the classroom that is meamngtul
as rote learn
both reception and discovery Some kinds of learning sucli
part of school
ing and motor learning ate considered so inconsequential a
learning as to warrant no systematic treatment in a textbook on educa
tional psychology Other kinds of learning for example the learning of
values and altitudes are not considered indigenous to tlie primary or dis-
tinctive function of the school and arc treated only insofar as they affect

or are part of the learning of subject matter Tlicir more general aspects

are left to such courses as general and social psychology And still other
kinds of learning for example animal learning conditioning mslrumenial
learning and simple discrimination learning are considered irrelevant for
most learning tasks m
sciiool despite the fact that wildly cxlrajxilaicd

findings in these areas quite commonly jiad the learning chapters of many
educational psycliology textbooks
Fourth this work is not eclectic in theoretical orientation but pro-
ceeds from a consistent point of view based on a cognitive theory of mean
ingful verbal learning
Fifth greater stress is placed on cognitive development than most m
other educational psychology texts and (he maienal is integrated with
related aspects of cc^iuve functioning
Finally a level of discourse is employed that is appropnate for pros-
pective teachers and mature students of education Oversimplified explana
lions language and presentation ol ideas are avoided Educational psy
chology is a complex rather than a simple subject Hence to
oversimplify
it IS to render the beginning student a senous
disservice Clarity and in
cisiveness of presentation do not require reversion to a kindergarten level
of writing and illustration In fact ii w (he writer firm conviciion that
s
much of the thinly disguised contempt many
prospective teachers have for
counes in pedagogy and educational psychology
stems from watered-down
repetiuve content and an unnecessanly
elementary level of vocabulary
sentence structure illustration and example Illustrations tables and fig
" ' ""y ““M c°n'"y
TOanmg, more efieebrely and snceinal, than could hnguage
not rued to provide rebel they are
dneisioit senlinrental almoiphCTe
ol »ent,fic precnon For the or an aura
nrme reamn and aim beouse they are
pace<omnm.ng and „ Irequemly accepted as e-.dence rather than a.
interesting illustrative matter, case histones and anecdotal material are
not included in this volume
In short, the aim of this book is to furnish the prospective teacher
uith the basic psychological sophistication he will need for classroom teach
mg It should be supplemented by courses in general, developmental, and
social psychology and cannot attempt to serve as a substitute for any or
all of these subjects
My
decision to restrict the discussion of learning to mean ngful verbal
learning points up the unfortunate pauaty of experimental evidence in
this area This situation is a reflection of the prevailing tendency, over the
past three or more decades for educational psychologists to extrapolate
findings from animal, rote, and perceptual motor learning experiments
rather than to conduct research on meaningful verbal learning But pre
sentmg certain significant theoretical propositions without definitive em
pineal support was considered preferable to leaving large gaps in theory
or filling them by means of unwarranted extrapolation In certain instances
however, where abundant confirmatory research was available, considera
tions of space made judicious selection necessary Cited evidence, therefore,
sliould be considered more illustrative than exhaustive
Tobe consistent with the pedagogic principles of progressive differ
entiation and integrative reconciliation (see Chapter 4), the book is orga
Rized in such a way that early chapters present an overview of later chap-
ters, and the introductory material in each chapter performs the same

function in relation to the material that follows Furthermore, when similar

material is encountered again in a different context, deliberate repetition
explicitly delineating similarities and differences is considered pedagog
ically superior to expecting the student to perform the necessary cross-
referencing of related concepts and propositions by himself These devices
render chapter summaries superfluous Unlike a summary, an overview
orients the reader in advance When used as an organizer, it presents

(at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness) an ideational

scaffolding for the detailed material to follow It is also a well known fact

that students frequently abuse summaries by using them as the sole basis
for review
Several other familiar textbook features are missing in this book First,
specific questions are not posed at the end of each chapter This degree of
guidance in review is considered more appropriate at the elemen
explicit
tary and high school levels of instruction The use of an accompanying
workbook was rejected for the same reason Second, chapter reading lists
are not offered since it is believed that most students simply ignore sug
gesied readings selected by the author The student who is genuinely in
teresied in exploring original sources of particular interest to him can
easily do so by identifying them in tne text and then turning to the bib
 Prrface

liography at the end of the hook Lastly a file of test items is not mide
available to instructors using this tevt Fsiluition of student learning «
considered to he within llie latter s rcsponsihility
I am indebted to my v\ife Peifl Ausulwl and to Mrs Nfiry Stager for
cntical reading of the manuscript anil for many Iicipfiil suggestions tliat
have materially increased us clarity and readability Mrs Margaret Rrcnglc
and Miss Irene Pysanchyn were particularly helpful in preparing the manii
script for publication
Finally 1 owe a special debt of gratitude to the publishers of my pre
vious works and especially to Grune k Stratton Inc for generously jicr
muting me to incorporate previously pubhslicd material into tins volume

D P A
Toronto Ontano
January 1968
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author vishe5 to acknowi-edce the courtesy of the foJJo«'ing pub-

lishers in permitting the use of excerpts frum some of his previously pub-
lished articles and books:
Academic Press, Inc.

Chandler Publishing Company

Grune & Stratton, Inc.
The American Biology Teacher
The Bulletin of the National Association of Secondary School
Principals
The Catholic £ducflhon<i/ Review
Education
Journal of General Psychology
Journal of Research tn Science Teaching
Journal of Teacher Education
The Modem Language Journal
Pht Delta Kappan
The Psychiatric Quarterly
Psychology tn the Schools
Review of Educational Research
The School Review
Urban Education
 CONTENTS

PREFACE Vn

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XI

INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 THE ROLE AND SCOPE OF EDUCATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY S
Why Educational Psychology for Prospective Teachers? 4
The Role of Psychology in Education 4
The Decline of Classroom Learning Theory 9
Theories of Learning versus Tlieories of Teaching 11
Research Strategy in Educational Psycliology 14
Types of Learning 20
ClassiBcation of Learning Variables and the Organization
of the Book 26
Convergent Current Trends in Educational Thought 28

MEANING AND MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Chapter 2 MEANING AND MEANINGFUL LEARNING 37

The Nature of Meaning 37

Logical and Psychological Meaning 44
Meaningful Learning versus the Learning of Meaningful
Material 45
The Acquisition of Meanings 47
Cognition versus Perception m Meaningful Verbal Learning 55

xiU
XIT

'^The Significance of Meaningful Learning m Acquiring

58
Kno'^ledge
Meaning C2
Iveobehavionstic Theories of
67
Acquiring ^^eanlngs Informal Learning of Syntax
68
Acquiring Meanings Learning to Read
70
Phonetic versus Wholislic MeUiods of Teaching Reading
72
Acquiring Meanings Second Language Learning
79
Language and Cognitive Functioning
Chapter 3 MLANFsCFUL RECEPTION LEARNING
ANP RETENTION 83
83
The Nature of Meaningful Reception Learning
The Assiniilaiion Process in the Acquisition Retention
and Organization of knowledge
The Threshold of Availability Reminiscence
Sources of Forgetting 106
^leanmgful versus Rote Learning 107
Alternative Theones of Retention and Forgetting llo

cognitive FACTORS IN LEARNING

Chapter 4 COGNITIVE STROCTURE AND TRANSFER 127
The Role of Cognitive Structure in Meaningful Learning
and Retention 127
Cognitive Structure and Transfer 128
Principal Cognitive Structure Variables 130
Learning and the Availability of Relevant Anchoring Ideas 133
The Role of Discnminabiluy m
Mcaninglul Learning and
Retention H2
Stability and Clanty of Anchoring Ideas 145
Pedagogic Faahtation of Transfer 147
Other Pedagogic Means of Faalitating Transfer 161
Other Theones of Transfer 16 ^
The Role of Transfer in Education 161
The Faciliutmg Effect of Verbaluation in Transfer 169
Cognitive Style
170
Chapter 5 COGNTTIYZ DEVELOPMENT AND READINESS 175
Tlie Nature of Readiness
176
The Effects of Environmental Deprivation on Cogniine
Development
183
General Suges of Intellectual Development
191
The Concrete Abstract Dimension of Cognitive
Development 198
Educational Implications of the Concrete
Intuiiive Level
of Cognitive Eunaionmg 208
Conienis

Educational Implications of the Transition from Concrete

to Abstract Cognitne Functioning 219
Developmental Considerations Regarding Breadth of
Curriculum 221

Chapter 6 INTELLECTUAL ABILITY 225

The Nature of Intelligence 225
Distribution of IQ Scores 2S0
Developmental Changes in Intelligence 231
Sex Differences 241
Nature and Nurture 243
Intelligence as a Predictor of Academic Achievement 255

Chapter 7 PROVIDING FOR INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

*' IN INTELLECTUAL ABILITY 259
Advantages and Disadvantages of Grouping 260
Nonpromotion 265
The Academically Gifted Enrichment or Acceleration 265
The Mentally Retarded 267
Tile Culturally Deprived 267

Chapter 8 PRACTICE 273

Frequency 275
Distribution of Practice Effect on Learning and Retention 291
Method of Practice 295
General Conditions of Practice 309
Knowledge of Results (Feedback) 315

Chapter 9 INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS 320

Amount of Material Task Size 320

Difficulty of the Material 325
Step Sue 326
Pacing 327
Internal Logic of Instructional Material 328
Organization of Material 330
Effective Communication 338
Instructional Aids 342
Curriculum Reform Movements 349

AFFECTIVE AND SOCIAL FACTORS IN LEARNING

Chapter 10 MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS IN LEARNING 363

364
Is Motivation Necessary for Learning?
 Conitnfi

3G7
Cognitive Drive
368
TUe Mediation oi Motivational Intluence
Ego Enhancement and Affiliative Components of
375
Achievement Motivation
370
Reward and Punishment
381
Drive Reduction and Reinforcement
The Eflecls of Intention on Meaningful Learning and
Retention 386

Values and Altitudes 388

The Effects of Attitudes on Meaningful Learning and
Retention 389
Increasing Classroom Motivation 393

Chapter 11 PERSONALITY FACTORS IN LEARNING 391

Motivational Orientation to Learning 395

Anxiety and School Learning 401
Dogmatism and Authontananism 408
Personality Adjustment and School Achievement 409
The personality Development and Mental Plealth
Responsibilities of the School 411
The Teachers Responsibility in Handling Personality
Maladjustment 413

Chapter 12 GROUP AND SOCIAL FACTORS IN LEARNING 416

Classroom Climate 417

Interaction among PupiU 420
Competition and Cooperation 423
Conformity and Individuality 425
Adult versus Peer Group Norms 430
Social Sex Role and the School 434
Social Class Stratification and EduciUon 435
Raoal Factors in. EducaLvio.
Motivating the Culturally Deprived Pupil
445

Chapter 13 TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS 449

The Roles of Teachers
450
Cognitive Abilities
451
Personality CharacterisUcs
453
Teaching Style
455
School Discipline
457
Concents

DISCOVERY LEARNING
Chapter 14 LEARNING BY DISCOVERY 457
Historical Antecedents
457
Psychological and Educational Rationale of the Discovery
Method 47]
Psychological and Educational Limitations of Learning by
Discovery 473
Research Evidence 497
Chapter 15 THE ACQUISITION AND USE OF CONCEPTS 505
The Nature of Concepts 505
Problems in the Acquisition and Use of Concepts 509
Different Ways of Acquiring and Using Concepts 509
The Nature of Generic Meaning 513
Other Theoretical Views of Concept Acquisition 516
Sequential Stages in Concept Acquisition 517
Conceptual Terms and Cognitive Content 519
Classification of Concepts 520
Strategies in Concept Formation 520
Language and Concept Acquisition 521
Developmental Aspects of Concept Acquisition 528
Increased Abstractness and Precision 525
Factors Influencing Concept Acquisition 630

Chapter 16 PROBLEM SOLVING AND CREATIVITY 5SS

The Nature of Problem Solving 534

The Role of Cognitive Structure in Problem Solving 538
Language and Thought 539
Alternative Views on Problem Solving 540
Stages and Strategies of Problem Solving 541
Developmental Changes in Problem Solving 541
Factors Influencing Problem Solving 546
The Trainabihty of Problem Solving Skills 549
Creativity 551

EVALUATION AND MEASUREMENT

Chapter 17 PRINCIPLES OF MEASUREMENT AND
EVALUATION 565

The Purposes of Measurement and Evaluation 566

Limitations and Abuses of Evaluation and Measurement 570
Requirements of an Effective Test 573
The Standardized Objective Test 583
 Contents

Inierpretation of Ac!iie\emcnl Test Scores j85

Other Methods of Esaluation and Measurement 586

REFERENCES 591

INDEX 059
INTRODUCTION
 Theories of Learning versus Theortes of Teaching 11

Theories of Learning
versus Theories of Teaching

Disillusionment regarding the rele\ance and usefulness of learning

theory for educational practice has been responsible in part for the recent
emergence of theories of teaching that are avowedly independent of the
ones of learning The justification of sudi theories has been advanced on
both historical and logical grounds

The Historical Argument

N L Gage cites the historical record to argue that theories of learning
have had V'ery little applicability to and influence on educational practice
vvhether in education psychology textbooks in courses devoted to teaching
methods or in the everyday operations of classroom teaching He argues
further that theories of learning are inherently irrelevant for problems of
instruction and should therefore be replaced by theones of teaching For
example he states that

while theories of learning deal with the ways an organism learns theories of
teaching deal with the ways in which a person influences an organism to learn
To satisfy ihe practical demands of education theories of learning must be stood
on their head so as to yield theones of teaching (Gage 19$4 pp 26S269)

Tins aigument based essentially on the historical failure of learning

is

theory to provide a psychologically relevant basis for jvedagogic practice

But this undeniable shortcoming of learning theory to date is by no means
a necessary or inherent limitation in the applicability of such theory to edu
cation it IS merely characteristic of the prevailing brand of school learning
theory vvhrcli in general does not deal uith the kind of learning that occurs
in the classroom but rather has for the most part been uncritically extrap-
olated from the main body of laboratory learning theory A truly realistic
and scientifically viable theory of classroom learning in contrast would be
primarily concerned with the complex and meaningful types of verbal and
symbolic learning that takes place in school and similar learning environ
ments and would also give a prominent place to those mampuJable factors
that affect it There is in other words a very close relationship between
knowing how a pupil learns and the mampulable vanables influencing
learning on the one hand and knowing what to do to help him learn
better on the other By teaching we mean primarily the deliberate guidance
of learning processes along lines suggested by relevant classroom learning
theory It would seem reasonable therefore to supjxise that the discovery
of the most effective methods of teaching would be inherently dependent
upon and related to the status of learning theory
 ri<l •'“O
Th, Kck A-J Scopt cl

could
fud.lal.ng scl.ool Icming
0! course oul) gceral print.pte o[
edncnional psicliolosi Tlie applied
asliecls
be considered die domain ol tlieor, ol
principles iionld constitute a
ot pedagog, denied Iron, llicse
tauglit in tnetl.odi cotmes-compa
instruction and Mould continue to be
-nie metliocls
cable to the clinical phase of a
medial students training
complexities of the c assroom
courses would go inlo detail aboul the inan>
teadiing process lioth gei\eTa«y and for particular age groups and subject
matters

The Logicol Argument

In comrasl to Gages historical argument wlttcli foatses on tlie failure

of learning theory to prose relcsant to educational

practice B Smith O
{orrnuUiing theories of teach
(1960) presents a slnclly logical rationale lor
ing that are wholly independent of rather than complementary to
tlicories

of learning He bases his case on the propositions that learning and

teach

mg are not inextricable froin each other and that a tlieory of learning can
not tell us how to teach
First Smith s and teaching are different anti
insistence that learning
separately identifiable phenomena admittedly does more than belabor the
obvious It clears prevalent semantic confusion since id
up some widely —
his own words ic is if ihe cliild has not learned
frequently implied that
the teacher has not tauglu or else has taught incompetently Teaching
and learning are not coextenstxe hr teaching is only one of the conditions
which may influence learning Thus pupils can learn without being taught
that ts by teaching themselves and even if teaching is manifestly competent
It does not necessarily lead to learning if the pupils concerned are inatten

live unmotivated or cognitively unprepared

Nevertheless once these unwarranted inferences about tlie coextensive

ness of learning anvl teadnng arc discarded it is useful to focus on those
aspects of teaching and learning These re
that are related to each other
cipiocal relationships include tlie purposes the effects and the evaluation
of teadiing Thus although it is uue that teaching is logically distinct from
pupils ^eam w^ial
-awaVyieii vtnSiepenCicnViy ol 'w’nat
vtould be the practical advantage of so doing’ The faohtation of learning
IS the only proper end of leaching do
only that pupils may leam and even though
Me
not teach as an end itself but m
the failure of pupils to leans
does not necessarily indict the competence
of the teacher learning is still
the only feasible measure of teaching
raenL Further as was just iiointed
out leadimg itself is effective only to
Uie extent that it manipulates effec
lively those psychological
vanaUes that govern learning
Second even though a valid theory of
learning cannot tell us how to
leaclv «v a ptesenpuve sense
ii does offer us the most feasible
point of de
parture for discovering
general prtnapfes of teaching tliat can be
formu
Theories of Learning versus Theories of Teaching
13

lated in terms of both intervening psychological processes and cause effect

relationships It is largely from a theory of learning that we can develop
defensible notions of how crucial factors in the learning teaching situation
can be most effectively manipulated The only other possible approaches
are to vary teaching factors at random or to rely on intuition The latter
approaches not only are more time consuming but can also yield only
purely empirical laws that cannot he formulated in general terms with re
spect to the psychological conditions and relevant cognitive processes in
volved
Of course an adequate theory of learning is not a sufficient condition
for the improvement of instruction Valid prmaples of teaching are neces
sanly based on relevant principles of learning but as pointed out above
are not simple and direct applications of these principles Laws of classroom
learning merely provide general direction for discovering effective teaching
principles they do not indicate w/ial these teaching principles are The
formulation of teaching principles requires much supplementary research
that takes account of practical problems and new instructional variables
not implicit m the learning principles themselves In other words one can
consider the basic principles of teaching as applied derivatives of school
learning theory they are products of an engineering type of research and
are based on such modifications of learning theory as are necessitated by the
practical difficulties or the additional new variables involved in the task of
teaching
As B O Smith (I960) asserts simply by knowing the cause of a phe
nomenon one does not thereby acquire control of it for practical ends
Thus for example we can know the cause of a disease without knowing
how to treat it and we can treat a disease successfully without knowing its
cause It is undeniable that many practical and useful inventions are made
accidentally without any understanding of how or why they work But who
would advocate this as a deliberate research strategy? Ordinarily scientists

search for practical methods of control that can be related to general state
ments of relationship among the relevant variables involved The superi
onty of this approach inheres m the fact that methods of control that are
relatable to general principles not only are understandable and interpret
able but also are more widely transferable to other practical problems We
could for example discover as an empirical fact that using teaching method
X facilitates learning But the practical value of such knowledge is quite
limited Would it not be preferable to formulate die research problem so
that we could ascertain in what ways method X influences relevant psycho
logical varnbles and intervening cognitive states in the course of facilitating
learning retention or problem solving? It is extremely wasteful of time and
effort to search for more efficient methods of teaching that can be described
only m terms of descriptive cliaractenstiis of the teaching act and cannot
be related to laws of learning Even when scientists do stumble accidentally
 The note and Scope 0/ Educational FtyMogf

hypothc.^mnied
o„ useM empmcal *=, .mmed^atel, bunch new acabasis of the
research to explain m more general terms the unJerljmg
dental aiscoveiy
immeaiaic
Finally although knowledge of causation does not imply
tt does constitute a
tremendous adsantage
discovery of control procedures
the fiel o*"
in discoiering sucli procedures For one tiling it narrows

another u enables one to try procedures that base proven successful

con m
trolling related conditions knowing that tuberculosis w as caused by a miCTo-
a
organisin example did not provide us immedntcly vsilh a cure or
for
preventative But it enabled us to try sudi approaches as vaccines
immune
success-
sera antisepsis quarantine and chemotherapy that had been used
fully in treating other infectious diseases In the same sense
knowledge of
the cause of cancer would help immeasurahly in discosenng a cure
and
knowledge of the nature and relevant variables invoUed m
concept acquisi
non would be of invaluable assistance in devising edective methods of teach
mg concepts
As E R Hilgard points out however scientific practices instruction m
need not necessarily wait upon agreement among learning theonsis

11 one were unable to proceed without a learning ihtory upon wbidi all agreed
the iituation would indeed be (nghiening At least two things need be >aid For
one thing the disagreement among theonm may be m respect to the inierpreialion
of a set of facts upon which as facts all agree in this case the issue often is not one
10 trouble the pracual person at all Thus rewards may control learning m a gisen
situation and be interpreted m conuguily terms >n reinforcement terms or in
information terms While eventually the correct interpretation might make some
diSereiice it often makes little diRerencc at the pieseni svage of technology
Second the technology of instruciion rests on much more than learning theory
(Hilgard 1964 pp 402-403)

In conclusion therefore theories of learning and theories of teaching

are interdependent rather than mutually exclmite Both are needed for a
complete science of pedagogy and neilher one is anadequate substitute for
the other Theories of teaching must be based on theories of learning but
must have a more applied focus that is be concerned with more engi
also
neenng kinds of prohlems

Research Strategy
in Educational Psychology

Few persons would take issue with the proposition that education is
an applied or engineenng saence ft is an applied* saence because it 1$

1 The term applied

used here to distinguish between
is
sciences vvhich are
oriented toward practical ends as
opposed to “basic saences which do not have
Research Strategy m Educaftonal Psychology 15

concerned wjili the realji-ition of certain practical ends which have social
\alue The precise nature of these ends is highly controversial in terms of
both substance and relative emphasis To some individuals the function of
education is to transmit the ideology of the culture and a core body of
knowledge and intellectual skills To others education is primarily con
cerned with the optimal deielopment of potentiality for growth and achieve
—
ment not onlj with respect to cognitive abilities but also with respect to
personality goals and adjustment Disagreement with respect to ends how
e\er neither removes education from the category of science nor makes it
any less of an applied branch of knowledge It might be mentioned in pass
mg that automobile engineers are also not entirely agreed as to the char
acteristics of the ideal car and physicians disagree violently in formulat
ing a definition of health
Regardless of the ends it chooses to idopt an applied discipline be
comes a science only when it seeks to ground proposed means to ends on
empirically validaiable propositions The operations imolved such an m
undertaking are commonly subsumed under the term research The ques
tion under discussion here relates to the nature of research in applied
science or more specifically in education Is educational research a field
m Its own right with theoretical problems and a methodology of its own

or does it merely involve the operation of applying knowledge from pure

scientific disciplines to practical problems of pedagogy?
Despite the fact that education is an applied science educational psy

chologists have manifested a marked tendency to extrapolate research find

mgs uncritically from laboratory studies of simplified learning situations to
the classroom learning environment TJiis tendency reflects the fascination
which many research workers feel for the basic science approach to re

search in the applied sciences as well as their concomitant failure to ap

preciate its inherent limitations They argue that progress in educational
psychology is made more rapidly by focusing indirectly on basic science
problems in general psychology tlian by trying to come to grips directly
ivith the applied problems that are more indigenous to the field K W
Spence (1959) for example perceives classroom learning as much too com
plex to permit the discovery of general laws of learning and advocates a
straightforward application to the classroom situation of the laws of learn
ing discovered in the laboratory He sees very httle scope however for
applying the latter laws to problems of educational practice A Melton W
(1959) and E R
Hilgard (1964) take a more eclectic position They would
search for basic science laws of learning both m
laboratory and classroom
contexts and would leave to the educational technologist the tisk of con

this orientation Applied does not imply that the content of the practical disciplines
consists of applications
from the basic disciplines The problems rather than the
knowledge of appl ed science! are applied
 Psychology
Tfe Bole and Scope of Educattonal

class
implementing these laws in actual
dueling the researcli necessary for

in this booV is that the

pnn
"Hie posiuon v<e have adopted tlius lar
learning can e is
ciplesgoseming the nature ami conditions of school
type of research that actu
covered only through an applied or engineering
ally takes into both the kinds of learning that occur
account the classroom m
the learners We cannot merely ex
as well as the salient characteristics of
that are derive
trapolate to classroom learning general basic saence laws
simpler in
from the laboratory study of qualitatively different and vastly
ex
stances of learning Attempts to do so are extremely tortuous as, for
function
ample, G (1962) attempt to explain complex cognitive
Mandlers
recent
ing in terms of the laws of association, or F D Sheffields (19C1)
explanation of the hierardual learning of sequentially organized materials
m terms of the principle of contiguous conditioning
Laws of classroom learning at an applietr level are needed by tlie
educational technologist before he can hope to conduct the research pre
paraiory to effecting scientific changes in teadiing practice* He can be aided
luiiher by general principles ol teaching whidi are intermediate, lu level
of generalityand presaiptiiencss between laws of classroom learning and
llie him Contrary to K
tedinological problems that confront Spences W
(1959) contention the greater complexity and number of determining van
ablcs insoUetl m
classroom learning does not preclude the possibility of
discotenng precise laiss with wide generality ftom one educational situation
to another It simply means that sudi research demands experimental in
gemmy and mphisucaied use of modern techniques of research design

Baste Science versus Applted Approach

Three different kinds of research orientations have been adopted by
those who are concerned wuh scientific progress in applied disciplines such
as mcdiane and education (a) basic saence researdi (b) extrapolated re
saences and (c> researdi at an applied level {Ausubel,

The basic science research approach is predicated on the very defen

sible ptopoMtion that apphed sciences are ultimately related
to knowledge
in the underlying sciences It can lie
demonstrated convincingly that prog
rcss in medicine is intimately
and bacteriology,
related to progress m general biochemistry
that progress tn engineering is intimately related to prog

-
« basic as basicscicncc laws The terms basic and
pphed stitr 10 ihc duimetion between basic
( pure-) and applied (practical)
fundamental In the lalter sense
appUed rewards n jsm
t as b,«cf for lU doma.n a, research m ihe pure saences
 TAe JtoU and Scopa of Educational Piychology

l)ecauie it u not oncnted toward solving educttional problems, and its

findings, if relevant, arc applicable only if much additional researdi is per

formed to translate general pnnaples into the more speaHc form the) have
to assume in the tasL speaalized and more complex contexts of pedagog)
These limitations would not be so serious if the) were perceived In
the latter event,it would be defensible for educational institutions to set
aside a tmall portion of their lesearcli funds
for basic saence research as a
longterm investment. But since the limitations of this approach are not
gcnerall) appreciated some bureaus
of educational research confidently
invest their major resources m such programs, and then complacently ex
I>ect iliatdie research findings whidi emerge
will be both relevant and ap-
plicable in dieir original form to Uic
problems of education
Naivete with respect to the second
premise, that is, of immediate ap-
p ica ji It), IS esjieaall) rampant and has led to very serious distortions in
our kno.lcJg, ol iho>e aipcm ol
die pi,diolog, o! leeming dial are rele
rant lor liedagos, Tlie injtliology
of leaniing dial icadicts stud) is based
'‘'‘Ii base been borrooed wholesale
>» >1>= Irods of learning
sd^oor.l 1
' I* “ ‘''“t*"? sdaadon indeed
If r^n^able’"" ‘V

eaJ^:,:^“trXnXr^X'Xbt '''”‘”‘7 “
1*oriented towarsl
p„ '^b
basic saence researdi, it
th,. ...1 /
OKI by idcniif,ing
«IXTimeni» iwintcd mwaid
ugn.f.anrTOobW T apphed field and designs
J,e,r i
-ome level ‘l„ it way h ^ ‘“^hl) simplified basic
but must still contend with ' cnienon of relevance,
li... 1
‘ionaie of this ^pphmbihty The ra
‘hat they must
approacii » 1. are so complex
be reduced ly
models Ufore one
„mrdcr
^ patterned after simpler
can i
'>1'““'““
lion Once die |,r„l,l™,
more manageable
,Li'T''r
*' 7 “"‘rol leading lo ihcir snip
and measurement become

pioad. ms, I.L BrnL7“X°i'p,”,£’™a“d'i" “1^

mg. SIC rcgsiUcd mil, “isi die
..lissiion
i„j.„ reiiiliing rcicardi find
rsdic, disn s.
dcfiniu.c amlXX n “PP'"'"

olsic I, sac
«ic,icc f,„,l„,j,
,,cdas<cic.| miibX''
“ “‘"I-
aduiiional icveaxdi conducting the
necessary lo bmr-.,. .1
Snicnliiv micihcd.
’ “ .
“PP l>claccn die t»o le.cli ol
Research Strategy »r» Educational Psychology 19

The third approach to educational research, researdi at the applied

level, ISthe most relevant and direct of the three, yet paradoxically is util
ized least q£ all by professional research workers m
the field When research
IS performed in relation to the actual problems of education, at the level

of complexity at winch they exist, that is, under the conditions ui whicli
they are found m
practice, the problems of relevance and extrapolation do
not arise * Most rigorous research in applied disciplines other than educa
tion IS conducted at this level The research program of a hospital or
medical school would be seriously unbalanced if most of its iunds and
efforts went into pure biochemical or bacteriological research instead of
into applied and clinical research The major responsibility for furthering
research in the former areas belongs to graduate departments of chemistry
and bacteriology On the otlier hand, unless medical schools undertake to
solve theirown applied and clinical problems, who else will? And the same
analogy obviously holds for education as well
AlUiough applied researdi presents greater difficulties with respect to
research design, control, and measurement, the rewards are correspondingly
greater when these problems are solved Certainly such problems cannot be
solved when they are dehberttely avoided If other applied disciplines hate
been able to evolve satisfactory research methodologies there is no reason
why education cannot also do so In fact, if any applied discipline with
unique and distinctive problems of its own is to survive as a science, it has
—
no choice in the matter it is obliged to develop such methodologies
Many of the better known generalizations in educational psychology
the principle of readiness, the effects of overlearning the concrete to ab
stract trend in conceptualizing the environment — illustrate tlie pitfalls of
the basic science approach to educational researdi They are interesting
and potentially useful ideas to curriculum specialists and educational tech
nologisrs, but have little uuhty in educational practice until ihey are pat
ticuJanzed at an applied level of operations The prevailing lack of practical
particularization damages the image of educational psychology insofar
as It induces many beginning teadiers to nurture unrealistic expectations
about the current usefulness of these principles These teachers after under
going acute disillusionment may lose whatever original confidence they may
have felt in the value of a psydiological approach to educational problems
The need for applied research m
these areas is well illustrated by the
principles of readiness At present we can only speculate on what curriculum
sequences might be if they took into account precise and detailed (but cur

3 Applied research is also directed toward the discovery of general laws within
the framework of Us applied ends The generalizations it discovers therefore exist
at a different plane of generality than those of hoiic science researdi
 Tie ItoU a td Scojie of Educational Piycl ology

renlly unaiailable) research (inclings

on lire emergence of readiness for dif
ferent subject mailer areas
sub-areas and leicls of didicully ss.ilim areas
^ ^ account djfTcrcnt metliods of leaching
fhp
spear, cay of readiness as
sbmvrr I u“““

» "m m m i
“"'‘“’'"““rli 1931 1935 ) salid
Zca exaa^
seam! t
“ T “nno. be demed from
empirical researcl, in a aliool

maZak aZonna^rr r‘ “"r'oP"-'"' «' lessching me.bods and

readiness and loI^increasiVaZnT'T' esasung degrees of
'''“'e'e'' necessary
since lie generally and desirable Bui
do noi
in the field ot reading
,,e can iiav 001^1',"'* ““P'
P'''‘‘“P'
m curriculum planning
^ ''P ‘ers're 10 pnnciplcs of readiness

attracme
methodZ^ZZTlnurei'rn 1°/
^^^“1 “ming cxjicnmenu
by using nonsense b'
sjllibles of equal
Fiat
svali addane
unia of eoual di^ 1, a 1$ possible to siorb
lesslearning tasks such relalisely meaning
as equated non
mate for the most
part dm indelermin 1
'!' “ “ I“ssible to elim
cedent experience * 1*^ influence of meaningful ante
iiltidt naturala
But a IS precialy Uiis '"daidual to another
inieraclion Id
edge in the learner earning tasks aali
that is the dtsunri'"^ existing knoiil
Thus although
odological
theum^ZZ
ngor to the study “dd, undoubted medi
ot 16x10,"“
limits the '
applicability of '1' ''le material
raperinienla"i®ti
discrete learning
room heserlheles,
that rare L, “ ‘IPe of short term
'““euons and in the class-
even though there
meaningful and
nonmeamngful learning supposing that
the findings from
aajxilaied 10
n,.eLmmrexil^"‘^ occur m
the same
meaninglul leamin
s^snu!!^""'"^ “mmonly ex
n eat a loo
If one
diooses die partinT"* eannot have ones cake
ass«,a.od aid,
ihe use of
role 1^0^" ““'“dological ngor

T>pes of Learning

«neci.on
ot!l,c^L7S\S‘a w o£ learning .s a

‘ mode. I.
bee„Zut:dZ""rrr?oTZ
Types of Learning 21

change called learning must m

some fundamental sense be the same, re-
gardless of what IS being learned ” But

although the verification of general Ians is surely a desirable objective, the as-
sumption that the kind of change m
capability being studied is aivvajs somehow
the same may be unjustified How mudi similarity is there, actually, between the
kind of change represented by a child learning to say his first word, and that repre
sented by a more experienced child learning to read printed Engbsh sentences’
Or between learning to distinguish mangles from rectangles and learning to
demonstrate that the sum of the intemai angles of a mangle is the same as a
straight angle? How much similarity is there between the learning of new facts ‘
’

by a beginning chemistry student from a textbook, and the learning of new facts '
’

by hi$ chemistry professor from a technical journal? All of these are surely examples
of learning, that they involve a ciiange in capability which can be inferred from
is,

a helore-snd sfter comparison of performance Bui are they the same kind of
change?
Despite the prevailing emphasis on fundamental siroilanties of process in various
learning situations, investigators of learning have alwajs recognized certain ‘ types’
of learning There is "trial and-error learning." 'discnminaiion learning ' "paired
'
associate learning, 'concept learning," ’conditioned response Jeaming" and so
on But these vaneties of learning have tended u> be identified with certain
kinds of stimulus situations generated by particular equipment or materials, like
the bar pressing apparatus, or the memory drum with verba] syllables, or the maze
with choice points The tendency has not been for these types of learning to be
distinguished in terms of the kind of change m copobiUty they imply
The existence of differentiable performances as outcomes of learning naturally
leads to Che inference chat different kinds of capabilities are established by learning,
[and] ihe ideniificatjon of these different kinds of performance, together with
the different kinds of capability they imply, suggests that there may be at least as
many different kinds of learning And if this is so, it may be supposed that there
exist an equal number of conditions of effective /earning to correspond with each
\anety A theory of instruction, iben, cannot be maximally useful if it concerns
Itself with only those conditions that are general to all classes of learning Instead,

such a theory must concern itself in an individual manner with each of the types of
learning (Gagnd 1967, pp 296-300]

Thus, from the standpoint of enhanang scliool learning, no theoretical

concern is more relevant or urgent in tlie present state of our knowledge
than the need for distinguishing clearly among the principal kinds of learn
ing (rote and meaningful learning, concept formation, and verbal and non
verbal problem solving) tliat can lake place in the classroom (Ausubel,
196ia) The most significant way of differentiating among these types of
classroom learning is to make two crucial process distinctions that cut across
all of them —one distinction between reception and discovery learning and
another between rote and meaningful learning The first distinction is sig
iiificant because most of the understandings tliat learners acquire both in
 The ilofe and Stop* of Educational Piychology

titan tlistovcred And since most

and out of school are prescoled rather
equally imporlant to appro
presented verbally it is
learning material is
anil
is not necessarily rote in cbaracicv
ciate that verbal reception learning
can be meaningful without prior nonverbal or problem solving experience

Reception versus Discovery Leonimg

of what
In reception learning (rote or meaningful) the entire content
is presented to the learner in final form The
learning task
IS to be learned
only
does not involve any independent discovery on his part He is required
syllables or
to mternahze or incorporate tlie material (a list of nonsense
paired adjectives a poem or geometrical theorem) that is presented to
him
so available or reproduable at some future dale Jn the case
of
that It IS

meaningful reception, learning the potentially meaningful task or material

IS comprehended or made meaningful in the process of internalization
In
the fflsp of tote reception learning the learning task either is not jioteniially
meaningful or is not made meaningful m die process of internalization
The essential feature of discovery learning wheUiet concept formation
or tote problem solving is that the pnncipal content of what ts to be learned
not given hut must be discovered by the learner 6e/0Te he can incorporate
IS

Itmeaningfully into Ins cognitive structure The distinctive and prior leam
mg —
task in other nords is to disoiver sornething which of two maze alleys
leads to the goal the prease nature of the relationship between fwo van
ables die common attributes of a numliet of diverse instances and so fotih
The first phase of discovery learning involves a process quite different from
dial of reception learning The learner must rearrange mfonnation inie
grate it vvidi existing cognuivc structure and reorganize or transform the
integrated combination in such a way as to generate a desired end product
or discover a missing means^nd relationship <4/teT discovery learning itself
IS completed the discovered content is made meaningful in much the same
v»ay iliai presented content is made meaningful in reception learning
It evident therefore that reception and discovery learning are two
is

quite different kinds of processes and as will be

shown later that most
classroom msituction is organized along die lines of
reception learning Jn
the next section u will be jxnntedout that
verbal recepuon learning is not
neccssanly rote in diaraclcr that inucli ideational
material (concepts gen
crahzauons) can be miernalucd and retained
meaningfully wiihoiii prior
problem solving ex^xticiicc and that at no stage
of development does the
learner have to diKovet pnnaptes
umlerviand and use them tueanuigfully
indcjiendcndy m
order to be able to

It .1 mporlani to note «
lh.< potoi ,lul recc|>t,on
d«o%ciy leant
tag alto dtlTc, tt.U, tc.i^e, „ Uietr nttpeewe ,„I„ .„,el|ectual
.leteloimea, and (u.tcomng (y„,„Utl r„ ,
Typet of Learning 23

bodies of subject matter are acquired through reception learning, whereas

the everyday problems of living are solved through discovery learning
Nevertheless, some overlap of function obviously exists knowledge acquired
through reception learning is also used m ever)day problem solving and
discovery learning is commonly used in die classroom both to apply, ex
tend, clarify, integrate, and evaluate subject matter knowledge and to test
comprehension In laboratory situations, discovery learning provides insight
method and also leads to the contrived rediscovery of known
into scientific
propositions, and when employed by gifted persons it may generate sig
nihcant new knowledge In the more typical classroom situation, however,
the discovery of original propositions through problem solving activity is
not a conspicuous feature in the acquisition of new concepts or information
As far as the formal education of the individual is concerned the educa
tional agency largely transmits ready made concepts, classifications and
propositions In any case, discovery methods of teaching hardly constitute
an efficient primary means of transmitting the content of an academic dis
cipline
It may be argued with much justification, of course that the school is

also concerned with developing the students ability to use acquired knovvl
edge in solving particular problems, that is with ins ability to think sys
tematically, independently, and critically in various fields of inquiry But
this function of the school although constituting a legitimate objective of
education m
its own right, is less central than ns related transmission of

knowledge function in terms of the amount of time that can be reasonably

allotted to it, in terms of the objectives of education in a democratic so
ciety and in terms of what can be reasonably exjjectedfrom most students
From the standpoint of psychological process meaningful discovery
learning is obviously more complex than meaningful reception learning
Itinvolves an antecedent problemsolving stage before meaning emerges
ind can be internalized (AusiibeJ 1961) Generally speaking Jiowever, re
ceptton learning although phenomenologically simpler than discovery
learning, paradoxically emerges laier developmentally, and, particularly in
Itsmore advanced and pure verbal forms implies a higher level of cognitive
maturity Greater intellectual maturity in this case makes possible a simpler
and more efficient mode of cognitive functioning m
the acquisition of
knowledge
Thus concepts and propositions are typically acquired during the post
infancy, jireschool, and early elementary scliool years as a result of inductive
processing of verbal and nonverbal concrete empirical experience typically —
through autonomous jiroblem solving or discovery The young child for
example, acquires the concept of a cliair by abstracting the common fea
tures of tlie concejii from multiple inadenta] encounters with many different
sizes, shapes and colors of chairs and then generalizing these iitnbutes Re
2i rhe Hole and Scope of Eduealioiial J'lychology

cepuon learning, on ihc other hand, altEiougii al&o occurring carl), docs not
become a prominent feature of tniellectual functioning until the diild be-
comes sulEcicntly mature cognitncly to comprehend
verbally presented con-
cepts and propositions in the absence
of concrete, empirical experience
(until he can comprehend, for
example, the meaning of 'democracy” or
"accelerauon from their dictionary definitions).
'
In otlicr uords, inductive
concept lormaltan based on nonverbal,
concrete, empirical problem solving
experience exemplifies early dcvcloprnemal
phases of mfonnaiion process-
ing, whereas simple concept
assimilation through meaningful verbal rcceii-
tion learning exemplifies later
stages

Meaningful versus Role Learning

rcccjinon ,nd ducovEr) Icammg d.«-

"“‘‘""S ‘I" meaningful dimcn
smo!
T r o' I'nnims uere eununonly
"iWmad
r,i“nled^t , ri" bul un-
du«w leTimn. U I T'’"”""'“*“"'’' rule end that
tionr,uYcourie, fedect iheTom su "’'“"'"S'''' B”"' ““““li-
1

ardes, that the onlv tno i ^ aisumption. in many educational

^nuMidiri^ uTi'd^rri; ”
versus Actually, each distinction (rote
mcamnaful leamm* r. i

sututesanerrewiS"®^^^ J*^'ery learning) 'con-

defensible proposition learning Hence, a mudi more
irthat
ailfer 101 = or oud diKuiery learning can be
mg occurs (Ausubel,
1961a) In hnfi,
conditions under which learn-
place if the learning meaningful learning lakes
verbaum) fashion to
task can
be ^ !" nonarbnrary. subsianinc (non
what ihp i.-
adopts a corresponding •jiows. and if the learner
learninc xt'V 1
Hand, uccur. it^^e
lea™”™:!^ “utf ^
’‘
°"
I'"""'"’
»""
in paired assoaaie, Purely arbitrary 1
assoaauons, as
puzzle box ma
nally meaningful, ‘H' learning lask ixilcn
and alio^regarfj^^,
laslbar), ,f ft.
adowsT^ “^ ,

Po'enlial meaning die

verbatim fashion ^ *"'""obre it in an arbitrary.
(that is, as an
Insofar as classroom
"Hurary senes of
arbitrarv '
.
aords)
> evident that
meaningful to™' of learning are
concerned, it
learning as reception P«I»nderant null respect
learning ,s to role
“iditn and onistde
the dass,^
“ ‘'‘“'"=7 learning Both
Types of Learning 25

sentative of few actual or defensible tasks in modem classrooms It is dif

ficultindeed to find supportive evidence for B J Undentoods
assertion
that much
of our educational effort is devoted to making relatively mean

p 11) To be sure
ingless verbal unitsmeaningful (Underwood 1959
some classroom learning does somewhat approach die rote level the letter —
symbols in reading foreign language vocabulary the names of particular
objects and concepts and the symbols used to represent the chemical ele
ments This is so because the words or symbols chosen to represent the ob
jects sounds or abstractions in question are purely arbitrary There is no
good reason for example why die particular combination of sounds in
chair' should have been chosen to represent the object it does Such learn
ing however tends to form a very small part of the curriculum especially
once children have mastered the basic letter and number symbols in the
elementary school years
Furthermore it is much less arbitrary to learn that a parucular foreign
language word is equivalent m
meaning to a word or an idea that is already
—
meaningful that gar 9on represents die meaning of already meaningful
boy —‘than to learn a list of paired adjectives such as unctuous-previous
arduous-reversible In the first case one is relating in some comprehensible
fashion (on the basis of proposed equivalence) a new symbol to an already
established and meaningful symbol in the learners ps)chological structure
of knowledge m
the second case one is trying to establish a wholly arbitrary
association between two already meaningful words that the learner very
well knows are neither equivalent nor otherwise reasonably relatable to each
other The learning of representational equivalenis m
other words may
more properly be considered a primitive form of meaningful learning than
a true variety of rote learning
It IS true that much potentially meaningful knowledge uught by verbal
exposition results in rotely learned verbalisms This rote outcome however
IS not inherent in the expository method but rather in such abuses of this

method as fail to satisfy the criteria of meaningful learning (Ausubel 1961a) ,

There is much greater reluctance on the other hand to acknowledge!

that the aforementioned conditions of meaningful learning also apply to
j

problemsolving methods It should seem rather self evident both that jjer
forming laboratory experiments in cookbook fashion without understanding
the underlying substantive and methodological pnnciples involved amfers
precious little appreaation of scientific metliod and that discovenng"
correct answers to problems m
mathematics and science without really
understanding what one is doing adds little either to knowledge or problem
solving ability Students accomplish this latter feat merely by rotely mem
orizing type problems and mecliamcal procedures for manipulating al
gebraic symbols ISevertlieless it rs stdl not generally appreaated that
laboratory work and problem solving are not genuinely meaningful expen
 Tie Role and Scope of Educottonal Psychology

on a foundation of dearly understood concepts

ences unless ihej are built
and pnnciples and unless the constituent operations are themselves mean
ingful
As indicated previously v\e shall be concerned m
tins volume only with
meaningful kinds of learning both reception and discovery Exduded from
consideration in addition to rote learning are sudi noncognitive (nonintel
Icctual) kinds of learning as dassical and instrumental
conditioning and
motorskills learning and sudi less complex kinds of cognitive learning as
perceptual and simple discnminauon learning The
latter types of learning
have only indirect ungcntial and occasional relevance
for what is learned
in the classroom We sliall be concerned
therefore with the complex van
etics of meaningful cognitive learning
(that is widi the less immediate
kinds of Wing understanding and problem solving that
are dependent
on the higher mental processes
) that compnse the bulk of intellectual
acmu, rf.ooI The Mcl.ology ol speafic school sub-
"“I'' ’J ot since tins booh
Jeds only r,l“
'“'""’8 ^Ppltaablc to all sanables
Te 1

Jo U.ri,„
to the ea
clinical “''J'fr''"
aspects of the pedagogic
“P'' “ "“= tndtgenous
cumculum

Classification of Learning Variables

and die Organuaiion of the
Book

(latlo"')”!™" r;zr ^ those sanable.

can he ol considerable
salue tn cirnlnTC ‘“"“"S 'anables
process and the condition,
that adcc.i, id,*
in a sense an
oiganmnonal
ctan'T
f" prosidcs
^““'Ecation also '“T®
educaiional |»)choIogy
^
must of necey.i 1
hind, of latiot.
innoeiicmg da,n„„„.
Iea™ng
laliapeoonal (lido^n 'anables i, to dnide tliem into
» nh,“
learning "
coo-nnee .,„da,e
'anatle_,„b!„„;" ! <>>
I
lesioud) au|uiied propetlies of
ktioalcdge in a Damn I
iclcsani for 11 e 1 '^' are
assimdaiion of 00011.1^1"
'Ohjccl mailer
InonlcdLc lends tn I "8 ’a'lt » ihc same field Since
ihnal laihion s,hai one
alteads Inoi. and hicrar
noas ,t obsiourlj
influences one i
rcadlnr^ ^f
Inelof „r„,a,
rrad,eci_,he lumtlS T
r'”
"™ learnings (h)
learner, sia^e ol
micllcctual >‘'at rcllects the
dlsclonment"'’
“•* '= rmcllectual capac.l.e.
Learning Variables and Organi^Uon of Book 27

and modes of intellectual functioning charactensiic of that stage The cog

mti%e equipment of the l9}ear'Old learner self-e\idently makes him read)
for different kinds of learning tasks than does that of the 6- or 10 year-old
learner; (c) intellectual ability —
the individuals relative degree of general
scholastic aptitude {general intelligence or bnghtness level), and his relative
standing with respect to particular more differentiated or specialized cogni
live abilities How well a pupif learns subject matter in science, mathematics,
or literature obviously depends on his general intelligence, his verbal and
quantitative abilities, and on his problemsolving ability, (d) motivational
and —
altitudinal factors desire for knowledge, need for achievement and
self-enhancement, and ego-involvemeni (interest) in a parDcular kind of
subject matter These general variables affect such relevant conditions
of learning as alertness, attentiveness, level of effort, persistence, and concen
tration, (e) personality factors —individual differences in level and kind of
motivation, m personal adjustment, in other personahty characteristics, and
m level of anxiety Subjective factors such as these have profound effects
on quantitative and qualitative aspects of the learning process
The situational category of learning variables includes (a) practice-^iis
frequency, dtstnbuiion, method, and general conditions (including feedback
or knowledge of results), (b) the arrangement of inslructiorfal materials in —
terms of amount, difficulty, step size, underlying logic, sequence, paang, and
the use of instructional aids, (c) such group and social factors as classroom
climate, cooperation and competition, soaal class stratification, cultural de^
pnvation, and racial segregation, and (d) characteristics of the teacher his —
cognitive abilities, knowledge of subject matter, pedagogic competence, per
sonahty, and behavior Gagne states that tntrapersonal and situational van
ables

undoubtedly have interacitve effects upon learning The external variables

cannot exert their effects without the presence in the learner of certain states
denved from motivation and prior learning and development Nor can the internal
capabilities of themselves generate learning without the stimulation provided by
external events As a probfem lor research, the learning problem is one of
finding the necessary relationships which must obtain among internal and external
variables in order (or a change in capability to take place Instruction may be
thought of as the institution and airangement of the external conditions of learn
ing in ways which will optimally interact with internal capabilities of the learner,
so as to bnng about a change in these capabihlies (Gagne 19fi7 p 295)

Another equally meaningful and useful way of classifying die same set
of learning variables is to group them into cognitive and affective social

categories Tlie former group includes tlie relatively objective intellectual

factors, whereas the latter group includes the subjecuve and interpersonal
determinants of learning Since this scheme of categonzaiion is somewhat
30 Fit Holt mid Stolt o/ Fducalional I lyeliology

hov\c\er, iliat although this extreme jwsiuon as often domni int in tcacli'
ers collegesand schools of education it rarely j;rcvailcd. either in theory or
in practice, m
more than a handful of piihlic schools Hence, present con
cern with intellectual training and with the c|ualit) of the curriciiluin is
more a matter of increased emphasis than a radical sinft in the goals of
American education
Most teachers and school administrators as a matter of fact, ha\c ahvajs
agreed that the dulincttve function of the
scliool in our socict) is not to
promote mental health and {icrsunahty
dcsclopmciit, hut to foster intcllec
tual growth and to transmit subject
niittcr knowledge The child centered
versus the subject matter api>roach to
education constitutes a pseudo-
dichotomy that causes serious disagreement
only among extremists at citiicr
end of the continuum No realistic advocate
of the subject matter approadi
suggests that the scliool should
disregard die ix.rsomhly development and
soaal adjustment of pupils, or that
subject imitcr should Ik lauglii uitliout
' '"‘1 “ readings, n.oi.iatioii and .ndiv.dual
r mTJ::.!.""
and outcome
‘

* largely cm|>lian,c
,.ro|»nc,m ot
noncogniurc dctcnninants
'•-ixrr.ance tn mastering subject
maul
5'--cn.,.>,rs,s n,»n ,nte|.

mltlTe Id n >"> '“‘b" ’“'8"

(a)unless the content of
valueless and even pernicious
thT«ib!L7*''’^
^ '**®‘vcr involved
meaningful knowledee and is worihwlnlc. leads to
and (b) unless the “'’""'l»rary scliolarsliip,
rlemani tarn
is capable
eal n“nd
Ra,„d sLdards must
*
suiidards th™"*?"”"'
‘'""""ally a,,,, bed so as to

Irom scliool tliose

punds in die m
ne"eTbe ^ d“ cliinmating
new ways must be found range of imcllectual ability Ratlier,
lo m
.hem aLemic sub,eclma„rr“ 7'' “ad'
synonymous with high '““'"''7 Second excellence is not
examinatior
which such stores arc
acliiescd the kitH^^r 7'^
consider the way III
motivaiion underlying '“’“"'a.IS' Hmy rcllect, and die
iliem The
mo pieslige eollegc. and graduate"sL1olT‘''“‘'™
examinaiion scores ’ ““ted a
arc fasl bccomme real danger dial
symbols ol genuine , i
"‘aa'selvcs rather than
accoraphslimeni ^•".!i"*
knowledge actual mastery of
wordlwliilc

well .heir ab.lny

edge ^
and des lCt'' ‘‘“""'“S' “ges 25,
“ “l'l.‘y
«. and GO. ai

S.l
we lighcof n
„f these latter cn.eria,
in
.''“r knowl
comparing.
Convergent Current Trends in Educational Thought 31

for example, tlie quantity and quality of our national research output with
that of European countries, the American educational system stands up
relamely well even though our school children are apparently exposed to
less academic material Ostensibly higher academic standards may therefore

have relatively little effect on real learning if they stress rote memorization
of out dated subject matter content and slavish assimilation of the opinions
of teachers and textbook writers Hence, m
setting our academic goals, we
must be concerned with the ultimate intellectual objectives of schooling,
namely, with the long term acquisition of valid and usable bodies of knowl
edge and intellectual skills, and with the development of ability to think
critically, systematically, and independently

Knowledge as an End in Itself

Related to the greater emphasis on intellectual training is an cncourag

ing recent trend to place higher value on the acquisition of knowledge as a
significant end in itself ft is true Uiat the school cannot and dare not ignore
totally the current concerns and the future family, vocational, and civic
problems of high school students, particularly those who have no intention
of attending college The danger of disregarding these latter concerns is that
adolescents tend to lose interest in academic studies if they perceive the
school as indifferent to their problems Some extreme proponents of the
life adjustment moiement however, carried this approach too far by
adopting an anti intellectual and overly utilitarian attitude toward secon
dary school education They tended summarily to dismiss, as a complete
waste of time any branch of subject matter knowledge that had no immedi
ate applicability to problems of everyday living and, in some instances, to
dilute the curriculum by giving students a clioice between academic subjects
and various recreational fnlls and tnvia It was sometimes held that only
intellectually superior or college bound students should be exposed to
substantial academic fare, and that other students should be given only
prevocational and life adjustment * education
Learning tasks Jiowever need not necessarily be concerned with prob
lems of adolescent adjustment in order to inspire adequate motivation and
interest in high school students Meaningfully organized subject matter
taught by competent teachers can generate considerable drive for learning
as an end in itself The value of much school learning, after all, can be de
fended only on the grounds that it enhances pupils understanding of
—
important ideas in their culture not because it has, even remotely, any
practical uses or implications Nevertheless, some aspects of academic tram
ing do constitute, in a general way just as important a preparation for
adult living as education that is exphatly directed toward vocational and
family adjustment
32 The Role and Scoje of educational Piychology

Respojisibiltty for Dtrecting Education

One extreme point of vierv assoaated wuh Uie duld centered approacli
to education is the notion that children arc innately equipped m some
mysterious fashion for knowing preascly what is best for them Tins idea
IS obviously an outgrowth of predeterministic tlieorics
(for example, those
of Rousseau and Gesell) that conceive of development as a scries of inter-
nally regulated sequential steps that unfold in accordance
wiUi a prear-
ranged design According to these theorists, the environment facilitates
development best by providing a maximally permissive
field that does not
interfere wuh the predetermined processes
of spontaneous maturation From
these assumptions it is but a sliori step to die claim
that the child himself
must be m
the most strategic position to know and select
tJiose comjxments
of the environment that correspond
most closely to his current develop-
mental needs and. hence, are most conduave
to his optimal growth Em
pineal proof of this proposition is
adduced from die fact that nutnuon
ISadequately maintained, and existing deficiency
conditions are spontane
ously corrected,
when infants are permuted to select their
Aild can succMstully choose Ins dies,
own diets If the
he must certainly know what is best

ctcryXng mcludmgltrutc^ta
ptimat
Ptim’anw\‘'ma,f“'’,’"‘‘
ily a matter of
' ‘‘''tlppment were
mtemal npenmg, Uiere would still be no good

amomm Sly "rppe,“^^ rf"’” -i. >'=ncc,

.ndtvtdual .. seSm«
tSe^v chddh
“ *e
need, we cannot conclude thal he is similarivSnT'
ps)cl.oIogtcaI and other developmental "'1,'° ““
nelds^

‘here u h.ile warrant motivaUons.

of the child
" " ^ ^
s genuine develnr™^. reflective
dented needs arc imposed trquiremems or that environmentally
’
autho^
tHwait the ettuahiaZ^',,rdt ““ ‘""'““y “
needs originate from "onrumr’’”"
witlioui, in Actually, most
resKmse 1„
successlulcapencnce and are PP^°P"®“ stimulation and
action and idcnufication
mtetnahSd ,n „ course
oE the child s inter
with "Snificant
sivniricani persons
entironmcms in his tam.ly and
cultural

mteiesisand atmiucs are ‘ponlamouily expressed

end capaalie. c^pkiel'y reflect
Jus. because
miacmeT “"P“"ent need,
nnutauon does not P™"‘'=
mean lhat Ureniwats
cy always or >""
necessanly do so I,
„ not
Cotwergenl Current Trends tn Educattonal Thought 33

the possession of capacities per se that is motivating, but tlie anticipation

of future satisfactions once they hate been successfully exercised But be
cause of such factors as inertia, lack of opportunity, lack of appreciation,
and preoccupation with other activities, many capacities may never be
exercised in die first place Thus, children typically deielop only some of
their capaaties, and tlteir expressed interests cannot be considered coexten
sivewith the potential range of interests they are capable of developing with
appropriate stimulation
In conclusion, dierefore, the current interest and spontaneous desires
of immature pupils can hardly be considered reliable gmdeposts and ade
quate substitutes for specialized knowledge and seasoned judgment de m
signing a curriculum Recognition of the role of pupil needs in school
learning does not mean that the scope of die syllabus should be restricted
to the existing concerns and spontaneously expressed interests that happen
to be present m
a group of children growing up under particular conditions
of intellectual and social class stimulation one of the pnmary func
In fact,

tions of education should be to stimulate the de\elopment of motivations

and interests that are currently nonexistent It is true that academic achieve
ment ts greater wlien pupils manifest felt needs to acquire knowledge as an
end in itself Such needs, however, are not endogenous but acquired-~^nd
largely through exposure to provocative, meaningful, and developmencally
appropnate instruction Hence, while it is reasonable to consider the views
of pupils and even, under certain arcumstances, to solicit their participation
in the planning of the curriculum, it makes little developmental or admin
istrative sense to entrust them with responsibility for significant policy or
operational decisions
The school, of course, can never assume complete responsibility for the
students learning The latter must also bear his full share by learning ac
lively and critically, by seeking persistently to understand and retain what
he is taught, by integrating new learning tasks with previously acquired
knowledge and idiosyncratic experience by translating new propositions
into his own language, by putting forth the necessary effort to master difficult
new subject matter, by asking significant questions and by conscientiousfy
undertaking the problem solving exercises he is assigned All of tins hoiv
ever, is a far cry from demanding that he take complete charge of his own
learning It does not mean that he has to self-discover everything he learns,
locate and interpret his own instructional materials from primary sources,
design his own experiments, and merely use the teaclicr as a consultant and
critic
The very nature of education as adequately guided instruction implies
knowledgeable selection, organization, interpretation, and sequential ar
rangement of learning materials and experiences by academically competent
and pedagogically sophisticated persons rather than a trial and-error process
 Tie Hole and Stole of Cducaltonal Ptychotog;/
34

of sdf instruction True, since education does not end

when siudciiis leave
also be taught
school at die end of the day or at graduation tune, they rnuU
to learn by themselves but these two asiiccts of education are
by no means
mutually preclusive Acknowledgement of the desirability of students devol
ing part of the school day to acquiring skill in locating interprciing, and
organizing information by ihemsclvcs docs not in any way relieve the cduca
tional establishment of the primary responsibility of structuring subject
matter content Teachers cannot in good conscience abdicate this
responsibility by turning over to students in the name of democracy and
progressivism the direction of education
Pedagogic irresponsibility also often hides behind the specious slogan
that the function of the school is to teadv children how to think not —
what to dunkHere again we encounter a false dichotomy since the two
functions are m
no way mutually exclusive Actually, as has already been
pointed out the uansmission-ot knowledge lunction of the school s$ more
pnmary than us role in promoting problem wiving ability Most of the
critical thinking that goes on in the classroom is properly designed to
and integrative assimilation of subject matter content,
facilitate die active
and whatever thinking power u fostered as an educational objective in its
own ngbt i$ typically considered a lesser objective than the teaching of
subject matter and is teachable only m
part Under no circumstances is
discovery learning a feasible primary means of imparting subject matter
knowledge Fortunately as evidenced by the phenomenal growth of cur
nculum refonn movements and of various kinds of
programmed instruction,
leading educators are currently returning to
the more traditional educational
view that the content of the curriculum is
the school s and not the student s
responsibility
 MEANING AND
MEANINGFUL LEARNING
 Chapter 2

MEANING
AND MEANINGFUL
LEARNING
SlACE THE PSVCHOLOCV OF CCASSROOVf LEARNING IS COtlCemed
mostly with the acquisjuon and xeieniioij of large bodies of meanings, it is
important Uiat we make >ery explicit at ilie outset what we mean by mean
mg and meaningful learning In this cliapter, therefore, we shall explore the
nature of meaning, examine some alternative theories of meaning, and con
sider the relationship of meaning to meanmgfulness and meaningful verbal
learning In so doing, we sliall also be concerned with such issues as the gen
eral significance of meaningful learning in acquinng knowledge, how words,
concepts, and propositions acquire meaning the distinction between logical
and ps) cliological meaning, and the difference between cognition and percep-
tion Lastly, we shall attempt to illustrate and concretize this abstract dis-
cussion of meaning and meaningful learning by showing bnefly how
important sucli conceptions are for undeistanding how we learn the s)ntax
of our native language, how we learn to read, and how we learn second
languages

The Nature of Meaning

Meaningful leacnsng lavclvcs the acquutuon of new meanings, and new

meanings conversely, are the products of meaningful learning That is, the
emergence of new meanings in the learner reflects the completion of a mean
mgful learning process After indicating m
some detail what is involved in
this process we shall examine more exphatly both the nalure of meaning
Itself and its relationship to meaning learning

The Conditions of Meaningful Learning

The essence of the meaningful learning process, as we have already seen,
IS that symbolically expressed ideas are related in a nonarbitrary and substan
37
38 Mean g a id Meat ii gl it Leattiing

tive (nomerbatim) hshion to wliai ihc learner alrcidy kno\\s namely,

to some existing relevant aspect of his structure of knowledge (for example
an image an already meaningful symbol a concept or a proposition) Mean
ingful learning presup^ioscs both tJiai the learner manifest a meaningful
learning set that is a ^sposition to relate the new matcrnl nomrbitnrily
and substantively to liis cognitive structure and that the nnicnal lie learns
be potentially meaningful to him namely rclatablc to Itis structure of
knowledge on a nonarbitrary and nomerbatim basis (Ausubel lOfila) (sec
A m
Table 1 ) Thus irrespective of liow much potential meaning may
inhere m a particular proposition if ilic learners intention is to memonre
Itarbitrarily and verbatim (as a scries of arbitrarily related words) both tlie
learning process and the learning outcome must be rote or meaningless
And conversely no matter how meaningful the learner s set neither may be
the process nor the outcome of learning can {lossibly be meaningful if the
learning task is not potentially mcaning(ul-~if u js not nonarbiinrily and
substantively relatable to his cognitive structure
One reasonwhy pupils commonly develop a rote learning set
tion to potentially meaningful subject
rcla m
matter is because they learn from sad
experience that substantively correct answers
dence to what they have been taught
lacking m
verbatim correspon
receive no credit whatsoever from
cmam tochers Another reason is llm became ot a
generally high lesel of
'b “ B'vcn subject (renec
Uvrmturn ' " H'cy lack confidence in U.eir
abili tv riea

ana from I*™'™ "» “Ucrnat.sc to panic

lamiliar to malhemat.es
lead crTbecaL
Mr anxiety
her number shock or num
)
Lastly pupil, may develop a rote learning
set .[ ihcv are under

mbslantively relatable 10^1110^8^!"^*!'

”'”"'" 8 ^ (nonarb.lrarily and
more complex matter “ » “mc'vl.a.
thin
obviously depends die very least it
on the two nnnrt^i r
kind ol relationship "> mtablisliing this
that is both on Ih
and on the >' die material
to be leLed
‘) Turning firs,
to dieya.u,™'”;
“ “8 n.nve structure (sec Table
‘dkcently nona, binary
or no^g^ nselt that it
“'-'‘’“"V
could be related on a
 39
The Nature of Meaning

MEANIACFUENESS

Meaning

PoTENTIAE

Psychological

I
LeaM..N<=.

and

TABLE

MeAN.NGFOE

Meaeinofulness,

KWEEN

Logical

RBLATIONSI..PS
 Meaning and Meaninglul Learning

that
nonarbitrary and substantive basis to correspondingly relevant ideas
he vvillun the realm of human learning capibility (to coiTCs|x)ndingIy rele
vant ideas that at least some human beings are capable of learning if given
the opportunity to do so) This property of the learning task itself that deter
mines whether or not it is potentially meaningful is referred to as logical
meaningfulness it seldom, if ever is lacking in school learning tasks since
subject matter content, almost by dcnnitioii, is logically meaningful Such
IS not the case however, with respect to many laboratory and everday learn
ing tasks (for example, telephone numbers, paired adjectives, scrambled
sentences lists of nonsense syllables) which are relatablc to anjoncs cogni
live structure on only an
arbitrary and verbatim basis
The second
factor determining whedier learning material is potentially
meaningful funcuon of the learners cognitive structure rather than of
is a
the learning material The acquisiuon of meanings as a natural phenomenon
occurs in particular —
human beings not in mankind generally Hence, for
meaningful learning to occur in fact it is not suffiaent that die new^ material
simply be nonarbitranly and substantively relatablc
to correspondingly
relevant ideas m
the abstract sense of die term (to corresjiondingly relevant
ideas that some human beings could learn under ajipropriate arcurastances)
It IS also necessary iliat such relevant ideational
be available in the
content
cognitive structure of the particular learner
It is apparent, therefore, Uiat
insofar as meaningful learning outcomes
in die classroom are concerned, the
availability and other
significant pro|>eriies of relevant content
in different
learnerscognitive structures constitute
die most crucial and variable dc
terramanu of potential meaningfulness
Thus it follows diat the potential
Sr® !
® “"‘y cJuationd
da.,a„°LuI.u“lltLtarp''
'I'M for learning material to
be
to
lo'II'an
^ nonarbitranly and substantively relatablc
’ learning capaaty?
Tl.?fi' t ent"®
rda,ab,hty-ar suggested above, Ltpiy
bar 7“"“*
n™n a"dl le't “®“e„, nonarb.trar.ncrs (or
“ n nona™ ;l evident bavtt extsts Tor relating
, f'‘'“'V"*' »=1[

human beintre
rial could thus be nun
ca^ uming Logically meaningful
learning mate
I
>'
exaiupte tovarr st^r?” extensions
as
qualifications elaborations modifications
and moreen
a»,de,aor,„rrel^r„i
1
” “ ““W relatablc ,o
diem >" »»» of tang generally congruent wait

learnTlg rnTtetlal “‘"'"'-'“'““"'"e telaubili mphes the

that if
lent svmbol or fxrr^ " r* nonarbitrary idcationally equiva
group of s)nibol$ could be relaw cognitive structure
The Xature of Meaning 41

without any resulting diange in meaning In other words, neither mean

ingful learning nor emergent meaning are dependent on the exclusive use of
particular signs and no others, the same concept or proposition could be
expressed m
synonymous language and would convey preasely the same
meaning Thus, for example, ‘canine, ‘Hund, and "chien would elicit
the same meanings as ‘dog” in a person who has a fair command of English,
German, and French, and ‘All of the internal angles of a mangle equal a
straight angle” would mean the same to most geometry students as “All of
the interior angles of a tnangle equal J 80 degrees *

Rote learning tasks, of course, are not mastered in a cognitive vacuum

They are relatable to cognitive structure but only in an arbitrary, verbatim
fashion that does not result in the acquisition of any meanings Since, for
example, the particular stimulus and response members of a given pair of
adjectives in paired assoaate learning are Jinked together in purely arbitrary
fashion, there is no possible basis for nonarbitranly relating the learning
task to anyone s cognitive structure, and the learner must also remember
—
verbatim the response to each stimulus v\ord he cannot use synonyms
This arbitrary and verbatim retaiabiliiy of rote learning tasks to cognitive
structure does, of course, have certain significant consequences for learning
First, sincehuman cognitive equipment, unlike a computer, cannot handle
information very efficiently that is related to it on an arbitrary and verbatim
basis,only relatively short learning tasks can be internalized in tins fashion,
and these can be retained for only short periods of time unless greatly over
learned Second arbitrary and verbatim relatabiltty to cognitive structure
makes rote learning tasks highly vulnerable to interference from previously
learned and concurrently encountered similar materials As we shall see
later, it is this basic difference in kind of relatabthty to cognitive structure
(arbitrary and verbatim versus nonarbitrary and substantive) that accounts
for the fundamental difference between rote and meaningful learning pro
cesses
It IS also true that already meaningful component elements of a rote
learning task can be related to cognitive structure in ways that do not in
volve any learning of the elements themselves but nevertheless facilitate
the rote learning of the task as a whole It by virtue of such relatability,
is

for example, that the component letters of nonsense syllables are perceived
meaningfully, and that the syllables as a whole evoke associations to similar
meaningful words (and are Uius perceived as partly meaningful tliemselves)
—
For similar reasons by enhancing the familiarity of the matenal, by obviat
mg the need for prior learning of the component elements, and by making
possible the combination of these elements into larger units (thereby reduc
ing the total number of discrete associations to be established) — the use of
already meaningful component elements m learning material facilitates rote
learning
42 Meaning and Meaningful learning

Relalwtuhtp of Meamug
to Meaningful Learning

Our discussion o£ meanmglul learning thus far leads to the conclusion

that meaning a product o£ the meaningful learning process, and
tlself is

refers to the differentiated cognitive content esoked in a guen learner by

a particular symbol, or group of symbols, after cither of these expressions has
been meaningfully learned Why this is the case can be deduced directly
from what is involved m
meaningful teaming At the very onset of such
learmng we start with a symbolic expression that is only {lotcninlly mean
mgful to the learner or as yet has no actual meaning for him This expres-
sion is then nonarbitranly and substantively related to, and corresi>ondingly
interacts vvidi, relevant ideas in his cognitive structure
At the conclusion
of the learning process, therefore, it follows tliat tlie product of this intcrac
lion (which product is itself a differentiated
cognitive content) constitutes
the meaning of the newly learned symbolic
expression and will henceforth
be evoked when the latter is presented

Types of Meaningful Learning

The most basic type of meaningful learning uj>on

which all other mean
mgful learning depends is represcmational
learning, dial is. learning the
meanings of single symbols (typically
words) or learning what they represent
language after all, are conventional
1
or socially shared
“"‘•“'y object, event, sttuatton, concept,
or outt
“"* '>>«"onal vvorUs
.mt.o ed ?o^ VV^ To any tln-

“o SnT 7" 7 “metlnng tl.at be has

na anti T oexT“ "''"fV' ''P'e'cotat.onal learn
S. fch.rrZe”'' .
objecu or ideas
''orda come to re,, re
(their referents)
towhich the words refer
that
dung! that the referents dgmfy to him the same
do ^
content Uiat they do differentiated cognitive

dog'^irprledt"!.” “ ^'= °I die word

I
n.eamngful'lr.s ven
.0 a pa'i.icnlar
r Polc'dially

that it signifies
d^g'rnl™ IrbeTJr
^ onving at die moment, and hence
the same ilnn e
itvelfdoc. He i„ mm aLely
rela”2!m',^'‘!
relatively nonarbitrary
siantivefashion— diis urono^t.^,. t and sub
in hi, cogmiive
completed die word stniiiure'Tlmr‘T°"“'
'’''™ ““"'"gful learning is
dog
08 isreba^T
reliably capable of T
eliciting digerent.a.ed
a)g
The Nature of Ueantng 43

niiive content (a comjx>site image of the various dogs in his experience)

that IS approximately equivalent to tliat elicited by particular dog-objects
How representational learning actually occurs, and liow children de
\elop a capacity for such learning, will be discussed later in this chapter in
some detail under die heading of Tjpes of Vocabulary Learning” At this
l>oint tse wish only to distinguish between two basic kinds of meaningful
learning, representational learning and propositional learning Representa
tional learning concerns the meanings of unitary sjTnboIs or iiords and
propositional learning concerns the meaning;s of ideas expressed by groups
of words combined into proposiuons or sentences In the first instance (as
in naming, labeling, and defining aciivities), learning ihe meanings of single
words involves learning what Uiey represent or, in effect, learning speafic
propositions of representational equivalence Ii means learning that partic
ular symbols represent or are equivalent in meaning to particular re
ferents In the second instance or m true propositional learning, the
meaningful learning task is not to learn what words singly, or in combma
tion, represent, but, rather, to leam the meaning of new ideas expressed tn
propositional form In true propositional learning, in other words, the
object of the learning is not to learn propositions of representational equiv
alence, but to learn the meaning of serbal propositions that express ideas
other than those of representational equisalence
In true verbal proposutonal learning, one is, of course, learning the
meaning of a new composite idea in the sense that (a) the proposition itself
1$ generated by combining or relating to each other multiple individual

words, each representing a unitary referent, and (b) the individual words
arc combined in such a way (usually, in sentence form) that the resulting
new idea is more than just the sum of the meanings of the component
individual words Obviously before one can learn the meanings of verbal
propositions one must first know the meanings of their comjwnent terms,
or what the terms represent Tiius representational learning is basic to, or a
prerequisite for, true propositional learning when propositions are expressed
in verbal form
A third type of meaningful learning that is prominent in the acquisition
of subject matter consists of concept learning Concepts (unitary generic or
categorical ideas) are also represented by single symbols just as other unitary
referents are Except m very young learners, as a matter of fact, the individ
ual words that are commonly combined m
sentence lomi to constitute
projJositions actually represent concepts rather than objects or events, and
hence projxisitional learning largely involves learning die meaning of a
conijxjsite idea generated by combining into a sentence single words eacli
of which represents a concept
At this jjomt. It IS obviously necessary to indicate how concept learning
IS related to representational learning Since concejits, as well as objects
 \haningan{ Mraninfjul t^aini'ig

jnd evcnis art rcprcscimd bj t^ords or namct, Uatning \sliJt concept uoriU
mean (karmng whitli toiiccpi i» uproeninl by a j,ncn iici» ujnerpt >»ord,
or learning tlial tlic concept uurd li cipiuaicni in incaiiiiig lo vvhatc^cr
ilic curiccpi ilsclf mcaiii) ii bclf-c\idintl) a major ty(< of Trpicienlational
learning it typically follo\«} concept learning itself, inasmuch as it is very

convenient to be able to represent a newly learned concept by a single word

that IS c(]uivalcni to it in nicaiiing Hut learning ulul the concept itielf

means, vshidi, m effect, consists of learning tshat its critcrial (distingmshing

or identifying) attributes arc. involves a very different tv{JC of meaningful
learning that, like projusitiunal learning is substantive in nature and in
tent rather than nominalistic or representational I hesc lv»o tyjics of mean
ingful learning (conceptual and projiositiunal) ihlfcr m that in the former
instance die cntrriaf allribiites of a ntu concept arc related to cognitive
structure to yield a nevs generic but unKaiy meaning vtlicrcas in the latter
instance a ncv» proporifioii (or (omjtosiie idea) is iclatcd to
cognitive stnic«
lure to yield a nevs compoule meaning They arc
both very Uiflcrcnt from
representational learning even though concept learning
is typically followed
by a form of representational Icaniing in wliicfi
the newly learned concept
IS equated m meaning with tlic concept word that represents it

Logical and Psychological Meaning

In Uie prenoui dncuisign have Uiumduishctl bcmicn llic lialcnlal

meaning inherent lor |iatiinilat Icanicta
in uirtain ijmbolic cnprcaiioiir
Pinlmtlion, on one hand, and ncliial
tlic
Inhel
1°®'“ “ “"""i; "'I'l .he piodnct ol a
mLninZ
Zrel ei " r”,’ "''"‘"5 nccoidilig lo
'iccnmer eonierled into
ne“ Meiem ? i

indiiidualTa ret r.” l'l

and inierLl/ri ® 'I'-'-anurelj reared ro.
1

Ihii section istmnl's '””v

slniclure Our usL in
logical and l»)ehoIos,c!l
Tiatn^lS' TtltoTstht'''"'"™
«o:;t r;‘ “ ln?„tt"dtLtr "zt:
exhibits meaning whidi learning material
meets
if It

tial meaningfulness requirements for jxilcn

In sliort^Ic^*^ "i*"'
of the maienal
It is one of tl^t
^^I^nds on/yi on the nature
wheUicr learning material vl^cnnine
u

^ very nature Such matenal

Meaningful Learning versus Learning Aleamngful Malerial 45

manifests logical meaning can be related on a nonarbitrary and sub

if it

stantive basis to correspondingly relevant ideas that he ivithin the realm of

human learning capability For example, if propositional matenal itself
consists of generally nonarbitrary relationships, then it is also, almost by
definition, nonarbitrary and substantuely relatable to the aforementioned
relevant ideas and thus logically meaningful Obviously excluded, therefore,
from the domain of logical meaning is the almost infinite number of pos-
sible relationships between concepts tliat can be formulated on the basis of
purely random or arbitrary pairings This does not necessarily mean that
all propositions with logical meaning are empirically valid or even logically

defensible The questions of empirical and logical yahdily are issues that
simply do not enter into the determination of logical meaning Propositions
based on unvahdated premises or on faulty logic may conceivably abound
in logical meaning
Psychological (actual or phenomenological) meaning, on the other
hand, is a vvholly idiosyncratic cognitive experience Corresponding to the
distinction between the logical and the psychological structure of knowl
edge, there an equally important distinction between logical and psycho*
is

logical meaning Subject matter content can, at best, have logical meaning
It IS the nonarbitrary and substantive relatabihty of logically meaningful

propositions to a particular learners cognitive structure that makes them

potentially meaningful to him and thereby creates the possibility of trans-
forming logical into psychological meaning m the course of meaningful
learning Thus the emergence of psychological meaning depends not only
on presenting the learner with matenal manifesting logical meaning, but
also on the latter s actual possession of ihe necessary ideational background
yVhen an individual learns logically meaningful propositions, therefore,
they automatically lose their nonidiosyncratic flavor Psychological meaning
is always an idiosyncratic phenomenon Its idiosyncratic nature however,

does not rule out the possibility of social or shared meanings The various
individual meanings which different members of a given culture have for
the same concepts and propositions are ordinanly sufficiently similar to
permit interpersonal communication and understanding This homogeneity
of shared meanings within a particular culture, and even between related
cultures, reflects both the same logical meaning inherent m logically mean
ingful concepts and propositions as well as many common aspects of idea
tional background m different learners’ cognitne structures

Meaningful Learning
versus die Learning of Afeaningful Material

Meaningful learning is not to be interpreted as the learning of mean

ingful materialIn meaningful learning, the materials are only potentially
46 \leamng and Mrantiigful Ixoinmg

meaninglul If ihey were already meaningful, the goal of meaningful Icam

ing that IS, accom
die acqutsiiion of ne\« meanings, should be already
plishcd by definition any learning tsas eter attempted It is true,
l>eforc
of course, Utat in most{xitentially meaningful learning tasks, the component
parts of the material are already meaningful but m these instances tlie task
as a whole is only potentially meaningful tor example,
in learning a new
geometrical dieorcm each of the com|x)nent ssords is already nieaninglul
but die learning task as a sshole (learning the meaning of the theorem) is
yet to be accomplished Thus already meaningful
material, just like its al
ready meaningful com|x>nent jiaru may be
perceived or othensisc reacted
to meaningfully, but it cannot lie
meaningfully learned
This brings us to die im|>ortant distinction
Ixituccn the meaningful
leammg o! poUntiaUy mcaningtul maicnal
and die role learning ol tasVi
dial conlain oireedy meaningful
coiii|»nenii Tlicrc arc innumerable c%
ampler ol role or nonmcaningtul
leammg In learning a Iirt o£ iraircd ad
'“-"I'l'. «eh adjenue ahead) meaningful, but die learning
ir
irrr'i?”^
“ mcaninglol Irecauic ibere nbolly arbilrary arso-

X
r.,

ihmrel onT"
I
n

r"''"”'™
•“

“ geoinetncal

unto m T'"* "in.ngful Horr

rnrmnm To m '
m
’ "“'“•"*'“1 '“nrmg ret m tills latter
“'*• nicrely learn rolel) a senes of
arbitranl) related rrli-T
related to his slmclnretl >ubstanmely
uLTdge' *hus, u i$ imjxirtant to distinguish
beisseen the /?
one tonii a„7„”r 'i,r;"brr ol already meaningful
ponent elements that rat
'
t.
com
Sny meanTnTfnltrngrsg"""- P»-

'/eenmg oeriur l/mnmg/ubi™

alJOui die
mmning/nlTOlTof "hen diey talk
units?'”'
employ iSmmt lw,
die.r ''"‘‘O "'el- hie)
subsL.ni.se meaning of I n" aTTen ",2 *“ not refer to die
It e\okes m
die learner after differential cogniuve content
-tome degree of die
r,n:'r..T”E"'"'*'"“>
odier symbols The ““'P^red lo dial manifested by
mcani„g|„|„„, ,
"hedier u has a mnne7y:£;^“ 'or .lepends on
senes a transactional ^"eb as, ‘
book or merely
function (such as )
hJM) andalsoousuds
fa^T "7 '''l“'‘"R>ek,andZucker
»-".nu.ucb.r.se„cou„.„cd,Ty„;e-5??ro3e:t;:7Xl'
The Acquisttion of hteantngs 47

and Scliuir, 1960) A highly meaningful

word, therefore, tends to be subjec
ti\ely more familiar (Noble, 1953) and to esoke more associations (Glaze,
—
1928, Noble, 1952) tlian a less meaningful word but these are indices of its
meaningfulness rather than explanations of how it becomes meaningful in
the first place One must be careful, in otlier words, not to confuse die mech
amsm whereby a word acquires meaning witii the factors accounting for
meaning it exhibits Reference has already been made
the relative degree of
to the reasons why meaningfuiness facilitates rote learning

The Acquisition of Afeanings

In this section we propose to discuss more systematically some of the

problems imoUed in the acquisition of word and propositional meanings
Thus far, the acquisition of tliese latter types of meanings has just been
considered illustratisely in cfanfying the nature of meaning The acquisi
tion of concept meanings will be considered here only insofar as such leant
mg must be distinguished from the learning of what concept words mean
^fo^e definiiise treatment of concept learning will be found in Chapter 15

Vocabulary or Representattonal Learning

hate already indicated that learning (he meanings of single words

or learning svhat single words represent, imolves the meaningful learning
—
of particular propositions of representational equivalence learning that
particular v»ords represent and thereby signify psychologically the same
things that their referents dowas also pointed out that as a result of sudi
It

learning, words come to elicit approximately the same differentiated cogni

live content that tlieir referents do Our task at this point is to relate more
meaningful learning, namely, representa
explicitly this particular type of
tional learning paradigm of the meaningful
to the previously presented
learning process and to the prevaous discussion of the nature of meaning
Itself In other words, how do human beings acquire vocabulary’ How do

they actually learn what single words mean, and how does such learning
exemplify meaningful learning in general?
To begin with, there is the matter of genic endowment vMthout whidi
no amount of appropriate expenence v\ould suffice Unlike subhuman spe
cies, human beings have a
genetically determined poientiahiy for repre
seniational learning As stated earlier, representational learning is learning
that given
a pattern of stimulation (such as the distinctive pattern of sounds
in iJie symbol dog ) represents and theieby signifies approximately the
same tiling (adog image) that an entirely unrelated pattern of stimulation
(such as the referent dog-objeci) signifies (When a given referent actually
 Mramng and \tfaning]ul learning

signifies something to a particular learner il i» consenuonall) referred to as

a significate. ") The pnnapal step m aciualiring this potentiality for repre
sentauonal leannng is t)picaU) talen near die end of die first )ear of life,

vthen the child acquires the general insight that it is possible to use a s)Tn
bol to represent an> significate He acquires this imiglit b) gcncraliring,
subserball) and intuitnel), from multiple ex|x>sures to the tuo complcmen
tar) forms of die pro[x>siiion of representational tquisalencc dial more pro-
fiaent users of hisnause language arrange for him tliat different referents —
hase different names and that dificrent exemplars of the same referent base
the same name
Once this insight is firmly establislied in cognitive structure, it lays die
necessary foundation for all subsequent reprcsentauonal
learning Their
after vshen a paruailar new pioposiuon of representational is equivalence
presented to him (that “dog is reprcscntauonally equivalent to different
dog-objects and, hence, to their corres|X)nding dog images) he is able non
arbitrarily and subsianuvely to relate sudi a proposition as
an exemplar
to the already esublished and more generalized version of die same proposi
non m his cognmve smiaure The resulting
produa of the mteraction be
tween die two proposiuons is die diilerenuated cogniuve
content dial dog
signifies, or u represcniauonally equivalent to a comw^ite
dog image, and
presentation of the word dog will subsequendy that this image At this
ge of the game a particular
proposition of representational equivalence
' ‘“'P"""?!) lo"5 Ten though
Tu n
ih^ Significate in ouesuon
ol lae
or
to him.
..r — .i
"'‘S a single cjemplar
.
” .V

'ncabular,
^^P's^enl actual and nontategoncal objects
etentt,^nd h t
anti

™sc "
r„d ^ U.e'^relautel)' concrete
Leearhestlom.
oItoiTol412^“^l"T“”^‘‘> ™'"S-
uonal ojuudlencc between eiiabhshnieni of representa
firir*’

teptnames and are equaled generic ideas, diey become con

and categoncal cqgnime
m abstract, generalized,
cooteni.
‘.gn.f> a contpotT.,'" not, jutt
netghlxaltood or Uie pamcolar dog, tn his
older pre^hool Join
altnbulei ol a ‘“ssnicr. it signifies
tomixoite do- im . r the criterial
uvel, Itom 1,„ oan *''“<>'"“1 -nJoc
concrei-einSil'‘l“’'
tincoscrv process is “P^'^nce rsiili dogs. (Tin, latter
called concern f
Cltapier la CorteUud
) sstih the
" detail in
'•>.end.ecr,«,a,a,.„,:7,„7','*"««bre.„ean,„g dtr. that etne^ie,
'anom.d.os,„cra.,caflea,seamI..7S''l"' lenmed. are
anclarntulinal reaction, dtat dte
onm ehetu
The Acquisition of Meanings 49

in each child depending on his particular experience with the species These
reactions constitute the connotaUve meaning of dog It should be noted
however that in older children the connotations of most words for instance
divorce alcohol communism are not acquired through firsthand
experience but are assimilated from prevailing evaluative attitudes in their
immediate cultural environment
After the preschool years the meanings of most new words are learned
by definition or by being encountered in appropriate and relatively explicit
contexts In tins case representational equivalence is estabhsiied cogni m
tive structure between synonyms and already meaningful words or between
new concept words and the meanings conveyed by their respective defini
tions or contexts An adequate definition or context furnishes in turn the
criterial attributes of the new concept expressed in already meaningful
words or combinations of such words For example in learning the mean
mg of the new concept word president (a form of representational learn
ing typically following concept learning itself) a pupil equates the word
in meaning to whatever chief of state or chief executive m a republic
means to him He does so after he learns what tJiese attributes presented in
the definition^ mean (concept learning) However only the representational
learning that follows concept learning namely the process of equating the
concept word in meaning with what the concept itself means can be legit
imately considered part of vocabulary learning since by any reasonable
standard vocabulary learning is synonymous with representational learning
According to the generally accepted meaning of the expression acquiring
a vocabulary consists of learning a body of word meanings which by defini
tion refers to learning what the words mean and not to learning what their
referents mean Thus using the term vocabulary learning to encompass
concept learning as well as learning what concept words mean although
very commonly done only generates conceptual confusion
Learning what concept words mean obviously demands more sophis
ticated prior knowledge about their corresponding referents than does other
forms of representational learning since learning the meaning of concept
words differs in one important respect from learning the meaning of words
that do not represent concepts Where the referent of a given word is an
actual object or event learning that the word signifies the same thing as the
referent does not really involve a prior substantix/e task of learning what the
referent itself signifies Getting to know what an object or event signifies is
a simple matter of perception An object simply signifies the corresponding

1 When tile criterial attributes of a roncept are presented to the learner by

dcfiiution or context rather than discovered by him as in the case of concept forma
tion concept learning is concept assimilation
referred to as In both instances
however wheilier the criterial attributes are discovered or presented they must be
meaningfully related to cognitive structure before concept meanings emerge
 ^
Meaning and Meaningful Learning

perceptual image it evokes when present, or the corresponding memory

image that remains, and can be odtervvise evoked when Uie object is no
longer present However when the referent of a word is a concept (an ab-
straction or a generic idea dial does not actually exist) learning that die
concept word signifies the same thing as the referent, does involve a prior
substantive task of learning what the referent signifies One can get to know
what the concept itself signifies only by learning what its cntenal attributes
are and what they mean This, by definition, is a substantive
form of mean
ingful learning Thus learning the meaning
of a concept word always pre
supposes that the learner first meaningfully learn what its referent (the con
cept) signifies, even though the actual Tepresenialtonal learning involved is
no different in process than that involved
essentially
m learning the mean
ing of words that do not represent concepts
The practical importance of distinguishing
between learning
carefully
die meanings of concepts and learning
the meanings of concept words can
be illustrated by citing several evciyday
and educational examples First, it
not infrequently happens, particularly
m
concept formation, that pupils
concepts meaningfully without
learning for quite some

clr “T l-now wl.a. par-

mLfTro "’“"'"P “ > '‘’y I”**'"'

KTOn l°„a coLam remember meor

8..ege equoalcnt, ol '“re.gnlan

namtr„g„agc"I“.;;f

and die corres|«„iding "'""'"5 “ncept words

new unonum fr”!
suiicinuous and naslctul '“"S''r8' equivalents, II IS
ol umc'fo il
conce,,. word, and
.He iCerenu

eria, -fllitf resnli ol re.aling ibe.r cr,

wndy lollows ihat die ’’ “8"'"'' »r>iciurc, a ncccs-
corLnfnr
Tlic proixwmon that a cncii learned
referent that itself
docs not sipn r'***
** equivalent
meaning to a m
«l*i,rary ,|,ai „
cannot jxiw.bly so thoroughly »
to cognnuc blVo",a,L?
*
stnuiurc when Icainnl ^ ‘“*^^‘^niivcly related
r^dier than of
>
icprcscntaZa ul?™ example of rote
kinds of rote learning a»>oui the two separate
involved heir I Ji"®
lumepi uords ihat have ^liyrolclj learned
E>cen cciuaiJl'**"?
'-le utih.y and
arc fmgonrn
VOCABtLAHy ItAKVlSC
A
'"'rgoing II, a,
,oobula„ lea,,.™'*'';'','' Iron, die
V
“ 'rganlrd ,n dn. ol word me nnngs.
a, a numlesunon ol condn.on.ng
or lotc se.bal
5” Mean tg and Meaningful Learning

tional learning m that new meanings emerge after i potential!) meaningful

learning task is related to and mieracts witli relcsant ideas in cognitise
structure on a nomrbiirar) and substantise basis in this case howeser, the
learning task or potentially meaningful propontion consists
of a composite
idea and is expressed seibalty in a sentence
containing both dcnotatise and
connoiaiise ivord meanings and llie syntactic
fiinclions' of and relations
betiseen Isolds The dillerentiated
cogniiise conlcnl rcsulling from the
meaningful learning process and conslitunng
its meaning is an interactional
product of the p„„c„lnr rray lu rshicli
the content of the ness proposition
related to the content of relevant
established ideas
The relationship in question may be either
cogn.lise structure m
subordinate superordinate or
a combination of these tsvo

Kspect m 7 “*
T"""" general,, and
resJc, ,0 level of abstraction
y
organ, red ssith
inclns, senes, the emergence
°1 = '’''’'rr/mole relation
IP of theTwTea ' “S".t.ve srencure Thts msolses U.e
mLm«„ro ' ““"'"8'“' Proposilions under more
and genml ideas^n « ,
inclusive

.dea,arT:Kse7aCa.e;t:f^^^^^^
liare maximally specific alSrdirec.
re
(b) possess subsecjuent learning tasks
enoueli exolanatorv ,

detail potentiall) othenvise atbitrar) factual

and
tl5e
rtieanmeful
firmest
(d) organize related
t?4 o^^ new fact!
stability to pro-
meanings <
aroun^f a
grating the component
elements of
Hiweby inte
‘

and Mith existing new kno!Tr°"i

owledge both with each other
knowledge

- merely supjKirt.se of or
tion in cognitne tnclusite proposi
structure (derivalwe
uaiements illustratne
of
sul
kmiliar n
« when one encounters
'-rc typical,,
a process ol
an exiension
„ns,c,„
p
ccchUvc subsuramniTT,
n™ ^Tn^L”' ^
‘'™-rac,
““"'"S' «= acquired tlirongh
;»
learned ro,x)sii,ons
ela,„ra.mrS„Smr
I rins latter ntoces ')“a''''“lion of presiously
liming unfamiliar
nuddl,,,,
pnLples
’ 'or example m
sub
'"“""‘““"''"‘-'rtheirCrisL^l^rngl''"'''
""

— ••••> uidpter

‘ubject mailer forgett

The Acquisition of Meanings 53

Tseu learning malenal bears a superordmate relationship to cognitive

structure ishen one learnsan inclusive neu proposition under svliich several
established ideas may be subsumed This type of propositional learning is

relatively rare, since textbooksand teachers typically introduce more general

and inclusive propositions and then present examples, corollanes, qual
first,

ifications, extensions, elaborations and so forth Superordmate learning

takes place in the course of inductive reasoning or when presented material
IS organized inductively or involves the synthesis of component ideas (The

acquisition of superordmate meanings occurs more commonly conceptualm

than m propositional learning as, for example, when children learn that
the familiar concepts of carrots, peas, beans, beets, and spinach may all be
subsumed under the new term vegetable’) Integrative reconahation or
synthesis of several apparently conflicting propositions under a more in
elusive and unifying new principle is another example of superordmate
learning
The meaningful learning of new propositions that bear neither a sub
ordinate nor a superordmate relationship to particular relevant ideas in
cognitive structure, (that cannot E>e subsumed under particular established
propositions or cannot themselves subsume particular established ideas),
gives rise to combmatorial meanings The learning of many new proposi
tions as well as concepts yields this category of meaning They are poten
tiallymeaningful because they consist of sensible combinations of previously
learned ideas that can be nonarbitranly related to a broad background of
generally relevant content m
cognitive structure by virtue of their general
congruence with such content as a whole Unlike subordinate or superordi
nate propositions, they are not relatable to particular relevant ideas within
cognitive structure, and this availability of only generally and nonspecifi
cally relevant content m cognitive structure presumably makes combina
tonal propositions or anchorable to previously acquired knowl
less relatable

edge and hence, at least initially, more difficult to learn and remember than
subordinate or superordmate propositions This latter inference follows di
rectly from the previously described conditions of meaningful learning and
from evidence mdicating that the availability of appropriately relevant con
tent in cognitive structure is a crucial vanable in meaningful learning
Most of the inclusive and broadly explanatory new generalizations that
students learn in saence, mathematics social studies, and the humanities,
for example, relationships between mass and energy, heat and volume, genic
structure and variability, demand and price, are examples of combinatorial
learnings Although acquired with greater difficulty than subordinate or
superordmate propositions, they manifest, once adequately established the
same inherent stability as any inclusive or superordmate (subsuming) idea
in cognitive structure (see above) Further elaboration of these ideas typically
results in subordinate learning (analysis differentiation) and less commonly
m superordmate learning (generalization, synthesis)
54 Mea mg and Meaningful Learning

Since propositions can presumably be learned and retained most readily

when they are subsiimahic under speafically relevant ideas in cognitive
structure and since the hierarchical organization of cognititc structure is
Itself illustrdtne of the subsumptne principle it seems reasonable to suggest
that the subsumptive mode of meaningful learning be utilized whereser
possible Thisihe theoretical tauonalc for progressisc
is
dilTcrcmiation in
the presentation ot subject matter and
for the use of organirers
Some school learning that is frequently labeled
rote learning (and
which under many circumstances ij purely
rote) is actually intended to be
a simple form ol meaningful
propositional learning as for example certain
aspects o£ he learning ol addition
and mtilliplicalion facts It is tme that
Mme rote learning may be encouraged as a mean, ot
accelerating speed ot

“"‘'"'“"I'"!! of number ideas

and re a ,r.b
"
numbers to b,^;
^ "0"«I.,trar,ly’^>'".0S-rcla..ng pairs ot
and substantively related
fo cxi ml eonL7
hardll X"
c^mpLaS ?o an a.^^1
d
'''>"<>">l'.ps m cognitive structure it

more
ts

,u,m^’:Lm„;"for;“a7p;Vdrsu~r:" -
not be purely rote or nirr,»tir sets therefore need
suc^ssively choose to
lean, both
m«^mgtu‘^yTnd ,o.dy‘'"‘“‘“"“'"'’'
^

cal oUh™ ulltmn'''mevmb™ “bo'C typ-

propositions are presented learning when substantive
to if I
and remember th^relmug 1, 1. .“'Z “
to realize
ositional learning is
learmng The
also a maior tv ^ however that prop-
P™blem solving or
mam differenii discovery
reception learning
snuatZ ‘“"""6 ^
•miaiion, on the
other inheres lu
whelhel h'i principal
“
‘‘"“very learning
IS to be
learned is discovered content of what
bv vhe Ip
T"' "
In reception “
learning ,h!s ><> •'"r
a rubslamive or
comem
non problem tettinp'’Z”"‘ ‘“rner in the form
sland and remember
In discovery ™'>' I""!''
cover this coniem leamZ-'”'''7"
^
himvelf by Zciatmu ""''r '‘and be must dis.
•ofotious ,o the
pr„Wp„, that arZ ''Pr'»nr olrcr
op'^
Actuall, the
reception and d.sZ” '“P’ ‘'“r
e involved
succesvively at
To begin „uh p,on,p,„ different silL f
P'^Pchnonal learning
problem solving process
pncralion involves p,^
rather a
framCmm 7' a"™ Their
ZZ” '",''1'“''°") ol relevant
"
audZZ, <'"'™'“'rrng reorganization
""""’™a„„„) substmte
ZZlZ'rt'Z tZ
Cognition versus Perception in Jtfeamngfi I Jerbal learning 55

two mam types problem selling propositions defining the nature and
(a)

conditions of the current problem situation and (b) background proposi

tions consisting of relevant aspects of presiously acquired knowledge (in
formation principles) that bear on the problem
The meaningful learning of problem setting propositions in school and
similar learning emironments typically insolves only reception learning®
That is the propositions are presented to the learner and he need only learn
and remember what they mean by relating them nonarbitranly and sub
stantivel) to his cognitive structure However unlike substantive reception
learning situations that end with the learning and retention of the proposi
tions in question the meaningful internalization of problem setting prop-
ositions sets in motion a discovery learning process A new problem solving
proposition embodying a potentially meaningful means-end relationship
is then generated through various transformation operations on the inter
nahzed problem setting and background propositions The final step in tins
meaningful learning sequence namely learning and retaining the meaning
of the newly generated problemsolving proposition is again a matter of
meaningful reception learning In fact the only real discovery aspect of this
entire sequence of meaningful propositional learning consists of the actual
process of transforming the substrate propositions into a potentially mean
ingful problem solving proposition
Thus in meaningful discovery learning as opposed to the more typical
(substantive) instances of meaningful reception learning the learner non
arbitrarily and substantively problem setting propositions to his cog
relates
—
nitive structure not for the pur|)ose of understanding and remembering
what they mean as an end tn itself but for the purpose of transforming them
(m conjunction with and with the benefit of previously acquired relevant
background knowledge) into new problem solving propositions that are
potentially meaningful to him

Cognition versus Perception

in Meaningful Verbal Learning

The distinction between perceptual and cognitive processes in mean

ingful verbal learning is particularly difficult to define because both kinds
of processes involve interaction between verbal stimulus input and cognitive
structure Weboth perceive verbal messages and cognitively learn their

In more informal learning situations and in research laboratories (where

®
discovery is genuinely autonomous) the learner himself formulates problem setting

propositions through a preliminary type of discovery learning folios ed by mean

ingful reception learning of ihe products of discovery
56 M< ni ig nul Meaningful Learning

meaning as a result of interpreting them in the light of existing knowledge

The difference between the two processes is one of immediacy and complex
It) Perception inioUes an tmmedtate content of awareness before the inter
icntion of sudi complex cogniine processes as are esen iniolved recep- m
tion learning Cognition iniolves siidi processes as relating the new material
to relevant as|>ects of existing cognitive structure ascertaining
how the re
suiting new meaning can be reconciled with established knowledge and
recoding it m more familiar and idiosyncratic
language
Hence if verbal meaning results when potentially meaningful verbal
materials are related to and incorporated
within existing cognitive structure
(thereby generating new and differentiated
cognitive content) and if this
process of learning (acquiring) meanings
is conceded to be cogmlive in na
ture when and how in this sequence
of events docs pcrccplton play a role
m meaningful verbal learning^ Whether
a given mtellecttial operation in
solves an immediate content
of awareness (perception) on the
one hand
or more complex intellectual
processes (cogniiion) on the other
depends
of the learning task relative tbtlie
lcarnSs'*j«‘'''T‘

luT'o » sVmM ^ "'“"'"e'-'l

’
196ah) Uarn.ng lhat pirMeuIar
» cog, „l,„e problem
» d dd ? a^, ‘"r

of the svntaciic code ana nf .1 - 1 1

‘ •^oth minimal mastery
•icill) deco,l,„s -be .en.enee a,
Spoken words and the
svmax
bal'd
nr.,
uSllTo ‘'"""'"IS'
•‘owever when both the
already
i ,
thoroughly mastered
aide to grasp tlicir
denolm.vl the diild is

iercrptual basis Tins *>otactic fimciions on t purely

scmieii
‘Cl non IS

In other vsords
tlierrctxa^rh^
once the svmlxiirril 't
limes and Ijciomc
nicimngful this
Cl-; -'.'-l,)ap,,rc£d;!’elml^
1 he
-..m,,,
sitiniion
somewhat mor..
is
~?
^
^‘^Snu.on and per

encountered
-C'Cor.lerd,
subsequent encounters
'"•'cra.aod.og
many

pro^
always a new learning projxisition itself is
task wiiose m..-.
,nea,„„„, '''
""CTcd eren
.rmacllc ,t

"all,
-I » —
’"'I car, ,I„„ Ere
ip, rcl.cndid
re ..'.1,1, a”t„
."SniEion it,cre,.„ei,
l|,e f,„,
(.? I

""
I"™'-”")
«ord, are already
Ti,e ..nde/
'"'"I'mg [arrccplion and
mmn.nsEai
mrin.nstai lC'ccp.,„„ of
I'C'ccpl'on p„,„
,|,e po.en
,.f rl.e
l;.;"al ,„ean,„,, ‘"S' rrlanng
1 II e r„„ „age fl”™" per^„ed
,i,e
JT'"™’ '"tldi'e ..rum, re
(ogftilion versus Perception in Meamrigfut Verbal Learning 57

acquires its meaning Thus perception precedes cognition m the meaningful

learning of new propositions The product of the jierceptual process is not
propositional meaning itself, but the immediate content of awareness that
follows from preliminary interpretation of the sensory input (visual or aura!)
furnished by the potentially meaningful learning task This perceptual con
tent of awareness is intermediate, botli temporally and in terms of complex
ity of process, between primilise sensation and the actual emergence of
meanings It consists of awareness both of the separate meanings of the com
ponent %\ords and of the syntactic relations among them, but stops short of
apprehension of the meaning of the propositional message as a svhole
Hence, in order to understand a sentence, one must first be able (a) to
perceive the potential propositional meaning it communicates, (understand
the denotative meanings and the syntactical functions of its component
words) and then (b) to incorporate this perceived potential meaning within
existing cognitive structure The first step implies both adequate knowledge
of vocabulary and a functional, if not a formal, grasp of syntax The second
step implies relating the perceived proposition to relevant anchoring ideas
in cognitive structure
It should be noted however, that repeated encounters with, or exposure
to, the same potentially meaningful propositions change the above specified
relationship between cognition and perception During the first encounter,
the potentially meaningful message is first perceived, and the perceived con

tent IS then incorporated into cognitive structure to yield a corresponding

meaning But once the message becomes meaningful, perhaps as early as on
the second presentation, the two processes cognition and perception be
come telescoped into one That is as a result of the initial emergence of
meaning and the concomitant change in cognitive structure, the learner
becomes sensitized to the potential meaning in the message on subsequent
encounters with it Its meaning having already been grasped the message
no longer presents a cognitive problem it immediately (without the inter
vention of any cognitive processes) conveys actual rather than merely poten
tial meaning when next perceived * Hence although the acquisition of
meanings is a cognitive process it is proper to reier to ibe cogrntTve ttn-Atmt
evoked by an already meaningful proposition as a product of perception
ratlierthan of learning
To
summarize once the syntactical code and a basic vocabulary are
mastered the only cognitive aspects of undentandmg a sentence are asso-

0 Partly because of this telescoping effect (the immediate or perpetual emer

gence of meaning) repetition as will be pointed out later has a particularly con
solidating effect on learning and retenuon the learner does not have to grasp
meanings on subsequent trials and can concentrate solely on trying to remember
them
 i^SlI-CENiri^LLlIB^^^

Sfearting end Meaningful Learning

e ncher than the onginal input events

(G A .

Miller suggests tliai linguistic recoding i$ the most powerful device that
human beings possess for extending ilie amount of infoimatTon they can
processand remember, and thus for acquinng large bodies
of knowledge
Miller and J A Selfridge a^e against the
importance of meaning in
learning b) appljmg this type of informition
theory analysis to the problem
of explaining why meaningless connected discourse is remembered better
than strings of linguistically
unconnected words and meaning
as well as
pro« n t IS instance, chunking
accomplished by grouping a senes
i$
oI vordj thal are sequeni.ally
dependent on eacli oilier into larger units
and .hen rememlrenng the phrase,
rather lhan individual nords
tZ IT “'“""'“"“s rs derrsed from .he eon
7e^fna rn f n
''"gursueally connected discourse and
t"a. a e r.r.'"'l
‘>"J implitrtly learned
liv all ,!.™ h
of Iden n° r, ' -n term,
0 atCuTar
“ "" of the choice
1
of
cZrol “ir enTV
1

'l""'*'
“• «t'nt to nhlch
conr.,:;'rurnror”o?dr,
aSitensequenceofnordsfnieTaUeOfor
tt Progresniel,

('filler
-
and
facihraS

Selfridge
is m
ihort range associations of ti.*

IKO p
r,.a.i

ISSl^rn
c
1
.
^ 1°"

rhet
?“
message
“'O “ femiliar
'T
preserves the
to us'
f«. nhen sl.fr. m
Xn.^,: ^r^ 'T™’'’ ''''"‘‘"S ^ -
seummarena, the nonni'ni
From dll, 11 1, argued
Ta nX.fr'"
" “'"'"' 8 '“' ma.enal
.In. cornea, ual derem
sn »ord, iKirmu posinrc j
“'O' 8 '“ “r
iransfer and tl.a^i,
miller lhan die "' tfoiemdencies
meaning dial '"'t«e,
fKilitates learning
1
t'JM (M.Her „,] sdindge,
p ISI)

honeser. .ha. com

f3 I«cU) for apjireficndin"
^ ‘ncrease the learners role
and mt
tlmiigli M,,|„ ,„d ."’'''"Oft'Ot’ For eaampic.
'.erial mainfesimg
de^™,"™ al

.he .rnret;;^ ^:'.?"’""'’”"^ "'t nonsense

"S p.o^ 1, recaiw
'd »' po.en.mllj mean
to Ijear in
m.nd dial .he, “ " '"tpo'tott
O'h seiliaiini or demanded ’.,rrl.«""'"®'n
nlr learning of 'n F''”' '"“'"til
«'urvrobvioiwl> imie„,
'
picchulwallof connected dis-
"meges tlicinrorin*^i
of l'' 0""mg and s.or.ng
dial die role i'™"'™*'""
' "
ad
learning of Conner , ''l'"'"r (in ihe same na,
ft' '"tning
J.Z ^ZT"!
words rf
” "•*"»)
ctcd
Wqusc vdcl)
">
the scmicn

^7GJ
Significance of Meaningful Learning tn Acquiring Knouledgt 61

TABLE 2
Nonsense Prose of Varyisc Stated Decrees
OF Approximation to Esclisii
0—
(Adapted from Miller and Setfridge, J9S0)

1—order approximation

b)'way consequence handsomely finanaer bent flux

2—
casalry swiftness weatherbeaten extent

3— order approximation
abilities with that beside I for waltz you the sewing
4—
order approximation

was he went to the newspaper is in deep red

order approximation

call and then boy ts a biped is the beat

order approximatton

Saw the football game will end at midnight on January

5~order approximation

they saw the play Saturday and sat down beside him

tial flow of the connected material conforms to the familiar contextual con-
straints of the language that make phrasing possible True meaningful learn
ing on the other hand, presupposes bolh (hat the learning task, is potentially
meaningful and that the learner exhibit a meaningful learning set Thus,
irrespective of how much potential meaning may inhere a given passage m
of connected discourse, the material is still rotely learned as long as the
learner’s set is to assimilate it verbatim Jn short, because of their rote learn
mg set, the subjects of this experiment never had a fair opportunity to
demonstrate that meaningful learning of prose materia! is superior to the
rote learning of linguistically connected nonsense
Consequently, one cannot apply Milter's conclusion that “it is these
familiar dependencies rather than the meaning that facilitates learning to
any situation other than the artificial one involved verbatim or rote m
learning The acquisition of large bodies of knowledge is simply impossible
in the absence of meaningful t<»ammcr of discourse, by
making “chunkig^^fiaMrble undoubtedly facilitates learning and retention.
62 Meaning and Meaningful Learning

but unless learning is also meaningful \ery little knowledge organized or

otherwise can be assimilated

Neobeliaviorutic Theories of Meaning

The foregoing account of meaning as the differentiated cognitive con

tent eliated by particular symbols or groups of symbols
and acquired as the
end product of a meaningful learning process is commonly
regarded as
mentalistic by individuals subscribing
to a neobehavioristic theoretical
orientation in psychology However
the term mentalistic although used
opprobriously does not detract m
any way from the theoretical cogency of
this view of meaning—unless

of the behavioristic position

one assumes m
advance the axiomatic validity
A psychological theory has no need to be apol
^etic a out assuming the existence
of differentiated states of consciousness
particular View of meaning is
nrftT?!,
connected so intimately
"’”"'"8'“' '"fcs’ learning that constttutej the

toZ 1 ’"‘f
'>'><>'• “
» '»l-«'e .here ts obvioutly some ob

nftem.ttsevmt

’"'"'P"' "“X neobehaviorists do not tden

ttty meamnriti
oSmZ LTL f", '»8"'.'« «Pe„enee and the cogntt.ve

Suci and Tannenbaum elicited by a sign (Osgood

1957?'Arr*"1
hypothesis the acqumtion ol
^ 0‘8°»d s mediational
ra which signs as a “ conditioning process
result o[ muliinlTTO J"™
significates esentuallv
^ ^ contiguous presentations with their
mm*. i
' i

.oml rc.pon,crw\;ThVs°
represent significates because
sponse made to •'"phcitly part of the total re
significates and H,,.
be coextensive with
this imDiicit fra
^ » therefore held to
representational med.a.ion “Us »

Denote, oernu
Alean.ng

nccounl tm ‘"..h.bty to
ample elicits a sharply ^ fur ex
defined and nrert 1
ence (meaning)
embodying the distmetne ’’ cognitive expert
distingnished from
scry most a
ca J
w„l,el h™,?,!. "I dog, as
representational mediation “matures At the
ditionablc aspects ol process rellective
the ,o„, i^n of tile mosl con
behavior instigated
by dogs can tdentify the
NeobehaviorisUc Theories of Meaning 63

attttudwal and affective connotations of the word dog It cannot possibly

define its denotative meaning’ Despite the elicitation of markedly different
implicit behavior or dispositions in persons who respectively fear cherish
and despise dogs the word dog has the same denotative meaning for all
three individuals that
is it instigates substantially the same differentiated

cognitive content These same impliat responses can also be elicited by

many odier signs (for instance
cat wolf ) which have very different de
notative meanings Thus the same sign can instigate quite different impIiat
(motor affective) responses consistent with the same denotative meaning
and the same implicit responses can be elicited by signs with quite different
denotative meanings It is clear therefore that an adequate theory of mean
ing must define the meaning of a symbol in terms of differentiated cognitive
content and the psychological operations that determine such content even
if this approach is opprobriously charactenred as mentahstic by other
theorists
Cognitive theorists concede of course that the connotative aspects
of meaning can be plausibly conceptualized as a fractional implicit response
lai^ely affective in nature In fact C k Siaais and A \V Staais (1957) were
able through simple conditioning procedures to invest nonsense syllables
with the connotative meanings of already meaningful words However by
any standard the more crucial and distinctive aspect of the acquisition of
meaning is denotative in nature and this aspect of the meaning phenom
enon can hardly be explained by invoking the same mechanism that ac
counts for the connotative attributes of words
Osgoods mediational theory of meaning has been broadened recently
by both O H
Mowrer (I960) and A U
Staats (1961) to include condi
tinned sensory responses The word apple according to Mowrer not
only carries the implication of something liked or disliked but also of an
object with certain purely sensory qualities (Mowrer 1960 p 164) On the
positive side this modified mediational \iew approaches the cognitive posi
tion inasmuch as it maintains that words (conditioned stimuli) represent
objects by virtue of eliciting part of the same cognitive content (images or
cowivO/aaed. vmvQty responses^ evoked by the objects Once tlie carrier of
meaning is thus identified with substantive conscious content (images) rather
than with implicit behavior an adequate basis is established for the differ
entiated aspects of denotative meaning Nevertheless significant theoretical

7 Under certain conditions of course altitudinal and affective elements may

become part of denotative meaning For example in three different cultures where
dogs are respectively sacred abhorrent and eronomicaliy indispensable it is con
ceivable that the associated relevant attitudes and feelings may become incorporated
into conceptual content Under these circumstances however they actually con
stitute distinctive defining attributes of the con^pt rather than correlated attitudes
 Veamng and Mrantnfifal Ijeatnin^

diHiculties still remain In the first place it strains crcdulit) to concctse of

the cognitive content cvolcil bj a si^n or a vignificatc as a sensor) respome
If consciousexperience must be equated plienomenologirall) with motor
and glandular responses to fit cogiiilise events into the stimiilus-resfxjnsc
paradigm onl) {>seudo-rapprochmcnt is achieved between the neobelnvior
istic and cognitive positions Second as wc shall see shortly the mechanism
vshereby meanings are acquired is not really very analogous to conditioning

The Problem of Ilepresertlaliott

A
second related difficulty on which mcdiattonal theories of meaning
tend lo founder concern! the eery nature
of sjmftolic representation Tfic
sery essence nf a repreaentationaf
symtiot it that alilioiigli it does not re
sembfe ns referent tn any nay it signifies
die same ihing dial die fallcr does
after representational learning occois
According in die medialinnal sieis
lossescr ssordt represent things because
llic> jitoituce in human fteings
'““a"! filings as a mediation
°'i*o
" 18a7 Bin die fact dial a
c p 7)

' ">»' "» "I'fant elinls

am does not impl) in
sta^rha, 1
">
he reLm di^ ''“'•"’S 'ndisidual ssliat
=”>'"’8
pnma d, LZ,'" > flfo
>’l!"'rffa>e or symbol
dZed anTAsol”'"™"”'’" objeetise expliot s larpl)

thekmd„fa,f:;“',r.L?e"::Ue^ "
from other things There *' (referent or symbol)
no '‘gni ication viuhout
aviareness this special kind of

h, a'„7a'«"mtr:ba°Zr'* '”'‘1- "» n™".t»".ed

ally .ague
something
mb ecm^l l'^'T'"'’™'''*
">«
Further what
'> ‘)1>

signifies to
a person anrsAhau"*
signified are related
but h\ no m..,n ‘’""S
respond to it at all ' phenomena He may not
eitlier affeciic I
response c.n
ha:d;;^^tn:d'^^^^
Mgn.ficate or sjmbol
and more explicit wav
signifies to h,m
Ixnh of
lu of^ ih
‘ ^ ^ ** J“st
particular
another
* ***
«Snir> IS representational s)mbols
essentially
y denotauve
denotause m nature and of
explaining ishy this is the
Second implicit
serv m the
d e notion dm
die ,>cnon tsho
k„'.?ur'’i‘
“ "I'fnentiitional ijmliol is
-nlalioud chtracle;
same dung Uiat
and
die referent
*
f™^ aifpreeiaies that it
» "f-
sigui/fe. die
'sar If a
does bn
sereB“
" “ ">' "" .long Hot.
coudiiionmg 1 , ac,,„„B ,|,e f»“er to ! '* ' ‘'''“nB''
elicit part of the same
response that
Neobehavioristic Theories of Meaning 65

the iinconcljtioned or onginallj adequate stimulus (the sjgnificate) does

thereby de\eIoping a capability it did not originally possess, it does not, as a
result of this process, represent the signiHcate but simplybecomes an ade
quote stimulus in its own right, the conditioned indnidual, m
other words,
responds to the symbol as if it uere the signihcate and has no appreciation
whatsoever of its representational character Indispensable, therefore, to the
concept of symbolic representation is some degree of appreciation on the
part of the individual who knows what a particular symbol means, that the
pattern of stimulation constituting the symbol is not the same pattern of
stimulation constituting its signihcaie

Conditioning or Cognitive Process

Finally, it is evident that the use of the conditioning paradigm to ex

plain the process whereby representational meaning is acquired constitutes
an unwarranted extension of principles that are valid for certain simple
kinds of learning to a more complex and qualitatively different kind of
learning This is particularly unfortunate when a more satisfactory explana
tion is available
There are at least three good empirically grounded reasons for believing
that the previous descnption of representational learning as an active cogni
tive process, exemplifying the baste features of meaningful learning, is more
tenable than the conditioning explanation favored by mediational theorists
(a) Human beings generally, apparently even in early childhood and un

questionably afterward, understand that everytlnng has a name and that

any given name signifies the same things that iis referent docs It would
certainly be remarkable if this general insight were not put to good use in
—
learning the meanings of particular symbols if the learning of all particular
word meanings did not involve some nonarbitrary reference to, and facihta
tion by the presence of this stable generalization in cognitive structure
(b) In acquiring word meanings learners give every indication of consciously
and actively equating word and referent in meaning They are also well
aware of the fact that although symbol and significate signify the same
things, each consists of an entirely different pattern of stimulation (c) Even
very young children can learn word meanings and retain them for days
and often weeks at a time after only a single pairing of word and significate
These facts are wholly incompatible with either a conditioning or rote
learning explanation of acquiring word meanings but are entirely consistent
with the available evidence regarding meaningful learning
The cognitive interpretation of the acquisition of meanings conflicts in
no way with the empirical fact that signs like any conditioned stimuli, may
aulomatically elicit conditioned responses This latter phenomenon, as we
have seen previously, probably accounts m
part for the connotative mean
ing of words Hence, in the acquisition of meanings, the same sign can
 "" '77,',”^
\.ecom. loll. >
„«KU.c.l 1..1I. ™.,„o,.n.c mwninc
on.l u

at moir itaOxl co n.we tanlrnl (,lfno.ali>T "B

conatlc innsc, ni
.. an <-.«-nl.al
.amlinon
ComiBmlt time liotarti. .Mnlx.1 ami ..gmfua.c
m
tor IcLilis each l)|«- al meiniii, l.m rl.>. a Atle.cM .c.le the atq.m. m
denonme iiicaniitK (meanini;Iii
lion of rcjirescniaiioinl equivalfiwc
or
contiof ante meaning (tomlnioninR)
learning) llian in llie acqiinition of

Offier Aeobe/imioriilif I tnit

toiiccpl of
Nol all iicolKlnMorut* of tonne nnlirarc a mctliatiorial
a'
meaning R \ Uttmet <1057) for cxamjte !ian«Il« \cr!»il l»elia\ior
simpl) a linguiiuc sanely of cniitiftl ic<i«on«e >shuli ran l>c Inouglit tinilcr

slimului tonuol lliTovigli tlifittcnual tetnfottemcni and cxpltctlly tlrnie»

lliat ihc concept of meaning n necearary or ii»cf»l iti explaining inch lx?*

luMor He i* complcicl) uncontcinetl vfuli ilie proWetn of vhtiRer an

emitted verbal rcipon« reprevrnts ilic *timiilii» ilm conic to elicit it ami
hence v,uh the problem of hoi^ \erbnlrej roemaiion i» Icarncil Ilic prn\>-
lem of how meaning it learned ii dim toUeil i>) i)cn)ing ihni meaning
exists at the same time howe'er the mmt significant asjicci of learning and
cognition at thehuman level is atbitraril) ruled out of existence
W
A Bousficld (l%t) adopts a somewhat related ixniiion mam m
laming that the meaning of i word to a given individual is nothing more
than his jurticular ptiern of serin) asvouaiions witli that term Hus
view however is at the very least viifncralilc to the obvious criticism that
the verbal associations a word evoVes do not clefine its denotative meaning
One of the commonest verbal awKiatioiw with vivy term aftet vll is its
semantic opiiomc
The view that the learning of word meanings u compinble to the rote
learning of paired assooates —
the signtficate constituting one term of tlic
pan and its corrcsponilmg symliol roniimiting the other
term— is widely
held but docs nol warrant sepraic consideration
All of the difficulties
asenbei \o vVic conditioning ex]i)snaiion of the learning process also aiiply
to this view

Propositional Meaning
It IS in trying to enpbin liois itc acqiiiic tlic meanings ciii cndcictl by
mlaling .to. to eatl. other that
neobeltas.or.sts encot.mer tlieir greatest
iliculty The only e»,.lanat.oi, they
can oiler to account tor the acqiilsi

med,°r.m '"'""'"B »' and

“"tld'otcti to eacli other (Momet 19al 19G0)
One otvio
«nn„7 r IS

h. explain
possibly I
die
> •'« condinonine paradigm
semanuc information comeyed
by the syntactic
Acquiring Meanings Informal Leamn g of Syntax 67

functions of tvorcls in a sentence Most propositions are both logically and

syntactically much more complicated with respect to the subject predicate
relationship than O H Alowrers paradigm example of Tom is a thief
would ha\e us believeFor example on the basis of simple contiguity and
conditioning principles alone John hits Mary and Mary hits John
should elicit identical meanings
Even more important is the fact that in understanding the meaning of
Tom is a thief one is doing miicli more in a cognitive sense than merely
conditioning the meaning response of thief to the subject Tom We
have already considered the shortcomings of the conditioning mechanism
in explaining the acquisition of word meanings Jn addition it seems much
more plausible to suppose that a specific proposition of this nature derives
Its meaning from the fact that it can be subsumed as an examplar under the

more general existing proposition m cognime structure that any particular

individual may be a thief Further as already pointed out most propositions
bear a much more complex relationship to established ideas m cognitive
structure and also involve the perception of much more complex syntactic
relationships between the component words of a sentence than does Mowrer s
example

Acquiring Meanings
Informal Learning of Syntax

Linguistically speaking grammar consists in large part of the particular

accepted by the users of a language
set of syntactic rules that are generally
for inflectingwords and combining them into sentences It is in effect a
syntactic code consisting among other things of (a) connecting words
(prepositions conjunctions) (b) designative words (articles demonstrative
adjectives) (c) inflections indicating number gender person case tense
mode and mood and (d) word order rules adding relational meaning to
connected discourse From a psychological standpoint however syntactical
rules pnmarilj serve the transactional function of bringing verbally ex
pressed ideas (images and concepts) into relationship with each other in a
reliable fashion for the purpose of generating and understanding new ideas
Hence when a group of words are appropriately inflected and combined
according to the designated rules the resulting sequence is not only gnm
niatically correct but also communicates the idea that the speaker or writer
intends to convey Typically therefore a given word in a sentence both
conveys a distinctive denotative meaning and by virtue of its particular
syntactical function in the sentence (subject object verb) furnishes adcli
tional semantic information that contributes to the understanding of propo
sitioml meaning As a matter of fact one often needs to know tlie sjntactical
function of a word before its denotative meaning can be apprehended as
 and Mraningful Ixarntng

in the case of vords of different meaning tint sound alike or of certain

\\nids lint can scr\c as Ixith nouns and serhs
The pnncijiil p>diological problems ssitli res|jccl to grammar, then
arc tos|Kcif) thccognitist processes insotsed in generating and understand
mg sentences and to discoser boss cliildren learn to idcnlif) and appro-
priaicl) use different sjntictic categories Selected as|x;cts of the first

j>rohlcm has nircadj lietn discussed in some dctiil earlier in this cliapter
The second problem mil lie considered bneflj beloss
ITic informal learning of ssni'ix is a gradual and extended learning
process ih it is coinjianiblc to other forms of mciningfiil learning and reten
lion In this rose hossesrr the siniciiirc of the language
itself is tlie learning
taskor ohjett of learning The grammar itseil hj noting children obviouslj is
different from that of adults but nesctihelcss manifests
a distinciisc stnir
uirt of Its ovsn at each particular stage —
i structure that is related some m
“rediired fashion to tlic adult striicitire from svhich it is densed (Brossn
and fraser, lOfiJ) A complete |>s>clio1ogical analjsis of
the successive sjntac
lie strurturts that csoUc during
eatlj childhood ssoiild require stKCificalion
oI ihc cogniiisc priKcsyrs msolsed
of the relevant variables mnucncing
these roces'cs and of ihc role pla)«l
I b> general characteristics of the
ms „( c^n.lxc .loclopnicm 11m „„„ nmuiM
tl,c .ntornol

Z ,l„u, x,„ l»lmc cinidren in.cr

a xl,xa„o„t |x,,l»,los, m an. cay, d,c s,„om Mace, m die

Z';;";’:,:: zz z "" O'- n.xe

PZe 1 ,

,7"
7 ’’
"
Ian
L,„,
mean, ,
1
, ,, [ Zi 1
Mnieniev Heme nme die ,mle „ ma„„ed
I'""'" ‘'""“'‘"'S
a, ,ar,n,., leael, of

X'r::. ™
^ ^ 'c^ntentes or in gcncniing {cncml
mg) ihfm
Acquiring Meanings Learning to Read

poteninl meaning to cognitive structure so ns to comprehend it The begin

ning reader wlio is already able to perceive the potential meaning in spoken
messages must now acquire the same ability m
rehtion to written messages
Because the denotative meanings and syntactic functions of the component
Words he will encounter are already known to him in their corresponding
spoken forms learning to read obviously constitutes a less significant cogm
ti\e accomplishment than the original learning of the spoken language In
other words the beginning reader is not really learning a completely new
symbolic code but rather a written equivalent of a familiar spoken code
whose basic vocabulary and syntax iie has already mastered
The most salient psychological characteristic of learning to read there
fore IS the dependence of the learning process on the previously acquired
masiery of the spoken language and on the use of mastery as a medium
this
for perceiving the potential meaning in written messages In fact the child
learns to read his native language by reconstructing written into spoken
messages He tries to establish representational equivalence between new
written words and their already meaningful spoken counterparts In view of
this important mediating function of the spoken language m
learning to
decipher the meaning of written messages it is theoretically indefensible
to leach reading by seeking to establish direct equivalences between the
new visual symbols and their sigmficaies (objects or pictures)
Learning to reconstruct written into spoken messages involves at least
two major component steps First there is the problem of converting
written words into spoken words This problem is rendered less difficult
however by the alphabetic basis of structuring most wntten languages
Thus wntten words are not just configurations of visual symbols that
arbitrarily represent their auditory counterparts Rather there is a more or
less lawful relationship between the combination of distinguishable sounds

(phonemes) constituting the spoken word and the analogous combination

of letters (graphemes) constituting the corresponding wntten word The
beginning reader must therefore learn how to convert graphemes and
combinations of graphemes into their phonemic equivalents and then learn
titA? to coalesce severa'i gi'ayA’iWftt, aivi TetwrftM'atv vtftm itao
spoken words In this latter process of word recognition he is aided by
such cues as knowledge of commonly occurring graphemic combinations
(prefixes and suffixes) and awareness of the wider context in which ihe
wntten message is presented
second step in reconstructing the written message is learning how
The
to combine and convert groups of svntten words into spoken phrases and
sentences By doing this knowledge of the syntactic code of the spoken
language can be utilized in perceiving Uie potential meaning of the wntten
messnge The beginning reader in other words is unable to apprehend
directly die syntactic functions of the worth in the written message in
order to perceive its potential propositional meaning therefore he recon
Acqt iring Meanings Learning to Head
71

reading (that is prior emphasis on letter recognition and grapheme phoneme

correspondences before actual reading practice) makes more psychological
sense than teaching children to reaignize words as wholes from the outset
(the look say method) The phonetic approach makes the problem of
word recognition less arbitrary by giving the child a lawful code with which
to reconstruct currently meaningless but potentially meaningful written
words into their alread) meaningful spoken equivalents Word recognition
thus becomes more a matter of rational problem solving than of random
guessing that is it becomes a process of lawfully decoding the unknown
written word by applying existing knowledge of grapheme phoneme cor
respondences with the aid of sucli additional cues as context The look say
method on the other hand renders written English based for the most
part on regular and Jearnable correspondences betiveen graphemes and
phonemes into a pictorial nonalphal^tic written language like Chinese
It IS true of course that children who learn to reid by the look say method
tend spontaneously to deselop some impressions about grapheme phoneme
correspondence and to use these impressions in deciphering unfamiliar
words But this haphazard incidental and unguided discovery learning of
grapheme phoneme correspondence can hardly be considered a defensible
instructional procedure when such knowledge can be transmitted much
more efficiently on a systematic suitably programmed and guided reception
basis
The use of an augmented Roman alphabet m teaching reading (Pitman
1961) now m the experimental stage represents a further attempt to
capitalize on grapheme phoneme correspondences in helping children to
derive meaning from ivritien messages This method seeks lo overcome the
ambiguities and inconsistencies inherent in the fact that some English
graphemes particularly vowels have several phonemic equivalents It ac
complishes this aim by using instructional materials based on an alphabet
of 46 graphemes one for each recognizable phoneme in the English Ian
guage Yet once children acquire initial facility in reading materials written
in the augmented alphabet they apparently experience little difficulty in
ve-Jid-iTig eiTiyAoyi'ng tswieTAwnTil ilpt.-ibes Tivi^ 'a
not so surprising however when one considers that the use of supplementary
cues to Simplify the learning process during early stages of acquiring a new
cognitive skill does not necessarily create dependence on these same cues
after the skill is partially acquired The beginning reader is much better
equipped to cope with irregularities ingrapheme phoneme correspondence
after mastering the regularities and acquiring a basic vocabulary of written
words
The learning of grapheme phoneme correspondences does not imply
that pupils must learn a set of formal rules This would hardly be practicable
at the age of initial reading instruction Rather it means providing guided
practice m responding phonically to tlie more frequently encountered letter
 Meaning and Meaningful Learning

combimlions in n.orcl5 so that the cluld acquires an mtuitne grasp of

grapheme phoneme coiTesix>ndence He thus etentuall) becomes capable
of responding automatical]) with the correct phonemic equisalents of the
differentgraphemes and graphemic combinations
^\Tiohsiic methods of teaching reading are sometimes defended on the
grounds that mature readers percene sshole words and eten phrases at a
time rather than individual letters or syllables This of course is true but
totally irrelevant to the point at issue What applies
to skilled readers does
not necessarily apply to pupils who are first learning to read The techniques
employed by an expert in performing a complex skill can hardly be recom
mended as suitable practice exerases for the novice The
beginning student
of Nforse cotie for example thinks in terms
of letter units not in terms of
largerword and phrase units cliaractenzing the transmitting
and receiving
operations of the skilled telegraphist
Finally important to bear in mmd that phonetic and vvholisuc
it is

approaches need not be mutually exclusive

procedures either in theory or
•n practice \dvocates of the
phonetic method ordinarily teach whole word
recognition of some
of the more common words as
a means of making
l»!!iblc rarlitr reading ol sim|)le
meaningful text and ol ihereb) enhanc
S I e Jepnning readers interest sell-confidence
and motisation and
lM>.sa, adsocales typicall)
introduce sarying degrees ol phonic analysis
'“ding Ouency The difference hetsseen the
,L J ™i
'* timing and relatise emphasis
Neserihele/ n
cam and al t theorelicall) and practi

TaLle LlS"™''" --

Aciimnng Meanings
Second Language Learning

ol an iTZim? .'"TLTT,-'
Ictnard Ju„ „
7
.’"“ '">''™'nially
'»mihar meanings
m the acqu.si.n
according to '

Icnte Ijcincen lien ''"hhshmg representational eqiiii

sirittcn ssn7l
-'x.h and h, reromr,:™'™:.;"
new language l„ messages so wc learn
enabli,l,.„J
lotti,n language "l'"'alcncc Inrlween n.
.,ml»l, (l,nl
meanmglul natiae Ian. »"d tlieir alrea
„a-e coun'i'”''"'
language im„ naine
lan„uage mes"'4I'’|,“7
nd language learner
IS in 1
•» evident
7
'““nsmiaing lorcif
therefore that t
"'a>orile„al„ela„gua,eIea,„7, r"" I"! ''ological ,x>,i„„„ Ire
" "" "nt place he ha, ahead, maner
Acquiring Meanings Learning to Read 73

the basic \ocabulary and the $)ntactic code of one language Second, he is
generally able to read this latter language Lastly, he is capable of com
prehending and applying formally stated syntactical propositions Thus the '

learner approaches the second language ssith the mechanism of a first

language already fixed m
his thought and speech, and he is by no means
exjiected to discard or e\en neglect his natue tongue" (^V Bernard, 1951,
P 89)

The Attdwltngual Approach

The great popularity of audiolingual methods in second language leam
ing today is more than just an o\er reaction to previous pedagogic techniques
that concentrated almost exclusisely on reading, translation, and composi
tion skills and neglected comprehension and speaking ability In part, it
oral
IS also a reflection of the widespread cultural belief that, because children

leam language the "natural" (audiolingual) way, and are apparently much
more successful in this enterprise ilian are older learners who are subjected
to more formal reading and grammatical instructional procedures, the
audiolingual approach must obviously be the most elTectise method of ac
quinng new languages, and should be used by older learners in second
language learning
This line of argument, in our opinion, is vulnerable on two counts In
the first place, on either researdi or theoretical grounds, it is difficult to sub
stantiate the thesis that children, in learning a native or second language,
are, m fact, superior to adolescents and adults m
learning second languages
Second even if this were die case, there would siifJ be no good reason for
believing that methods which yield satisfactory results with children must
necessanly be appropriate for adults TTiese latter methods are used, after
all, not because they are demonstrably more efficacious under all conditions,

but because children’s cognitise immaturity and Jack of certain intellectual

skills preclude many approaches tfiat are feasible for older age groups.

Naturalness is a slippery argument because what is natural for one age

group IS not necessarily natural for another The point about naturalness
would be tenable only if the respective cognitne equipment of second
language and native language learners were comparable Since this is not
the case, however, what is natural for one learner is quite unnatural for the
other Because of the aforementioned highly significant changes in cogni
live readiness that take place as a result of the learner s mastery of his native
language, certain features of the audiolingual approach are psychologically
incompatible with effective learning processes m
adults These features in
elude (a) ‘direct’ learning of second language meanings and syntactical
functions that is, avoidance of ilie mediational role of the native language,
(b) rote learning of phrases, (c) inductive rather than deductive learning
74 Meaning and Meaningful Learning

of grammatical generalizations (d) presentation of the spoken form of the

language before the smtten form and on exposing the be
(c) insistence
ginner to the natural speed rendition of the spoken language (Ausubel
19Ma)

AsoiDASCE OF THE NATIVE LANCLACE The audiolingual method seeks m

all possible va^s to a\oid the mediating role of the natne language in
second language learning It attempts to aixomphsh this objective through
the rote learning of phrases and through the inductive learning of syntactic
rules through direct assouation of second language words
and phrases wnth
objects picturesand situations rather than with native language v^ords by
giving second language instruction in the target by
language itself and
proscnbing iranslauon practice
Actually it is both unrealistic and inefBaent for the learner to try
to arcumveni the mediating role of his native language when learning a
second langtiage In the first place after early childhood even the

language is learned
no, K"/*" not by the direct method i e
of words and things but indirectly
through eld known
lynonyms. antonyms definiiion or context in speech or
readme rr,f„ ^ J

Indeed even where the povsibihty

d rca aiiociatin is offered lor a

always involuntarily intervene ^

0% Bernard IJIol
pp gifi-i)

cndeb, otrnsm'V'"’”"""' """

nnd differences bet'
eellTe^'wrcIiTTh’t''
‘fpe‘"f "’T
of analysis
ducted in the i,,,
is also best con
7^*** "omerous aspects of first language
knowledge— the rneaninK^r^m
<onccpts the understanding
catecones and funmnn.^r of syntactical
nearly identical in the structural patterns tlial are
two"l
language learning It it^nsferable to second
would
imi««ible not to make ^ ™P>-=>«‘able but also
guagc
use of Ui.s knov^r'
owledjjC in acquiring the second Ian

m lunaion of the student

second lan^jge''leamne V,"^ s native language
It II
argued that children
do noi*ieOT"th gfodntlv Finl ““
nedtaiion ol another '""Suage through the
laneuace Tl.^ .
Itcsidc the
i«intl»ccauve however is coraplcielj
the nauve lane,.
vet of itieaninglul
vjmixvl, and hence cfTlT Powess another
ng .nffneitte even
n uniealm.c not to male
,1 he wanttl T ” “'“'lable however
uve o, it
.t .
learning to read "''"I'ee Ihc new tasl
or learning a second l"”**'"'' is
"8 vecond langnage Second tt ts po.ntod on. U.at
Acquiring Meanings Second Ijinguage Learning
75

the trul) bilingual indiMdual thinks directI) in the second language rather
than translating from his natise tongue It must be realized hos^e^er, that al
though this latter state of alTajrs is generally true it is a reflection of a
terminal state of second language proficiency and does not describe the
iesmmg situation nhen the bi/mgual indisidual is a beginning student

^\Tiat 1$ usually lost sight of by those vho argue for the direa method and for
immediate direct reading js that to grasp the thought direciJy from the H-nlten
page SMthout the intenention of the mother tongue presents already an adianced
itage of achiesement and that the fundamental thing is first to learn the meaning
of the numerous indnidus} uords or phrases that asnsUtute the page There is the
obsious confusion here of the means uuh the end of the immediate with the ulti
mate objective True we want our students to read the foreign language directly
and fluently with the least possible interference from the mother tongue But this is,
or ought to be the final result, the goal and aim of our teaching and not necessarily
the means of achieving it How can we expect learners to read a foreign language
directly and fluently when this is the very thing we expect them to acquire as a
result of our teadung (\V Bernard 1951
p 95)’
ROTE LEARNING OF PHRASES Bcciuse joung children are evphcitJy un
assare of syntactic functionsand categories it is often assumed that their
language capability consists of rote verbal habits Actuallj, however, the
ability to understand and generate sentences implies even children a m
meaningful learning process in which there is at least some impltat aware
ness of the denotative and syntactical contnbutions of component words to
the total meaning of the sentence In older learners this awareness particu
larly in second language learning, exists on a much more explicit and abstract
basis and hence meaningful learning is an even more important considera
tion in teaching them than in teaching children
The audiolingual approach, however, tends to assume that second Ian
guage learning both in children and adults is largely a process of rote verbal
learning Both in pattern practice drills and memonzed dialogue practice*®
there is either no awareness of phrase meaning whatsoever or, al the very

best awareness of total phrase meaning Tlius the learner understands

neither the syntactic functions of the component words nor the denotative
and syntactical contributions of the individual words to the total meaning of
the phrase A purely arbitrary (rote) rather than lawful or meaningful rela
tionship prevails between phrase meaning and component elements of the
phrase

10 Pattern practice drills consist of practice in repeating phrases illustrative of

a particular grammatical conscruaion and in making simple substitutions and

transformations in such phrases that further exemplify the same construction with
only slight changes in meaning In memorued dialogue practice students rotely
learn and practice the phrases they use in carrying on a conversation
76 Cleaning end Meaningful Learning

Under these arcumstances ji is Iiardl) surpnsmg that particular gram

matical jjaucrnscan be emitted perfectl) inafamiliarandstructural!) limited
context or that simple substitutions, transformations and elaborations can
be made but that nets tsords in a wider, unfamiliar context cannot be fitted
into the learned pattern, or that the same words and ssntactical categories
cannot be recombined in diRerent patterns to express different ideas In
contrast, the principal transferable objectise
which trul) meaningful pattern
practice should aim to achiese is prease knowledge of the syntactical func
tion of eadi ssord and of its semanuc contribution to total phrase meaning
^\hcn the learner manifests this knowledge, it is possible for him (a) to
construct a structurally comparable phrase expressive
of an entirely differ
tnt idea in which each component word bears a
syntactical relationship
to total phrase meaning that is analogous
to the set of relationships prevail
ing fieiween component vsords and
total phrase meaning in die learned
model phrase, and (Ij) to recombine familiar
worth and known syntactic
functions in the learning of new
grammatical patterns
Tlie remedy, therefore not to eliminate pattern practice drills but to
is
make them more meaningful Second language
learning obviously requires
overlearning of the basic and diaraaenstic
structural patterns of die Ian
guage But unless the learner
appreoates the prease relauonship between
'"’"'1’'''’“'’"’ •" pnicticn and
nfl,!'!!.?
indueei li, aicli manipulation
ihc change, m
meaning that he
die practice ic not eery trantlerable

Pattern practice dnlls

eek'md^l.ra,'^''''” T,
learning the pcocesc tchLhj ch.Idrcn
M am° n,S^? ?
to , a S'
n 1
» P-rmard, c.c.cen
"'nc.ng much man.pula
.r eatenen
manca,' general, ca.iom'Lrprri'r^.Pp'™;
question are aiquucd on principles in
Jn ^ 'niimivt
siriualh automatic I»aviv and are rendered

nilunn'rUwrac o'ld!!,'”''”''
""“"'“1 rule, thcougli an

gencralicaiion, o„„|,l
dr’
„,ai, aloolineu'Lr""''!’
ihey arc manifevtlv "haivocver to them since
incanable „t .....i .
twrrri alniractioiis relationships be
Tliii of disc
-ucfid and iinncecj;,
nhen Ifdra I" “"'"f ' -eeihng.,
<ai«b!c ,,r foniinchendin" IfinicTs wlio are {*erfcctlj
'

^ r
absira
n.-.o.hu,nec'g,anra,;a, I. .al„ a long
^
'•e .•.t.cc, d,rera
long ai dirv: rule
,. 1 ,",," '* "1' ""'"'^erilde
"'-rd'elc, and „nu1
arc Inonn onic 10^ Fiinliennorc, ac
ah.lit, ""I‘''edlv tlicir irandcr
c,„n,ural,Ic
•-nla, and „,Ai,ai„ »I.at „ analog, callj qu„e
leguiring Meanings Second Language Leamtng 77

Deducti\e use of grammatical generalizations, on the other hand, is

decidedly more efficient in second language learning No time is Asasted m
discovery, and both the generalization and the expenence of applying it
to
appropriate exemplars are transferable from the very beginning of practice
As a precisely, explicitly, and abstractly stated proposition, a grammatical
generalization also has wider transferability to new situations

PRIOR PRESENTATION OF MATERtAtS IN SPOKEN FOR*\t A Cardinal pnn

Ciple of the audiolingual approach is that instructional materials should be
presented in their spoken form before they are presented in their wntten
form and that listening and speaking skills should be acquired before read
ing and wnting skills
The major rationale offered for this order of skill acquisition is that
It IS the ‘
order in which children learn their native language But
natural ‘

because a child has to learn hou to speak and understand his native tongue
before he can read it, it does not necessarily follow that once he knows how
to read he has to observe the same sequence of events in learning a second
language Once any new skill such as reading is learned it can obviously be
used as a tool in acquiring new knowledge It is unnatural to expect that
after an individual becomes literate he will learn in the same way as when
he was illiterate
A second reason for advocating this order of learning is the belief that
It can lead to direct reading in the second language It is maintained that
if various items of second language material can be understood and spoken

they can also be read without any explicit practice in reading as such This
would have the additional presumed advantage of avoiding any tendency
to translate the material as it was being read The available research evidence
(Agard and Dunkel 1948) indicates houever, that audiolingual and reading
skills are separate and independently developed capabilities Although
practice in one is partly transferable to the other especially at higher levels
of proficiency considerable speafic training m
each skill is required for
the acquisition of competence **
Still a third reason for advocating prior presentation of materials in
spoken iorm is the possibihtj that the written lorm of the second language

II Evidence from the same investigation indicates lhat the audiolingual ap-

proach also fails to accomplish its other pnnapal objective namely to enable stu
dents to acquire higher levels of speaking and ora! comprehension skills than are
customarily acquired in conventional foreign language courses In a more recent
and better controlled study however G A Scherer and Wertheimer (19&4)
found that the audiolingual method does enhance ability to speak and think in
German although traditionally trained studenu are superior m
WTiting skills and
in translating from German into English No lasung differences were found in read
mg and listening skills or in ability to translate from English into German
78 )ilt*ning dnJ Ufdfi$n£/ul lydinsng

because
>ul! Rcncraic phonological inictktcmc (rom ihe native Uiigiujjc
llic wine j^r.iphcnic* ollcii have iliilciciit |>Iio<icniic value* On the other
to
hand, i( can l>c plauuhl) argued that the iiitliviilual MXJiicr or later ha»
learn to avwxialc grapliciiict in the vecond lan^ua^c v»nh their plioncmic
ccpiivalcnlv, and that he ma) av ucll coiiftoni tlnv fitvt laii|;ua^c interference
and learn to uvcriume it ftuni the vet) Ijc^itiniiig
Tunung now to the other vide of the at^'ument, two dcfenvihle rcavonv
can Iw advanced for prevetutng utiltcii and »}a>len inaienaU in the vecond
language boih allcrnalel) and (utuuiiiitanil) hrvt. iii our cuUitic, adolev
centsand adults are hahiiiiatcd to learning most new ideas and subject*
matter content h) reading ralhcr than h> liviciuiig I hus a pure audiohngual
approach dcjirivcs ihe older leattier of Ins pnncijal learning l(X}| and of
the instructioiia! iiicdiuiii in uhitli he feels incnt toinfurtablc and confidcnL
Tins IS jiarticularly unforiunaie during the eaily pluses of imiruciion vshen
learning stresses tend to t< gicaicvi
Second, prior famiharuation vsiih and siimiUaneous csjosiiic to the
vsruicu form of ilie material can sene as hcljifui piops in ilic earl) stage* of

acquintig oral comptchenvion skills Ikcaine of unfamiliarit) vsith nevf

sounds, with at)piial sequences of sounds, and with
ihe thatacicrutic word
order and sjmaciieal paiicrns of ihc second language,
it is very ditriciilt for
the beginner to distinguish individual words,
inllccitonal fortiu. and group*
of words from listening alone Hence, he
often fails not only lu grasp the
meaning of ilic sjiokcn material, but alw) to appietuie
its s)niactiral struc-
ture well enough for purjwscs of transfer
binndiancmis leading can furnish
die necessary cues tor meaning md
grasp of s)ntaclic structure while lisicn*
mg skills are being dcvdoi>cd As oral tomprchcnsion increases, |urucu!ar
passage* can oimued m
the wtmen lesson and cvcntuall) the written
material will noi I>c needed at all

NATURAL SPEED RENDITIO'. ' OF THE

SI-OkEN LASCiUACE. In lIlC audiolin
»>p*«ll) exjHsscd to thc "natural sj^cd rendt-
Tnn
1*^" presumably to accustom iliem to tlic "natural
rhsihm 'f It i* i«inicd out that
dtddreit cvcntuall) leant to
imderTun ^
ot Tr C,rcu,mn.,cc, In term,
pirc m 1 r ‘'‘“'"I >» .ha.

Tn « Thu,.
“h.h.y pnmanlj .nnalar
,I.he nunple L'.,«:cch (o nh.cl.
tJa , 1* oo rapid for him lu unUcriland, ir docs hltle lo cn-

.nd,caung ihai o«[“' '> “ ““^1 hy I'lFt (.W)

Spannl, pr,„, „
die prenunon „[
^ soiucnrer ... Inrg.nn.ng
I maiei.al., doe, eel „g,„r, cully
hano. .nn.al pronnnaaiion cn
abdiiy
 Suiujcai uonisodsuBjj ‘(ggGI ‘JS^irfs ‘19GI P”®
j 3 jpU 3 -^) Suiujcaj uoiHuiuiriasip m
sSuipug p:iuDiuu 3 cIxa ozis amiosqr
(Chp jo sjiud JEjiuiis oj dii|suoi)B{ 3i paujcaj sup jojsueji uco aq ‘sqaojq
oMj JO jfwJ B JO jaqu/aui ja&Ef aip ssootp oj sujeoj pi'ip irqzai aip j5 JJe ,

‘sidiUExa joj (i56I ‘punajjuaaqa puc siiaqiy ‘ 9 f 6 I ‘auuan^) iinuiijs jo JiEd

snoSojEUB UB OJ diqsuouGiaj patUEaf b asochuBJi oj XjijiqB aqi ut puB (ggei
‘J3|pu35i s X ) SuiUJGai uoijGuiuiuosip ut pauqiqxa si
joiABqaq jo lojj
U03 SMjiuSoD iBq.i 3 A OJ snpjulijs uioij jjup aiuEs atjx JOiAEqaq SuiziueSjo
puB ‘2 ui[[ojju 03 'SuijbSijsui ui JOJ 3EJ avnaa-tip jEdioiiud aqi sb aSBuSuej
JO aDuaSjaiua aqj ijjiA^ sapiauioa (siscq 3Ai|E3iunuiui03U0U pUB jedoauqu
V uo qaaads jsajiuEui oj ppip aip 30 Ajipqc aqj ‘St iBtp) sSb sup je qoaads
30 ..uoijBztjEUJajui aip jBip u«oip scq (696[) 'a V SuiuoijDunj
aAtjiuSoo UI aioj juEuiuiop b sauinsse aSenSuBi 'ajq Jo sjEa( ipjq puE ipjnoj
aip U33\uaq aiaqMauios jsqj sajBDipui saajnos snouBA uiojj sauapiAa

g[ cld Ef96[ zJtxnjff) ajojaq

UEqj Xutiqixau puB j 3 moc1 jsjEaiS qjiM aauauadxa jo ssiiuEjnSai aqj uuojsuejj

XiieoTiEuisjtXs puB jussajdsj 01 uiiij joj ajqissotl samoasq 11 juauintisui aAiiiuSoa e se

sSEnSuEf Suiziieujdjui ui papaaaans seq pjiip aqi aauo luajsXs Smiujoj aSEiui
fnjjPHod ]soui aqi puoXaq apniruSeui jo sjapjo ate jEqi Xjrjrqrstod lEOjaapami
JO siuiBai dn suado uoijeutquioa pue iioiieuuojsueji aauatajai aiomaj SuiAaiqaE
JO suEaui juepuaiiE su q)(A\ ‘uuoj 3i|oquiAs oiui aauauadxa jo uouspuEix
a;qrssocI
auioosq Suiuonaunj aAtiiuSoa jo suuoj x3|duio3 jsoiu jeip uoijcziioquiXs
puE sSEnSuci JO asuEDaq XiaSzBi si 11 ‘lOEj uj Suiujea] oqoquiXs jo suuoj
jaipo pus [Eqjas uo spuadap aSpd(MouJt J^iicui jaafqns jo uoipsinboE aqj
'sasodjnd jBOijaEjJ {[e joj Suiojesj fooij^s ut ajcu jouim XpAijEfaj s sXp^d jr
'uajpiup SunoX 30 puB sujsiuc3jo UEuinqEJjUf jo jqSnoqj pus JoiABqaq aqj
sazuajOEJBqa puc isixa saop Suiuoijaunj aAijiuSoa iEqaa\ajd qSnoqijv

Suiuonaunj aAijiuSo^ puE aSEnSuE^

uonipuaa paads jbuuou b oj uaip pue uoisaaA

uMop paMop E OJ pasodxa aq ‘asjnoa jo 'ues
aq ‘jauuiSaq aip oj pajuasajd
SI jBuajEui JO aSsssEd uaAiS Xuc uaq/\\ ssaaojd SutUJcai Xue jo saScjs Xpra

aqj Suunp a^qBqusaC sXea\\c st uoneaqivduus ^Enquiy sa\oiduit uQKuai.\3sd

uioD {Ejo SB pajBjaia33E XpAissajSojd si jBqi qaaads 30 ajEJ jaAvop e jo suEam

Xq SuiuuiSaq aip ui aq Xjpaiqnopun pjnoqs ji 'ssaaojd jEupEjS

paisissE
XaaA B SI aSsnSuBi ua^tods aip puaqaiduioa 01 SuiujEai aauis ‘aouan
siioijEnjis Suiuajsq jaqjo puE SuujEads oj uiaip
jajsuBjj OJ i|§noua pan sujajjrd leamaniis aofEUi aqj qsinSuijsip oj ajqs
aq jou {[ijs Xeui aq ‘Xbav jujauaS b ui jcuajEiu aqj punjsjapun oj ajqs si aq
31 uava ‘aioiujaqjanj aSEnSuBj uajjods aip puatjaaduioa oj XjipqE siq aauEq

6£ Suiuoiijunj ^niituSo^ puv aSimSuvj

 Mfoning and Meaninglul Leanutg

and concept fomialion (Laccy, 1961, Weir and Stevenson, lOaO) sug
1953)
gest that the supenontj of verbal learning to preverbal cognitive function
mg IS ailnbutable to the fact that symbolic learnings can be identified, trans-
formed and dillerentially responded to mucli more effiacnlly than can the
stimuli or situations represented by ilie symbols*^ Iinally, by this age the
cliild has also mastered the syntax of language sulTiaently uell to understand

and generate fairly complex propositional statements

Parallel analysis of the development of language and Uiought (Inhelder
and Piaget, 1958 Vygoisby 1962) also suggests that growili m
logical tliinh
mg is m large measure tied to groulli in language capability On purely
theoretical grounds it would be difficult indeed to deny some degree of
causal relationship between such linguistic developments as symbolical rep-
resentation the mastery of syntax the internalization of language, and die
acquisition of more abstract and relational terms on die one hand, and sucli

developments m cognitive functioning as the internalization of logical oper

ations emergence of the ability to understandand manipulate relauonships
between abstractions without the benefit of current or recent concrete
empirical experience and attainment of the capaaty to tliink in terms of
hypothetical relations between vanables on the other liand (see Qiapier 5)
Much of the failure to appreciate die important facilitative role of
language tn cognitive functioning is of course a reflection
of the view pop"
ulanzed by the progressive education movement
diat verbal learning
necessarily consists of rotely memorized glib verbalisms In large part how
ever it also Tcflccts confusion betweett the labeling
and process functions of
language G Hendnx example argues that
for m the natural order of
events the abstraction comes first and then
a name for it is invented (Hen
dnx 1950 p 335) According to her die understanding
and discovery of
ideas 1 $ completely a subverba! internal
process the entire substance of
an idea purportedy inheres m
subverbal insight Language only enters the
picture because of Uie need to altadi
a symbol or label to the emerging sub-
verbal insight so that It can be
recorded verified classified and commu
mealed lo olher. Verbal.iat.on ahe
asaem furilier (1947) la not only un
‘ ' e'l'ration and
iranafer ot ideas and understanding
but
«
lem then becomes one ot how The resull.ng prob-
to plan and execute teaching so ll.at language

se.balnumn
problemmhmg ..tuai.on, esen ihow of
" ““

cnce nUslerable LTo “ ptbr^ng'^ar raIXr“''“”'

 Mean ng and Steamngful Learn ng

and preasion —the le\el of abstraction that could be achiesed if concepts

tsere unnamed The naming of ideas therefore is a significant pTeiequistte
for their later we in concepttiahration and other forms of thinking except
of course in the case of generating nesv concepts and propositions at a very
loss level of abstraction
Second language pla^s an important role m
verbalizing or encoding
into sentences the new intuitive or subverba! product (concept or proposi
lion) that emerges from the transformational operations involved in think
mg \erhalizmg subverbal ideas {expresung them verballj in propositional
form as opposed to the later act of naming them) is a refining process that
results mtheir becoming much dearer more expliot more prease and
more sharply delineated It is therefore a serious mistake to l>clievc that the
entire substance of an idea as well as all of its transfer power inheres its m
subverbal form as Hendnx
asserts (lOaO) The old philosophical notion
that verbalization merely mirrors thought or clothes it outer garm
menu is charmingly poetic but has little psychological utility or explana
tory value today By means of its significant refining functions verbaliraiion
adds a great deal ^th to the meaning and transferability of the products
of thought and thus must be considered an integral
part of the process of
thinking
In conclusion therefore u can be stated that language conmbuies in
ts*o imporunt ways to concept formation and problem solving First the
representational properties of words facilitate
the transformational processes
insolsed m
Uiought Second, verbalization of the emerging subverbal prod
ucu of these operations prior to naming them
refines and enhances their
meanings and thereby increases their
transfer power In a larger sense how
cser acquisition of language also
enables developing human beings to ac
quire Ihrough reception leamini;
and to use in discoser) learning a sast
repertoire of concepts and pnnaples
the) could neser discoser b) tliemselses
tn their o>™ 1, let, me. This
the case because the human capamj
ntpre for
sentational sjmbohsm and seibafiiauon make
possibfc both (a) the ongmat
“*™ « * uniquely high lesel of abstraction gen
emlT"”"
emltt) and pens on and (b) the cumufat.on and
transmission of these
Tfu «»f» »nd complex,,, of the
to, a^"’^ t
a Set or I rf !«>"“' “"<1 '“>« "
 Chapter 3

MEANINGFUL
RECEPTION LEARNING
AND RETENTION
Now THAT THE NATURE OF MEANING and the proccss of ac
qiunng meantngs have been dejcribed tve shaJi want to consider the psjcJjo-
logical meclianisms whereby large quiniities of subject matter knowledge
are retained m cognitive structure over extended periods of time How is
such knowledge assimilated and organized in cognitive structure and why
IS It subsequently forgotten? Is there more than one valid explanation for

the discrepancy between learned and remembered content that is are there
different kinds of forgetting’ And lastly how
does meaningful learning as
a process differ from rote learning and why does
it yield superior learning

and retention? Before turning to these latter problems however it will be

useful to reeximine some of tlie more salient properties of meaningful re
ception learning inasmuch as this type of learning underlies the acquisition
of most subject matter knowledge

The Nature of Meaningful Reception Learning

We have already indicated that

the acquisition of subject matter knowl
edge primarily a manifestation of reception learning That is the pnn
IS

cipal content of what is to be learned is typically presented to the learner

in more or less final form Under these arcurastances the learner is simpl)
required to comprehend the material and to incorporate it into his cogni
tive structure so that it is available for either reproduction related learning
or problem solving at some future date
Yet few pedagogic devices in our time have been repudiated more un
equivocally by educational theorists than the method of expository verbal
instruction It is fashionable in many quarters to characterize verbal learn

83
84 Meimngful JUception Learning and ReUndon

and rote memorization of isolated facts and to

ing as parrot like recitation
dismiss It an archaic remnant of discredited educational tra
disdainfully as
dition In fact quite apart from whatever intrinsic value they may
possess

many educational innovations and movements of the past three decades

activity programs project and discussion methods various ways of maxi
mizing nonverbal and manipulative experience in the classroom emphasis
on discovery and on learning for and by problem solving owe their
self —
origins and popularity to widespread dissatisfaction with tlie techniques of
verbal instruction It is commonly accepted today for example (at least in
the realm of educational theory) that (a) meaningful generalizations cannot
be presented or given to the learner but can be acquired only as a product
of problemsolving activity (Brownell and Hendrickson 1950) and (b) all
attempts to master verbal concepts and projxisiiions are forms of empty
verbalism unless the learner has recent prior experience with the realities
to which these verbal construcu refer (Brownell and Hendnekson 1950
Brownell and Sims 1946)
Adequate reasons of course exist for some of the disenchantment with
expository leacliing and reception learning The most obvious of these is
that notwithstanding repeated policy declarations of educational organira
tions to the contrary potentially meaningful subject matter is frequently
presented to pupils in such a way that they can only learn it rotely Another
less obvious but equally important reason why
meaning is perceived as an
exclusive product of problem-solving and discovery
techniques of learning
stems from two serious shortcomings of prevailing
learning theory First
psychologists have tended to subsume many
qualitatively different kinds of
learning processes under a single explanatory
model As a result widespread
confusion exists regarding basic distinctions
between reception and dis-
covery learning and between rote and
meaningful learning It lias not al
wajs been sufBaently clear for example
that such categorically different
types of learning as problem solving
and the understanding of presented
'erbal malenal haae ilillerem
objeema and that conditions and inslruc
lonal techniques lacl.iatmg
one ot thent learning processes are not neees-
satil, telesant or maximally efficient for the other Second m the absence
'Tr' l^tnmg many educational
S c ttlnfin m “'bject ma.terVarn.ng and
concepts (stimulus generalization retroactise
inlctferencet use 1

reception learning has

been widely perceived as
The Nature of Meaningful Reception learning 85

without prior disco\ery experience or problem solving activity and that the
invariable rote outcomes attributed to the method of expository verbal in
struction do not inhere in the method itself but are derived from various
misapplications

Is Reception Learning Meaningful?

How valid IS the contention tint abstract concepts and generalizations

are forms of empty meaningless verbalism unless the learner discovers them
autonomously from his own concrete empirical problem solving expen
ence? Careful analysis of this proposition reveals that it rests on three logical

fallacies (a) the prevailing tendency to confuse the reception discovery di

mension of the learning process with the rote meaningful dimension (b) a
straw man representation of the method of reception learning and (c) un
warranted generalization of the distinctive developmental conditions of
learning and thinking during childhood to adolescence and adult life The
first of these fallacies has already been considered in some detail in Chap-

ter 2
The use of the straw man technique was of course the simplest and
most effective way of discrediting the method of verbal exposition Instead
of describing this pedagogic procedure in terms of its essential cliaracter
istics It became fashionable to picture it m terms of its worst abuses £x
amples of such abuses were naturally notdifficult to find since an appre
ciable number of teacherson rote verbal learning
still rely teaching m
potentially meaningful subject matter Some of the more flagrantly inept
practices include premature use of pure verbal techniques with cognitively
immature pupils arbitrary presentation of unrelated facts without any
organizing or explanatory principles failure to integrate new learning tasks
with previously presented materials and the use of evaluation procedures
that merely measure ability to recognize discrete facts or to reproduce ideas
in the same words or in the identical context as originally encountered
Although It 15 entirely proper to caution teachers against these frequent
misuses of expository teaching it is not legitimate to represent them as in
herent in the method itself An approach to instruction which on logical
and psychological grounds appears appropriate and efficient should not be
discarded as unworkable simply because Uke all pedagogic techniques m
the hands of incompetent or unintelligent teachers it is subject to misuse
It would seem more reasonable to guard against the more common mis
applications and to relate the expository method to relevant theoretical
principles and research findings that actually deal with the long term learn
ing and retention of large bodies of potentially meaningful verbally pre
senled materials
Some representatives of the pit^ressive education movement speak with
 nelenlian
Meamtt^ul Rettplim learning and
86

s role ol impimng
kitoulcdge
disdam about the school
learn bj themselves
the alleeedl) more desirable role ot helping children
role is a paltry one and that it
invariaWy re
They assert that the lormer
the learning ot glib and
meaningless serbalisms This ol course is
suits m instriic
obvious abuses ol expository
not necessaril) true provided that the
most cirictenl nay ot
non are avoided Verbal exposition is actually the
teaching subject matter and leads to
sounder and less irisial knouledge
the an and science
Uian when pupils serse as their own pedagogues Thus
of presenting ideasand information ellcclisely so that clear stable and—
time
unambiguous meanings emerge and arc retained oier a long period ot
as an oiganiied body ol knowledge—is really one ol the
pnncipa! lunclions
than a routine or
of pedagogy This js a demanding and creaine railier

mechanica'i latV. The ]ob of selecting organizing presenting and trans-

lating subject matter content in a detelopmeniallj appropnatc manner re

qutres more than a rote listing of facts If U is done properly it is the MorV.
of a master teacher and is hardl) a task to be disdained
Finally it is important to appreciate that sanoiis deselopmental con
siderations limiting the meaningtulness of reception learning during child
hood do not apply during adolescence and adult life It is true of course
that learners who have not yet developed beyond the conaete operational
stage of cognitive development are unable meaningfully to incorporate
vvithin their cognitive structures a relationship between two or more sec
ondary abstractions unless they have the benefit oi some current or recent
concrete-empirical props (Inhelder and Piaget I'JaS) Thus during the con
Crete operational stage roughly covenng the elementary school period chil
dren are restricted by this degree of dependence on concrete-empirical ex
penence to a semi absimcl intuitive understanding of abstract proposuions
Such learners cannot comprehend or meaningfully manipulate in problem
solving verbally or symbolically expressed abstract
propositions without the
aul ol concieic-crapincal piopv ami oven then
their understanding lends
to be inluiiise and somewhat patticularistic rather
than precise explicit
and ttnl) abstract Reception learning at this stage
is also limned by the
lack ol higher-order abstract concepts in
cogmtiie slniclure to which large
amounts o[ inlormat.on may l)c related and by
the lack ol transactional
terms for iclaimg ideas to each other
These limitation, olniouslj curtail rather
drastically the reope o! ex
pos.lor, teaching and tecepuon learning
Nevertheless even dunng the
elementary nhool year, autonomous discover)
„ not tndispcnsable tor tn
tuitive understandm, and neol
not commuto a routine part
ol pedagogic
elemenur, school „arl,er knows
ec Zu ,
meaning^ v”ell
» discovery Zporience
wtaZe "Zr”',”"'
dm
dial ^Tnc 7e” Zconcretcompinral prop
e nccevvary
11
'»"» et classroom learning provided
‘

ate available
The halure of Meaningful Receftion Ltaenmg 87

During the Tbstraci Singe of cogniu\e development honsener beginning

in the junior high school penot! students cnn acquire most new concepts
and leirn most new propositions by directly grasping higher-order relation
ships between abstractions (Inhelder and Pnget 19a8) To do so meaning
fully the> need no longer depend on cuTrem or recent concrete empirical
props and hence are able to bjpass complete!) tlie intuitive type of under
standing reflective of such dependence In large measure this development
reflects the availability of an adequate bodj of higher-order abstractions and

transactional terms Expository instruction thus becomes mucli more feasible

Through reception learning students can proceed directly to a level of
abstract understanding that is qualitatively superior to the intuitive level
in terms of generality clarity precision and explicitness At this stage of
development therefore properly arranged verbal reception learning is
highly meaningful and hence it is unnecessary routinely to introduce
concrete empirical props or time consuming ihscovery techniques in order
to make possible or to enliance tntuilwe understanding of abstract proposi
tions
This is the point at which some of the more zealous proponents of
progressive education took a disastrously false turn John Dewey had cor
understanding of abstract concepts and principles
rectly recognized tliai m
childhood must be built on a foundation of direct concrete empirical ex
penence and for this reason advocated the use of project and activity meth
ods in the elementary school But he also appreciated that once a iirmly
grounded flrst story of abstract understandings was established it is possible

to organize secondary and higher education along more abstract and verbal
lines Unfortunately however although Dewey himself never elaborated or
implemented this latter conception some of his disciples took precisely the
opposite position They blindly generalized childhood limiting conditions
With respect to meaningful abstract reception learning broadly enough to
encompass learning over the entire life span And this unwarranted extrap
olation frequently but erroneously attnbuted to Dewey himself provided
an apparent rationale for and thus helped perpetuate the seemingly inde
structible myth that under any and all circumstances abstractions cannot
possibly be meaningful unless preceded by direct empirical experience

Is meaningful Reception Learning Passive?

The acquisition of meanings ihrougii meaningful reception learning is
far from being a passive kind of cognitive process Much activity is obviously
involved but not the kind of activity characterizing discovery Activity and
discovery are not synonymous in tl e realm of cognitixe functioning Merely
because potential meanings are presented we cannot assume that they are
necessarily acquired and that all subsequent loss is reflective of forgetting
 Uarmng and Relenlton
Vemitglul lte<eption

ihc) must first be acquired and Uie

process
Before meanings can be Tewmed
actisc Neidier can sse assume that reception
Icam
of acquisition is t)pican)
me IS necessanl> more passise and mechanical than independent data gath
ering and interpretation TTie
unmomated student who gathers and inter
inlelleclual actisit) than the unmotisated
prets data manifests no greater
student on the
student siho recenes expositor) mstiucivon Tltc rootisated
material into
otlierhand.Teflecmelj considers teuorks and integrates neu
his cogniine structure irrespective ot hov» he obtains it

simple
Tlius meaningful reception learning imohes more tlian the
cataloguing of read) made concepts vmhin existing cognitive structure In
the first pUa at least an implicit judgment of relevance is
usually required

tn heading wbich estabJosbed ideas in co^itjse structure are most relatable

to a new learning lasV. Second some degree of reconaliation between nev\
ideas and similar esuhlished ideas is often nt^iessary to differentiate beiueen
them particular!) if there are discrepanaes or conflicts Third new prop-
ositions are customarily reformulated to blend into a personal {rame of
reference consonant with the learners expeneniial background vocabulary
and structure of ideas Lastl) if the learner in the course of meaningful
reception learning cannot find an acceptable basis for reconciling appar
enily or genuinely contradictory ideas he n sometimes inspired to attempt
a degree of synUiesis or reorganization ot his existing knowledge under
more inclusive and broadly explanatory pnnnples He may either seek such
propositions m more recent or sophisticated expositions of a given topic
or under ixrtain arcumsiances may try to discover them himself
All of this aamty (except for the last meniioned) however stops short
of actual discovery or problem solving Since the substance of the learning
task IS essentially presented the activity involved is limited to that required
for effectively assimilating new meanings and integraung them into existing
cognitive structure This is naturally of a <}uahtatively different order than
that involved in independently discovenng soluuons to new problems—
autonomously reorganizing new information and
exisung ideas
struaure in such a wav as to satisfy the requirements
cogniiive m
of a given problem
situauon ^
The
extern to »h,tli metmtnglul recjp„o„
leam.ng „ anne depends
m pan on the learners need lor tmesrttrve
nntamng and on the v.goron^
n«s ol h„ seltattol lamlt) He nn,
e.ther attempt to mtegrate a nets
' ° ““'"S '''"am knonledge or rematn content
'r •“ “ S'nnUrl) he may endeasor
» r’
“
rra^d
soib"
a
1,1 a^ Tr"n 't'-''”""’
"™.nolos>

he ma, stnte lor the

conststent n.th Ins on-n
“bshedtneorpora,
astth
acquit, non „[ preai and
mal
una^snous ^an.ugs or „,y be coorplerely
sausld n.th ta^e d.ltu»
Acqutstlion Reienlton and Organt ation of hnouledge

The rmm
danger in meaningful reception learning is not so much that
the learner ^m 11 frankly adopt a rote approach but rather tliat he will de
lude himself into believing tint lie has really grasped precise intended mean
mgs when he has grasped only a vague and confused set of empty verbalisms
It Is not so much that he does not want to understand but that he lacks the

necessary self critical ability and is unwilling to put forth the necessary active
elTort in struggling with tlie material in looking at
it from different angles

in reconciling and integrating

it with related or contradictory knowledge

and in reformulating from the standpoint of his own frame of reference

it

He finds it easy enough to manipulate words glibly so as to create a spurious

impression of knowledgeability and thereby to delude himself and others
into tJiinking tint he truly understands when he really does not
A central task of pedagogy therefore is to develop ways of facilitating
an active variety of reception learning characterized by an independent and
critical approach to the understanding of subject matter This involves in

part the encouragement of motivations for and self critical attitudes toward
acquiring precise and integratetl meanings as well as the use of other tech
niques directed toward the same end Precise and integrated understandings
are presumablj more likely to develop if the central unifying ideas of a
disaphne are learned before more peripheral concepts and information are
introduced jf the limiting conditions of general developmental readiness
are observed if precise and accurate definition is stressed and emphasis is

placed on delineating similarities md

differences between related concepts
and if learners are required to reformulate new propositions in their own
words All of these latter devices come under the heading of pedagogic tech
niqucs that promote an active type of meaningful reception learning Teach
ers can help foster the related objective of assimilating subject matter crit
ically by encouraging students to recognize and challenge the assumptions
underlying new propositions and to distinguish between facts and hypoth
eses and between warranted and unwarranted inferences Much good use
can also be made of Socratic questioning in exposing pseudo understanding
m transmitting precise meanings in reconciling contradictions and in en
.? liivAw?.’ aWavA? .VjAOwJfdfp

The Assimilation Process in the Acquisition

Retention and Organization of Knowledge

To account more completely for the acquisition retention and orga

nizntion of meanings m cognitive structure it is necessary at tins point to
introduce the further principle of osiirni/ation This can be done more
clearly by making parallel reference to a diagrammatic representation of it
(Table 3) that uses formal symbols and depicts successive stages in the ac
 UfUnhon
Mrantt^iui ttritiuon Woininj-
fln.1
^
ilic l)|>c »f mein
auwuon and reicmion of a sufwnlimtc mtamns I fu»
a
meaningful <uiicc|)l or i.ro|Kivit.on
inK ihal results sshen a i«lCRtnU)
can l)C subsumed under i more imluinc
oliWjslml idea I togium m
clalioraiioii. iiiodifirauun or ijiu i tea
structure as an cxam\>lc cxlinuoii
of tlic established ule i tor txani|>le vhen
students itt our ciiUiirc arc
non
iiTesunubiy
unf umli ir Buddbi'l coiicc|il of sin the)
fust introduced to ilic
tend to subsume modified \3mui under us cslibluhcd Judeo*
it as a
Christian counterpart in their cognitnc stniciufcs As
suggested 111 Cliaptcr

2 thenew meaning a' that tmtrgcs ulicit n is related to and inter icis tsUh A
m this fashion is the pioiluti of this intcTaUiuit Isctwccn them and is itself

a differentiatedcogimnc conicni-
Stating the ease more precise!) houtscr, the acitial or total intcrac
uonal product of the ncis idea and the established idea as shoun tn Table
3 IS h)))OlliesiJxd as being greater and more complex ilian is ongmall)
described This is ulierc die concept of avsiiniljtion cnicrs the picture — an
as])ect of the meaningful learning procc'ss that ujs dclibcrjicly not nuro*
duced earlier to asoid ovcrcomjilicauiig die issue unncccssaril) at that )*uint
In the first place not onl) the new {lotcnitaU) meaningful idea a, but the
established idea A to which it is related is eJianged as welt b) the iiUcrac
uonal process tins is indicated in Table $ b) ibc use of the jmme sign in
each ease Second and more important Isoth imcracuunal products a' and
A' remain in relationship to each other as hiited co-mcmlsers of a new
composite ideational unit or ideational complex, A a' In ilie more complete
sense of die term therefore the aciual intcncuonal product of the meaning
ful learning process is not just ihc new meaning a', uliich 1$ re ill) onl) a
partial product of the mceraction but the entire new ideatioinl complex
The addiUonal terra assiinilaiion is thus needed to refer to the further
hyjxithesis that e>en after the new meaning emerges it
continues to remain
m hnVed relationship to the slightly mothficd form of die cstablislicd idea in
—
cognitne structure as the lets stable co-member
of the new ideational unit
so formed—and hence to temam within
the ideational orbit of the estab-
lished idea A later aspect of ihc assimilation process,
to be discussed below,
that presides further jusufication (or
ihe use of the term assimilation as
it IS commonly understood is die hypoUiesized tendency for the new mean
mg to be reduced to the meaning of die more
established idea

The Explanatory Value

of Asstmtlation

«I>lan»lory vlue ai tl,„ p„,„t be

account both for tlie memonal
longesuy of mcanm^fully
learned, ideas
,
and
for the way nt which knowledge
t™clur« .W.la„„„ corfd
is organizedTn
concenably enhance ceient.on
ihree d.Ier m
"w
 OF Stages

A
in

the

Sc/BOROINATE

Learning

lOEA

IN and

Rfl^TlON

Retention

16 s^pfjnou^ fo uotttntuvSuQ 'uotiuitJjf ‘uoijmnbyy

92 UMiiing/ui Hecef tio i Learning and HeUntwn

ent wa)s First by becoming andiorcd so to spcaV to a mudificd fonn of

a highly stable existing idea in oigniiive structure the neu meaning Mcar
lously shares the stability ol the litter* Second Uiis iyj>c of anchongc, by
confimnng during storage the original nonarbitrary relationship between
the new idea and the established idea also protects the new meaning from
the interference exerted by previously learned concurrently cxjjcrienccd
and subsequently encountered similar ideas This interference is what is so
damaging when learning material is arbitrarily related to cognitive struc
lure Lastly the fact that die new meaningful idea is stored in linked
relationship to the particular idea(s) in cognitive structure to wludi it is
most relevant (that is to the idca{s) to which it was originally related in
acquinng its meaning) presumably makes retrieval a less arbitrary and more
systematic process
Theassimilation hypothesis can also help explain howr
knowledge is
organued m
cognitive suucture If new ideas are stored
m
linked relation
ship to correspondingly relevant existing
ideas in cognitive structure and if
u IS also true both that one member of the linked pair is
typically super
ordinate to or more indusive Uian
the other and that the supcrordinaic
member (at least once it is estabhslied) is the
more stable member of the
pair then it necessarily follows
that die cumulative residue of what u
structure of knowledge

0 oXr organuauonal principle

“n2 Lndahl, Jl"

undetilanilable why “T
an individuals organiiauon
ol
' "ould than be qmie
llic conlenl of a

d™y2“red2?“'I '’"'f'T '“"-Pl-fi" a P'^rar

“"J broadly explana
^ Ideas occupy
lory occuoT^''^
a p osiiion „ q,,
^ J
d in “ "" ''»
.1 the .nchonng “”2 2 ™* "'•"nglol idea « „|,ied
d-noi A but this diitinciion “d.onng idea is
can be ‘i"^„ii“
and A ate not icr, ' P'“"cal purposes since A
diSereni from each o2r Ii
It IS not a that in mind that
is anchored
to A but rather « i,h
It should also
be noted that the
tenu asim'lT“"‘'!f
raiTow senw ol ihe temi
u apply„ n,e , I""
P"" “d
here ,n ihe
|he anebonng idea to,
Icgilimate to include
.,o„ge and2he hce^ ,1
P">ce.s It would alio be
die eail.er aspecu
die new idea „
ol ih
related lo and Process (,n which
ini™wi,h!h"""'II®
u=n die broader .e„ie
-ha. 1. uiually
,™2
„< .h;
‘b2d'“ P*" “
by ““h
linkage „I ihe
„ew leaning w.U,
n.„2n^J,
d.,
^
.n2
Zp ""8 idea co„„i,e„. w„b
poieniialI,meam„gIul,dea„;i„,„d^ necesianly implies ihat
^“ the
w.lh the eiiabhshed idea
AcquisiUon, Reieiitton, and Organt^iton of Knowledgi
93

progressively less inclusive, or more highly differentiated, ideas, each linked

to the next higher step in the hierarchy through assimilative bonds
As suggested above, the assimilation or anchoring process probably has
a generally facilitating effect on retention However, to explain how newly
assimilated meanings actually become available during the retention
period, necessary to assume that for a variable period of time they are
It IS

dissociable from their anchoring ideas, and hence are reproduable as in

dividually identifiable entities Thus, as sliown in Table 3, the newly learned
and assimilated meaning a' is initially dissociable from its linked relation
ship to anchoring idea A*, the interactional product A'a', in other words,
dissociates into A' and a' Universal experience indicates that degree of
dissociability or dissociabihty strength is at a maximum immediately after
learning, and therefore that new meanings, in the absence of direct or in
direct practice, are maximally available at that time

Memorial Reduclton

The attractiveness of die assimilation process inheres not only m its

ability to account for the supenor retention of meaningfully learned ideas,

but also in the face that it implies a plausible mechanism for the subsequent
forgetting of diese ideas, namely, die gradual reduction of their meanings
to the meanings of the corresponding anchoring ideas to which they are
linked Thus, although die retenuon of newly learned meanings is enhanced
by anchorage to relevant established ideas in ilie learners cognitive strut
ture, such knowledge is still subject to die erosive iniluence of the general
reductionist trend in cognitive organization Because it is more economical
and less burdensome merely to retain the more stable and established
anchoring concepts and propositions than to remember the new ideas that
are assimilated in relation to them, the meaning of the new ideas tends to
be assimilated or reduced, over the course of time to the more stable mean
mgs of die established anclionng ideas Immediately after learning, therefore,
when this second or obhteialtve stage of assimilation begins, the new ideas
become spontaneously and jwogressively less dissociable from tbeir anchor-
ing ideas as entities m their own right, until they are no longer available
and are said to be forgotten When die dissociabihty strength of a' falls

below a certain critical level (the threshold of availability), it is no longer

effectively dissociable from A'a' (m other words is no longer retrievable)
Eventually zero dissociabihty is readied, and A'a' is further reduced to A'
itself,the original anchoring idea
The concept of a variable thresliold of availability is useful because it
can. explain transitory fluctuations in availability that are attributable to
general cognitive or motivational variables (attention, anxiety, change of
set or context, release of repression) widiout any change in dissociabihty
94 Meantngful Rereplwit Lraining and JUtention

Strength (the intnnsic strength of the item in memory) itself By the same
token It explains why items of low dissoaability sircngtli. that arc ordinarily
not available under typical conditions of consciousness, arc available under
hypnosis, and why such items can be rccognued bill not recalled
Forgetting is thus a continuation or later tcm|x)ral phase of the same
assimilative process underlying the availibility of newly Iciriicd ideas v\nd
the same nonarbitrary relaiability to a relevant established idea in cogni
live structure that is necessary for the meaningful learning of i new idea
and that leads to its enhanced retention through llie process
of ancliormg
the emergent meaning to that of the cstablisltcd idea, provides the mccha
nism for most later forgetting
This process of memorial reduction to the least common denominator
capable of representing cumulative pnor ideational
cxjiericncc (to the
relevant established ideas) is very similar
to the reduction process cliarac-
tenzmg concept formation A single abstract concept
is more mampulable
or cognmve purposes than the dozen
diverse instances from wlijcli its
commonality is abstracted, and. similarly,
copitive structure are also more funciional
stable and established ideas m
for future learning and problem

^ reason (tor
'"'“"reJ <l.sct,n,mab.lity, or ihe asailalnlity
of a .penally relevant clear,
and stable anchoring ideal tor
the nernctuauon

r^ne^hon
f»».t» ForMt " ?i
^
r ‘'“"‘“"'"“‘y ro '-econic undissociable
ondetgooblneratiie assimilation, or lo be
1

newly assimilated ideal

ta'S^"ideaS' mal 'l' f
bedded and in relation to
wliicli tlieir
meanlnremerg'e"
cogni.™ Zclion^mX"!' Itir^
body ol detailed ‘'"''renliated
p,o,x,.,i,o„s and silaficTn"™
flesh, if not the “'"V'"'
lhai constitute the
skeleton nf an« k. r . i

acquiring the content of ^ "owledge The mam problem of

an academ ^
the mcsiiable process
of "’S
if characterizes all
ingful learning mean

oblileralivc assimilation,
as a redumon^'""”"” *= Process ol
enough die less stable ^1"'"°"' rtraiglulorward
(and more special “f™*
ISpaditally incorpotaied “
within orlSutL “’’“rdmalc idea,
inclusive) meaning ml!,"®
of die specifically |' (“r* •"<>«
dial assimilates it, and the “S"“'»e slruclurc
less stable rani
Combmaional 'dea is leaning of a
similarly
«able(a„dmo,ege„eral.,ed)Lea!l!^X“;’‘- or reduced lo die more
Ol & me wider. less speafically relevant
ic/jutstlioti, IletenUon, and Orgamzation of Anouiedge 95

body of ideas m
cognitne structure to which it is related But what about
the forgetting of superordtnaie learning which, by definition, are more
generalized and inclusive from the \ery beginning than the established
subordinate ideas in cogniii\e structure that assimilate them? Here the
process of obliteratuc assimilation must obviously conform to a somewhat
different paradigm, since the more stable anchoring ideas in this case are
less inclusive than the new superordinate meanings they assimilate At least
in the beginning, therefore, while a new superordinate meaning is relatively
unstable, it is reduced to its less inclusive (subordinate) anchoring ideas
during the process of obliterative assimilation Later, however, if and when
the new superordinate idea is overlearned, it tends to become more stable
than the subordinate ideas tiiat originally assimilated it. inasmuch as the

stability of an idea in memory, ever)ihing else being equal, tends to increase

with Its level of generaht) and mclusiveness Thus, at this point, the direc
tion of obliterative assimilation is reversed the less inclusive, and now less
stable, meanings of earlier learned subordinate ideas tend to be incor*
pwrated wuhm or reduced to the more generalized meaning of the later-
learned and now more stable meanings of the superordinate idea (see Table
4)
The dynamics underlying the meaningful learning, retention, and for
getting of ideas can be appreciatedmore fully by considenng certain detailed
aspects of the interactional and assimilation processes that have not been
mentioned as yet Referring again to Table S consider, for example, the
natural history of a potentially meaningful correlative concept or proposi
non a which a learner relates to (subsumes under) a specifically relevant and
more inclusive and stable established proposition m his cognitive struc
ture As a result of the subsumption process, an interactional product, A'a',
IS formed m which both original components are modified as a consequence
of the interaction It is obviously an oversimplification, however, to state
that a new learning item, a, forms only a single interactional product with
To a lesser extent it forms additional interactional products with other
ideas which could be called S, C, D, E, and so forth, the amount of assimila
tion in each case being roughly pro|X>rtional to the latter s place along a
gradient of relevance In this interaction, also the subsuming idea is ordi
nanly modified much less than is the subsumed item because of its greater
inclusiveness and stability A recently learned abstract concept, however,
may be modified considerably by particular new experience Its defining
example, may be broadened to include new features that were
attributes, for
formerly excluded, or may be made less inclusive by excluding features that
were originally included
Now, in this new interactional product, A'a', a' does not lose its identity
completely, since a dissociation equilibrium, A'a' ^A' +
a', is set up in

which a', depending on prevailing conditions, has a given degree of dis-

96

A’
lo

reduced

arc

IDEA

Dissociabiuit
u’

and

SuP«OIlDlNATE
a
to

Relation

A
or

from

longer

no dijsociablc

clfccincly

arc
 Relentioti, and Organttalion of Knowledge 97

sociability as an identinable entity As will be explained in greater detail

later (Chapter 4), the original degree of dissociabihty strength of a', after
meaningful learning occurs, vanes svith such factors as the relevance of the
anchoring idea A, the stability and danty of A, and the extent to which A
IS discriminable from the learning matenal (that is, from a)

Actually, of course, assimilated items become unavailable (forgotten)

long before the point of zero dissociabihty is reached, since they are no
longer available below the prevailing threshold of availability (the critical
level of strengUi a gi\en item must manifest in order to be retrievable)
Much residual dissociabihty strength exists between this below threshold
level and the point of zero dissoaability, but not enough to make the item
available under ordinary conditions of recognition or recall The existence
of below threshold dissociabihty may be demonstrated by the use of hypnosis
(Nagge, 1935. Rosenthal, 1944) winch greatly lowers the tlireshold of avail
ability for all items, with ihe result that many items which are below the
level of availability become available under hypnosis Relearning also dem
onstrates subthreshold dissociabiiity strength (Burtt. 1941) The fact that
forgotten materials can be relearned more effectively and m less time than
that required for original learning is ample proof of the existence of sub
threshold dissoaability strength, because its presence, less new learning is

required to reach any given threshold level

This concept of a dissociation equilibrium, in which an assimilated
idea gradually and spontaneously becomes less dissociable from the estab
Iished ideational system to whicli it is anchored and from which it derives
its meaning has considerable heuristic value It accounts both for the
original availability of the newly learned meaning and for the subsequent
gradual decline in its during the retention interval until forget
availability
ting ensues As be pointed out shortly, assimilation theory differs
will
markedly in principle from the Gestalt theory of forgetting in this respect
Gestalt theory holds that the assimilative process induced by interaction
between traces is a matter of allomone replacement of a given trace by
another stronger trace, on the basis of the similarity existing between them
The familiar Gestalt phenomena of leveling and of sharpening in
which forgetting is manifested by reduction to a familiar idea by accentua
tion of a salient diaractenstic can be easily reinterpreted in terms of assimila
non theory In the process of leveling (Allport and Postman, 1947, Wulf,
1922) for example, a, which is a speafic derivative or illustration of >4 or a
slightly asymmetrical or incomplete variant of A, becomes a' after it is
learned and is simply reduced to A' in the txsurse of forgetting, whereas m
the process of sharpening, a more sinking aspect of a becomes its critenal
feature and is remembered in accentuated form because it is subsumed under
and eventually reduced to a preexisting representation of this feature in
cognitive structure Continuous and inverse principles, and principles with
100 Menmnglut Reception Learning and Retention

greater in disco%ery than m reception learning In discovery Jeaming, re

peated encounters with the learning task gise an
rise to successive stages in

autonomous problem solving process, whereas in reception learning, repeti

non (apart from some possible cltanges in degree and precision of meaning)
primarily increases t!ie future availability of the material Thus the forget
ting aspect of discovery learning hardly constitutes just a later continued
phase of an original learning process that merely requires the learner to
and make presented material more available Forgetting in this
internalize
common with most of discovery learning
instance, therefore, has little in
in which meaning must first be discovered by problem solving before it can
be made available and retained

Derivative versus Correlative Subsumption

It IS necessary to distinguish between two basicallj different kinds of

subsumption that occur in the course of meaningful learning and retention
Dertvaiive subsumption takes place when learning material is understood as
a specific example of an established concept in cognitive structure or is
supportive or illustrative of a previously learned general proposition In
either case the new matenal to be learned is directly and self-evidentl)
denvable from or implicit in an already established and more inclusive con
cepi or proposition in cognitive structure Under these arcumstances, the
meaning of the derivative material emerges quickl) and relatively effortlessly,
and unless greatl) overleamed tends to undergo obliterative subsumption
relatively rapidly The reason for the rapid obliterative subsumption is
simply that the meaning of the new matenal can be very
adequately repre
sented by the more general and inclusive meaning of die established sub-
sumer and that this latter process of memonal representation is more
efficient and less burdensome than the
actual retention of supportive or
illustrative data If such data are needed, they can be synthesized or recon
structed by appropnately manipulating
speafic elements of past and present
expenence so that they exemplif) the desired concept or proposition For
example, m recounting a long past inadent one ordinarily retains onl> the
ideational substance of the experience and from
this reconstructs or invents
plausible details that are consistent with
us general import and setting
More t^picall), however new subject matter is
learned by a process of
correlative subsumption The new
extension elaboration modification,
learning material m
this case IS an
or qualification of previouslv learned
propositions It is incorporated b) and
interacts with relevant and more
inc usive su sumers in cognitive
structure, but its meaning is not implicit m,
and cannot be adequatel) represented
by, these latter subsumers Neverthe
ess in t le interests of
economj of cognitive organization and of redtiang
the burden on mentor, the same
trend totiard obliterattte subsumption
rs us tren is particularly evident if the
subsumers are unstable, un
Acquisition, Retention, and Organizaltm of Knowledge 101

clear, or insufficiently reletanl. or if the learning matenal is lacking in

discnminability or not oterlearned But in this instance, the consequences

is

of obliteratise subsumption are not as innocuous as in ihe case of denvatise

subsumption When correlalne propositions lose their idenlifiabihty and
can no longer be dissociated from their subsumers, a genuine loss of knonl
edge occurs The subsumers cannot adequately represent the meaning of the
new correlative propositions, and hence the mere availability of the sub-
substance
stimets in memory does not make possible a reconstruction of the
The same situation exists when new superordinate
of the forgotten material
and combinatorial meanings are forgotlen
matter
The acquisition of a body of knowledge, therefore, is largely a
assimilation in relaining
of counteracting the trend totvard obliterative
learnings Thus J S Bruner’s
correlative, superordinale, and combinalotial
acquiring genenc coding
exclusive emphasis on -generic learning or on
learning (1957, 19a9, I960) is
systems," as a means of facilitating school
aspects of subsumption which
unrealistic because it focuses on derivative
in general and of most instances
are atypical both of the assimilation process
as he asserts, that most specific
of assimilattng new subject matter It is true,
forgotten with impunity as long as
content aspects of subject matter can be
they are denvable, or can be reconstructed
when needed, from those genenc
concepts or formulae which are
remembered But the analopus forptting
combinatonal content results in a loss of
of conelative, superordinate, or
residual generic concepts The
knowledge that cimnot be regenerated from
obliteml.ve assimilatip) whiA .
reductionist trend in memory (that is
in the case of
functional or, at the very worst, innocuous
’

acqumng a body of knovvled^ f the m

constitutes the pnncipal difficulty in
superordinale, or combina
more context of learning correlative,
typical

and retention cannot ordi

H^rrpmblem of meaningful learning
representation of the cnteml
nanly be solved by incorporating a
depiction of the
situation [or] a contentles,
istics of [a]
f f
I960) and then ignoring the loss of specif
purpose of learning genenc concepts
content
and propositions
that
is not so ^ much o
"

“
of forgotten
make ;:nble tbe'mconstruction
providrslable anchorage foc^

the major problem confront

rmiroriXmil-m dns matenal Uiat i.

matter
mg teachers in transmitting subject

Aistmtlalton of Abstract oersta

Factual Materials

The extent to t^hf

on longe
nature has an important beanng
its >
102 Meaningful Reception Learning and Retention

obliterative assimilation taies place Companson of the relative retention

spans of substance and verbatim items invariably shows that the longevity
of different components of the learning matenal, all other factors being
equal, varies directly with degree of abstractness The principal distinction
between abstract and factual items, of course, is in terms of level of particu
lanty or proximity to concrete-empirical expencncc Typically, however,
abstract material is also characterized by greater connectedness or less dis
creteness than is factual material
All factual material, furthermore, not of one piece Some factual
is

material can be learned meaningfully, whereas other factual data cannot be

related to cognitive structure m nonarbitrary, nonverbatim fashion, and
hence must be rotely learned But even if factual matter is potentially
meaningful, it is more likely to be rotely learned than is abstract material
because it is more difficult to relate to existing ideational systems in cognitive
structure
The made distinction between derivative and correlative
previously
subsumption also important in accounting for tlie relative susceptibility
is

to obliterative subsumption of different kinds of potentially meaningful

factual material Denvative facts undergo obliterative subsumption more
rapidly because, unlike correlative matter their meaning can be adequately
represented by the ideational systems that subsume them thereby making
possible a degree of factual reconstruction that is satisfactory enough for
most purposes of communication
The greater longevity of abstract than of factual
material, therefore, can
undoubtedly be partly accounted for in terms of tlie superiority of meaning
ful over rote learning and retention Another credible
explanation is that
abstractions tend more often tlian factual material
to be correlative rather
than derivative in nature Hence, because they are
from the very beginning
much less close than factual matter to the
end point of obliterative subsump-
tion they can be retained for longer periods
of time

Assimilation Inductive or Deductive Process^

At first glance, one might suppose that assimilation

in accordance with
the principle of progressive differentiation
conforms to a deductive ap
proach to cognitive organization and
functioning Actually, however, tins
supposition is correct only wiih respect
to the relatively rare instance of
derivative subsumption Correlative,
combinatorial, and siitierordinate ma
leriah quite obviously do not
bear a deduaive relationship to their estali-
hshed anchoring ideas in cognitive
structure Hence, simply because
assimi ation is not an inductive
process we cannot consider it to be ncces
ri
y ec uctive in nature The inductive deductive
issue is mostly relevant
in co„s,Jer.ng ,hc „,d„
m
„l„d. Eenen,l«m,o„s and snp,x.ruvc data are
Acquisition, Retention, and Organization of knou ledge 103

handled, either in presenting knowledge or in problem solving —not in

characterizing the nature of the assimilation process
Irrespective of whether new propositions are acquired inductivel) or
deductively, however, their incorporation into cognitive structure still

follows, if at all possible, the principle of progressive differentiation At all

age levels and at all levels of cognitive sophistication, new subordinate
propositions—even when acquired inductively —are invariably subsumed
under more inclusive established ideational systems in cognitive structure,

that IS, they are hierarducally organized in cognitive structure New super
ordinate propositions, in turn subsume less inclusive existing ideational
systems 2 Moreover, it isquestionable whether a pure inductive approach
ever exists as such in problem solving Human beings rarely start out from
scratch in approaching new problems They either employ explicit explana
on a provisional basis and try to fit the data
tory principles (hypotheses)
to these hypotheses, or at the very least are implicitly
guided from the outset
by a general assumptions derived from past experience
In tins sense,
set of
problem solving itself may be considered a subsidiary
therefore, inductive
phase withm a generally deductive approach

Cognitive Organization in Children

l.nonledge based on the
Does the same hierarchical organiration ol
differenliation hold inie tor
elementar, school
principle of progressive
despite the fact that such
children, as ncll as for adolescenls and adults,
chtldren are dependent on concrete empirical
experience learning un m
between abstractions It would
familiar new abstractions and rclalionsliips
is warranted Even though
appear that an affirmative answer to tins question
must be preceded by an ade
the initial emergence of abstract meanings
experience, abstract concepts and
quate background of concrete empirical
enjo, a ver, stable exislen e
proposition; once satisfactonl, estabhslied
reference to concreie
They not only do not have to be reinforced by »
their meaning tut th=y f
particular expLience in order ,o mrinlain
process, at or near the apex
m
serve as subsumers in the assimilame
structure
hierarchical organization of cosputive
from that of
Thus coenitne organization
the cogu
iiius, uie
of children differs mainly
& fpikpr hicher-order abstractions,
adults in containing fewer abstract concepts g
abstract verbal understandings
t,s,.c,.>nriintr<; of
and more intuitive nonverbal ratlier than

= New combinatorial ptopoiiuou! “ structure

subordinate or superordmate to
„„ subsumed b) later learning,
almost inevitably however they
level of m „ .„d niclosneness wiili exiilnig
Originally they are coordinate
higher order concepts or propositions
!0( Meant gjut Reception Learn ng and Retention

therefore
many propostiions Cliildren s learning o£ new \erbal material can
proceed in much the same manner as in adults— as long as proper allowance
ISmade for the smaller number of higher-order abstract concepts and truly
abstract propositions in cognitive structure and for the need
for concrete

empirical experience in acquiring abstract concepts and propositions

The Threshold of Availability

Reminiscence

^Ve have already observed that m

order for assimilated materials to be
reproduable at some future date their dissociability strength must exceed
a certain minimal value namely the threshold of availability The most
important cause of the unavailability of meaningfullj learned materials
therefore is a fall in dissoaabihty strength below the level required to reach
this threshold Wicther or not dissociability strength is sufficient to exceed
threshold value however is partly a function of the method used in measur
mg retention Recognition and recall for example make quite different
demands on the In the case of recognition tlie
availability of a given item
originally learned material is presented with other alternatives and the
subject need only identify it in the case of recall the subject must s/ionfane
ously reproduce the substance of the original material Obviously therefore
recognition can be successful at a much lower level of dissoaability strength
than can recall Items on the tip of ones tongue that cannot be recalled
spontaneously can be both recalled with the aid of a hint (providing the
first letter of the correct answer) and tecognned correctly on a multiple

choice test (Freedman and Landauer 1966) Subjects can even predict recogni
lion successes and failures for items they cannot recall
(J J Hart
1963)
The threshold of availability in other words is higher for recall than for
recognition if dissociability strength is held constant
Still another independent although secondary source of variability in

the availability of subsumed materials inheres in fluctuations m

the thresh
old of availabtitly itself Hence a particular item of knowledge may manifest
more than sufficient dissociability strength to
exceed the typically prevail
ing threshold value but may still be unavailable because of some temporary
elevation of the threshold of availability The most
common reasons for such
an elevauon of threshold value are (a) initial learning shock (see below)
(b) the competition of alternative metnones
and (c) negative altitudinal bias
or motivation not to remember (repression)
Removal of these threshold
raising or memory mhibiling factors (that
is disinhibition) results in an
apparent facilitation of memory The most
extreme example of disinhibition
occurs during hypnosis when resinaion
of the learners field of awareness
The Threshold of Availability Remtnueenee 105

reduces the competing effect of ahemame memory s)stems to a bare

minimum (Rosenthal, 1944)
Reminiscence (the Ballard Williams phenomenon) refers to an apparent
increment in the retention of meaningfully learned matenal over a penod
of ti\o or more days without any intervening practice ^ Since retention
cannot possibly exceed original learning under these conditions, this phe
nomenon is probably reflecti\e of spontaneous recovery from the threshold
elevating effects of initial learning shock It is postulated, in other words,
that a certain amount of resistance and generalized cognitive confusion
occur when unfamiliar new ideas are first introduced into cognitive struc
ture, that this confusion and resistance are gradually dissipated as the new
ideas become more familiar and less threatening, and that the existence of
the initial resistance and confusion and their gradual dissipation are paral
Idled, respectively, by a corresponding initial elevation and a subsequent
lowering of the threshold of availability This interpretation is strengthened
by the fact that reminiscence occurs only when material js partially learned
or not overlearned, and when practice trials are massed, that is when op-
portunity for immediate confusion and later clanficaiion exists
The fact that reminiscence has been convincingly demonstrated only
m elementary school children (Sharpe, 1952, Stevenson and Langford, 1957,
O Williams, 1926) and declines (Sharpe. 1952) or is not manifested at all
(O AVilliams, 1926) in older subjects, suggests that initial ‘learning shock
tends to decrease with increasing age as cognitive structure becomes more
stable and better organized Reminiscence also cannot be demonstrated for
verbatim (Edwards and English 1939, English, ^\'elbo^n, and Kilian, 1934)
and rotelj learned (L B Ward 1937) materials unless measured within
minutes after learning, inasmuch as the retention span for such matenals
IS exceedingly brief Later increments m
retention (increments other than a
gain between an immediate and a subsequent test of memory) are, by defini
tion not indicative of reminiscence, they probably reflect the later removal
of competing memories (or of negative motivational factors) temporanly
raising the threshold of availability during the preceding retention test,
rather than the dissipation of initial learning shock
The genuineness of reminiscence was originally in doubt because early
studies (Ballard 1913, Edwards and English 1939, English, Welbom and
Kilian 1934) used thesame group of subjects in making both initial and
subsequent of retention It was possible, therefore to explain reminis-
tests
cence either in terms of the practii^ effect exerted by the immediate test of

3 Short term reminiscence manifested 2 to 6 minutes after learning (the Ward

Hovland phenomenon) will not be considered here since it is concerned with rote
memorization
106 Veaningful Reception Learning end Retention

recall, or in terms of soluniar) or msoluntar) rehearsal benseen immediate

and later tests of retention Since the reminiscence effect still shots s up,
however, vshen separate groups are used in determining immediate and
later

it is in all
tests of availability (Sharpe, 1952, Stevenson and Langford, 1957)
probability more than a mere artifact of method of measurement

Sources of Forgetting

Temporall), three distinct phases may be distinguished dunng mean

ingful reception learning and retention Each phase, in turn, contributes
in distinrtive ways to measured discrepanaes between presented learning
material and reproduced memories of this material During the first phase,
/earning, meanings are acquired Potenually meaningful ideas and informa
tion are related to relevant ideational systems in cognitive structure, thereby
givangnse to idiosyncratic phenomenological meanings v.ith a given degree
of dissoaabiliiy strength The second phase is concerned with the retentwn
of acquired meanings or vvith the gradual loss of dissoaability strength
through a process of obliterauve assimilauon
The third and final phase involves the reproduciion of the retained
material It depends not only on the residual degree of availability (dis-
soaability strength) in relation to the threshold of availability, but also on
cognitive and motivational factors influencing both this threshold and the
actual proass of reconstructing or reformulating tlie retained meanings into
a verbal statement
Itimpxntant to bear in mind these various temporal phases of mean
IS

ingful reception learning and retention in accounting for die various sources
of error in memory During the learning phase vague, diffuse, ambiguous,
or erroneous meanings may emerge from the very beginning of the learning
process because of the unavailability of relevant andionng ideas in cognitive
structure, because of the instability or unclanty of these anchoring ideas, or
because of die lack of discnminability between the learning material and
the anchoring ideas This unfavorable outcome is particularly likely if the
learner s need for and self-critical attitude about, acquiring adequate mean
ings 1$ defiaent
Another source of discrepancy between presented and remembered con
tent that is atmbuiable to this first phase
reflects the selective emphasis
omission, and distortion that lakes place as a result of initial interpretation
of the presented material As will be pointed
out shortly in the discussion of
F C Bartlett s theory of forgetting these phenomena are manifestations
o the selective emergence of meaning (a eognitive process) raUicr than of
sclectn^ perception The emerging new meanings of learners are consonant
with their cultural frames of reference
(Bartlett, 1932), altitudinal biases
Meaningful tersus Rote Learning 107

(Mckillop, 1952), and expenmentally manipulated advance sets (Jones and

de Channs, 1958), because eacli tndmdiial possesses an idiosyncratic array
of establishedand relesant anchoring ideas (including biases) his cognim
tne structure svhich assimilate the new materia], and the resulting mean
mgs in each case are a function both of the particular assimilations that
occur and of the selectise distortion, discounting, dismissal, and reversal
of intended meanings that are induced by his particular set of biases * In
all of these instances, the relau\e ueight of idiosyncratic cognitive struc

ture in determining the content of meanings was greater than that of the
learning matenal itself, because the imestigators used prose material that
was unfamiliar, ambiguous, cryptic, and interpretable in several altematue
ways
Contrary to common belief, the fast learner remembers more than the
slow learner This is so not because he forgets at a slouer rate but because
he learns more in a given unit of time and thus starts out with a greater
mass of knowledge If initial lesel of mastery is held constant, there is no
difference in retention bettseen fast and slow learners (Underwood, 1954)
During the second phase the retention period itself, newly learned
meanings tend to be reduced to the established ideas in cognitive structure
that assimilate them That is, they tend to become more unqualiBed and
similar in import to the anchoring ideas The same cogniti\e structure,
practice, and task sartables that influence the original dissociability strength
and vcndicality of the emerging meanings determine their subsequent dis-
sociability strength and resistance to obliteratise assimilation during the
retention interval
during the reproductive phase, factors raising the threshold of
Lastly,
availability may inhibit the recall of ordinarily available meanings or
available meanings may be altered in the very process of being reconstructed
in accordance with the requirements of tlie current reproductive situation
This phase is more imjjortant in cultural settings where students are ex
pected and trained to demonstrate retention by reconstructing their knowl
edge, as in essay tests rather than by recognizing the correct alternative
among multiple choices (Harari and McDavid 1966)

Meaningful versus Rote Learning

Meaningfully and rotely learned materials are learned and retained in

qualitatively different ways because potentially meaningful learning tasks
are, by definition relatable and anchorable to relevant established ideas in

For a more complete account of how altitudinal bias influences the learning
*

of controversial material see Chapter 10

108
Aleaninglul Jleeeplion Learning and Retention

cogniiive structureThey can be related to existing ideas in wa>s making

significant (denvatue, cor
possible the understanding o! various kinds o{
relatue, superordmate, combinatorial) relationships Most new
ideational
and
materials that pupils encounter in a school setting are nonarbitranly
substantively relatable to a previously learned background of meaningful
cumculiim deliberately organized in
ideas and information In fact, the is

this fashion to provide for the untraiimatic introduction of new facts con
cepts, and propositions Rotely learned materials on the other hand are
discrete and relatively isolated entities that are relatable to cognitive striic
ture onlj m
an arbitrar), verbatim fashion, not permitting the establishment
of the above mentioned relationships
This crucial difference between rote and meaningful learning categories
has important implications for the kind of learning and retention processes
underlying each category Since rotely learned materials do not interact with
cognitive structure m a substantive organic fashion they are learned and
retained in conformity with the laws of association, and their retention
IS influenced primanly by the interfering effects of similar rote maienals
learned immediately before or after the learning task Learning and reten
tion outcomes in the case of meaningful learning on the other hand are
influenced primarily by the properties of those relevant and cumulatively
established ideational systems m cognitive structure with which the learning
task interacts and which determine its dissociabiliiy strength Compared to
this kind of extended interacuon concurrent interfering effects have rela
tively little influence on and explanatory value for meaningful learning

Learning Processes

Substantive and nonarbitrary incorporation of a potentially meaningful

learning task into relevant portions of cognitive structure so that a new
meaning emerges implies that the newly learned meaning becomes an
integral part of a particular ideational system The possibility of this type of
relatabihty toand incorporability into cognitive structure has tv\o pnnapal
consequences for Uarnvng and retention processes First learning and reten
tion are no longer dependent on the rather frail human capacity for retain
ing arbitrary and verbatim associations as discrete and isolated cntiues in
their ov\n riglu As a resuli the temporal span of retention is greatly ex
tended
Second the newly leametl matenal becomes subject to
the organiza
tional principles governing tJie learning and
retention of the system in
which It is incorporated To begin with the very act
of incorixiration re
quires appropriate (relevant) placement
wahm
a hierarchically organized
system of knowledge Later after incorporation
occurs ihe new material
initially retains its substantive
identity by virtue of being dissociable from
Meaningful versus Rote Learning 109

Its anclioring ideas,and then gradually loses its identifiability as it becomes

reduced to and undissociable from these ideas
In this type ol learning retention process, the formation and strength
ening oF arbitrary associative bonds bettvepn discrete, verbatim elements,
isolated in an oi^anizational sense from established ideational systems, play
little if any role The important medianisms involved in this process are
(a) achievement of appropriate relational anchorage within a relevant idea
tional system, and (b) retention of the identifiability (dissociabihty) of the
newly learned material Such retention involves resistance to the progres-
sively increasing inroads of obliterative assimilation or loss of dissociabihty,
and characterizes the organization and long term memorial integrity of
meaningfully learned materials in cognitive structure

Rote Learning Processes

It has already been pointed out that rote learning tasks are relatable
to cognitive structure in an arbitrary, verbatim fashion and that it is by
virtue oF this relatability that (a) already meaningiul components of these

tasks are perceived as such and thereby facilitate rote learning and (b) con
current interference with rote learning arises from within cognitive struc
ture However, the extreme arbitrariness of the learning tasks relatability
to ideational systems within cognitive structure (as well as the necessity for
verbatim miemahzation and reproduobihty) precludes the relational and
substantive type of incorporation described above for meaningful learning
and makes for a basically different kind of learning retention process Rote
learning tasks can be incorporated into cognitive structure only in the form
of arbitrary assoaations that is as discrete, self contained entities organiza
tionaUy isolated for all practical purposes from the learner s established
ideational systems The requirement that these arbitrary associations be
constituted on a verbatim rather than subsuntive basis (since anything less
than complete verbatim fidelity is valueless in the case of purely arbitrary
associations)further enhances the discreteness and isolated nature of rotely
incorporated entities
One important implication of the discrete and isolated incorporation
of rote learning tasks within cognitive structure is that quite unlike tht-
situation in meaningful learning anchorage to established ideational sy
terns IS not achieved Hence since llie human mind is not efficiently designeo
for longterm verbatim storage of arbitrary associations the retention span
for rote learnings is relatively brief The much steeper gradient of forgetting
in tlie case of rote as compared to meaningful learning requires that we

examine the rote retention process and Uie factors that influence it within
a highly abbreviated time span Delay beyond this brief time span leaves us
with nothing to study
no Mean ngful Recepitou Learning and Retention

incorpora
A second important implication of the arbitrary verbatim
tion of learning material wthin cognitive structure is that association nec
laws of
essanly constitutes the basic learning retention mechanism and the
gov
assoaation constitute by definition the basic explanatory pnnciples
emmg rote learning and retention The major goals of rote learning and
retention therefore are to increase and maintain associative strength —not
to achieve appropriate anclionge and to preserve dissoaability strength
Such variables as contiguity frequency and reinforcement are accordingly
crucial for learning and retention is influenced primarily by concurrent
interference (of both internal and external origin) on the basis of intra
and intertask similarity response competition and stimulus and response
generalization

Evidence of Meamngful Learning

It IS not always easy to demonstrate that meaningful learning has oc

cuired Genuine understanding implies the possession of clear prease dif

ferentiated and transferable meanings But if one attempts to test for such
knowledge by asking students to state the ctiierial attributes of a concept or
the essential elements of a proposition one may merely tap rotely memo-
rized verbalizations At the very least therefore tests of comprehension must
be phrased in different language and must be presented m
a somewhat dif
rerent context than the originally encountered learning material Perhaps
the simplest way of doing this is to require students to differentiate between
related (similar) but not identical ideas
or to choose the identifying ele
ments of a concept or proposition from a list containing those of related
concepts and propositions as well
Independent problem solving is often the only feasible way of testing
whether students really comprehend meaningfully the ideas they are able
to verbalize But here we have to be careful not to fall into a trap To say
that problem solv^ng is a valid practical method of measuring the mean
ingful comprehension of ideas is not the same as saying iliat the learner
who IS unable to solve a representative set of problems necessarily does not
understand but has merely rotely memorized the principles exemplified
by these problems Successful problem solving demands many other abilities
and qualities such as reasoning power perseverance flexibility improvisa
tion problem sensitivity and laatcal astuteness in addition to comprehen
Sion of the underlying principles Hence failure
lo solve die problems in
question may reflect deficiencies in these latter factors
rather tlian lack of
genuine understanding or at the very worst
it may reflect a lower order
of understanding than that manifested
m
ability successfully to apply the
pnnaples in problem solving Another feasible
method of testing the occur
rence of meaningful learning which does
not involve this difficulty of inter
 Meaningful versus Rote Learning 111

pretation is with a nesv, sequentially dependent learn

to present the learner
ing passage that cannot possibly be mastered in the absence of genuine
understanding of the prior learning task This technique smII be discussed
m more detail later
In seeking evidence of meaningful learning, svhether through verbal
questioning or problemsolving tasks, the possibility of rote memonzation
should always be borne in mind Long experience in taking examinations
makes students adept at memorizing not only key propositions and formulas,
but also causes, examples, reasons, explanations, and ways of recognizing
and solving 'type problems ” The danger of rote simulation of meaningful
I
comprehension may be best avoided by asking questions and posing prob
lems that are both novel and unfamiliar in form and require maximal trans-
formation of existing knowledge

The Superiority of Meaningful Learning

and Retention

Several lines of evidence point to the conclusion that meaningful learn

mg and retention are more effective than their rote counterparts First, MG
Jones and H
B English (1926) and L J Bnggs and H
B Reed (1943)
demonstrated that it is much easier meaningfully to learn and remember
the substance of potentially meaningful material than it is to memorize the
same connected material in rote, verbatim fashion Second, matenal which
can be learned meaningfully (poetry, prose, and observations of pictonal
matter) is learned much more rapidly than are arbitrary senes of digits or
nonsense syllables (Glaze 1928 Lyon, 1914, H
B Reed, 1938) The same
difference holds true for gradations of meaningful learning simple narrative
material learned more quickly and remembered better than are more
is

complex philosophical ideas that are difficult to understand (H B Reed,

1938) An increase in the amount of material to be learned also adds rela
lively less learning time to meaningful than to rote learning tasks (Gofer
1941, Lyon, 1914) A third type of experimental evidence is derived from
studies demonstrating that various problem solving tasks (card tricks, match
stick problems) are retained longer and are more transferable when subjects
learn underlying principles rather than rotely memorize solutions (Hilgard,
Irvine, and Whipple, 1953 Katona, 1940)
A related line of evidence showing that substance items are learned
(Gofer, 1941) and retained (Edwards and English 1939, English, Welborn,
Kilian, 1934, E B Newman 1939) more effectively than are "verbatim
’
and
Items IS more inferential than direct Presumably although verbatim items
can be learned meaningfully, they are more likely to be memorized rotely
than are concepts and generalizations In this connection, an ingeniously
designed study by E B Nevsman (1939) comparing retention dunng penods
112
Mfamng/tft KetejUton Learning and Itetenlwn

spans and respec

of sleep and ual^ing tliro^ss light on the relative retention
materials Un
uve forgetting processes of roiely and meantngfiillj learned
essential details of a narrative were remembered much
better after a penod

of sleep than after a period of normal daily activity, whereas there

was no
corresponding difference in the case of substance items A warranted
infer
obviously
ence here is that immediate retroactive interference, vvhicli is
greater dunng dailj activity than during sleep, is an important factor m
role memory, but does not significantly affect the retention of meaningfully
learned materials
Many classroom studies support the findings of this last mentioned ex

penmental approach In general, they show that pnnaples, generalizations,

and applications of principles studied in sudi courses as biology, chemistry,
geometry, and physics are renieml>ercd much better over periods of months
and even years than are more factual items such as symbols formulas, and
terminology (Eikenberry, 1923, Frutchey, 1937, K Tyler, 1930, 1934b,
^Vard and Davis 1938) A second type of classroom evidence demonstrates
that knowledge of number facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division) learned with understanding is retained more and is more
effectively
transferable than when learned in medianical, rote fashion (G L. Anderson
1949, Brownell and Moser, 1949, T R McConnell, 1934, E J Swenson,
1949, Thiele. 1938)
Both types of evidence encourage one to believe that the discouraging
picture of forgetting the vast majority of subject matter learnings, which
certainly characterizes most students today, is not necessarily inevitable
Much of this loss is reflective of rote learning ol poorly organized and pro-

grammed subject matter, of correctable ambiguity and confusion in the pre

sentation of ideas and of inadequate pacing anvl review of material (cram
ming) If subject matter were adequately organized and programmed, if
material were presented luadly misconceptions were corrected promptly,
if
and if suitably motivated students learned meaningfullyand paid attention
to sudi considerations as optimal review and paang there is good reason to
believe that they would retain over a lifetime most of the important ideas
they learned in school At the very least one viould exjjccl them to be able to
relearn, in short order and with relatively hiile effort, most of wli.rt they
had forgotten In subsequent chapters wc shall examine the important cog
naive structure practice instructional matenal and motivational variables
that affect the longevity of meaningfully learned subject matter
Manj different kinds of ex|>Ianattons have I>cen offered for the sujjcn
ority of meaningful over rote learning and retention
One exjilamiion iden
tificsmeaningful learning with the learning of meaningful matenal, and
adv.inces all of the arguments teferred
to aJxjve in exjilaining why mean
ingfulncsv facihtaies rote verbal learning Our
definition of meaningful
^ learning liowevcr, implies that it is a characteristic
procas m
whicli mean
Meaningful tersus Rote Learning 113

ing a product or outcome of learning rather than pnmani) an attribute

IS

of the content of \vhat is to be learned It is this process rather than the

meaningfulness of the content^ which is learned that characterizes mean
ingful learning Thus the same reasons that explain wh> more meaningful
materials are lotely learned and retained more readily than less meaningful
materials are, do not necessarily explain why meaningful learning and re
tention outcomes are supenor to their rote counterparts
Gestalt theorists (Kaiona, 1940, Kolfka, 1935), on the other hand, iden
tify and the understanding of relationships with the establishment
insight
of stable '
traces, which are contrasted, in turn, with the rela
structural
lively “rigid and unstable discrete traces established by rotely memorized
materials This explanation, however, really begs the question, because it
accounts for the superiority of meaningful learning processes simply by
endowing the neural representation of these processes with supenor potency
In effect, then, it is claimed that meaningful learning processes yield supenor
learning outcomes because they give nse to moie stable traces This obviously
adds little to our understanding because the real problem is to understand
why such processes are assoaated with more stable traces
In accounting for G Katona’s research findings that meaningfully
learned solutions to problems are retained more effectively than rotely
learned solutions C E Osgood (1953) offers a typical neobehavionstic ex
planation He states that the understanding of relationships reduces the
sheer volume of what has to be remembered by rendenng the details of the
learning task reconstructable from memory of the pnnaple itself It is un
deniable, of course, that the burden on memory is substantially less if one

3 It was also pointed out earlier that in meaningful learning the materials are

not already meaningful but only potentially meaningful The very objea of mean
ingfuI learning is to convert potential meaning into actual (psychological) meaning

Both rotely and meaningfully learned tasks contain already meaningful components
but in the first instance the task as a whole is not potentially meaningful whereas in
the second instances it is The presence of the already meaningful components
therefore is at most an indirect factor accounting for the supenor learning (rote or
meaningful) that occurs when such components are included in the task It cannot
possibly account for the supenonty of meaningful over rote learning with respect to
the task as a whole The more important reason for the supenonty of meaningful
over role learning obviously inheres in the fact that in meaningful learning the task
as a whole is potentially meaningful and therefore can be nonarburanly and sub-
stantively related to cognitive structure
That meaningful learning pnmanly refers to a distinctive process of learning
j
rather than to the meaningfulness of the content that is learned is further high I
lighted by the fact that both the rneaningful learning process and its outcome cani
be rote —
even when the learning task as a whole is potentially meaningful — if the*
learner does not manifest a meaningful learning set
114
Menninfjul RecelHtot$ Unrnwg and Itelention

need only remember the substance ot a connected and potentially

meaning
lul proposition than if one must remember the verbatim
content of a senes
mate
of discrete, arbitranly related verbal Jlems or of connected nonsense
nal This is undoubtedly one of the factors accounung
for the supenonty

of meaningful over rote learning A more important reason for the greater
stability of meaningful learning however, inheres in the nonarbitrary
and
substantive relatabihty and anchorabiliiy of meaningfully learned matenal
to relevant established ideas in cognitive structureHence, not only is there
less content to learn and remember, but there is also a more tenable
and
stable basis for learning and retaining that content which has to be assimi
lated The two explanations are by no means mutually exclusive
It should be noted, however, that although rote learning is more dif
Bcult than meaningful learning in most arcumsiances, it may actually be
easier for the individual who lacks the necessary ideational background for
a particular learning task In addition to the anxiety ndden person who
lacks confidence in his ability to understand difficult and unfamiliar new
propositions rote learning often appears easier than meaningful learning

MEAMscFLL vERSts ROTE RETENTios Docs the supcnoniy of meaning

ful over rote retention reflect an actual difference m the efficacy of the re
speaive reieniion processes or does this superiority merely reflect the greater
^cacy of meaningful learning? Obviously, if meaningfully learned material
IS mastered better to begin with more incorporated meanings are available

ai any subsequent time when retention is tested —

even il rote and meaning
ful retention processes chemsehes are equally elEcaaous In the case of rote
learning of matenals varying m degree of mcaningfulness it lias been dem
onstraied that learning is the only important variable When more and less
meaningful matenals are learned to the same cntcnon of mastery (by allow
ing a greater number of tnals for the less meaningful matenal) they do not
differ in retention outcomes (Postman and Rau, 1957, Underwood and
Richardson 1936)
If however our theory regarding the existence of fundamental differ
ences between rote and meaningful retentton processes is correct, we would
not exjiect that if roiely and meaningfully learned materials were mastered
equally well they would also be rememlwred with equal effectiveness Ac
cording to assimilation theory the same variables influencing the outcome
of meaningful learning and the same factors accounting
for the superiority
of meaningful over role learning processes continue
to operate during the
retention interval and to affect retention outcomes
Hence even if
rotely
and meaningfully learned materials were learned to the same cnierion of
mastery the supcnoriiy of the meaningful retention process would 1^ re
ffcctcd in higher retention scores Unfortunately,
however, research evidence
IS not presently available to test
the vabdity of this proposition Comparative
Atiernative Theories of RefenCion and Forgetting 115

studies of rote and meaningful rcienuon are needed that are analogous to
the research described afao^e on the rote retention of materials sar)mg in
degree of meaningfulness

Alternative Theories of Retention and Forgetting

Interference Theory

From a neobehanoristic standpoint

a is nothing more than a response produced by a stimulus

memory [It] is

merely the maintained assoaation of a response with a stimulus o\er an intenal of

time [Hence] the question of sshy i»e forget comes down to this WTiat are the
conditions under which stimuli lose their capacity to esote presiously assoaated
responses In other words the problem of forgetting is identical with the causes of
response dcCTement Forgetting is a direa function of the degree to which sub-
stitute responses are associated with the original stimuli dunng the retention inter
sal This [is reallj] a definition of reiroacine interference Identity between
responses tn onginal and interpolated actuities yields faalitation whereas differ

ence between responses yields interference (forgetting) and the magnitude of either
faalitation or interference is a function of the stimulus similaniies between original
and interpolated aaiMties (Osgood 1953 pp 550 551)

The following kinds of behastonstic mechanisms ha\e been proposed

to account for retroactive interference (a) response competition the same
stimulus associated with a given response dunng original learning becomes
assoaated during the retention interval with a stronger competing response,
(b) stimulus generalization a response assoaated with a given stimulus dur
ing original learning generalizes to other stimuli dunng the retention inter
val, (c) response generalization a stimulus associated with a given response
dunng original learning generalizes to similar responses during the reten
tion interval, (d) unlearning the failure of the learner to make the initially
learned responses when confronted by the relevant stimuli dunng the inter
\al "between learning and recall, (e) changed cues either some of the stimuli
present during onginal learning are absent dunng recall, or new stimuli
evoking competing responses are present and (f) changed set alteration
during recall of the set established dunng learning
Evidence favoring the interference theory of forgetting comes from
studies of rote learning showing that the degree of forgetting is directly
related to the amount and similanty of activities interpolated dunng the
interval between original learning and recall ^\'hen interpolated activity
is reduced by such conditions as sleep (fenkms and
Dallenbach. 1924, E B
Newman. 1939. Van Ormer. 193^, hypnosis (Nagge, 1935, Rosenthal, 1944),
anesthesia (Summerfield and Steinberg 1957), and immobilization (Minami
116 Meamnglul Recepttw Learning and Retenlion

and Dallenbach. 1946) retroactixe interference decreases, and when

the

amount and similani) of interpolaied actuu> increases, retroactive inter

ference correspondingly increases (McGeoch, 1936 AIcGeoch and
McGeocIi,
However,
1937, Melton and Invin, 1940, Twining 1940, Underwood. 1945)
B Underwoods reinterpretation of the relevant data of many studies in
J
dicates thatmost forgetting of rotel) learned material is 'produced by in
—
terference not from tasks learned oufstde the laboratory but from
tasks

learned previously in the laboratory. [and] tliat when interference from

laboratory tasks is removed, the amount of forgetting is relativelv
quite
small (Underwood, 1957, p 51) But identifying the source of the inter
ference v\iih rote retention as being pnnapally proactive rather than retro-
active does not alter in any fundamental way either the basic premises or
the validity of interference tlieory
Interference theory has little difficulty in explaining rote verbal leam
ing and forgetting The learning of discrete verbal units isolated from
cognitive structure can be conceived of quite plausibly in terms of habit (asso-
aative) strength, and forgetung can be similarly conceptualized in stimulus-
response terms as reQeaive of interference vvith established habit strength
through such mechanisms as response compeiiiion and stimulus or response
generalization Speafic responses purportedly become unavailable because
they are sujierseded by competing associative tendencies with greater relative
strength Hence, die pnnapal vanable in rote forgetting is exposure, shortly
before (proactive interference) or after (retroactive interference) the learning
session to materials similar to but not identical with the learning task
But when material is meaningfully learned (that is, interacts subsun
lively with established ideas in cognitive structure instead of forming a senes
of arbitrary and discrete assoaative tendenaes), it seems more credible to
define learning and retention in terms of the dissoaability of the matenal
from ns anchonng ideas at successive stages inan interactional process In
relation to this theoretical frame of reference, the major vanables affecting
learning and retention are the availability of relevant anchonng ideas in
cognitive structure (Ausubel I960. Ausube! and Fitzgerald, 1961) the sta
biliiy and clarity of these ideas
(Ausubel and Fitzgerald, 1962),, and the dis-
cnminabihiy of the learning matenal from its anchoring ideas (Ausubel and
Fitzgerald 1961 Ausubel and kotissef 1963) Thus the
resistance of mean
ingfully learned matenal to forgetting is not a simple
function of the rela
Uve strength of specific associative tendencies oimpared to otlier similar
tendencies but is a function of its dissoaahihty from tlie ideational system
to wliidi It is related Instead of medianial interference from a similar
trace there is sulistantive assimilation within an ideational common de
nominator
Tlie inapplicability of behavionstic pnnaples of
proactive and retro-
active intcifcrence to meaningfully
learned verbal materials becomes evident
Alternative Theories of Retention and Forgetting 117

when wc study As already

retention after meaningful learning has occurred
pointed out serbatim but not substance items are forgotten after a penod
of normal uaking activity (E B Newman, 1939), and expliat study of a long
passage about Christianity, immediately before or after the learning of a
comparable passage about Buddhism, does not significantly impair the im
mediate or delayed Buddhism retention scores of college students in com
panson svith those of matched control subjects not exposed to the Chris-
tianity material (Ausubel and Blake. 1958, Ausubel, Robbins, and Blake,
1957a) Similar findings nere obtained by J F Hall (1955) svith meaning
fully learned material Retroactive interference is generally found only when
verbatim recall of the potentially meaningful material is demanded (Jenkins
and Sparks, 1940, King and Cofer, 1960, Slamecka, 1959b, i960, 1962)
The shortterm interference of similar elements, so cruaal in rote for
getting becomes relatively insignificant when potentially meaningful mate
nals are related to estabhslied anchoring com^pts and progressively interact
with them to the point of oblneraiive assimilation Under these conditions
the discriminabihty of the Buddhism from the Cltnsttanity material and the
clarity and knouledge of Christianity are the sig
stability of tiie learners
nificant determining variables (Ausubeland Blake 1958, Ausubel and Fitz
gerald 1961 Ausubel and Youssef 1963) The same studies also showed that
retroactive learning of matenal with the same ideational import as the
learning passage but differing in specific content, sequence, and mode of
presentation not only has no inhibitory effect on retention but is just as
faahtating as repetition of the learning passage (Ausubel, Robbins, and
Blake, 1957a) Meaningfully —(unlikely rotely — )
learned materials obviously
have a general substantive content that is transferable or independent of
specific verbatim form and sequence
A recent study by Entwisle and Huggins (1964) using principles of elec
tncal circuit theory as learning material suggested that when both the ong
inally learned material and the matenal interpolated between the learning
and retention of the onginal material are unfamiliar or relatively unstable,
and when the two sets of material are also suffiaently similar to each other
to engender conflict and confusion, retroactive interference may occur even
under conditions of apparently meaningful learning Repetition of this
study with verbal materials less susceptible to rote memorization of formulas
however, failed to confirm their findings In fact, the interpolation of con
material actually facilitated the retention of the original material
flicting
(Ausubel and others m
press) presumably by increasing the clarity and
discrimmabihty of the original matenal The retroactive interference found
by D R Entwisle and W H
Huggins could conceivably be attributed to
the fact that much of the learning of the elcctncal circuit matenal was rote
in character
To summarize, the assimilation theory of retention differs from the
 V«n ngful Reception Learning and Relent
118

interference theory in defining retention in terms of

the dissociability of

an ideational element from its anchoring ideas rather than in terms of

the

freedom of discrete and arbitrary associations from the interfering effects of

concurrently active rote elements Assimilation theory takes into account

materials in
the existing hierarchical organization of meaningfully learned
cognitise structure the incorporation of new potentially meaningful mate
nal svithin that structure and the tendency for the new material to be re
duced to a least common denominator of relevant established meanings
Unlike behavioristic concepts of interference which postulate an assoaa
is modified only at those points in time when members of
tion tliat the
assoaaiion are utilized (Osgood I9 d3 p 5-17) the assimilation process
once initiated occurs continuously until the point of zero dissoaabiluy is
reached In view of these differences and of the marked disparity between
the respective retention spans of rotely and meaningfully learned materials
It hardly seems likely that the same type of retention process could character

ize rote and meaningful learning

Gestalt Theory

According to Gestalt theory (Koffka 19Sa) forgetting is brought about

by two principal mechanisms each of which has relatively little in common
with tlie other The first mechanism assimtiation is conceptualized as a
process whereby memory traces are obliterated or replaced by similar traces
m cognitive structure that are relauvely more stable Although this phe
nomenon is superhaally similar to the assimilative process described above
in that It seems to imply fusion of or interaction between related ideas rather
than the substitution of new stimulus or response members in a previously
learned stimulus-response assoaation it is actually more congruent with the
interference theory of forgetting Tlie behavioristic meclianisms of response
competition and stimulus or response generalization could quite adequately
account for tlie oceuirence of Gestalt assimilation
The second more distinctively Gestalt meclianism of forgetting is con
ceptuahzed as a process of autonomous disintegration wiilun traces In the
case of unsiruaured or poorly organized material (for example where figure
and ground are poorly differentiated) unvuble chaotic traces are formed
which rapidly undergo a type of spontaneous decay In other instances how
ever dynam c stresses derived from the onginal perception persist
in the
trace and are gradually resolved by such progressive clianges
as leveling and
sharpening in die direction of closure symmeir) and good form
Tlius botli tl IS aspect of Gestalt theory and our assimilation
theory of for
getung differ from the interference tlieory in regarding the
processes under
lying forgetting as occurring continuously
rather Uian only during those
Alternative Theories of Retention and Forgetting 119

umes nhen the stimulus or response members of an association are exerased

The Gestalt theory, howeser, is Jess parsimonious since it ignores the role
of prcMOusl) learned and more stable ideas both m the learning process and
in determining the direction of forgetting It postulates instead that (a) nei\

ideas do not interact i\ith relevant established ideas in cognitise structure

but, rather, are incorporated as independent traces, and (b) these separate

tracesspontaneously undergo change in the direction of "more perfect" or

form Also as pointed out abose, the hypothesis that “poorly
‘less stressful ’

’
organized matenals are foigotten quickly because they form "chaotic traces
which undergo rapid “spontaneous decay" really begs the question
Our assimilation theory differs from Gestalt theory in the following
important ways (a) It attributes all forgetting to interaction between the
learning matenal and existing cognitive structure and denies that autono-
mous disintegration of traces occurs as a result of the resolution of per
cepiually derived intra trace tensions Asymmetrical figures for example,
would sometimes be remembered as more symmetrical than originally per
celled {‘ not because of any autonomous changes within the trace,
leveling ),

but because they are subsumed by and eventually reduced to a memorial

residue of familiar geometrical concepts in cognitive structure (b) It con
ceives of assimilation (loss of identifiability or decreased dtssociability of
newly learned matenals) as a progresstve phenomenon rather than as an all
or none type of replacement in which availability is lost completely and
instantaneously The obliterative or reductionistic aspect of assimilation is
also regarded as only the mechanism accounting for forgetting, the net effect
of the anchonng process itself facilitates retention (c) Thus the forgetting
attributable to assimilationis not conceived of as simple and abrupt seplace

merit of one trace by another more stable trace (as in interference theory),
but as the outcome of a gradual trend toward memorial reduction As a
result of this trend a highly inclusive and established ideational system
comes to represent the import of less generalized ideas, the identifiability
of which IS correspondingly obliterated (d) Learning material is believed
to be assimilated b> a more established ideational system not because of
similarity between them, but because it is not suffinently discriminable from
that system Hence its import can be adequately represented by the general
ity of the more established ideas Similarity, of course, helps determine which
potentially anchoring ideas m cognitive structure actually play pnnapal
and subsidiary anchoring roles and is also one of the determinants of dis-
cnminability A
high degree of similarity, however, can faalitate initial
anchorage without necessarily leading rapidly to obliterative assimilation,
provided that differences are also clearly and explicitly understood (e) For
getting IS regarded as a continuation of the same interactional process estab
lished at the moment of learning According to Gestalt assimilation theory.
I2U
Meaningful HecepUon learning and llelenti

on the other hand, a gnen trace csinWished at the time of learning

is first

and then interacts iMtli and is later replaced by another similar and sep-

arate!) established trace

Bartlett^s Theory of Memory

Assimilation theory also has elements in common sviih F C Bartlett s

(11132) views of cognitive functioning generally
and of remembering in par
ticular He conceptualizes a schema as an oi^aoizing and oncnling attitude
or affect resulting from the abstraction and articulation of past experience
Although somewhat vague with respect to both nature and mode of opera
tion it IS structurally and functionally comparable to that of an anchoring
idea In general liowever, Barileits position on retention differs in two
fundamental respects from assimilation tlieory First, the schema itself is
largely attitudinal and affective in nature rather tlian basical!) cognitive,
in this sense u is similar to the connotativc aspects of meaning This differ
ence probabl) reflects in part the fact that Bartletts learning tasks consist

of stones, pictures and figures instead of the impersonal substance of sub*

]ectmatter content Second, Bartlett is pnmaril) concerned with the inter
pretive and reproductive phases of meaningful learning and retention, and
pa)s hardly any attention at all to the retention interval itself and its under
lying processes
Thus and remem
in accounting for the discre]>anc) between presented
bered content he emphasizes both (a) the influence of idios)ncratic and
cuUurall) biased schemata on the original perception of the material, and
(b) a process of imaginative reconstruction
at the lime of recall, as a result
of whidi particular content is selected and invented in accordance with the

nature and requirements of the current situation Assimilation theory, on

the other hand attributes most forgetting lo an intervening interactional
process involving anclionng ideas and assimilated content Thus, although
tfie individual in remembering undoubtedly selects from what is available
m memory and also invents some new material suitable for the occasion, he
IS actually reproduang, for the most part, materials that have undergone
memorial reduction rather than reconstrucling the retained residue of ong
inal meanings
According to Bartlett the first opportunity for schemata to influence
memory occurs when tfiey tnieract with incoming stimulus content The
subject attempts to make the content meaningful in terms of a relevant
scliema as well as coniextuallj consonant with it Hence, schemata sigiiif
icamly determine imiia! tnterpretaiion of the message, whicli in turn
tlic

I>ersistently influences tlicnature of what is retained Contrary to Bartlett s

contention however, tins mierpretive process winch resulls in the emer
AltemaUie Throfits of /{etetition on<f Forg«(Ctng 121

gence of meaning is cognitive rather than perceptual m nature Kewly ac-

quired meanings are not reflective of a perceptual process that yields an
immediate content of awareness, but rather are products of a more complex
cognitive process of assimilation Meanings are idiosyncratic, therefore, not
because an attitudinal schema selecmel) influences the perception of learn
ing matenal, but because such material is nonarbitranlj and substantively
selectivel) related to the idiosyncratic content of individual cognitive struc
tures (a learning process)
The importance of initial interpretation (acquisition of meaning) for
the later reproductive content of memory has been demonstrated for both
verbal (Jones and de Charms 1958, Kaj, 1955, McKillop, 1952) and pic
tonal (Carmichael, Hogan and Walter, 1932) material Subjects are prone
to acquire meanings that are compatible with iheir own attitudinal biases
in reading ambiguous controversial materials (McKilIop, 1952), and tend
to interpret the hypothetical behaviors of people in accordance with the
selective emphases embodied in expenmentally manipulated advance sets
(Jones and de Charms 1958) Children are generally unable to remember
a figure unless it reminds them of a familiar object (Granit, 1921), and in
reproducing unfamiliar and meaningless figures they alter them in ways
that increase their familiarity and meaningfulness (Hildreth, 1944) The
same tendency is also evident in problem solving Learners consistently tend
to reduce problems to a level of difficulty which they can understand and
make meaningful (Hildreth 19-H) In studying qualitative changes in reten
tion, therefore, it is important to use the immediate reproduction rather
than the learning material itself as the baseline
Bartlett largely ignores the next phase of tlie learning retention se
quence during which acquired meanings are retained He states that the
schema s principal impact on memory occurs during the reproductive phase
At this time the subject differeniially selects those elements that are both
most consistent with his own altitudes interests and cultural milieu and
also most appropriate in terms of the requirements of the current situation
To this he adds some invented detail (to fill in gaps and to enhance coher
ence, meaningfulness, and fit ) and combines and reformulates both kinds
of elements into a new, self consistent whole The reconstructed product,
therefore, when compared to the original learning material, manifests
such
tendencies as simplification condensation rationalization, conventionaliza
tion and importation R M
Dawes (1966) A S McKillop (1952), L M
ISorthway (1936) I H
Paul (1959) R
Taft (1954) and M
E Tresselt and
SOS Spragg (1941) rejxirt similar findings in the recall of value laden
narrative material The vveakness of Bartlett $ position therefore, does not
inhere in postulating the existence of imaginative reconstruction, but rather
m the fact that many of the memorial dianges he attnbutes to such recon
struction actually reflect changes in availability due to assimilation
122
\teamt gful fleeeplion Learning and Jielenlton

Psychoanalytic Theory

Psychoanalytic theory maintains that all forgetting is motisated or

m
is a product of repression Ideas or impulses that
tvould gen
other uords
repressed
crate anxiety if permitted to enter consaousness are said to be
into the unconsaous and thereby forgotten
The chief difficulty ssith this ilieory is that it accounts at
of course
best for a relatnely rare type of forgetting sery small percentage of
Only a
the ideas that are forgotten are in any sense productise of anxiety and in
these instances it is more parsimonious to hypothesize that their threshold
of asailability is eletated rather than tliat they are banished into a reified
topographical area of the mind It is also true that many anxiety producing
ideas remain painfully and obsessisely at the forefront of consaousness

Computer ^lodels of Cognitive

Functioning

An increasingly popular theoretical position in recent years has been

a variant of the cybernetic or information theory approach based on a com
puter model of cognitive organization and functioning It combines various
postulated mecltanisms of computer based information processing and stor
age with the cybernetic pnnciple of a control system This control system is
regarded both as sensitive to feedback indicative of behavioral error (or of
disCTcpancy between existing and desired states of ailairs) and as differen
tially resfionsive to sudi feedback m
ways that correct the existing error or
discrepancy The particularmodel of human thinking proposed by A New
ell J C Shaw and H A Simon (ISaS) for example assumes the existence
of receptors capable of interpreting coded information and of a control
system consisting of a store of memories a variety of processes which operate
on the information contained in the memories and a set of rules for com
bining these latter processes into programs of processing
The theoretical value of the computer model view depends of course
on the tenability of the particular theories of information processing pro-
posed by theorists of tins persuasion to account for humin cognitive func
Honing Computer programs certainly seem capable of performing many of
the same kinds of cognitive operations performed by humans memonzing —
generalizing categorizing problem solving and logical deasion making
The crucial question is whether human beings perform these operations by
means of the same underlying processes imputed to computer models
Tlie processes vmdeilying the operations involved in most computer
motlcls of cognitive functioning are incredibly simple when compared to the
awesome complexities of the actual processes implied by relevant psycho-
logical considerations Hcncc the postulated parallelism between die two
Alternative Theories of Retention and Forgetting 123

sets of processes breaks doun at innumerable points of comparison In the

first place, computers are able to process and store \ast quantities of discrete
units of information that are simultaneously or sequentially presented Hu
man beings can assimilate and remember only a fesv discrete items at a time
They compensate for this limitation by diunking (G A Miller, 1956), b)
'

processing larger units composed of sequentially dependent items, b) learn

ing generic codes that subsume specific derivative instances (derivative sub
sumption), and by cataloguing nevtf information under more inclusive sub
sumers (correlative subsumption)
Second, computers have no forgetting problem There is no possibility
of obliterative assimilation or of proactive or retroactive interference In
formation stored in a computer maintains its availability indefinitely, the
entire notion of dissociability strength, of progressive loss of such strength,
and of the dependence of rate of loss on such factors as discnminabihty
and the clarity and anchonng ideas, makes little sense in the
stability of
context of computer memory Third, there is no problem of develop-
mental change in connection vvith computers They do not change with age
in capacity for assimilating and storing information or in the kinds of in
formation processing or problemsolving processes they employ Lastly, as
presently engineered computers lack the human beings capaaty for imag
inative improvisation, for creative inspiration, and for independent think
mg
COGNITIVE FACTORS
IN LEARNING
 Chapter 4

COGNITIVE
STRUCTURE
AND TRANSFER
Having considered the nature of meaning and meaning
ful learning as well as the nature of reception learning and retention we
arenow m a position to discuss cognitive factors in classroom learning
Among these factors the existing structure of knowledge at the time of
learning (cognitive structure variables) is perhaps the most important con
sideration Since this involves by definition the impact of prior experience
on current learning processes it is synonymous with the problem of trans
fer How can the influence of this factor be distinguished from that of de
velopmental readiness which will be discussed in Chapter 5? What are the
principal cognitne structure variables and how do they affect meaningful
learning and retention? What pedagogic measures can the teacher take to
maximize the influence of transfer or the effect of cognitive structure van
ables on current classroom learning? What about individual differences
m cognitive functioning (
cognitive style )? What is the relationship be
tween language and transfer^

The Role of Cognitive Structure

in Meaningful Learning and Retention

It follows from the very nature of accretion to the psychological struc

ture of knowledge through the assimilation process that existing cognitive
—
structure itself both the substanUve content of an individual s structure of
knowledge and its major organizational properties in a particular subject
—
matter field at any given time is tlie principal factor influencing meaning
ful learning and retention in this same field Since logically meaningful

127
128
Cognttne Sirueture and Tramfct

raaienal is alisays, and can only be, learned in relation to a

prenously
learned background of relev-anl concepts, principles and information \shich
make possible the emergence of nets meanings and enhance their retention,
It IS evident that die substantive and organizational
properties of this back
ground cruaally affect both the accuracy and die clarity of these emerging
new meanings and their immediate and longterm retnev ability If cognitive
structure is clear, stable, and suitably organized, accurate and unambiguous
meanings emerge and lend to retain their dissoaability strength or avail
ability If, on the odier hand, cognitive structure is unstable, ambiguous,
disorgamzed, or chaotically organized, it tends to inhibit meaningful learn
mg and retention Thus, it is largely by strengthening relevant aspects of
cognitive structure that nevv teaming and retention can be faahtaied
It is, therefore, a commonplace diat the disaphne
details of a given
framework con
are learned as rapidly as diey can be fitted into a contextual
sistmg of a stable and appropriate body of general concepts and pnnaples
WTien we deliberately attempt to influence cognitive structure so as to maxi
mize meaningful learning and retenuon, v»e come to die heart of the edu
cauve process
In our opinion the most significant advances that have occurred re m
cent years m
the teaching of such subjects as madiematics, chemistry, physics,
and biology have been predicated on die assumpuon that effiaent learning
and funaional retention of ideas and information are largely dependent
upon the adequacy of cognitive structure And since existing cognitive struc
ture reflects the outcome of all previous assimilation processes it, in turn,
can be influenced, subitanttvely, by the inclusiveness and integrative prop*
ernes of die particular unify-ing and explanatory pnnaples used in a given
disapliiie, and, pTogrammaticaHy, by methods of presenting arranging, and
ordenng learning maienals and praaice trials

Cognitive Struaure and Transfer

Ue have just hypothesized that past expenence influences, or has positive

or negative elTecis on, new meaningful learning and retention by virtue of
Its impact on relevant propenies of cognitive structure. If this is true, all

meaningful learning necessanly involves transfer because it is impossible to

conceive of any insuncc of sucli learning dial is not affeaed in some vs-ay bv
existing cognitive structure, and this learning experience, in turn, results in
new transfer bv modifying cognitive structure In meaningful learning
therefore cognitive structureis always a relevant and cruaal variable, even

not deliberately influenced or manipulated so as to ascertain its effect

if it IS

on nrw learning For example, in those short term learning situations where
Cognitive SlTuclnre and Transfei 129

just a single unit of material is learned and transfer to new learning units
IS not measured, the effects of e\en a single practice trial both reflect the
influence of existing cognitive structure and induce modification of that
structure, thereby affecting subsequent practice trials
School learning requires, much more saliently than do laboratory types
of learning situations, the incorporation of new concepts and information
into an existing and framework with particular orga
established cognitive
nizational properties The paradigm still applies here, and transfer
transfer
still refers to the impact of prior experience upon current learning But
prior experience in this case is conceptualized as a cumulatively acquired,
hierarchically organized, and established body of knowledge which is organ
ically relatable to the new
learning task, rather than as a recently expen
enced constellation of stimulus response connections influencing the learn
mg of another discrete set of such connections
Furthermore, the relevant aspects of past expenence in this type of
transfer paradigm are such organizational properties of the learner s subject
matter knowledge as clarity, stability, generahzabihty, inclusiveness, cohe
siveness, and discnminabiluy— rather than degree of similanty between
stimuli and responses in the two learning tasks, and recent experience is
regarded as influencing current learning not by interacting directly with
the stimulus response components of the new learning task, but only insofar
as It modifies significant relevant attributes of cognitive structure
Because training and criterion tasks m
laboratory studies of transfer
have usually been separate and discrete, we have tended to think in terms of
how prior task A influences performance on criterion task B If performance
has been facilitated m
companson with that of a control group which had
not been exposed to task A, we say that positive transfer has occurred
Actually, however, in typical classroom situations, A and B are not discrete
but continuous A is z preparatory stage of B and a precursive aspect of the
same learning process B is not learned discretely but in relation to A
Hence, in school learning we deal not so much with transfer in the literal
sense of the terra as with the influence of prior knowledge on new learning
in a continuous sequential context This latter learning context also typically
involves correlative superordinate, or combinatorial assimilation Thus, as
pointed out above, the relevant transfer effect with which we are usually
concerned is not the ability to reconstruct forgotten details from generic
pnnaples, or to recognize new phenomena as specific variants of these
principles (derivative subsumption), but rather the enhanced ability to
learn and retain correlative, superordinate or combinatorial material
Moreover, unlike J S Bruners (I960) nonspecific transfer/’ the kind
of transfer just described is not restricted to those instances in which a ‘

general idea can be used as a basis for recognizing subsequent problems

 Cognitive StTucture and Transfer
130

as special cases of the ideas originally mastered

Actually, the principal

effect of existing cognitive structure on new cognitive

performance is on the
learning and retention of newly presented materials where potential
mean
application
mgs are gii/en— not on the solution of problems requiring the
and reorganization of cognitive structure to new ends Thus a transfer
situation exists whenever existing cognitive structure influences new
cog

nitive functioning, irrespective of whether it is in regard to reception

learn

mg or problem solving

Principal Cognitive Structure Variables

The learners acquisition of a clear, stable, and organized body of

knowledge constitutes more than just the major longterm objective of
classroom learning activity or the principal dependent variable (or criterion)
to be used in evaluating the impact of all factors impinging on learning
and retention This knowledge (cognitive structure) once acquired, is also
in Its own right the most significant independent variable influencing the
learner s capacity for acquiring more new knowledge m
the same field The
importance of cognitive structure variables, however, has been generally
underestimated in the past because preoccupation with noncognitive, rote,
and motor kinds of learning has tended to foais attention on such situational
and mtrapersonal factors as practice, drive incentive, and reinforcement
variablesBut in searching for knowledge about the processes underlying
meaningful reception learning and retention, it is not enough to stress Uie
importance of relevant antecedent experience that is represented in existing
cognitive structure Before fruitful experimentation can be attempted, it is
necessary to specify and conceptualize those properties (variables) of cogm
tive structure that influence new learning and retention
R M Gagn£ puts it this way
The presence of [a] performance does not mak.e il possible to conclude that
learning has occurred Ii is necessary to show that there has been a change per m
formance The
incapabihvy for exhsbiimg ihe peifonnante before learning must be
taken into account as well as the capability that exists alter learning It is fact, m
the existence of prior capabilities that is slighted or even ignored by most of the
traditional learning prototypes And it is these prior capabilities that are of crucial

1 Gagn6 (1962a) also views

knowledge as ihe capabiUly of perfomnng difTcrenl
classes of problem solving tasks once a subordinate set of capabilities in the hierarchy
are mastered In contrast v»c have viewed knowledge as a substantive (ideational)
phenomenon rather than as a problemsolving capability and have regarded the
transfer functions of cognitive structure as appiving more significantly to reception
learning than to problem solving m
the typial classroom situation
Prtnapal Cogmlive Stnicltire Janables 131

importance in determining the conditions required for subsequent learning

(Gagnd 1965 pp 20 21)

In the more general and longterm sense cognitise structure \anables

and organizational properties of the learners
refer to significant substaniise
total knouledge in a gi\en subject matter field that influence his future
general academic performance m
the same area of knowledge In the more
speafic and short term sense cogmtne structure sanables refer to the sub-
stantue and organizational properties of just the immediately or proxi
mate!) relesant concepts and propositions uithin cognitive structure that
affect the learning and retention of relalisel) small units of related new
subject matter
For two kinds of cognitiae structure aanables Gagn^ (1965) makes a
distinction between lateral and vertical transfer which is partly analogous
to that (general and long term versus specific and short term) presented abov e
In the first instance existing learning capabilities are applied somewhat
indirectly and in a general sense to the solution of related problems or to
the understanding of subject matter material in other disnplmes This in
'Gives the generalizabilii) of one set of existing learnings to the solution of
tangentially related problems in a somewhat different area of knowledge
This he says is on the other hand applies
lateral transfer Vertical transfer
to the situation where the mastery of a rather speafic set of subordinate
capabilities is prerequisite to the acquisition of higher*order capabilities
Within a rather limited sub area of knowledge
One obviously important variable affecting the learning and retention
of new logically meaningful material is the availability in cognitive struc
ture of specifically relevant anchoring ideas at a level of inclusiveness ap-
propriate to provide optimal relatabiliiy and anchorage (derivative or
correlative subsumption Now vvhat happens if such
superordination)
specifically relevant ideas arenot available in cognitive structure when new
potentially meaningful materia! is presented to a learner^ If some existing

though not entirely or specifically relevant set of ideas cannot be utilized for
assimilative purposes the only alternative is rote learning More typically
however tangentially or less specifically relevant ideas are pressed into
service The outcome is thus either a form of combinatorial assimilation or
lessrelevant correlative subsumption In either case less efficient anchorage
of the new material to cognitive structure occurs giving nse to relatively
unstable or ambiguous meanings with little longevity The same outcome
may also result when appropriately or specifically relevant subsumers are
available if their relevance is not recognized For both reasons therefore m
meaningful verbal learning situations it is preferable to introduce suitable
organizers (introductor) materials at a high level of generality and
inclusiveness presented in advance of the learning material) whose relevance
to the learning task is made explicit to serve an assimilative role rather
 Cognitive Striicture and Transjer
JJ2

appropriate anchoring
than to rely on the spontaneous asailability or use of
ideas m
cognUise structure
If the new learning maicnal (for example, the Dansinian theory of
etolution) IS entirely unfamiliar to the learner, the organizer
might include
his
whatever established and relevant knowledge presumably exists in
cognitive structure tliat would make Darwinian theory more
plausible,

cogent, or comprehensible The organizer itself (a highly general and inclu

sive would thus be learned by combinatorial
statement of Darwinian theory)
assimilation, making expliat both its relatedness to generally
relevant

knowledge already present in cognitive structure and its own relevance for
the more detailed aspects of or supportive evidence for Darwinian theory,

and these latter detailed aspects (the learning task itself) would then be
subsumed under the organizer (derivative and correlative subsumption) If
the new learning material is not completely novel (for instance, later
presentation of Lamarcks theory of evoluuon), the organizer might point
out explicitly m what ways the two theories are similar and different Thus
whether already established anchoring ideas are nonspeaficaJly or speafically
relevant to the learning material the organizer both makes this relevance
more expliat, and is itself explicitly related to the more differentiated con
tent of the learning task
A second important factor presumably alTecting the learning retention
of a potentially meaningful learning task is the extent to which it is

discTimtnable from die established ideational systems that assimilate it and

vice versa A reasonable assumption here borne out by preliminary investi
gallon IS that if the new ideas to be learned (for example, the tenets of Bud

dhism) are not clearly discnminable from established ideas in cognitive

structure (m this case the tenets of Christianity), the Buddhism meanings
both manifest initially low dissociability strength and lose it rapidly because
they can be adequately represented by the latter (the tenets of Chnstianity)
for memonal purposes For both reasons they would tend not to persist as
dissociable entities in their own right In other words, only discriminable
categorical variants of more inclusive established meanings have longterm
retention potentialities
Lastly, the learning and longevity in memory of new meaningful ma
terial are functions of the stability and clanly of its anchoring ideas If they
areambiguous and unstable, they not only provide inadequate relatability
and weak anchorage for potentially meaningful new materials but also
cannot be easily discriminated from them
The influence of cognitive structure variables has thus far been invesli
gated only in short term studies m
whtcli the organizational properties of
just the immediately or proximately relevant ideas witbm a particular
subject matter field were expenmentally varied m
order to ascertain the
effects of such mani|nil3lion on the learning and reieniion of small uniis
Availability of Relevant Anchoring Ideas 133

of related subject matter It is even more important, perhaps, to discover

how significant organizational properties of the learner’s total knowledge
in a gi\en discipline influences his future academic performance in the same
area of knowledge In both kinds of research, programmed learning tech
niques can be advantageously employed to vary particular cognitive struc
ture variables while holding others constant

Cognitive Structure Variables

versus Readiness

Cognitive structure variables refer to the substantive and organizational

properties of the learner s existing knowledge in a particular subject matter
field Readiness,” as the term is generally understood implies, on the other
hand that his developmental level of cognitive functioning is such as to
make a given learning task possible widi reasonable economy of time and
effort Thus, in contradistinction to cognitive structure variables, readiness,
in the developmental sense of the term, is not determined by the existing
state of the learner s subject matter knowledge in a given field, but rather
by his cognitive maturity or level of intellectual functioning The latter
factor will be considered in Chapter 5
In both instances we are actually dealing with a type of readiness for
new learning But m
one case the readiness is a function of previously
acquired subject matter knowledge, that is of ns organizational and sub
siantive properties In the other case, it is a function of the maturity of his
cognitive capacities irrespective of his particular subject matter background

Learning and the Availability

of Relevant Anchoring Ideas

Whether or not relevant anchoring ideas at an appropriate level of

and inclusiveness are available
abstraction, generality, m
cognitive structure
ISan obviously important antecedent variable in meaningful learning and
retention In this section we propose to review vanous short term studies
of meaningful learning retention and problem solving in which this
variable is implicated Where studies of infra human, nonverbal, or rote
learning are particularly relevant, they are also included Studies such as
these exemplify the transfer paradigm providing that the cognitive structure
variable is manipulated during a preliminary or training period so that the
manipulation on a new learning task can be ascertained For
effect of this
example, a study indicating that the overlearning of a given passage results
in increased retention would not constitute relevant evidence from the —
—
standpoint of transfer about the mOuence of cognitive structure on reten
m Cognitive Structure and Transfer

tion,It ANOuld merely reflect the inHuence

of amount of practice on retention,
only
inasmuch as practice rather than altered cognitive structure is the
measurable independent variable that is relevant under these ciraimstances
hand, evidence that the overlearning of passage A by
an
On the other
experimental group (as compared to a control group which does not over
be
Jeam passage A) leads to superior retention of related passage D, would
relevant evidence of the influence of cognitive structure on retention

Short Term Studies

SPONTANEOUS ANTECXDENT oRCAMZATioN Many different kinds of cog

nitive functioning are facilitated by the spontaneous (uncontrived) presence
and use of organizing concepts within cognitive structure E C Poulton
(1957) showed tliat memory for short meaningful statements vanes directly
with the subjects' degree of certainty regarding their truth, which in turn
reflects relative degree of subject matter sophistication in the area covered

by Uie statements in question Tlius die more background knowledge an

individual has in a particular disapline, and the more stable this knowledge
IS,the more successful he is in learning related materials Memory for a
body of Items was also found to vary directly vvith the number of categones
subjects were required to use in classifying the items (Mathews, 1954) As-
soaauve clustenng in the recall of words is a somewhat more sjxintaneous
manifestation of the same tendency to maximize rote retention by organiung
disaete items around existing categorical subsumers The possibility of
sucliclustenng is obviously greater if the vsords themselves are relatively
familiar (Bousfield, Cohen,and Whitemanh, 1958) The facilitation of word
sequence learning by grammatical structure (Osgood, I95S) is still another
example of the influence of cumulatively learned antecedent organization
on cognitive functioning Ability to learn unfamiliar word meanings m
ones mother tongue from their use in context illustrates the application
of a highly established general coding system to the solution of a specific
problem (Bruner 1957, Marks and Miller, 1961, Schwartz and Lippman
1962)

MEBiATiONAi. ORGANIZATION Vanous kinds of vcrbal pre training faal

itate learningand problem solving by providing aa organizing subsumer
or general coding principle Reversal learning is faalitated when die first
of two pnnciples or discrimination problems is overleamed and thereby
senes as a paradigm for the second problem (Bruner, 1957, Puboh, 1957.
L. S Reed, 1953 Sassenrath, 1959) Bilateral transfer effects (Munn, 1932)
similarly dejiendon the acquisition of a generally applicable pattern of
neuromuscular co-ordinations at die disposal of any IxKlily member Verbal
prefamilianzation widi the content of films by means of a pretest (Stem,
1952) or by exposure to key ssords (Weiss and Fine,
1956), also facihutcs
Aiailabiht) of Releittnt Anchoring Ideas 135

learning and retention In concept formation, the facilitating effect of

\erbal pre training is relatite to subjects’ mastery of discriminatne verbal
cues during pre training (Rasmussen and Arclier, 1961, Goss and Mojlan
1958, Yarcozovver, 1959) Discrimination pre training witli the same loords
used in the criterion task proved superior in textual learning to no dis-
crimination pre training vvliatsoever, or to discnmination pre training with
the letters composing the words used in the criterion task (Staats, Staats,
and Schutz, 1962)
The relevance of the antecedent elements of cognitive structure for the
new learning matenal is also an important factor in cognitive functioning
Concepts are more easily acquired if the specific instances from which they
are abstracted are frequently rather than rarely associated with their
defining (critenal) attnbutes and if subjects have more rather than less
relevant information about the nature of this attribute (Underwood and
Richardson, 1956) Relevant and meaningful antecedent context similarly
facilitates the perception of connected verbal material when subthreshold

tachistoscopic exposure times are used (Haselrud, 1959) P Saugstad (1955)

has shown that the solution of problems, such as Maiers tvio pendulum
problem, is largely dependent on the availability of relevant concepts

Evidence continues to accumulate regarding the mediating function of

implicit verbal processes in concept formation " A A Liublinskaya (1957)
H H Kendler and A D Karasik (1958), and J £ Carey and A E Goss
(1957) have demonstrated that the availability of distinctive verbal responses
facilitates concept formation and conceptual transfer, and, confirming
earlier findings in this area M W
Weir and H \V' Stevenson (1959) re
ported that explicit instructions to verbalize enhances transposition learn
ing in children and that this effect is unrelated to chronological age within
the age range of 3 to 9 Mere ability to verbalize however, may constitute
no advantage in simple transposition problems,* preverbal preschool
children seem to do as well as ‘verbal preschool children (Gonzalez and
Ross 1958, Rudel 1958)
The interposition of a time delay between training and test problems
enhances transposition behavior (Stevenson and Langford. 1957) presumably
by de-emphasizmg the importance of absolute differences and by making

- The organizing function of Bartlett s schemata in the perceptual and

repro-
ductive phases of meaningful learning and letenlion has been considered elsewhere
Goss (1961) offers an elaborate iheorciical discussion of the acquisition of concep-
tual schemes and of their mediating and organizing uses

*These are problems in which the subject having learned a given relation
ship (for instance to dioose the larger of a pair of blocks) displays understanding
of (transposes) this relationship to another pair of blocks of different absolute size
 —
Cogn tiie StTi clure and Transfer
136

requires
relational principles more salient Even when the transfer task
reversal of the training principle further training on the
original form of
facilitating
the principle accompanied by mediating symbolic processes has
rather than inhibitory effects The use of verbal secondary )
cues (knowl
(
produces
edge that each French noun has an initial la or le term)
greater transfer to new instances of the class than does a pnmary cue
[the

French names of 12 common stimuli] or a tertiary cue (knowledge that la

and le are articles) (Wittrock and Keislar 1965)

Recognition of the role of cognitive structure in symbolic learning
and even m —
rote and simple discrimination learning is implicit in such
neohehavionstic mediationa! hypotheses as those offered by C E Osgood
(1953 1957) and O H
Mowrer (1960) The formation of such mediating
cognitive structures as response produced cues and covert verbal responses
has been postulated to explain the facilitating influence of verbal pre
training on concept formation (Carey and Goss 1957 kendler and Karasik
19o8) and Spiker 1958) and reversal
paired associate learning (Norcross
learning (Bensberg 1958 kendler and D Amato 1955 Sassenrath 1959)
A E Goss and M C Moylan (1958) and M Yarcorower (1959) have shown
that this fauhtating effect is relative to the extent to which subjects have
mastered discnmmatne verbal cues during pre training

THE EFFECT OF ADVANCE ORGANIZERS ON LXARN1NC AND RETENTION

L Postmans (1954) study of the effect of learned rules of organization on
role learning and retention is an interesting precunor of the use of advance
organizers m the meaningful learning of connected verbal discourse This
investigator found that expliat training in the derivation of figural patterns
from code models facilitates the retention of the figural material that the
relative effectiveness of such preliminary training increases with the reten
tion interval andthat the training reduces the susceptibility of the memory
material to retroactive inhibition Jn essence then this experiment involved
the facilitation of rote retention by meaningful rules of organization the
learning task was relatively arbitrary verbatim and unrelatable to cognitive
structure but each comiionent was relatable to an explicitly learned code
which in this instance was analogous to a subsuming principle
J
Rey H
nolds (1966) similarly demonstrated that an organized perceptual structure
can facilitate rote verbal learning
In addition to their practical usefulness as a pedagogic device organizers
can also be used to study programmatically the effects of cognitive structure
variables By systematically manipulating the properties of organizers it is
possible to influence various attributes of cognitive structure (the availability
to the learner of relevant and proximatcly inclusive
subsum ers tl e clarity
stability discnminabihty cohesivcness md inlegraiiveness of these sub
siimers) and ihen to ascertain tlie influence of this manipulation on new
AvatlabtlUy of Relevant Anchoring Ideas 137

learning, retention, and problem sohing Such studies follow the transfer
paradigm providing that they employ control subjects who are exposed to
similar but non-organizing introductory materials
The use of expository organizers to faahtate the learning and retention
of meaningful \erbal learning is based on the premise that logically mean
ingful material becomes incorporated most readily and stably in cognitite
structure insofar as it is subsumable under specifically relevant existing
ideas It follows, therefore, that increasing the availability in cognitive
structure of specifically relevant subsumers—by implanting suitable orga
nizers —should enhance the meaningful learning of such material Research
evidence (Ausubel, 1960, Ausubel and Fitzgerald, 1961, 1962, Ausubel and
Youssef 1963, Merrill and Stolurow, 1966, Newton and Hickej, 1965), in
fact, confirms this supposition The facilitating effect of purely expository
organizers, however, typically seems to be limited to learners who have low
verbal (Ausubel and Fitzgerald, 1962) and analytic (Schulz, 1966) ability,
and hence presumably less ability to develop an adequate scheme of their
own for organizing new material in relation to existing cognitive structure *

And the same availability of a relevant superordinate proposition m cogni

tive structure also enhances meaningful retention by decreasing the rate
at which the original dissociability strength of the material declines (by
decelerating the rate of obliterative assimilation) (Ausubel and Fitzgerald,
1961)
Advance organizers probably facilitate the incorporability and Ion
gevity of meaningfully learned material m three different ways First they
explicitly draw upon and mobilize whatever relevant anchoring concepts
are already established in the learners cognitive structure and make them
part of the subsuming entity Thus not only is the new material rendered
more familiar and potentially meaningful but the most relevant ideational
antecedents in cognitive structure are also selected and utilized in integrated
fashion Second advance organizers at an appropriate level of inclusiveness
by making subsumption under speafically relevant propositions possible
(and drawing on other advantages of subsumptive learning) provide optimal
anchorage This promotes both initial learning and later resistance to
obliterative subsumption Third the use of advance organizers renders
unnecessary much of the rote memorization to which students often resort
because they are required to learn tlie details of an unfamiliar discipline
before having available a sufficient number of key anchoring ideas Because

* When the learning task is particularly difficult hovvever orgamzen may

differentially benefithigh ability students (Crotelueschen 1967) and those with
more background knowledge (Ausubel and Fitzgerald 1962) by making u possible
for them to learn material that would in any case be beyond the capacity of less
able and less sophisticated students
 Cogntltve Structure and Tramfer
138

v.hich the details

of the una\ailabilit) of such ideas in cognitise structure to
can be nonarbitranly and substantiielj related the
matenal, although
logically meaningful, lacks potential meaningfulness

TRANSFER OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES PROBLEM SOLVING Muclx pOSltue

to
transfer in problem solving and other kinds of learning is attributable
the carryover of general elements of strategy, orientation and adaptation
to the problem Systematic instruction in approacli to a given task has
been
shown to faalitate both motor learning (Duncan, 1953) and memomation
(Woodrow, 1927) Overlearning of the training task tends to reduce negative
transfer in serial rote learning (Atwater, 1953, Bruce, 1933, Mandler, 1954,
Underwood 1949, Yarcozower, 1959) because it establishes the particular
relevance of speafic elements for specific instances, while at the same time
permitting the positive transfer of genera! factors The same basic phe
nomenon can also be obsened in rat mare learning (T A Jackson 1932
Wiltbank, 1919)
More explicit faalitation of the learning of skills by deliberately making
a transferable general pnnaple (the nature of refraction) available, is seen
in C H Judds classical experiment on learning how to shoot submerged
targets (Hendrickson and Schroeder, 1941, Judd, 1902, Ovenng and Travers
1966) Prior learning of prinaples similarly enhances problem solving ability
m mathematics (Scandura 1966a b) S M
Ervin (1960c) also found that
verbal instruction in the relevant physical pnnoples underlying a gi'cn
motor performance increases transfer to an analogous motor performance
However this effect does not occur unless subjects are able to perceive both
the similarity between the two motor tasks and the link between verbal pnn
aples and performance In solving puzzle type problems both G Katona
(1940) and E R. Hilgard and his co-workers (1953 1954) have demonstrated
that understanding of a general pnnaple is more transferable to a gi'co
class of problems than is rote raeraonzation of the solution R
S French
(1954) obtained similar findings m a study vthich required subjects to
leam sequenually dependent concepts
TRANSFER AND LEARNING SET Tlie learning Set phenomenon, leam
ing to leam successive transfer, or progressive intra problem improve
mem in performance (Harlow, 1949, Keppcl and Postman 1966) also illus-
trates the gradual acquisition of a general coding pnnaple which faalitates
the solution of a given class of problems Both C P Duncan (1953) and L-
Momsett and C I Hovland (1959) have demonstrated lliat transfer in
learning set problems
is a function of mastery (praaice) wiilun a given type
of problem as v\ell as of experience with a large number
of speafic variants
of this problem type Tliese exjienmems therefore
furtlier substantiate the
value of overlearning and muUicontexiual
experience in learning generic
coding systems
Aiailability of Relevnnt Anchoring Ideas 139

Many complex learning tasks particularly those which are sequential in

nature can be analyzed into a hierarcliy of component learning sets or
units R M Gagn6 and N E Paradise (1961) define the latter is a set of
subordinate capabilities consisting of knowledge relevant to any given
final task to be learned The rate of learning these units and the extent
to which they can be recalled are more highly related to final achiesement
on the learning task than are general learning ability or previous mathe
matics grades (Gagn^ and Paradise 1961 Gagn6 Mayor Gartens and Para
dise 1962) Serious breakdowns in learning can often be attributed to mad
vertent omission of a logically essential component unit from the total task
or to Its inadequate integration svith other components

Long Term Studies

Despite their self evident significance for school learning longterm
studies of cognitive structure variables involving subject matter achievement
are extremely sparse Very little research in this area conforms to the mini
mally necessary research design (the transfer paradigm) which requires that
a single attribute of cognitive structure first be deliberately manipulated
using adequate experimental and/or statistical control procedures and that
this altered cognitive structure then be related to longterm achievement
outcomes in an extended program of new studies in the same field

INFLUENCE OF EXISTING DECREE OF KNOWLEDGE ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVE

MENT Studies in which degree of existing knowledge of subject matter at
one attainment is related to performance at subsequent
level of educational
educational levels conform to the longterm transfer paradigm Constancy
of academic attainment is of course partly attributable to constancy of
academic aptitude and motivation But especially when these latter factors
are controlled it is reasonable to attribute some of the obtained relation
ship between earlier and later educational levels to the cumulative effects
of cognitive structure variables (Garside 1957 C H Swenson 1957) C H
Swenson for example reported that holding academic aptitude constant
students from the upper two fifths of their graduating classes make signif
icantly higher quality point averages m
college courses than do students
from the lower three fifths ^ But T
L Engle (1957) found that university
grades m
psychology for students who had psychology in high school were
no higher than the grades of students who did not have psychology in high
school This lack of relationship reflected in part significant differences in
content and emphasis between high scliool and college psychology courses

® S milar findings were reported by Sommerfield and Tracy (1961) using

Algebra 1 grades as a predictor for success in Algebra II in high school
 Cognitiie Structure and Transfer
uo

detelopment,
From the standpoint of raUonal pnnaples of cumculum
normallj
howeter, introductory courses in agisen field of knowledge might
ssould faalitate
be expected to establish the type of cognitne structure that
of more ad\anced and highly differentiated matenal
the later assimilation
m the same field
IMPROVEMENT OF INSTRUCTION Man) of the cumculum reform mo\e
menis attempt to enhance longterm learning and retentu*n by inffuenang
cognitue structure sanables The Unisersity of Illinois Committee on
School Mathematics (Beberman, 1958) for example, stresses initial self
discovery of generalizations by students, follossed by prease, consistent, and
unambiguous serbalization of modem concepts The Secondary School
Physics Program of the Physical Saence Study Committee (Finlay, 1959)
places great emphasis on the more integratise and rudely generalizable
concepts in modem physics, on inquiry in depth rather than on broad,
superfiaal coserage of the field, on careful, sequential programming of
pnnaples, and on conseying to the student something of the spirit and
methods of physics as a deseloping expenmental saence Implicit in each
program is the assumption that i^liateser ultimate supenonty in academic
attainment is aclue^ed by folIosMng these pedagogic pnnaples is aitnbut
able to cumulattse changes in tlie organizational and substantise proper
ues of cognitise structure
test dau prosided by evaluative studies of such programs
Acliiesement
offerpresumptive evidence regarding the long term effects of cognitive strut
ture variables Nevertheless this type of research does not adequately con
form to our transfer paradigm since the learning of new matenal or later
academic performance in the same subject matter field is not studied as a
function of earlier substantive or organizational changes in cognitive struc
ture that can be plausibly attnbuted to specifiable charaaenstics of the
cumculum, it tells us only iliat cumulative achievement at some designated
point m time is presumably supenor because of the cumulative effects of
the program Funhermore not only is it impossible in such programs to

isolate the effects of the individualindependent vanables involved, but also

>vjX\ TKtl’j vs IS*.')TOvie v» 'jfev'ivsv
'tf.'KV «.Vvrtsen«m\ ilava fawsv
control groups or to control for the Hawtliome effect « Measurement is
also a difficult problem because standardized acliievement tests cover various
traditional subjert matter units delilierately ignored by these new curricula.

• Tlie Hawthorne effect rtfers to the improvement in cntenal task per

formance induced by some novel but superfiaal atpecis of ihe treatment given ihe
expenmental group (or simply by the fact titat this group is singled out for speaal
ireaimcni) rather than by the poslulated expenmental variable It can be avoided
by using a control group that is given an overtly simtUr but intrinsically different
ireatment than that given to the expenmemal group
Availability of Relevant Anchoring Ideas HI

as sveH as fail to measure knowledge of the more modern content which the
latter emphasize All of these difficulties point up the unfeasibility of using
curnculum-de\elopment research as a source of rigorous experimental evi
dence bearing on a single cogniti\e structure \anable

IMPROVEMENT OF THINKING PromiiiHg attempts to enhance cntical

thinking abiht) by influencing cognitive structure in particular subject
matter areas have been made by M
L Abercrombie (I960) J R Suchman
(19a9 1960) and B O
Smith (1960) Abercrombie tned to improve medical
students ability to reason more effectively by providing them with oppor
tumties for therapeutic group discussion in an unstructured nonauthor
itanan atmosphere Analysis of X rays was used as the criterion measure
for assessing the effects of this training Abercrombies findings were gen
erally in the predicted direction but ate vulnerable on the grounds of failure
to control for the so<alIed Hawthorne effect
Suchman (I960) has been expenmenimg with the teadiing of strategies
and tactics of saentific inquiry to children who
learn to appl> them m
question and ansvver investigations Preliminary findings (1959) indicate
that although such training increases the number of valid questions children
ask in the test (criterion) situation it does not significantly enhance the
quality of the questions or facilitate grasp of concepts Hence more defini
tive evidence of the transfer value of such training to new situations is being
sought and the new cnieria of transfer being employed are not only more
independent of the particular training procedures used but are also more
reflective of the ultimate purpose of such training greater knowledge of the
content and/or the method of science
B O Smith and Henderson developed instructional materials designed
and
to develop critical thinking abilities helped the teachers learn how
to handle these materials in the classroom [They] found wide differences
among teachers with respect to improvement of their students in critical
thinking (B O Smith 1960) but refrained from drawing definitive con
elusions because they had not as yet devised a technique for describing and
measuring what teadiers were actually doing in this situation Their next
step therefore was to devise a method of categorizing the logical operations
involved in teaching The great promise of this approach is twofold First
the attempt to influence critical thinking is based on the simultaneous teach
ing of the logic of a particular subject matter field along with its content
rather than on instruction in general pnnaples of logic Second by quantify
ing crucially important but elusive teaching vanables this category system
can do much to place longterm classroom studies of cognitive structure
variables on a sound experimental basis M
J Aschner (1961) has developed
another useful category system for clarifying thought processes that are
reflected in verbal behavior [based] on Guilford s conception of the
structure of intellect
142 Cognitive Structure and Transfer

AUTOMATED TEACHivc Similar kiiicls of presumptive evidence regard

ing the longterm effects of cognitive structure variablescome from studies
ofautomated teaching S L. Pressey (1960) systematically used a self instruc
tional (punchboard) device as an integral part of a course in educational
psychology This device both provides immediate feedback and guides the
student to the correct answer if he is wrong Students using the punchboard
make higher midterm and final examination scores than do students in the
control group J K Little (1960) and A L Stephens (1960) reported similar
findings
Long term experimental evidence denved from more modern teaching
machine procedures is equally sparse but generally substantiates the con
elusion that sucli procedures are approximately as effective as conventional
teaching methods The study conducted by B F Skinner and J G Holland
(1960) on the effectiveness of programmed instruction in introductory psy
chology for example is subject to the methodological criticism that control
groups were not used Better-controlled studies in the same subject matter
area (W F Oakes 1960 Ter Keurst 1965) give conflicting findings D
Porters (1959) research on programmed instruction in sjjclling (I9a9) and
S R Meyers (1960b) vocabulary study are notable for the use of matclied
control groups and demonstrate a consistent advantage m
favor of the auto
mated techniques A v^ell controlled experiment on the automated teaching
of fourth grade anthmeiic suggests no superiority for this approach except
in the case of low IQ pupils (Joos 1961) But despite the paucity of rigorous
experimental work in this area it is evident that with projier controls
manipulation of single variables and the use of the transfer paradigm auto-
matic teaclung devices could provide much valuable evidence on the long
term effect of cognitive structure vanables

The Role of Discriminability

in Meaningful Learning and Retention

The discriminability of new learning material from previously learned

concepts in cognitive structure is a major variable in meaningful learning
and retention In the effort to simplify the task of apprehending the environ
ment and representing it in cognitive structure new learning material dial
resembles existing knowledge often tends to be
interpreted as identical to
tlie latterdespite the fact tliat objeaive identity
does not exist Existing
knowledge in other words tends to preempt
the cognitive field and to
sujierimposc itself on similar potential meanings
Under these arcumstances
the resulting meanings obviously cannot
conform to the objective content
of the learning material In other
instances the learner may be cognizant
of the fact that new proposiuons differ
somehow from established principles
DiscTtminabiliiy >ii Meaningful Learning and Retention US

in cognitive structure, but is unable to specify wherein the difference lies

^Vhen this situation exists ambiguous meanings emerge permeated by
doubt confusion and alternative or competing meanings In either case
however the newly learned meanings enjoy relatively little initial dissoci
ability strength In addition if new meanings cannot be readily distin
guished from established meanings they can certainly be adequately repre
sented by them for memorial purposes and tlius tend to lose their initial
dissociability strength or become reduced more rapidly, than initially dis
criminable meanings This is especially true for longer retention periods
Over short retention intervals nondiscriminable material can be retained
on a purely rote basis
Lack of discriminabihty between new ideas and previously learned
propositions in cognitive structure may account for some negative transfer
(proactive interference) in school learning Tins is particularly the case
when the tv\o sets of ideas are confusably similar and when the previously
learned ideas are neither clear nor well established Under these conditions
the learner may possibly encounter greater difficulty in learning the new
ideas than ifhe had not been previously exposed to a confusably similar
set of propositions P Suppes and R Ginsberg (1963) for example found
evidence of negative transfer when first graders learned the concept of iden
tity ofordered sets after previously learning the concept of identity of un
ordered sets
The discnminability of a new learning task is m large measure a func
tion of the clarity and to which it is relatable
stability of the existing ideas
in the learners cognitive structure In learning an unfamiliar passage about
Buddhism for example knowledge of Christianity
subjects with greater
make significantly higher scores on the Buddhism test than do subjects with
less knowledge of Christianity (Ausubel and Blake 1958 Ausubel and Fitz
gerald 1961 Ausubel and Youssef 1963) This significantly positive relation
ship between Christianity and Buddhism test scores holds up even when
the effect of verbal ability is statistically controlled (Ausubel and Fitzgerald
1961) When a parallclly organized passage about Zen Buddhism is intro
duced after the Buddhism passage superior knowledge of the latter similarly
facilitates the learning of the Zen Buddhism material when verbal ability
IS held constant (Ausubel and Youssef 1963) Thus much of the effect of
—
overlearning both on retaining a given unit of material and on learning
—
related new material is probably a reflection of the enhanced discnmin
ability It induces and this effect can be accomplished by overlearning either
the learning material itself or its anchoring ideas
When discriminabihty between new learning material and established
ideas in cognitive structure is inadequate because of the instability or am
biguity of prior knowledge comparative organizers that explicitly delineate
similarities and differences between the two sets of ideas can significantly
 Cognitive Structure and Transfer
144

increase discnminabilily and hence facilitate leirnmg and retention (Ausu

bel and Fitzgerald 1961) Thismethod of hcihtatmg learning and retention
such
IS probably more effective than overlearning of the new material since
overlearning does not in any way strengthen or clarify the established con
cepts which provide anchorage for longterm retention When established

ideas in cognitive structure are already clear and stable however organizers
do not have a facilitating effect (Ausubel and Fitzgerald 1961) Under these
latter arcumstances overlearning of the new material is the only feasible
way of further enhancing discnminability In conceptual learning present
mg sequences of stimuli that provide successive contrasts between relevant
and irrelevant critenal attributes tends to faalitate concept formation (De
tambel and Stolurow 1956)
Attempts to increase the discrimimbility of verbal learning materials
through techniques other than overlearning of new mateml or the use of
advance organizers have not been strikingly successful Merely establishing
a set to perceive differences between two related passages does not in and
of Itself enhance retention although the learning and retention of dilJer
ences alone enhanced by the use of explicit directions to notice the differ
is

ences (Wittrock 19G3a) and the inclusion of explicit comparisons within

the learning passage itself produces somewhat equivocal results (Ausubel
and Blake 1958)
For several plausible reasons advance comjiarative organizers are more
effective ilian intra material comparisons In the first place they provide ad
vance ideational scaffolding Second they provide the learner with a gen
erahzed overview of all of the major similarities and differences between
the two bodies of ideas before he encounters the new concepts mdividuilly
m more detailed and particularized form Finally they create an advance
set in ilie learner to perceive similarities and differences and by avoiding
oierly explicit specification encourage him actively to make his own dif
ferentiations in terms of his own particular sources of confusion (Ausiihcl
and Fitigerald
1961) M C Wiittock (l96Sb) for example showed that
pirt of the facilitating effect of a compantise organizer on learning and
retention is attributable to the effects of a learning set He demonstrated
that merely a stl to contrast or to compare and contrast Buddhism with
Christianity in the absence of a comparative organizer enliances the imme
diate and delayed Buddhism retention scores of undergraduate students
Sometimes in meaningful learning and retention new learning material
may be adequately discrimmable from existing ideas in cognitive structure
but may be m
real or seeming contradiction to iliese ideas When this haj)-
jicns the learner may {lercmptonly dismiss the
new propositions as invalid
may try to set them apart from previously learned knowledge (retain them
on a role basis) or hopefully may try to reconcile and inicgralc the iwo
sets of ideas in relation to a more inclusive subsumer T1 an
e function of
Stability and Clarity of Anchoring Ideas 145

advance organizer m this type of learning situation %\ould be to provide

just such a subsumer

Stability and Clarity

of Anchoring Ideas

Little reliable evidence is available regarding the effect of overlearning

on the relative stabilii) of anchoring ideas in cognitive structure, and hence
on their relative ability to enhance meaningful verbal learning and reten
tion D Ausubel and D Fitzgerald (1962) found that degree of knowledge
of antecedent learning material is positively related to the learning of a
sequentially dependent passage, but the number of times that the first pas-
sage IS read bears no relationship to the learning of an otherwise sequentially
dependent passage if the latter includes all of the essential points of the first

passage as introductory matenal (Ausubel and Youssef 1966) In other

words the positive transfer effect that increased stability of previously
learned matenal has on the later learning of sequentially dependent matenal
IS no longer demonstrable if the essential elements of the antecedent mate

rial (theelements that make for the sequential dependence) are incorporated
as introductory aspects of the second task This, of course, does not imply
that the stability of antecedent material in cognitive structure has no posi
tive transfer effect on the long term retention of otherwise sequentially de
pendent material when a summary of the antecedent matenal is included
in the second task Thus the iw?o procedures—overlearning the antecedent
matenal and incorporating a summary of it into the second task are by —
no means mutually preclusive and can be used to complement each other
in learning sequentially organized matenal The previously ated work of
R M Gagne and N E Paradise (1961) and Gagn6, J R Mayor Gar H
stens and N
E Paradise (1962) is also relevant in this connection
Presentation of heterogeneous stimulus material that does not provide
sufficient repetition to allow tor mastery is not only less effective than homo-
geneous presentation in learning a pnnciple, but also does not facilitate
the learning of a reversal principle during the transfer period (Sassenrath
1959) Reversal learning in rats and nursery school children is similarly
facilitatedwhen the first of two discrimination problems is overleamed
(Bruner, Mandler, O Dowd and Wallacli 1958, March, 1964, Pubols 1957,
L S Reed 1953) According to J S Bruner learning often cannot be trans-
lated into a generic form until there has been enough mastery of the speafics
of the situation to jjermit the discovery of lower-order regularities which can
then be recombined into higher-order more generic coding systems (Bruner,
1957, p CO) In serial and paired assoaate rote learning under conditions
comparable to stimulus generalizaaon increased practice on the training
 Cagnttwe StTucture and Transfer
146

task tends to increase positue transfer (Bruce, 1933,

Bruner, 1961), and
prior
under conditions typically associated with negative transfer, increased
training tends to reduce and even reverse the direction of
negative transfer

(Atwater, 1953 Mandler, 1954, Siipola 1933 , Underwood, 1919. Young and
Underwood, 1954)
Reference has already been made to short term research evidence
on
of
the relationship between existing degree of knowledge and the learning
unfamiliar material in the same subject matter field Students with a more
extensive knowledge of Christianiij are better able to learn principles of
Buddhism than arc students of equal academic aptitude who have less
knowledge of Christianity (Ausubel and Fit^erald, 1961) Similarly, sub
jects who have more general background knowledge in endocrinology learn
and retain more unfamiliar material about the endocrinology of pubescence
than do a matched control group with less general background knowledge
of endocrinology (Ausubel and Fiugerald. 1962) In the first instance, where
the new learning material (Buddhism) is specifically relatable to existing
knowledge (Clinstianity) the facilitating effect of increased knowledge about
Chnstianity can be attnbuted both to the availability of more specifically
relevant anchoring ideas and to greater dtscnmmabihiy between the two
sets ofanalogous ideas fn the second insunce, where the new learning mate
rial is not specifically relatable to previously
(endocrinology of pubescence)
learned principles, general background knowledge in endocrinology prob
ably facilitates learning and retention both by providing at least a non
background basis for relating the new material to cognitive structure
specific
(combinatorial learning), and by increasing the familiarity of the pubescence
material (and hence the learners confidence in coping with it) Tlie back
ground knowledge here also seems to enhance the effect of an organizer
Perhaps the most important feature of automated teaching devices,
insofar as the faalitation of meaningful learning and retention is concerned,
IS not the incentive and drive reduang cllects of immediate feedback.^ but
the extent to which these devices tnnuence learning by enhancing the sta
bilil> and clarity of cognitive structure By deferring the introducuon of
new material until prior matenal mthe learning sequence is consolidated
ihc)maximize the effect of stability of cognitive structure on new learning
and by supplying immediate feedback, these devices rule out and correct
alternative vvrong meanings, misinterpretations, ambiguities and miscon

’ The
leinforcement value of feedback as conceived by B F Skinner is dis-
counted by the faa that subjeas v*Ik> make no sjiontancous overt rcs|>onsc vvhidi
can l)c icinfoTced (who respond covertly or merely read
the correci response) gen
crally learn and retain programmed verbal material
just as well as subjects who
independently and overtly construct ilvcir own r«jx>nscs Evans,
(IJcIla Piana 1961
Cbser Homme 1900a krumboltz 1961)
Pedagog c Focil tal on of Transfe 147

ceptions before they Inve an opportunity to impair the clarity of cognitive

structure and thereby iniiibit the learning of new material Because of the
rigor with which such variables as degree of consolidation and amount and
immediacy of feedback can be controlled programmed instruction can be
very useful in studying the effects of tlie stability and clarity of cognitive
structure on sequential learning
Many investigators as a matter of fact have used automated teaching
devices in short term studies of learning and retention but have generally
restricted their attention to the relative effectiveness of these devices as com
pared to conventional classroom instruction It has been reported for ex
ample that university students using simulated teaching machines (Coul
son and Silberman 1960b) and programmed textbooks (Evans Glaser and
Homme 1960b) are better able to learn small units of meaningful material
than are control groups employing comparable conventional methods These
studies also isolated the effects of such variables as size of step and mode and
overtness of response But until the transfer paradigm is followed (that is
until the effect of prior exposure to such factors is related to the learning
of new material) the rich potentialities of these devices for increasing our
knowledge of cognitive structure vanables will not be realized

Pedagogic Facilitation of Transfer

What are some of the pedagogic implications both of the foregoing

model of the psychological structure of knowledge and of the factors that
influence its accretion and organization? The major implication for teach
ing perhaps is that inasmuch as existing cognitive structure reflects the out
come of all previous meaningful learning control over the accuracy clarity
longevity in memory and transferability of a given body of knowledge can
be most effectively exercised by attempting to influence the crucial variables
of cognitive structure This is particularly important in view of the geo
memcaJ jjjrjease in new knowledge
In principle deliberate manipulauon of the relevant attributes of cog
nitive structure for pedagogic purposes should not meet with undue dif
ficulty As pointed out above it can be accomplished (a) substantively by
using for organizational and integrative purposes those unifying concepts
and propositions in a given discipline that have the widest explanatory
power inclusiveness generalizability and relatabihty to the subject matter
content of that discipline and (b) programmatically by employing suitable
programmatic principles of ordering the sequence of subject matter con
structing Its internal logic and organization and arranging practice trials

Hence transfer m
school learning consists primarily of so shaping the learn
ers cognitive structure by manipulating the content and arrangement of
 Cogrtiinn; Structure and Transfer
MS

expenences in a particular subject matter area, that

hjs antecedent learning
subsequent learning expenences are maximally faalitaied

T/ie Use of Organizers

The pnnapal strategy adiocated in this book for deliberately manip-

ulating cognitive structure so as to enhance proactive faalitation or to
mini
mize proactive inhibition involves the use of appropriately relevant
and
inclusive introductory matcnals (organiiers) that are maximally clear
and
stable These organizers are introduced in advance of the learning material

itself and are also presented at a higher level of abstraction, generality, and
inclusiveness and since the substantive content of a given organizer or senes
of organizers is selected basis of their appropnateness for explaining
on the
integrating and interrelating the material they precede this strategy siraul
taneously satisfies the substantive as well as the programming criteria spec

ifiedabove forenhanang the organizational strength of cognitive structure

Summaries and overviews on the other hand, are ordinarily presented at
the same level of abstraction, generality, and inclusiveness as the learning
matenal itself They simplj emphasize the salient points of the material by
omitting less important information and largely achieve their effect by
repetition and simplification
As pointed out earlier the rationale for using organizers is based pri
manly on (a) the importance of having relevant and otherwise appropnate
established ideas already available m cognitive structure to make IogtcaIl>
meaningful new ideas potentially meaningful and to give tliem stable an
chorage, (b) the advanuges of using the more general and inclusive ideas
of a disaphne as the anchonng ideas or subsumers (namel) the aptness and
specifialy of their relevance their greater inherent stability, their greater
explanatory power and their integraiive capaaty), and (c) the fact that they
themselves attempt both to identify already existing relevant content m
cognitive structure (and to be cxpliatly related to it) and to indicate ex
pliatly both the relevance of Uie latter content and their own relevance for
the new learning material In short, the fnineipal function of the organizer
IS to bridge thegap betueen what the learner already knows and what he
needs lo know before he can successful!) learn the task at hand
The function of the organizer is to provide ideational scaffolding for
the stable incorporation and retention of the more detailed and diffcrenli
ated material that follows in the learning jsassage, as well as to increase
discriminability between the latter material and similar or ostensibly con
flicting ideas in cognitive structure In the case of completely unfamiliar
maicnal an expository organizer iv used to provide relevant proximate
subsumers Tliese subsumers whicli bear a sujiezordinate
relationship to
Pedagogic facilitation of Transfer 149

the newlearning material, primanl) furnish ideational ancliorage in terms

that are already familiar to the learner In the case of relatively familiar
learning material, a ‘‘comparative’ organizer is used both to integrate new
ideas with basically similar concepts in cognitive structure, as well as to
increase discriminability between new and existing ideas which are essen
tially different but confusably similar
The advantage of deliberately constructing a special organizer for each
new unit of material is that only in this way can the learner enjoy the ad
vantages of a subsumer whidi both (a) gives him a general overview of the
more detailed material in advance of his actual confrontation with it. and
(b) alsoprovides organizing elements that are inclusive of and take into
account most relevantly and efficiently the particular content contained in
this material Any existing subsumer in the learner’s cognitive structure
which he could independently employ for this purpose typically lacks par-
ticularized relevance and inclusiveness for the new material and would
hardly be available in advance of initial contact with it And although stu
dents might possibly be able to improvise a suitable subsumer for future
learning efforts after the) become familiar with the material, it is unlikely
that they would be able to do so as efficiently as a person sophisticated in
both subject matter content and pedagogy
Organizers also undoubtedly facilitate the learning of factual material
more than they do the learning of abstract material, since abstractions, m
a sense, contain their own built m —
organizers both for themselves and for
related detailed items D S Northrop (1952) showed that internal structur
mg enhances the learning of factual films, but actually inhibits the learning
of ideational films It would, therefore, seem advisable to restrict the use
of organizers to the learning of material that embraces a substantial body
of differentiated or factual content, and hence offers adequate scope for the
ideational scaffolding provided by abstract organizers
The pedagogic value of advance organizers obviously depends, in part,
upon how well organized the learning material itself is If it already contains
Vyivlv VTi cwg’awvie.v*, ivid tvvynv ttgvOTa Vo
tion (higher to lower inclusiveness) rather than in the manner of the typical
textbook or lecture presentation, much of the potential benefit derivable
from advance organizers will not be actualized Regardless of how well
organized learning material is however, it seems reasonable to expect that
learning and retention can still be faaluated by the use of advance orga
nizers atan appropriate level of inclusiveness Such organizers are available
from the very beginning of the learning task, and their integrative properties
are also much more salient than when introduced concurrently with the
learning material To be useful however, organizers themselves must ob
viously be learnable and must be stated in familiar terms
 Cognitive SlTuelure and Transfer
150

Substantive Factors Influencing Cogmlwe Structure

The task of identifying the particular organizing and explanatory prin

aples in the various disaphncs that manifest widest generality and inte
grative properties is obviously a formidable and long range problem
How
ever, experience with various cumciilum reform movements indicates
that

It yields to sustained and resourceful inquiry, espeaally when

it is possible

to enlist the cooperative efforts ol outstanding subject matter speaabsU

talented teacliers, and imaginative educational psychologists "Correct and
illuminating explanations are no more difficult and are often easier to grasp
than ones that are partly correct and, therefore, too complicated and too
restricted Making raatenal interesting is in no way incompatible with
presenting it soundly, indeed a correct general explanation is often the
most interesting of all ' (Bruner, 1960, p 23)

substantive objectives underlying the choice of subject matter con

The
lent in the Physical Saence Study Committee Secondary School Physics Pro-
gram are relevant for most disciplines ‘(1) to plan a course of study in
which the major developmenu of physics up to the present time arc pre
sented in a logical and integrated whole, (2) to present physics as an intel
lectual punuit which is part of present-day human activity and achievement'
(Finlay, 1959, p 574) Tlte pnmary problem m
implementing Uiese objec
tives is

how to construct curricula that can be taught by ordinary teachers to ordi

nary students and that at the ume time reflect dearly the basic or underlying pnn
aples of various fields of inquiry The pFoblem is two-fold first, how to have the
basic subjects rewniien and their teaching malenals revamped in such a way that
the pervading and powerful ideas and attitudes relating to them are given a centra!
role second how to match the levels of these nutenals to the capaaiies of students
of different abilities at different grades in school (Bruner 1960
p IS)
The rationale of the Physical Science Study Committee for its particular
choice of subject matter is clearly defensible in terras of providing a stable

and widely transferable basis for the assimilation and integration of knowl
edge

The Committee has chosen lo select subject matter and organize it with the
intent of providing as broad and powerful a base as possible for further learning
— furtherlearning lioth in and beyond ihe classroom Through its materials the
Committee seeks to convey those asjiects of saence which have the deepest meaning
the widest applicability
Tlie exptaruiory systems of physics and how ihey are made have much more
forward thniil as educational tools than the individual application and the discreic,
unconnected explanation Thus ihe PSSC has chosen for its lubjea matter the big
ideas of physics— those that contribute most
lo the contemporary
Pedagogic Facilitation of Transfer 151

physicists views of the nature of the physical world The power of tl e big
ideas 1$ m wide applicability and in the unity they bring to an understanding
their
of what may appearsuperficially to be unrelated phenomena Pedagogically
this dioice has sirtues Principal among them is the acquisition of criteria by
which subject matter can be selected and orgamred toward the coherence the sub
ject Itself strnes for (Finlay 1960)

According to J S Bruner

optimal structure refers to the set of propositions from which a larger body
of knowledge can be generated and it is cliaracteristic that the formulation of sudi
structure depends upon the state of advance in a particular field of knowledge
Since the goodness of a structure depends upon its power for simplifying informa
tion for generating new propositions and for increasing the manipulabihty of a
body of knowledge structure must always be related and gifts of the
to the status
learner Viewed in this way the optimal structure of a body of knowledge is not
absolute but relative The major requirement is ihat no two sets of generating
structures for the same field of knowledge be in contradiciion (Bruner, 1964b pp
308-309)

Appropriate structure of course, lakes into account tlie developmental

level of the pupils cognitne functioning and his degree of subject matter
sophistication Siruciure that is too elaborate in these terms constitutes more
of a handicap than a facilitating device (S £ Newman, 2957, Munro, 1959,
Binter, 1963) Similarly structure that is appropriate for the teacher is not
always appropriate for the pupil Premature acquisition of inappropriate
structuresmay result in closure that inhibits the acquisition of more
appropriate structures (Smedslund 1961)
The great expansion in knowledge that is currently taking place de
mands special care m the selection of the big ideas As S C Encksen
puls n
must begin to take more active measures to reduce the
teachers at all levels
curricular lag between what is nice lo know m
contrast to what the present stu
dent generation needs to know The slow to-diange teacher might unknowingly
actually hinder the students educational efforts to protect himself from informa
tional obsolescence From the Medical School faculty for example I have heard
expressions like Half of what we teach will be outdated ten years from now and
half of what the physician will need to know in ten years has not yet been dis-
covered (Encksen 1967 pp H5-M6)

Coordination and integration of subject matter at the different grade

levels will also become more important
As the high school comes closer to doing the job professors imagine for it
professors will be forced to imagine an appropriate new job for the college If so
we must first learn that the American educational system is sequential that changes
in one level of education requires changes in others that the task is shared by all
152
Cogntlne StrucUire and Transfer

teachers m all schools Weoursehes engaged in re-exammation and revi

shall find
unit enity
Sion of our own programs undergraduate and graduate Starting late the
must as usual scramble to catch up to keep up and finally to get far enough ahead
to exerase its function of leadership by example as tvell as hy
precept {DiekhofI

1964 p 188)
Once the substantue organizational problem (identifying the basic
organizing concepts in a giten discipline) is solved, attention can be directed
to the programmatic organizational problems involved the presentationm
and sequential arrangement of component units Here it t$ hypothesized,
vanous principles concerned with the programming of content are
efficient

applicable irrespective of the subject matter field These pnnaples naturally

include and reflect the influence of the previously listed cognitive structure
—
variables the availability of a relevant andionng idea its stability and
claniy, and its discnmmabiltty from the learning material

ProgresJii'e Differentiattm

Wlien subject matter is programmed m

accordance vvith the pnnaples
of progressive differentiauon die most general and inclusive ideas of the
discipline are presented first and are then progressively differentiated in
terms of detail and specifiaty Tins order of presentation presumably cor
responds to the natural sequence of acquiring cognitive avvareness and
sophistication when human being are spontaneously exposed either to an
entirely unfamiliar field of knovvledge or to an unfamiliar branch of a
familiar body of knowledge It also corresponds to the jxisuiiaied vvay in
which tins knovvledge
is represented organized and stored ilie human m
cognitive system Tlie two assumptions we are making here, in other words
are that (a) It is less difficult lor human beings to grasp the differentiated
aspects of a previously learned more inclusive whole than to formulate the
inclusive whole from us previously learned differentiated pans" and (b)
An individuals organization of the content of a particular subject matter
discipline in liis own mind consuls of a hierarchical structure in which the
most inclusive ideas occupy a position at the apex of the structure and
sulmime jnogressivcly less inclusive and more highly dillerentiated proposi
Crons concepCs and facruaf data

» Tins proposition simply icsiatcs the principle that subsumptivc learning is

easier than iu|>erordinate learning The argument for using organizers rcsis on the
same principle appreciated however that tlic learning of certain propositions
It is

requires ibe synthesis of previously acquired tuliordinate concepts

or propositions
(superonlinatc leaniing) (Cagnd l%2) Tlie need for
penodic sujierordinate learn
ingv however docs not negaie the proposition
that both the psydiological orga
inzation of tnowlcdgc and the opumal
orgamtaiion of subject maticr generally
exemplify the prinuplc of progressive diHerentiation
Pedagogic facilitation of Transfer 153

Now if the human nenous system as a data processing and storing

mechanism is so constructed that both the acquisition of new knowledge
and Its organization in cognitise structure conform naturally to the pnn
ciple of progressise differentiation, it seems reasonable to suppose that
optimal learning and retention occur when teachers deliberately order the
organization and sequential arrangement of subject matter along similar
lines A more explicit same proposition is to say that new
ssay of slating the
ideas and information are learned and retained most efficiently when more
inclusive and specifically relevant ideas are already available in cognitive
structure to serve a subsuming role or to furnish ideational anchorage
Organizers, of course, exemplify the prinaple of progressive differentiation
and serve this function in relation to any given topic or subtopic where they
are used In addition, however, it is desirable that both the arrangement of
the learning material itself, within eacli topic or subtopic and the sequenc
mg of the various subtopics and topics in a given course of study also
generally conform to the same principle
But even though this pnnciple seems rather self-evident it is rarely
followed m actual teacliing procedures or in the organization of most
textbooks The more typical practice is to segregate topically homogeneous
materials into separate chapters and subchapiers, and to order the arrange
ment of topics and subtopics (and the material within each) solely on the
basis of topical relatednesswithout regard to their relative level of abstract
tion generality, and This practice is both incompatible with
inclustveness
the actual structure of most disaphnes and incongruous with the postulated
process whereby meaningful learning occurs, with tlie hierarchical orgamza
non of cognitive structure in terms of progressive gradations of inclusiveness,
and with the mechanism of accretion through a process of progressive differ
entiation of an undifferentiated field Thus, in most instances, students are
required to learn the details of new and unfamiliar disciplines before they
have acquired an adequate body of relevant subsumers at an appropriate
level of inclusiveness (Ausubel, 1960)
As a result of ihis latter practice, students and teachers are coerced into
treating potentially meaningful materials as if they were rote characterm
and consequently experience unnecessary difficulty and little success both m
learning and retention The teaching of mathematics and science, for ex
ample, still relies heavily on rote learning of formulas and procedural steps,
on rote recognition of stereotyped type problems, and on mechanical
manipulation of symbols In the absence of clear and stable ideas which can
serve as anchoring points and organizing foa for the incorporation of new
logically meaningful material, students are trapped in a morass of confu
Sionand have little choice but rotely to memorize learning tasks for examina
non purposes
One outstanding example of a textbook which is organized in accor
 Cogmtwe Structure and Transfer
154

dance with the principle of progressive differentiation is W

Boyds (1961)
famous Textbook of Pathology In tins book Boyd parts company with most
on patliology which typically consist of about twenty
traditional treatises
chapters each devoted to describing serially the major kinds of pathological
processes occurring within a particular organ or organ system Boyd
in

contrast reserves serial consideration of the pathology of separate organ

systems to the second half of his text and devotes the entire first half to
such general organiiing and integrative topics as the different categories of
pathological process (mfiammation alle^ degeneration neoplasm) and
their principal causes and characteristics the various kinds of etiological
agents in disease types of humoral and tissue resistance to disease the inter
action between genic and environmental factors in the development of
pathological processes and general relationships between pathological
lesions and clinical symptoms
Progressive differentiation in the programming of subject matter is
accomplished by using a hierarchical senes of organizers (in descending
order of inclusiveness) each organizer preceding us corresponding unit
of detailed differentiated material and by sequencing the material within
each unit in descending order of inclusiveness In this way not only is an
appropriately relevant and inclusive subsumer made available to provide
ideational scaffolding for each component unit of differentiated subject
matter but the ideas within eacli unit as well as the vanous units in relation
to each other are also progressively differcniiatcd—organized in descending
order of inchisiveness The initial organizers therefore fiirnisli anchorage
Icimer is confronted wiih any of tlie new ma
at a global level before the
tcrial Thus for example a generalized mode! of class rclationsliips is first
provided as a general subsumer for all new classes subclasses and species
before more limited subsumers arc provided for the particular subclasses or
siwcies they encompass
Hence when undergraduates are first exposed to organizers presenting
relevant and appropriate!) inclusive subsuming principles they arc better
able to learn and retain complciely unfamiliar ideational material (Ausubel
1960) Differential analjsis in another similar study showed that the facili
taring effect of organizers is greatest for those individuals who
have relatively
{Kjor verbal ability and who therefore tend sjxintaneously to structure sucli
material less effectively (\usul>el and Fiizgcrald 1962) The greater reten
tion by pro-Souihcm than by po-Northern students of n controversial pav
sage presenting the Southern jjoini of view on the Civil
War can also be
explained in terms of the relative availability of appropriate subsuming
ideas (Fitzgerald and Ausuixrl I9GS) The pro-Nortlicm
students lack rclc
vant subsumers to which the pro-Soui! cm passage cm
be funciionallv re
latcd 1 he material therefore nnnot be clearly and securely
anchored to
cognitive structure comjxrtes wiili existing meanings
and is conscqucnil)
Pedagogic Facililntion of Transfer 155

ambiguous and subject to rapid forgetting The pro-Southern students, on

tlie other hand, possess relevant subsuming concepts, thus the material can
be readily andiored to cognitise structure and is less ambiguous and subject

to forgetting

Integrative Heconctltalion

The pnnciple of integralise reconciliation in programming instnic

tional material can be best described as antithetical in spirit and approach
to the ubiquitous practice among textbook writers of compartmentalizing
and segregating particular ideas or topics within their respectise chapters
or subchapters Implicit in this latter practice is the assumption (perhaps

logically but certainly ps^cliologtcally untenable) that pedagogic

salid,
considerations are adequately served if overlapping topics are handled in

self contained fashion, so that each topic is presented in only one of the

several possible places where treatment is relevant and warranted, the as-
sumption that all necessary cross referenang of related ideas can be satis-
factorily performed, and customanl) is, Hence, little serious
b) students
effort IS made between these ideas, to
explicitly to explore relationships
point out significant similanties and differences, and to reconale real or
apparent inconsistencies Some of the undesirable consequences of this
approach are that multiple terms are used to represent concepts that are
intrinsically equivalent except for contextual reference, thereby generating
incalculable cognitive strain and confusion as well as encouraging rote
learning, that artificial barriers are erected between related topics, obscuring
important common features, and thus rendering jmjxissible the acquisition
of insights dependent upon recognition of these commonalities, that ade
quate use not made of relevant, previously learned ideas as a basis for
is

subsuming and incorporating related new information, and that since sig
nificant differences between apparently similar concepts are not made clear
and explicit, these concepts are often perceived and retained as identical
Tbft. rp-jnrjijlfi. of. vxfmnitasitv}. aJs/i. wJi/yj*
matter is organized along parallel lines, that is, when related materials are
presented in serial fashion but there is no intnnstc sequential dependence
from one topic to the next Unlike the case in sequential!) dejjendent sub-
ject matter, successive learning tasks are inherently independent of each
other in the sense that understanding of Part II material does not presup-
pose understanding of Part I matenal Each set of material is logically self
contained and can be adequately learned by itself without any reference to
the other order of presentation is therefore immaterial This situation for
example prevails in presenting alternative theoretical positions in ethics,
religion, and epistemology, opposing theories of biological evolution and
different systems of learning and personality theory
156
Cognitne Struclure and Trautfer

organized
Ne^erilieless alihoiigli successixe learning tasks of parallelly
material are not intrinsically dependent on eacli other much
cognitive

interaction obviously occurs between them Earlier learned elements

of a
later
parallel sequence sene an orienting and subsuming role in relation to
terms
presented elements The latter are comprehended and interpreted in
familiar,
of existing understandings and paradigms provided by analogous,
previously learned, and already established ideas in cognitive structure.

Hence for learning of the unfamiliar new ideas to take place, they must be
adequately ducriminable Irom the established familiar ideas, otherwise the
new meanings are so permeated with ambiguities misconceptions and con
fusions as to be partially or completely nonexistent in their own right If,

for example the learner cannot discriminate between new idea A' and old
idea A, A' does not really exist for him, it is phenomenologically the same

as A Furtliermore even if the learner can discriminate between A and A'

at the moment of learning unless the discrimination is sharp and free from
ambiguity and confusion there will be a tendency over time for A' to be
reduced to A (as the two ideas interact during the retention interval) more
rapidly than is usually the case
In some instances of meaningful learning and retention the pnnapal
difficulty ISnot one of discnminabiliiy but of apparent contradiction be
tween established ideas m
cognitive structure and new propositions in the
learning material Under these conditions the learner may summarily div
miss the new propositions as invalid may in to compartmentalize them as
isolated entities apart from previously learned knowledge or hopefully may
attempt int^ratne reconciliation under a more inclusiie sulistimer Com
partmentalization may lie considered a common defense against forgetting
in many scliool learning situations By arbitranly isolating concepts and
information one prevents confusing interaction with and rapid obliterative
assimilation by more estabhslicd contradictory ideas in cognitive structure
But this of course is merely a syiecial cave of rote learning Tlirougli much
overlearning relatively stable incorporation may be acliieved at least for
examination purposes but the fabric of knowledge learned in this fasliion
remains uninicgr^u^d and full of contradictions and is therefore not very
viable on a long term basis
A H ^\ard and R. A Davis (1939) reyiort a study of meaningful reten
lion in wjijch general saenic was taught to junior high school pupils hy
means of a textbook that made a sjiecial jioint of reconciling and integrating
new ideas with previously learned content Periodic examinations were also
given which tested knowledge of earlier av well av of recently presented
material They found tliat students retained material as well
after IG weeks
as on tests of immediate retention
OrganircTs may also l»c expressly designed to further the principle of
Pedagogic facilitatiou of Transfei 157

integrative reconciliation They do this by explicitly pointing out in what

ways previouslj learned, rehied ideas in cognitive structure are either
basically similar to, or essentially diflerent from, new ideas and information
in the learning task Hence, for one thing, organizers explicitly draw upon
and mobilize all available concepts in cognitive structure that are relevant
for and can play a subsuming role in relation to the new learning material
This maneuver effects great economy of learning effort, avoids the isolation
of essentially similar concepts in separate, noncommunicable compartments,
and discourages the confusing proliferation of multiple terms to represent
ostensibly different but essentially equivalent ideas In addition, organizers
increase the discriminabihty of genuine differences between the new learn
ing materials and seemingly analogous but often conflicting ideas in the
learner’s cognitive structure Tins second way in which organizers purport
edly promote integrative reconciliaticn is predicated on the assumption
that if new learning task are not originally
the distinguishing features of the
salient or readilydiscnminable from established ideas in cognitive structure,
they not only manifest initially low dissociabthty strength, but also lose it
very rapidly because they can be adequately represented by the latter for
memorial purposes It is .issumed, m
other words, that only discnminable
categorical variants of previously learned concepts have long term retention
potentialities
Thus if an organizer can first delineate clearly, precisely, and explicitly
the principal similarities and differences between the new subsuming con
cepts and principles to be learned on tlie one hand and similar established
ideas in cognitive structure, on the oilier, it seems reasonable to postulate
that the enhanced dtscriminabiliiy of the new anchoring ideas would enable
the learner to grasp later the more detailed ideas and information in the
learning passage itself with fewer ambiguities fewer competing meanings
and fewer misconceptions suggested by the established ideas than would
otherwise be possible, and that as these clearer more discnminable, and
less confused differentiated new meanings interact with their subsumers

and with analogous established meanings during the retention interval,

they would also retain their idenuty longer This is the case both because
the differentiated material is learned in a clearer, more stable, and more
discnminable fashion in the first place, by virtue of the greater discrimina
bihty of the new anchoring ideas under which it is subsumed and because
more discnminable subsumers are themselves more stable and hence better
able to provide continuing secure andiorage Comparative organizers, for
example, have been successfully used in facilitating the meaningful and
retention of an unfamiliar passage dealing with Buddhism (Ausubel and
Fitzgerald 1961 Ausubel and Youssef, 1963)
More recently organizers have been used to facilitate the learning of
158
Cognitive Structure and Transfer

controversial ideational material contrary to the established beliefs

of the
for
learner The underlying hypothesis of this approach is that selective
getting under these conditions is not so much a manifestation of selective

perception and repression as an indication of the lack of adequate sub

sumers in cognitive structure for the stable incorporation of such conflicting
material In support of this hypothesis and experimental group of Illinois
high school students who studied a comparative ideational organizer pnor
to learning the Southern point of view about the Civil ^Var remembered
more of this material than did a control group of students who studied a
purely descriptive introductory passage (Fit^erakl and Aiisubel 1963)

Seqitenhal Organization

The availability of relevant anchoring ideas for use in meaningful

verbal learning and retention may obviously be maximized by taking ad
vantage of natural sequential dependencies among the component divisions
of a discipline —of the fact that the understanding of a given topic often
logically presupposes the prior understanding of some related topic Typi
cally (he necessary antecedent knowledge is more inclusive and general
than the sequentially dependent material but this is not always true (for
example superordinate learning) In any case by arranging the order of
topics in a given subject matter field as far as possible in accordance willi
these sequential dependencies the learning of each unit in turn not only
becomes an achievement m
its own right but aho constitutes speafically

relevant ideational scaffolding for the next item in tlie sequence

In sequential school learning knowledge of earlier appearing material
in the sequence plays much the same role as an organizer in relation to
laterappearing maternl in the setjucncc It constitutes a relevant ideational
foundation and hence a aucial limiting condition for learning the latter
matenal when the mflucncc of Ixjtli vcrlul ability and general background
knowledge is held constant (Aiisubel and Fitzgerald 1962) For maximally
elTcctive learning however a separate organizer should be provided for
eacli unit of material Thus sequential organizaiion of subject matter can
be very cfTectivc since each new increment of knowledge serves as an anclior
mg post for subsequent learning This presupposes of course that the
antecedent step is always tlioroiiglily consolidated Pcrhajis the chief jicda
gogic advantage of the teaching machine lies in its ability to control this
crucial variable in sequential learning
\nothcr advantage of programmed imtniction is
its careful sequential
arrangement and gradation of diffculty whith
insure that each attained
increment in learning serves as an appropriate
foundation and anchoring
post for the learning anil retention of
subsequeni items in the ordered sc
Pedagogic htciltltiuon of Transfer 159

quence Adequate programming of raatcrnls also jiresupposes maximum

attention to such matters as lucidit) organization and the-^explanator)
and mtegratise poi\er of substantiae content
Sequential arrangement of learning tasks relics in part on the gcnernl
facilitating effect of the aaailabilit) of relesant anchoring ideas in cognitive
structure on meaningful learning and retention For anj given topic how
ever there is the problem of ascertaining what the particular most effective
sequence is This involves considerations of logical task analysis progressive
differentiation developmental level of cognitive functioning integrative re
conciliation and learning hierarchies Further in siiperordinate learning
It IS essential to insure that both subordinate concepts and propositions and

the component conceptual elements of each proposition are previously

mastered R M
Gagn^ states the problem very vvell by saying that
the plaiiiiing ihat precedes eflcciivc design for learning is a matter of speci
tying with some care what may he called the learning structure of any subject to be
acquired In order to determine what comes before what tl e subject must be
analyzed in terms of the types of learning involved in ii The acquisition of knowl
edge IS a process in which every new capability bull U on a foundation established
by previously learned capabilities The imporiance of mapping the sequence
of learnings is mainly just this Tl at it enables one (o avoid the mistakes that arise
from skipping essential sicps in the acquisition of knowledge of a content area
(Gagnf 1965 pp 25 173)

ConsoUdation
By insisting on consolidation or mastery of ongoing lessons before new
material is introduced sure of continued subject matter readiness
we make
and success in sequentially organized learning This kind of learning pre
supposes of course that the preceding step is always clear stable and well
organized If it is not the learning of all subsequent steps is jeopardized
Thus new material in the sequence should never be introduced until all
previous steps are thoroughly mastered This principle also applies to those
kinds of infra Cask feaming in which each component fast (as well as entire
bodies of subject matter) tends to be compound in content and to manifest
an internal organization of its own Consolidation of course is achieved
through confirmation correction clarification differential practice and
review in the course of repeated exposure with feedback to learning ma
terial
Abundant experimental research (C P Duncan 1959 Momsett and
Hovland 1959) has confirmed the proposition that prior learnings are not
transferable to new learning tasks until they are first overlearned Over
learning in turn requires an adequate number of adequately spaced repeti
tions and reviews sufficient intra task repetitiveness prior to intra and
 Cognitive SiructUTe and Transfer
160

practice of the
intertask diversification and opportunity for differential
feed
more difficult components of a task Frequent testing and provision of
back especially with test items demanding fine discrimination among
alter
by
names varying in degree of correctness also enhance consolidation
confirming clarifying and correcting previous learnings
materials pre
In directly sequential tasks where the learning of Part II
sequenltally
supposes understanding of Part 1 materials (where Part II is
dependent on Part I) die stability and clarity of the antecedent material
crucially affect the learning and retention of the later appearing material

(Ausubel and Fitzgerald 1962)®

The stability and clarity of existing cognitive structure are important
both for the depth of andiorage they provide for related new learning tasks
as well as for their effects on the discnmmabihty of these new tasks The
discriminabihty of new learning material as shown by several of the experi
ments reported above is m large measure a function of the clarity and
stability of existing concepts in the learners cognitive structure Even m
the learning of controversial ideas contrary to prevailing belief (for instance
the learning by Illinois students of the Southern point of view about the
Civil War) the more knowledgeable students namely those wlio know more
about the Civil War period are better able to learn and remember the
other side arguments (Fitzgerald and Ausubel 1963) presumably because
they find them more discriminable from established ideas than do less
knowledgeable subjects Thus much of the effect of overlearning— both on
retaining a given unit of material and on learning related new material— is
probably a reflection of the enlianced discriminabiliiy that can be induced
by incrensing the clanty and stability of either the learning material itself
or of Its subsumers
Much additional research is needed to establish both the most cconomi
cal degree of consolidation and the most efficient vsajs of effecting it (rcpeti
tion distribution of practice feedback use of organizers internal logic of
the material) that vs ill optimally ficilitatc the learning and retention of

sequeiunllj and parallelly organized subject matter Such knowledge will

obviousl) have greater pedagogic uiiliiy if the effects of these latter variables
are dilTerentiatcd with resjiect to pupifs fevef of cognitive maturity academic
abilitj and degree of subject miticr sophistication

» Consoliilat on (tliroiigli correciion and review) of cadi successive pari of a

liierardiically organized task does not racihtaie the learning of later segments of
tlie task when summary and correction review of if c enfire task arc made part of
a
Ihc terminal test on ilie maiciial (M D Merrill l9Ga) T1
c resuhs of dns c*pen
(1900) study m
ment arc llicretore convisieni wiih tiiose of \usul>cl and youssefs
vvhidi a summary of Tan I was resented as an mtrotJuciion to Pan If tliercfiy
j
making Pan II no longrr tequentialiy dependent upon Pan I
Other Pedagogic Means of Facilitaling Transfer 161

Other Pedagogic Means

of Facilitating Transfer

We hive presented above some of the principal pedagogic means of

facilitating transfer through the manipulation of cognitive structure van
ables Acconhng to this view, the incorporation of clear, stable, and Integra
tive subsumers in cognitive structure is the most efficacious way of promot
ing transfer Although vve have been primarily concerned with meaningful
reception learning, the same general principle applies as well to meaningful
discovery learning Transferability, in other words, is largely a function of
the relevance, meaningfulness, clarity, stability, integrativeness, and explana
tory power of the originally learned subsumers Rote learnings have little
transfer value But generalizations manifest transferability only when they
are thoroughly grasped and overlearned (Mandler, 1954), and take into
account the pupils level of cognitive functioning In elementary school
children, this requires the use of concrete-empirical props
Even so, transfer does not take place automatically and without de
liberate effort to appreciate and practice the opportunities that are present
for transfer ma given learning situation The learner must also perceive
the relationship of the training to the critenal task (Ervin, 1960b) Geometry,
for example, can increase ability to think logically in other subject matter
areas only if awareness of this applicability is deliberately induced (Fawcett,

1935, Hartung, 1942 Ulmer, 1939) The same is true of the teaching of
genetics to reduce superstitious tliinking and racial prejudice and of the
transferability of Latin to English and second language learning In all
probability, however, the same investment of time m
direct study of the
target languages, as opposed to prior study of Latin would yield more
satisfactory learning results
Merely telling learners that previous learnings
might be useful in other situations increases transfer (Dorsey and Hopkins,
1930)
Transferability also depends upon the application of a principle,
during original learning, to as many specific contexts as possible (Hull 1920)
C L Hull showed that familiarity with a «>ncept in a large number of
different specific contexts and illustrative forms is more efficacious for gen

10 This does not necessarily imply that a grand heuristic strategy which
can be
applied to all disciplines is discoverable or that critical thinking ability can be
enhanced by teaching general principles of logic apart from specific subject matter
content It simply means that in certain instances specific models or analogies may
have interdisciplinary heuristic value on a metaphorical basis and that certain sub
stantive or methodological principles have appbcabihty to more than one discipline
provided that their interdisciplinary relevance and implications are made explicit
 Cogrtiltve Siruclure and Transler
162

eralization llianis intensise expenence with a few

illustrations providing

that mastery occurs within each context Thus transfer can

be
of course
faahtated by prosiding opportunity for learning pnnciples in as wide a
similarit)
variety of situauons as possible, by cxpliatly emphasizing the
between training and critenal taslcs and by presenting the latter tasks con
tinuousJy or in close succession In the case of vocational learning knowl
edge and skill become more transferable when they are learned originally
in realistic and real life situations that are similar to the settings m
which of the training will lake place
final utilization
Some tasks are so complex that they cannot be learned directl) Tlie
learner must be trained first on a simplified version of the task and then
an attempt at mastering the task itself (Baker and
transfer this training to
Osgood 1954) For example in learning a complex tracking task (Lawrence
and Goodwin 1954) or oral comprehension of a foreign language initial
slowing of the learning task is desirable In some instances the separate
components of a very complex performance must be mastered separately
before the task as a whole can be attempted with any hope of success
(Eckstrand and Wickens 1954)

Other Theories of Transfer

The we have presented in this

cognitive structure theory of transfer
chapter is most C H Judds (1902) classical generalua
closely related to
tion theory from the latter main!) in being concerned with tlie
It differs
reception learning of subject matter ratlier than with tlie application of
generic principles to spcafic instances of problem solving and m being
more specific about the nature and conditions of generalization lliat is in
specifjing various significant cognitive structure vanables It is also some
what related to the so-callcd iransposiiion theory of Gestalt and field
theonsis which emphasizes perception of the relaltomhip between prm
ctples and speetfie witances in Uie training situation rather than the process
of generaltzation Two other iheones of transfer however, lormal disa
plinc and identical elements are markedly different and deserve speaal
scrutiny

“rormal Discipline”

Tfie formal disapime tfieoiy of transfer first

emerged as a formaliza
lion of the lielicf widespread prior to 1930
that training in such alrstract or
difficult subjects as Latin Greek natural
science and mathematics improves
generally sucli li>poihcticall) distinct
mental faculties as reasoning
memory and conccnirauon E. L
niomdikc (1921) discredited this theory
Other Theories of Tr<im/er 163

by demonstrating tint these abstract subjects ln>e no significantly greater

facilitating effect than do shopuork or bookkeeping on tests of selectise and
relational thinking Similar results were rejxjrted by J B Carroll (1940)
A Rapp (1945) A G
^Vesman (1915) and Strom (1960) in testing the effect
of prior learning of one school subject on the learning of another
The doctrine of formal discipline is still \ery much ah\c as evidenced
b) the stubborn persistence of studies purporting to improve critical think
ing ability or general academic performance by means of instruction in
general principles of logic or the study of foreign languages G H Hyram
(1957) for example concluded that upper grade elementary school pupils
could be taught to think critically and therefore logically through the
use of instructional procedures emphasizing principles of logic His find
mgs however provided no evidence of gain in critical thinking ability
beyoTtd the actual area of training since it was lo be expected that pupils
instructed in general principles of logic would make significantly higher
scores than a matched control group on a test of reasoning based on these
same pnnciples R B Skelton (1957) presented data showing that entering
college freshman who had studied foreign languages in high school sur
passed a comparable control group matched for IQ on English mathemat
ICS and history entrance examinations as well as on first year college grades

Although these differences between the two groups could not be attributed
to the fact that the students electing foreign languages m
high school were
more intelligent to begin with it does not necessarily follow that foreign
language study facilitates general academic achievement by improving
ability to comprehend and use English more effectively Much more would
have to be known about the relative academic motivations of the two groups
before this conclusion were warranted
Although the theory of formal discipline was demonstrably fallacious
inIts major premise it is nevertheless true that special training in efficient

methods of memorization (Woodrow 1927) in work study habits (Leggitt

1934) and in general techniques of efficient work (Cox 1933) are transfer
able
Furthermore as L J Cronbach points out

there are many eadi of them a way of coming to grips with

disciplines
certain types of problems There is obvious sense m the contention that a mathe
matician more competent to solve a new mathematical problem than a bright and
is

educated nonmathemat cian and not just because the mathematician knows more
theorems He has an ability to construct models sense connections within the model
and test the internal consistency among premises and conclusions He has a wealth
of apparatus at his command — notational systems conceptual distinctions opera
tions These are used not as the computer uses a formula but as an architect uses all
that has been learned from past build ngs To solve a new problem he draws from
his store this and that device that might work juggles them m the air begins to see
 Cognitive Structure and Transfer
1&4

designs some replacemenu and

a coherence disards some misfit parts and
(Cronbach 196o p 12*^
more or less suddenly the shape of bis mathematical system

Identical Elements
E L. Thorndike
identical elements occur in
ously mucli too naiross
extent that
s (1913) Mc\v that transfer takes place to the
both training and cntenal situations is obsi
In addition to transfer of identical elements iliere

IS pnnaples problem soUing techniques (Birch and Rabino-

also transfer of
affectisel)
sMt2 19al) ssorkstud) habits (Lcggiti 1931 Ruedigcr 1908)
toned attitudes tov,ard particular subjects skills and learning tasks
and
to
such personality related attitudes toi^ard nosel tasks as svallingness
improsise seniuresomeness seIf<onfidcnce lesel of aspiration and ngidity

The Role of Transfer in Education

It is obsiously impossible for classroom learning to prepare students

to cope sMih esery situation they will face in real life contexts Further
esen vere possible the primary goal or function of education still
if this
tsould not be to preside students with knossledge that is applicable to Uie
cseryday problems of lising Tlus soaal utility objeciise of education
has long since been discarded as impracticable In most instances of non
socaiional classroom learning the goal of transfer is considered accom
pushed if prior learning experience faalitates learning of subsequent
ilie

classroom learning iasV>—e\en if the knossledge so acquired is neither

applicable nor esen applied to problems ouuidc the classroom. Of ourse
if the knowledge ii applicable to the problems of Imng, so much the better

but this IS not the pnmary objectisc of transfer in general educauon

\nolher relesani issue here as pointed out earlier is that inability to
apply knowledge in problem-solsing situations is not nccessanly proof of
lack of undemanding of the material in quesuon Tlie ability to apply
knowledge successfully in problem-solsing situations depends also on many
other variables completely unrelated to understanding
In training studenti for particular professions general theoretical pnn
oples arc uught in the belief that they base considerable transfer salue
for the solution of
|
radical professional problems In addition students are
trained in spcciahred problem-solving skills and methods of inquiry IIov»
vvcll a particular trainee ssiJJ be able lo utilize his theoretical knowledge m
practice 1 owever dej^endvon Iiisabiliiv
toapply this know ledge in problem
solving situations Informal long observation of consistenilv good and
{>oor prol lem solvers in the professions suggests
that llic application
coinyioncni of problem solsing ability is
Jess trainable than the knowledge
tomjwnenL It may thus be mote feasible to enhance problem solving ability
The Role of Transfer in Eduealton 165

by improving the students grasp and functional retention of theoretical

knowledge than by training him directly in problem solving skills The role
of transfer in professional education will be illustrated in the following
discussion of medical training which offers many obvious parallels to the
training of teacliers

A/edtcal Education

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of medicine as a profession is the

unusually large volume of relevant background knowledge which a medical
trainee must first acquire in usable form before he can hope to engage in
the actual practice of medicine A central problem of medical education,
therefore, is ways of transmitting this knowledge to
to discover efficacious
students so that can be retained over long periods of time in the viable
it

and functional condition necessary for successful application to problems

of clinical practice

THE PROBLEM OP TRANSFER IN MEDICAL EDUCATION SinCC a minimal

fund of preclinical and clinical background knowledge must be acquired
before any serious exposure to clinical problem solving experience is feasible,
and since this background knowledge is acquired largely during the two
preclinical years and the first clinical year of medical school the educational
problem may be conceptualized as one of long term transfer of training
How, for example, can the subject matter of the preclinical years be best
taught so that it can be retained m
usable form and hence be available
both as a foundation for learning new bodies of clinical subject matter,
and as a basis for clinical problem solving? Obviously preclinical knowledge
which IS not retained at all or which is retained in a disorganized unclear,
nonmeaningful (rote) unstable, or isolated fashion cannot be used effec
tively for these latter purposes
Yet It is a well known fact that many medical students, especially those
with high levels of anxiety cope with the problem of digesting the large
volume of material with which they are confronted by memorizing it rotely
for examination purposes and by relying compulsively on their lecture notes
which often as not are grossly inaccurate Other students narrowly restrict
their intellectual horizons to the prescribed textbooks phobically avoiding
supplementary readings special lectures and extra curricular activities be
cause they fear that additional information or other points of view will add
to the already unmanageable burden of knowledge Both adjustive tedi
niques obviously tend to foster a closed minded uncritical attitude toward
prevailing doctrines and practices in mediane
TWO TYPES or TRANSTER Historically speaking the
major problem of
transfer with which medical educators have grappled has been that of dis-
 Cognilrce Sirvclure end Transfer
IG6

co\enng the best of teaching predimeal subjects so that an adequate

use in
residue of releiant and liable faiotsledge \»ill be retained for later
learning clinical subject matter and in soltmg clinical problems The
most
mdelj used approach to this problem of maximizing the transferabiht)
of precUmcal medical knoviled^ both to clinical subject matter and
to

problems of chnical pracuce insohes the use of exphat uansmonal mate

nals and desaces Dunng the first preclinical jear, for example, some
anatom) is presented in the context of its expliai reles-ance for surger),
phj'sical diagnosis, and clinical neurolog), and some aspects of ph)'siolog)
and biochemistr) are oinsidered in the context of pathological aberrations
encountered in medical practice. During the second prechmeal )ear, such
courses as palholog), phannacolog), laborator) diagnosis and phj'sical
diagnosis are partly designed so as to consutute a theoreucal lint between
the first sear stud) of norma] structure and function, on the one hand, and
the chnical understanding and treatment of pathological condiuoiis, on
the other Some utne is also detoted m the prechmeal )ears to the demon
sixaiion and discussion of pauents and to clinical pathological conferences
Dunng Uie dinical )ear$, the articulation of preclinical and chnical
background knowledge is approached from the opposite direction. Preceding
the ^scusuon of the diagnosis, prognosis, and neatment of clinical entities
some attempt is usuall) made to summarue the relesant anatom), phssi
olog), and patholog) In our opinion, efforts to achiese thu tvpe of articula
— —
tion in both direaions are extremel) worthwhile, hate demonstrabi)
efficaaous results, and should be extended.
Another important problem of transfer m
medical education i$ «>n
cenied with the transfer of clinical background knowledge (third sear lec
lure ixiurses) to the parlteular diagnostic and iherapeuuc issues posed b)
individual patients in clinic and hospital practice (senior )ear clinical clerk
ships and fifth )e3r internships) Howeser, tiie problem of transfer here is
somewhat different from Uiai of making optimal use of abstract preclinical
knowledge in the learning of a&itract cfinicaf subject matter It imoUes,
rather, the opumal uulizaiion of general clinical knowledge in paHicular
problem solving siluauons
This second problem of transfer, although no less real and important
tlian Uie first, u, unfortunaiel), somewhat less susceptible to educational
manipulation Transfer from one bods of abstract knowledge to another is
wliollv a cognitise pToblcm. That is Uie onl) things
that are insolsed in
considering the relationship between success in mastering the preclinical
cumculum and success in learning clinical subject matter, are tlic actual
content relauonships lietween the disaplines in question,
and the relation
ships between the quite analogous intellectual
abiliucs needed in the two
learning tasks. But Uie relationslitp between knosdedge
of clinical subject
matter and success m
clinical praaice is much more comphaied In
this
The Role of Transfer in tdiication 167

instance, the tuo kinds of learning tasks (learning an abstract body of

clinical knouledge and learning to soUe the particular clinical problems
of individual patients) are less closely related tlnn m the case of the first

transfer situation, and the abilities influencing success in the first task are
similarly less related to the abilities influencing success in the second task
than IS true of the earlier described transfer situation
Another way of contrasting these two types of transfer is to say that
knowledge of clinical and preclinical subject matter is a necessary but not
a sufficient condition for successful clinical problem solving To solve
problems of clinical practice successfully, one not only requires a sound
background of relevant background knowledge, but also (a) an adequate
amount of appropriately organized and supervised clinical experience, and
(b) such problemsolving traits as resourcefulness problem sensitivity,
originality, perseverance, flexibility, improvising ability, and venturesome
ness And these latter traits are undoubtedly both more dependent on genic
endowment and less teachable than are either background knowledge or
strategies of clinical problem solving
It IS apparent, ilierefore, that the problem of transfer from preclinical
to clinical knowledge is simpler m
terms of the variables involved than is
the corresponding problem of transfer from relevant background knowledge
(clinical and preclinical) to clinical problem solving Furthermore transfer
15 more predictable and educationally mampulable in the first situation

than in the second In the second situation we can enhance ultimate

problem solving ability (diagnostic and therapeutic ability) both by increas
mg the stability and usability of relevant background and by providing more
adequate and better organized and supervised clinical experience However,
we have little control over and cannot materially influence by educational
techniques those problem solving traits that are so crucially important for
success many kind of problem solving This same situation obviously pre
vails in the training of lawyers, teachers engineers and so forth

APPROACH TO THE ENHANCEMENT OF TRANSFER To Summarize tlxrec

kinds of approaches seem feasible in attacking the transfer problem in medi
cal education First we can try to incorporate into the medical curriculum
explicit transitional materials and experiences that bridge the gap between
the structural and the functional, between the normal and the pathological
between basic science knowledge (both normal and pathological) and bodies
of clinical knowledge, and between abstract subject matter (both basic
science and clinical) and clinical problem solving This use of transitional
devices is currently the most widely used approach in medical schools
Second we can attempt to enhance the clarity, stability and usability of
(a) preclinical subject matter that is retained as a foundation for learning
clinical subject matter and (b) both preclinical and clinical knowledge that
 Cogntltve Structure end Trarufer
168

IS available for application to clinical problem

solv^ng This second ap-
can
proach IS the one that is pnnapall) advocated in this book. Third v\e
endeavor to improve the expenential content, organization and supemsion
of the student s hospiul and outpatient training and to teach more effecuve
strategies of diagnosis and therapeutic decision making This type of super
vised clinical problem solving experience can be considered a special vanant
of the first approach that is as a protracted concentrated but nevertheless
transitional training device bridging the gap or faalitating transfer between
abstract clinical knowledge on the one hand and independent clinical

practice on the other

Clinical demonstrations beside apprenticeship case study review and
diagnostic problem-solving exerases are representative of the last mentioned
approach WTien used intelligently and with full awareness of the realistic
jimitatjons involved such techniques are very effective and enjoy an estab-
lished place among the more promising methods of enhanang the clinical
skills of medical trainees One important limitation that must be accepted
from the outset is die already emphasized fact that much of the ulumate
variability among phyiiaans in clinical problemsolving performance it
genically determined vanabihty in problem-solving traits that are not
fleets

very suscepuble to training measures An equally important limitation in

volves recognition of the fact that clinical problem-solving techniques can
be used only in conjunction with rather than as a substitute for didactic
exposition of clinical subject matter Training in parucular problem solving
situations is much too time-consuming to constitute a feasible mediod of
transmitting the vast array of absiraa clinical knowledge medical students
are required to know \s a matter of fact if problem-solving techniques
were misused for diis laticr purpose they would ultimately prove to be
selWefeaung because in the absence of adequate background knowledge
students could not possibly hope to solve clinical problems successfully
irrespective of the adequacy of dinr practical training Enhanced ability to
solve clinical problems in other worth can be regarded as both the major
objeane of expository clinical tcacliing and as a pnnapal entenon of its
adetjuacy but problem solving exercises cannot be considered a practical
primary means of teaching the abstract content of clinical subject matter
Despite these limitations howeser much scope obviously remains for
mcUiods lo improse die adequacy of clinical training Our advocacy of
the second of die three apjTroachcs outlined above is largely a reflection Ixidi
of personal preference and of die judgment that this approadi although
exceedingly promising is the most neglected of the three
It does not in ans
way imply a dcrogauon of die other two ajjproaclies
From the standpoint of the approach adopted herein to the transfer
problem in medical education the siruaure of a students medical knowl
edge IV regarded as die crucial ranable influcnang new
learning retention
Factlilali g Effect of I eTbaliialion m Transfer m
and problem solving Only insofar as it is possible to enhance the organiza
lion clarity and stability of tins structure is it possible to increase the
functional retention of medical knouledgc so that both more preclmical
subject matter is transferable to the learning of clinical subject matter and
more abstract clinical knowledge is available for particular clinical problem
solving situations Cognitive structure itself as indicated above can be m
fluenced substantively by the generality and integrative properties of the
particular organizing and explanatory principles used in a given branch of
medicine and programmatically by methods of presenting arranging and
ordering units of medical Knowledge that impinge on the clarity stability
and cohesiveness of that structure

The Facilitating Effect

of Verbalization m Transfer

We have already considered the general facilitating role of language

m cognitive functioning as well as the mediating function of implicit verbal
responses in concept formiition R L R Ovenng and R M W Travers
(1966) found that verbalizAtion of general principles prior to application
facilitates problem solving Building on the earlier work of P H Ewert and
J F Lambert (1932) R M
Gagn6 and E C Smith (1962) also demonstrated
the positive effect of verbalization on the discovery of general principles and
on their transferability to problem solving especially in relation to more
difficult problems Their study deals with the verbal nonverbal dimension
of learning rather than with the reception discovery or rote meaningful
dimensions It has important implications for pedagogic practice because
the findings challenge the widely accepted tenet of progressive education
that verbal learning is necessarily rote in character and that only nonrep-
resentational experience is transferable from one problemsolving situation

to another Although it >s true that expository teaching and reception

learning are typically verbal discovery learning as Gagne and Smith (1962)
point out may be either verbal or nonverbal Their isolation of the verbal
nonverbal variable from the reception discovery and rote meaningful van
ables represents an important methodological advance in the study of
problem solving L E Thune and S C Encksen (I960) report basically
similar findings their subjects had sufficient concrete experience with
When
the learning (operating a calculator) generally to understand it
task
abstract instruction about the mechanism of a calculator was more efficacious
in a transfer situation than speafic operating experience on a single calcu
lator
S M
Ervm (1960c) also found that verbal instruction in the relevant
physical principles underlying a motor task increases transfer to an analo
 Cognitive Structure an I Transler
!72

style Althougii
Widely known information are related aspects of cognitive
simple dimen
preference for cognitive complexity cannot be reduced to any
Sion of cognitive functioning it does exhibit
considerable generality
As one might reasonably anticipate it increases in direct
(Vannoy 1965)
proportion to an individuals ability to process or code variability
(Mim
singer and Kessen 1964) Individuals preferring cognitive simplicity are
differentially more sensitive to new information and are tluis more likely

to change initial impressions (Lcventhal and Singer 1964) Elementary

school to more widely known information are
pupils who prefer little known
more attracted to novelty and challenge and are also more likely to choose
intellectual vocations (Teeter Rouzer and Rosen 1964)
According to J S Bruner and H Tajfel (1961) learners seem to
manifest a consistent preference for broad or narrow categorization Narrow
categonzers show greater preference than broad categonzers for taking the
risk of being wrong as stimulus situations change J Kagan H A Moss
and I E Sigel (1963) desaibe self consistent analytic descriptive, infcren

tial descriptive and relational tendencies among children m grouping

pictures The first named tendency increases with age and is more character
istic of boys ilian of girls Children with analytic tendencies tend to be
more reflective wuli resjieci to alternative classification possibilities and
to analyze visually presented material more into their comjsonent parts
(Kagan Rosman Kay Albert and Philli|)$ 1904) They also tend to be less
hyperactive and disiractible Children who are conceptually reflective tend
to make fewer errors in reading and inductive reasoning than do clnldrcn
who are conceptually impulsive (Kagan 1905 Kigan Pearson and Welch
1966)
Although u IS probably true that human beings tend to organize the
world of ideas people and authority basically along lines of belief congru
cncc [md that] what is not congruent is further organized in terms of
similarity to what is congruent (Rokcach 1960 39j) iniermdividiial
p
differences obviously exist with rcsjiecl to the need for internal consistency
within belief systems Some individuals arc undoubtedly more content than
others to internalize contradictory propositions in logic tight compirtmcnts
rather than to subject them to integrative reconciliation However direct
research evidence regarding the slabthty and generality of such individual
dificrcnccs is presently unavailable
\notlicr v^ay of mamiaming ideational self consistency is |x:remptorily
to reject all nevs {iroposiiians that
appear incongriicni with existing l>clicfs
M Rokcach (I9G0) obtained evidence of a generalizcil oj)cn<losetl dimen
Sion of l>c)icf systems measured by die Dogmatism
and Opmionation Scales
with res|)cctivc rehabifity coeflicients of
approximately 80 and 70 In
validating these scales he found that Catholics
make high Dogmatism and
Right Opinionaiion scores whereas Communists
and religious disbclicscn
Cognil le Style 173

make high Dogmatism and Left Opinionation scores Only the Right 0pm
lonation groups hoisever tend to score high on the Berkeley Authoritarian
ism Scales Closed and rigid indtsiduals expenence difficulty synthetic m
and analytic thinking respectisely Open minded individuals tend to score
higher than closed minded individuals on tests of verbal ability school
achievement and ability to form remote verbal associations (S R Baker
J McV Hunt (1961) in a review of the
1964 Zagona and Zurcher 1965)
literature suggested that a large amount of pnor expenence in a given
area promotes a positive orientation to novel situations whereas little
pnor expenence in the same area is more likely to lead to withdrawal
Along the same line individuals tend to differ consistently in their tolerance
for unrealistic experiences (Gardner and Schlesinger 1962)
Intolerance of ambiguity is a charactenstic manifestation of the rela
lively closed mind and is symptomatic of high anxiety level (Ausubel

1949 Smock 1957) The anxious individual who requires immediate and
clear cut answers and is impatient with conflicting evidence and tentative
conclusions tends to exhibit either excessive impulsiveness or excessive cau
tiousness m deasion making (Smock 19a7) Both early and late decision
makers manifested significantly more response perseveration and shorter
latency of response on an object recognition test than did a middle group
(Smock 19o7 p 35) High causally oriented children are more tolerant of
such perceptually ambiguous materials as are presented the Decision m
Location Test and have less of a tendency to arrive at premature closure

p 534) The latter tend

than low causally oriented subjects (Muus 1960
to make more guesses and their guesses are more likely to be ngid and
judgmental in character
Individuals also differ consistently with respect to their tendency to
use affect labels in categorizing stimuli In an investigation of intraindi
vidual consistency in the use of affect labels in describing and categorizing
socialand ink blot stimuli J Kagan H
A Moss and I E Sigel (1960) were
able to demonstrate significantly positive intercorrelations among their four
naeavuces
Gardner (1959) employing a factor analytic approacli isolated a limited
number of control principles reflective of individual consistenaes in cog
nitive behavior This study was later broadened to include tests of mtel
lectual ability and personality variables (Gardner Jackson and \fessick
1960) On the basis of their findings these investigators conclude that intel
lectual abilities and cognitive controb are not isolated asjiects of cognitive
organization but are mutually interrelated The arbitrary distinction that
has sometimes been maintained between intelligence and the broad scale
organization of cognition thus seems inappropriate (Gardner Jackson and
Messick 1960 p 123)
Retention style was studied by I H Paul who found general and
174 Cognitive ^iTiictuTe and Transfer

consistent individual differences with respect to importation amount of

material retained and the use and retention of imagery

Importing sometimes was clearly explicatory in function (assimilating and con

necting) at other times merely decorative and extraneous (sharpening) Interest
ingly enough for the nonimporiers it rarely seemed to be the latter most of the
decoratne importations were contributed by the importers (Paul 1959 p 144)
The reproductions of nonimporiers and importers were stylistically different
the former were generally leaner in structure more disconnected and more abbre
viated than those of tl e importers the latter seemed more continuous and coherent
(Paul 1959 p 135)

It IS quite probable that oinsistent individual differences exist with

regard to strategy of and general approadi to problem solving Although
a particular strategy of concept acquisition (simultaneous scanning succes
st%e scanning conservation focusing or focus gambling) is generally more
likely to occur under some experimental conditions than under others
(Bruner 1956) u is also possible that self consistent and generalized indi
vidual preferences are concomitantly operative
The issue of flexibility ngidiiy m
problem solving has also received
considerable attention A S Luclitns and E H Ludims (1959) in review
mg the literature on rigidity of behavior and the effect of Emslellung (ad
sance cognitive sets) assert that no conclusions are possible at this time as to
whether a general and self consistent factor of rigidity exists The intratask
generality of individual differences m the Water Jar Eimtellimg Test has
not yet been determined and the validity of this measure as well as its
relationship both to other measures of rigidity and to other personality
traits are highly equivocal
 Chapter 5

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
AND READINESS
We have had occasion to note previously that, unlike a

computer, the information processing and storing capacities of the human

being change as a function of age and experience In this chapter we pro
pose to consider cognitive development and developmental readiness as
factors in meaningful learning and thinking Emphasis will be placed on
the dianges in intellectual development that take place from kindergarten
through high school and on their implications for school learning and
pedagogy, intellectual development during infancy and the preschool period
is not germane to educational psychology except where it pertains to school

learning issues In Chapter 4, readiness, as a developmental mode of cog

mtive functioning, was differentiated from the readiness that reflects posses
Sion of particular subject matter knowledge, or adequate subject matter
sophistication, for particular learning tasks In this chapter the term readi
ness will be used only in a developmental sense
'

Readiness is a cumulative developmental product reflecting the influ

ence of all genic effects all prior incidental experience, and all pnor learn
ing on cognitive patterning and the growth of cognitive capacities Thus it
reflects the effects of subject matter learning as well, but only its general
effectson cognitive capacities or mode of cognitive functioning, as distm
guished from the acquisition of ihe particular learnings that constitute the
basis of subject matter readiness In any particular instance of readiness,
any one or all of these factors may be involved Readiness may be general
in the sense that an individual manifests a certain level of cognitive func
tionmg required for a wide range of intellectual activities On the other
hand, it may be limited to the highly particulanzed cognitive capacities
necessary for the learning of a narrow segment of new subject matter, and
even to the particular teaching method employed in acquiring that knowl
edge
175
17G CognUne Dnelopntnl aid Readiness

The Nature of Readrness

Cognitive readiness refers to the adequacy of exisung cognitive pro-

cessing equipment or capaat> for coping with the demands of a specified
cognitive learning task Empirically readiness is indicated by ability to
profitfrom practice or learning experience An individual manifests readi
ness when the outcomes of his learning activity in terms of increased knowl
edge or academic achievement, are reasonably commensurate with the
amount of effort and practice involved Readiness in die developmental
sense of the term is a function of general cognitive maturity General cog
nitive maturity m turn largely reflects age level diilerences in intellectual
capacity or stage of intellectual development In any particular individual
of course it also reflects inchvidual differences in genic potentiality mci
dental experience intellectual stimulation and educauonal background
The partiailar kind of subject matter Uiat an individual studies in
duces two mam classes of effects On the one hand ii deteTtrwncs ]m specific
readiness for particular other kinds of subject matter learnings that is the
type of subject matter sophtsiicaiion we considered mChapter 4 under
cognitive structure variables On
die other hand n also contributes to gen
eral changes m
cognitive readiness that are at least m
part indejjcndent of
the kind of subject matter studied For example the study of elementary
sdiool science prepares a pupil for high school science and the study of
elementary school grammar prepares a pupil for liigh school grammar In
addition however exjxincnce with eacJi subject contributes to his general
cognitive development and helps determine the general level of his cogni
tive fimcuoning In the present chapter we shall be concerned with these
general developmental changes in readiness
Thus in appraising cognitive readiness we would consider all relevant
age level changes in abiliiy lo cope with different kinds and levels of subject
matter tliai are reflective of growth in cognitive capaaty
or mode of cogni
live functioning Examples of such changes in
cognitive capacity that in
flucnce learning retention and dunking processes
and hence influence
devclopmenia! readiness for learning different kinds
and levels of subject
matter include the following increased widening
and complexity of the
cognitive field increased ramifianiy of die
psydiological world greater dif
fcreniiaiion of cognitive structure grciter precision
and si^cificity of mean
mgs die possession of more alntnct higher^irder concepts and transactional
terms greater ability to comjirclicnd and
manipulate abstractions and rcla
t.onsh.ps l,ctwcen abstraciions-w.dioui
recent or current reference to con
crete-cmpincal ex|x:nencc greater ability to
deal with general propositions
ajiart from |articulari/ed contexts
decreased subjectivity in anproacli to
experience increased attention sjan
and increasctl differentiation of inte!
The \atiiTe of Readitieis 177

lectual ability Some of these changes in cogniti\e sophistication (increased

differentiation of cognitive content, structure, and intellectual ability,

greater precision specificity of meanings) have self-evident implications

and
for general developmental readiness insofar as it bears on the breadth depth
issue m curriculum
There is little disagreement about the fact that cognitive readiness al

ways crucially influences the efficiency of the learning process, and often
determines whether a gi'en intellectual skill or type of school material is
learmble at all at a particular stage of development Most educators also
implicitly accept the proposition that an age of readiness exists for every
kind of learning Postponement of learning experience beyond this age of
readiness wastes valuable and often unsuspected learning opportunities,
thereby unnecessarily reducing the amount and complexity of subject matter
content that can be mastered in a designated period of schooling On the
other hand when a pupil is prematurely exposed to a learning task before
he IS adequately ready for it, he not only fads to learn the task question m
(or learns it with undue difficulty) but also learns from this experience to
fear, dislike, and avoid the task
Up to this point the principle of readiness— the idea that attained
developmental capacity limits and influences an individual s ability to profit
—
from current expenence or practice is empirically demonstrable and con
ceptually unambiguous Difficulty first arises when it is confused with the
concept of maturation, and increases when the latter concept, in turn, is
equated with a process of internal ripening The concept of readiness
simply refers to the adequacy of existing cognitive capacity or level of cog
nitive functioning (not knowledge) in relation to the demands of a given
learning task No specification is made as to how this capacity is achieved
—whether through prior learning through incidental expenence
activities
through genically regulated changes or through various combinations of
these factors Maturation on the other hand has a different and much more
restricted meaning It encompasses those increments in capacity that take
place m the demonstrable absence of specific practice expenence that is
those increments that are attributable to genic influences and/or incidental
expenence Maturation therefore, is not the same as readiness but is merely
one of the two principal factors (the other being learning) that contribute
to or determine the organism s developmental readiness for coping with new
learning tasks Whether or not readiness exists in other words does not
necessarily depend on maturation alone in many instances it is solely a
function of cumulative prior learning experience and most typically it de
pends on varying proportions of maturation and learning
To equate the principles of readiness and maturation not only mud
dies the conceptual waters but also makes it difficult for the school to appre
ciate that insufficient readiness may often reflect cognitive immaturity on
178
Cognilnie Development and Readinea

is attributable to a generally unstimulating

inappro
the part of pupils that
priate or inefficient educational ensironment Lack of maturation can
manifest
thus become a conveniently available scapegoat whenever children
there
insuffiaent deselopmental readiness to learn and the school whicli is
by automatically absoUed of all responsibility in the matter, consequently
failsto subject us instructional practices to the degree of self-critical scrutiny
necessary for continued educational progress In short, while it is important
to appreciate that the current readiness of pupils determines the schools
current choice of instructional methods and materials it is equally impor
tant to bear in mind that this readiness itself is partly determined by the
general appropriateness and effiaency of the previous instructional practices
to which pupils have been subjected The quality of education a pupil re
ceives in other words is a significant determinant of his developmental
readiness as well as of his subject matter readiness for further learning
The conceptual confusion is further compounded when maturation is
interpreted as a process of internal ripening essentially independent of
all environmental influences that is of incidental experience as svell as of
learning Readiness then becomes a matter of simple genic regulation un
folding in accordance with a predetermined and immuiable timetable and
the school by definition becomes povverless to influence developmental
readiness —even through a prescliool or kindergarten program of providing
inndental background experience preparatory to the introduction of more
formal academic activities
Actually A Cesell s embryological model of development implicit
m die inicmal ripening thesis fits quite well when applied to the senson
motor and neuromuscular sequences taking place during the prenatal penod
and early infancy In the acquisition of simple behavioril functions (for
instance locomotion or prehension) that more or less uniformly characterire
all members of the human
species irrespective of cultural or other environ
mental differences the evidence indicates that for all practical purposes
genic factors largely determine the direction of development Environmental
factors influence developmental outcome only if they are extreme!) deviant
mace ui dAWAyve. w: assevi vVn wngvang ttrrjTse xfi AtstVcijOTHtsv'*
and. then, vitve
than to generate disimclivc developmental progressions of their own Thus
the only truly objectionable aspect of the embryological
model is its un
warranted extrapolation to those more complex and variable components
of later cognitive and behavioral development wlierc
environmental factors
mike important contnbutions to the direction jiattemmg and sequential
order of ail developmental changes
hardly surprising therefore in view of the
It IS
tremendous influence
on and lay opinion wielded by Cesell and his colleagues that
professional
many educators conceive of readiness m
absoluic and immutable terms
and thus fail to apprcaate that except for such
traits as walking and grasp-
The h-ature of Readiness 179

mg the mean age of readiness can neser be specified apart from relevant
environmental conditions Although the model child m
contemporary Amer
ica may first be ready to read at the age of Gi/^ (Morphett and ^Vashburne
1931) the age of reading readiness is always influenced by cultural sub
cultural and induidual differences in background experience and in any
case saries with the method of instruction employed and the child s IQ
Middle class children for example arc ready to read at an earlier age than
lower class children because of the greater availability of books in the home
and because they are read to and taken places more frequently (Milner
1951) Exposure to television has tindoubtedly decreased the age of readiness
for reading in recent years but even so the typical child of avenge intel
hgence is not ready for formal instruction in reading prior to entering kin
dergarten (Kinsella 1965)

Pedagogic Applications
of the Readiness Principle

By virtue of his distinctive degree of cogniiive soplnsticition at every

age level the child Ins a characteristic way of approaching learning material
and viewing the world (Bruner 1960) The pedagogic problem in readi
ness IS to manipulate the learning situation in sucli a way that one takes
account and optimal advantage of existing cognitive capacities and modes
of assimilating ideas and information as for example the learner s objec
tivity subjectivity his level of generality or particularity and the abstract
ness and precision of his concepiualiiations The task, of teaching a subject
to a child at any particular age is one of representing the structure of tint
subject in terms of the cliild s way of viewing things The task can be thought
of as one of translation (Bruner 1960)
The objection has been offered that we can have no
knowledge direct
of an individual s state of developmental readiness and that we would there
fore be better advised to ignore these factors and manipulate other learning
variables about which we have more direct knowledge and over which we
have more direct control for instance situational and interpersonal van
ables reinforcement attributes and otganiiation of the learning task and
the conditions of practice All of these latter variables can be manipulated
independently of any reference to the existing cognitive capacities of the
learner But although it is true that we can have no direct knowledge of and
control over his state of readiness we should not be unduly chscouraged W e
can still make some fairly shrewd and accurate inferences about existing
cognitive readiness from detailed knowledge of the learner s family cultural
social class and educational background and from the use of diagnostic
testing procedures Furthermore we can also exercise some control over the
readiness factor by providing a pertinent background of inculentil experi
 Cognili e Dneloj ct t and Head »
ISO

level of sophis-
ence or special preparatory learning actuities at the desired
tication
Much more significant m
terms of pedagogic applications is the serious
dearth of research on the cognitive aspects of readiness We
desperately need

studies indicating that certain kinds components and levels of

subject

matter which cannot be learned efficiently at one age level can be learned
another age level studies which achieve superior learning by
efficiently at
taking general or particulanred readiness factors into account and studies
showing that more difficult kinds and levels of subject matter ordinarily —
—
not Icarnable at younger ages can be learned successfully and without in
ordinate effort if appropriate dianges in leaching method are made Until
the principle of readiness is particularized in each academic disaphne with
respect to the various sub areas levels of difficulty and methods of teaching
that can be most advantageously employed at each level of development
the principle will have httle pedagogic utility
Wlial light can the of human growth and development throw on
field

the issue of What We earnestly wish tliat it were

shall the schools teach’
possible to list and discuss
dozen or more instances in which developmental
a
principles have been validly utilized in providing definitive answers to ques-
tions dealing with the content and organization of the cumailum Unfor
tunately however it must be admitted that at the present time this dis-
cipline can only offer a limited number of very crude generalizations and
highly tentative suggestions bearing on this issue In a very general sense of
course undeniable that concern with child development has liad a silu
it is

tary effecton the educational enterprise It alerted school administrators to

the fact that certain minimal levels of intellectual maturity arc necessary be
fore sanous subjects can be taught vsitli a reasonable degree of efficiency and
hope of success and it encouraged teachers in presenting subject matter to
make use of the existing interests of pupils to consider their point of view
and to take into account prevailing limitations in command of language
and grasp of concepts On the oilier hand premature and wholesale extrajv
olntion of dcsclopmenlal jirmciples to educational theory and practice has
also caused incalculable harm It will take at least a generation for teachers
just to unlearn some of the more fallacious and dangerous of these oser
generalized and imwarranicd applications
Much of the aforementioned difficulty proceeds from
failure to appre
aatc that human growth md
development is a pure rather than an
applied science \s a pure science
it is concerned with the discovery of
general laws alioui the miure andregulation of human development as an
end in Itself Ultimate!) of course such laws have self-evident implications
for the realization of
ractical goals in sudi felds as
j education child rear
uig and guidance In a very /general sense
for example they indicate the
effects of different intcrjicrsonal and social climates on jicrsonality devcloji-
The Nature of Readiness 181

ment and the kinds of teaching methods and subject matter content that
are most compatible with de\eIopmental capacity and mode of cognitive
functioning at a given stage of growth Thus because it oflers important
insightsabout the changing intellectual and emotional capacities of children
as developing human beings child development may legitimately be con
sidered one of the basic sciences underlying education and guidance and
as part of the necessary professional preparation of teachers —in much the
same sense that anatomy and bacteriology are basic sciences for medicine
and surgery
Highly detrimental in their effects on pupils and teachers however
have been the consequences of farfetclied and uncritical extrapolation to
educational practice of developmental generahrations that either have not
been adequately validated or which apply only to a very restricted age
segment of the total span of children s development Two illustrations of
the latter category of unwarranted extrapolation of highly limited general
izations —the internal ripening theory of maturation and the principle
of self selection —have already been discussed An example of a widely
accepted but inadequately validated developmental principle frequently
cited to justify general or overall ability grouping of pupils is the proposi
tion that a child s growth and achievement show a going togetheredness
(Olson and Hughes 1943) Actually except for a spuriously high correlation
during infancy the relationship bettveen physical status and motor ability
on the one hand and intelligence and intellectual achievement on the other
hand is negligible and declines consistently with increasing age Even among
the different sub tests of intelligence and among the different areas of intel
lectual achievement the weight of the evidence indicates that as a child
grows older his component rates of growth in these various functions in
creasingly tend to diverge from each other

POSTPONEMENT AND PREMATURE LEARNING Intellectual training should

not be postponed merely on the theory that an older child can invariably
learn anything more efficiently than a younger child Instruction in typing
(Wood and Freeman 1932) for example is more successful at age 7 than
at age 5 but this is msuffiaent reason in and of itself to postpone this
activity for two years Adequate readiness rather than age by itself is the
relevant criterion Waiting beyond the point of adequate readiness means
that certain specific learnings (as well as the accompanying more general
gams in capacity) that could easily have been acquired in the interim if
attempted unnecessarily fail to take place
The acquisition of many intellectual achievements that he within the
capability of children but for which they are not adequately ready can be
accelerated by providing suitable contrived experience specially geared to
their cognitive capacity and mode of funcuomng The age at which children
 Cognitive Development and Readmeu
182

itself)
can leam a gi\en intellectual task (like the age of adequate readiness
IS, after all, not an absolute, but is aluajs relatise, m
part, to the method
prescliool
of instruction employed (Gates. 1937) B) taking advantage of the
child s cunosity and urge to explore, by placing esctensne reliance
on osert
manipulatne activity in understanding and rising symbols, and by program
mmg stimulation at appropriate rates and in suitable forms, Montesson M
(Rambusch, 1962), O K ^foore (Pines, 1963) and W
Fowler (1962) liate
been able to advance considerably the typical age of reading and ivTiting*
Similarly, by using an intuitive approach, it is possible successfully to

teadi the elementary school child many ideas m

saence and mathematics
(Amsdorf, 1961, Brownell, 1960, Bruner. I960, O L. Davis, 1958, Dienes,
1964) that were prestously thought much too difficult Howeser, one
must
balance against the possible advantages of early intuitive learning the high
nsk of failure and excessive time and effort cost involved in many premalure
instances of such learning Where genuine readiness is lacking it is more
feasible in the long run to postpone entirely the introduction of particular
subject matter fiel^ until ^ildren are cognitively more mature The dea
Sion regarding readiness must be based, in each case, upon the findings of
particulanred researcli In one progressive school, for example, children who
learned no formal arithmetic until the fifth grade equalled matched con
troll in computation by the seventh grade and surpassed them in anthmetic
reasoning (Sax and Oitina, 1958)
A good case can be made for the proposition that modem nursery
scliools and kindergartens tail to provide children with sufficient intellectual
stimulation or that preschool children are adequately ready for more than
they are taught (Pines, 1963. Wann. Dom, and Liddlc 1962) Ennchmenl
of the preschool curriculum so that it is more commensurate wiUi existing
levels of readiness is therefore quite defensible But
esen it It be demonstrated that young children can learn this or that advanced
process v*e should siiU need to deode whether ii is desirable and appropnate for
them to do so Soaologically we may ask whether this is the best way for children
to spend iheir time and energy IniellectuaUy we may ask whether this is the
most suitable preparation for future intellectual activities Emotionally we may ask
whether early systematic instruaion m
reading maihematia or wlut have you
will have a harmful effect upon motivation or upon
personal and social beliav
lor Tlie point we arc trying to male here is simply this Just the fact that
children can Jeam this or that docs not by titelf mean that we must
therefore,
require them do so at some young age or in some early grade (F
to
T Tyler. 19'Vf

> Tliai preschool children arc

able to kam
to read is not so surprising when
one comtders that they do after all karn spontaneously
to understand ant! use
represenlalwfial auditory ,t„nuh (the denoutive
and svntact.cal meanings conveyet!
by words and sentences)
Effects of Environ lental Deprivation on Cognitive Development 183

Tile crucial issues m other words are whether such early learning is reason
ably economical in terms of the lime and effort involved and whether it

helps cliildren dcvelopmenlally in terms of their total educational careers

The concept of readiness does stipulate a reasonable economy in learning
time and effort and warns against the nsk and consequences of failure in
instances of premature learning As will he pointed out later, however, in
struction in reading for culturally deprived children probably does prevent
later retardation in reading

The Effects of Environmental Deprivation

on Cognitive Development

What theoretical grounds and relevant evidence do we have for be

heving that prolonged environmental deprivation induces retardation in
intellectual development? It is reasonable to assume m
the first place that
whatever the individual s genic potentialities are cognitive development
occurs largely in response to a variable range of stimulation requiring in
corporation accommodation adjustment and reconciliation The more
variable the environment to which individuals are exposed the higher is
the resulting level of effective stimulation D O Hebb (1949) stresses the
importance of early sensory an<l perceptual experience for later problem
solving and J Piaget (1952a) similarly emphasizes the importance of such
experience for the early stages of intellectual development Characteristic
of the culturally deprived environment however is a restricted range and
a less adequate and systematic ordering of stimulation sequences (Deutsch
1963) The effects of this restricted environment include poor perceptual
discrimination skills inability to use adults as sources of information cor
rection and reality testing and as instruments for satisfying curiosity an
impoverished language symbolic system and a paucity of information con
cepts and relational propositions (Deutsch 1963)
Both the animal and human evidence indicates that early environ
mental deprivation stunts intellectual development Cage reared rats (For
gus 1954 Gibson and Walk 1956 Hebb 1949) and dogs (Thompson and
Heron 1954) who are deprived of visual and exploratory experience are
significantly inferior to pet reared control animals in later problem solving
ability When monkeys are deprived of stimulation during infancy they
tend to become inactive to avoid exploration of the environment and to
prefer visual and manipulatory stimuli of low complexity (Sackett 1965)
and when kittens are placed in a complex free (simplified) environment
they exhibit inferior maze learning ability and less activity (Wilson Warren
and Abbott 1965) Tlie longer children remain in substandard environ
—
mental conditions in foundling homes (Freud and Burhngham 1944 Spit?
m Cognitive Deielopmenl and Headiness

Skeels and Fillmore,

1945 1949) in orphanages (Dennis and Najarian 1957,
retarded mothers (Speer,
1937, Skeels, and others 1938), or with mentally
1940) the progressively lower their IQs become m
comparison with the
IQs of control children placed m more favorable environments
witli the reports of progressive decline
in
These findings are consistent
the intelligence test scores of isolated mountain and canalboat children
who also grow up and nondemanding intellectual environ
in imsiimulating
ments (Asher, 1935, H Gordon 1923 Slierman and Key, 1932. Wheeler,
(Asher, 1935,
1942), with the lower IQs of rural tlian of urban children
Aiisiibel 1965g), Chapanis and Williams, 1945, Wheeler, 1942),
with the
soaal class di^erential in IQ (Bayley and Jones 1937, Terman and
Merrill,

urban residence on Negro childrens

1937), with the upgrading effect of
IQs (Klineberg 1935), and with the high correlation between the intra pair
discrepanaes m
the IQs of separated monozygotic twins and the discrep-
anaes in their educational advantages (Newman, Freeman and Holzinger,
sl^tHs
1937) Evidence of depressed IQ of special retardation in language
and conceptualization and of inability to concentrate is found as late as
adolescence among children who spend varying periods of tlieir early years
in foundling homes (Goldfarb 1945, Provence and Lipton, 1962)
It is one tiling however to appreciate that lack of adequate intellectual
stimulation in the preschool years may stunt later mtelleciual ability, and
quite another to assert that critical periods exist for the learning of par
ticular intellectual skills young children are invariably better able
that
than adolescents or adults to learn any subject matter material, or, accord
ing to O K Moore, that the human being is extraordinarily open and re
ceptivc to learning between the iges of 2 and 5 (Pines, 1963)

Language Uetardatwn
It is in the area of language development and particularly with resjiect

to the abstract dimension of verbal functioning that the culturally deprived

child manifests the greatest degree of intellectual retardation Many factors
contribute to this unfortunate developmental outcome The culturally de
pnved home to begin with licks the large variety of objects utensils, toys,
pictures and so furtli tliji require lalicling and serve as referents for Ian
guage acquisition in the iniddlc'class home The culltirally deprived child
IS also not sjKiWcn to or read to scry much by adults = Both for this reason

* In
ifiis (onncction ic is tmrresting lo
note that A Anasiasi and C ile Jems
(I'JjS) atirdiute ilicrchioc language sujicnonty of I'lierio-Kican nursery school
oscr comparalde while and Negro diildrcn
(hilclien
m
New York City shim areas
in the face of mote severe soctoeconomic
more contact wuh adults in the Itome
—
handicaps to die fact that they enjoy
 I

ESfcts of Erwiront lentol Depmalion on Cogntttve Develop nen 185

and because of the high noise level of his home his auditory discrimination
tends to be poor Unlike the middle class child he receives little corrective
feedback regarding his enunciation pronunciation and grammar (Deutsch
1963 John and Goldstein 1964) and the vocabula’-y and syntactical model
provided him by his parents is typically impoverished and faulty
Various interpersonal aspects of adult child communication and social
control in the lower class home also contribute to language retardation
(Hess and Shipman 1965) The lower-class mothers verbal behavior style
m communicating with her offspring is typically restricted that is her
speech tends to be abbreviated lacking in precision and explicitness and
undifferentiated with respect to person topic and circumstances This ten
dency toward constriction is further compounded by a style of social control
in which parental decisions are arbitrary and are justified by an appeal to
authority and status differences rather than explained and justified by an
appeal to reason and equity In a social environment that offers a very nar
row range of alternatives of thouglu and action there is little cipportunity
for learning precise and differentiated linguistic expression But although
the social use of language is constricted in lower class families it is at least

more adequate than the virtually nonexistent cognitive use of language

Lower class parents unlike chetr middle class counterparts use language pri
manly as a means of expressing their feelings and controlling the behavior
of their children and not as a means of communicating ideas (naming
identifying comparing explaining clarifying differentiating) (Bereiter and
Engelmann 1966)
Later on when new concepts and transactional terms are largely ac
quired verbally by definition and context from speech and reading rather
than by abstraction from direct concrete experience the culturally deprived
child suffers from the paucity of abstractions in the everyday vocabulary of
his elders from the rarity of stimulating conversation in the home from
magazines and newspapers in his surround
the relative absence of books
mgs and from the lack of example of a reading adult in the family setting
Iv. vs. sswaVi -wOTidfi-v viviS. vt* wWlVTiK.V ’ivyfa.bMl'aTy cA vV* vvi’i

is defiaeni in range and

turally deprived child precision (Deutsch 1963
McCarthy 1930 Schulman and Havighurst 1947 M E Smith 1933) that
his representational functioning is defiaent (Sigel and McBane 1966) that
his grammar and language usage are shoddy that his attentivity and mem
ory are poorly developed and that he is impoverished such language m
related knowledge as the number concepts self identity information and
understanding of the physical geometric and geographical environments
(Deutsch 1963 Sigel and McBane 1966) Soaal class differences in language
and conceptual measures also tend to increase with increasing age (Deutsch
1963) thus demonstrating the cumulative effects of both continued environ
mental deprivation and of early deficit in language development
186 Cognitne Dnelopmenl and Readiness

The culturally deprned child s enure onentation to language is also

con
different from that of the niiddle<lass child He responds more to the
Crete, tangible, immediate, and particularized properties of
objects and

situations railier than to their abstract, categorical, and relational proper

ties (Bernstein, 1958, 1960, Siller, 1957) His speecli is instigated more by
the objects and actions he sees than by abstract ideas emanating from SMthin,
and he makes more anallary use of such nonverbal forms of communication
as gestures and faaal expressions (Bernstein, 1958, Riessraan, 1962) In short,
the language of the culturally deprived child is more concrete, expressive,
and informal than that of the middle-class child, showing signs of impover
ishraent mainly in its formal, abstract, and syntactical aspects (Bernstein,
1960, Deutsch, 1963) His sentences are short, and heavily inter
siaccato-Iike,
laced with slang and cliches, they are rarely compound or complex in struc
ture (Bernstein 1960 Deuisdi, 1963) He uses few conjunctions, adjectives,
adverbs, and qualifying phrases or clauses
The most imporunt consequence of the culturally dcpnved child s
language reurdation. however, is his slower and less complete transition
from conaete to abstraa inodes of tliought and understanding This transi
tion takes place more slowly and less completely for two reasons First, the
culturally depnied child lacks the necessary repertoire of clear and stable
abstracuons and transactional terms (conditional conjunctives, qualifying
adjectives) that is obviously prerequisite for the direct manipulation and

understanding of relationships between abstractions Second, for lack of

adequate practice he has not acquired sufhaent faality m
relating abstrac
tions to eacJi other with the beneRi of concreie-erapincal props, so that he
can later dispense with their assistance at the same age of his environmen
tally more favored contemporaries Because concrete thought operations arc
necessanly more iime<onsuming than ihcir abstract verbal counterparts
and also because of his disiraciibility. unfamilianty wiUi formal language,
impaired seH<onfidence and unresponsiveness to time pressure, the cul
turally deprived cliild typically works more slowly than iJie middle-class
child in an academic setting (CliajKints ami Williams I9-!5)

Schooling and Intelleclual Dnvlopment

We lack firm evidence concerning the influence of an ojitimal
still

learning environment on the intellectual development of culturally deprived

elementary sdiool and adolescent children, csjiccially
those who have been
subjected for many years lo the frustration and
demoralization of inappro-
priate school ex{>enence» This is an extremely
urgent research problem

* Some ungential evidence conceming the ameboniuc

effect of sdiooI «
|>enencc on intellectual development comes from studies
shoeing that the reiump-
t0ecls oj Enuronmetttal DepriiaUon an CogtiiUve Dnthpment 187

that should engage our immediate attention We

need to investigate the
effects of an optimal learning emironment on both IQ scores and on the
acquisition of school knowledge, making special efforts to eliminate errors of
measurement associated with test content bias, test taking skills, test rapport,
and test motivation Generalizing deductively, one might anticipate that
school knowledge would be more ameliorable than intelligence level to
the influence of environmental stimulation

Mechanisms Mediating Irreversibility

THE CRITICAL PERIODS HYPOTHESIS An increasingly more popular ex-

planation that has been advanced in recent years to account for the apparent
irreversibility of certain kinds of behavioral development and develop
mental retardation is the "critical periods ’
hypothesis According to this

hypothesis, irreversibility of behavioral development is a function of ex

treme susceptibility to particular types of stimulation during those brief
periods in individual development when certain types of behavior are
shaped and molded for life By tlie same token, if the individual is deprived
of the necessary stimulation during the critical period, wlien he is maximally
susceptible to it in terms of actualizing particular potential capacities or
developing m new directions, it is held that some degree of permanent
retardation is inevitable (that he never or only partly can attain the capaci
ties in question) Numerous examples of
the existence of critical periods can
be found in the social development of infrahuman
perceptual, motor, and
mammals Infant chimpanzees isolated from normal tactual stimulation
exhibit defective kinesthetic learning and cutaneous localization (Nissen,
Chow, and Semmes 1951), and if reared in darkness, they fail to fixate or
recognize familiar objects or to blink in response to a threatening object
(Riesen, 1947) Newly born domestic lambs, reared on a bottle and isolated
from sheep for ten days, experience difficulty later in adjusting to the flock
and tend to graze by themselves (Scott, Fredencson, and Fuller, 1951)
Similarly, puppies isolated for nine weeks or more are unable to adapt
socially to other dogs, and if they are not removed from the litter by three
months of age, they are extremely difficult to tame at a later date (Scott and

tion of regular schooling in Holland after World War II raised the mean IQ of
children (de Groot, 1948 1951) and that longterm improvement in substandard
school conditions raised the mean IQ among Hawaiian (S Smith 1942) and East
Tennessee mountain children (Wheeler 1942) Current remedial programs for
culturally deprived children attending school undertaken as part of the anti poverty
movement tend to be global action programs rather than controlled research studies
that can yield valid evidence regarding the efficacy of any particular cognitive or
motivational aspect of remediation
 Cogn me Dei-elopment and Headmen
188

Manton I9a0)Impnnltng m
animals is also a manifestation of the

criucal penods phenomenon An isolated new born duck for example

will slaMshly follow the first object or creature that motes (R- D Hess
both
1959) High suscepubihty to stimulation during this penod accounts
for llie nonspecific nature of the impnnted response and for its
canahza
uon {its pre-empuon of the response category in question) the latter fea
ture of course also reflects the animal $ isolation from competing stimuli
An impliat form of the critical penods hypothesis was applied to
intellectual deselopmeni many years ago b) M
Montesson and her followers
to justify the particular graded senes of learning tasks which children are
set in Montesson schools (Rambusch 1962) More recently it has been
imoked by adsocates of the propostuon that young children can feam
many intellectual skills and kinds oi subject matter more efficiently than
adults can The argument in both instances is that since there are allegedly
opumal (i e cniical) penods of readiness for all kinds of cognitne acquisi
lions children who fad to learn the age appropnaie skills at the appropnatc
time are foreser handicapped m
acquinng them later Thus both Montesson
(Rambusch 19G2) and O
K Moore (Pines 1963) place particular emphasis
in their preschool educational programs on the concept of explosne
penods of intellectual growth when unique susceptibility to particular kinds
of cognitne stimulation supposedly exists and when optimal readiness hr
particular kinds of intellectual acquisitions is allegedly present. Seize the
opportunity for such learnings at tlicse penods they implore us or be
reconaled to the fact that they will be much more difficult or esen impos-
sible at some future dale
Senous difficulties howeser lie m
the path of extrapolating the
cniical penods hypothesis to human cognitive development (Ausubel
1905c) In the first place it has been validated only for infant individuals
in infra liuman speaes and in relation to Uiose kinds of rapidly developing
perceptual motor and social traits lliat are largely regulated by genic
factors In human individuals espeaally beyond the prenatal period and
first year of life environmental dcteiimnants of development are more
irn|x}rtant and the rate of maturation is significantly slower Second it
has never been empincally demonstrated iliat optimal readiness exists at
particular age penods for sjieafied kinds of tnlelleelual activities and that
if adequate conditions for growili arc not present
during those penods no
future lime is ever as advantageous thereby causing irreparable develop-
mental defiat
Hence if speafic intellectual skills or subject matter content are not
acquired at the earliest apjearance of readiness din
does not mean that
they cannot be acquired later ju« as well
or even lietter Tlie same degree
of cognitive capaaly that establislies
readiness at an earlier age would
still be present at least in equal
degree at some future date the problem
Effects oj EnviTonmenlal Deprivation on Cognstwe Dnelopment 189

therefore, is not that this degree of matunty disappears or declines in some

mysterious fashion, but rather that it fails to grow at a normal rate in the
interim because it is not appropriately exercised The disadvantage of un
necessarily postponing such learning tasks thus inheres in the irreparable loss
of precious years of opportunity when reasonably economical learning (and
the concomitant growth m cogmtne capacity) fail to occur simply because
these kinds of tasks are not attempted When this happens, the individual,
in comparison with equally endowed peers, incurs a deficit in cognitive
capacity which and future rate of intellectual development
limits his current

THE CUMULATIVE NATURE OF DEVELOPMENTAL DEFICIT This bnngS US tO

a second, somewhat more credible, explanation of the possible irreversibility
in cognitive development that results from prolonged cultural deprivation
(Ausubel, 1965e) We refer to the tendency for existing developmental
deficits to become cumulative in nature, since current and future rates of
intellectual growth are always conditioned or limited by the attained level
of development The child who has an existing deficit in growth incurred
from past deprivation is less able to profit developmentally from new and
more advanced levels of environmental stimulation Thus, irrespective of
—
the adequacy of all other factors both internal and external— his deficit
tends to increase cumulatively and to lead to permanent retardation
New growth, in other words always proceeds from the existing pheno
type, that is, from already actualized capacity rather than from potentialities
inherent in the genotype (genic structure) It makes no difference in terms
of this limiting influence whether the attained deficiency is attributable to
inferior genic endowment or to inadequate environment If, as a result of
a consistently deprived environment during the early formative years,
potential intellectualendowment is not actualized the attained deficit in
functional capacity significantly limits the extent to which later environ
mental stimulation even if normal in quantity and quality, can increase
the rate of cognitive growth Hence an individual s prior success or failure
m developing his intellectual capacities tends to keep his future rate of
growth relatively constant Initial failure to acquire adequate language,
information processing and problem solving abilities, for example, limits
the later growth of cognitive capaaties and of cognitive functioning

DIFFERENTIATION OF COGNITIVE FUNCTIONING In addition to the limit

ing condition of attained level of development or of existing degree of
deficiency,we must consider the further limiting factor of the organism s
degree of plasticity or freedom to respond developmentally in a given
direction in response to appropriate environmental stimulation (Ausubel,
1965e)
Generally speaking the plastiaty of intelligence tends to decrease with
increasing age At first mtelligenra is a relatively undifferentiated capacity
190
Cogrtitrve Dnelopment and Readtntss

lhat can develop m several different tUrecuons But as children grow older,
particularly dunng preadolescence and adolescence, it becomes increasingly
more differentiated as shown by the decreasing intercorrelations among the

sub-tests of a given intelligence scale (Garrett, Bryan, and Perl, 19S5) An

of
other indication of the trend toward the progressive differentiation
abilities IS the fact that 10 jear-old boys of high soaoeconomic status
make
of
higher scores than 10 jear-old boys of low socioeconomic status on tests
both verbal and mechanical ability, but at age 16 arc superior only on the
verbal tests (Havighunt and Jankc, 1944. Janke and Havighurst, 1945)
Furthermore the verbal ability scores of boys who drop out of school at the
age of 17 tend to decline, whereas their scores on tests of mechanical aptitude
continue to improve (Vernon 1948) Thus b> the time an individual
reaches adolescence differential factors of interest, relative ability, speaah
zatton of training* mouvation success and failure experience, and cultural
expectation operate selectively to develop certain potential abilities and to
leave othcn relauvel) undeveloped Children with particular intellectual
tend to avoid activities involving these disabilities thereby
disabilities
inaeasing the original deficit (Kirk, 1958)
Once intelligence undergoes definite relative commitment in the various
aforementioned channels therefore, the individual manifests less poten
ualiiy for growing m minimal development than was the case
areas of m
the original state Thus
undifferentiated for example if because of
inadequate stimulation dunng
early and middle childhood genic potenii
ahties for verbal intelligence fad to be adequately actualized other facets
of intelligence (quanmauve) which are more satisfaaonly stimulated
become differentially more highly developed At this point therefore, the
development of the individuals verbal intelligence is not only limited
by his existing dcGoency in the verbal area but also by the fact diat much
of his once undifferentiated potentiality for growth in intelligence has
already been definitely committed in other directions and hence is no longer
available to respond to an enriched verbal environment Tlius it is evident
that the povsibiluy for complete reversibility of environmentally induced
retardation m
verbal intelligence decreases as children advance in age
This IS not to say, of course that later ennchmcni is entirely to no avail
but in our opinion some of diis failure m
developmental actualization
is irreversible and cannot be compensated
for later, irrespective of the
amount of hyjicrstimulation that is applied

* Addiiional evidence of iJ»e effect of experience on ihc diffcrcniution of

comes from studies showing itui ihe iniclligencc lest scores of boys who
intelligence
continue longer in school tend lo exceed even twenty
yean later die test scores of
matched cnniroli with less schooling (Lorge I9f5) and
much more common
that gams mscores arc
IQ
in college than tn nonoUege jwpubtions {R L Tborndike
 Dnelopment 191
GfTteral Stagfi of Inlellecluat

General Stages
of Intellectual Dcsclopmcni

advanced
General theories of intellectual dcselopment, such as those
by J Piaget and his collaborators (Inhcldcr and Piaget, 1958, Piaget, 1950,
cogniine
1954a). include agelesel changes m
at least four major areas of
structure of
functioning, namely, |>erccption, objectnit) subjcctisity, the
Jtleas or knowledge, and the nature of thinking or problem solving e T
desel
major focus of our concern in this chapter, hosveser. svill be on those
cognitive
opmental dianges in tlic imlividtial s cognimc capacities or
nieaninglu
processing equipment that adect Ins learning anil reicniion of
increase in age, they tend to
'erbal material For example, as children
perceise the stimulus ssorld more in general abstract, and categorical
Md less in (Gollin,
tangible, time bound, and parliculanred contexts
increasing ability to
P'^get, 1930. 1954a, Serra, 1953). they demonstrate
relationships, ana
“mprehend and manipulate abstract verbal symbols and
and Piaget lage ,
to employ abstract classificatory schemata (Inbelder ,

understand ideational
1950, 1954a, Wallon, 1952), they are better able to
relationships without the benefit of direct, tangible experience,
o concre e
imagery, and of empirical exposure to numerous partmilar
i^ances ot a
and
given concept or proposition (Goldman and Uvine. 1963. Inbelder
more to inter h
l’'>g=t, 1958,
Sruman, 1951, Werner, 1948). they tend
properties ot objects from their class membersliip
(Golhn
direct experience
of proximate, sensory data lOfiow'
.

Schneider,and Rapapoa, 1944, Sigel, 1953, Wallon 1952, Wohlwill, 1960b)

t lan im
ihey are
more disposed to use remote and abstract rather
and concrete cnterial attributes in classifying phenomena, and to use abstra
concep
symbols rather imagery to represent emerging
than concrete
94
Annelt, 1959, Inbelder and Piaget. 1958, Piager. 1950, 1954a, Werner. )

“"d they acquire an ever increasing reperloire ot more

Older abstractions
(Inbelder and Piaget, 1958 Serra
1953, Welch, 191 ^
Werner, 1948) j
In addition, with increasing age. the cognitive
1930
n v/iden
both spatially and temjwrally (H V
Baker, 1
, '
„ j
,

..xrexe broader
of making both
,
Probst 1931)
x.oDst 193n Children become more capable oi
more subtle
given
) (Bruner. 1964a,
2nd their cognitive
empirical data (of going
inferences from
Gollm 1958 Kendler
products tend to become both
'

and ^endler
selectively mor
J iqtifil
W
Baker
(Gibson egocenuiv
1953))' and less subjective and egocentric
»on 1953 m (^
v.ewine
1949 D. L, more capa
V..1A is TTinre e of viewing
capable
Piaget. 1928 1929) The older child
situations from basis or from the stand^i
a hypothetical as if
( )
1929) Finally
his attention p
others (H V Baker, 1942, Piaget, 1928
increases marV^Hiv iQ« Van Alstyne. 1952)
 Cogntlive Develop nent and Readitiesi

The most important of the aforementioned changes in intellectual

to
deselopment for educaUonal practice is the gradual shift from concrete
differences betsveen
abstract cogniUve functioning It defines the principal
secondar)
the respective learning and thinking processes of elementary and
school pupils as well as the corresponding differences m
pedagogic strateg)
that they imply This dimension of oignitive development will be considered
in detail in a subsequent section and will be related to Piagets
designated

stages of intellectual funrtioning At this point it will be more profitable

to

consider in general terms both what is meant by a stage of cognitive devel

opment and whether the very concept of stage is tenable and useful m
understanding age level changes in cognitive capacity and their imphca
Uons for education

The Meaning of Stages

Piaget sdelineation of qualitatively distinn stages of intellectual devel

opment has been a powerful stimulus to research m
this area as well as a
perennial source of theoretical controversy Despite the general cogency and
heuristic promise of his formulations however the issue of stages remains
unresolved for a number of reasons Some of these reasons unfortunately,
inhere in Piagets unsystematic and faulty methods of conducting Ins re
search and reporting his findings ^ In the first place he is almost totally
indifferent to problems of sampling reliability and statistical significance
He fails to present adequate normative data on age level sex and IQ
differences to use unifomi expenmenial procedures for all subjects to
designate unambiguous cnteria for classifying the responses of his subjects
and to determine inter rater reliability In place of statistical analysis of
data and customary tests of statistical significance
he offers confirmatory
illustrations selcaivcly culled from his protocols Second he tends to ignore
sucli obvious and crucial considerations as extent of inlersiluaiional gen
eraliiy and relative degree of intra and intcr-stage variability in delineating

In the past fett jear* /tiw/rngs orfier nncstigators (Bmnc Case

and Colhnson 19C2 Doducll 19C0 Elkind I%1 Enm IQGOb R J Coldman
lOCa Hood 19r2 S Jatison tWa Lovell 1939a b 1961a Lovell and Ogtivie
I960 Lun/er 1900 Manms 1960 ! eel 1939 Smedilund 1900 1961 WohN.ll
1960a b Vudin and Kales 1903) liave on the whole 1«n in
general agTccmcnt
with Piagets more recem formulaiions regarding stages
of intellectual dcvelop-
meni Tl.ey differ from Piagets findings less m
lenns of the developmental sc
quenees identified dan m
rfe specification of different age fevcls for panicular
stages in exlubiiing greater intra sugc
siiuaiional and inter task generality
vanabiluy and m
manifesting less inter
Ncvenhelesi much more ngoroui devc1oi>-
mental data tl an have
l>een presented to date espeaally
of a longitudinal nature
are rerjuircd to subsianiiatc I laget s
conclusions
General Stages of Intellectual Deielopment 193

stages of deselopment Third, the cross-sectional obsenations he uses to

measure developmental change (observations on different age groups of
children) are particularly ill adapted for his purposes The transitional
stages and qualitative discontinuities he purports to find can be convincingly
demonstrated only by longitudinally extended studies of the same children
Logical inference is not an adequate substitute for empirical data in natural
istic investigation Finally, he refines, elaborates,and rationalizes the sub-
division of his stages to a degree that goes far beyond his data Hence, the
and freshness of the general outlines of his theory
psychological plausibility
tend to become engulfed by a welter of logical gymnastics and abstruse,
disorganized speculation

CRITERIA OF DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES The resolution of disagreement

with respect to stages of intellectual development is prevented even more
by the unwarranted and gratuitous assumptions made by his critics regard
mg the criteria that any designated stage of development must meet, than
It isby Piaget’s methodological shortcomings Many American psychologists
and educators, for example, have been sharply critical of Piagets designa
tion of stages for the concrete abstract dimension of cognitive development
They argue that the transition between these stages occurs gradually rather
than abruptly, that variability exists both between different cultures and
within a given culture with respect to the age at which the transition takes
place, that fluctuations occur over time in the level of cognitive functioning
manifested by a given child, that the transition to the formal stage occurs
at different ages both for different subject matter fields and for component
sub areas within a particular field, and that environmental as well as
endogenous factors have demonstrable influence on the rate of cognitive
development For all of these reasons, therefore, they deny the validity of
Piaget s designated stages
Actually, developmental stages imply nothing more than identifiable
sequential phases man orderly progression of development that are
qualitatively discriminable from adjacent phases and generally character
istic of most members of a broadly defined age range As long as a given stage

occupies the same sequential position m

all individuals and cultures when
ever it occurs it is perfectly compatible with the existence of intra individual,
inter individual, and intercultural differentes in age level of incidence and
m subject matter field It reflects the influence of both genic and environ
mental determinants, and can occur either gradually or abruptly Hence,
all of the aforementioned arguments disputing the legitimacy of Piaget’s

stages of intellectual development seem quite irrelevant

Although stages of development are qualitatively discontinuous in
process from one to another, there is no reason why their manner of achieve
ment must necessarily be abrupt or saltatory This is particularly true when
194
Cognitive Deielopment and Readiness

the factors that bring into being are operative over many years and
them
are cumulative in their impact Unhke the situation in physical, emotional,
and personality development, cogmtive development is not marked by the
sudden, dramatic appearance of discontmuously new determinants
It is also unreasonable to insist that a given stage must always
occur

at the same age in every culture Since rate of development is at least

m
part, a function of environmental stimulation, the age range in which a
stage occurs tends to vary from one culture to another Thus, considering
the marked differences between the Swiss and American school systems, it
would be remarkable indeed if comparable stages of development took
place at the same ages Similarly, within a giten culture, a particular stage
cannot be expected to occur at the same age for all individuals When a
particular age level is designated for a given stage, it obviously refers to a
mean value and implies that a normal range of variability prevails around
the mean This variability (Case and CoUinson, 1962, R J Goldman, 1965,
S Jackson, 1965, Lovell. 1951a) reflects differences m intellectual endow
raent, experiential background, education, and personality It is hardly
surprising therefore that about half of one population of Afncan Bush
children never acquired conservation of volume (Greenfield, 1966), that
bright children exhibit conservation and combinatorial reasoning earlier
than dull children (Goodnow and Bethon 1966), that bright adolescents
enter the stage of abstract logical relations earlier than do dull adoJescejits.
that some retarded children never reach the formal stage of logical opera
(ions (Jackson 1965), (hat mental age conelates more highly than does
clironological age with attained suge of cognitive development (Goldman.
1965) and that diaraciermic sex differences (for instance, in mathematical
thinking) rcllectue of differences in cultural expectations and experiential
background, are found in degree of cognitive development in different
subject matter areas (Elkind 1962)
Thus a certain amount of overlapping among age groups is inevitable
A particular stage may be generally diaractenstic of 5 and
6 year-olds
but also typically includes some 4 and 7 year-olds and even some 5 and
8-year-o!ds Piagets age levels, like Cesells. arc nothing more than average
approximations set for purposes of convenience Hence, to attack the con
ccpt of developmental stages on the grounds that a given stage includes
children of sarying ages, instead of taking place at the precise age desig
nated by Piaget is simply to demolisli a straw man
One also cannot expect complete consistency and generality of stage
behavior withm an individual from one sveek or
month to another, and
from one subject matter or level of difficulty to another Some overlapping
and si>cciricu) are inevitable whenever development
is determined by
multiple, variable factors A particular 12 year-old may use formal logical
General Plages of tntelleclial Daelop ent 195

operations his science course in October but may revert for no apparent
m
reason to a concrete level of cognitive functioning in November or even
several years later when confronted with an extremely difficult and
un
familiar problem m the same field
Furthermore he may characteristically continue to function at a
Since
concrete level for another year or tvvo in social studies and literature
transitions to new stages do not occur instantaneously but over a
period of

time fluctuations between stages are common until the newly emerging
level of
stage consolidated In addition because of intrinsic differences in
is

subject matter difficultyand because of intra and inter individual differences

in ability profiles and experiential background it is hardly surprising
that

transitions fromone stage to another do not occur simultaneously in all

subject matter areas and sub areas Abstract thinking for example generally
emerges earlier in science than in social studies because children have more
experience manipulating ideas about mass time and space
than about

government social institutions and historical events However in some

reverse
children depending on their special abilities and experience the
may be true In any developmental process where experiential factors are
crucial age by itself or degree of brightness is generally less
important than
degree of relevant experience (Deutsche 1937 Dodwell 1960 1961 Elkind
1961 Vmacke 1951) Finally stages of development are always referable to
a given range of difficulty and familiarity of the problem area Beyond
this range individuals commonly revert (regress) to a former stage of devel

opment (Case and Collinson 1962)

Neither is the concept of developmental stages invalidated by the dem
onsiration that they are susceptible to environmental influence It is errone
ous to believe that stages of intellectual development are exclusively the
products of internal ripening and hence that they primarily reflect the
influence of endogenous factors Gesell s embryological model of develop-
ment has applicability to human development beyond the first year
little
of life when environmental factois become increasingly more important
determinants of variability in developmental outcomes In fact as the
educational system improves we can confidently look forward to the earlier
mean emergence of the vanous stages of cognitive development This much
IS clearly evident from data indicating that schooled African Bush children

acquire conservation of volume earlier and give fewer perceptual (as op

posed to conceptual) reasons for conservation or nonconservation than do
their unschooled counterparts (Greenfield 1966) Urban living seems to

have some of the same schooling in this regard inasmuch as un

effect as
schooled Hong Kong children do as well as schooled Hong Kong children
on conservation tasks but not as well on a task of combinatorial reasoning
(Goodnow and Bethon 1966)
 CogntUve Deielopmcnt and Readtuea
196

Quanltlaltve and Qiialitalive Changes

tn ItileUecliial Development

another reason for confusion and conflict about the

problem of
Still
all-ornone
stages mintellectual deselopmeni is the tendency to adopt an
position regarding the existence of sudi stages Actually, the
evidence sug
development are charac
gests that some aspects or dimensions of intellectual
are
tented by quantitaiue or continuous change, whereas others
characterited by qualitative or discontinuous cliange Hence, if the issue is

no longer approached from the standpoint of an all*ornone proposition,

much truth can be found on both sides
Some types of logical operations (equivalence, eliminative) and ap-
to
proaclies to problem solving (trial and error versus insightful) appear
differ in degree rather than in kind from one age level to another*
The
evidence indicates that these kinds of logical operations and problem solving

approaches are employed at all age levels, and difler pnncipally in degree
or complexity at different ages (Burt, 1919, Long and Welch, 1941a, Weldi
and Long 1913) As N L Munn (1954)pomu out, the age differences are
partly attributable to dispant) in previous experience, motivation, and
neuromiisailar coordination Perhaps an even more important source of
these age level differences, however, is the child s growing ability to gen
ernlizc and use Both trial and-error and insightful problem
abstract symbols
solving found in preschool children, elemenurj school
for example, are
children adolescents and adults the choice between these two approaches
at all ages depends on the inherent difTiculty of the problem on the individ
tial s prior background of expenence, and on the problem s amenability to

logical analysis It is true that insightful approaches lend to increase with

age but onl) because increasing ability lo generalize and use abstract
s)-mbols permits a more h)potliesis-oTicnicd approadi
Two dimensions ofintellectual development characterized by graduilly
occurring qualitalivc change on ihc other hand, are the transition from
subjective to objcciivc thought and llie iramiuon from concrete to abstract

* It IS imporum not lo confuse i}uanfi(a(iie dianges

in these simple logical
opcraiioiis from one age level lo another with iliosc changes in logical ojierations
that are renective of quahtainely diRerent stages along
the concrete abstract chmeii
Sion of cogniiive doclopmeni Tims the more
signihcani logical ojicraiions (for
inuance revcnihilitv ) impW a capability to uiulcntand and meaningfully manipu
Ute reUtioiiships l>ctv.cen secondary abstractions
in the prtopcrationaj (logically iiono|>enitional
— a capability that is not presciU
•) dulil Similarly vshethcr or not
a given individual is <lef>cndrni on
coRcreie-empirical props in performing logical
oi*raiiom determines whether he „ ,he concrete or abstract stage of logical
Gef eral it ges of hiteltfct >it Developt ent 197

cognitive operations Acquisition of the ability to separate objective reality

from subjective needs and preferences results m
the gradual disappearance
of autistic animistic anthropomorphic magical absolutistic and nominal
isticthinking (Pnget 1928 1929 1932) Reference has already been made to
studies supporting Pnget s findings (Inhelder and Piaget 1958 Piaget
1950 1954b 1957b) regarding the transition from concrete to abstract
thougliiThese findings will be discussed in greater detail below and in
Chapter 16

General ImpUcattom of Developmental Stages

for education

Knowledge of the timetable of development makes possible

intellectual
for the first time the opposed to the arbitrary or traditional
scientific as
grade placement of subject matter Detailed knowledge of the development
for example of number and spatial concepts of ideas regarding causality
and of appreciation of scientific method would be helpful indeed the m
grade placement of such subjects as mathematics and science Even more
specifically K Lovell (1961b) su^ests a parallelism between basic principles
of number theory (associativity commutativity) and the particular cognitive
operations (
groupings ) elementary school children use in intellectual
functioning Insight into the course of intellectual development according
to H Aebli (1951) could also enable teachers both (a) to guard against
(and hence discourage) certain kinds of congitive immaturity (subjectivity
egocentncity animism anthropomorphism nominalism teleological reason
mg ideas of single causality focusing on just a single aspect of a problem)
and (b) to provide experience facilitating the transition from lower to
higher stages of intellectual functioning (concrete to abstract logical opera
tions)
Reference has already been made to the possibility of the earlier
intuitive introduction into the curriculum of more advanced subject
matter such as algebra geometry set theory quadratic equations physics
and so forth In certain selected instances where genuine readiness actually
exists It may be desirable for children to acquire prior intuitive under
standing of such material— if for no other reason than to reduce the un
familiarity of the ideas m
question when they are introduced later and to
discourage the possibility of rote verbal learning in high school and college
Such intuitively learned content may serve as anchoring ideas or as general
background for the later learning of the same content at a higher level of
abstraction thereby increasing its potential meaningfulness J S Bruner
(1960) and G C
Finlay (1960) refer to this philosophy of curriculum organi
ration as the curriculum
spiral R
Karplus (1962a) argues that unless
children are taught scientific principles and methodology on an intuitive
jgg
Cegntlwe Developinefil and Ileodinass

elementary school they spontaneously acquire and later must

un
basis m
models
learn various misconceptions derived from spontaneous or folk lore
of physical and biological causality In any case many
considerations are

involved in deciding which pariiciifar kinds of intuuisely onented

subject
readiness
matter lying within elementary school children s scope of adequate
are suitable for such a cuniculum

The Concrete Abstract Dimension

of Cognitive Development^

The concrete abstract dimension of intellectual development may be

divided into three qualitatively distinct developmental stages the pre —
operational stage the stage of concrete logical operations and the stage of
abstract logical operations —which cover respectively the preschool elemen
tary school and adolescent adult periods of development

Pre operational Stage

During tile pre-operactonal stage the child is capable of acquiring

primary abstractions (concepts) and of understanding using and mean
ingfully manipulating for problemsolving purposes both primary abstrac
lions and the relations between them Primary concepts are those concepts
whose meanings a given individual originally learns m
relation to genuine
concrete empirical experiencetliat is those of lus concepts whose cntcnal

attributeswhether discovered or presented yield generic meanings during

learning when they (the attributes) are first explicitly related to the ex
amplars from which they are derived be/ore being related alone to his
cognitive structure Once acquired of course, the pre-operational cliild
cm tmdentand and use concept meanings apart from their particular
exemplars and he can also understand and manipulate in problem solving
operations relationships betKeen ilicsc primary abvinciions namely projjo-
composed of stidi abstractions
silions
But the fact that he ii limited to the acquisition of primary abstractions
and to tlic understanding and manipulation of sucli abstractions and the
relatiomhipv beivvccn them the fart tliat he cannot similarly handle seeon
dary abstractions and rclaitonshtps lietwecn secondary abstractions obvi
ousl) imjwscs severe constnunis on the level of ibstraction at which he

Tlie following desaipiion of ihts aspect of cogtniivc development uses ilic

’

same stage names liut is really quiir tliffcreni from llic account gtsen by Piaget an 1
InheWer (Inhclder and Piagei. J95« liagei 19^ }95lh }057h) The term af>
iintl n used synonymously with liageti serm formal
The Concrete Abstract Dimension of Cognitive Development 199

Operates Secondary concepts are those concepts vhose meanings a gi\cn in

duidual does not learn in relation to gemiinc concrete-empirical experience,
that IS those of his concepts nhose critenal attributes yield generic meanings
during learning svhen they (the atinbutes) are related to his cognitive struc
lure without being first explicitly related to the particular exemplars from
which they are denved The pre-operational child s understanding and
manipulation of abstract concepts and propositions take place at a level of
abstraction that is only slightly removed from the intimate participation of
concrete-empirical experience tn the acquisition of his primary concepts
themselves
One important manifestation of this constraint is that many significant
logical operations (in fact all those, such as reversibility that really make
him logically operational imply a capability to understand and manipu
)
late relationships between secondary abstractions Thus because he cannot
perform the logical operation of reversibility he cannot (unlike the
concrete or abstract operational cluld) grasp the idea of conservation for
—
example he does not conserve mass appreciate that mass remains con
stant even though us shape changes becuise he does not realize that defor
mations of shape are reversible or that a loss in one dimension is com
pensated for by a gam in another^ Anotlier consequence of his inability
to perform true logical operations and of the related fact iliat the meanings
of many of his primary concepts (particularly those of familiar perceptible
objects and events) are little more than idealized images embodying ap-
propriate critenal attributes i$ that problem solving at this stage involves
much overt manipulation of objects and internal manipulation of near
images

Concrete Operational Stage

During the concrete operational stage the child is capable of acquiring

secondary abstractions and of understanding using and meaningfully ma
nipulatmg both secondary abstractions and the relations between them But
both in acquiring secondary abstractions and m
understanding and manipu
lating relations between them he differs from the abstract operational
individual in using concrete empirical props In conformity with the defini
tion of a secondary concept given above he does not learn the meaning of
a concept by first relating its critenal aitnbutes to the particular exemplars

8 Piagets explanation of conservation is not that logical operations such as

reversibility imply a capability to understand or manipulate relationships between

secondary abstractions (a capability whose existence he denies at the stage of con
Crete logical operations) but rather that logical operations (which lie defines as
internalized actions )
first exist by definition at the concrete operational stage
 Cogrtil ve Deielop I and Read neu
200

structure
from which they are derived before relating them to his cognitive
directly to
he learns its meaning rather by relating the cntenal attributes
—
his cognitive structure but typically with the benefit of
concrete-empmcal
such props
props namel) exemplars of the vanous attributes The use of
llian the
in concept acquisition implies a more abstract process of learning
(a) The
actual use of genuine concrete-empirical experience itself because
exemplars of attnbutes are examples of the abstracted properties of a con
—
cept not particular instances of the concept (b) A single example of
an
attribute suffices as a prop as opposed to the multiple exemplars of the
con
cept that are given in concrete empirical experience and (c) The prop serves

mamlj as a crutch in relating the cntenal attnbutc to cognitive structure

rather than as the concrete-cmpincal matrix from which either the cntenal
atlnbute itself is denved or in relation to which it denves its potential
meaningfulness
For example while the concept of vvorV is being learned as a primary
concept the pre-operational child may eventually hypothesize sucli attnbutes

as activity necessary and useful them from

as aitenal by abstracting
farming fixing cars Veeping house nuning and so forth or he may be
given these attributes In either case however he tests each of tlie attributes
against each of the exemplars before relating them to his cognitive struc
ture If in elementary school be learns the concept of work asasecondary
concept he is given us attributes in deriniiional form and may use an ex

emplar for one or more of the attributes in relating tlicm to his cognitive
structure Finally as a high school student in the abstract operational stage
he relates the critenal attnbutes directly to his cognitive structure without
props and if he does not know die meaning of a given attribute it too need
only be defined
Once secondary concepts arc acquired the concrete operational cluld
ISno longer dependent on props in understanding or using their meanings
Understanding relationshtfts between secondary abstractions (or meaning
fully manipulating these relationslii|>s for problemsolving purposes) how
eier is qwiie another matter In this kind of learning task he is dependent
uixin recent or concurrent concrcic-cmpincal props consisting of a par
ticular exemplar for each of the almractions in the relationship when sucli
props are not available he finds alistract propositions unrclatable to cog
structure and hence devoid of meaning This dcjjcndence iijxin con
tiitive

CTcte<mpirical projn sclf<vidently limits the generality and abstractness of

his attempts meaningfully to grasp and manipulate rclationshi|>s lictvsccn
abstractions he can acquire only those relational understandings and jxrr
form only those relational problem solving ojierations that do
not go l>eyond
the somewhat (urticulartred representation of reality implicit in liis use of
tl CSC rojw Thus where complex profiouiions are
I involved he is largely
restnctetl lo an iniunne or semi abstract level of cognitive functioning a
The Concrete Abitract Dimemton of Cogntttve Dnelopiiierit 201

le\el that falls far short of the clarity, precision, explicitness, and generality
associated with themore advancetl abstract stage of intellectual develop-
ment
During the elementary school years therefore, abstract verbal proposi
tions (propositions consisting of relationships beiueen secondary abstrac
tions) that are presented on a purely exjxisitory basis are too remotely
removed from concrcie-empincal experience to be relatabJe to cognitive
structure This does not mean, however, that autonomous discovery is re
quired before such propositions can be meaningfully learned, as long as
concrete empirical props are made an integral part of the learning situation,
they (the propositions) are eminently learnable Concrete-empirical props
also need not necessarily be nonverbal or tangible (objects pictures) Con
Crete and nonrepresentational arc not synonymous, words that represent
‘

particular exemplars or attributes of a concept are very adequate concrete

empirical props in learning abstract propositions and secondary concepts
respectively
With the advent of logical operations and particularly of the operation
of reversibility, the concrete operational child exhibits conservation (Eifer
mann and Etzion 1964 1952a Smedslund, 1962) in his think
Piaget, 1950
mg and understanding This phenomenon, however, does not emerge in
unitary fashion over all kinds of problemsolving tasks and materials In
order of emergence conservation of mass weight number, and volume are
acquired (Piaget, 1950 Uzgaris 1964) Because he can perform these opera
tions and because the meanings of his concepts are more abstract nature, m
problem solving involves less overt manipulation of objects and internal
manipulation of images
It IS important to realize that just because the concrete operational
child uses concrete empirical props in understanding and thinking about
relationships between abstractions this stage of intellectual development is
not really concrete in the sense that objects or concrete images of objects
are relationally manipulated in meaningful reception or discovery learning
Contrary to Piagets contention that the child at this stage conducts logical
operations on concrete objects and that his thought processes are closely
tied to his concrete experience the evidence suggests that he essentially
understands and manipulates relations between the verbal representations
of secondary abstractions Tlve concreteness of this stage inheres rather, in
the fact that secondary abstractions and the relationships between them
can be understood and meaningfully manipulated only with the aid of cur
rent or recent concrete empirical props Logical operations are therefore
constrained in the generality and abstractness of their implications by the
particularity of the props m
quesUon, unlike the situation m
the later stage
of abstract logical operations they do not involve logical transformations
of all possible and hypothetical relationships between general abstract van
 Cogmine Development end Readmefs
202

related in level of abstraction

t
ables* Nevertheless they are more closely
an
of cogniuve development
the following than to the preceding stage
It also appears la
represent a very significant advance over the
latter
little aedit when he
does
Piaget overstates his case and gives children too
abstractions in asserting
not differenuaie between primary and secondary
and manipulate rela
that only m
the final stage can children understand
between primary ab-
tionships between abstractions as far as relationships
without props in tie
stractions are concerned this capability is evident
concrete operational and even in the pre-opcrational stage

Abstract Logical Stage

increas-
Beginning in the junior high scliool period the pupil becomes
ingly lessdependent upon the availability of concrete-empirical
props m
Even
meaningfully relating abstract relationships to cognitive structure
tually he no longer needs them at all in understanding and
meaningfu y
a
manipulating relationships between abstractions He then assimilates
problems in terms of all inclusive
siraci propositions and solves abstract
hypothetical possibilities rather than terms of these possibilities as con
m
strained by their reference to the here and now In other vvords he attains
full conceptual and propositional generality Instead of just coordinating
out
facts about the actual world hypotheticoKleductive reasoning draws
syn
the implications of possible statements and thus gives nse to a unique
and the necessary (Piaget 10j7a p 19)
thesis of the possible
B Inhelder and J Piaget (19a8) present considerable evidence indicat
mg that formal (abstract) operations appear slightly before the onset of
adolescence On the whole their findings are corroborated by other investi
gaton (R Goldman 19G5 S Jackson 1963 Lovcl! 1961a ^udin, 1966
J
^udm and Kates 1963) Lovell s subjects attained this stage of development
somewhat later than Inhelder and Piagets and D Case and J Collin M
sons (1902) somewhat earlier Both R J Goldman and S Jackson reiiortcd
greater age variability and Jackson less intertask gcncnhl) than did In

* R Brown (1958b) argues that the cognitive processes of adults are more
abstract than those of children only in the tense that they manifest more dis-
criminative generaliuuon —that children actually exhibit more simple siimulu*
gcnerahraiion than do adults (le-, generalization not requiring prior discrimina
live analysis) Hence he claims
that adults do not really use a wider range of abstract
concepts in ihcir ibiiiking but merely emjloy a more highly diflerentiated rejwr
toirc of subcaiegories wriihin existing categories Simple stimulus gcncralizaiion
I owever can hardly be considered a form of abstract thinking that reflects the use
of abstract concepts Tlius it seems more plausible to lielicve that a lolls also
characteristically uic a greater number of generic colegoriei than do children as
wrell as more diflerentiated subcaiegories.
Thf Concrete Ahstract Dimension of Cogntiwe Deieloprnent 203

helder and Piaget m the de\elopment of formal thinking None of these

findings, hosveser, detract from the essential sahdity of Piaget’s conclusion
that for the time the diild entering this stage of cognitive development
first

thinks m terms of all inclusive hypothetical possibilities (instead of the here ‘

and now )

Eventually, after sufficient gradual cliange in this direction, a qualita

lively new capaaty emerges the intellectually mature individual becomes
capable of understanding and manipulating relationships between abstrac-
tions without any reference whatsover to concrete-empirical reality Instead
of reasoning directly from a particular set of data, he uses indirect, second
order logical operations for structunng the data, instead of merely grouping
data into classes or arranging them serially in terms of a given variable, he
formulates and tests hypotheses based on all possible combinations of van
ables (see also Grodskaya, 1962) Since his logical operations are performed
without props on abstract verbal prepositions, he can go beyond the opera
lions that follow immediately from concrete-empirical reality and deal with
all possible or hypothetical relations between ideas He can now transcend

the previously achieved level of intuitive thought and understanding and

formulate general laws relating, to each oilier, general vanables that are
divorced from the concrete empirical data at hand His concepts and gen
erahzations, therefore, tend increasingly to be second-order constructs de
rived from relationships between previously established verbal abstractions
that are already one step removed from the data itself And, since he is freed
from dependence on nonabstract contact with empirical data in indepen
dently discovering meaningful new concepts and generalizations, he is ob-
viously also liberated from this same dependence in the much less rigorous
task of merely apprehending these constructs meaningfully when they are
verbally presented to him
Careful analysis of the experiments performed by Inhelder and Piaget,
and by the other investigators cited above as well as Lunzers (1965), does
not substantiate their view that the distinctive feature of formal or abstract
(as opposed to concrete) operations is that die older child is able to deal
internally with ideas about ideas or to perform second order operations
The younger (
concrete operational )
child can also do these things, as
shown by the studies of Case (1962) and S A Hill (1961)
and Collinson
The latter demonstrated for example, that most children aged 6 to 8 can
easily draw correct inferences from hypothetical premises involving abstract
relationships It is rather the preadolescents and adolescent s ability verbally
to manipulate relationships between ideas in the absence of recently prior
or concurrently available concrete empirical props that is the distinctive
attribute of formal operations (Hills subjects after all, were given logical
problems that were invariably staled in terms of particular instances ) Tins
new capability emerging at age II and beyond invests propositional thought
 Cognitne Development and Readineu
2W

With a genuinelj abstract and nonmimme qualit) Ideas about ideas nov.
sshalsoeser
aduese a trul> general status that is freed from an) dependence
reason that
on particular instances and concrete cxpenence It is for this
thinUng becomes h)pothetico-deductise nature m
that is refers to all pos-

sible relationships beisvcen sanables rather than to

relationships unstrained

b) reference to particular instances

Determtnants of Change

from the foregoing account of developmental stages along

It IS esndent
a
tlieconcrete abstract dimension of cognittse functioning that there is
deselopmental aspect to meaningful learning At successise stages along
thisdimension the individual is able meaningfully to relate increasing!)
more abstract materials to his cognitive structure In part this is attributable
to developmental changes in the content of cognitive structure itself
changes that either make die same logical!) meaningful matenal which i*
not potcnuall) meaningful at an earlier stage poieniiall) meaningful at a
later stage or else enable him to generate more abstract and complex prob-
lem-solving projiosmons In pan also this is attributable to grcmth in what
ever cognitive processes are involved in nonarbitranl) and substantively
relating teaming tasks to esubtished ideas in cognitive structure and m
generating new problem-solving propositions
Tims It IS h)poihesi2ed dial the ownbined influence of three concom
lunt and mmuall) supponive developmental trends accounts for the transt
lion from concrete to alrttract cognitive functioning In the first place the
developing individual gradually acquires a working vocabulary of trans-
actional or mediating terms (for example conditional conjunctions qua!
if)ing adjectives) that makes possible die more effiaeni juxtaposition and
combination of different relatable abstractions into potential!) meaningful
propositions and their subsequent relationship to established ideas in cog
nitivc structure Second he can relate these latter propositions more readil)
to cogTimve structure and hence render them more meaningful because of
his growing fund of stable higher-order concepts and pnnaples encom
passed b) and made available widiin that structure D H Russell and
! Q
Saadch (1902) for example found that between the sixth and ninth
grades children s use of concrcie definitions decreases and their use of ab-

stract and functional definitions corresponding!) increases \ sufficient bod)

of alistract conccjiis that are clear and stable is obviouslv necessary before
one can hope efficient!) to manipulate rclaiionshijn Ixrtween them so as to
generate meaningful general rojmitions TItc possession of working bod)
j a
of inclusive concepts also makes possible
the formulation of more general
siatemenis of rclaiionshij* that are levs tied
to sj^rafic instances grcaicr intc
gration of related ideas and diDetcnt
aspects of samethe the elab-
problem
Th( Concrete Abstract Dn etision of Cognttve Vetelopment 205

oration of more precise distinctions and finer differentiations and less depen
dence on complete concrete-empirical data m
reaching warranted inferences
Finally it seems reasonable to suppose that after many years of practice
m understanding and meaningfully manipulating relationships between
abstractions wilh the aid of concrete-empirical props the older child grad
ually develops greater facility in performing these operations so that even
tually (after acquiring the necessary transactional and higher-order concepts)
he can perform the same operations just as effectisely without relying on
these props The same sequence of e\ents is seen in acquiring many other
—
neuromuscular and cognitive sViUs walking without holding on bicy
cling without hands speaking a foreign language without internal trans-
lation from one s mother tongue transmitting Morse code in sentences
rather than in word or letter units
Piaget and Inhelder (Inhelder and Piaget 1958 Piaget 1950 1953
1957b) largely embrace a maturational position in explaining how develop-
mental transition is effected during the vanous stages of intellectual develop-
ment Their view of maturation however which they call equilibration
IS inclusive of both internal (gcmc) factors and incidental learning It is

therefore closer to the empirical concept of maturation than it is to A

Gesell notion of maturation as a process of internal ripening According
s

to J Smedslundconservation of weight is acquired by a process of internal

equilibration independently of external reinforcement By equilibration is
meant a change in the direction of increasing stability consistency and com
pleteness of behavioral structures Conflicts are eliminated and gaps are
closed [Equilibration] is heavily dependent on activity and experience
[but such experience] is not assumed to act through external reinforcements
but by a process of mutual influence of the child s activities on each other
(Smedslund 1961)
Thus according to Piaget maturation (genic factors and general aspects
of incidental experience) accounts for the universality of the sequential
stages and the order in which they occur whereas variability in the kind of
incidental Jearnttig experience accounts /or interjndjvjduaJ jntraindjyjduaJ
and intercultural differences in the age at which stages occur and in the
content area in which they are manifested Piaget and his followers (for
instance Smedslund 1961) deny that speafic learning experience or training
(practice) particularly of a verbal nature or for that matter education
generally has any significant influence on the emergence of stages of intel
lectual development IVe sliatl return to this problem later in another con
text m considering whether training can accelerate stages in cognitive de
velopmeni
Both general and specific motivational explanations (Inhelder and
Piaget 1958) have been advanced to account for the transition from the
concrete opentional to the abstract operational stage Desire to obtain
 Cogniitve Development and Read
206

explanation since
greater meaning out of experience is not a convincing
this desire does not arise suddenly or uniquely at
adolescence Furthermore
it cannot
although motivation may energize and facilitate cognitive change
identify
convincingly explain either its occurrence or direction Desire to
for this
with and participate in the adult world has more specific relevance
effect the
age penod but again no amount of motivation would suffice to
and
change in question in the absence of the necessary genic potentialities
supportive experience

General and Specific Aspects

of the Transition
areas
have already rejected complete generality over subject matter
We
and a legitimate criterion of a developmental stage
levels of difficulty as
Too much unevenness exists in any individual s expenential background
and pattern of abilities for the transition from concrete to abstract func
honing to occur simiiftaneouify in all areas A stage of development also is
always referable to a typical range of difficulty and familiarity of tlie prob
lemathand beyond this range regression to an earlier stage of development
commonly occurs It is apparent therefore that the transition from concrete
eadi subject
to abstract cognitive functioning takes place specifically in
matter area and presupposes a certain necessary amount of sophistication
in each of the areas involved Tins speaficity however does not invaluhie
the existence of qualitatively distinct stages of development It is still pos
sible to designate an individuals overall developmental status as concrete
or abstract on the basis of an estimate of his chnractertslic or pTedominaiit
mode of cognitive functioning M
A Stone (1966) found that beginning
with junior high school age the generality of abstract cognitive functioning
increases with age (thnt is gradually encompasses more subject matter fields

in older pupils) This trend was evidenced by successively higher intercor

relations with increasing age among learning scores on tests of ability to
learn abstract verbal maicrni in different disciplines
Hus distinction Ijctwccn sjiecific and general aspects of developmental
status IS imiwriant for two reasons Tint the mdividinl necessarily con
tmues to undergo the same transiiion from concrete to abstract cognitive
functioning in each nru subject miticr area he cncoumers—even after he
readies the abstract stage of dcveIo]Hncnt on an overall basis Second once
he attains this latter general stage however the transition to abstract cog
nitive functioning in unfamiliar nevs subject matter fields
takes place much
more readily than is the case at earlier phases of ihc tramnwn For example
a cognitively mature ailuli who Ins never studied astronomy is not com
pleicly in the same dcvclopnicmal position as an M or 12 year-old with
The Concrete Al strnct Dtnennon of Cogmtne Dnelopt ent 207

respect to the concrete ibstraci dimension when both begin an introductory

course in astronomy
Thus e\en though an adolescent or adult characteristically functions
at the abstract lesel of cognitive development he tends tmltally to function

at a concrete intuitive level when he is first introduced to a wholly un

familiar subject matter field But since he is able to draw on various trans
ferable elements of his more general ability to function abstractly he passes
through tlie concrete stage of functioning in this particular subject matter
area much more rapidly than would be tlie case were he first emerging from
the stage of concrete logical operations These facilitating transferable ele
ments presumably include transactional terms higiier order concepts and
ability directly to understand and manipulate relationships between abstrac
tions (without the benefit of concrete empirical props) which although
acquired in other specific subject matter contexts are generally applicable
to new learning situations (see below)
In other words growth in cognitive development always proceeds at
two levels concomitantly—specific and general Experience m learning any
subject matter produces general as well as specific developmental changes
in cognitive capacity in addition to specific clianges in subject matter readi
ness result of experience in studying a given discipline pupils not only
As a
learn particular ideas tliat facilitate the later learning of other particular

ideas but also acquire greater capacity meaningfully to process more ab

strict material of any nature in that partiailar discipline and other disci
plines as well General cognitive development in any given dimension
therefore occurs with increasing age and education and is independent of
particular kinds of subject matter experience It is these general and trans
ferable aspects of changed cognitive capacity occurring m
tlie transition from

concrete to abstract intellectual functioning in any particular discipline that

facilitate the same transition in any new subject matter area Thus the cog
nitively mature adolescent confronted with a learning or problemsolving
task in an unfamiliar discipline does not have the benefit of specific cogm
live changes along tiie concrete abstract dimension resulting from past ex
penence with that subject matter area In this sense he is no better off than
the immature child who has not undergone the over all transition from the
concrete to the abstract stage be has to make this transition anew in the
unfamiliar area But he makes the transition more easily because of the
geneial cognitive changes that have occurred along tins dimension and
which are transferable to the particular new subject matter field
Hence in contrast to the cognitively immature child who continues to
use concrete empirical props in relating abstractions to each other as long
as he IS m
the concrete stage the adolescent uses the props only initially
to develop the necessary higher order abstractions in the new discipline
 Cognitive Dnielo(iment and Readineis
2^g

and then proceeds to dispense wth props entirely m acquinng

additional

abstractions His dependence on concrete-empirical

props, in other words

IS temporary and reOective of arcumscribcd

cogniti\e immaturity in par
overall concrete
ticuiar subject matter fields rather than reflective of an
level of cognitive funcuoning

Educational Implications of the Concrete,

Intuitive Level of Cognitive Functioning

Dependence on Concrete Emptncal Props

The elementary school child is completely dependent Ujxin current or

recent conCTeie-empirical props m
understanding or meaningfully manip-
ulating relational propositions consisting of secondary abstractions He
tends

to appreciate relationships betvveen such abstractions intuitively as rather —

immediate logical extensions of his own personal experience —rather than
in the truly abstract sense of relationships between general variables Hence
genenl laws and methodological canons of science their own right have m
little meaning and intellectual appeal for him they male sense only insofar
as they arc relatable to more ungible t)pes of experience Utility w J

major example of this t>pe of experience but is certainly not the only i>os-
stble example
As far as elementacy school children are concerned therefore, one can
not hope to reduce science to first principles and basic abstract laws
At the very best one can strive for a semi abstract mUiitive grasji of these
laws on a descriptive or perhaps scmianaljiic level that is somewhat tied
to particulanred experience On the mcllioilological side abstract pnnciples
of scientific inquiry and strateg) also liavc much less meaning for children
than a piircl) concrete-empirical explanation of how it is possible for man
kind to know the facts vnd generaluitions under discussion ”
The dcvelopmcnial dnractcristics of the elementarj scliool child s cog
muse functioning do not require liovscvcr that vse restrict the jiedagogir
use of these jears to teacliing the fundamental miclletiuil skills His rogni
tivc equipment isccrninl> adcqtiiie enough for acquiring an intuitive gnsp
of mvn) concepts in the basic disciplines Tims for examjilc tlic jisjcho-

Roth R karphis (lOfga) and M

II Shamos (1%1) ilcploie the emphasis hi
elemeiiiar) wiencc education upon lie praciical tiiihianan
asjiccts of Kicnte and
ihc ancmji lo relate kicikc pncnaiil> lo everyday adsocale
experience lliey
SI Mca I sticss ujion the coniepis and metl od* of Kiencc

•>
J M \ikin and S T Wyati (1901) emphasise the lion v,c know asj*e<ts
of aiiionom) uiins; didactic exposiuon and simple excrenes atid dcmonstraiions
Educational Impltcalwrs of the Concrete Intmlue Leiel 209

logical argument for teaching science in the elementary school is extremely

convincing (Kaiplus \962a) First it is Vkcll known that )oung children
spontaneously acquire many animistic and subjectmstic conceptions about
the physical and biological universe (Piaget 1932) These notions also tend
to persist and often compete with more mature conceptions especially when
not counteracted by early scientific training Second vsithout early and satis
factory instruction in saence it is diffiailt for children both to assimilate
positive interests in and attitudes toward the scientific enterprise and to
avoid being negatively conditioned to scientific subject matter Third since
elementary school pupils can easily acquire an intuitive grasp of many sci
entific concepts failure to provide suitable opportunities for them to do so
not only wastes available readiness for sudi learning but also wastes valu
able lime in junior and senior high school that could be used for more
advanced instruction in science Finally as pointed out above these in
tuitive ideas constitute a foundation for the later assimilation of more ab-
stract general and same content thereby increasing
precise versions of the
their potential meaningfulness and preventing rote learning
Thus the concept of a spiral curriculum mentioned earlier is emi
nently sound provided that an attempt is not made to teach at an intuitive
level reduced versions of anything or everything that is presented later at
amore abstract level the use of concrete empincal props after all does not
make every secondary abstraction and every projxismon composed of sec
ondary abstractions intuitively understandable irrespective of their inherent
complexity and degree of abstractness and irrespective of the learner s ante
cedent subject matter experience The content of an appropriate intuitively
oriented curriculum should therefore include only such intuitively based
materials for which the elementary school pupil exhibits adequate develop-
mental and subject matter readiness and even with respect to these mate
rials much selectivity is required in choosing the particular intuitive con

tent that will be most useful for later subject matter learning
In any case the suggestion that sciences be studied in the order of their
—
phenomenological complexity that one start with the basic concepts of
physicsand chemistry before tackling the complex phenomena of biology
and geology (Shamos 1961) although logicall) sound is psychologically
unfeasible More important pedagogically than the logical structure o!
knowledge is the pupil s intellectual readiness to handle different kinds of

subject matter and from the standpoint of relevant experience and readi
ness the phenomenologically simple laws of physics are far more abstract
and difficult than the phenomenologically complex laws of biology and
geology which are so much closer to everyday expenence This is not to deny
the possibility that some aspects of physics might be profitably introduced in
the elementary school curriculum However before this could be done in
the rigorous fashion [physics] deserves the teaching of elementary school
 Cogniitve Development end Jleadtneis
210

mathematics v.ould first hate to be suffiacntly improved to

make possible a
intuitive understanding of the quantitative
relationships
more functional
that figure so prominenilj in the physical sciences
(Shamos 1961)
compatible
The teacher s task of translating ideas into language that is
of cognitive
with the elementary school child s cognitive capaoues and level
tendency
funaioning IS difficult indeed First in teaching others his natural
IS to adopt the same level of discourse he himself
cliaractenstically uses in
tends
learning new ideas Second once he has acquired difficult concepts he
to regard tliem as self-evident and to forget both the limiting
developmental
factors involved in the teaming process as well as the numerous misconcep-
tionsand ambiguities he had to overcome in the course of learning After
he has mastered a particular disapline he tends to think of its structure
only in terms of the logical relationships between component ideas forget
ling the psychological process of progressive differentiation involved m
acquiring any nev\ body of knowledge Lastly liecause of his more sopliis-
licaied and highly differentiated cognitive structure he is very aware of the
various subtleties connotations ramifications and qualifications connected
With even simple ideas and often fails to realize that the introduction of
such complications only confuses his pupils
Although the preschool cliild is restricted to relatively nonabstract
(primary) concepts in the learning of most propositions it is not necessary
that all relational learning during tins period take place on a nonverbal
problemsolving or completely autonomous self-discovery basis order tom
be meaningful Simple derisatisc propositions involving primary concepts
can certainly be directly apprehended without the use of particular exem
plars and simple correlative superordinate and combinatorial propositions

—
can also be learned on a reception basis pariicularly if specific verbal ex
cmplars of ibc concepts involved or an opponiinity for manipulation of
objects or concrete images is provided \utonomous self-discovery of tJic
proposition to be learned might conceivably enhance current learning and
provide additional mouvation for future learning hut is certainly not indis-
pensable for meaningful reception learning
Neither docs tlic elementary school cliildj dependence on concrete
empirical props for ihe understanding of more abstract jiroixjsitions require
that all or even most teaching l»c conducted on an inductive problem
solving (discovery) and nonverbal bans Xlie only essential condition during
this period for the reception learning of projxjvitions
emlxxlying secondary
concepts IS the atailabdity of speafic exemplars of the concepts in question
and such exemplars may l>e purely verbs! in nature Didactic cxjiosiuon
with iudi vcibal props can easily be combined with
other concrcte-empincal
rojn in the form of dcmonsiniions and usually resenta
I suffices for the
j
tion of most subject maiter that is neither
excessively comjilcx nor exces-
sively unfamiliar In these latter
instances it may be desirable to enhance
 —
Educational Implications of the Concrete, Intmlne Leiel 211

the understanding achieved through \erbal exposition by subjecting the

pupil to Socratic questioning or by providing him t\ith a semi autonomous
type of problem sohmg experience ^^ided disco\ery) m
which disco\ery
Itself IS accelerated by the arrangement of materials and by the use of

prompts, hints, and Socratic questioning

It IS a serious mistake, therefore, to behe\e that meaningful intuitive
learning during the stage of concrete logical operations must necessarily be
restricted to nonverbal problem solving Verbally expressed relationships
between abstract ideas can be adequately comprehended when presented
didactically — —
although in a somewhat particularized sense as long as con
crete-empirical props (verbal or nonverbal) are available Hence, con
currently with providing elementary scliool children with ‘particularly
informative and suggestive experience as a base for their [more difficult]
abstractions, one must provide ihem "wiih a conceptual framework that
permits them to perceive the phenomena in a meaningful way and to inte
grate their inferences into generalizations of lasting value’ (Karpins, 1962a,

pp 243 244)

Specificity or Generality
of Intuitive Learnings

In accordance with their conception of intuitive learning during the

concrete stage of logical operations, J S Bruner and B Inhelder (Bruner,
1960) propose an intuitive elementary school curriculum that is character
ized by extreme generality and separation from the actual content of the
various disciplines It is oriented toward certain universal and recurrent
principles of science which when learned once in general form, are sup-
posedly applicable to the more specific problems of the particular sciences
categorization and uses the unit of measure and its development, the
its

indirectness of information in saence and the need for operational defini

tion of ideas, the attitude that things are connected and not isolated
the idea of multiple determination of events in the physical and social
world (Bruner, 1960, pp 26 27) Inhelder suggests that we

devote the two years of school to a senes of exercises in manipulating clas-

first

sifying and ordering objects in ways that highlight basic operalions of logical addi
tion multiplication inclusion serial ordenng and the like For surely these logical
operations are the basis of more speafic operations and concepts of all mathematics
and science It may indeed be the case that such an early science and mathematics
precurriculum might go a long way toward building up in the child the kind of
mtuitne and more inductive understanding that could be giten embodiment later
in formal courses m
mathematics and saence The effects of such an approach
would be we think to put more ointinuity into saence and mathematics and
also to give the child a much better and firmer comprehension of the concepts
 Cognttnie Development and Headmen

early foundation he will mouth later without

being able to
wluch until he has this
use them tn any cfTectne sense (Bruner, I960, p 46)

is questionable whetlier general content free

In the first place, it

and pnnaples of saence have any applicabilit) to the

logical operations
understanding of ideas m
a particular saence The philosophy and funda
con
mental concepts of a given disapline are largely shaped by its unique
tent, history, and methodology Saenufic method and theory are not readily
true
transferable across different disaplines Hence, pnnaples lliat hold
for a wide range of saences are more likely to constitute basic postulates
substantive
of a general philosophy of saence than to have relevance for the
content or metliodology of any particular saence Second, general pnnaples
by definition be learned on a purely abstract
of snentific inquiry cannot,
and general basis at this stage of development They also consist of complex,
higher-order abstractions that the elementary school diild would find ex

ceedingly difficult,not impossible, to relate meaningfully to his cognitive

if

structure, even on an intuitive basis, with the aid of concreie-empirical

props, and even tf he could do so, it is questionable what value sucli in
tuitive undeniandings could have since it is preasely because of their gen
erahiy and noninlutiive properties that interdisaplinary principles of sci

entific inquiry are presumed to be transferable to other disciplines and

heunstically valuable Finally, as we shall see later m
anoilier ointext. al
though the content organization objectives and meiliods of the elementary
school cumculum must obviously lie adapted to the cognitive capaattes of
pupils, the curriculum must still systematically come to grips w iih the actual
substantive content and spcofic methodology of eacJi of tlie vanous dis-
ciplines

Con Any Subject Be Taught Intwtwely

at Any Age Level?

By suitably adapting metliodv of teaching to the diilds level of cog

nitivcfunaioning J S Bruner believes tliat it is possible to teach preschool
and elcmcntarv sdiool children any subject that can lie taught to adolescent
and adult students
\i each itage of desclopinem tltc child ha* a diaractcrimc vnay of vicxing ihe
world and explaining ii lo liinuelf The task of Icadung a subject to a diild at
any particular age is one of representing the itruciure of iJiat subject in terms of
the dill 1 s way of slewing ihings The
task can be diought of as one of translaiion
If one resjiecii die wav* of thought of
(p 53) die growing child if one
IS toiineoui enough to tramlaic tnaienal into hiv
logical forms, and diallenging
enough to tempt him to advance then ii is jmiilde to introduce him at any earJy
age to the i *casand styles that in later vear* male an educated man
(p 51)
Anv idea tan be repreveniei! honestly and uvefullr m the thought
forms of children
Lducational hitplications of the Concrete, Inlutlne l^el 213

of school age and these fint representations can later be made more pot^erful
and precise the more easily by \irtuc of this early learning (p 33) [Actually]
any subject can be taught effectisely in some intellectually honest form to any
child at any stage of deselopment (Bruner 1960 p 33)

It IS quite possible, of course, that prior intuitive understanding of

certain concepts and principles dunng childhood can facilitate their learn
mg and stabilize tlieir retention when they are taught at a more formal,
abstract level during adolescence —even if the child s readiness for the earlier
learnings not adequate However, confirmatory empirical evidence is still
is

unavailable Further, as pointed out above, one must consider the greater
risk of failure and the excessive time and effort cost involved in premature
instances of intuitive learning, and hence the greater feasibility of postpon
ing entirely the introduction of certain subject matter fields until children
are cognitively more mature (adequately ready for them) In general, there
fore. It IS preferable to restrict the intuitively-onented content of the ele
mentary school curriculum to materials for which the cliild exhibits adequate
—
developmental readiness even if he can intuitively learn more difficult,
ingeniously presented material beyond his intrinsic level of readiness
In addition, it undoubtedly overstates the case to claim that any subject
can be taught to children in the pre-operational stage, or the stage of m
concrete logical operations, provided that the material is presented in an
informal, intuitive fashion with the aid of overt manipulation or concrete
empirical props It is readily conceivable that some topics, such as ‘set
theory, algebra, and quadratic equations
in mathematics, can be success
fully learned by fourth grade pupils when recast m
accordance with their
characteristic ways of tiiinking and conceptualizing experiences (Dienes
1959, 1964) Through such kinds of teaching many more abstract and ‘ diffi
cult ' concepts can undoubtedly be made intuitively comprehensible to ele
mentary school children than was believed possible m
the past, and even
brought within the category of learnings for which they are adequately
ready This hardly rules out the possibility, however, that (a) The compre
hension of many other ideas presupposes certain sjjecific antecedent learnings
in a given subject matter area or a certain minimal level of general subject
matter sophistication, (b) Some abstractions are so inherently difficult or
complex that they cannot be made intuitively understandable to children
—
below a certain level of cognitive maturity even with the aid of suitable
concrete-empirical props, (c) Certain abstractions become relatively useless
when restructured on an intuitive basis, and
(d) It is virtually imjxissible in
the case of certain highly abstract concepts to find particular exemplars that
are meaningful to cognitively immature children These latter kinds of ideas
would be intrinsically too difficult for preschool or elementary school chil
dren irrespective of the method of presentation
Thus, even assuming that all abstract concepts could be restructured
 Cognitne Dnflopment and Recdtness
2U

expea dial the>

on an intuitne basis it ssould still be unreasonable to
Ie^eI Although
could all be made comprehensible to diildren at any grade
restructured idea is
the intuime comprehensibilii) of an) gisen intuitisel)
best determined empincall) it tsould surel) be plausible deduanels to
rendered com
expect that a certain proportion of these ideas could not be
prehcnsible to i)pical pupils m
some of the preschool and eleraeniar) grades
As F T T)ler points out
subject
It IS dilBcuh lo understand hoi» [Braner] can maintain “that any
any
can be taught effcctisely in tome inielleciuaUy honest fonn to ans child at
stage of deselopment,” and at the same time say first that the “pre-operational
and second, because of this funda
child cannot graip the idea of lescrsibilits
e
mental lack the child cannot understand ccmin fundamental ideas that he at tl
It goes vithout saying that teachers
are
basis of mathematics and physics
seserely Lmited in transmuting concepts to a child at this age csen in a
highly

intuiUse man ner Grasping ihe idea of tnsanance is beset ssith difficulties for
the child oftenunsuspeacd by teachers Do common experience and obsena
lion not consince us of die impossibility of teaching such a class of responses as
soiling linear equations to a neonate (Tyler 19^ pp 230 225)

Aecelfrattng Stagas
of Intellectual Development

Is It through the preopera

possible to accelerate childrens progress
uonal stage or the stage of concrete logical operations by uktng account
of their charaaenstic cognitive limitations and by providing suitably con
insed experience geared to tlieir cognitive capaaly and mode of function
ing Can >*e for example tram diem as Inhelder {Bruner 19G0 pp -iMa)
su^ests to focus on more than one aspect of a problem at a time or to
acquire genuine appreaauon of the concept of conservation of mass If
stages of deselopment have any true meaning the anss>er to this question
can onh be iliat althougli some acceleration is certainly possible it is necev
sanly linmed in extent.
Dcvclopmenul considerations inesitably impose a limit on the extent
of acceleration that is {xMsible inasmuch as transition to the next higher
stage IS insariably an organic outgrowth of
and hence presupj»ses, the
attainment of a certain level of consolidation or proficiency at the preceding
stage Such consolidation in turn imphes gradual
and curaulaiise change
over an extended period of time In accounting
for the transition from the
prc-ojjcTauonal stage lo the suge of concrete
logical operations Piaget
(19j7b) for example emphasi/cs such
mechanisms as successive and con
trasting decentraiion (less exclusive
preoccupation vsiih a particular aijicrt
of a phenomenon) and gradual apjrcciation
of the theory of probabilitv
In our opinion hos*eseT Piaget unvs-arrantcdly
excludes the role of
Educational Implications of the Concrete, Intuttne Level 215

training and education, particularly the role of verbal instruction, in bring-

ing about transition from one stage of mtellectual development to another
As L S Vygotsky (1962) points out, the relationship between intellectual
development and education is reciprocal On theoretical grounds there is
no reason why only incidental (spontaneous, undirected, unexplained) ex-
perience must effect the gradual, cumulative cliange in intellectual capacity
that makes transition to a higher stage possible, and since guided practice
IS demonstrably more efficient than incidental learning, it should be quite

possible for suitable training to accelerate the rate at which die various
stages of intellectual development succeed each other In fact, evidence was
presented earlier which indicates that schooling and urban living accelerate
the acquisition of conservation and of combinatorial reasoning But it was
also pointed out above that the mere fact that a given type of learning task
can be mastered before the age of readiness or that the age of readiness itself
can be accelerated does not necessarily mean that stages of development
should be accelerated or that maximum acceleration is desirable
Generally speaking, simple drill or training, in which the pre-opera
tional child is exposed to contrived conservation experience and given re
mforcement for correct responses, does not suffice to bring about stable
acquisition of conservation concepts Such training merely leads to the ac-
quisition of an ‘
empirical rule, which, unlike the stable and organized
concept in the ‘
natural conserver,’ cannot withstand (is easily extinguished
by) the influence of such spurious disconfirmation experience as counter
suggestion and perceptual!) deceptive appearances (Smedslund, 1961) Sim
ilatly, m another area of inteUectual functioning, kindergarten children
who receive laboratory training in learning the principle of a teeter totter
(that the longer side of the fulcrum falls when both sides are equally
weighted), fail to exhibit resistance to the later learning of a spurious causal
relationship about the operation of a teeter totter (that the color of the
blocks placed at either end of the teeter totter is the determining factor)
(Ausubel and Schiff, 1954) H
Beilin and I Franklin (1962) also report that
no first grader achieves operational area measurement even with training ,

and J F Wohlwill and R C Lowe (1962) found improvement in conserva

tion behavior on a nonverbal post test after three kinds of training, but no
transfer of this conservation learning to a verbal post test
Considerable evidence, however, indicates that the use of various verbal
didactic procedures (prior verbalization of principles, the use of verbal rules,
filmed verbal explanations, confronting the child verbally with his own
contradictions) in conjunction with concrete empirical props can accelerate
the acquisition of conservation and probability theory (Frank, in Bruner,
1964, Kohnstamm, 1966, Ojeniann and Pritchett, 1963, Ojemann, Maxey,
and Snider, 1966, Sullivan, 1966) Such didactic teaching combined with
the use of concrete empirical props, also induces generalization of conserva
 Cegnilnt Development and Readtnets
214

to expect that the)

on an jntuuue basis il uouUl still be unreasonable
grade lesel Altliough
could all be made comprehensible to children at an)
restructured idea is
the intuitive comprehensibilit) of an) given intuitivel)
deductiveh to
best determined empincall) a would surel) be plausible
rendered com
expect that a certain proportion of these ideas could not be
prehensible to t)pical pupils m
some of the preschool and elemental-) grades
As F T Tyler points out

difficult to understand how [Bruner] can mainiam that any subject

It IS
at anv
can be uught efTeoivcly in some mieilecluallv honest lonn to any child
“pre-operational
stage of development, and at the same time say first that the
child cannot grasp the idea of “rcversibilit)
” and second “because of this funda
the
mental lack the child cannot understand cetiain fundamental ideas tliat he at
It goes without saying that teachers
are
basis of mathematics and physics
severely limited mtransmuting concepts to a child at this age even in a highly

intuitive manner Grasping the idea of invanance is beset with difficulues for
the child often unsuspected by teachers Do common ntpersence and observa
Uon not convince us of the impossibilicy of teaching such a class of responses as
wiving linear equaiions" to a neonate (Tyler 1964 pp 220 ‘*25)

Aeceleraling Stages
of Zntelleetual Development

1$ It possible to accelerate children $ progress through the pre-opera

tional stage or the stage of concrete logical operations b\ uljng account
of their charaaenstic cognitive limitations and by providing suitably con
mved cxpenence geared to their cognitive capacity and mode of function
mg’ Can we for example tram them as Inbelder (Bruner I960 pp 4W3)
suggests to focuson more than one aspect of a problem at a time or to
acquire genuine appreaaiion of the concept of conservation of mass If
suges of development have any true meaning the answer to this quesuon
can only be that although some acceleration is certainlv possible it is neces-
sarily limited in extent.
Developmental considerations inevitably impose a bmit on the extent
of acceleration that is possible inasmuch as transition to the next higher
stage IS invanabl) an organic outgrowth of and hence presupposes the
attainment of a certain level of consolidation or proficiency at the preceding
stage Such consolidation in turn imphes gradual and cumulative change
3n extended period of time In accounting for the transition from the
pre-operauon^ stage to the stage of concrete logical operations Piaget
(I9a7b) for example emphasues such mechamsms as successive and con
trasung decentrauon (l^s exclusive preoccupation with
a particular aspect
of a phenomenon) and gradual appreciation of Uie theory of probability
In our opinionhowever Piaget unwarraniedly excludes the role of
Educational Implications of the Concrete, Intuitive Lei el 215

training and education, particularly the role of \erbal instruction, in bring-

ing about transition from one stage of intellectual de%elopment to another
As L S Vygotsky (1962) points out, the relationship betueen intellectual
deselopment and education is reciprocal On theoretical grounds there is
no reason %vhy only incidental (spontaneous, undirected, unexplained) ex-
perience must effect the gradual, cumulatise change in intellectual capacity
that makes transition to a higher stage possible, and since guided practice
IS demonstrably more efficient than incidental learning, it should be quite

possible for suitable training to accelerate the rate at which the various
stages of intellectual deselopment succeed each other In fact, evidence svas
presented earlier which indicates that schooling and urban living accelerate
the acquisition of conservation and of combinatorial reasoning But it was
also pointed out above that the mere fact that a given type of learning task
can be mastered before the age of readiness or that the age of readiness itself
can be accelerated does not necessarily mean that stages of development
should be accelerated or that maximum acceleration is desirable
Generally speaking, simple drill or training, m
which the pre-opera
tional child is exposed to contrived conservation experience and given re
inforcement for correct responses, does not suffice to bring about stable
acquisition of conservation concepu Such training merely leads to the ac
qutsition of an ‘
and organized
empirical rule,” which, unlike the stable
concept in the ‘
natural conserver, cannot withstand (is easily extinguished
by) the influence of sucii spurious disconfirmatton experience as counter-
suggestion and perceptually deceptive appearances (Smedslund, 1961) Sim
ilarly, in another area of intellectual functioning, kindergarten children
who receive laboratory training in learning the principle of a teeter totter
(that the longer side of the fulcrum falls when both sides are equally
weighted), fad to exhibit resistance to the later learning of a spurious causal
relationship about the operation of a teeter totter (that the color of the
blocks placed at either end of the teeter totter is the determining factor)

(Ausubel and Schiff, 1954) H

Beilin and I Franklin (1962) also report that
no first grader achieves operational area measurement even with training
‘
,

and J F ^Vohlwill and R C Lowe (1962) found improvement in conserva

tion behavior on a nonverbal post test after three kinds of training, but no
transfer of this conservation learning to a verbal post test
Considerable evidence, however, indicates that the use of various verbal
didactic procedures (prior verbalization of principles, the use of verbal rules,
filmed verbal explanations confronung the child verbally with his own
contradictions), in conjunction with concrete empirical props, can accelerate
the acquisition of conservation and probability theory (Frank, m Bruner,
1964, Kohnstamm, 1966, Ojemann and Pritchett, 1963, Ojemann, Maxey,
and Snider, 1966, Sullivan, 1966) Such didactic teaching, combined with
the use of concrete empirical props, also induces generalization of conserva-
 Cognilive Dcvtlop'ncJit Headiness
216

pro-
lion responses to other materials (Kolinsiamm, 1966, Stilhvan, J966),
motes retention of these responses over jienods as long as six montiis (Kohn
of
Stamm, 1966), and makes them resistant to extinction after an interval
seven days (Sullivan, 1966) All of these findings strongly suggest that since
even short term verbal training can bring about a limited degree of stable
sustained and generalized transitional diange from the pre-operalional stage
to the stage of concrete logical operations long term training along similar
lines would be even more clfeciive
Thus It appears that after a certain degree of consolidation of the pre
operational stage occun, one can anticipate, and thereby accelerate, the
attainment of the next higher (concrete operational) stage by training the
child under the learning conditions that apply lo the latter stige by requir
mg him to relate secondary abstractions and abstract verbal propositions
to cognitive structure with the aid of concrcie-empincal props In a similar
way, the transition from concrete to abstract logical operations can be faal
nated by gradually withdrawing concrete-empirical props as the prior stage
becomes consolidated, tiiai is by withdrawing the props well in advance
of the actual attainment of abstract cognitive functioning^^ Thus tn L S
Vjgotskys (1902) terms didactic instruction can and normally does play a
role m
facilitaung (accelerating) transition from one stage of cognitive de
—
velopment to another both by providing suitably contrived directed, and
explained learning experience, and by making intellectual demands on
pupils that go beyond their current capabilities, that is that anticipate or
are pointed toward the conditions of cognitive functioning at the next
higher stage

Can Children Learn Anything

^^Qre Efficiently than AdultsT

Related to the proposition that children can learn anything that adults
can —provided that it is suitably presented —
is the contention that they can
also do so more efficiently David Page for example, makes the following
assertion

111 ceadimg from kintlerganen to graduate

school I base been amazed at die
human beings at aU ages although dnldren are perhaps
intellectual similanty of
more spontaneous creaiisc and energetic than adults
As far as I am concerned
young children can learn almost anything faster than
adults do if » can be gi'd
to ibera in lermi they undeistaiid
(Bruner I960 pp 39-40)

P Va Galperin (I9a7) describes a method

of teaching arithmetic to slow
learning pup, h in which contrete-empmcal
props are eJimmaied very gradually
Hid are replaced by abstract serbal
tepresentations
Educat onal In pi cations of the Concrete Intuttwe Letel 217

In our opinion although this proposition is generally untrue and un

supportable it is nevertheless valid in a very limited sense of the term Even

more important hotvever it is in many instances partially true for reasons

that are very different from those offered by its advocates
Many reasons exist for believing that under certain conditions >oung
children can learn more efficiently than older and intellectually more mature
persons In the first place older individuals particularly if miseducated
must often unlearn what they have previously been taught before they are
ready for new learning This is frequently the case when a student s know!
edge IS unclear unstable or disoiganized because of a prior history of rote

or nonmeaningful learning Second older individuals are more likely to

have emotional blocks with respect to particular subject matter areas
Third their intellectual abilities lend to be more highly differentiated
Finally there is a marked falling off of intellectual enthusiasm venture
sotneness and flexibility as children move up the academic ladder
Generally speaking however adolescents and adults have a tremendous
advantage m learning any new subject matter —even if they are just as un
sophisticated as young children m that particular discipline This advantage
inheres m the fact that they are able to draw on various transferable ele
ments of their overall ability to function at the abstract level of logical
operations Hence in their initial contact with a new discipline they are
able to move through the concrete intuitive phase of intellectual function
ing very rapidly and unlike the comparably unsophisticated child who
functions generally atilie level of concrete logical operations they are soon

able to dispense entirely with concrete-empirical props and with intuitive

understandings These facilitating transferable elements as indicated above
include the possession of transactional terms and higher-order concepts as
well as successful past experience in directly manipulating relationships be
tween abstractions (without the benefit of concrete-empirical props)
The advocates of the child superiority proposition maintain however
that this rapid shift on the part of older learners from a concrete intuitive
to truly abstract and verbal level ot mteUerjtija.1 the. uataccul
lar new subject matter area results in less efficient learning processes and
outcomes Research findings nevertheless suggest precisely the opposite
conclusion namely that genuinely abstract and verbal learning is both
more efficient and yields a more prease general and transferable form of
knowledge than its concrete intuitive and verbal counterparts To argue that
a more primitive type of learning is mote natural because it occurs before
a more advanced type of learning and that it is also more efficient because
It IS more natural is a circular type of reasoning that overlooks the ob
vious facts that (a) The earlier learning process is used first not because
It IS more efficient but because it is the only mode of learning possible at
the lower level of development and hence is more natural only for this
 Readiness
Ccgnilite Development and
218

process asailable at a
reason and (b) When a more advanced learning is

and less effiaent to use

later stage o£ development U is both less natural

Its more primitive precursor

proposi
A final argument sometimes advanced for the child sujienonty
jjenods of reading
that since there are allegedl) optimal
critical
lion IS

for all kinds of developmental acquisitions

(
many
)
intellectual skills can M
acquired more easily by younger than by older pupils
But aldiough this
perceptua
argument is supported by some aspects of motor physical and
development it has still to be validated the field of m
intellectual develop-

ment
REUVnVE LANGUAGE LEARNING ABILITY OF CMILDREV AND ADULTS
To
learn his
begin with vve must appreaate the fact that the diild does not
contraryl
native language with phenomenal ease and rapidity Quite the
process
His acquisition of his mother longue is a long slow and arduous
strong
despite prolonged and continuous exposure, and despite exceedingly
and peers
motivation to learn so that he can communicate with adults
Typically he is 4 years old before lus use of syntax even begins to
approx
imate the conventional standards of his language (Ervin and ^^llIe^ 1965)
are
In natural settings (home neighborhood school) where children
completely or partially immersed in a second language environment it i*
true that they appear to learn the language more readily than adults do
under similar circumstances Actually however the tvvo situations are hardly
comparable Children receive much more praaice in the new language since
they are less able to maintain contact with spoken and written sources of
their native language Their motivation is also usually higher because mas-
tery of the second language is more essential for communication peer rela
uonships and school progress Furthermore they are typically less self
consaous than adults in attempting to speak the new language
Objective research evidence regarding the relative learning ability of
children and adults is sparse but offers htile comfort to those vvho maintain

the child supenonty thesis Although children are probably superior to

adults in acquinng an acceptable accent in a new language E ll Tliom
dike and others (1925) found many years ago that they make less rapid
progress than adults do m
other aspects of foreign language learning when
learning time is held constant for the two age groups

“ Elementary schcMl children on the average learn less French three years m
than do college freshmen in a single semester (Dunkel and Pillet 1937) However
there is a low but consistent negatne relationship between chronological age and
the Spanish achievement test scores ol elcmenury school pupils (Johnson Ellison
and Flores 1960) Johnson in a personal communication attributes tins relationship
to the younger learners greater faality m
pronunaation listening comprehension
and rote linguistic expression despite less mastery
of the grammatical structure of
the language
Transilioti from Concrete to Abstract Cogttiliie FutteOonmg 219

In addition to the pronunaaiion or mimicry factor, children probably

have some other intrinsic advantages over adults in foreign language learn
ing Their intellectual capacities are less differentiated along particular
lines, and they are more venturesome and less rigid in undertaking new

learning tasks As a result of fewer past frustrating experiences in academic

work, they are also less likely to manifest strong emotional blocks in par
ticular subject matter areas
The disadvantages of adults in these latter respects, hoviever, are more
than counterbalanced by three overwhelming advantages which they enjoy
First, they have a much larger native language vocabulary than children do,
particularly with regard to abstract concepts Hence, in learning a foreign
language, unlike children, they need not acquire thousands of new concepts
but merely the new verbal symbols representing these concepts Second, in
learning the structure of a new language —both comprehending oral and
in
wntlen materials and in speaking —they can make conscious and deliberate
use of grammatical generalizations and can explicitly apply them to suitable
exemplars Young children, on the other hand, are limited to the much less
efficient approach of discovering syntactical rules through repetitious ex
posure to models and corrective feedback Largely because of these two
factors, certain characteristic features of the audiolingual method are peda
Finally, adolescents and adults possess
gogically inappropriate for adults
which new phrases
a larger store of propositions in cognitive structure under
and sentences can be subsumed Tins enhances the comprehension of for
eign language material

Educational Implications of the Transition

from Concrete to Abstract Cognitive Functioning

From the standpoint of the secondary school teacher, the most significant
development in cognitive functioning that occurs during the preadolescent
and early adolescent years is the gradual transition from a predominantly
concrete to a predominantly abstract mode of understanding and manip-
ulating complex abstract propositions This developmental shift has far
reaching implications for teaching metliods and cumcular practices in the
secondary school
Once the developing individual reaches the abstract stage of cognitive
functioning he becomes m
large measure an abstract verbal learner He
now acquires most new concepts and learns most new propositions by fit
rectly (without the mediating and constraining influence of concrete-empir
ical props) apprehending verbally or symbolically stated relationship be
tween previously learned abstractions To do so meaningfully, he need no
longer refer to first hand, concrete, or nonrepresentational experience, nor
actually perform any of the abstracting or generalizing operations on the
220 Cosniliie Detelofmenl and Readiness

underlying einpirical din With his developmental dependence on concrete

empirical props removed the only condition necessary for tlie understanding
and meaningful manipulation of highcr-ordcr concepts and abstract proposi
tions IS that their substantive import be nonarbitrarily relatable to lus
par
ticular cognitive structure and that he adopt a set to learn them in tins
fashion Hence on developmental grounds he is ready at the secondary
school level for a new type of verbal cY|x>siiory teaching that uses particular
examples primarily for illmtratixfe purposes that is to clarify or dramatize
truly abstract meanings rather than to make possible the emergence of tn
tnitive meanings
It would be very misleading however to assert that secondary school

and even older students can never profit either from the use of concrete
empirical props to generate intuitive meanings or from the use of inductive
discovery and deductive problem solving techniques to enhance such mean
mgs As previously suggested generally mature students tend to function at
a relatively concrete or intuitive level when confronted with a particularly
new subject matter area in which they are as yet totally unsophisticated
But since abstract cognitive functioning m
this new area is rapidly aclneved
with the attainment of a minimal degree of subject matter sophistication
concrete empirical props and discovery methods should be employed to gen
erate and enhance intuitive learnings only during the early stages of instruc
lion Continued use of discovery techniques for other purposes however (to
improve problemsolving skills to foster appreciation of scientific method
or totest verbal understanding) is thoroughly defensible And once students
function abstractly in a given discipline it is one thing for teachers to use
examples and analogies occasionally to clarify the abstract meanings of par
ticularly difficult or unfamiliar new concepts or principles but it is quits
another for teachers to use them routinely either as invariably necessary
props for transmitting all abstract meanings or in the mistaken belief that
students are still functioning or would be better an
off still functioning on
intuitive level
Since a largely abstract and verbal type of expository teaching is both
more economical m terms of time cost and also leads to abstract verbal
understandings that are qualitatively superior to and more transferable than
intuitive understandings one might reasonably
ask why the secondary school
has not placed greater emphasis on more abstract tecliniques of
and verbal
effectingmeaningful verbal learning In tlie first place
by unwarrantedly
extrapolating childhood learning conditions
to adolescence and adult life
die progressive education movement fostered
widespread acceptance of the
proposition that all verbal concepts and
generalizations are necessarily noth
ing more than rotely meraonred glib
verbalisms unless they both reflect
current or recent concrete experience
and are products of independent
problem solving or discovery This belief
led in turn to the summary re
Developmental Considerations Regarding Breadth of Curriculum 221

jection of \erbal exposition and to the paradoxical acceptance of such in

herently rote problemsolving and discovery practices as the teaching of
type problems the -wholly mechanical manipulation of mathematical sym
bols and the perfonnance of cookbook laboratory experiments
Second tlie tendency among educational psychologists uncntically to
extrapolate findings from laboratory studies of nonverbal or rote verbal
learnings to meaningful verbal learning in the classroom reinforced the
educators perception of verbal learning as necessarily rote m
character
and further encouraged him to repudiate expository verbal teaching Lastly
the failure of educational psychologists to investigate the nature and con
ditions of meaningful verbal learning and retention delayed the discovery
of more effective techniques of verbal exposition as well as helped per
petuate the use of traditional rote tediniques Only within the last few years
have curriculum specialists and educational psychologists concerned them
selves with substantive and programmatic aspects of the problem of faal
iiattng the meaningful acquisition and retention of viable bodies of know!
edge
The fact that children become less empirical and more hypothetical
in their approach to scientific problems with increasing age does not neces-
sarily mean that they accordingly rely more blindly on authority and show
lessappreciation of scientific method J Piaget <1928 19S2) has shown that
quite the opposite holds true The decreased emphasis on an empirical ap-
proach with inaeasing age >s simply a function of cognitive maturation
that IS of greater ability to grasp concepts and generalizations on a purely

abstract basis without prior need for experience with multiple particular
instances of a concrete nature

Developmental Considerations
Regarding Breadth of Curriculum

One of the chief complaints of the critics of public education in the

United States is that contemporary children fail to learn the fundamentals
because of the broadening of the elementary school curriculum to include
such subjects as social studies art science music and manual arts m
addi
tion to the traditional three Rs This of course would be a very serious
charge were true because the wisdom of expanding a child s intellectual
if it
horizons at the expense of making him a cnpple m the basic intellectual
skills is highly questionable to say the least Fortunately however the bene
fits of an expanded curriculum have thus far not been accompanied by a

corresponding deterioration m the standard of the three Rs Evidently the

decreased amount of time spent on the latter subjects has been more than
compensated for both by the development of more efficient methods of
 Cognitive Development and Readiness

teadung and by the incidental learning of

'
fundamentals” in the course of
versus depth
studying these other subjects Nesertheless, the issue of breadth
still remains because there w obviously a
point beyond which increased
fundamental
breadth could be attained only by sacrificing mastery of the
skills, and even agreed to maintain or improve the present standard
ifwe
we would still have to choose between breadth and
depth
of the three R’s,
in relation to other components of the curriculum, particularly at the junior
and senior high scliool levels It is at these points of choice that develop-
mental criteria can be profitably applied

Concrete-Intuitive Stage

Generally speaking, maximal breadth of the curriculum, consistent with

all
adequate mastery of its constituent parts, is developmentally desirable at
ages because of the tremendously wide scope of human abilities The
wider
the range of intellectual stimulation to which pupils are exposed, the greater

are the chances that all of the diverse potentialities both within a group of
children and within a single child will be brought to fruition By the same
token, a broad cumculum makes ii possible for more pupils to experience
success in the performance of school activities, and thus to develop the neccs
sary self confidence and motivation for continued academic striving and
achievement
very fact that elementary sdiool children are able to make sig
The
nificant progress m
science and social studies also indicates that myopic
concentration on the three R's would waste much available readiness for
these other types of learnings and thus compel junior and senior high
schools to devote much of their instructional time to materials tliat are
lower grades In fact, one of the major failings of the
easily learnable in the
secondary school curriculum today is that because it still has not adequately
adjusted to the expansion of the elementary scliool syllabus, entering pupils
are not only subjected to much stultifying repetition but also fail to break
the new ground for which they are obviously ready
Other factors similarly counsel a choice of breadth over depth the m
content of the primary school cumculum First, from a logistical standpoint,
the young child is not prepared for depth of subject matter coverage His
limited attention span and lus dependence on concrete empincal props
greatly limit the rate at which he can learn new material, thereby making
for him to assimilate a wide array of information about a given
It difficult

topic, and the limited number of abstractions in Ins cognitive structure, as

well as the particularired, semiabstract,
and relatively unprecise nature of
his concepts and principles likewise detract
from his ability to assimilate
and integrate large quantities of subject matter
knowledge
Second, the relationship between
breadth and depth must also take
Dei elopinenial ConsideTaltom Regarding Breadlh of Ct rnculti 223

mio Tccoiim the progressive diflerentiation of intelligence interests and

personality structure ivith increasing age The elementary school child is

a because both his intellect and personality are still relatively

generalist
unstable and uncrystalhzed and lack impressise internal consistency Thus
many different varieties of subject matter are equally compatible with his
interest and ability patterns Furthermore unless he has experience
with
many different fields of knowledge and gives each a provisional try he
IS in no position to kinds of intellectual pursuits are most
judge vvhicli

congruent with his major ability and value systems Hence quite apart from
the future life adjustment values of a broad educational background it is
appropriate on developmental grounds for elementary and early
high
school curricula to stress breadth rather than depth
Breadth of course inevitably implies a certain amount of superficiality
This superficiality however is not necessarily
opprobrious Whether it is
desirable or undesirable cannot be judged m
absolute terms but only in
relation to the student s intellectual readiness for depth It should also be
pointed out in this connection that superficiality itself is always a relative
state of affairs the graduate school curriculum is just as superficial to
the
the college
postdoctoral scholar as the elementary school curriculum is to
undergraduate The
spiral curriculum the —
reintroduction of the same

topics m progressively greater depth as intellectual

readiness and maturity
increase—-IS predicated on tins assumption
Superficiality is also not synonymous with inviahiy or with slipshod
precise presenta
unsystematic or outdated teaching Good teaching implies
lion of significant organized lucid and valid content at any level of
breadth and even at the elementary school level it allows for the occasional

introduction of atypical depth both substantively and methodologically

to give the student a taste of scholarship and of research inquiry But as will
be pointed out later the probing in depth of isolated areas apart from
—
die systematic presentation of subject matter merely as a means of en
hancing inquiry skills or methodological sophistication is indefensible at —
any age level and particularly in the elementary school It is a type of
activity suitable for the scholar and researdi scientist— fl/fer he has
acquired

substantive and methodological sophistication in his field

Abstract Verbal Stage

school period however

Toward the latter portion of the junior high
begins to emerge
precisely the opposite kind of developmental situation
have undergone differentiation to
Interests have crystallized and abilities
possible and desirable
the point where greater depth and specialization are
are ready to sink
Many students at this stage of intellectual development
their teeth into more serious and solid academic fare but unfortunately
 Cogniiiie Development and Readinea
224

suitable instructional programs geared at an intermediate level of sjstematic

presentation of the fundamental pnnaples of a disaplme are all too rarely
available changes that have taken place in secondary school
The cumcula
belated and
since the academy days have been primarily characterized by the
information Very
halfhearted addition of more up-to-date and topical
meaningful,
little has been done in the vvay of providing the student with a

integrated, and systematic view of tlie mayor ideas in a given field of knowl
edge
The transition from concrete to abstract cognitive functioning enables
die secondary school student to master a muclt greater volume of subject
matter knowledge To begin with, the logistics of the learning situation
become more favorable His ability to understand abstract propositions
directly (to dispense with the time consuming operations of using both
concrete-empirical props and discovery and problemsolving expcnence to

generate and enhance intuitive insights) permits the teacher to present much
more subject matter in the same period of time In addition, both the much
larger body of abstract concepts and pnnaples in his cognitive structure,
and his qualitatively higher level of abstract understanding, make possible
a more efficient means of assimilating organizing, and integrating the
materials that are presented Because die established higher-order concepts
and relational propositions no longer intuitive,
in his cognitive structure are
but are meaningfully formulated m truly abstract and general terms they
are clearer, more stable, and more precise than they were in childliood, and
are suCBaently inclusive to subsume a wider array of differentiated facts and
subconcepts
In view of these latter developments and of the greater differentiation
of his abilitiesand interests die secondary sdiool student is prepared to
cope with greater depth as well as with greater breadth, of subject matter
He IS ready for more iniensive and differcntiaied coverage of smaller areas
of knowledge as opposed to more global and superFiaal coverage of larger
areas Depth in this context however, primarily implies greater subsian
tive density ofknowledge rather than greater degree of autonomy dis- m
covering the pnnciples and obtaining the information to be learned If
the secondary school student is required to discover
most principles auton
omously. to obtain most subject matter content from
pnmary sources, and
to design Ins own experiments he has lime to
acquire only methodological
sophistication in terms of substantive depth, he simply
moves from a previ
ously superfiaal coverage of broad areas
to a comparably superfiaa!
coverage of more aroimscnbed areas Tlie
real aim of secondary school and
undergruluate education is not to produce
substantively ignorant junior
scJiolars and scientists but to produce students
who are knowledgeable bodi
in breadth and depth of subjea matter
 Chapter 6

INTELLECTUAL
ABILITY
we propose to discuss the nature and growth
In this chapter
of intelligence considered as a measurement construct designating general
level of cognitive functioning Developmental clianges in the actual psycho
logical capacities and processes involved m
cognitive functioning, namely,
symbolization, language use, concept formation, and problem solving are
considered in Chapters 2, 5, 15, and 16 When level of ability m
performing
these functions is measured by a graded senes of tasks and regarded as rep-
resentative of a general capacity for processing information and for utilizing
abstract symbols in the solution of abstract problems, the construct designat
ing this measured capacity may be referred to as intelligence An intellectual
ability, in other words, is really nothing more or less than a functional
manifestation of a distinct and identifiable cognitive process as expressed in
a range of individual performance or capacity differences Since the nature
of cognitive processes vanes in accordance with stage of development,
should take account of and try to reflect stage-
tests of intellectual ability

related, qualitative changes in cognitive functioning (Flavell, 1963, Lauren

deau and Pinard, 1962, Smedslund, 1964)

.Jph® Nature of Intelligence

In tliesense that the construct of intelligence is denved from a particu

lar set of measurement operations, it is obviously an abstraction that has no
real existence apart from these constituent operations It is also an abstrac-
tion in the sense that a generol level of cognitive functioning has no actual
reality apart from the particular kinds of cognitive functioning represented
in an intelligence test Nevertheless, insofar as the construct is logically ten-
able, related to naturalistic data, and denved from relevant and technically

225
 Intellect nl Ah I IJ
226

arbitrary and fictitious

appropnate operations it is by no means merely an
existing state ol
imention o£ psychologists It is defimiely related to an
affairs in the real ssorld (cogniiise capacity)
and has mtidi theoretical and
of behasioral
practical \alue both in explaining cognitne and other
aspects
individuals
deselopment and in predicting the cognitive level at which
function .
level ol
The concept of intelligence by definition clearly excludes
definition renders
functioning m all noncogniliwe areas of behavior This
misleading
largely irrelevant the commonly voiced cnticism that the IQ is
vMlh non
because it does not indicate an individuals capacity for coping
representational concrete meclianica! or interpersonal problems
The IQ
is not intended to represent these latter capaalies and no
claim is made that
does In fact if the intelligence test were modified so that it could perform
It
it pos-
these functions it would automatically lose s\haievcr effectiveness
argument here not that
sesses as a measure of cognitive ability Tlie is
or
indices of maturity level in other noncognitive areas arc theoretically
practicallyunimportant but rather that it is utterly naive to expect a single
instrument adequately to measure several largely unrelated kinds of abilities
Also irrelevant in much the same sense is the mliasm that the IQ does
not indicate parttcular cognitive strengths and failings or typical ways of
attacking problems No single summary score could possibly do so If
informauon is desired u is available in the detailed test protocol from
which the IQ is derived and m the qualitative observations of the examiner
Quite beside the point also is the frequently voiced complaint that the
intelligence test fails to identify creativity As will be pointed out in Chapter
16 creativity refers to a unique degree of originality in some substantive
area of human endeavor and not to the possession of a high degree either
of general intelligence or of one of us component abilities
Much futile controversy rages over the issue of whether or not the
intelligence test measures native (genically determined) cognilii^ endou
ment Although an effort is made to maximize the influence of genic factors
by using test items that presuppose only very generally available kinds of
experience it is obviously impossible to rule out the differential effects of

exposure to different types of cognitive experience to different levels of

cognitive stimulation and to different personality and moiivauonal vanables
Hence intelligence can be regarded only as a multiply determined func
Itonal capacity the level ol wl ich in a given individual reflects the relauve
potency of these various factors as they exist and interact in his particular
case Most general intelligence icsu for insUnce the Binet type expbatly
attempt to avoid il e impact ol partteular kinds
of past experience by pre
senting die subject with relatively novel tasks Even
so however many of
die component sub-tests such as vocabulary obviously
reflect the influence
The \ali re of Inlelltgence 227

of emironmental factors for example of social class membership and cul

tural deprivation Special aptitude tests sucli as language usage are even
more dependent on the nature of prior exjienence and social class bact
ground
Another equally pointless controversj is the argument over whether
the intelligence test score is a measure of performance or capacity Obviously
capacity cannot be measured directly and must therefore be inferred from
performance but if the IQ were only an index of how adequately an
individual utilizes his cognitive capacity (performs) rather than an index
of existing capacity itself its theoretical and practical usefulness would be
seriously limited Hence the more meaningful and relevant question here
IS whether capacity can be validly inferred from performance or whether test

performance provides a fair sample of capacity An affirmative answer to this

question IS indicated if (a) the test includes a representative sample of
cognitive functions (b) the s|>ecific items on the test are related to equally
available experience and (c) the individual is motivated to perform as well
as he can If the latter two conditions are not met performance is an under
estimate of capacity and subsequent improvement in score that is attnbut
able to correction of test disadvantage or inadequate test motivation reflects
a gam in performance rather than a gam m
capanty All inaements in IQ
however do not necessarily fall m
this category of more efficient utilization
or fairer opportunity of displaying unchanged capacity If the change is
brought about through significant alterations in level of cognitive stimula
tion or m
personality structure it is reflective of a genuine change in capac
ity since cognitive capacity (according to the definition of intelligence
adopted above) refers to a multipl) determined plienotype (actualized genic
endowment) rather than to genic potentiality
If we are primarily interested m using IQ scores as predictors of an
individual s actual academic achievement we would perhaps be better
advised to obtain them under typical motivational conditions In this case
they would be more reflective of performance than of capacity
In this chapter we shall be concerned with such general issues as the
nature of intelligence what IQ tests purport to measure the organization
of intelligence in terras of its component abilities and the distnbution of
IQ scores ^Ve shall also discuss various developmental issues bearing on
intelligence when intelligence is considered either in absolute terms (as a
developmental or mental age) or relative to group norms (as a develop-
—
mental quotient IQ or brightness level) These issues include (a) quantita
live and qualitative changes in intelligence with increasing age (b) the
constancy of individual rates of grovvtli and (c) the nature nurture problem
— the relative contributions of heredity and environment to the devel
opment of intelligence and the extent to which intelligence is modifiable
 Intelleclual Ability
228

Are Intelltgence Tests Urtfatr

to Cultiirally Deprived Children?
test
’
Liberal ' educators often unttarraniedly castigate the intelligence
it empha
as being unfair to the culturally depnved child, both because
sizes verbal ability, rather than the meclianical and social kinds of abilities
in s%hich loiser class children excel, and because the middle-class ennron
desel
ment is more propitious than the losser class environment for the
to
opment of verbal intelligence Reasoning such as this, for example, led^
Nev.
the recent (1964) decision to ban group intelligence tests from the
test is not
York City Public Schools Actually, hovkever, the intelligence
really unfair to the culturally deprived cliild on either count In
the fint
school
place, it purports only to measure verbal ability and to predict
—
performance not ability or performance in the mechanical and soaal areas
operat
Second, any intelligence test can hope only to measure functional or
genic
ing capaaty at a given point of development (degree of actuahred
potentiality) rather than innate potentiality itself Adequacy of environ
mental stimulation is always a significant determinant of functional capacity
and hence affects performance on an intelligence test If the environment is
inadequately stimulating then functional capacity is naturally impaired
But this does not mean that our measuring instrument, the intelligence
test, IS unfair, since its function is merely to identify and measure impaired

operating capacity irrespecttve of the origin of the impairment The intclli

gence test, in other words purports to measure functional capacity rather
than to account for it If the culturally deprived cliild scores low on an
inadequacy of his environment, it is not
intelligence test because of the
the test vshidi unfair but the soaal order which permits him to develop
is

under such conditions

By the same token, we would not say that the tuberculin test is unfair
or invalid because (a) the lower-class child really does not have any greater
genic susceptibility to tuberculosis but hapjiens to live in an environment
that predisposes him to this disease, or (b) it measures exyxisure to a parucu
lar disease whicli happens to be related to lower social-class status rather
than to one whicli is not so related In terms of operating functional capac
ity, an intelligence test is no less lair or valid because a low score is reflective
of culture deprivation than because it is reflective of low genic endovsment
Furthermore to argue that intelligence test scores are valid is not to claim
that iliey are necessarily immutable irrespective
of future environmental
conditions or to defend those aspects of the
social system that give rise
to the culturally deprived env'ironment
Traditional verbal intelligence tests are
unfair to culturally deprived
children in the sense that such children,
m
comiianson with their middle
class agemates have fewer testuking skills are less responsive to 5i>ccd
The Nature of Intell genre 229

pressure are less highly motivated in taking tests have less rapport with
the examiner and are less familiar with the specific vocabulary and tasks

that make up the content of the test (Haggard 1954 Riessman 1962) The
tests are therefore unfair in that they do not give the lower class child a

fair opportunity to demonstrate his true attained level of cognitive capac

ity ^Vhen these errors of measurement are eliminated however substantial
IQ still remain (Coleman and Ward 1955 Haggard
social class differences in

1954) These may reflect both hereditary and environmental influences

R B Cattell (1963) postulates that culture free tests emphasizing crys
talhzed as opposed to fluid abilities are fairer to culturally deprived
children
Even if culture free tests are devised which minimize the effects of
cultural deprivation and give a theoretically truer picture both of the cul
turally deprived child s genic endowment and of his attained level of
cognitive capacity it is likely

that these tests in comparison with tests refJeciing experiences withm the cul
ture dependent upon cultural differences
will predict less well those behaviors
furthermore one can argue that since the growth of intelligence does not occur
in a vacuum but is nourished by the cultural milieu the impact of the culture on
tests should not be ignored (Nfitiman and Clock 1965 p 21)

The Orgamzatton of Intelligence

How are intellectual abilities and scholastic aptitudes organized? The

answer both complex and technical and goes far beyond
to this question is
the legitimate scope of any textbook in educational psychology Suffice
It to say that the organization of intelligence depends in large measure on

the age of the pupil in question

The weight of the evidence indicates that intelligence consists both
of a general or unitary ability as well as of a constellation of discrete and
separately measurable abilities or aptitudes The relative importance of
these two characteristics vanes as a function of age Typically the various
Serb abihtiesmeasureef by an IQ fesC rnfercorrefate about 40 that is show
a moderate degree of generality This reflects both the general and special
i2 ed nature of the intellectual abilities comprising intelligence or general
scholastic aptitude Thus the significance and predictive value of a com
posite score on a general intelligence test depend both on the age of the
subjectand on the purpose for which predictions are made The tendency
recent years at least for older students has been to place greater reliance
111

on the measurement of diverse and relatively separate abilities This aj>

proach however has undoubtedly been carried to an extreme by factor
J P Guilford (1959) The latter suggests that there are 120
analysts such as
separately identifiable mental abilities comprising the structure of intellect
 InleUectual Abiht)
230

relating to five classes

and that these consist o! the tanoiis combinations
Actually,
six types of product
>
ol operations tour kinds of content, and
spatial relations,
only about a IialMozen factors such as vocabtilary,
islie
ability, numerical reasoning and language
usage, liaie been uell estab
hate predictive value for related aspecu of academic acliieie
and shown to

Distribution of IQ Scores

typi«l
A characteristically wide and continuous range of sariability is
the
ssUh
of the distribution of IQ scores This distribution is consistent
polygemcal y
interpretation that intelligence (like most human traits) is
determined, that is determined in large part (but not exclusively)
by the
cumulaine and additive effects of a large number of genes, each of whic
exerts a small positive or negative effect on the development of the trait

Approximately 64 percent of all IQ between the range of 85 and

scores fall
114 (Terman and Memll 1937) A somewhat smaller range of variability
prevails with respect to achievement test scores inasmuch as the uneducable
mentally handicapped do not attend school
Intelligence tests continue to yield normal distnbutions during the
course of adolescence (Cornell, 1936, E L Thorndike, and others, 1926)
Variability in test scores at any age or grade level is considerable The dis
in
tnbution of mental ability, for example, among 14 year-old students
New York. State is represented by a range of mental ages from 10 to 18
the mode at 14 (Cornell 1936)

1 Guilford s factors are derived from a purely hypothetical three dimensional

model comparable to the periodic table of dieniical elementsexcept for the fact
that u IS wholly speculative
rather than based on a projection from known empirical
data Not only has the existence of many of these factors never been empirically
demonstrated but also most ol the demonstrated factors have not been shown to
have any predictive significance for academic achievement vocational accomplish
mem or anytlung else The low intercorrelations among Guilford s tests purporting
to measure the same factonally pure ability (Guilford
1964) suggest in addiimn
that scoreson these tests are reflective of highly specific situation bound abilities
rather than of true intellectual sub-abilities that manifest generality of function
and hence psychological reality and significance
It should also be pointed out that factor analysis
is merely a statistical method
of reducing the number of abilities measured by a given lesi(s) to the smallest
numl>er of common dcnoimnaton capable of accounting
for most of the variance m
a particular population The number of factors that
emerge from a given analysis
depends m
large measure iherefore on the
particular tests used at what jioint the
investigator chooses to stop ihe reduction
process and how he diooses to con
cepiuahre imerprct and name the least
common denominators that emerge
 )

Deielopmenlal Changfs tn Intelligt 231

Surprising!) enough, despite the tremendous increase in high school

enrollment from 1916 to 1940, with a corres|x>nding elimination of the intel-
lectual selectisity tliat formerl) operated when onl) one third of the adoles
cent population attended high school, there has been no drop in the mean
IQ of the high school population (Ftncli, 1946) This phenomenon may
perhaps be accounted for by the greater experience that present day students
have with tests, and b) the closer correspondence between currently stressed
learning outcomes of school instruction and the types of capacities measured
by intelligence tests

Developmental Changes in Intelligence

In addition to such quanlitative developmental considerations as the

growth curve of intelligence and the constancy of individual rates of
growth, we must consider sucli quahtattve developmental changes as age
level changes in ability to process large bodies of organized and potentially
meaningful bodies of information, in the oiganizaiion of intellectual abili
ties, and in the breadth and depth of subject matter knowledge ("horizontal

growth’

Growth Curve of Intelligence

Most growth of intelligence is most rapid

investigators agree that the
in infancy and and tends to increase thereafter at a pro
early childhood
gressively decreasing rate This conclusion is in accord with everday experi
ence and with the fact that overlapping between score distributions of
adjacent age groups increases with advancing age (Bayley, 1933b) A linear
growth curve of intelligence is simply an artifaclual outcome of plotting
mental age in terms of units that are deliberately calibrated so that one
year of intellectual growth is, on the average, achieved during the course of
a calendar year In general, the growth curve of general intelligence is
acsslfttivsd (sb/avts. a rave, vst
when based either on raw scores (Terman and Merrill, 1937), on absolutely
scaled^ scores, or on scaled scores transformed into percentages of adult
attainment Some investigators report a slight reversal in the rate of nega
live acceleration during the preadolescent period (Freeman and Flory,
1937, Terman and Merrill, 1937, Wechsler, 1950) On the basis of scaled

2 The purpose of scaling is to make raw soires from different tests and from
different age groups comparable by expressing them in such a way that at any point
of the scale the distances between units of measurement are equal in difficulty
value
 Intellectual Ability

’
mtelLgencc test scores, E L. Thomdike. and
olhers (1926)
half of mature
parabolic grouth cur>e according lo which about
recently. B S Bloom
(19Ma)
status IS attained by the age of 3 More
midpoint of attainmcn o
reached a \ery similar conclusion, placing the
at age 4 Growth begins to taper off in
middle adolescence
adult intelligence
capacity is acluesea
and continues \ery slowly thereafter until ultimate
(Bayley, 1949, Freeman and Flory, 1937, Garrett.
Bryan and Perl, 193 d)
difficult to tell w en
Since the tapenng-off process is so gradual it is
growdi actually ceases The widely accepted finding of L. M
Terman and
after tlie age of 15
M A Merrill (1937) that mental age does not increase

IS now attributed to the limited ceiling of

the 1937 rcMSion of tlie Stanfor
sample of a
Binet test The best estimates, based on testing a wide age
relam ely homogeneous population (Jones and Conrad, 1944, Wechsler,
intersals (Bayley,
1944), or on retesting the same population at suitable
1955,Freeman and Flory 1937, Jones and Conrad. 1944, E L. Thorndike,
1926, 1928), place the age of terminalgrowth at 18 to 20 and even beyon
Gains in intelligence test scores have been repiortcd at age 25 on
the
Alpha
Wechsler Bellevue test (Bayley. 1955) and at age 50 on the Army
(Owens 1953) and Concept Maiuniy tests (Bayley and Oden, 1935)
The
age of terminal growth obviously vanes for diEereni individuals and
for

different kinds of cognitive processes (Jones and Conrad 1914)

The growth of intelligence —considered as a measurement construct—
IS the least typical aspect ol adolescent development In all other compo-
—
nents of growth hormonal skeletal, motor, personality, moral and soaal
— there is an accelerated penod of transitional development or a growth
spurt* Intellcrtual growth on the other hand follows a pattern very
similar to the development of fine mechanical abilities Of all the major
tissues of thebody and segments of personality it seems that only the small
muscles and intelligence remain unallectcd by the catalyuc impetus to
growth supplied by pubescence Their development continues to respond to
the hereditary and environmental influences impinging upon them, just as
if pubescence vxere not taking place, and their growth curves proceed

smooUily unmarked by any discontinuity to assume tlie adolescent form

that could be projected for Uiem from developmental data of earlier years
Growth of this kind is not unimportant In such growth, new capaaties

* B O Ljung (1965) has recenily described

an adolescent growth spurt in
menul development that is more marked in girls than in boys. But the tests he
used were more comparable to academic achievement tests than to conventional
mielligence tests and as we know from our
description ot cognitive development
there u a dcRniie spun at adolescence in ability to master academic subjea maiier
Tins abibty however is hardly synonymous with the construct of intelligence as
dehned above
Develop nenlal Changes tn Intelligence 233

are attained by the gradual accumulation of small increments of progress

rather than b) abrupt and discontinuous spurts of development In terms
of degree of cognitive ability the adolsecent is a different and more mature
person than the preadolescent but not discontinuously so * And the
acquisition of these increased cognitive abilities plays an important role in
personality moral and religious development
The vertical capaaty also does not mean
termination of growth in
that all development ceases Although beyond this point the in
intellectual
dividual may be unable to solve more difficult novel problems he continues
to grow in a horizontal direction —m
the sense of increased information
knowledge ability to draw upon past experience increased ability to make
decisions to form judgments to exerase common sense and so forth
Qersild and others 1916) Also as pointed out earlier because of the shift
from concrete to abstract modes of cognitive functioning the capacity both
to learn large bodies of subject matter and to reason in terms of abstract
general hypotheses (to use propositional logic) sliows a discontinuous rate
of increase And an individual encounters
since the majority of problems
can hardly be classified as novel the continuing horizontal growth may be
of much greater practical significance than the level of vertical growth
already attained

GROWTH CURVE OF SEPARATE INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES Sub teSt analysis

of various tests of intellectual ability shows that several important differ
ences exist in the rate of growth age of terminal growth and rate of decline
among the component sub abilities Simple rote memory (memory span)
reaches an earlier peak of development than either general intelligence
(Conrad Freemen and [ones 1944) vocabulary or arithmetical ability
(Garrett Bryan and Perl 1935) but this is not the case with respect to
more meaningful and analytical types of memory (Jones and Conrad 1933)
During the preadolescent and adolescent periods vocabulary and ability to
dissect sentences grow at a more rapid rate than does reasoning ability
despite identical rates of growth during early and middle childhood (Conrad
Freeman and Jones 1944) Growth of ability terminates earlier on the
analogies test than on either the completions or opposites tests On the
other hand decline in ability sets m
earlier for such functions as analogies
and completions than for vocabulary and general information (Jones and
Conrad 1933) In conclusion it appears that the more complex intellectual
abilities have a more gradual rate of growth reach maturity at a later age
(Bradway and Thompson 1962) but show evidence of decline earlier in
life

* In terms of mode of cognitive functioning however

discontinuity in devel
opment probably does occur at adolescence
 It uUecu al Ability
234

components
Cattell (1963) has isolated Ouid and
cryslallued
R B process func
of intelligence The crystalliied factor consists largely of
expert
tions presumably not inllucnced by learning or educational
much
in
age The huid factor
ence and readies maltirity at a relatively early
contrast consists more of product functions
which are appreciably allecteu
maturity later in lile
by education and experience and therefore reach
m
The so called culturally deprived are naturally much more
deficient

intelligence
the Hold than in the crystallizetl component of

Growth Curves of Bright and Dull Children

dull and aserage children
Available evidence indicates that bright
organization
grow intellectually at different rates and differ with respect to
age
and qualitative pattern of cognitive abilities Although the terminal
groups children attain a
of intellectual growth is the same for all tliree dull
status
disproportionately large percentage of their ullunate intellectual
spurts
during the early years (Bayley 1956) and tend to grow stepwise in
more
and pauses (Cornell and Armstrong 1955) Normal children exhibit a
constant rate of growth (Freeman and Flory 1957) whereas bright children
show an accelerated rate of growth in later childhood that slows down
somewhat in middle and late adolescence (Cornell and Armstrong 1955
Freeman and Flory 19S7) Tlie net effect of these differences is that the
bright lend to grow away from the dull (Conrad Freeman and Jones
1944 Thurstone and Ackerson 1929) Duller individuals (as might reason
ably be anticipated from their greater chronological age) also show greater
differentiation of intelligence than do brighter younger children of the same
mental age (Thompson and Margaret 1949) Greater differentiation con
comitantly makes for decreased plasticity or increased rigidity When
chronological age is held constant however differentiation of cognitive
traits (Segel 1948) is more marked among bright children (higher mental
age and higher IQ)
There are also good reasons — from analysis of intelligence scores test
alone —for believing that normal (average) cognitive functioning al a gi'C"
matunty level quaUtatively different from the performance of accelerated
is

younger or retarded older individuals of the same mental age First sub
scale analysis of the Stanford Binct test shows signifcant differences between
old dull and young bright individuals of comparable mental age the m
types of Items handled successfully (H E Jones 1931 Laycock and Clark
1942 M A Merrill 1924) Second bnght and dull children tend to exhibit
more scatter (spread of successes and failures on component sub tests over
a wider range of difliciiliy) on this test ilian do
average children (M A
Merrill 1921) Third bright and dull dnldren of equivalent mental age
excel in different kinds of cognitive abilities
The bright are generally
Developmenlal Changes in Intelligence 235

superior m tests demanding comprehension, imagination use of language,

reasoning abstraction, and generalization (Aldrich, 1931, K S Cunningham,
1927, Gallagher and Lucito, 1961, Purvis, 1938, Ramaseslian, 1950), the
dull are superior in spatial abiht) (Ramaseslian, 1950), word fluenq
(Ramaseslian, 1950), and manipulation of concrete materials (Aldrich, 1931)
Fourth, normal children do belter than mentally retarded children of the
same mental age in such school skills as arithmetic reasoning (Dunn, 1954),
spelling (Dunn, 1954), reading comprehension (Bliesmer, 1954, Dunn, 1954,
M A Merrill, 1924), ability to profit from contextual cues (Dunn, 1954),
memory for factual details (Bliesmer, 1954), and understanding of ideational
relationships (Bliesmer, 1954) No significant differences svere found in the
simpler and more mechanical reading skills (Bliesmer, 1954) and in arith
metic fundamentals (Dunn, 1954) Finally, bnght and dull children of the
same mental age show diaractenstic differences in approach to problem
solving
In view of the fact that they continue to grow m
intelligence just as
long as their brighter peers, dull students need not drop out of high
school at the tenth grade, as they frequently do at present, but could profit
from schooling until at least the age of 18 To maximize the benefit that
such students can derive from continued instruction, the more difficult sub
jects could be placed at the end of the high school curriculum, and abstract
materials could be concretized and made more meaningful in terms of life
situations (Segel, 1948) And in order to recognize their peculiar capacities
and help them achieve success rather than failure, the school needs to
provide for them a wide variety of learning activities (Segel, 1948)

Developmental Changes in Organization

Since there is much disagreement regarding the way in which mtelli

gence is organized, it is obviously impossible to make any definitive state

ment about developmental changes in its otganizauon The weight of the

evidence, however, points to (a) an initial stage (infancy and the early pre
school period) in. which the abilities measured by intelligence tests are
predominantly perceptual and senson motor m
nature and are largely
unrelated both to each other and to later manifestations of abstract mtel
hgence (b) an intermediate stage (from approximately the late preschool
period to preadolescence) in which abstract intelligence is highly general in
nature, cognitive abilities are highly intercorrelated and (c) a later stage
(preadolescence and beyond) marked by increasing differentiation of
intellectual abilities
At the age of 5 abstract abilities are much in evidence and are so highly
intercorrelated that it is relatively difficult to isolate independent factors
In contrast to the eight primary abilibes that he was able to identify
 /tilellfcluixl AbiUiy
236

and )oung L L 1 hnrstonc tvas able

m 1 popuhlion of adolescents adtills

comparable abilities among 5 and C )ear'Olds ('riiiirstone,

to isolate only five
older, particularly
1938, Tlnirsione and Tliurstone, 1916) As cliildrcn grow
factor
during the preadolcscent jicnod and beyond tliere is evidence from
(Garrett, 19^6
analysis^ of increasing differentiation of intellectual ability
Garrett, Bryan and I’erl, and Bcrkowitz. I'JG-l. Guilford, lOGG-
1935, Green
Heinonen. 1963. Ljung. 1965, WJ Afeyer. 1960) Increased integration
also

occurs within the various component siibabilmes (Ljiing, 19C5)

of
Bythe time an individual reaches adolescence, differential factors
interest, relative ability, sjieciabzation of training motivation, success
and
failure cxjiencnce, and cultural expectation operate selectively to
develop
Chil
certain original abilities and to leave others relatively undeveloped
to
dren with highly differentiated mothers (Dyh and ^\'Ilkm, 1965) tend
undergo most differentiation Original aptitude and expcnence seem to
reinforce cacli otJier in arcular fashion since children who are gifted m
a particular area benefit differentially from instruction in that area (Lesser,
1962) However, inasmuch as considerable interrelatedness among different
cognitive functions still remains (Schiilman and Havighurst. 1947) evidence
of inaeasing differentiation at the older age levels does not render the
concept of general intelligence completely untenable Furthermore, rela
lively high correlations betvseen intelligence lest scores obtained in tlie
primary grades and retest scores obtained during adolescence indicate that
there is much overlapping between Uie factors dciermimng early level of
general cognitive abilityand later level of differentiated cognitive ability
For practical purposes an intelligence test score has less utility after
preadolescence ilian during the early elementary sdiool yean TJte older
childs relative standing in one ability has relatively little predictive value
for his relative standing in another ability, and composite scores on mtelh
gence not very useful for predicting performance in a parlicufar
tests are
school subject Much more meaningfulllian a total score is a profile show
mg the relative standing of an individual on a wide variety of baste intcl
leclual abilities Tliurstone slesis of primary mental abilities, for example
provides such a profile By expressing intelligence in terms of the smallest
number of relatively pure
and independent factors, it gives a much more
definitive, convenient and cjiiantifiable qualitative analysis of cognitive
ability than could be obtained from examination of the protocol of the
more traditional Binetiype scale composed of bauenes of heterogeneous
sub-tests
In conclusion therefore u can be stated
that when differential aptitude
batteries purporting to measure only the
relatively and
well-established
few

*
^ ^ 09^0) (1959) and P
Cohen E
„
Hagen (19o_) failed fo obtain asosistcnt
J
evidence of increasing diflerentiauon
Dnelopmertlal Changes in Inlelliget 237

pnmary menial abilities are used, they probably have more predictive
value for the particular kinds of subject matter achievement for which they
are relevant than do composite scores on tests of general intelligence or of
general scholastic aptitude However, the latter tests, as Q McNemar
(1964) points out, are not completely without psychological significance
or predictive value In fact, they are more useful for predicting complex
criteria of academic achievement, involving the interaction among several
than are even the well-established differential aptitude batteries,
abilities,
and are incomparably more useful than are differential batteries consisting
of unvahdated factors or of factors manifesting little generality of function
The increased differentiation of intellectual ability dunng adolescence
IS a general phenomenon but also varies in relation to many differential
factors D Segel s evidence (1948) shows that differentiation among intellec
tual traits is greater for bnght than for dull adolescents Intellectual abilities
are also differentiated along soaal-class and sex lines and as a result of
prolonged or specialized education Especially interesting are data indicat
ing that supenoniy in a given function reflecting higher general ability
at a younger age level may undergo reversal dunng adolescence as a result
of differentiation For example girls have higher language and anthmetical
ability than boys at tlie beginning of adolescence, but boys eventually
surpass them in arithmetical ability before the close of adolescence (Kuhlen,
1952) Children from upper soao-economic groups are superior to lower
class children on tests of both verbal and mechanical ability at age 10, but
at age 16 retain their supenonty only on the verbal tests (Havighurst and
Janke, 1944 Janke and Havighurst, 1945)
This progressive differentiation of mental ability requires a corres-
pondingly increasing differentiation of cumcular offerings As Segel points
out, a core curriculum is better suited to the intellectual organization

of junior than of senior high school students Another consequence of this

increasing differentiation that is apparent from studies of dropouts from
school IS

that between the ages of 10 and 14 maladjustment through lack of general

mental ability is an item of importance among the factors causing youth to leave
school However between the ages of 15 and 18 such maladjustment does not
result in large numbers of youth leaving school (Segel 1948)

Constancy of Individual Hates

of Grou-th

Quite apart from normative fluctuations in the rate of intellectual

development it is important to ascertain whether children tend to retain
the same relative status in their age group as they grow older To the extent
that this type of constancy prevails the child s developmental quotient (IQ)
 InlrlUelu*! I
2J*

and Jut wore at an

xmII flitcuialc Imlc Ifcmi nnc ape Ic^rl «« anotlirr
of liu lelatnc itatin
carher »t3gc of tir\cloj»mrnt will iioi oiil) !ic iniluntnc
31 tint age Ic^cl btu will alwi liaie |n«ftfti\e
lahic for Im rclatnc »tatii|

at later »tage% of dcNrlojrtncnl Hie <onttanf> of the IQ

»m> lie cxpm'a
of rorrcla
cither icniu of u\ prohililr rirur or in Icrmi of the roerinent
m
that arc
non Iictwccn llie intclligenrr te*l vuie* of a grtnip of diitdren
detenmned on two %cjutate *Knnnn» (the roefTitient of itahihl')
to remain
Ctcncrall) ijicalmg ontc the IQ apprriarfiri itiliilit) it tenth
relatiicl) rontnnt and cxnliiig degtret of incoruiatic) trnti to l»e iiomalh
diitnhntcd At the age of lor cvjtii|ile the proliahlc cnor of an IQ
(Tcnmn and Merrill lyST) h alK.m & (lar^niR with hnRhtn^^^
l>etween
lc\cl) nntl the coefTiticm of iialnlit) (wiih an inier%3l of 3 Acarx
test!) n approximate!) Rj (lloii/ik Matfarlane and Mien 191^) Hie
fluid
prethttne \aliie of the IQ ii gmil) inlliieiurtl Imtli !>) the age of the
ic^t
at the time of mmal tewing jinl l») the length of the inlcrxal lictueen
and rctcil I he ohicr the fluid when fir\i toted and the shorter the
imcriial lielwecn tewt ifie greairr wdl l>c tlie prcihttive aertinic) of the
initial test (J E. Andcrwin 193 » U I) Niiderwui 1939 Ila\lc)

Kradwt) and Hiomjnon I%i llon/il Marfatlanr and Alien " J

Mc)er 19G0) Iniclligenre tot woret gndnall) l>e(omc more stahle with
ndtancing age and first arrpnrc siiflinent »nhihl> it) l>e prattirnll) U'elnl
for prethctive purjioscj when the chihl teaches whool age (Ihslc) 19I‘J)
Stihihl) in <omf)<ittent menial aliihiics however is not imprts'ise until the
fourth gridt sntl first Irecomes high cnooji for Ik))s during the righl!i
grade to forecast adult aptitudes (Ilennctt ind Doj>[>cll 1931 U J Me)**"
19Gfl) Among girls the findings ire more cijiiisonl (Mejer ind Bendig

lOfil)In iliis section we slnll consider age level changes in the sinhilil) of
the IQ IS well as sanous measurement genic and environmental factors
that account for both connsieiicy iiid fluctintions in indivitlual mtes of
growth
rrcscliool intenigenre tests meisiirc a larger i»rlion of abstract iniel
Icctunl abibi) than do infant Kales anti hence liavc greater predictive value
After the age of 2 Korcs on prcKliool tests shovs i modcnic 16 to 66} and
(
progrcssisel) increasing correlation ssith Kores dctcnninctl at the age of
7 G E Anderson 1959 llonnk Macfarhnc anti Allen 1918) but it is
not until the age of schtaol entrance tint worcs on intelligence tests are rca
sonably well correlated with tcrmmil intellectual status (llsyley 1919
Honnk Macfarlane and \||en 1918) If prcKbool atlministcrcd
tests arc
accurately and on more than one occasion school ige status can be predicted

® Tins means that one half

ol ilie IQ tested persons do not deviate more than
5 points on immediaie retesting Oser an interval
of C (o 8 vears approximately
10 percent of all IQ scores diange at least
one standard deviation {16 points)
Dnelopmental Changes in Intelligence 239

With a degree of error that rarely exceeds one category on a fi^e point scale
During the later elementar) school years, IQ remains relatively stable, both
on a year to year basis and o%er a penod of three or more years (Bayley, 1949,
Honzik, Macfarlane, and Allen, 1918) Although some fluctuations in test
scores do occur, most children tend to retain the same relative position in
their age group
"When the child is at the age of adolescence, test scores of general
intelligence acquire a fair amount of stability The correlation betueen
scores on intelligence tests given at the onset of adolescence with those
given at the close of adolescence is in the neighborhood of 80 (J E Ander
son, 1940) From year to year this correspondence is even greater (E L
Thorndike, 1926) Thus, while some fluciuation in test score occurs in
individual growth curves, most individuals tend to retain the same relative
position m
the group throughout the adolescent period (Freeman and Flory,
1937) In extreme instances, of course, there are large fluctuations in test
scores, but these fluctuations tend to be associated witli such unusual dis-
organizing factors in life history as, for example, serious illness (Honzig
Macfarlane, and Allen. 1948) rather than with ininnsic irregularity of the
growth pattern or unreliability of the measuring instrument For purposes
of mdii'idtial guidance, however, a reliability coefficient of 80 is not too
reassuring In dealing with a particular individual it does not suffice to know
that a majortiy of individuals at age 18 will occupy the same relative post
tion m the group with respect to IQ as they did at age IS There is sufficient
variability in individual growth patterns to warrant frequent and penodic
testing of intelligence if test scores are to be used at all for guidance pur
poses

CAUSES OF CONSTANCY AND FLUCTUATION Much of the cxmstancy of the

IQ can undoubtedly be attributed to genic factors To the extent that the
development of intelligence is determined by polygenic influences, some
degree of constancy is inherent in the fact that the genotype of an individual
remains invariable throughout his lifetime The environment also accounts
forsome constancy, since for any particular individual it tends, within
remain relatisely stable The relative contnbutions of lieredity and
limits, to
environment to the constancy of the IQ are, of course, proportionate to
their relative weights m
determining cognitive development A third factor
making for constancy is the phenomenon of developmental irreversibiltty
or the limiting influence of current developmental status on potentialities
for future growth New growth always proceeds from the existing phenotype
rather than from potentialities inherent in the genotype If, as a result of
a consistently poor environment during the early formative years, existing
genic endowment is not actualized the attained level of functional capac
ity (although incommensurate with genic
potentiality) significantly limits
 Intellectual Ab I IJ
240

the extent to ^vhich later emironmenial impro\ement can increase the rate

of cognitue gross th An individual 5 pnor success in developing Ins intellec

tual potentialities words tends to keep his future rate of growth
in other
relatively constant despite fluctuations in relevant environmental variables
Finally constancy is in part a reflection of the overlap that prevaib in
the intellectual abilities measured by indulgence tests at different age levels
(J E Anderson 1939)
Fluctuations in IQ are caused by measurement genic and environ
mental factors Included under the first heading are (a) errors of measure
ment inherent in Uie selection and placement of test items and in the use
of Items that are not equally representative of generally available experience
—thereby leading to variable amounts of test disadvantage at different
points m the life cycle and for different groups of children (b) errors of
test administration and scoring espeaally during infancy and early child
hood when communication are maximal (c) situational
difficulties of
performance as personality of the
variability in such factors affecting test
test administrator rapport (Pasamanick and Knobloch I9aa) fatigue
physical well being general attitude motivation (Haggard 19a4) attention
span frustration tolerance self-confidence level of aspiration emotional
stability level of anxiety reaction to failure venturesomenevv and nega
tivism (Rust 1931) (d) variation in the standardization sample over the
age range (e) variation among age groups in test ceiling and in degree of
variability of test scores and (f) variable exjiosure to practice and coaching
on intelligence tests (\\ iseman I9a^) and to test experience generally
The most imporunt measurement factor making for instability of the
IQ are age level clianges in the composition of intelligence tests and in the
degree of overlap of test content between adjacent age groups E Andcr
(J
son 1939 Bayley I9aa) Because infant intelligence scales measure a largely
unrelated type of sensonmotor ability instead of the cognitive abihtv
tested at later age levels a cliild with high genic for abstract
endowment
intelligence tends to score much closer to the mean on earlier than on later
tests Hence makes a spuriously low score on the initial test and registers
lie

a spurious gam on the second test the rcserse liolds

true for the child
defiaent in abstract intelligence
(J t \nderson 1939) Dissimilarity m
test content on the other hand is necessary
and desirable in instances wiierc
^umc devclojimental cliange occun m
the organization of intelligence
For example mtelligcncc tests should lie more
higlily differentiated at age
15 than at age 5
Ju't Ijccii.tc lh€ gtnoI)|«!
rcmaim consiani «e cannol o.iumf that ils
o„ .lc.cIo,™cn< tod .o md,„d„al con, la,
o growl ince genic factors also .q ,n ,clal.,c
determine normatiie fluctuations in
ra c or topuinc deejo, men,
d.r l.fc ,,,an ,1
R.,c roc ,o c„c„d,.,doc/ reel,,;,,, q
,na) alo, contcar.l,
J„, Long, tod, nal
5 m DiSerencei 241

anal^-ses ofinduidual gro5Nih curves of intelligence by N Bajley (1940)

and E L Cornell and C M
Armsirong (1955) are consistent vsith this
interpretation The latter investigators vvete able to classify most growth
—
curves under three main patterns a continuous growth curve from age 5
to 18 a siep-like curve consisting of alternate spurts and pauses, and a
discontinuous curve breaking at pubert) and showing either a steeper or
more gradual slope thereafter
Environmental factors contribute in two wa)s to fluctuations in the
IQ physical and emotional viassiiudes of a transitory nature (illness,
First,
emotional trauma, separation from parents, rejection by peers) may im
pair a child s intelligence test performance without basically affecting his
cognitive capacity Second, radical and sustained dianges in cognitive
stimulation or motivation may modify actual capanty for intellectual func
tionmg However, as will be pointed out below, significant alterations in
IQ of such origin can be anttapated only in young children who are removed
from a markedly impoverished to a normally adequate or ennched environ
ment
Penonality traits assoaated with parent attitudes influence the con
stancy of the IQ "Democratic" homes, encouraging the development of
childrens independence, tend to be associated with a nsing IQ (Baldwin,
Kalhom and Breese Grant, 1939) Gams in IQ are correlated
1945, £ I

with independence (Sontag Baker, and Nelsen, 1955) and high achievement
motivation (Kagan, Sontag, and Baker, 1958), whereas losses IQ, espe m
cially in giils, are correlated with dependents (Sontag Baker, and Kel^n,
1955) The greatest clianges m IQ tend to occur in intellectually gifted
children (Lmdholm, 1964)

Sex Differences

Sex differences in general intelligence tend to be negligible magni m

tude and inconsistent in direction (Terman and Tyler, 1954) The most
widely used individual tests of general intelligence —
the Revised Stanford
Binet Scale and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children after all, have —
been so constructed as to eliminate sex differences Most of the obtained
differences can be attributed to the fact that the particular tests used are
differentially weighted with resjject to the various component aspects of
intelligence in which boys and girls differ m
opposite directions vocabu —
lary, verbal fluency, rote memory, spatial and numerical abilities (Terman
and Tyler, 1954)
Evidence regarding differences in vanability also tends to be inconsis-
tent and equivocal These differences, when found, are most marked at the
extremes of the distnbution. but the operation of variables other than genic
 Inlellectuat Abtl ly
2 «
held
patterning role in the development of intelligence Even if it could be
constant over individuals Jt would still play this active regulatory role

rather than merely constituting a passive field for the unfolding of a trait

completely determined by genic factors its clTecis under such conditions

would simply operate in a uniform way for all individuals However since
It varies in important wa)s that afiect the development of
intelligence it

also contributes to inter and inin-cultiiral variability both in the pattern

ing of intelligence and in the realization of genic potentialities for develop-
ing intelligence It determines the extent to which existing genic endowment
can be converted into overt functional capacity and helps determine which
particular components will be selectively emphasized as the latter capacity
undergoes differentiation with advancing age
Culture social class and family have many ways of influencing attained
level of cognitive development providing more or less opportunity for
training and experience by offering more or less encouragement and stimii
lation and by selectively valuing and rcvvarding intellectual attainment
the operation of these factors leads to substantial differences in ultimate
outcome among individuals with comparable genic jiotcniiahty Personality
variables of lempcramcnul and environmental origin play a similar role
Especially important in this connection are (a) such determinants of tail

oriented motivation as intcHeciual curiosityactivity level and venture

somcncss and area of ego-involvemcnt (c) such correlates of
(h) intensity

ego-cnhancemcnt motivation as need for achievement comjietiiivencss re

sponsivenesv to prestige incentives ego aspiration goal tenacity
level of
fniitration tolerance (d) need for volitional and
and anxiety level ami
exccuiivc indejxrndencc Intellectually gifted chil Iren tend to excel in most
*

of these traits (Lighifooi I9 jI Tcrman and Oden

1919) Although some
of the positive relationship lictwecn motivational and intellectual sujxrn
only can l»c attnbuicd to thtir common avsocialion with high socioeconoinic
status or to the iKtier ability of more intelligent children to perceive the
characicrological ingredients of success it is entirely conceivable tint level
of motiv iiion directly influences cxicnt of
actualization of genic [lotcnini
lUcs for <Icvclo})ing inicihgcnce Inde|iemlcnt
and competitive cliildrcn
for example tend to show large increases in
IQ the period from C to m
10 years of age (Sontag and Kagan I9G3)

\\l cn oserproiecimv parents iry lokeep ilicir tJiil Iren cmoiionally dei>cn
.lent or Hlen (I e latter aticmpi i.> rcuiu an infamile .Icjki .lent stains, faduf'
to .leselop II lelletfual «omf.eier cc a.Imiral Iv
senes l«tl. j nrtwses (Stover 19^3)
See also 1 \\ Soiuai; C
1 I aker ami \ Nelscn CliiUlrcii from J nntes
t .arattenml I
> warmth ficedotn of exploration ami
actcicraiorv i resviire
lie largest gams m IQ (11,1 iHin Ka»om and IWeese I9la)
\at re and Nurture 245

The Problem of Modifiability

Once we gnnt that the IQ represents a multiply determined functional

capacity in the development of whtdi experiential and motivational factors
play an important regulatory role it is superfluous to inquire whether it

can be modified by significant changes in sucli factors The more relevant

questions at this point are the extent of modification that is possible and
the conditions under which it occurs The most important limiting factors
are (a) irreversible loss in attainable capacity following prolonged failure
to actualize genic potentiality (b) diminished plasticity in older children
and (c) the crucial role of genic influences in setting absolute as well as
relative restrictions on the amount of change that can occur From these
considerations apparent that significant environmental modification
it is

can be anticipated only in early childhood and after correction of serious

deprivation It is hardly likely that discriminable changes in IQ will be
found following improvement m
an environment that is already reasonably
adequate from the standpoint of intellectual stimulation and motivation
Before changes in IQ can be validly interpreted as evidence of environ
mental modification of cognitive capacity it should be obvious that such
changes must be reliably greater than fluctuations attributable to measure
ment factors alone Failure to take this consideration into account has led
to many unwarranted and exaggerated claims regarding the modifiability
of the IQ Hence before we review studies of the effects of such factors as
fosterhome placement continued institutionalization or nursery school at
tendance on level of intellectual functioning we would do well to consider
various noncnvironmental sources of change
First because of very large errors of measurement in infancy and early
childhood infant and preschool scales are not even very reliable measures
of current intellectual status Many of these errors of measurement lead
to underestimation of a given child s actual intelligence in other instances
intelligence is overestimated In either case there is a tendency toward
regression to the mean upon subsequent testing (statistical regression)
Relatively large changes m measured. IQ reflective of test unreliability
therefore occur irrespective of any concomitant alteration in environment
Instability of such origin should certainly not be confused with evidence
of genuine plasticity (J F Anderson 1939)
Second because of their emphasis on neuromuscular and sensorimotor
functions infant scales do not really measure abstract verbal ability and
thus have very little predictive value for later intellectual status Scores on
infant scales therefore constitute neither an adequate baseline from which
to measure subsequent gams or losses in relative intellectual standing nor
an adequate criterion in terms of which infant or preschool subjects may
 Intellecliuil Abil ly
2-16

be matched for rclaiue intellectual ability (J E Anderson 1939) Simply

on the basis of actual genotypic capacity for abstract cognitise functioning
that is not measured by the initial test lai^c sf^urtous increments and
decre

ments in intelligence are registered in later yean For example quite apart
from any environmental influence progressive decline in IQ may be antic
ipated from poorly-endowed orphanage children simply because of their
spuriously high scores on infant scales and contrariwise progressive in
creases m IQ may be antiapated from well-endowed orphanage cliildren

simply because their genic potentialities for developing abstract intelligence

are underestimated by the infant scales Selective factors that operate in the
adoption of orphanage children ^catcr likelihood of placing brighter
better endowed children) may thus account in part for the retention or
even improvement of the initial IQ status of ailopted children In evaluating
the gams asvoaated with a good foster home or nursery school environ
ment it is also important to realize that test disadvantage (relative unfa
milianiy with specific test material or indifferent test motivation) is more
likely to occur in an impoverished than in a reasonably adequate environ
mem
In appraising studies of attempted modification of the IQ attention
should also be paid to the pnnaple to filial regression* and to the pos-
sibility of genically-orienied mtraindwtdual variation m
rate of growth
Thus quite independently of any errors of measurement or of any change
in the environment the children of imelleciually dull individuals tend to
score higher than their parents on intelligence tests and many children also
show considerable spontaneous fluctuation in relative status during their
growth careers

Deprivation and Enrichment

Because of the great practical importance of the possibility of modify

mg intellectual capacity a voluminous and highly
controversial literature
dealing with ihe effects of environmental deprivation
and enrichment has
arisen during the past three decades
Interpretation of this literature is
extremely difficult since very lew studies have been
sufficiently well con
trolled to exclude many nonenvironmental
sources of measured cliange m
IQ In general the weight of the evidence suggests two tentativeconclu
sions First senous and prolonged deprivation espeaally during late infancy
and the presdiool years seems capable of
inflicting permanent damage on
intellectual growth Second enrichment
of the existing environment can
effect substantial improvement
of intellectual status only in young children
with a prior history of serious dcpnvation

tendency for dnldren of parents

manifesting deviant traits to score
,
closer lo themean than their parenu vnih respect
to ihe« ira.t,
\atuTe and Siirture 247

EFFECTS OF DEPRIVATION Wc ha\e already considered e\idence of the

immediate and longterm detrimental effects of early cognitive deprivation
on sensori motor, language, and intellectual development Such studies are
obviously vulnerable to criticism on tlie grounds of the unreliability of the
infant scales employed and on the basis of inadequate matching of control
and experimental groups (Pinneau, 1955) Unqualified dismissal of these
findings, on the other hand, is unwarranted when they are considered in
the larger context of related evidence In the first place, the very grossness
of the findings, and by many independent
their consistent replication m
vestigaiors in different parts of the world ojmpensate, in part, for their
methodological weaknesses Second, they are consistent with observational
and clinical data on the children concerned, witii studies of animal depnva
tion, and with studies of older children growing up in orphanages and in
depressed rural areas
It seems highly probable as stated previously, that the longer children
remain msubstandard environmental conditions, for example, orphanages
(Skeels and Fillmore 1937, Skeels, and others 1938) or with mentally re
tarded mothers (Speer, 1940), the progressively lower their IQs become in
comparison with the IQ s of comparable children reared m
more favorable
environments Providing greater credibility for these findings are reports
of progressive decline in the intelligence test scores of isolated mountain
and canalboat children who also grow up m
intellectually nonstimulating
and uncliallenging environments (Asher, 1935, H Gordon, 1923, Sherman
and Key, 1932, Wheeler, 1942) The facilitating effect of migration to and
prolonged residence in the North on the IQs of Southern Negro children
has already been considered In general, prolonged exposure to extremely
—
deprived environments depresses the IQ about 20 points more during the
preschool years than in older children (Bloom 1964a) However, some of
the loss registered by children who remain m
the less favorable environ
raents is attnbutable (a) to relatively poor genic endowment (as a result
of selective adoption or migration) which for psychometric reasons, can
first be manifested in later scores on tests of intelligence, and (b) to pro

pressively greater test disadvantage as intelligence tests place increasing

emphasis on verbal abilities Further, despite the so-called leveling effect
environment variability in intelligence scores does not
of the institutional
decline with advancing age (J E Anderson 1939), thereby demonstrating
the prepotent influence of original differences in genic endowment
When orphanage children from relatively poor hereditary and social
backgrounds are placed at an early age in superior foster homes, there is
evidence of either improvement in IQ (Freeman Holzinger, and Mitchell,
1928) or of maintenance of an above average rate of intellectual growth that
IS sustained over many years (Skodak 1939 Skodak and Skeels 1949) AI
though part of these changes may reflect the influence of an improved en
 lnlelUctut7l Ai hty
250

at successne age ktels inaeases By school age parent child correlations are
Leahy
in the neighborhood of 50 {Biirhs 1928 Conrad and Jones 1910
could reflect the
1935) Howcser since the existing degree of relationship
light on
influence of either heredity or environment these data shed little
greater
the nature nurture problem Nesertheless tuo clues point to the
"O
weight of heredity If environment were a highl) significant factor
would expect that (a) since mothers bear the major burden of child rearing
with
in our society the IQ of children would be more liighly correlated
mothers than with fathers IQ and (b) since siblings share a more uniform
developmental environment with each other than with their parents inter
sibling resemblance would be greater than parent child resemblance
Since

available data (Conrad and Jones 1910) confirm neither hypothesis the
environmentalist position accordingly weakened
is

More on the nature nurture problem is provided by

crucial evidence
comparison of and true parent true child rcsem
foster parent foster child
blances in IQ Foster duldren share only their foster parents environment
whereas true children share both heredity and environment with their par
ents In the fosterhome situation where the genic basis of resemblance is
removed parent diild correlations (Burks 1928 Leahy 1935) are consider
ably lowed® (approximately 20) than in the natural home situation (ap-
proximately 50) Similarly intra pair differences between children whose
own fathers are at opposite extremes of the occupational hierarchy are
markedly higher than intra pair differences between children whose foster
fathers are in comparable positions (Burks 1938) It seems therefore that
the greater part of the variance in duldren s IQs is attributable to genic
rather than to environmental factors This conclusion is consistent vsiih
findings (Skodak 1939 Skodak and Skeels 19-19) that whereas the IQ of
foster children is only negligibly related to their foster parents educational

status It 1$ moderately correlated at school

age with true mothers ediica
tional status (35) and IQ (40) The latter correlation
is almost as high
as that between children and true parents who together
are domiciled

Sibling and Twin Resemblance

\\e have already noted that the absence of
significant differences be
tvseen the parent child and intersibling
correlations in IQ lends support
to the hereditanan posiuon Oiher
related findings point in the same direc
tion (a) the resemblance between
true siblings reared same home is
in the

10 ^me of the resemblance between

children and foster parents may also
reflca the influence of selective
adopuon — the tendency to match foster and true
occupational background (Conrad and Jones 19^10
Uah"”l935)^"“
NfllMTff and Aurtwrc 251

substantially greater than the resemblance between foster siblings (Freeman,

et al, 1928), (b) similarity sviih respect to age and sex does not increase
inter sibling resemblance in IQ as one might expect if environmental factors
exercised considerable ueight (H E Jones. 1954), (c) resemblances between
foster siblings are no greater than foster parent foster child resemblances
despite greater similarity in environment (Burks, 1928, Freeman, Holzmger,
and Mitchell, 1928, Leahy, 1935), (d) separation of siblings does not loader
inter sibling correlations (H E Jones, 1954), and (e) when tnterfamiltal
environmental vanabihty is eliminated, as in the orphanage situation,
neither the resemblance between sibling pairs nor the degree of variability
in IQ scores is correspondingly reduced (H E Jones, 1954)
Comparative studies of identical and fraternal twins shed more light
on the nature nurture problem inasmuch as identical twins have approxi
mately identical genotypes, whereas fraternal twins are genically no more
similar than ordinary siblings Here, too the findings give little comfort
to environmentalists Identical twins are markedly more similar IQ than m
fraternal twins (correlations of 80 to 90 as against 50 to 60), and even
when identical twins are separated differences in IQ are generally smaller
than among fraternal twins reared together (Burt, 1958, Newman, Freeman,
and Hohinger, 1937, Woodworth, 1941) Sizeable differences in the IQs of
separated identical twins are only found when their educational backgrounds
are highly dissimilar On the basis of these small differences in IQ when
heredity held constant, while the usual degree of environmental van
is

ability prevails R S \Voodworih concludes that the differences found

among the children of an ordinary community are not accounted for, ex
cept in small measure, by differences in home and schooling (Woodworth,
1941)

Social Class Differences

Pnor to 18 months of age, zero or low negative correlations are found

between scores on infant intelligence scales and various socioeconomic fac
tors fBayley and Jones, 1937) Tliereafter the magnitude of correlational
indices increases rapidly, and vanes between 3 and 5 for
at scliool age
different educational, occupational, and economic criteria of social class
status (Bayley and Jones 1937) Tlie early absence of relationship simply
indicates that intelligence tests cannot possibly measure the same cognitne
abilities during infancy as in later years The increasing correspondence
between IQ and socioeconomic vanables as degree of test overlap increases,
may reflect either the cumulative impact of environmental influences or an
increasing manifestation of hereditary potentialities (Bayley and Jones
1937)
Beginning with the preschool period, a range of about 20 points sej>
 Intellectual Ability
252

(Deutsch
arates children of the highest and lonest socioeconomic groups
relationship between
and Broisn 1964 Teniian and Merrill 19S7) The
status and fathers position in the
occupa
childrens relative inlellcctttal

uonal hierarchy is practically linear (Deutsch and Brown

"T'™™
vanes between 20 and 43
and Merrill 1937) and in correlational teims
for different tests of intelligence (Eells and
Davis 1951) Upper socioeco-
mtel
nomic groups alsocontnbute a disproportionately large number of
retarded
lectually gifted and a disproportionately small number of mentally
the total population (McGehee and Leuis 1942)
These rela
children to
of course to group aserages since differences within an oc
tionships refer
the
cupational group are actually much larger than differences betiveen
means of various groups social class differences arc greatest
Although m
tlie area of serbal abilities (Eells and Davis 1951) significant differences
ha\e also been found for all of L L Tliurstone s primary mental
abilities

(Havighurst and Breese 1947) as ucll as for other nonverbal tesu

intelligence has
The interpretation of these sooal class differences in

led to much heated controversy between hereditanans and environmental

respectively on
ists Actually three different kinds of explanations based

measurement environmental and genic (actors seem equally plausible but

the evidence airrently rvatiable is not sufficient!) definitive to establish
their reliiive weight The measurement argument stems from a certain
amount of middle<lass bias in the construction of most intelligence tests
This creates test disadvantage for the lower class child and results in an
underestimate of lus true level of cognitive functioning In order to derive
a valid and fair estimate of intellectual capacity from test performance Jt

IS necessar) that items be bnseil on experiences and s)mlx>Is

(a) specific test

that are equally asulabte and lamiliar to individuals from all social class
siran and (b) test materials arouse comparable degrees of interest and
motivation in persons of different social-class origin (A Davis 1948 Eclh
and Dasis 1951)
Most prcscnt-di) tests are heavil) weighted with sjieafic items that
arc more familiar and ipjieahng lo middle than lower class children and
with the kinds of co^nitnr ftmelwns (vocabulary linguistic skills) that are
pariiculatl) cmphasircd in middle class environments” Tlie tests arc tlius
unfair in the sense that their siicctfic ncm content docs not give the
lov\cr-class child a fair opportunity lo demonstrate his attained lesc! of
cognitive capacity But since intelligence tests do not purjiort to measure
either genic |>oicntialitics in themselves or noncognitive abilities they are
unfair neillier because they fad lo measure level of functioning in those
noncognitive ahilnics in which lowcr<lass children excel nor liccaiisc the

II As noted alwse howescr large locioctonomic differences also jirevail for

otlier nonverbal lesn
VaJure end Nurlui 253

middle emironment is expenentially or motivationally more propitious

class

for the development of native cognitive endovvment The very fact that
these tests favor middle class clitidren demonstrates that the environment
can operate selectively to develop certain aspects of intellectual endowment
This conclusion is compatible with the findings that intelligence becomes
more and more differentiated with increasing age (Garrett, Bryan, and Perl,
1935, Segel, 1948) and that sex differences in many specific intellectual
functions increase or reverse themselves as children grow older (Kuhlen,
1952)
Acceptance of the test bias explanation of social class differences by no
means rules out the genic or environmental interpretations Insofar as
environmental factors contribute to some of the variance in intelligence
test scores, it would not be unreasonable to expect that differential social
class levels of stimulation and motivation affect extent of acluahzation of
genic endowment Evidence for this type of mediation of environmental
influence comes from the finding that children’s IQs are more highly cor
related with parents education than with the economic status of their
homes (Loevinger, 1940) Social class environment also selectively influences
the differentiation of intellectual and other abilities as shown by the fact
that middle class children are supienor to their lower class contemporanes
in both verbal and mechanical abilities atage 10, but are superior only m
the former ability at age 16 The environmentalist position is weakened,
however, by the existence of large social class differences m the preschool
period (Terman and ^ferrll[, 1937), by the failure of social class differentials
to increase with advancing age (Shuttleworih, 1940), and by the significantly
greater correlation of foster childrens IQs with true mothers’ than with
foster parents educational status (Skodak, 1939, Skodak and Skeels, 1949)
The hereditanan position rests on the assumption that (a) since there
IS indisputable evidence of substantial genic contribution to individual
differences m
IQ and (b) since more intelligent persons on the average,
choose and are selectively successful in the intellectually more demanding
occupations it is reasonable to ascribe at least part of the consistently ob
tamed social class differences in IQ lo genic variability in cognitive potential
The tendency for more highly endowed individuals to reach the higher
rungs of the occupational ladder is espeaally evident in a society character
ued by a fair degree of social mobility, and since such persons also tend
to marry at their own intellectual level (H E Jones 1954), their offspnng

1" The finding that approximately the same social class differentials
appear
on the Davis-Eells culture fair lest as on the Kuhlmann Finch test (Coleman
and tVard 1955) casts doubt on the claim that the Davis-Eells test is culturally
more fair but does not necessarily invalidate the test bias hypothesis of social
class differences
 Inlellecltial Ability
2M

Although logically tenable

acquire a genic advantage from both parents
understandably difficult to put this hypothesis to
empmcal test It is
It IS
of filial regression
supported m
part by the applicability of the principle
of professional parents tend to
to soaal class differences tliat is children
holds true for clui
have a lower IQ than their parents whereas the reverse
dren of unslcilled laborers (Ouihit 1933)

Urban Rural Differences

urban
The mean IQ of rural children is consistently lower than that of
1935 Chap-
children and also tends to dimmish with increasing age (Asher
lower-class chil
anis and Williams 1945 ^\heeler 1942) As in the case of
and i$
dren this inferiority is most marked on verbal and speed items
Intel
undoubtedly attributable in part to test bias (H E Jones 1954)
ligence scales are typically devised by urban reared psychologists and are
validatedon urban scliool children However since rural children also do
more poorly on items presenting no sjjecial experiential or motivational
urban rural differences to test
handicap it is unwarranted to ascribe all

disadvantage Equally plausible are explanations based either on the aimu

lative impact of a low level of intellectual stimulation or on the selective
migration of more highly-endowed individuals to urban areas

Intelligence and Family Size

In most investigations of the relationship between IQ and number of

siblings in the family a negative correlation of 2 to 3 is reported (Anastasi
I9aG) Since there is no evidence whatsoever of any intrinsic relationship
between IQ and procreative ability only two other explanations seem plan
sible First Uic presence of a large number of children in the family may
reduce the amount of cognitive stimulation available for each child The
per capita expenditure on education recreation housing medical care and
so forili IS ordinarily lower wlien there are many siblings in the family
and even more important m
terms of language development tlie extent
of parcnKhild contact is restricted (Nisbet lDj3) Second IQ and size of
family are indirectly related by virtue of a common relationship to soaal
—
chss status persons in the upper economic strata tend to have both a
higher IQ and to raise relatively small families
To
the extent that the intellectual superiority of tlieir cliildrcn is a
funaion of cither measurement or emironmcnial factors the inverse rela
tionvhip between parents fertility and social<lasv status obviously has no
implications for eugenics However insofar as j>crsons in the upper occupa
tional strata may l>c presumed to possess a tii|)erior genic endowment with
Inteihgence as a Predictor of Academic Aehtexemenl

respect to cognitive capicit) their relatively low fenihtj rate may be ex

pected over the course of many generations (m the absence of comi>ensatory
genic factors) to contribute to a national decline in the genotypic basis of
intelligence
In ominous prediction predicated on this line of reasoning
spite of the
there is some evidence of a slight but significant gain m the mean IQ of
Scottish children from 1932 to 1947 (Scottish Council for Research in Edu
cation 1933) Furthermore despite the tremendous increase in high school
enrollment from 1916 to 1940 with a corresponding elimination of the
intellectual selectivity that formerly operated there has been no drop in
the mean IQ of the American higJi school |X5pulation (Findi 1946) The
maintenance of phenotypic levels of intelligence under these circumstances
can be explained perhaps by (a) compensatory clianges in such environ
mental determinants of intelligence as the general standard of public edu
cation (b) greater test sophistication on the part of children and (c) a trend
in recent years toward a higher birth rate among upper socioeconomic
groups (Anastasi 1956)

Intelligence as a Predictor of Academic Achievement

Academic achievement or m
various subject matter fields gen
success
erally with intelligence or academic aptitude test
correlates about 0 5
scores Some components of academic aptitude tests such as vocabulary
(Locke 1963) reasoning and information 0 W
French 1964) have more
predictive value than others for scholastic achievement Intelligence test
scores are also negatively correlated with drop-out rate from high school
(Dillon 1949) Specific aptitude tests sucli as quantitative ability or nu
mencal reasoning naturally correlate much more highly than IQ with such
related subject matter fields as mathematics In any case the predictive value
of academic aptitude scores varies greatly with such factors as sex (Locke
1963 McGuire 1961) and type of community (McGuire 1961)
Low intelligence can apparently be compensated for in part at least
by grading learning tasks to pupils current achievement levels \\'’hen this
is done for anthmetic materials no significant differences are found among

children of low average and high IQ in learning retention and transfer

(Klausmeier and Check 1962 Klausmeier and Feldhusen 1959) Longer
exposure times can similarly compensate for the effects of low intelligence
on level of perceptual organization (Allen Tyrrel Schulz and Koons
1958) Considerable evidence generally supports the proposition that m
structional aides organizing devices and superior textual materials differ
entially benefit the duller and initially less knowledgeable as opposed to
ilie brighter and initially more knowledgeable student Correlations be
 fntelleclual Ability
256

achievement tests tend to de

tween scholastic aptitude and subject matter
the course in qucsti^
dine consistently from the Ijcginning to the end ol
discrepancies be
However, this same trend toward progressively decreasing
of the bright and dull does not necessarily
tween the achievement levels

prevail when pupils are permitted to learn at their

own rate of speed
adiievement It
Intelligence level also influences quahtaltvc aspects of
Zea
affects the rate of learning sets (N R Ellis, 1958, House and
acquiring
1958), per
man, 1959, Kaufman and Peterson, 1958, Stevenson and
Swartz,
and the
formance on structured categorization tasks (\V E Stephens, IDGl),
Loughlin, 1961)
strategy of problem solving (Baitig. 1957, klausmeier and
to
High IQ subjects are more likely to correct mistakes independently,
solutions, to use a logical approach, to employ a more efficient method,
verify
and to be persistent
tests take
It has been argued, with some validity, that since adiievement
scholastic
into account both motivation in past learning tasks, as well as
aptitude, they are more highly predictive to future achievement
than are
intelligence tests Thus grades m
algebra 1 correlate more highly with sue
cess in algebra IIthan does either general scholastic aptitude or freshman
grade point average (Sommcrfeld and Tracy, 1961), and high school grade
point average predicts academic adiievement at the university level better
than do scholastic aptitude scores (Endler and Steinberg, 1963) Some studies

(Getzels and Jackson, 1902, Torrance 196$) suggest iliat so-called tests of
creativity correlate just as highly with academic adiievement as do inicl
hgence tests A methodologically more definitive study by Flescher (1963).
hovvever, failed to confirm this finding and did not demonstrate the existence
of any significant generality of function among various tests of creativity
Why is the relationship between scholastic aptitude and academic
achievement only moderate m
degree^ For one thing measures of neither
vanable are completely reliable or valid More imjmrtant, however, is the
operation of other relevant factors, sudi as motivation, interests, personality
adjustment, and family, peer group sonal class, and cultural influ
traits,

enccs that affect the degree to which existing scholastic aptitude is actual
ized in the form of academic achievement Comparison of educationally
successful and unsuccessful gifted children reveals that the successful have
better study habits exhibit more seU-comrol and comjjensatory' as con
‘

trasted to protective ego tnechanismv, have more realistic levels of asjnra

non, and excel in sucli ]>eTsonaliiy traits as dependability, self reliance,
ambition, invesiigativcness, and persistence (W D Lewis, 1941, Locke. 1903.
Regensburg 1931, P S Sears, 1910. Terman and Oden.
1919) Differences
between students vslio complete one curriculum mcollege and those who
complete another arc also greater in interests than in
1961, R C King, 1958)
abilities (J W
French,
Parental attitudes, aspirations, and financial re
sources as well as students' degree
of insiglil into their own abilities, arc
Intelligence as a Predictor of Academic Aehtevemenl 257

highly related to whether or not high school graduates will attend and re
mam m college (Kahl, 1953, Parsons, 1959) Scholastic aptitude scores and
rank in high school graduating class ha\e more predictive value for boys
than for girls with respect to entrance into and graduation from college
(Kahl, 1953), thus confirming the greater value which our culture places
on male vocational achiesement
As a group, intellectually superior individuals tend to gravitate toward
professional occupations, to be more successful socationally, and to expert
ence less unemployment (Terman and Oden. 1949) Within a group of gifted
children (IQs over 140) however, the adults successful twenty fi\e years
later were, as children, more integrated in goal structure, more self confident,
and more perse\ering than the unsuccessful adults even though the two
groups were quite evenly matched in intelligence ^Ve can conclude, there
fore, that better than average intelligence is undoubtedly a vocational asset,
but given this degree of intellectual ability, unusual success in a vocation
IS more a function of special talent or creativity and of various personality
traits, than of extremely high general intelligence There is no evidence that
would indicate that creativity and general intelligence are positively related
beyond this critical minimal point

Under- and Overachtevement

Considering the methodological hazards involved in the identification

of under and overachievers (students who achieve less or more than could
could be anticipated by their scholastic aptitude scores) and the only mod
crate degree of relationship between academic aptitude and school achieve
ment, it is somewhat questionable what practical utility these widely used
concepts have for educational practice (R L Thorndike 1961, 1963) In
any case underachievers, as contrasted to adiievers tend to be characterized
by more withdrawal behavior and by less social, work oriented interaction
with peers (Perkins 1965) by more negative self concepts (Shaw, Edson,
and Bell, 1960), by higher mechanical and artistic interests and by lower
-hTii mavViirmaxiL'a^ aprrtofle (Jran’iitA, imd 'cry memben’nip in
lower status occupational groups (Frankel, I960)
The underachievement syndrome starts as early as the third grade in
the case of boys but not until the ninth grade m
the case of girls (Shaw
and McCuen Bright underachievers in college have lower and less
1960)
clearly defined real life (academic and vocational) goals than bright nor
'

mal achievers (Todd Terrell, and Frank, 1962). but the reverse paradox
ically appears to be true when the acliievement needs of over and normally
achieving college students are assessed by thematically induced acliievement
imagery (Cole and others 1962) In both studies, these differential findings
apply only to males Differentially high thematically induced achievement
258 InlelUctual Ability

imagery is eliated for achieving \ersus underacliiCMng adolescent girls only

in achievement-oriented conditions and in relation to female (as op-
posed to male) figures (Lesser. Krauitz, and Packard, 1963) Tlie authors
suggest that adiievang girls fend to accept academic achievement as appro-
pnate for females whereas the underacliieving girls do not
 Chapter 7

PROVIDING
FOR INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
IN INTELLECTU.'U. ABIUIA"

Prxmocs msctssios of both dexeloptnental and particular

ized (subject matter background) readiness for learning, as svell as of general
intelligence and particular scliolasiic aptitudes, has made it abundantl)
clear that a svide range of indisidual differences exists at an) given age level
of pupils These differences are expressed mgeneral (over all) mode of cog
nitive functioning, in approach to problem solving, in subject matter sophis-
tication, in general level of intelligence, in speahc academic aptitudes, m
motivation for learning, in intellectual cunosit), in self-cniical abilit), in
need for prease meanings and integrated knov>ledge, and in abilit) to think
independently, cnticall), and creatively Obviously, therefore, no realistic
system of teaching can afford to overlook such differences Hence, individ
ualization of teaching must necessarily constitute one of the pnmary goals
of instruction As far as possible, the individual student, rather than the
a v>hole, must become the v^orking unit in the instructional process
class as
Each child must be challenged at a level appropriate to his potenuabties,
and encouraged to leam at a commensurate pace
The need for individualization of instruction is also implicit in tlie
schools responsibility to develop problem-solving ability, to encourage in
tellectual curiosity and initiative, to promote independent, original, and
critical tlimking, and to stimulate pupils' desire and ability to leam on their
own As pointed out above, these educational objectives are neither mcom
pauble with meaningful reception learning nor inconsistent with the pn
mary responsibility of the school for oiganuing and directing the cumc
ulum Neither do they constitute die primary goals of education nor the
pnnapal means of transmitting subject matter knowledge
In general, tvso pnnapal approaches have been taken to the problem
—
of individual differences in pupils ability grouping and individualized

259
 VilJerencei
provKii’ig lor Indnidiiol

cxcliisisc Ob
instruction Tlicse approcclies arc b) no means iliiituaU)
Mously, some form ol group instruction is
met liable because comptMly
feasible Neither is it ne
indiMclualized instruction is not econonucally
educational purposes Furthennore,
sary desirable, nor efficient for many
adsannges of its otsn-boiti
learning ma group context has many positive
from tiie siandiwini o
from the standpoint of cogniine desclopment and
of com
the Childs emotional soaal needs Evidently then some form
md
individualization
promise must be found betsseen grouping and

Advantages and Disadvantages of Grouping

Ability grouping pur|x>rtedly takes account of individual

differences m
it permits
two ways First by bnnging togeihcr children of similar ability,
paTliculaT
the teadier to gear the level and mcthot! of instruction to the
group The teacher no longer has to accom
level of ability prevailing in the
modate to the hypoilietical ability level of the average child as
the fairest
o
approximation of the group $ ability Thus she can avoid a pace and level
instruction that is too difficult for the dull pupil and too easy for the bright

pupil Second when pupils of com[)arabIe abiliiy interact in the learning

of learning presumably occurs by making
it
process, ‘social facilitation
l>e stimulated by their miellcctiial peers
This
possible for bright children to
latter advantage however has never licen unequivocally demonstrated H
Gurnee (19fi2) for example found group learning superior to mdi
to lie
an
vidual learning not because of social facilitation but because it provides
more sue
opportunity for less successful group members to imitate their
for
ccssful classmates It this is evident that the possibilities
the cise, it is

sucli imitation would be even greater in a heterogeneous group H J

Klausmcier, AV Wiersma and C W
Hams (1963) also discovered that
although pupils working in small groups learn liettcr initially, tficy do less
well than individual pupils on tests of transfer The research evidence
(Drews 1959 Fleming 1959, Herrick I9G0 Spitzer, ID54) generally shows
tliai grouping in small homogeneous units does not in and of itself, lead to
sujienor learning outcomes
On the other hand there arc many disadvantages
to grouping First
whichever criterion is chosen as die basis of grouping dironological age, —
mental age social maiuriiy. speafic scholastic aptitude, or subject matter

—
sophistication in a particular disaplinc group lielerogeneity vvith respect
to most other factors is almost inevitably l>ound to increase Second grouping
on the basis of a comixisitc intelligence test score becomes progressively less
efiicieni for purjxises of individualization
as childrens cognitive and
scliolastic aptmides Ijccome increasingly
more differentiated or less highly
Adianlages and Dtsadi-anlaget of Cfouping 261

mtercoirelated ujth increasing age Third, lieterogeneit) itself has positise

salues enables the child better to adjust to the sside sanet) of abihtj
It

leieJshe meets outside the school cmiJ-onment It also presides intellectual

stimulation and models for imitation for the dull child, as ssell as gises the
brighter pupil an opportunity to clarifv and consolidate his understanding
of concepts by explaining them to his less precocious classmates Fourth,
ability grouping tends to stigmatize the dull and to generate arrogance and
conceit m
the bnght This disadsantage. howeser, has undoubtedly been
overemphasized Children who do not measure up to their contemporanes
almost inevitably appreaate their inferiority and suffer self-depreaation
with or without ability grouping It can be argued further that more exphat
realization by a child of Ins relative profile of abilities promotes a more
realisticseIf<oncept and level of aspiration
Last, and perhaps most important, is the fact that individualization is
accomplished more effectively (while simultaneously preserving the ad
vantages of group instruaion) by bringing together children of diverse
ability levels in one class, and by arranging for each pupil to progress at his
own pace by means of varying the amount, nature, and difficulty level of the
material he learns In this way, differences in motivation, interest, and cun
osity, as well as ability, are taken into account M Montesson (Rambusch,
1962) discovered long ago tliat when preschool children are confronted with
learning tasks that both interest them and are commensurate with their
developmental level of readiness, their attention span is greatly increased,
and they manifest much more inceliectua! cunosity and persistence than is
commonly realized

Differential Ability Grouping

If ability grouping is practiced at should undoubtedly be based
all, it
on on particulanzed measures
the results of differential aptitude tests or
of subject matter achievement (for instance, mathematics, science, language
arts) In accordance with this point of view, a given pupil is placed in those

'AtVVOTA '.•aws'i®. vaAsjitvs TeiaviNt:

aptitude or achievement standing jn the disophnes in question Many differ
ent kinds of administrative arrangements are compatible with this pnnaple
of grouping One may set up separate sections of a given course or several
subgroups within a given section Tlie Dual Progress Plan (Stoddard, 1961)
places each pupil half of each day in his homeroom with his agemates and
homeroom teacher for instruction in die cultural imperatives” The rest
of the day is devoted to various special subjects in which pupils are taught
by specialist teacliers m separate classes grouped to assure relative homo-
geneity of ability
 Prmtding for Individual
DiS^reucei
262

greater flexi
The Tnimp Plan (Trump and Ba>nham, 1961) invohes
standard high schoo c ass
biluy of administratne arrangements in whiclt the
demonstration and lecture classes
of thirty IS replaced by some sery large
television or specialist "master
(utilizing, where advisable, either educational
ssJti
teachers), some
small discussion groups, and much self instruction
pat
programmed learning desices In any case, whatever the administratise
tern, differential ability grouping implies spenalist teachers in the various
specialty subjects, as well as teaching methods and instructional demands that
are appropriate for die existing developmenul readiness and subject matter
sophistication of the groups in question

JndtviduaUzatton
of
Complementary to differential ability grouping is the provision
For
individualized instruction (differential assignments) within each group
at his
the greater part of the school day. each student works independently
own optimal pace with sequentially organized programmed materials pro-
Such mstniction more efficient for most aspects
viding for self testing self is

of subject matter learning than is class instruction (Milton, 1962) As sviH

be pointed out below, programmed instruction does not necessarily insol'c

the short frame and small step-size format diaractenstic of the tjpical leach
ing machine, but does provide for organizing, unif>ing, and explanaior)
ideas, for unusual luadity of presentation, for early confirmation, clanfica
tion, and correction of newly acquired concepts and prmaples, for con
solidation or necessary overlearning of existing knowledge before new
material is presented, and for sequential organization of subject matter

On theoretical grounds it seems rather self-evident that individualized

instruction should be incomparably more efficient than instruction in groups
for most aspects of subject matter learning ^\^len instruction is geared to
the individual pupils general level of sophistication m
a particular dis
upline, to his mastery of relevant antecedent concepts and pnnciples, to his
particular preconceptions and misconceptions, to his general and speufic
intellectual aptitudes, to the level of abstraction at which he operates, to
his idiosj-ncraiic cognitive style and relevant personality attributes, to salient
aspects of his progress in mastering a current learning task (for example,
consolidation, precision and clarity of new meanings), and to a pace of
presentation that comfortable for him. it necessanly follows that learning
is

outcomes should be superior to those that eventuate when instruction is

geared to a hypothetical set of characierisucs and requirements reflective of
the mean pupil in a group Surprisingly enough, however, empirical testing
and confirmation of this proposition, apart from one
study by Milton (1962).
have been almost totally neglected by educators
and educational ps>
Advantages and Disadtantages of Grouping 263

chologists In \iew of the tremendous emphasis tint members of these pro

fessions have placed on individualized instruction ^ at least in the realm of
theory one might have anticipated more concern with providing greater
empirical support for its efficacy

One of the difficulties here lies m

the very narrow conception of what
IS meant by the individualization of instruction Until relatively recently
the only variables taken into account were scores on a general or differential
test of intellectual ability Similarly when programmed instruction enthusi

asis entered the field of individualized instruction they focused their atten
tion myopically on practice and reinforcement aspects of the current
learning task Ericksen (1967) has stated the case very well m
demonstrating
that for the most part instructional aids have contributed very little thus
far to the goal of individualized instruction
Another important research consideration in this context is the need
for testing the separate effects of particular dimensions of individualization
and the interactions among them as opposetl to performing global studies
m which the separate contributions of different variables are not con
ceptualized identified or measured This of course does not preclude hm
rather highlights the desirability of multivariate researcli designs
The careful sequential arrangement and gradation of difficulty char
actenstic ofprogrammed instruction maintains subject matter readiness by
insuring that each attained increment in learning serves as an appropriate
foundation or anchoring post for the learning and retention of subsequent
Items in the ordered sequence This is accomplished by optimal self pacing
bj frequent testing and tfie provision of feedback and by furnishing ade
quately spaced reviews and opportunity for differential practice of the more
difficult components of a task Properly programmed materials also take
into account the principles of progressive differentiation and integrative
reconciliation as implemented in the use of appropriate advance organizers
Those aspects of instruction m
which knowledge is less well defined
and in which the acquisition of independent and critical thinking ability is
a major goal obviously require more class discussion and direct teacher par
ticipation But teachers have more lime to devote to these latter objectives
to cultivate a questioning atlilnde toward establislied knowledge and to
focus on the discovery aspects of acquiring new knowledge if the more

I should be noted here that individualized instruction js not synonymous

It
with Individualized instruction is sometimes best accomplished in
self instruction
a group setting as for example m
the learning of those kinds of subject matter
calling for group discussion (see below) It may also be teacher as well as self
directed Ungraded classes imply both self instruction and individualized mstruc
tion in a group context
 Proiiding for Indnidual

tndividuall) b>
Stableand substantive aspects of a discjpline are learned
means of programmed instruaion
teacliers who
Individualization can be implemented better by speaalist
are more conversant both with subjeamatter content
and with diflaenl
To
methods of presentation ilian are general elementary school teachen
between die
be effective individualization also presupposes continuity
different levels of instruction to which a diild is successively
exposed (ele

mentary sdiool junior and senior higli scliool and university) The
benefits

individualization in elementary school for example are largely wasted

of
if a bright pupil who has already mastered most
seventh-grade work as a
seventh
sixth-grader is placed in an undifferentiated and nonindividualized
grade junior high sdiool class
The concept of the non-graded school (Coodlad and Anderson 1939)
of
combines both an extreme emphasis on individualization and acceptance
learning m
a group context First proposed by Montessori (Rambuscli 1962)
of
Itpermits each cliild lo master ilic ciimculum at his ovm indisidual rate
It
speed in a social environmeni consisting of children of varying ages
presupposes the ivailability of a wide range of programmed materials and
of high teacher pupil ratio envisages the use of older children as cmolatory
and learning models for tlieir less advanced peen and avoids the siigmatiza
tton of nonpromotion

c»MPUTER ASSISTED issTRtcnoN Tlic liiglily complex logistical tatit

individualizing instruction for each pupil in terms of his differential abilities
and aptitudes cognitive style personality traits existing preconceptions and
airrcni performance is rendered much more manageable vviih tlie assistance

of comiiuieriztilprogramming Tlic computer can not only lie used to select

the appropriate content and sequence of material but is also invaluable for
record keeping monitoring panng simulation of problem solving and
lalioratory situations and for the generation of instructional material At
the present lime however particularly when the necessary software (fof
examj Ic empirically validated principles of instructional programming*
tested inograms for jianinilar courses of study) is lacking it is not eco-
nomically feasible for general use in the schools It is also questionable
vshether the undoubted adsantages it offers with respect lo the individuahza
tton ol instnirtion arc that much greater than
those inherent in the use
of aj jrojnaic textlxxiks enrichment materials
frequent testing and feed
hack and teatJier-dirccted self instruction as to wvrrant the tremendous
capital outlas insoUed In any case as suggesietl above computer asvistetl
inunution cannot constitute a ccrnij fete an<I self-contained program of
in hvvdualuation since tt tloes not provide for pupil pupil and pupil teacher
iiiieraction
The Academicall) Gifted 265

Nonpromotion

Nonpromotion constitutes an attempt at homogenous grouping by

withholding progression to the next higher grade from the extremely low
achiever Theoretically, it provides a necessary and desirable second op-
portunity for mastering the same material that the pupil was not able to
learn the first time it was presented during the course of a given year or
semester In practice, however, the repeater makes less academic progress
than the promoted child of comparable ability and achievement (Goodlad,
1952) Although some low achievers do profit from repetition, more of them
actually do worse on achievement tests a year later than immediately after
failing the grade in question It is not repetition itself that has these damag

mg effects, but rather the stigma of nonpromotion, the impairment of

morale, and the exposure to the same inappropriate methods that previously
led to failure It is true that the promoted nonachiever is maladjusted and
cannot keep up
' m
the new class, but he actually does worse by remaining
—
a second time in the same class in terms of his school work, his self
confidence, and his acceptance by peers (Goodlad, 1952, Segel, 1951) On
the other hand, unearned promotions tend to generate unrealistic attitudes
toward and expectations about, the general relationship between achieve
ment and reward found in adult life
All of this argues less for a policy of ‘social promotion than it does
for more imaginative ways of teaching subject matter to pupils who are
unable to learn adequately when taught by more conventional methods
Most nonpromoted children come from culturally deprived homes (Hall
and Demarest 1958) Programmed instruction in nongraded classes would
seem to provide an ideal solution

The Academically Gifted

Enrichment or Acceleration

Individualization in the case of pupils with high intelligence or

scholastic aptitude scores generally takes one of two forms Advocates of
enrichment — the provision of more advanced or supplementary
difficult,

school work to such pupils while keeping them with their chronological and
social peers — argue that this procedure avoids social maladjustment among
the gifted equips them better to adapt to persons of all ability levels in
later life and enables them to stimulate their duller agemates Enrichment
IS typically accomplished by means of ability grouping by individualizing
instruction within a given class or by segregating gifted children in special
 Pmiding for Individual DifSertncti
266

schools Proponents of acceittalton, on Uie other hand, point out that under
ser> difficult for a busy leaclier to
enndi
present educational conditions it is

instruction adequate!) for gifted pupils (Gallagher

and Luato, 1961), i at
materials from
ennchment usuall) insoUes drawing upon subject matter
problems of boredom
the next lugher level of instrucuon thereby creating
loss of interest when the pupil reaches iliat level, that
speaal sclioo s
and
as vvell as
often generate unwholesome atmudes of conceit and supenority,
isolate the gifted from average children (tliereby
depnving the latter of
intellectual sumula
necessary soaal expenence and the former of desirable
positive ad
tion) and. most important, that accelerauon itself has many
vantages for pupils planning on professional careers
Acceleration can be implemented in many different ways by early
admission
admission to kindergarten and college by double promotion, by
to collegewith advanced standing and by such means of concentrating
instruction as lengthening the school year completing two years of work
in one, and more rapid self paang ungraded classes The latter pro-
in

cedures avoid the liaiard of possibly missing ceruin important learnings that
are essential tn sequentially organized cumculums Early admission to
kindergarten also presents the disadvantage that only the aflluent can afford
private scliooli or the cost of individual intelligence testing and that IQ*
for
at age 4 tend to be both unreliable and to have little predictive value
later academic achievement
In genera! reviews of acceleration procedures (Shannon. 1957) indicate
that theydo not handicap the gifted child either socially, emotionally, or in
terms of academic accomplishment Cliildren who arc admitted at an early
age to kindergarten (Worcester, 1956) or who are accelerated from second to
fourth grade after a five vseck summer session (kJausmeier. 1965), do as vscll
or better acadcniically in iltc later grades than other pupils arc just as
well adjusted emotionally and soaally. are accepted just as readily by their
classmates,and are most likely to go on lo college (Pressey, 1963) Similarly
students wlio enter college at an early age tend lo make licller grades are
more graduate and go on lo advanced study, manifest fev\cr div
likely to
ciplinary problems and tend to be more successful in ilieir careers (Fund for
tlie Advancement of Education, 1957. Presvey, lD62c. Tcrman and Oden.

1919) ^! Mcistcr (1956) found that Iiigh-school students who enter college
with advanced standing or who |>av$ advanced placement examinations do
as well as regular students in their freshman year
I*robab!y the best argument for acceleration of academically gift«I
pupils isthe long period of academic training required today for all pro-
fessions. Acceleration helps avoid the abnormal
prolongation of economic
dejicndcncc and sul>aduUhood as well as the undesirable postponement of
marriage that often accomjanv sucli training
Early entrance into a pro-
fessional career is also imjnrtant from
the standpoint of self actualization
Thf CulluTall) Depnttd 267

and the advancement of knowledge It has been shown that because of such
factors as health, stamina, motivation interest, and freshness of outlook,
research and scholarly productivity are higher during the early adult years
than at any other time of life (Lehman, 1964. Pressey, 1962c)

The Mentally Retarded

The proper educational handling and teaching of mentally retarded

children are highly technical subjects and ordinarily require special training
The major educational decision affecting such children is whether to place
them in speaal classes or to admit them to regular, ability grouped classes
The latter procedure probably provides them with greater intellectual stimu
lation and broader social experience, but neither gives them the benefit of
specially trained teachers nor protects them from social rejection by their
peers (Johnson and Kirk, 1950, R V Miller, 1956) The final decision hinges
upon such factors as the type of curriculum and methods of instruction avail
able m
the regular classes, the retardate $ ability level and adaptive capacity,
and the attitudes and resourcefulness of the teachers in question (Dunn,
I960) The typical classroom teacher is more likely to have contact with
culturally deprived than with mentally retarded children

The Culturally Deprived

Thehypothesis of cumulative developmental deficit, invoked above to

explain the irreversible effects of cultural depnv a lion implially assumes the
continued operation of a learning environment whose stimulating value
remains average or below average during the crucial formative years of
childhood Hence, despite the fw/n limiting effects in disadvantaged pupils
of (a) attained deficit m intellectual development and (b) increasing
differentiation of intelligence on subsequent responsiveness to cognitive
stimulation, it is still consistent with the above theoretical analysis to
hypothesize that an optimal learning environment could arrest and even
reverse tn pari the existing degree of retardation" Such an environment
must obviously be adequately stimulating, must be specially geared to the
deprived individuals particular level of readiness in each subject matter

- As previously pointed out we still lack firm evidence regarding the effects

of an optimal learning environment on the intellectual development of culturally

deprived elementary school and adolescent pupils In any case it has already been
DDnccdcd that irrespective of later enndiment efforts some of the intellectual re
tardation attributable to cultural deprivation u irreversible in older children
 Prtnirfins for Indmdui}! lytS^^tnctt
2C8

oscr all level ol cogniuvc malimty

arei and miellcciinl skill as ucll as io liis
and guided remedial eUort
and presupposes nutcli indivtduilizetl aitention
school learning environ
This, of course, is a far cry from the kind of
In actual practice
ment that cuUunll) deprived children typically enjoy
usually compounded by the fact that not
their existing inicllectinl deficit is
new learn
only are they less able than their peers to profit from appropriate
to
mg but they are also usti-illy overwhelmed by exposure
ex{>eriences,
cognitive readiness
learning tasks that exceed by far their prevailing level of
maturity
Hence, since tlicy do not function at the required level of cognitive
required for
and do not possess the necessary background of knowledge
efficient learning they typically fail lose
scU<onfidence in tlieir ability to
become thoroughly demorahred in the school situation
and dis-
learn,
from
imolve themselves from it Much of the lower-class child s alienation
re
the school, therefore, is not so much a reflection of discriminatory or
al
jecting attitudes on the part of teachers and other school personnel
it is m
though the importance of this factor should not be underestimated,
that
greater measure a rcfiection of the cumulative efTccts of a curriculum
confusion
IS too demanding of him and of the resulting load of frustration,
demoralization resentment, and impaired seH<onfidcncc that he must bear
In this section we shall consider only the cognitive aspects of an appro-
priate leaching strategy for culturally deprived children The basic principle*
to
underlying this strategy are essentially little different tlian those applying
the instruction of any pupil As J S Bruner (I960) points out, however, it
IS the less able student who suffers most from poor teaching In another
chapter we shall discuss motivational, social, and interpersonal considera
tions applicable to the culturally disadvantaged
An optimal cognitive environment for culturally deprived pupils
focuses on the two complcmcniary aspects of cognitive readiness for learn
ing— readiness in terms of general level of intellectual functioning and
readiness in terms of specific subject matter background It emphasizes,
therefore, these four considerations (a) preiKntion during the preschool
years of the intellectual and language retardation characteristic of children
growing up under culiiirally disadvantaged circumstances, (b) the selection
of learning tasks at all stages of the curriculum that are consonant vviih the
learners existing stale of readiness (c) mastery and consolidation of all
ongoing learning tasks before new tasks are introduced, so as to provide the
necessary foundation for successful sequential learning and to prevent un
readiness for future learning tasks and (d) the use of structured and self
paceable learning materials optimally organized to facilitate efficient se
quential learning Attention to these four factors can go a long way toward
insuring effective learning for the first time, and
toward restoring the
culturally depnved child s educational morale
and confidence his ability m
to learn Later possible consequences
are parual restoration of both m
The CitUuTally Deprived 269

trmsic and extrinsic motivation for academic achiesement diminution of

anti inteilectualism and decreased alienation from the school to the point
where his studies make sense and he sees some purpiose in learning

Preschool Enrichment

Much of the discouraging picture of language retardation in the

culturally deprived childand of its gnm consequences for school learning
could undoubtedly be presented by an enriched program of preschool educa
tion that would emphasize percepiiial discrimination and language acquisi
tion In addition to the usual preschool actiMties much time would be
spent in reading and talking to children m
furnishing an acceptable model
of speech in supplying correclise feedback with respect to grammar and
pronunciation in developing listening memory and attentivity skills and
in providing appropriate reading readiness reading and writing instruction
Concomitantly of course an attempt would be made to raise the cultural
and intellectual level of the home through a long range program of involve
ment in adult education Although formal instruction in reading is probably
inadvisable for preschool children generally and presents many definite
hazards (Kinsella 1965) it does have a defensible educational rationale as
a preventive measure among the culturally deprived (despite the difficulties
and hazards involved) in view of the widespread occurrence of reading
retardation in this group Ac the kindergarten level the hazards of formal
reading instruction are less formidable and us benefits are more firmly
established especially among bilingual children (S £ Herr 1946)

Readiness

General unreadiness for school learning among culturally disad

vantaged children largely slower and less complete transition
reflects their
from concrete modes of thought during the junior and senior
to abstract
high school years Thus in the presentation of abstract ideas and proposi
tions It IS important for instructional materials and audiovisual aids to
provide more concrete empirical props and opportunities for direct physical
manipulation of objects and situations than would be considered desirable
in a more typical classroom ® Such props for example might include gener
ous use of such techniques as Cuisenaire rods the abacus schematic models

3 In addition to promoting the understanding of abstractions such overt

manipulatne activity is also consistent with the deprived child s more physical or
motoric mode of learning (Riessman 196**) The same consolidation would apply
to overt versus passu e responding in programmed learning and to discussion sersus
lecture modes of presentation
270 Providing for Indwiduol Dtfjereneet

and diagrams, and role pHying activities In the teaciiing of matliematics

and science, much reliance would be placed on tlie applicability of principles
to common problems in the immediate environment and on supportive
illustrations and analogies drawn from everyday experience It should be
appreciated hovsever, that these techniques are merely ways of facilitating
the transition to a more abstract level of ixignitive functioning do notWe
want to induce permanent dependence on concrete-empincal props or to

be satisfied with thisstate of affairs as our ultimate objective

Specific subject matter unreadiness among culturally deprived children
IS a consequence of their failure to master the basic intellectual skills and
to acquire an adequate foundation of integrative concepts and principles in

the hierarcliically organized disciplines It is essential, therefore, that the

iniual selection of learning materials take account of pupils existing state
of knowledge and sophistication in ihe various subject matter areas, irre
spective ofhow primitive this happens to be Once the appropriate starting
point ascertained continued subject matter readiness can then be assured
is

by using structured sequentially oiganized materials and by insisting on

mastery of all ongoing lessons before new learning tasks arc introduced
These latter teaching strategics can, in turn be most effectively imple
mented through the kind of programmed instruction desenbed above
A
curriculum that takes the readiness of the culturally deprived child
into account always lakes as its starting point his existing knowledge and
sophistication m
the various subject matter areas and intellectual skills, no
matter how far dowm the scale this happens to be This policy demands
uncompromising elimination of all subject matter that he cannot econom
ically assimilate on the basts of liis current level
of cognitive sophistication
It presupposes emphasis on his acquisition
of the basic intellectual skills
before any attempt is made to teach him algebra literature, science, and
foreign languages However, in many urban high
schools and junior high
schools today, pupilswho cannot read at a third grade level and who cannot
speak or write grammatically or perform simple arithmetical computations
as subjected to irregular Frendi verbs, Shakespearean
drama, and geomet
ncal theorems Nothing more educationally fuule
or belter calculated to
destroy educational morale could be imaginedl
In terms of readiness for a given level of school
work, a child is no
less ready because of a history of cultural
deprivation, chronic academic
failure, and exposure to an unsuitable
curriculum than because of defiaent
intellectual endowment Hence, realistic
recogniuon of this fact is not un
democratic, reactionary, or evidence of
soaal class bias, of intellectual snob-
bery. of a soft,' patronizing
approacli. or of a belief in the inherent un
educability of lower<!ass children
Neither ,s u indicative of a desire to
surrender to the culturally deprived
child s current intellectual level, to
perpetuate the status quo. or to
institute a double classoriented standard
of education It is merely a
necessary first step in preparing himto cope
The Cultural^ Deprned 271

with more advanced subject rmtier, and hence m eventinJly reducing exist
ingsoaai class diflerentials in academic adiievcment To set the same initial

standards and expectations for the academically retarded culturally deprived

child as for tlie non retarded middle or loiver class child is automatically
to insure the former’s failure and to widen prevailing discrepancies between
social class groups
\Vith respect to the culturally disadvantaged child’s language retirda
tion, a sorely needed change within the classroom setting is the long overdue
introduction of more imaginative and effective ways of teaching the Ian
guage arts More emphasis, for example, needs to be placed on the mastery
of the principal syntactical forms in spoken and written discourse, through
repetitive practice with feedback, than on the pedantic and essentially trivial
labeling and classifying of different varieties of grammatical structure The
culturally deprived child with his pragmatic and nonabstract approacli to
knowledge couldn’t care less after all, about the different parts of speech
and the various esoteric names attached to the different uses of each, and,
for the most part, he is correct insofar as the value or functional utility of
much of such knowledge
concerned is

It seems both
clear, therefore, that m
preschool and school programs
for the culturally deprived, exclusive emphasis on either verbal or concrete
empirical aspects of instruction represents a pseudo dichotomy Culturally
deprived pupils must obviously be helped to overcome their language re
tardation If they are ever to function compietently as abstract, verbal learn
ers,they must acquire a basic repertoire of verbal concepts and tranactional
terms as well as a basic mastery of syntax But the very fact of their language
retardation also requires simultaneous compensatory remediation along con
Crete empirical lines In the preschool and kindergarten (preoperational)
period, like all children at this stage of development they are highly depen
dent on concrete empirical experience and on the manipulation of objects
or images in relational learning concept formation and problem solving
they are unable to relate abstract relationsliips to cognitive structure in cor
relative, superordinate or combinatorial fashion And since they must also
achieve a certain critical level of proficiency at tlie stage of concrete logical
operations before they can move on to the stage of abstract logical opera
tions and since existing language retardation delays this transition, they
are dependent longer than are their nondepnved peers on concrete empirical
props in various forms of relational learning before attaining the abstract
stage of cognitive development

Teaching and Admtmstratwe Arrangements

The success of this type of teaching strategy naturally depends a great
deal on the availability of dedicated teachers who have been specially trained
and are desirous of working with culturally deprived children They must
272 Providing for Individual Differences

reallybe concerned that materials are genuinely understood and mastered,

and must be able to consey the impression that they are confident of and
expect successful learning from iheii pupils This obviously assumes mucli
more personal insoKement m the teadiing function and in the intellectual
development of culturally deprived cliildren than merely going through
the motions of presenting subject matter while being essentially indifferent
about learning outcomes* For purposes of restoring intnnsic motivation
for learning (cognitive dnve), it is also important that teachers be able to
communicate a sense of excitement about the subjects they teach, and that
they be the kinds of mature, stable, and self-confident persons with vxhom
cliildren can identify This latter objective can also be furthered by the
assignment of more male teachers to scliools in culturally deprived neigh-
borhoods, by lowering the pupil teacher ratio, by using multiple period
classes, and by keeping teachers with the same elementary sdiool classes over

a period of several years Ungraded and ungrouped elementary school classes

enabling each child to progress at his
facilitate the process of own pace
wiihoiu being subjected to die discouraging and sugmatuing effects of
nonpromotion and placement m
slow learning groups
Other lyjies of comjwnsatory etiucational arrangements that have been
suggested for the culturally deprived cliild include particularly intensive
remedial work in reading, academic coacliing, an extended school day ant!
scliool week, free summer school, the postponement of formal insiruciion
m the first grade for pupils who have not Ind preschool and kindergarten
training and a 5 year high school and collegeprogram for the academically
slow-developing individual For high sdiool students vvliose school orienta-
tion IS definitely vocational realistic prcvocaiional courses sliould be pro-

vided in the eleventh and twelfth grades, integrated in some instancca with
work cxjxincnce and apprenticeship programs

* Tliii docs not neceuanly imply a pcrmiwive or cliild-onenied ’ as opjioscd

10 a lasi-oricmctl approach to tcadiinR Tlie family haclBrountl of cullurally de
prued and of tower socialcUss diildicn generally does not make them very re
s]>oiisivc lo a {termissite
cntironmrni flumcterired by ciilicr bissez faire aililudes
or uiiitriictured tedmirpies of insiruciion (Kiessman l9G2y
 Chapter 8

PRACTICE
Meaningful learning refers to the acquisition of mean
mgs, and to the nontransitory oi^anizational changes m cognitive structure
accompanying this process as the learner responds to initial and successive
presentations of the learning task Although much significant meaningful
learning obviously occurs during initial presentation of the instructional
material, both overlearning as ivell as most long term retention, in class

rooms and similar settings presuppose multiple presentations or trials (prac-

tice), and both learning process and outcome customarily encompass various

qualitative and quantitative changes that take place during these se\eral
trials Learning and retention, therefore, ordinarily imply practice Such

practice, furthermore, is typically specific (restricted to the learning task)

and deliberate (intentional) Longterm organizational changes in cognitive
structure that occur in the demonstrable absence of specific and deliberate
practice experience (that is incidental learning) may be more properly con
sidered manifestations of maturation Short term fluctuations in the avail
ability of learned material, on the other hand, are reflective of changes m
the threshold of availability
As previously suggested, the effects of practice both reflect the influence
of existing cognitive structure and also modify that structure Thus, the
cognitive impact of initial presentation of potentially meaningful new learn
ing material (the emergence of nesv meanings) is largely determined by the
organizational attributes of the established ideas m cognitive structure to
which the learning task is related, and by establishing these new meanings
in cognitive stnicture such presentation influences, in turn, both the learn
er s resfionse to subsequent trials of the same learning task and his learning
of related new materials Practice, therefore, affects learning and retention
by modifying cognitive structure Generally speaking, it increases the sta

273
 Practice
274

bilii> and clant) of neivl) learned meanings in cogniU^e structure and

hence enhances their dissoaability strength and retention
variable itself but
Practice in other swords is not a oignuive structure
IS one of the principle factors
(along witli instructional matenals variables)
immediate of practice is to
influenang cognitive structure The most effect
strength of the
increase the stabilitj and clanty and hence die dissoaability
and
emergent new meanings in cognitive structure In turn the increments
decrements in the stability and clanty of the new meanings (and the cor
accompanying their initial
related changes in their dissoaability strength)
learners
learning inter trial forgetting and later learning faalitate the
assimilation of die instructional material during subsequent tnals
As will

be postulated later the changes in cognitise structure wrought by the

first

trial (namely the establishment of the new meanings) sensitize the learner
forgetting that
to the potential meanings inherent in die material and the
occurs between successive inalsor reviews immunizes him (enables him
to
trials
lake preventive steps) against further forgetting following additional
In addition die consolidation of tins new material as a result of practice
makes available m
cognitive structure stable new anclionng ideas for other
related learning tasks introduced at a later date Practice therefore influ
ences cognitive structure m
at least four diHereni ways it increases the dis-
soaability strength of the newly learned meanings for a given trial and
dicrcby faaliiaies their retention it enhances die learners responsiv'cness
to subsequent presentations of die same material it enables the learner to
profit from inter trial forgetting and it faaiitates the learning and rctcniton
of related new learning tasks
But even if each learning tnal inRticnees sul«equcnt learning tnals by
virtue of Its and immunizing effects on cognitive stnicture
sensitizing
the mediating influence of tliesc effects on the next praaice tnal are not
cxiienmcntally measurable The transfer paradigm (comparing learning
outcomes of the two groups after the experimental group receives two tnals
and the control group receives only one tnal) is inapplicable under these ar
cumstanccs As long as training and cnterion tasks are identical (consist of
two presentations of tfie same material) it is impossible in accounting for
the siiperiorny of die cxjicrimcnial group on the second learning trial to
distinguish between (a) the pratiirc effect lUrlf (the direct effect of an
additional presentation ujion learning or dissociability strength) and {!>) the
indirect nietliaiing (sensiiizing or immunizing) influence of presioiislv al
tercil cognitive itruciurr In classical transfer muations on the otlier hand
inasmuch as criierion and training tasks differ ihesujxmoritv of the cxjieri
mental group on die CTitrnon usk can unctiuisocally aitribiiied to the
modification of cognitise structure induced by die training task It g'»es
wiifioui saying Ijossrscr that simply
l«rcausc the influcnre of a cognitive
sirucitire variable is not demonstrable
under rmam
conditions see cannot
srarraniet!]* infer that it tioes not affect learning retention outcomes Tlif
Frequfncy 275

reality of a variable s on a phenomenon cannot be denied just because

effect
the variable itself currently defies reliable and valid measurement, or be
cause experimental or statistical procedures are not yet available to isolate
this effect from that of other variables
In this chapter v\e shall not be concerned with the problem of how
different dimensions of the practice variable (overlearning multi contextual
exposure) affect transfer, that is influence the meaningful learning and
retention of new material by altering cognitive structure We will consider
instead the effects of repeated presentations of the same learning task (prac
tice)on the learning and retention of that task Relevant dimensions of the
practice variable to be considered include thenumber, type and distnbution
of practice trialsthe method and general conditions of practice, and the
learners awareness of the effect of practice on learning retention outcomes
(feedback) It should be appreciated however, that only a slight alteration
m experimental design would be necessary to make the relevant studies in
this area conform to the transfer paradigm and thus shed light on the peda
gogically more significant issue of hovv different aspects of practice influence
the meaningful learning and retention of related new matenal
Unfortunately, most of our knowledge about the effects of practice
variables pertains to rote and motor learning and to single rather than se
quentially organized tasks The research void with respect to the role of
repetition in meaningful verbal learning is especially glaring despite the
time honored place of practice and review in pedagogic technique Prac
tically all of the research conducted to date has dealt either with the frankly
rote type learning of nonsense syllables and paired adjectives or with the
verbatim learning of such potentially meaningful matenal as poetry and
short prose passages

Frequency'

In terms of histoncal significance theoretical importance, and relevance

for current educational practice, few issues m
educational psychology are
more crucial than the role of frequency m
learning and retention Yet ever
since E L Thorndike (1931, 1932) repudiated the law of frequency, the
theoretical stance of educational psychology on this issue has tended to be
confused contradictory and somewhat schizophrenic On the one hand
m accordance with Thorndikes pronouncement it is held that frequency
in Itself
IS unnecessary for and really makes little difference in learning out
comes and this position finds much favor with progressivist educators who
' Some of the material in this secUon has been excerpted from an article Is
Drill Necessary? The Mythology of Inadental Learning by the author in the
Bulletin of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1963 47, 44 50
Reprinted by permission of the National Association of Secondary School Prinapals
1963 Copynght Washington DC
 Pracliee
27G

are hostile to drill of an> kind with Gcslali liiconsls

who concede of all
learning as insighlfitl and with discontiniiiiy (
nonmcrcmcntal ) learning
single trial
theonsts who imininm that learning insnmbly takes place in a
theor)
Thus we frequently tend to minimire the role of drill in educational
fashioned as psjcholog
regarding It as rote mechanical passise and old
ically unnecessary for the learning process and as actually
harmful for ac
tive meaningful learning
The progressivists of course did not entirely deny the value of prac
both their es{)ousal of naturalism incidental
lice As a matter of fact
learning and of project and activity programs as well as their battle cry

of learning by doing an implied endorsement of the importance

carried
of appropriate practice But by appropriate practice they meant direct
(con

Crete manipulative) nondehberate (unintentional) and autonomous

(un

guided) learning encounters with different (diversified) examples of the

same
concept or prinaple in imcontrivcd real life situations Their mistake lay
m assuming that all structured practice (drill) is necessarily rote that un
structured unguided and unintentional (incidenial) practice is maximally
effective for school learning tasks and that doing necessarily leads to
learning simply because it involves direct experience and occurs repeatedly

m natural problem solving situations

Actually (or practice to result in meaningful mastery of material the
only really essential conditions are that the learning task be potentially
meaningful that the learner exhibit a meaningful teaming set and possess
the necessary anchoring ideas and that the number distribution sequence
and organization of practice trials conform to empirically established pnn
aples of effiaent learning and retention Not only is the uncontnved or
unstructured quality of practice an unessential condition of meaningful
effective learning but ii also often leads to no meaningful mastery what
soever This is so because inodental practice is typically haphazard in terms
of frequency and distribution of trials and because Uie spontaneous un
structured organization of learning experiences is more frequently than not
inconsistent with established criteria of effective programming Problem
solving and laboratory exercises may similarly lead to little or no meaning
ful learning if the students learning set is simply rotely to memorize type
problems or tediniques of manipulating symbols and if he has inadequate
background in or appreciauon of the methodological principles illustrated
by specific laboratory procedures It should also be realized finally that just
as doing does not necessarily lead to understanding
understanding does
not necessarily imply ability successfully to solve
problems involving mean
ingful appreaation of the prmaples in
question Factors
other than under
standing are also implicated in the outcome
of problem solving activities
On the other hand educational psychologists implicitly accept tlie con
cept of a learning curve m
which gradual increments in learning are
plotted against successive tnab and tliey place great stress on the impor
Frequency 277

tance of overlearning for long term retention and transfer This latter posi
tion IS actually adopted by the vast majority of teachers, coaches, parents,
and students who follow the maxim that practice makes perfect ” Quite
‘

obviously, both positions cannot be simultaneously valid The upshot of

this conflict in our beliefs is that we still place considerable reliance on drill

in actual classroom teaching, but do so halfheartedly, apologetically, and

in ways that detract from its effecti\eness Actually,on theoretical grounds,
there are many reasons for believing that i«petition is typically required not
only for the retention of adequately clear, stable, and valid meanings (and
often for their acquisition as well), but also for that degree of consolidation
of antecedent portions of sequentially organized subject matter that is neces
sary for efficient learning of subsequent portions

Meaningful versus Rote Learning and Retention

The role and significance of frequency are different for meaningful

than for rote learning and retention precisely because rote and meaningful
learning processes themselves are so different from one another Repeated
encounters with the same array of stimulation presumably enhance rote
learning and retention by increasing the strength of discrete, arbitrary, and
verbatim associative linkages, that is, their resistance to the short term inter
fenng effects of prior and subsequent stimulation The same repetitiveness
presumably enhances meaningful learning and retention by increasing the
dissociability strength of instructional materials that have been nonarbi
irarily and substantively incorporated in relation to an existing concept or
principle in cognitive structure, that is it enhances the emergence of clear
and stablemeanings and their resistance to forgetting (Ausubel, 1962c)
Thus reasonable to assume that sheer repetition would play a more
It is

significant role in the learning and short term retention of discrete and
arbitrary associations, largely isolated from cognitive structure, than it
would in the learning and longer terra retention of materials that can be
meaningfully incorporated vnthin that structure In meaningful, as opposed
to rote, learning situations, such other factors as the availability of clear
and stable anchoring ideas, the discnmmabihty between these anchoring
ideas and the learning task, and the internal logic and lucidity (the logical
meamngfulness) of the learning task undoubtedly detract somewhat from
the role played by repetition Nevertheless the influence of repetition is still
considerable in the establishment and consolidation of meanings and in
the enhancement of their resistance to decremental processes In any case,
it cannot be dismissed as basically extrinsic to the process whereby mere

ments in availability are effected

From the standpoint of frequency, the chief practical implication of
the differences between rote and meaningful learning for classroom teaching
is that review can, and largely should, take the place of practice Since mean
278 Prect ce

ingful leammg occurs rclatncl) quickly nnd since the forgetting of mean
ingfully learned materials tales place relatively slovvl)much of the poien
of frctjuency can l>e used more profitably for review
tiall) facilitating effects

than for original learning purposes In terms of what is actuallj learned

and retained in other vsords die relatively Jong interval between the initial
learning and the review sessions in the case of meaningful learning is com
parable to the short inter trial practice interval in the case of advanced
stages of rote learning Thus in teaching the meanings of a senes of pro-
grammed saentific terms
J H Re)nolds and R Glaser (19&1) recentl)
found that repetition has only a transitory effect u{x>n retention whereas
spaced reviews |roduce significant facilitation in retention
of the reviewed
matenal

Frequency and Learning

Until relatively recently most of the empirical

research bearing on the
frequency issue in rote Icamint, had been
conducted by E L. Tbomdile
(1931 1932) In amassing experimental
evidence against the role of fre
quency however he chose highly atypical
learning tasks that could not pos-
sibly be mastered m
the absence of either expliat intention
or knowledge
of results respectively and then
deliberately failed to provide these condi
tioru Hence since the minimally
necessary conditions for learning were
lacking in his particular expcrimcnu
he did not find it very difficult to
demonstrate that numerous repetitions
of the task under the same impov
sible conditions he set were just
as ineffective for learning as was the pro-
vision of a single trial Needless
to say despite the fact that such evidence
IS almost universally cited
in educational psychology
textbooks as definitively
proving the negligible inffuence of
frequency by lUelf on learning it merely
demonstrates that certain atypical
he absence of expliat intention or
kinds of learning cannot take place m
feedback no mauer how frequently the
learning task is repeated ^
^pcnments for example Thorndike endeavored to
nrnvp iliai
belongingnerr and by
Z,o«,nV,h‘’''r'^
I™ m far? demonv.raled
bis result ssas hardly
dm frequency
surpnsing because although
contitmitv
"'““a^dse leL.ng not all conuguous
I ne
1"“’““'' based on belongingness is
alisa« m,ob?r"
-be case of
d
- ccllection of functional or
m " "bere the assoaation
J^li^Slted ?
^'’" "'’' “""E'hgd'M n established eidier by ex
pl.cit instniction? fam 1

Luo"; rw y hatualt
»' “responding explicit set. o?
expeaanaes based on previous
experience Hence
Frequency 279

much incidental learning ’ (learning in the absence of explicit instruction

and intention) can occur either if the learning materialis meaningful, or if

the rote learning task is constituted m accordance uith habitual expectan

cies - But i{ is unrelated to or inconsistent
a particular rote learning task
with habitual expectancies (for instance associating the second member of
one paired associate with the first member of the next paired associate in
the series), it is understandable that little or no learning will occur in the
absence of explicit intention, despite numerous contiguous repetitions (E L
Thorndike, 1931, 1932)
From the latter experiments, therefore, one could warrantedly infer
that, in addition to contiguity, belongingness is essential for associative
learning, that belongingness can either be established implicitly (in
and
potentially meaningful material or in familiar rote tasks) or by explicit
intention (in unfamiliar rote tasks) One could not justifiably conclude
either that explicit intention is necessary for all learning, or that frequency
by Itself has no effect whatsoever on learning True, in the absence of be

longingness frequency is ineffective because no learning at all can occur

This does not mean however, that when belongingness ts present, the im
provement that occurs with repetition must necessarily be attributed to
belongingness rather than to frequency
Similarly, in another widely cited senes of experiments, E L Thorn
dike (1931, 1952) showed that m
the absence of knowledge of results, fre-
quency of repeating certain tasks (for instance, drawing a line of specified
length, estimating the length of paper strips) bears no relation to learning
(improvement) In instances where a constant stimulus situation is repeated
but the response is variable or indeterminate, it is obvious that some knowl
edge of results is essential for learning Feedback, however, is not mdispens
able for learning in situations either where both stimulus and response are
specified or where the learner s task is simply to reproduce the material
that IS presented to him Furthermore, not only is frequency effective in
these latter instances where feedback is not required for learning but it
also enhances learning in those situations where feedback ts essential and
IS provided
In many military and industrial training situations involving percep-
tual motor skills (for instance gunnery) and the learning of sequential pro
cedures practice of the task itself apparently has no facilitating effect

2 Children for example acquire much specific information about objects

irrelevant to the solution of particailar incentive motivated problems (Stevenson
1954) and without any obvious motivation for so doing they effectively retain
over long periods of time information presented in motion pictures (Holaday and
Stoddard 1933) Experimenters who aumtnister lists of nonsense syllables to sub
jects incidentally learn many of these syllables themselves (Jenlctns
1933)
 practice
282

and ivas follo^^C(l b) the retention test ificr in cqinl time intcrial for fwlh
<Icla)cd
groups Tile sime rcleirnmg of ilic mitcrnl constittited carl) or
rcviess for the ts\o groups is i result of sitting t!ic interval
between original
earlier
learning and review Fven under these cx|)cnmcntal conditions the
findings were confirmed
The results of this litter experiment cm be best explained by supposing

that the respective idvaniagesof eirly ind dcli)cd review

countcrbilance
eacliother The theoretical advantages of dcliycd review ire |)erlnps more
selfevident thin those of eirly review In the first place after a longer
retention interval when more mitcnal is forgotten the learner is more
highly motivited to profit from the opjxirtiinity for review He is less likely
to regard this opportiinit) as unnecessary and siijicrlluoiis and is therefore
more disposed to take good iilvaniagc of it in terms of elTorl ind attention
Second and even more im|x>riant piior for^eltmg conceivably has a facil
itating ( immunizing ) effect on mciningful learning and retention because
as 1 result of both trying and failing lo remember imtenal the learner
tends to become awire of ncgiiive hciors in the learning and retention
siluaiions that promote forgetting tint is of areas of instability ambiguity
confusion and lack of discriminabihty (Ausubel and Youssef 1905) Thus
forearmed he can take the necessary steps during the relearning session to
strengthen particularly weak com|)oncnts of the learning task to resolve
existing confusion and ambiguity and to increase discrimmabihiy between
previously learned ideas and related new propositions rurthermore it
would seem that greater potential benefit could presumably be anticipated
from repetition when a larger proportion of the learning task is forgotten
inasmuch as more remains lo be relearned under these circumstances
In what ways can early rcvievw conceivably counterbalance these evident
advantages of delayed review? The most likely possibility is that repetition
(review) has a specially potent consolidating ellcct on recently learned ma
tenal while it is still appreciably above the threshold of availability ami
that this consolidating effect decreases as die material becomes progressively
less available Obviously another trial
providesadditional opportunity for
the learner to interact cognitively with the learning material and to relate
the potential meanings it embodies to his existing structure of knowledge
thereby enabling actual or experienced meanings
to eventuate and/or be
consolidated He has mother words another opportunity to acquire mean
mgs potential m the material that he partially or completely missed on the
first trial as well as to consolidate meanings
initially established at that
time To be optimally effective however the opportunity for such consolida
non may very well presuppose a certain
minimal level of residual avail
ability
Another study trial also provides the learner with informational feed
Frequency 283

back in the form of textual reference for testing the correctness of the
knowledge he retained from the first trial This testing confirms correct
meanings clarifies ambiguities corrects misconceptions and indicates areas
of weakness requiring differential concentrated study The net effect is con
solidation of learning U hen the learning task is largely forgotten however
as in delayed review the feedback role of repetition is minimal
In what other ways may early review be more advantageous than
delayed review It will be remembered that in addition to enhanang mean
ingful learning and retention in the two aforementioned direct ways repe
tition also influences these processes in another indirect way through modi
fication in cognitive structure wrought by earlier trials Not only do repeated
presentations of the learning task strengthen the newly acquired cognitive
content but the latter cognitive content itself also reciprocally induces
changes in the perceived learning task which make it more leamable That
is initnl acquisition of the meanings of the learning material and their
presence in cognitive structure sensitize the learner to the potential mean
mgs It contains when he encounters it again Since he had previously de

—
rived meanings from the learning material on the first tnal by incorporat
—
ing potential meanings into his cognitive structure now the new ideas as
a whole not merely the component words immediately (that is perceptu
ally)convey actual rather than merely potential meaning to him on second
reading
Hence on the second trial actual rather than potential meanings
interact with the residue of those recently acquired meanings m his cogni
tive structure which were established as a consequence of his first encounter
with the material This type of interaction particularly enhances consohda
tion of the previously established meanings because this time the learner
does not have to grasp meanings and can concentrate solely on trying to
remember them Moreover establishment of gross meanings on the first
tnal sensitizes the learner to more refined meanings and subtle distinctions
on the second tnal It stands to reason therefore that both the consolidation
and sensitizing effects of repetition are greater earlier rather than later
during the retention interval when more of the learned meanings are still
available to exert sensitizing effects or to be consolidated
In summary then the pnncipal advantage of early review would ap-
pear to be Its superior consolidating feedback and sensitizing effects
m relation to more highly available material whereas the principal ad
vantage of delayed review probably inheres m
the superior relearning of
forgotten material both on moiivational and cognitive grounds Thus since
each kind of review has its own and advantage the two
distinctive function
varieties are presumably complementary rather than redundant or mutually
exclusive and can thus be profitably combined
 Practice
284

How the Influence of Frequency

u Mediated
presenia
The role and importance of frequency (number of trials or
over the
tions) in learning and retention base receised varying emphasis
years in psycliology and education For the most part
the m
history oi
cardinal
psychological thought frequency has been regarded as one of the
lavss of associative learning and more recently of classical conditioning as
the law of frequency received a severe
v,ell In the early thirties however
setback at the hands of concluded after mudi expen
E L Thorndike who
learning
mentation that frequency m
itself has little or no impact on the

process and that us supposed induence must really be

attnbuted to rein
forcement (satisfying effect) knowledge of results belongingness or inten
tion (1931 1932)
bol
The authonty of Thorndikes pronouncement was subsequently
the
steredby the influence of such nonfrequency conceptions of learning as
Guthnan contiguity single trial model of learning (Estes 1960 Estes Hop-
emphasis
kins and Crother 1960 Gutline 19a2 Rock 19a7) the Hullian
on drive reduction as the pnnapal variable determining habit strength
operant
(Hull 1948) the Skinnenan preoccupation vsith reinforcement in
conditioning (Skinner 1938) E C Tolman s view of learning as the gradual
acquisition of cognitive sophistication (1932) and the Gestalt formulation
of learning as Uie abrupt emergence of (Kohler 192o) The com
insight
bined influence of these theoretical developments in the psychology of
learning and of the prevailing progressivist and ciiild<entered trends tn
the philosophy of education led to a widespread de-emphasis of the value
of practice or drill in the teacliing learning proces.s Dnll was unwarrantcdly
stigmatized as neccssanly rote in nature and was made of uncon
a fetish
tnved unstructured and inadental learning experience
It IS apparent therefore that tvvo principal issues must be considered
in evaluating the role of frequency m learning and retention First is repe
tition typically required both in gradually establishing assoaalive or dis-
sociabihly strength at or above threshold level (learning) and in suffiaentl)
enliancing such strength so that the sjian of retention is extended or is
all effective learning and retention actually accomplished in a single tnaP
Is frequency in other i»ords organically related to the learning retention
process or is gradual improvement with repetition merely an artifactual
consequence of various circumstances involved in the investigation measure
ment and representation of learning retention outcomes’ Second does fre
qucncy affect learning and retention m
any distinctive way apart from
affording repeated opportunities for other variables such
as contiguity drive
reduction and conrrmaiion-clanfication to ojjcraie
in cumulative fashion’
Our position regarding both the role and mediation of frequency m
frequency 285

meaningful verbal learning and retention has already been made clear in
discussing the effect of temporal |»sition on review Evidently, frequency
IS neither a necessary nor a sufficient condttion for meaningful learning to

occur The substance of much relatively easy, potentially meaningful mate

rial can be grasped after one reading Typically, however, several rereadings
are required for more difficult learning, for overlearning, for delayed reten
tion, and for transfer Frequency, in other ssords. usually makes a difference
in meaningful learning and retention On the other hand, in the absence
of a meaningful learning set, of potentially meaningful material, of sufficient

effortand attention, of active attempts to understand, of intention to inte

grate knowledge and to reformulate it in idiosyncratic terms, and of belong
ingness, feedback, and intention (where these are necessary for learning),
no amount of frequency by itself can eventuate in substantial amounts of
meaningful learning In addition, we have insisted that practice alone does
mote than just provide opportututy (or siuJi variables as contiguity, rein
forcement, feedback, belongingness and intention to influence learning
Subsequent opportunities to encounter learning matenal are facilitated
by tile cognitive changes (emergence of meaning, forgetting) already wrought
by the initial encounter, as well as by the cognitive changes (increased dis
sociability strength) that they themselves induce
Thus we hold its own on learn
that frequency has a distinctive effect of
ing and retention that operates in addition and cannot simply be reduced,
to the opportunity which subsequent trials provide for other effective van
ables to influence, in cumulative fashion, the process and outcome of learn
mg and retention That is, we propose that frequency does more than merely
make possible a summation of the repeated of some other variables
effects
such as contiguity, reinforcement through drive reduction, or cognitive con
firmation and clarification Frequency does admittedly provide opportunity
for the reairrent operation of these variables, but it also serves as more
than just a vehicle for the cumulation of their repeated effects®
Frequency is obviously insufficient for learning under conditions that

5 Some of the eSeci of tepcimon on learning and retention probably has a

neurophysiological basis related to the theory that repeated excitation of a given
neural connection lowers the tynaplic resistances involved This iheory is m
accord
with the well established (a) everything else being equal the older of two
facts that
memory traces is stronger andstrengthened more by practice (Josts laws) and
is
(b) memories in storage tend to increase in strength over time It is also consistent
with the pattern of memory loss and recovery m amnesia cranial trauma electro-
—
shock therapy and senile dementia with the fact that older memories are lost last
and recovered first (Wooldridge 1963) Not only does repeated reexatation appar
ently lower synaptic resistances but so also do randomly and spontaneously gen
erated electric brain currents The latter phenomenon would account, in part both
for Josi 5 laws and for the superiority of distributed practice
 Practice
286

or to Tnoti\ation not to
lead either to extinction (lack of reinformnent)
holds true for conditions that
learn (for instance pumshment) The same
knossledge whidi is absent in a particular learner
either presuppose prior
or call for discosery or difficult reception learning that
may or may not uke
the necessary insight
place Some learners for example may never acquire
for certain kinds of insightful problem solving In other instances frequency
insight Althoug
may gradually engender the necessary understanding or
le
this insight may appear to anse very abruptly it may actually reflect
hypotheses and their reformulation following negative
testing of many prior
results

CVl
IVCRZMENTAL VERSUS SOMNCREMENTAL THEORIES It appears that
and
dence in support of the incremental (continuity) conception of learning
of the importance of frequency can be derived from the
overwhelming ma
jority of researcli studies in the field irrespecuve of the type of learning
been
involved In addition to these studies of practice evidence has already
presented which suggesu that pnor ouerleaming of relevant matenal
dunng
a training penod faaliiates the learning of related new matenal (induces
positive transfer) by enhancing the stability and clanty of the training
con

cepu m
cogTiitive structure
But theonsts v>ho deny that frequency intnnsically influences learning
retention outcomes do not seem at all impressed by the apparently irrefut
able evidence implicit m
the very shape of the learning curve They attribute
the gradual improvement that occurs with repetition to various method
ological artifacu Gestalt and field theorists (Koffka 193o Kohler 1923
Kredievsky 1932 1938 Lashley 1929) for example typically assert that
learning (insight) occurs suddenly and that the inals preceding the attain
raent of insight have no real effect on Its emergence Learning they contend,
only appears to be incremental either because the grossness of existing mea
sunng instruments obscures the abrupt acquisuion of partial insights or
because the pooling of data from many subjects who achieve insight on an
all-ornone basis dunng different trials results ma smooth and gradual
group learning curve E R. Guthrie (19a2) also espouses an all-or none con
cept of learning for any particular stimulus-response connection atinbuimg
the apparent improvement with praaice to unavoidable variability m
tlie

stimulus situation over a senes of trials which in turn leads to ever increav-
ing stimulus generalization and correspondingly greater probability of re
sixmse elicitation Lastly according to 1 Rock frequency appears to be
necessary in learning a list of paired associates
l)ecause only a limited num
her of associations can be formed on any one trial
(Rock 19a7 p 18C)
Some evidence against the role of frequency m rote learning has been
adduced from various expcrimcnu on single
trial paired associate learning
(Estes lOro Estes Hopkins andCrotlier
I9G0 Rock 1957) Rock modified
Frequency 287

the con\entional paired assocnte technique of presentation so that his ex

penmental subjects would ha\e only a single trial in which to learn any
given pair This was accomplished by removing from tlie list (on the sub-
sequent trial) were not learned on the previous trial and
all pairs that
substituting new pairs He found that subjects who learned lists of paired
associates presented in this manner learned them just as rapidly to a cnte
non of one errorless trial as did control subjects who by following the con
ventional procedure had one or more additional trials in which to learn
those pairs missed on the first trial W
K Estes B L Hopkins and E J
Croiher {I960) have also shown that vshen a list of paired associates are
studied only once items which are incorrect on the first trial almost in
variably tend to be incorrect on the second test trial Since tlie probability
of making a correct response under these circumstances apparently does not
increase from the first test trial lo the second they concluded that assocratne
strength either increases from 0 to 100 per cent on a given trial or shovss
no increase whatsoever
These latter studies however neither provide more definitive evidence
than Thorndikes aforementioned research in ruling out the effect of fre
quency on learning nor demolish the inaemenial conception of learning
In addition to such methodological difficulties m both studies as failure to
control for item difficulty^ (Lockhead J96J Postman )962 Undernood
and Keppel 1962 Underwood Rehula and Keppel 1962 Wollen 1962)
Estes interpretation of his findings does not allow for the possibility that
frequency may result m gradual subliminal increments in associative
strength that is m increments below threshold value that are not reflected
in performance If for example a single study trial increases the associative
strength of a given item in a list of paired associates but does not do so
to threshold level the subtliresliold strength of the item is no more likely
to lead to a correct response on a second test trial than on the first test
trial provided that no study has intervened between the two test trials

Hence the fact that the particular items inoirrect on the first test trial also
tend to be incorrect on the second test trial does not warrant the conclusion
iVh? ifv’sv AWw’/’ .oaal AiuUvats -tin .leamrtg' whatsAVR*- ap vVhe jyqjiawtvvy’
unlearned (subtlireshold) items or no learning that could be incrementally
benefited by a second trial
The notion of incremental learning in which frequency plays a signifi
cant role is of course by no means incompatible with the possibility that
later trials may have a differentially greater effect on the yet unlearned com

8 It seems highly probable that the particular items in a series of paired asso

ciates whidi a given subject fails to learn are more difficult for / im than those items
which he succeeds m
learning even if the two sets of uems can be consi lered equally
d fRciilt when some aierage criterion of difficulty such as Clare value j$ applied
 Practice
28B

ponents oE i total Icirnmg task than on those items alrcad) abose threshold
level Dediictivel) it wouhl also appear that this diflerential effect of later
tnals IS less significant vviien trials are distributed rather than massed inas-

much as a long interval between trials leads to some forgetting of the learned
Items and hence to less difference in associative strength between learned
and unlearned items In more complex kinds of mathematical learning
P Suppes and R Ginsberg (1962a) concede that the all-ornone model can
not explain all of the evidence
One trial learning theorists arc divided on the relationship between
frequency and retention Estes Hopkins and Crother (I960) claim that
tlieir experimental evidence refutes tlie traditional finding that overlearning

enhances retention but I Rock while insisting that repetition plajs no

role in the formation of associations other than that of providing the
occasion of new ones to he formed each in a single trnl concedes that
repetition after the association is formed is effeciive in strengthening it

(Rock IDa? p 193)

Advocates of the incremental position of course insist that ijpically
with each successive trial associative strength is gradually increased until
It reaches or exceeds threshold level niher than that the entire gam in

associative strengthis necessarily acquired in the single trial preceding the

appearance of the correct response They implicitly assume in other words

that the increment m
associative strength is attributable in whole or in
pan to the effect of repeated presentations of the learning task that is to
the influence of frequency alone and B
J Underwood has more explicitly
defended the role of frequency as such in rote verbal learning insisting
that at the very least it is related to familiarity and thus accounts in part
for the availability of response if not for the associative strength aspect
of paired associate learning (Underwood 1959)
It is quite apparent that the issue regarding
the role and importance
of frequency in learning and retention is far from
being settled Neverthe
less the weight of the evidence and logic
suggests that learning is tjpically
a gradual (continuous) rather than an all-ornone
(discontinuous) phenom
enon that it reflects a summation of increments
in associative or dissoa
ability strength wrought by repeated presenutions
of the learning task and
that the apparent abruptness of some learning
outcomes ( insight ) really
masks the occurrence of much prior hypothesis-formulation re testing
jection and -confirmation activity which is organically
related to the
supposedly sudden emergence of the correct
insight Even conceding that
learning may sometimes occur in a single
trial and that frequency seldom
citrates alone mlearning and rciention but rather
in conjunction with
other vanables (for example the stability
and clarity of related concepts
in cognitive structure intention
to learn reinforcement knowledge of re
suits or feedback internal
organization of the learning task) we can lenta
Frequency 289

livelyconclude that the frequency factor both actively interacts with these
other variables as well as constitutes a significant variable in its own right
in influencing learning retention outcomes Evidence indicating that in cer
tain kinds of learning tasks frequency has no effect in the absence of be
longingness explioi intention reward or feedback does not warrant the
conclusion that when these factors are present most of the improvement
accompanying repetition must be attributed to them rather than to fre
quency alone as a matter of fact there is much suggestive evidence that
frequency can often enhance learning in the absence of explicit intention
knowledge of results or drive reduction
It is not asserted of course that increments in learning necessarily
occur at a uniform rate over a series of trials or that those components of
a task that are already learned are benefited as much by later trials as are
the yet unlearned components But even after a given association is estab-
lished or a given meaning or means end relationship is correctly appre
bended additional repetition increases associative or dissociabihty strength
still further thereby enhancing retention

Transfer versus Direct Practice

m Sequential Learning

Repetition is important not only for the mastery of tlie current or on

going learning task but also for the learning of new sequentially dependent
tasks that presuppose such mastery or consohdaiion of the current task This
of course is an example of positive transfer The relative value of transfer
and direct practice has already been considered in another context In a
sequentially dependent learning situation one would expect degree of
retained knowledge of early background material crucially to affect learning
of the later material by providing relevant ideational scaffolding for it
Hence if such relevant ideational scaffolding were available and were clear
and stable it should provide a better foundation for new learning and
retention than if it were not available or if available were not clear and
stable The stability and clarity of antecedent cognitive structure also affect
the discriminability of new learning material from previously learned knowl
edge Repetition of the early background material therefore is one of the
factors that enhances its stability and clarity and hence should facilitate the
learning of sequentially dependent later material
The facilitating effect of repetition (consolidation) of background
material on the learning of subsequently presented material apparently
seems to operate only when the latter material is sequentially dependent on
the prior background material Thus in classroom learning tasks n is im
portant to distinguish between (a) sequentially related materials that are
sequentially dependent an prior learnings and (b) sequentially related ma
 Practice
290

^Vlle^ say
tenals that are sequential!) independent of such learnings
that materials are sequentially related, v.e merely imply tint terms of the m
set of
logic of subject matter organization, it is more reasonable for one
materials to precede another than vice sersa Sequential dependence,
how
ever, also implies that the learning of the later material actually
presupposes

knowledge of the earlier material and is impossible without it In sequen

earlier
tially independent situations on the other hand knowledge of the
material is not required for learning the later material the latter set of
material, is other words is self-contained and can be learned adequately
by
Itselfwithout any reference to the previous set Such sequential inde
pendence is frequently brought about in sequentially related lessons by
including m
the second lesson a synopsis or review of all of the matenal from
the first lesson that is absolutely essential for the understanding of the
second
The effect of consolidating knowledge of the first of two sequentially
related but sequentially independent passages on ability to leam the second
was recently investigated (Ausubel and Youssef, 1966) The first passage w'a*
concerned with the normal physiology of pubescence and the second with
clinical (pathological) aspects of pubescence It VN^as found that greater
knowledge of the passage dealing with the norma! physiology of pubescence
did not fanlitate die learning of the sequentially related but sequentially
independent (self contained) passage dealing with clinical conditions of
pubescence Degree of knowledge of the normal physiology passage was
manipulated by permuting subjects zero, one, or two readings of this passage
prior to studying the clinical passage This finding was attributed to the
current availability in the clinical passage of the minimum background
matenal of normal physiology necessary for understanding the clinical
material Under these conditions, the stability and clanty of both the directly
relevant and of the collateral background material apparently became non
determinative factors in learning the new maieriaH M D Merrill (1965)
and M D Memll and L M Stolurow (1965) obtained substantially equiva
lent results using programmed materials
One can best interpret these findings
perhaps by comparing tliem to
the results one might liave anticipated with sequentially dependent passages
and the presumed reasons (or »me
In a sequentially dependent situation
one would expect degree of retained knowledge of early background matenal
crucially to affect learning of die later matenal
by providing relevant
ideational scaffolding for it Hence, if such
relevant ideational scaffolding
were available and were clear and stable, it would
provide a better founda
tion for new learning and retention than
if it were not available, or, if

t As previously suggested however prior

cjnsolidation would probably en
hance the long lerm retention of the new nuucnal
under ihese conditions
Disiribulion of Practice 29J

a\ailable, ^^ere not clear and stable Repetition of the early background
material is one of the factors that enhances its stability and clarity, and

hence should facilitate the learning of sequentially dependent later material

Howeser, when the directly relevant ideational scaffolding from the
first passageis included in the second passage, and is thus currently available

for the learning of that second passage, the fact that the learner has been
exposed to the same relesant mateml in another context (and that his
knowledge of it had thereby become consolidated) apparently becomes a
nondeierminatne factor in learning the second passage, and the collateral
background material is in any case, of too tangential a nature to constitute
rele\ant ideational scaffolding and hence to affect significantly the learning
and immediate retention of the second passage It is quite possible, of course,
that consolidation of the first passage would result in superior delayed re
tention of the second passage
These findings have some obvious implications for professional educa
tion which would of course, have to be validated by direct research evidence
They suggest that much preprofessional education does not enhance pro
fessional competence as such, that we might be able to produce physicians,
engineers, teachers and so forth, who are just as competent professionally
without giving them an elaborate senes of preprofessional courses provided
that the basic minimum of relevant preprofessional material necessary for
understanding professional content were included within and made part of
professional instruction These preprofessional courses can naturally be
—
defended on other grounds the broadening of the individual s intellectual
horizons and general culture But if this latter function rather than the
enhancement of professional competence were actually their mam justifica
tion It might be important for educators to revise their concept of pro
fessional education, particularly today when so many persons must be
retrained quickly for new professional fields.

Distribution of Practice
Effect on Learning and Retention

The distribution of practice has long been a favorite topic of research

and theoretical inquiry in the psychology of learning In fact more empirical
evidence is available regarding the effects of distributed practice on learning
and retention than regarding the cximparable effects of simple frequency
of practice Generally speaking the evidence supports the conclusion that
distributed practice is more effective than massed practice for both learning
and retention The relative efficacy of distributed practice however, depends
on such factors as the age and ability of the learner and the nature, quantity,
and difficulty of the learning task The advantages of distributed over massed
Distribution of Practice 293

prior relevant learning, and to length of the retention interval Rehearsal, a

psychological variant of perseseration involving implicit practice, does not
require any unparsimonious neurological assumptions, and may very well
explain part of the effect of distnbuted practice in certain instances, but it

definitely does not offer a complete explanation of the value of distributed

practice, because the prorision of inter trial rests has also been shown to
facilitate learning m
animals, in motor activities where rehearsal is im
probable, and in practice schedules where rest intervals are filled with sleep
(Spight, 1928) or other activities precluding rehearsal (Hovland, 1938, 1939,
1940a, b, 1949)
Fatigue or boredom (manifestations and causes of work decrement) do
not provide very satisfactory explanations of the effects of distributed practice
because few learning tasks in the laboratory are long or strenuous enough
phenomenon Neither aspect of work decrement, further-
to give rise to either
more, can account for the differential learning task and temporal position
findings associated with distributed practice A somewhat more sophisticated
work decrement explanation couched in terms of reactive inhibition" (the
postulated self inhibitory potential produced by a given response following
which supposedly dissipates with rest), is hardly more en
Its elicitation,

lightening, inasmuch as the postulated mechanism of reactive inhibition

invokes a purely hypothetical behavioral or neurophysiological process that
has not been independently validated and is merely metaphoncally descrip-
tive of the empirical facts it purports to explain (the facilitation of learning
when practice trials are distributed), the theory tends to be circular Motiva
tional theories stress the decline m interest and drive accompanying fatigue
or boredom, and are vulnerable, of course, to the same criticisms that have
been applied to the latter theories
Forgetting theories are both theoretically most cogent and most in
accord with the experimental evidence They specify the following ways in
which inter trial rests can facilitate later learning and/or retention trials
(a) If It is true that on any given trial repetition primarily strengthens those
components of the learning task that are yet unlearned, the forgetting of
previously learned components that occurs between trials in distributed
practice schedules makes it possible for these latter components as well as
for the yet unlearned components to profit from the strengthening effect of
later trials (b) Rest provides an opportunity both for the dissipation of the
initial confusion and resistance characterizing initial learning shock, and
for the forgetting of interfering (wrong, alternative, competing) responses
or meanings (Underwood 1961) The dissipation of initial learning shock
here is comparable to that underlying the reminiscence effect in retention,
except that it occurs m
relation to numerous rest intervals rather than to a
single rest interval whereas the dissipation of the inhibition caused by
incorrect competing alternatives reflects the differentially faster rate of
 PractUf

tanaltk. (a) the tclame ittaixtrt.ons

rest mtervals It mclutles the follo».ng
trials (recitation
ol the material) anti test
ot study trials (presentation
nature of the response oiert or coicrt constructed
recall) (b) the
or refomiiilated prompted or unprompted
multiple choice verbatim recall
tnals arc so oiBimrcil that
each trial encompasses
(c) iiliethei practice

miller the learning task as a

ohole or merely parts ol same and (d) iilietlier
and the rate of presenting ncu material is or
is
the number o[ rcpetihons
not related lo the success of pnot peilonnancc

Recitation versus Heeapitulotion

internalize presented
In reception learning svhere the learning tasV is to
materials (facts principles arburary associations) so that thc>
are asailaWc

for later reproduction die learner ma^ either be

presented uilh numerous
trials or repetitions of the task or he imy elect or be required to
spend
study
(recite)
varying proportions of the total practice time in attempting to recall
the material test trials v.ith or tsilhout the beneru of prompting
m The
relevant research findings support the conclusion that sshcreas increasing
proportions of recitation tend to facilitate role learning and rcicnlion
(Forlano 1936 Gates 1917 Hovland Lumsdaine and Sheffield 1919) (re
tention more than learning) the facilitating effect of recitation on mean
tng/ul learning and retention is both less sinking and more equisocal (Gates
1917 Michael and Maccoby I9o3 H A Teterson 1914)
The efieciueness of recitation particularly for rote material may be
attributed to several factors First since the attempt to recall presented
matertal actually tests ivhether and to what extent internalization (learning)
has taken place the feedback that is provided in the next tnal is there
fore a much more significant faaor after recitation dian after recapituU
uon It indicates explicitly and systematically what tlie correct assocniions

or meanings are in relation to the intemalued learning that has already

taken place Under these circumstances all of the effects of feedback as an —
incentive condition as cognitive confirmation correction clarification and
evaluation of the adequacy of learning and as reinforcement foUov/ing
reduction of cognitive and ^o-enliancing drives—are considerably iruensi
fied
Aclosely related immediate consequence of feedback in this context
IS that as a result of discovering whicli parts of the learning
task have not
yet been suffiaently mastered the subject is better able to
focus his attention
and effort selectively on these latter aspects Second the more active kindof
partinpalion involved m
recitation than in rereading implies greater learn
mg effort Hindi m
addition to exerting a general faoluating influence on
learning differentially salvages items at or near
threshold strength and leads
tomore acuve and meaningful oTgaimaiion ol ihe
learned material (use of
rhythm mnemonic devices and conceptual organizers)
Ustly the condi
Method of Practice 297

tions of recitation more nearly resemble the conditions under which the
learning will c\cntual!) be exercised tlian do those of recapitulation
For rote learning, where prompting is used, reataiion is most effective
if It IS introduced after only a few study trials (Skaggs, and others, 1930)

Without the benefit of prompting, however, recitation is more advantage

ously introduced at a later stage of practice (L O Krueger, 1930, W C F
Krueger, 1930) Recitation apparently cannot prove helpful until enough
material is learned so that a test trial can provide almost as much practice
as a study trial, but if prompts are furnished to fill m
gaps of knowledge,
recitation obviously becomes feasible at an earlier point in a senes of prac
tice trials Thus the principle governing the optimal temporal position for

introducing recitation is similar to the principle determining the optimal

spacing of reviews if, on any given tnal, the learner himself has to provide,
from what he has previously learned, the stimulus material to be used for
that tnal (if he is given a test trial), the temporal arrangements must be
such as to ensure the existence of sufficient learning or retention, respectively,
to make practice or review profitable If, on the other hand, the learning
task IS presented to the learner in whole or in part, sufficiency of learning or
retentionis a less important consideration than Josi’s
laws
The markedly reduced effectiveness of recitation with respect to
meaningful learning and retention is not difficult to understand To begin
with, the logical sequential structure of connected meaningful discourse
makes implicit recitation possible during the same tnal, that is, m the course
of rereading subjects typically tend to anticipate the remembered facts and
propositions that follow logically from the material they are currently
perusing In the case of meaningful material, also where the achievement
of understanding is both a reward and an incentive in its own right, less

effort required for learning, and the incentive and ego

is
enhancement values
of feedback are less important Explicit testing is similarly less necessary for
the confirmation, correction, clarification and evaluation effects of feedback
partly provides its
m view of the fact that the internal logic of the material
own feedback—enables subjects to appreciate whether they have grasped
their understandings
meanings correctly and, in any case, implicitly to test
meaningful learning
against the next presentation of the material Finally,
effects of recitation since they possess
tasks benefit less from the organizing
can still
an inherent organization of their own Nevertheless, recitation
facilitate meaningfullearning—even when conducted
early m
the course

of learning and without the use of prompts

Nature of the Response

coextensive wtth the
OVERTNESS Closdy related to but not completely
whether the subject s mode
rectatton recap, tulatton issue ts the problem ot
of response does no.
of response dnnng practice rs overt or covert Overtness
 Praelice

conMtiictioit as docs rccilalion.

Iim merely wme
neccssariU imply recall or
Hence, ‘^•l.er rcadi.|g,
me^re of acuury and cslernild) (oli„r.rl.d..,) Uc rcfcanle
“menttUy com,K)Sing* anst^ers lo qticsimns
hstcn.og to, or
wlierets <>ovU the consmiclioti of
in appropriate
as ’coserf responses,
multiple choice jillermtite must be
answer and the selection of a suitible
constnicicd rcsiwnscs ranV.
categorized as •oseri’ Adnimedl>. howeser,
responses
higher on a scale of osertness than do selected
principally in
Theo%cn<o\ert dimension ot practice has been explored
instruction contexts those
relation to a limited variety of automitcd
duration, ami, for
imoUing meiningful learning, using programs of sboil
findings, under
the most part, requiring short terra retention 1 he rescarcli
these conditions, indicate that subjects who rcs|X)iul
consenly not only learn
and retain verbal material as well as or liettef than subjects
who constnicl
their responses, hut also do so more efficiently in terms of learning tunc'®
(Della Piana, 1061, Evans, Glaser, and Homme, lOf^c, Goldbeck and Briggs,
i960, Goldbeck, Campbell, and Llewellyn, 1960, krumbultz, 1961, Lambert,
and others 1962, Prtssey, I9&2a. Roc, 1960, Silbennan 19G2, SiKcnnm and
Alter, I960, Stolurow and Walker. 1962. Wiitrock, 1903d, Yarmcy, 1961)
Oven selection of multiple dioicc answers, for instance, by jmslung a bituon,
IS similarly no more effectise than listening to or reading the correct under

lined answers (Kaess and Zeaman, 1960, Kcislar and McNeil, 1061: McNeil
and Keislar, 1961) Under certain circiimsiances, however, (sec below),
overtness of response may facilitate learning and retention
In trying to understand these findings and to reconcile them with tlie
research on recitation, u is necessary to consider the various ways m which
overtness of response influences, or aUegedly influences, learning ami reien
tion In the first place, it is self evident that overtness of resjionsc facilitates
perceptual moior learning m instances where the overtly practiced response
one of the objects of learning (tliat is, part of ilie learning
Itself IS task) But
where the overt response (lor example, writing pressing a lever) is already
a well-established component of die learner's response repertory and con
stituies merely a nonspeafic means of responding to test questions, it is
obvious that the response acqusition advantage of overtness is irrelevant and
that overt responses are more time consuming and Jess eJBaent than their
covert counterparts (Gagni, 1962b. Walker and Stolurow. 1962)

J D Kruinbola and R GWeisman (1962a) found the overt response mode

more effective m delayed (iwo-week) retention, but M
C ^VIt^rock
(1963d). using
a oMyMr retention criterion failed lo confimi their findings
\1 H Jtarx (I960) reported
W A Hillix and
that subjects who actively made their own
trial and
enor responses m learning light ciremu learned less efficiently
than subjects who
beW 0 %.) on "*P®"** ^ A Goldbeck and V N Camp-
the other hand found the emert response mode differentially more
effective in delayed versus
immediate retention
 Method 0 / Prnelier
299

Second,
it is svidely asserted that belnvior must be emitted order m
to be proj>erI> reinforced through
dri\e reduction
(f G
Holland, 1960.
Skinner, 1958) Nescrtlielcss, although this
notion is a key assumption of
the more ortliodox brands of bcbaMorisni
there 1 $ little theoretical justifica
tion for believing that associations and
response dispositions (sets) cannot
be similar!) reinforced
Third, overtness of rcsjxinse plainly makes more explicit testing of
knowledge possible which, in turn enhances the cognitive drive reduction
and motivational effects of feedback This consideration is probably very
important for rote lenrrnng. and undoubtedly accounts for much of the
value of recitation when rote materials are used, but, for reasons already
specified, it has little applicability to meaningful learning Thus since
practically all of the research in this area has been conducted with poten
tially
meaningful programmed materials it is not surprising that the findings
been afmost unifbrmfy negative The faci/itating effect o{ overtness of
response on meaningful learning is further reduced in an automated mstruc
tion context inasmuch as the provision of feedback tends to make relatively
little difference when tJie low (Evans Glaser, and Homme,
error rate is

1960a) if because of small step introductmg new material),

size (slow rate of
the subject’s responses are almost invariably correct in any case he obviously
does not stand to profit very much from the potentially facilitating cognitive
effects of feedback In support of this interpretation is the fact that overtness
of response is differentially more effective for difficult than for easy pro
grammed material (Goldbeck, 1960, Goldbeck and Campbell 1962) and
for intellectually less able than for inteJIectualJ) more able students (Witt
rock, 1963d) Suppes and Ginsberg (1962b) report that overt correction of
error facilitates mathematical concept learning in 6 year old children, but
from their data it is not clear whether the overtness of the correction or
merely the correction procedure itself is the determinative variable
Meaningfulness of material, as previously explained, also negates a
fourth possible reason for the effectiveness of overt responses — the fact that
the latter imply greater activity and hence greater effort and more efficient
organization of learning It is interesting to note in this connection that
when overtly and convertly responding subjects do not differ in motivation,
they also do not differ m
learning outcomes (McNeil and Keislar, 1961)
This suggests but does not confirm the possibility that the facilitating effects
of overtness when they do occur ire partly mediated by motivational
variables
Lasdy, overt response during practice could conceitsbly faalitate
learning by resembling more closely than covert response the response mode

to J G Holland (1960) automated instruction even leads to a

11 According

more active type of covert learning inasmuch as the material stands still instead
of moving past the learner (as in a book or leejiure) when his attention wanders
 Practice
SOQ

of
that .s typically Ac cmcml Mtuauon In an empirical test
mitmetl m
elTcct on learning
this hyiithesishowever, response mode had no more
seas direaly itltvant so Ac letUavvor
outcomes Sihen the overt response
than svlien such relevance was
sampled on the post test (tt'mrocl. 13G3d)
lacking (Keislar and McNeil 1962)
conslnictmg
CONSTRUCTED OR MULTIPLE-CHOICE The taiionalc for
trials is prcciscl) the same
rather than selecting answers during practice
already specified lor overtness of response (see above)
plus the fad
as that
that exposing subjects to wrong answers presumably engenders and strength
considerations, of
ens undesired competing responses (Skinner, 1958) These
course app^y primanly to the learning of rote tniicrtals both
because overt
response is not particularly advantageous in meaningful learning
ness of
(sec above) and because the presence of competing responses aficcis mean
ingful learning differently than it does rote learning In the case of arbitrary
verbatim learning the increased availability o! competing responses is

self-evidently harmful inasmuch as the desired arbitrary response is correct

by definition and only has to be discriminated from similar role responses
that actualfy occur m
recent proximity (rather than from all other logically
plausible alternatives) in these circumstances ftirihermorc one resjionsc
IS inherently just as plausible as another In the case of meaningful learn
mg however where the new learning task largely consists of discriminating
the correct meaning from other relevant altermtivcs and vvhere built in
entena exist in cognitive structure and in the learning material itself for
assessing relative degrees of plausibilty identification of the relevant alterna
tives constitutes the first step m enhancing the discrimmabvluy of the newly
presented ideas
The meaningful new ideas in other words is primarily
clarification of
a process of differentiating the propositions in question from related cslab
hshed propositions in cognitive structure and from other plausible alterna
lives in the learning material (Presscy, 1962a 1962b) But before the com
parative and evaluative
aspects of sudi differentiation can be successfully
undertaken necessary to identify as precisely as possible the nature
it is first

and source of the confusion that is to make expliat the various relevant
S L. i\e»ey’s aojuntlive auto-instruction (1900) uses
multiple choice items to sharpen meanings after initial
presentation and
learning of the material N
A Crowder (1960) on the other hand employs
12 That learners can profit
from the exposure to and mistaken choice of wrong
shown by the fact that the percenuge of correct
alternatives is
answers increased
rciestone month later for subyeas experimental group who were given auto-
—
dying the learning task (R S
'

ISaO) This increase did not

occur ii of control subjects who did r
ceivc any auto-mstruction
Method of Practice 301

the multiple clioice format as part of the programming procedure itself

(
intrinsic programming ’) the subject chooses one of several presented
alternatives for a given test item and, depending on the particular wrong
he chooses, is then given a differential set of corrective matenals
alternative
which both explain the nature of his error and retest him for evidence of
clarihcation
Research on the relative efficacy of constructed and selected responses
(Bnggs, 1958, Coulson and Silberman, 1960a, Evans, Glaser and Homme,
1960b, Roe, 1960) generally indicates that the two response modes are not
and retention outcomes, but that
significantly different in terms of learning
the constructed mode is less efficient (requires more time) Since all of the
above cited studies used meaningful programmed matenals to which the
advantages of the constructed response are least applicable, it is not surpns-
ing that the latter response mode was not shown to be superior In the one
study reporting a significant difference in favor of constructed responses
(Fry, 1960), it is notable that the learning task (Spanish vocabulary) was
both more rote like and relatively difficult (high error rate) In another study,
tlie constructed response mode proved superior only in relation to technical
versus general items (J
P Williams 1965) On the other hand, the hypothe
sized superiority of the multiple choice format for the learning and reten
tion of meaningful materials also faded to be empirically substantiated by
these studies It is conceivable, however, that the discnminability advantage
inherent mthe multiple choice response mode was counteracted by the
greater learning time and effort involved in constructing responses

PROMPTING AND GUIDANCE The Icamcrs responses during the course of

practice may be completely unaided on the one hand, or receive the benefit
of varying degrees of external assistance, on the other The nature and
significance of such assistance obviously differ greatly depending on whether
reception or discovery learning is involved In a discovery learning situation,
assistance takes the —
form of guidance ^providing cues which detract from
the learner opportunity for autonomous discovery Hence, guidance refers
s

to and affects the reception discovery dimension of learning The provision

of complete guidance is tantamount to presenting the learner with the
essential content of the learning task (reception learning),
whereas the
absence of any guidance whatsoever requires completely autonomous
dis

covery The degree of guidance furnished m

most instances of discovery
learning typically falls between these two extremes Guided
discovery, for

example, often consists of (a) Socratic or rhetorical questioning (Larson.

of a hierarchical senes of examples or problems
1963). (b) the arrangement
lead almost
for the learner, gradedin difficulty which when completed,
inevitably to the correct principle or generalization
(Beberman, 1958), (c)
the provision of a general rule without examples or the provision of
worked
 Praelice
302

tutmshmg xerbal directions _ .

examples without a role IWnuotl.. l%Sc>.
Brotitn, 1961, Gagnd, Mayor,
Garstens, and
that siiiile discovery (Gagnd and
^ .
a demonstration, special exercises, or
Paradise, 1962), and (e) ptoviding
substantive principles, coroeci _
didactic instruction that liigliliglit underlying
Anderson, 1912, Cox.
form aiucal cues, or effiaent strategics of attack (T ^
1929, Afay and Lumsdaine,
1933. Davies, 1945. Goodenough and Brian, ^
1958, VanUer Meer, 1945) All ot iliese latter
methods have proven more
learning, particularly
effective than either complete discovery or reception
^
m the retention and transfer of problemsolving skills ^
In a reception learning situation, exiemal assistance takes the form
of

prompting during the test trials This assistance does not affect the autonomy
of discovery, since the content of the learning task is wholly presented in
any case, but does influence the autonomy of reproduction The learner
is ^

assisted, in whole or in part, to reproduce previously presented material

which as yet has not been mtemalued above the threshold of availability
If the entire and explicit substance of the information demanded by the
test Item is furnished the stimulus support can be regarded as a prompt,

if the stimulus support is less complete and explicit during the test trial, it

can be considered a cue

Prompting is more necessary and effective in the earlier stages ol re-
ception learning because at this time the learner has not yet internalized
sufficient material to receive much practice benefit from unaided recitation
(Briggs, 1961, Della Piana, 1961) Furihermore, the provision of prompts at
this early point of practice can prevent guesswork and the learning of errors
(incorrect competing responses) and thus obviaie the necessity for costly
unlearning For such reasons, prompting is more efficacious than confirma
tion (feedback) for relatively short periods of practice m
reception learning
(Bnggs, 1958, 1961, Cook and Spilier, 1960, Hovland, Lumsdaine, and
Kaess and Zeaman, 1960, Silbennan, Melaragno, and Coulson,
Sheffield. 1949,
1961 a and b, L M
Smith, 1962) Dunng the later stages of practice,
however, these considerations are obviously less relevant In
addition, it is
important that the conditions of practice gradually begin to approximate the
desired (unprompted) end point of the learning product
Hence, as the
amount of correct learning incieascv, both reduction of the completeness
and
(| G Holland. 1960. Israel. 1960, Lumsdaine.
exphatness of the prompts
1961, Popp and Porter. 1960) and their replacement
by confirmation (Angell
and Lunudaine, 1960. Lumsdaine. 1961; Siolurow.
1961b) arc advantageous
On theoretical grounds u also seems plausible that
for further learning
prompting couW be ptofuaWy dispensed
with earlier in the case of meaning
tuJ Ilian of rote recepiion learning
because of the more rapid rate of acaui
sition and the different role played by competing responses
studies of the role of guidance in
discove^'l^n°I. meaningful
ty leads to die conclusion that guided
I
g or semi autonomous
Method of Practice 303

discovery (either providing the learner with a verbal explanation of the

under})ing principles and {lemntting 2»m to apply them autonomously to
specific examples or encouraging him to discover the principles himself
after working a carefully graded senes of relevant problems) is more
efficacious for learning retention and transfer than is either completely
autonomous discover) or the provision of complete guidance C M
Wittrock (1963c) and ^Vlttrock and P A Twelker (1964) further substan
tiated this conclusion recently in well controlled studies in which college
students were taught to decipher transposition codes Although more reten
tion and transfer’^ occurred when the rule was provided than when it was not
provided an intermediate type of guidance (furnishing either the rule
Itself or a worked example of it) was more effective than furnishing both

rule and worked example or furnishing neither rule nor example The pro
vision of rules was more effective in all instances than the provision of worked
examples Guidance under these arcumsunces apparently sensitizes the
learner to the salient aspects of the problem orients him to the goal and
promotes economy of learning by preventing misdirected effort
Some opportunity for autonomous discovery is obviously necessary in
chose instances where the object of learning is not merely the acquisition of
knowledge but also the development of skill m
formulating general pnnci
pies and in applying them to particular problem situations Verbally
presented principles it is true are transferable to such situations even x£ they

Thu supenoriiy of guided discovery over reception learning is partly reflec

live of an experimencal artifact Since criienal tests in this experimental design in
variably involve discovery learning the guided discovery group enjoys the advantage
of transferable discovery experience (problem sohing strategy of attack) the m
learning trials This interpretation is especially pertinent to G L. Larsons (1963)
study in which a guided discovery group obtained higher scores on a transfer test
than did either a complete discovery or a no discovery group despite the fact
that all tfiree groups performed almost identically on an immediately preceding
delayed retention test

should be noted that even though subjects who learn by the complete or
It
guided discovery methods enjoy the advantage of transferable discovery experience
from learning to criterial trials they are in another sense at a disadvantage com
pared to the reception learning group with respect to opportunity for acquisition
retention and transfer Insofar as they fail in many instances to discover the prin
ciples that are simply presented to the latter group they necessarily manifest less
ability to demonstrate acquisition retcntron and transfer Larson (1963) controlled
this variable by presenting the discovery groups a summary of the correct principles
after an initial period of autonomous or guided learning Nevertheless he found
that the guided discovery group was still inferior on the acquis non tnals since the
experimenter s verbalization of the principles interfered with the consolidation of
intuitive principles emerging dunng the training
 Praelicc

class ol problems
bui the ability to soKe a parucular
are not selI-d»sco^ered.
efEcenily also presupposes experience in
coping ssith the distinctne features
hypotlicsis-formulation anti testing in the
of that class of problems in
minimue
strategy of application, m
identifying fruitful approaches that
nsk and
costls unnecessary cognilne strain, m
using systematic and economic
meaningful learning
methods of inquiry, and in maintaining a flexible and
set Actual discovery experience is
even more important m
trial and-eiTor

in the learning of perceptual motor skills

and Adequate learning
learning
learn what not to do.
in these arcumsiances also requires that the individual
and correct
and for this he needs first hand experience in making mistakes
jng them Thus although appropriate guidance helps the learner avoid
diminish
unnecessary error in the early stages of practice, its value lends to
practice (Carr,
as It increases in amount or extends into the later stages of
must eventually perform the
1930, Gates and Taylor, 1926) Since he
learning task unaided, he must also avoid becoming overdependent on
guidance
In conclusion, the unquestioning faith vvhich advocates of madental
learning have in autonomous unguided discovery is justified neither by
logic nor by research evidence In the fint place, laboratory and problem
solving exerases are not inherently or neassanly meaningful They may
lead to or no meaningful learning if a student $ learning set is simply
little

rotely tomemorize type problems or techniques of manipulating reagents

and symbols, and if he has inadequate background in or appreaation of the
substantive and methodological pnnaples underlying speafic problem
solving or laboratory procedures
Second, what is typically called 'the discovery jnetliod is really a
contrived type o! discovery that is a far cry Irom the truly autonomous div

covery actniiiesof ihe research scholar or scientist Pure discovery techniques

could lead only to utter chaos and a waste ol lime in the classroom, inasmuch
as immature students generally lack suffiaent subject matter sophistication
both to formulate workable problems and to devise appropriate and relevant
research mctliods Before students can "discover generalizations reasonably
efiiaently. problems must be structured for them in sucli a way as to make
ultimate discovery almost inevitable
Tlurd. numerous short leim studies have demonstrated that
guided dis-
covery IS more effiacioiis for learning retention,
and transfer than iv either
completely autonomous discovery or the provision ol complete
guidance
Howeser, tlicsc findings do not necessarily indicate that
guided discovery is
more eflcctivc for teaching subjea matter content
than is simple didactic
cxj^ition For one thing Ihe solving by a
naive subject of a few novel
problcms in a laboratory setung is lurdly
comparable to the learning of a
large body of sequentially organized
matenal by a learner with varying
degrees of subject matter
sophistication Tlie problems used m
laboratory
Method of Practice 305

studies are deliberately chosen on the basis of their relative unrelatedness

to previously acquired knowledge For another, even contrived discovery
techniques are typically more time consuming than expository teaching
Much also depends on the relative time cost of the two approaclies, on the
cognitive maturity of the learner, on his degree of subject matter sophistica
tion, on the nature of the learning task (descriptive information, representa
by stating and testing
tional equivalents, or principles that are discoverable
hypotheses), and on vshether the objective of the learning experience is to
acquire knowledge, enhance problem solving ability or obtain insight into
scientific method

Lastly, guidance in the form of prompting has been shown to be very

helpful during the early stages of learning At this point in the learning
process the learner has not yet mastered sufficient material to receive much
practice benefit from unaided reaiaiton Further, the provision of prompts
can prevent the learning of errors and thus obviate the necessity for costly
unlearning

vtRUATiM RtCALL VERSOS REFORMULATED RESPONSE In measuring the

learner s comprehension and retention of meaningful verbal content, test

Items can be appropriately constructed either to encourage verbatim recall of

the presented material or to lead him to reformulate his understanding of
the material in terms of liisown vocabulary and ideational background
Although explicit empirical evidence is lacking on this issue the reformula
tion approach has at least three theoretical arguments m
us favor It not
only constitutes a more valid measure of genuine understanding but also
requires the more active participation of the learner in the testing situation
and tends to discourage the adoption of a rote learning set m future learning
efforts Other ua)S of accomphshing the same purposes in a formal testing
context include the use of a multiple choice format employing application
or problem solving items and measuring ability to learn a new set of propo
sitions presupposing mastery of the content being tested In a less formal
testing context the substitution of appropriate recitation trials for study
tciak tecvit to reformulation rather than verbatim reproduction

Whole versus Part Learntng^^

Whetherit is more effective to practice a given learning task as a

whole
or to practice various component parts separately, depends on the interaction
between a large number of complex vanables Each method possesses certain

'5 Because of the voluminous and somewhat antiquated character of the re

search literature in this area older studies are not cited Excellent reviews of the
literature can be found in J A McGeoch and A L. Irion (1952 pp 499 507)
and
R S Woodworth (1938 pp 216 223)
 Piacltce

prameds .0 .lie next rel ol .lejnr

,,pe program rlra auccerslol learner nreiel,
is grren another easier
series of items or a differ
and umiicreviliil learner
.lie
maienals related to the nature ol Ins errors Laill)
m
ential set of corretine
tor
program size ol stepmaj be tnrreased on
„.bse.,i.ent .tents
etther .,pe of
for the unsuccessful indnidua!
1
the successful mdnitlual and decreased
learners proceed ihrougli the same
nondiilcrenl.al program in rsh.tlt all
sequence ol steps is comenuonaH> Tctcrred to as linear, tn contrast to the

branching or multiple track t>pe of differential program Asailable

definitive The weight
research evidence regarding this issue is far from being
of the evidence suggests that branching programs
requinng eitlier simple
corrective
repetition of incorrectly answered items or more differential
(Briggs, 1958,
exercises are not onl) more effiaenl in terms of learning time
that are
Coulson and Silberman 1960a) but also result in learning outcomes
!960a.
either equal to (Beane 1%2, Briggs 1958 Coulson and Sillierman
S R Mejer, 1960a Silberman Melaragno and Coulson 1961b) or better
than (Coulson and others 1962 Holland and Porter 1961, Inon and
Bnggs 1937) those of linear programs
On purely theoretical grounds the branching procedure should be
superior to the linear procedure because it ensures master) (consolidation)
ol a prior item ol knowledge in a sequentially oiganvied program before
die learner can proceed to the next step in tlie sequence It accomplishes
this objective by adapting both to intra individual differences with respect
to the relative difficulty level of different portions of the program, and to
interindividual differences in general intellectual ability and in particular
subject matter sophmicauon The branching program in other words,
requires bodi that all learners devote selecuvely greater learning effort to
those Items they find more difficult and that generally less able learners,
on the average, take more practice Inals than generally more able learners
m mastering a given unit of material It also takes into account the par
iicular reasons or misconceptionsunderlying errors in eadi individual, and
endeavors to correct rather than to ignore them Thus quite apart from,
and in addition to the effect of consolidation on sequentially dependent
learning differential practice and feedback result in greater original learning
of eadi component item in a related senes of learning tasks
B FSkinner (I9a8) argues on the other hand that
consolidation can
be asiurcci for all praclical purposes r.itltont requiring
repeliuon of tneor
lectl) auTOeted ilcnts b) uang a linear
program rtith small task and step
size and corrc5|»ndingl, low error rare
Under these arcumstances differ
enual progntm. are alleged], unnecessar, for
dtfferen. ab.l.ly lesels stnee
esen lots ab.ltty students do not make an
app.ec.able number of errors and
lush ahtltty studems can s.mpi, more throogh
the program more rapidly
tor tins position b, tndteat
me tharVn
in„ that differential.'“'i’’
adjustment of step sire to abilit,
ferct does not sig
General Cotiditioris of Practice

njficantly enhance learning outcomes, his findings, however, have no beanng

ulntsocver on the repetition or correction issue In this latter connection it
should be noted that previously cited evidence suggests that learning out
comes are ad\ ersely affected b) lack of opportunity to correct errors This
is particularly true for low ability students who, despite an ostensibly low
error rate, actually learn considerably less than high ability students after
completing the same linear program (Beane, 1962, Keislar and AfcNeil,
1961, Shay, 1961, Silberman, and others I96Ib, Wittrock, 1963d) It is,
therefore, unsafe to assume that dull students necessarily learn as much as
bright students from the linear programs that they both complete, and that
the only difference between them lies in the number of programs each group
is able to master in a given unit of time

General Conditions of Practice

In addition to frequency, distribution, and \anous specific aspects of

method of practice (recitation versus recapitulation, nature of the response,
whole versus part approach linear versus branching programs) many gen
eral conditions of practice undoubtedly influence learning and retention
outcomes These conditions include learning set. naturalness of the practice
setting, and degree of task homogeneity Unfortunately however, relatively
little research evidence is available regarding the effects of these important

variables

Natural versus Structured Settings (Drill)

One of the strongest legacies of the progressive education movement

and of Thorndikian educational psychology that still remains on the peda
gogic scene is a confused and contradictory attitude toward structured prac
tice or drill As a result, we often tend to minimize the value of drill but —
more in educational theory than m
actual practice The very term drill still
evokes unsavory connotations in etfucationaf circles ActualTy, ot' course,
dnll IS a necessary and indispensable aspect of classroom learning In a
generic sense it refers to those aspects of the practice variable that affect
learning outcomes J B Stroud puts the matter very well

In our anxiety over the abuses alleged and real we have had a tendency to

forget the fact that there are intelligent constructive uses of drill Drill is cur

rently purported and by some who have been identified with education long
enough to know better to be the handiwork of stimulus-response psychology
In appraising dnll as a teaching procedure it is well to remember that it is
not mere repetition but repetition of the conditions of learning that is effective
Drill can be effective ineffective or positively detrimental spirited or spiritless
 Practice
310

jmt because they engage m dnll m u..

Pupils do not necessarily lean,
need o( ha, been
edL..on,l pupil, me eugegrf lo dnil aller Uie

demonsirated n l
and no more Perhaps no one
» %sorih
Pnll should be recogn.tcd tor ishat ,t
speUtng s..ll teach a pupil to thmV cul
m
has eier ma.nia.ned senomly that dn«
soaal ad|ustraent or make him more
democratic
h« dvaracter improve h.s
iisatc
Other provisions are made for these aspecu of h,s
education By dnll m spelling
personality
The cultivation of hii rational abilities or of his
he does learn to spell
is not suffioent to teach him to spell
be It ever so v.ell done

Undoubtedly there are many undesirable features of dnU woA

in our scliools
unessential written
Itshould not be allowed to become monotonous Ejccessivc and
avoided Because of lU repetitive chaiacier pupils are likely to lose
work, si ould be
activity For this reason the
interest in it more quici.l> than in most other kinds of
penods should be relatively short (Stroud 1942 Sd**
length of such pranice pp
364)

Tlie fettsh of naturalism and inadental learning embodied in the ac

tivily program mo'ement emphasirei these five poinu (a) unstructured and
uncontnved learning situations (b) direa kinds of experience in a con
aete manipulative sense (c) unintentional or nondehberate learning effort
(d) learning by autonomous unguided discovery and (e) exposure to diser
sificd ndier than tepeuiive experience The issue of imcniional learning
will be considered m
Cliapter 10 Some attention has already been gisen
to the problem of guided learning and the matter wnll be considered at
greater length m the discussion on learning by discovery in Chapter 14 The
issue of task homogeneity will be considered in ilie next section
How desirable is it that practice takes place m natural (real life un
contrived) settings’ Enthusiastic supporters of projert and activity mcUiods
as wc have already seen take a rather extreme position on this issue reject
ing all kinds of highly struaured practice (dnll) and advoattng m
effect
an vnodcnial type of learning It is true of course (providing that all fac
tors are equal) that learning is enlianced when the conditions of practice
closelyresemble the conditions under which the skill or knowledge ques- m
tion will escntually be used Such learning is also less likely to be monoto-
nous and enjoy's the benefit of higher levels of interest and motivation
VVbnliy o-v.uciJ. vastly yneMdc the pranice conditions
Uiat are cither necessary or optimal for effiaent learning Generally it is
only during the latter stages of learning after component
aspects of the
learning task have already lieen idenufied and
mastered in structured prac
ticesesvionv that naiurahsuc dress rehearsals liccome
feasible In die first
place uncontnsed learning experiences
typically fat! to include a sufficient
numl^ of j roperly spaced practice tnals a, well as
adequate oppoiiuniiy
for d.Rciential repeiuion of pariicularly
difficult components Second un
structured practice does not receise
the benefit of skilled pedagogic selcc
non presentation and organ.raiion of
matenal of careful sequencing
General Conditions of Practice
311

pacing, and gradation of difRcult}, and of optimal balancing of intra task

repetition, mtra task vanabihty and intertask \anabihty Lastly, most
learning effort is enhanced b) deliberate intention to learn
The important leaching pnnaple of initial simplification of difficult
learning tasks for unsophisticated pupils runs counter to the doctrine of
natural or unstructured learning Exposing an unsophisticated learner to
all of the complexities of natural, unarranged data in the laboratory, or
of subtle distinctions and qualifications mexpository teaching, is the surest
s\a> ofconfusing and o\ez^vheIming liim The use of artificial ‘crutches,"
gradation of difficulty, and slotting doun the rate of presentation (Baker
and Osgood, 1954, Lawrence and Gooduin, 1954, son \Vright, 1957) are
common forms of simplification in classroom learning
In an introductory course, simplification of content —unthout teaching
wTong —
ideas that have to be unlearned later is always justifiable and in
dicated This can be accomplished by simplj presenting more general and
less complete versions of much of ilie same material that can be presented

subsequently m greater depth and at higli levels of sophistication In an

introductory course in biology, for example, it is less damaging to present
inadequate historical detail and expen/nental evidence than to obscure the
major concepts by providing excessive historical and experimental data
—
It IS possible, for example, to present ideas relatively simply ^jet cor

—
rectlj in an introductory course in high scliool biology by deleting a great
deal of the dispensable terminological, methodological, and historical de
tail, as well as many of the intermediate steps m argumentation, by tele
scoping or condensing material, by eliminating tangential asides’ and less
important qualifications, by limiting the scope of coverage, b> omitting
formulas, equations, and structural diagrams of complex molecules that
are actually meaningless to unsophisticated students, b) keeping the level
of discourse general and simple, by vvnting luadly, using terms precisely
and consistently, and giving concise and familiar examples, by using sche-
matically simplified models and diagrams, and by bearing in mind that a
satiation point exists for any student An atypically high level of sophistica
tion may sometimes be employed simply to illustrate the complexity of a
given topic, but in these instances students should be explicitly instructed
not to master the details
Many features of the activity program vsere based on the self-evident
proposition that the elementary school cliild perceives the world in rela
lively concrete and intuitive terms and requires considerable direct expen
ence with many concrete insunces of a given set of relationships before
he can acquire genuinely mciningful concepts and generalizations Thus,
an attempt was made to teach factual information and intellectual skills
through the medium of direct, manipulative experience in natural settings
rather than through verbal exposition and dnll
 Practice
312

suffiaent number of basic

abstract con
In older pupils houcser. once a
nets concepts are pninaiil> dtnsed
tiom other serbal
cents IS acquired
experience and nets propositions are
abstractions rather than [tom direct
tnanipnhtvan ol omcrett
comprehended tiithout any direct reicience to or
props In the secondary school therefore, it
maj be desirable to reserse both
proportion betsveen abstract con
the sequential relationship and telaiise
belienng that much
cents concrete data Thus there is good reason for
and
ol the lime prcsenil) spent m
bus^^xorl laboratory eKerases tn the
formulating more prease defini
could be more adsaniageously employed in
expliallj bciueen related concepts, generalizing
from
tions diflerenuating
lijpothetical siiuauons and so forth

Toife fJomogeneit)

proponents of actiwt) programs tend to fasor task heterogeneity tn

practice Tliat is Uie) seek, in part to escape the opprobrium associated
tsith drill by stressing disersity boih in the i>pcs of learning tasks and in
the examples of each t)pc that Are presented to the learner
Rclaiise degree of task homogeneity i$ often an important practical

consideration in the learning of skills and inductnely acquired concepts

and principles Tlie issue is sshetlicr such learnings can 1>e acquired most
ellicienil) as a result of tniensise practice ssith just a few exemplars, or as
a result of less mtensise practice unih a large \anet) of exemplars ^Ve have
already concluded in an earlier chapter that other factors being equal, the
defining attributes of a given concept are learned most readily when the
concept IS encountered m many diverse contexts Such expenence obv^ously
lessens Uie particularity and enhances the generalny of abstract knovsledge
and transferable important to qualify this conclusion, however,
skills It is

!jy pointing out that mullKontextual experience is acquired at ilie

if this

expense of attaining adequate masiery of the particular component tasks

which comprise it its oserall effect on learning is detrimental In learning
general concepts principles and skills inductively expenence with a par
exemplar lias a posiiise transfer effect on other exemplars only if
iinilir
It adequately consolidated and similarly it is only by masienng several
IS

exemplars in the same fashion iliat the total experience can be successfully
utilircd m formulating a transferable generalization Tims transfer
in
learning set problems requires mastery a given type of problem,
as well as experience wnh many variants of this problem type \Vlicn com
pared wnh giving only one class (wiih eight problems)
two classes (vsith
font pToblms {)cr class) may be enough of a vanity to enhance
transfer to
new (problem solving] Instances O'«wrock and Twclker
19&1) Also if
the supjwmsc tmpincal insunccs
of a concept {Kurtz and Hovland. 19501
or a iiToposition are loo heterogeneous
in content or sequence of presenta
lion learning is tmjicdcd ^ ^ «-»cnia
General ConiiiUons of Practice
313

seems, therefore, that e0iaent learning of transferable skills and

It
knotviedge demands a proper balance beisveen the oserleaming of particular
intra task ifystances, on the one hand and adequate exposure to tntra and
inter task discrsit),
on the other Xhese two conditions of practice are com
plementar> and mutually supportive rather than antithetical or mutually
precJusne, altliough it is quite probable that their optimal proportions v'ary
in different learning tasks Many cases of disability in particular academic
skills can undoubtedly be attributed to overemphasis on the importance of
diversified expenence m unstructured learning situations with consequent
insufficiency of practice and failure to attain mastery of the component habit
exemplars from which the skill in question is derived Hence, we should not
lose sight of the fact that the acquisition of general skills is dependent upon
the prior consolidation of more particular habit exemplars and that these
skills are therefore not efficiently or satisfactorily established unless learners

practice the underlying exemplars suffiaenily to master them thoroughly

Generally speaking, educators have tended to stress the importance of ex
tensity as opposed to intensity in learning Actually, if a choice must be
made it is preferable to knowr a few things well than to have a passing ac
quaintance with many A small quantity of consolidated knowledge is both
useful and transferable, a large quantity of diffuse and unstable knowledge
IS utterly useless
Another obvious advantage of multKontextual learning providing it
does not interfere with iniratask mastery, is that it prevents boredom and
enhances the exploratory drive Tins is particularly true m
the case of more
intelligent learners less inter task vanabiJity is required to sustain the
interest of duller pupils (Armisiead, 1961) Learning set considerations
bearing on desirable degree of intertask vanability in practice will be con
sidered in the next section

Learning Set
The term learning set refers to current disposition to learn or per
form in a particular way Hence, in its broader meaning it also includes
the learner s disposition to learn in a rote or meaningful fashion Meaning
ful learning set as one of the major prerequisites for meaningful learning
is obviously an important general condition of practice, but has already

been fully discussed in another context

Sici/fs are generally diSerentiated from habits (a) in being executed more

deliberately and less mechanically and (b) in embodying a general capaaty to per
form a whole class of operations rather than mere faality in executing a particular
exemplar of that class Wlien a person becomes highly proficient at a given skill
however the psychological distinciton between skill and habit tends to vanish the
entire class of operations then acqmres nearly as much parucularity as the former
habit and becomes almost as mechanical m its execution
KnotvUdge of Remits (Feedback}
315

to lake advantage of both the learning to-Icam and the warm up components
of lonmsng set At the same time, honever, enough heterogeneity of inter-
task content should be introduced to prevent the mechanical perseveration
of a given learning set, and to discourage rigidity of approach and the de

velopment of a rote learning attitude The need for multiple warmup

periods is one of the chief disadvantages of distributed practice, and renders
such distribution unfeasible in certain tasks requiring considerable sus-
tained effort

Knowledge of ResulLs (Feedback)

On theoretical grounds, knowledge of results or feedback would appear

to be an extremely important practice variable ^evertheIess, because of
serious gaps and inadequacies in the available research evidence, we possess
very little unequivocal information cither aix>ut its actual effects on learning
or about its mechanism of action
As previously indicated, some knowledge of results is apparently essen
tial for learning in those perceptual motor tasks where a variable or mdeter

minate response must be given to a constantly presented stimulus If, for

example, the learner is repeatedly asked to draw a three inch line, he ob-
viously cannot manifest any improvement unless he knows to what extent
his effortsapproximate the desired standard (E L Thorndike, 1951, 1952)
In other instances, however, v»here both stimulus and response are provided
(for instance, paired associate learning), or where the learner must simply
compreiiend and internafue the material presented to him, feedback faal
itaies learning and retention (Hershberger. 1964), but is certainly not in

dispensable for either outcome Feedback, furlhermorc, is not even indis-

pensable for all types of perceptual motor leaining In tasks such as gunnery,
where appropriate responses or stimulus response connections are already
well established, enhancing knowledge of results (for example, by sounding
a buzzer whenever the learner is exactly on target) improves current per
formance but does not result m
any transferable gam in learning (Gagn6,
1962b)

Mechanism of Action
An equally important issue, assuming that feedback is indispensable
for some kinds of learning and has a facilitating influence on others con
cems the mechanism whereby this facilitation is effected Behavionstically
oriented theonsts (J G Holland, I960, Hull 1913, McGeoch and Inon,
1952, Skinner, 1938 1938. E L. Thorndike, 1931, Trowbridge and Cason.
1932) tend to attnliute the effects of feedback largely to reinloTcement or
 Ptactiee

In the present context therefore tve shall consider learning set only
insofar as it reflects the influence of recently prior learning experience or
activity This aspect of learning set reflects both (a) general methodological
sophistication in approaching a given learning task or attacking a particular
type of problem { an appropnatc performance
learning to learn and (li)
)
attitude or momentary engaging in a particular kind
state of readiness for
of activity (
vsarmup
effect) Both of these components of learning set
obviousl) contnbuie to positive transfer Thus irrespective of the kind of
learning involved (nonsense syllables mares poetry paired adjectives) prac
uce on one task tends to facilitate the learning of anoUier similar task pro-
viding that there
is no conflictftil overlapping of content between tliem

fThunc 19o0a Ward 1937) H F Harlovs s learning let phenomenon

largely reflects the cumulative influence
of learning to learn as a result
of successive intra and inter task experience
vsith a particular type of dis-
mmination problem Learning set is therefore
a significant general con
iiion of practice to bear m mind in
ordering die distribution and sequcnc
mg of practice as well as the optimal
degree of inter trial task homogeneity
It is important on theoretical
grounds not to confound the learning to-
aspects of learning set The former consists of relatively
MaVU.*”
concerned ,„.l, ,l,es.mleg, ol learning that
f""
I
‘“"“"8 ''P^’cnce and winch mHuence the actual
eonttnr.n 1 h"'
° '“"""5 """'‘I
mmuon 1 r' '7
/"“O" ">' 0 lsed in die momenian
loltcc consist. o£

Mn 77 locusine of alien
oaL "'“»> '"crtia that are asso

cor„ti„gr77trr7an7t'r •“») -
occurs during the course
"
unproiemem in learning that
of a 5 inele"l
’’ ’ P"cticc longer term improsement
(from one day to anolhetl
must L '“"""8
(Thune 19aOM A ri°''"'7lo?o 7''’
lo-lcatn eHecis
forgeiting has shown that much rote
is caused hv the Ims
t
retenuon^ntenTByUnVa ‘>“""8 chc
r”''’ I'"'
test intersal he was able greatly
dates II ra„Ttai“.h°'
'•"= "tentioo ot paired asso-
In the case of
meamn»l.n [
sumablyopeiatiie but ’'”™ “P '8ens are also pre
probabU less"'"'"’"
In programming “ >=” " -c retennon
^
portant to preserse

rr
sufiiaent

In the famihat
mm material
““"“""'''yrctneensnceess.se learning tasks
it is obviously im

rciroacuve i
lent, on that P*"digin the , t decrement in i
from
»'[ a limtlar task
(^diluting
aciive fanliuiion
»m. »p cTct'or
attribuiahle. ,o uarr!?^
rriT. ^ *
.
occurs despite the
Evidently the genera! retro-
peart
overcome the
» nular wnientTV rote learning
knowledge 0 / Results (Feedback)
315

to take advantage of both the learning to learn and the %varTn

up components
of learning set At the same time, however, enough heterogeneity of inter-
task content should be introduced to prevent the meclianical perseveration
of a given learning set, and to discourage rigidity of approach and the de

velopment of a rote learning attitude The need for multiple warmup

periodsis one of the chief disadvantages of distributed practice,
and renders
such distribution unfeasible in certain tasks requiring considerable sus-
tained effort

Knowledge of Results (Feedback)

On theoretical grounds, knowledge of results or feedback would appear

to be an extremely important practice vanabJe Nevertheless, because of
serious gaps and inadequacies in the available research evidence, we possess
very little unequivocal information either about us actual effects on learning

or about its mechanism of action

As previously indicated, some knowledge of results is apparently essen

tial for learning in those perceptual motor tasks where a variable or indeter-

minate response must be given to a constantly presented stimulus If, for

example, the learner is repeatedly asked to draw a three inch line, he ob
Mously cannot manifest any improvement unless lie knows to what extent
ins effortsapproximate the desired standard (£ L Thorndike, 19S1, 1932)
In other instances, however, where both stimulus and response are provided
(for instance, paired associate learning), or where the learner must simply
comprehend and internalize the matenal presented to him, feedback facil
uates learning and retention (Hershberger. J964). but is certainly not jn
dispensable for either outcome Feedback, furthermore, is not even indis-
pensable for all types of perceptual motor learning In tasks such as gunnery,
where appropriate responses or stimulus response connections are already
well established, enhancing knowledge of results (for example, by sounding
a buzzer whenever the learner is exactly on target) improves current per-
formance but does not result tn any transferable gain in learning (Gagne,
1962b)

Mechanism of Action
An equally important issue, assuming that feedback is indispensable
for some kinds of learning and has a facilitating influence on others, con
cerns the mechanism whereby this facilitation is effected Behavioristically
oriented theorists (J G Holland, 1960, Hull, 1943, McGeoch and Irion
1952, Sktnner, 1938. 1958, E L Thorndike, 1931, Trowbridge and Cason,
1932) tend to attribute the effects of feedback largely to reinforcement or
 PtacUce
316

eflecl ot drue leductjon on the rcsixinwylial

to the direct strengthening
are tnstnimental in obtaining the
reward and granrjing the drne Inform
rc$|)onsc'* is correct presum
mg the learner that is piscn emitted or coscri
ably gratifies the cognitise afTilnlise and egtMrnhancing drives motnaimg
recurrence
the response and hence allegedly increases the probability of its

(
the rcsjxmse^*
reinforces —
law of tfiect ) addition howeser it retro-
for furtlicr learning Expliat
aciisely inaeases these same motivations
available also constitutes
awareness that the results of learning will lie made
of the underlying
an incentive condition thereby enhancing ttic strength
drives
But the facilitating effem of feedback are hardly exhausted by these
reinforcement and motivational mechanisms Knowledge of results also has
other purely cognitive effects on learning ft confirms appropriate meanings
and associations corrects errors clarifies misconceptions and indicates the
relativeadequacy with wliidi different portions of the learning task have
been mastered Thus as a result of the feedback he receives the subjects
confidence in the validity of his learning products is inaeascd his learnings
are consolidated and he is also lictier able selectively to focus Ins efforts
and attention on those aspects of the task requiring further refinement

Rote verszis Meaningful Learning

On both motivational and cognitive grounds feedback probably has

less facilitating effect on meaningful than on rote learning Since the achieve
ment of undemanding is a reward m ns own right and requires less brute
effortthan rote learning it is less necessary in meaningful learning to invoke
the energinng assistance of extrinsic motives and incentives Selective rein
forcement of successful responses through drive reduction (gratification) is
similarly less necessary for learning even if it were possible when logical
considerations are applicable to the content of the learning task than sihen
a purely arbitrary and verbatim connection must be established- Tlie in
temal logic of the learning matenai also makes possible some
impliai con
firmation correcuon clarification and evaluation
ot the learning product
even in ihe absence o{ anj expfiat provrston of
feedback

IS For a dncussion
of the significaDce of the dnimttion
between emiued and
wcert responses mwfar as the reinfotang eRea
of feedback ,, concerned see
this chapter
 Practice

of the logic of the correct aiuuer is sull another dimension

of the complete
ness of feedback that influences learning
Subjects v.ho are told why their
answers are nglu or UTong leam more effectively
than subjccu who merely
continue responding and recening feedbacl.
until Uicy obtain the correct

oTef J “nd C, Garvenck M

(1%5) found that discussion of midsemesler examination
questions has a
greater beneficial effect on final
examination resulu than docs cither dieck-
tng tsrong anstsers from a list of
correct anincrs placed on the blackboard
or looking up in the textbook tile
correct ansneis to incorrectly ansuered
questions The use of specific rcleiant
comments in grading themes is also
‘I'tt quality of
later timing than is the
use of perfunctory encouraging
comments (Page, 1058) Croiider’s N A
1.“'"''“ »alurc of llie eiror
al"an m't‘e,iA^’"“”r!
'""dung procedure In certain bnds of concept
I
" ' K'f available, infonmng
he^Zec uhen'^
bm fheTire I,
'"an docs informing

’
Jess information than
"svTone' und^r ih<.o. cin
arcumstances because it also retiards tireletant cues
RLar^b
® of feedback
are S^requfiocrsZ
giien feedback has a sienifiiJni'ir''**'”’c''°'' ''P°'‘'‘' '•'“t immediately
docs dclaicd fccdback^Angell °"
nether J L. Evans, R. GlaL
’ISrT
found a Significant diffcrenff i'
ami ?'
S
o Womme
{1960a) nor C Sax (I960)
and retenuon respeciivelv feedback on learning
Oili
«.n. 1964) and WiU
back and rctenuon
' »«*3tionship l>etween delay
These finding of feed-
feedback in meaningful credible considering the
role of
verbal
made iniually tend ^ evidence that errors
"
to persist .i«
1950). and Jat p.omp':::
itages of practice),
suggesfs ihainTai
errors in the first to avoid
place raUier ihal,
to
Except for two studies /\iiM immediately,
significant differences, "Jpumog no
islcrcd feedback
conLuoudy" « opm
uppuind to inicmultenUy adimn
has licen ilmuo ^ / eifecute in concept
(Bourne and Haygood learning
I960 Bonn?
In more scqucnnalT™, >9=8, Chansky, I960)
frequency of ““tuction, hotvcier, the relame
leedfiacrdocs'^n^,
(Ktumbolu and Weisman learning outcomes
IlKUb
obumed best results uuh “““'‘y (>»«)
;n ™S;.!r^''’
tvith a continuous information feedback and
grading procedure \Vh
1. ts obviously odsaouigeouri^l,^
to
P™“‘'“" > “u=d, hovvever,
e employ
Anoa/erfge of ResiilU (Feedback) 319

can use autonomously for purposes of feedback and self valuation, that is,
indicators that are asailable to him outside the training situation (J Annett,
1959) In this way, he is not dependent for feedback on an external source
such as the teacher
To summarize, feedback is not generally indisjxmsablc for learning,
but, on both motisaiional rcinforcciucnt and cognitive grounds, should facil
itate the learning process, more so in the case of rote than of meaningful
learning However, the research evidence tends to be equivocal, particularly
in relation to programmed instruction, because of tlie failure to control
other relevant variables Further com|)ounding the difficulty of interpreting
the effect of feedbackon meaningful programmed learning, is the fact that
both low error rate and the jxjssibiliiy of implicit feedback reduce the faol
itattng potenual of exphatly provided feedback
 Chapter 9

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Tasl variables include, in addition to various aspects of

practice considered in die previous diaptcr, the nature of the toik to be

learned m meaningful fashion the amount and difficulty ol the instruc
tional material, its internal logic and oi^anizaiion. the rate at which new
ideas and inlormaiion are presented, the magnitude ol the transition be
tween successive tasks or between component steps vvitlim a task, effective
v\a)s of presenting material, and the use of instructional aids and media,
sudi as textbooks schemauc models, educauonal television, audio-visual
tediniques programmed learning and laboratory meihods In large mea
optimal organization and piescnlauon of instructional
sure, of course, the
maicnals involve an application of principles (progressive differentiation,
integrative teconcihauon sequential organization, spiral organization, con
validation the use of organizers and of jiervasive, integrauvc themes, the
concrete abstract dimension of cognitive development) already considered
under cognitive structure and readiness variables Many of tlie issues im
plicated in die rclauvely recent cumculiim reform movement exemplify
an application ol tlicse principles to practical problems of cumculum de
vclopmcni and organization

Amount of Material Task Size

The amount maienal contained

of m
a given learning task, tliat is,
ihc iclaiive size of Uie task, is an iin|ioitant consideration in programming
subject mailer and m
arranging practice kIic^uIcs Task size inRucnces die
structure of die material and us tliificulty, as well as ihe learner s
motivation,
320
 321
Amount of Material Task Size

and, as ue shall see shortly, it li also a central issue m the field of automated

instruction
The relatne efficacy of different task sizes is closely related to the pre-
viously considered part;vhDle problem in practice both because the total
magnitude of the task confronting the learner is a significant factor deter-
mining his choice of approach, and because the part method obviously in-
volves working with a smaller task size than does the whole method. Never-
theless, the two issues are hardly coextensive Task size is a much more

inclusive issue than the choice of a whole or part strategy of practice Only
relatively rarely, m
choosing between different task sizes in programming
subject matter, is one faced with a decision that is comparable to the dioice
between raemonzing a ix>em as a whole or memorizing it by stanzas A1
though component task units of a subject matter program are sequentially
related to each other, they are more typically related m
a derivative or cor-
relative sense rather than as successive Jinks of a chain that would have to
be welded together if first learned separately

Meaningful versus Rote Learning

In the case of rote learning, tlic paramount consideration m deciding

upon task size the disproportionate increase
is m
learning difficulty that
occurs as length of task (for example, number of nonsense syllables) increases
bejond immediate memory span (Carroll and Burke, 1965, Lyon, 1914,
1917, Robinson and Heron, 1^22) This disproportionately manifests itself
in progressively increasing learning time per unit of material, ‘ it tends to
be more marked at lower rather than at higher levels of practice (McGeoch
and Inon, 1952), when practice is massed rather than distributed (Hovland,
1940b, L)on, 1917), and in slow as opposed to fast learners (L J Carter,
1959, H B Reed, For the most part, tlie disproportionality seems to
1924)
reflect the greater opportunity for intra serial interference as the number
of units in the task increases (L J Carter, 1959, McGeoch and Inon, 1952)
To some extent, also, it reflects the subjects initial discouragement as he
contemplates the magnitude ol the task conlroniing him, as well as unneces-
sary repetition of already learned items as )et unlearned items the longer m
list are being acquired (McCeodi and Inon. 1952) Length of rotely learned

tasks, however, apparently has no effect on letenlion, apart from its effect
on learning Thus, when hsis of varying length are learned to the same

1 When number of repcuuons (trials) required for mastery is used

as the cri
tenon of learning difficulty the level of difficulty spuriously appears to decrease as
the size of the task increases, that is longer tasks require fewer trials (Ebbinghaus
1913 Hovland 1910b) This is so because each repetition is counted ns one trial
irrespective of the length of tune it takes
 fnsiiucJionai Matetials
322

well re
criterion o£ mastery and are similaily reinforced, they are equally
tatned (L J Carter. 1959) * , , .
disproportionality
In the case o£ meaningful learning the !>ame simple
between increase m
difficulty level and increase in task size presumably
docs

not prevail The disproportionate increase m

inira serial interference ac

companying increase in task size, whicli obviously has an important mhibi

tory effect on the formation of arbitrary verbatim associations between
discrete stimulus or stimulus response components, has little relevance for
the kind of learning involved in the substantive relational incoriioralioti
of potctiiially meaningful material wiihin cognitive structure Hence,
al-

though increasing the length of a meaningful learning task undoubtedly

increases its difficulty, all other factors being equal, one might anticipate
on theoretical grounds that the increase in difficulty would not be dispro-
poruonaie to the increase in task sue \fucJi more important for difficulty
of meaningful learning and retention than length of task itself would be
tlie logical structure the lucidity, and the sequentiality of the material
The opUmal sue of task that the learner could conveniently manage a m
given trial would also depend upon sudt considerations as age, cognitive
maturity, subject matter sophistication, intelligence, and motivation
Research evidence on the length difficulty relationship m meaningful
learning is sparse and eijuivocal C N Gofers data clearly demonstrate
that learning time increases much less rapidly witli increasing length of task
when prose passages are learned meaningfully than when they are learned
rotely (Gofer, 1941), but the prease relationship between length and dif
ficuUy in the former instance is. unfortunately. less clearly indicated D O
Lyon found a disproportionate increase in learning time witli
(1914, 1917)
increase in the lengtli of meaningful prose passages (except for lengths be
tween ten and fifteen thousand words), it must be remembered, however,
lliat verbatim learning was required in lus study Increasing the length of

an instructional motion picture by adding more facts, while holding density

(number of facts per minute), but not logical structure and continuity,
constant, did not result m
a proi>oriionate increase m
the amount of in
formation learned, but apparently had no detrimental effect on retention
(Vincent, ^ksh and Greenhill, 1949) Hence, much more definitive research
studies arc obviously needed lielore empmcally warranted conclusions
can
be drawn regarding optimal task size ui nieatiingful learning

3 Evidence indicating ihat longer lists are belter retained than shorter lists
under these atcumsiances {Robinson and Darrow 192J, Robinson
and Heron
1922) undoubtedly rcliccis ilic overlearning of some items
repeated longer lists Rcmosal of paired assoaaie
the more m {renuently
items from a list after three cor
tea responses tends to chnunaie th» difference
in retention (Robinson and Darrow
1921 Robinson and Heron 1922)
Aiiiou7it of Malertal Fnik 323

Autotnated Itutruclioti

Relatively small task size is one of the cluractcnstic features of Uic

currently flourisliing automated instruction movement In the teaching

machine subsumed under the term
literature, task size is customarily step

size no distinction being made between degree of transition from one step

or frame to another (step size) and the amount of material included in a

single frame or presentation (task size) It is true of course, that if a given

segment of material is simply divided into many small task units on the
one hand, or into a few larger task units, on the other, task size and step
size’ are practically synonymous terms Actually, however, it is quite pos-

sible to vary each dimension independently, once task size is determined as

described above, this can be done ciilier by adding or deleting steps or by
otherwise modifying the task units so as to increase or decrease the amount
of overlap between tliem In the following discussion we shall consider each
dimension as an indc{x:ndcnt variable
B F Skinner (1958) has presented a strong case for the prevailing prac
tice of using small nsk units m
programming subject matter By making
learning easy and painless and guaranteeing success, tins approach enhances
the learners self confidenceand encourages him to jxjrscvcre m his efforts
Furthermore, by insuring a low error rate, it avoids tbc initial occurrence
and hence the recurrence of misconceptions and wrong resi>onscs, maximizes
positive reinforcement, and minimizes negative reinforcement Lastly, it
makes possible immediate confirmation, clanfication, and correction, and
practically guarantees liiat consolidation of material prior in the sequence
occurs before new material is introduced When larger task units arc used,
on the other hand, misconceptions cannot be corrected immediately after
they arise and there is no assurance that the learner will consolidate prior
learnings before proceeding to later sections of the material
Nevertheless the small task size approach in programming subject
matter has many serious shortcomings Althougli con cerned with meanmg
ful learning it adopts a rote learning strategy in handling tlie task size
variable, that is it places major emphasis on the length difficulty relation

ship, and ignores the logical struciure of the maienal both as a criterion —
of optimal task size and as a determinant of task difficulty in meaningful
learning In terms of both the logical requirements of meaningful learning
material and the actual size of the task that can be conveniently accommo
dated by the learner, the frame length typically used by teaching machines^

2 In his scrambled books N A Crov^der (1960) departs somewhat from the

small frame approach He believes m maintaining flexibility of task unit size so as to
make possible the communication of complex information Hence he allows for
task units of up to page size length
 ImtTuetional UaieriaU
324

li UiitJs to IraRmcni the

ideas
ISartifiaally anil unnecessarily abbrcsiaied
arc obscured and
presented in the program so Unt iheir interrelationships
their logical structure is destrojed As S L.
I’rcssc) obsenes

viiiidow
The student is shoun dm roaierial one lilt or frame at a tune ill the
loot back
ol a medianism or space o! a programnitd icxdiook lie cannot rcaddy
any ouUine
atnhai he has been oscr or alicad lo sense s*li3t is lo come or discoscr
or structure in the material For eticuue reading for general understanding o!
mam ideas, and for adctiuaic study ami icsieu this procedure seems to be as clumsy
set order only
as asking a person to apprehend a picture by letting him sec in a
one square indi al a uine
Study of a complex and siructurcd subject seems better begun by an osenicn
of reading matter to display the structure and order die complexity \ good
book
Skill sliow
Its structure m
the table of conieiiis and catalog its contents in the index
ssithsudi aids the learner can easily mote alioui in its iiumiscrcd pages with only
ihc flick ol a finger using page Ivtadmgs am! subheads m
Uic text to guide him
He may turn back and forth from table or graph to rclaied text skip something
already Lnov.n renew sclcctucly lor major and difficult poinu Only alter first

contact widi a complex structured topic sliould a student turn to auto-instruction

for renew and differenuation of major |M>inis in material The auto-instructioti
will ilien assure the studentwhen be is right ami identify and correct any rotscon
ceptions — as a good teacher or tutor might ilicn do\uto-insiruciion as an adjunn
to the usual materials and methods ol instruction would seem l«ih more widely
useful and more practicable than current efforts to replace textbooks and methods
with radical initial programming (I’tcssey 19G2a pp 3) 33)

Further, just because task size is small and error rate is low, one cannot
warraniedly assume that (he learning of sequentially presented ideas is
necessarily rendered easy and successful and that consolidation of existing
matenal is therefore assured before new material is presented In fact, the

sery fragraenution of content may serve to ensure mastery of the com

ponent task units at the expense of understanding the logic of the larger
segments of subject matter of which tliey arc a pan D G Beane, for ex
amjilc programmed geometne proofs so that

most of the proof* involved less than seven steps but still required the *iu
dent to keep in mind a azcable amouni ol infonnatioii Tlic steps of the pro-
gram were small enough that the student could usually answer the next question
regarding a particular step in a proof without difficulty Evidence supporting this
point of view is the relatively low error rate o£ approximately
8 petceni for the low
ability uudenu on the linear program However this
does not mean that the siu
dent nccessanly had a good grasp ol the logical sequence or plan of the whole proof
This provides a real challenge to programmen of matenal
concerned with involved
logical argumenu Insunng that the student can take the next step successfully
in a
pre^m by sufficiently granulating die matenal and dien arranging
u sysiemati
ally u no grantee that he wiU understand
the logial development involved
Abo the student vnU not remember very vrell the (acu
he does learn li he laiU to
Difficulty of the Material 325

comprehend the logical structure and relationships oi the concepts presented

(Beane 19G2 p 85)

That failure adequately to appreciate logical structure and relationships

actually affects meaningful learning and retention ad\ersely is shown by

die fact that criterial post tests often reveal relatisely little residual learning
and retention as a vshole despite a \ery low error rate ivhile each frag
mented unit itself is being learned
The desirability of a\oiding unnecessary errors and misconceptions also
does not imply ad\ocacy of an artificial simplification of ideas that spares
the learner from making the necessary distinctions required for making
meanings more precise and for testing the adequacy of existing understand
mgs Certain kinds of learning {for instance, problemsolving acquinng
perceptual motor skills), moreover, demand first hand experience in making
and correcting errors R J Melaragno (1960) found that spaced negatise
reinforcement, induced by deliberately inserting ambiguous, error produc
mg frames into a program, did not inhibit learning
Finally, many of the advantages attributed to tlie small task size format
of teaching machines are not really inherent m
small task size itself, but are
reflective of small step size and careful sequential organization Both of
these latter procedures, of course, are perfectly compatible with the use of
larger task units ^Vhen employing the larger task unit format, one can also
help insure consolidation of earlier presented matenal within the same task
by using appropriate organizers, by increasing the lucidity of presentation,
and by maximizing sequential organization and reducing step size between
component sections of the cask unit

Difficulty of the Material

The difficulty of the learning task obviously affects learning time, rate
of learning (slope of the learning curve) and the amount of material that
ISlearned and retained * These factors in turn, influence the efficiency of
learning effort If the material is loo difficult the learner accomplishes dis-
proportionately little for the degree of effort he expends, if it is too easy,
his accomplishments are disappxnntingly meager in terms of what he could
have adiieved were greater effort demanded of him As previously indicated,
task difficulty is related to the size of tlie task unit, but can, nevertheless,
be varied quite independently of task size

* For example as the difficulty level of a nonsense

syllable task increases the
amount and rate of learning decreases the rate of improvement also becomes more
uniform or linear rather than rapid at first and progressively slower (W C F
Krueger 1946)
 Irutruelionat MaUriah
326

Task difficuUy also adccu leamwg efficiency m other ua>s than by

ilic effort expended
mlluenang amount and rate of learning relative to
undesirably large number of
Excessively difficult material makes for an
wjtli
initial errorsand misconceptions that have to be unlearned, interferes
necessary mira task mastery and consolidation m
sequential learning pro-
his motivauon.
grams, and depresses the learners self confidence, lowers
increases his anxictj and promotes task avoidance In meaningful
problem
situations, it typically induces perseveration, itgidiiy. blind trial
and
solving
error and disorganized Ijehavior (Klausnicier and Cheek, 19G2) Inappro-
priately easy material on die other hand, lads to siiinulatc and cliallcnge die
learner adequately, fostering boredom and disinterest
Since the appropriate level ol difhculiy ol a given task is always relative
to the learners age, cognitive matunty, subject matter soplnsivcalion, tniel
ligence, and motivation it is best deieniimcd on an individual basis When
learning tasks ate suitably adjusted m difficulty level to pupils' current
acluevemcnt level, there are no between low’, middle,
significant differences
and high IQ groups m
learning retention, and transfer (Klausmcicr and
Check 1962) Previously ated studies suggesting that fast learners retain
more than slow learners because diey learn more m a given unit of time,
fail to take into account die fact that the difficulty level of die material used
in these experiments was more appropriate for tlie faster learning group

Step Sue

Step sue, that is, the relative magnitude of transition between task
units IS also an important issue in programming meaningful subject matter

It can be reduced by increasing redundancy or overlapping of content, by

making explicit reference to or comparisons wiUi pnor task content (inie
grative reconciliation), and by couching new matenal m
terms of familiar
concepts or experience When large task units arc used, it js also meaningful
to speak of step si^ between successive components ol die task unit
The step-siie variable is partly coextensive wiih die previously con
sidered vanable of task homogeneity or inter task vanabilny
Unlike task
homogeneity, however, it is more concerned with the relative
giadualness
or abruptness of transition between die component tasks of
a sequentially
organized program than witij relative degree of homogeneity
or heterogene
ity of the exemplars used to develop a given concept
or proposition The
relauve effectiveness of different step sizes m
a given learning program,
ihetefoie, is dependent in part, upon achieving
an appropriate balance
between considerations, such as conceptual
generality, mtra task mastery,
learning to learn, wannup effect, perseveration,
rigidity, and boredom,
which are assoaated with both of these variables
Hence, the choice of
appropnate step size is likely to be quite specific
to the particular learning
Pacing 327

task the conditions of learning, and tiie cliaracteristics of the learner Small

stepsminimize the possibility of error (Evans, Glaser, and Homme, 1960c,

klaus 1961, Skinner, 1958), but arc more time consuming (Coulson and
Silberman, 1960, W
Smith and Moore, 1962), they are also less necessary
when potentially meaningful matenal and a branching type of feedback
are used Furthermore, as S L Pressey (1962a) jxnnts out, they fragment
the learning task without necessarily guaranteeing understanding of the
task as a whole or of the relationships among us component parts, despite
yielding a low error rate
Research on step size within die context of automated instruction has
been confined to the small task unit format, and is generally mconclusise
J E Coulson and H F Silberman (1960)
found a small step program more
effective than a large step program in terms of score on a critenal learning
test, but less efiectise in tenns of learning time, other investigators eitlier
found no significant differences between the two types of programs (Briggs,
1958, Shay, 1961, W Smith and Moore. 1962) or reported their findings in
terms of the more equivocal criterion of error rate (Evans, Glaser, and
Homme, 1960c) On the basis of their research N Maccoby and F D Shef
field (1961) recommend small sicp size for iniual learning, with progressive
lengthening of steps as subjects acquire facility m performing the learning
task

Pacing

Pacing generally refers to the rate of introducing new subject matter

material as deieimined by the length of time interval between component
task units Other subsidiary ways of influencing rate of coverage include
(a) manipulation of step size (degree of overlap in content between succes
or decreasing the density (informational con
sive task units, (b) increasing
and (c) regulating die number of intial repetitions and
tent) of task units,^
subsequent reviews given each task unit All of these latter manipulations,
of course, eventually affect die number of task units covered a given m
interval of time, and hence the rate of covering new subject matter Pacing
m other words deals with the massing or distribution of different task units
as opposed to the massing or distribution of trials of a particular task Con
sidering die potential importance of this variable for the programming of
school matenal, it has been the subject of surprisingly little research
Theoretically it would seem plausible that an optimal average inter

An increase
® m
the concentration of facts in an instructional film of speafied
length was not shown to result in a proporuonate increase in informational learn
ing (Vincent Ash and Greenhill 1949) However this finding may be partly ex
plained by removal of the isolation effect
 Imiructional MoUriaU
3Z8

List imcnaJ exists for every Und of

subject matter, given learners of speci

fitd cognitive maturii) and subject matter

sophisucauon Thus, it probably
to be spent
mates a difference, on tlie average, if seventjfive hours are
in learning a particular segment of matenaJ,
whether tins learning ume is
over two wecLs, one month, two months, or a semester Fmi,
dismbuied
suSacni is necessary to recover from initial learning
titnc shock before
proceeding to new usts Second, the learner requires adequate ume
for

comcmplaung die material in rctrosjject. for effecting integrauve reconaha

non. and for conducting adequately spaced review's m confontnly vvitli Jost s
laws Third, it is important to avoid excessive ct^iiive strain and a feeling

of harassment, on the one hand, as well as unnecessarv redundancy, lack

of cliallenge. and boredom on die other Lastly, it ts necessary to provide
sul&acni time for pracuce, particularly for slow learners, so that inira task
mastcrv or consolidation can be assured before new tasks are presented
In any case, it is apjiarent dtat most individuals can be trained to com
prehend meaningfully a mudi more rapid rate of orally or visually presented
verbal discourse than diat to whtcli they are liabitually accustomed This ts
the pnnciple undcihing current methods of accelerating rate of reading
and listening (Orr, Fnedman and
Uilliams, 1965) UhcUicr material assim
dated tn reuincd as well as material presented at more
this fashion is also
comenuonal rates sull remams
to he demonstrated
On logical grounds l>ecausc of individual differences in cogniuve ma
tunty intelligence subject matter sophisticauon, and mouvation, it vtould
be reasonable to exfjcct that individualized panng would be more effec*
live for learning ilian die im|wsioon of a onifonn rate of coverage on all
learners Using the <juiluv ol jmi {Kiformance as a guide, sudi individual
ization could dien lx: regulated by either teacher or pupils, the former

having the advantage ol greater objcciiviiy and pc'dagogic soplustication,

and the latter possessing more direct information aiwut cognitive strain
and degree of diallcngc. aUhou^,!! tins mfonnalion is admittedly cooura
mated in j>an. by sudi comidciatiom as sell indulgence Apart from the
mulls of one study (Folleuic, l%l). the limited experimental esidence
available on die telauvc efficacy of self regulated
J«cing fMiueh 19C2, Sil
liciman I'JCJ) docs not indicate anv sujieriontv over
icadier (or piogiam-
mer) regulated jAacing Tins docs not mean, however, dial
diffcrcnual or
individualwcd pacing is not sujicnur to uniform jKicing

Internal Logic of Iruiructional Material

n.c micmal Uyffc ar lojial ol ll,c lamina uiV is

o ,.,oosl> .dess,., 1„,
,1., mssmi. ol
„„„
maional (.is rdaislol.iy lo cor
luternal Logic of Imiructional Material 329

resjx)ndingly relevant ideas that human beings gcneraHy can learn) is a pre-
requisite for us potential meannigfulncss (its rclatability to a parttcular
learners cognitiie structure), and hence for the emergence of psjchological
(phenomenological) meaning Logical meaning, as previously pointed out,
IS a function of the plausibility, luadity, and nonarbiirarmess of the male
’

rather than of its logical or substantive validity Hence, internal logic

‘
rial

ISused somewhat idios>ncraticany here to designate those properties of the

material that enhance these latter criteria of logical meaning
In the absolute sense of the term, of course, for material to be logically
meaningful it is only necessary that some human beings (the most intel

ligent and best prepared) be capable of learning it Obviously, however,

there are also degrees of logical meaningfiilncss Dcjxmding on how appro
pnately ideas are expressed and organized, they can be related more or less
readily to tlie cognitive structure of a particular individual who exhibits
at least the minimally necessary degree of subject matter and developmental
readiness In the relative sense of the term, therefore, it is legitimate to
evaluate the internal logic of instructional materials from Uie standpoint
of theiT appropriateness for learners at a sjiecified level of intellectual ability
and of subject matter and developmental readiness
At least eiglu aspects of the internal logic of instructional matenal
presumably affect the extent to which it is endowed with logical meaning
(a) adequacy of definition and diction (precise, consistent, and unambiguous

use of terms, definition of all new terms prior to use, and the use of the
simplest and least technical language that is compatible with conveying
precise meanings), (b) the use of concrete empirical props and of relevant
analogies when devciopraentally warranted or otherwise helpful in the
acquisition, clarification, or dramatization of meanings, (c) stimulation of
an active, critical, reflective, and analytic approach on the part of the learner,
by encouraging him to reformulate presented ideas in terms of his own
vocabulary, experiential background, and structure of ideas, (d) explicit
conformity with the distinctive logic and philosophy of each subject matter
discipline (its impliat epistemological assumptions, general problems of
causality, categorization, inquiry, and measurement that are specific to the
discipline) and with the distinctive strategy of learning how to learn the
particular subject matter of the discipline, (e) the selection and organization
of subject matter content around principles that have the widest and most
general explanatory and integrative power, (f) systematic sequential orga
nization of material with careful attention to gradation of difficulty level,
(g) consistency with the principles of progressive differentiation and mte
grative reconciliation and (h) the use of appropriate organizers
Subject matter concepts are simply the generic meanings elicited by
generic terms in a particular discipline In presenting subject matter
con
cepts, therefore, it is important Uiat programmers clearly understand their
 Instructional Materials
330

Thus, u is desirable for Uve

meanings m prease and sophisticated lashion
psjchological (pedagogic)
programmer to possess both subject matter and
soplnsticauon- Only Uic person isho is sophisticated
both resjiecu can m
uitliout ovct-
exploit ps)chological tediniques of effecine presentauon
internal It^c and oiganixauonal properues of
tlie
looUng or disiorung tlic
subject matter content itself

Organizauon of ^^ate^lal

Throughout this lolume it has been repeatedl) stressed that the con
diuons of learning primarily influence the meaningful acquisition and re-
tention of ideas and informauon by modifying exisung cogniuse structure
Although the effect of sudi modificauon on learning and rcienaon cannot
be cmpmcally demonstrated except by using the transfer paradigm (by
measuring us effect on the learning and retention of related neu tasks), the
diangcs in cogniiue structure urought by practice or by exposure to suc-
cessne aspects of die task obiiously have an important impact on mint task
mastery itself This is parucularly true m
die case of diosc kinds of learning
m whicli eacfi component task (as well as enure bodies of subject matter)
tends to be compound in content and to manifest an internal organization
of m
own Tlius, in sdiool learning, condiuons influcnang and altering
cognitive structure arc typically cniaal both for die acrjuisition of a par-
ticular task as vtcll as for transfer purposes (die learning of related nev<r
tasks), and of all the (wssiblc condiuons of learning diat affect cognitive
structure, it is self-evident dial none on be more significant dian orgamza-
uon of the material In previous chapters, we luve already considered m
great dcuil how learning matcnal on be most effectively wnuen and orga
nued so as dclilicratcly to induce diovc diangcs m cognitive structure that
arc most advanugcous for die learning and icicnuon of meaningful sdiool
material Hence, in the present context, it will be necessary only to sum
maiuc biicfiy die mure salient of dicse considerations

Organtiert i>cTnu Ovmirut

riic principles of progressive diifcrcnuation
and mtc-graisvc rcconciUa-
iion have Ixxn represented throughout as Uing of central
irajioxuncc in
the programniingof meaningful subject nutter Opuraal
miliraison of these
|>tmaplcs prcsupjxiscs not only Uitir consistent use
in die sequential pre-
senution of subject nialicr matemt. but also the
supplememary availability
of a fuerarducal series of advance
'orgamrers Ihcsc latter organizers jiro-
’

vide idcvant ideational scaffolding,

cnluncc die dutrumnabiluy of die new
Orgamuilion of Matertal 331

learning matertal from previous!) learned related ideas, and othenvise effect
integrative reconciliation at a level of abstraction, generality, and inclusive-
nesswhich is much higher than that of the learning material itself To be
maximally effective they must be formulated in terms of language and con
cepts already familiar to the learner, and use appropriate illustrations and
analogies if developmentally nccessar)
True organizers, thus defined, should not be confused witli ordinary
introductory overviews The latter are t)pically written at the same level
of abstraction, generalit), and inclusiveness as the learning material, and
achieve their effect largely through rcjietitton, condensation, selective em
phasis on and prcfamilianzation of the learner with certain
central concepts
key words Summaries are comparable to overviews in construction, but are
probably less effective because their inllucncc on cognitive structure is retro-

active rather than proactive relative to the learning task They are probably
more maicnal itself, for purjxises of rapid review than
useful, in place of the
for original learningHowever, insofar as they may imply to some learners
that the material they do not include is relatively superfluous, they may
promote neglect of and failure to study or review mucli significant subject
matter C \V Lathrop and C A Norford (1949) found that neither over
views nor summanes appreciably improve the learning of instructional films

Organizers versus Inlra malerial Organtzaiton

Organizers also have certain inherent advantages both over various

kinds of intra material organization (organizing aids withm the body of
the material), and over any existing subsiimcrs within cognitive structure
that could be used for organizational purposes Unlike intra material orga
nization (executed in accordance with the principles of progressive differ-
entiation and integrative reconahaiion) that successively provides necessary
anchorage for and differentiation of new ideas at a particularized level just
before each new idea is encountered, organizers perform the same functions
m advance at a much more global level before the learner is confronted
with any of the new material Hence, for example, a
generalized model of
provided as a general subsumer for all new classes,
class relationships is first

subclasses, and species before more limited subsumers (classes or subclasses)

are provided for the particular subclasses or species they encompass, and
the various kinds of forests are first distinguished from each other before
the component subforests and trees are similarl) differentiated Spontane-
ously existing subsumers in cognitive structure, on the other hand, lack boUi
particularized relevance for the new material (since the learner cannot pos-
sibly anticipate its precise nature) as well as the benefit of the sophisucated
knowledge of subject matter and pedagogy available to expert programmers
332 Imliuctiotial Maletials

Perceptual Organners

Perceptual organisers, in contrast to the iiuegntivc organizational de

vices just describedmerely provide built in mechanical aids that make tlic
material perceptually more salient and apprehensible, or otherwise facilitate
practice These include rhythmic aids, vocal emphasis, the isolation" and
familiarization effects of underlining,and the fractionation cllcct (break
mg of wholes into parts) of providing headings and
subheadings Under
certain circumstances hotvever some |x:rceptual
organizers can be said to
have true integrative effects (for instance, underlining
that helps make
ideational distinctions or emphasizes central
concepts, headings tliat reveal
the organizational structure of the material
more clearly)
Perceptual or mechanical oiganuers generally
facilitate meaningful
learning—more so in the case of factual
tlian of abstract material » The
learning of meaningful material, for
example is enhanced by appropriate
vocalempUaas (Dearborn Jolmron. ami Carmichael.
lillO), by unilerlming
'“5). anl by break,
conient o pans by means ot mserlcil
„g inrlruconal filrn
questions (Kurlr, Waller, and

m bTlearned ]
'"gl'ligbt.ng of ilie more
,m|»rtant m ilcrial
‘'*'"‘"8 >'"l»>f'’'"t conient but
^es nrianln « learning ot .he more important
core content (Hersh
'»‘>ure ot mtormational learning lo increase
ateTw ih u pro,Lt.on
•“"'‘y o' 'ee» nil" (Vincent
G hd ^ aIii, and
r:t.’a?Lrr? maZl^isTervtS”
7'",'’ '7'
learnmg ou“fua7aK '''““'"e* '-dilates the
die learning ot more absiract
evidently more hiehlv n
filmrill’
^
T inhibits
"laicnal in this study was

absrracr^orprs-flmLZs'^l^el^'Ts
serveu as organizing function, hence, the

iniroduciig paiicrned iwlal.on

itate rote learning of
^ shown
effecied
to facil
by
segrcKated and imm i
1950 Shay 19GI M h L.ih anVs.^"*
facluaied Reient.on however was noi

resnUs.n the cllects'^on “"‘foniily negative

mmpreh^mir^^d
However the pombUny
and control g,„o,„
obu.„„."^S summaries

learning m.ien.l
„„ p„f„dS w",h
‘“^by Uie leveling
,
“penmen, al
„.,„g ettec ot using tam.I.ar
am. tesung ,„e
„.e .nbtec.s tor bom
^m.eTnrdeuJerre:™.:'
Organtutltoti o) Material 3S3

learners not only benefited less from the presence of extnnsic mcdianical
organizers, but also seemed m
some instances to be distracted by them
Apparently integratise organizers are required for matenal that is more
abstract than informational m
character In none of the above studies,
however, is it possible to distinguisii clearly between the perceptual and
tlie integrative effects of the organizers in question Conflicting results have

also been reported regarding the relative effects of such organizers on bnght
and dull students

Orgnnizerj in Textual Material

Generally speaking, therefore, makes good organizational sense if the

it

presentation of more is preceded by a more

detailed or sfveafic information
general or inclusive principle to wliicli it can be related or under which it
can be subsumed This not only makes the new information more meaning
ful and enables the student to anchor more easily forgotten speafics to more
easily remembered generalizations but also mtcgraies related facts in terms
of a common principle under which they can all be subsumed Thus, for
example, in a ph)sics, engineering, or biology course, the general character
istics of all regulatory or cybernetic systems should be presented before

considering any particular regulatory or cybernetic system The latter, in

turn, should be explicitly related to the more general principles, showing
how they exemplify them This makes for some redundancy, but such
redundancy, in turn, greatly reinforces the general principles Of course,
the general principles themselves must be stated in terras and concepts that
are already familiar tothe learner Many teachers and textbooks are
guilty of introducingcomplex and detailed information for which no
adequate foundation has been laid in terms of organizing, unifying or
explanatory prinaples
Thus a substantive introductory statement of the principal new ideas
to be considered m
the chapter, stated at a high level of generality and
which the more detailed information in the chapter can be
inclusiveness, to
related could be very helpful in learning the latter information For
example, a bnef overview of the chief propositions underlying Darwin’s
theory of evolution would be of greater functional utility in learning the
more detailed meclianisms through which evolution operates, or the
different kinds of evidence for evolution, than the kinds of histoncal or
anecdotal introductions provided in the three BSCS textbooks intro- m
ductory biologys (much folksy biographical information about Darwin

8 By way of illustration in this secuon and m the remainder of the chapter

the Biological Saences Curriculum Study (BSCS) textbooks m introductory high
school biology Will be used to exemplify various points about instructional
mate
 Instructionnl UaienaU
SS4

amicd at his theory) Tlie same applies

or anccJotal malerial about how
lie

to mltoductions that merely list

the topics to be covered

It IS not only desirable tor

the material in each chapter to become
ideas ol greater to lesser
progressively more dilferentiated (to proceed from
indusivencss), but tor textbools as a whole (bom
one cliapler to another)
to follow the same organizational plan
Tlie spiral kind of organization, in
at progressively higher levels of sophisuca
whidi the same topics are treated
tion in successive sections is an extension of the same principle
Textbook
instructional
senes m
a given held that are intended for use at different
scliool high sdiool undergraduate, and graduate) can
levels (elementary
progressive
also follow this organizational plan In this instance iliere is a
increase in scope depth complexity level of abstraction and level of

sophistication at successively higher grade levels with the earlier

acquired
knowledge serving as a foundation for the more abstract and complex
matenal introduced later In addition however some entirely new topics

are introduced at the higher levels since many advanced topics are too
complex and abstract to be uught successfully on an intuitive basis
In instances where new concepts are introduced dial are similar or
related to but not identical and hence confusable, with previously learned
concepts (for instance instinct and imprinung fermentauon and resptra
tion spontaneous generation and performaiionism, elimination and cxcre
tion behavioral versus physiological or morphological adaptation, vanation
as both a cause and product of evolution), it is advisable to point out ex
phcitly die siintlariiics and differences Imwcen iliem and to make this
connection m both contexts This knowledge by making
practice iiilegraies
relationships between concepts explicit, by preventing aruhcial compart
mentalization and the proliferation of separate terms for concepts dial
are basically the same except for contextual usage, and by differentiating
between ostensibly similar but actually different concepts Ignoring such
relationships between later appeanng and previously learned content as-

nals The three texihooks referred to are the yellow version f^iDfogtcol Science
An Inquiry Into Ltle (Sc'M Yotk Harcouri Brace and World 1963) blue version
(Siologicoi Science Moleculet lo Ven Boston Houghion Mifflin
1965) and green
^ertion (High School Biology Chicago Rand McNally and Company
1963) These
comments were first published by the writer as an article An
Evaluation of the
BSCS Approach to High School Biology in The American
Biology Teacher, 1966
28 176-166 The use of a cumculum refona project
in only a single subject matter
atea-ihc one nonpsychological discipline (biology)
have some substantne com(>ctcnce-~ror lUusiraiing
m whidi the writer happens to
ccrlam general ptinaples re
garding instructional materials is deliberate
It conforms to the view defended later
Uiat educational pvydvologisvs are
competent to evaluate and pariiapate in a given
cur^culum reform projea only if they are substaniivcly
sophisticated in the
dis-
OrganiuidoH of Material 335

sumes, rather unrcalisiically, that students 3viH independently pcrfomi the

necessary cross reiercticmg by Uieniselvcs
Organizers that are intended for elementary school pupils should be
presented at a lower level of abstraction and should also make more ex-
tensive use of concrete empirical pro()$ They should lake into account
than ignore pre-existing organizing principles (preconceptions)
ratlier m
the
learners cognitive structure Often these preconceptions are based on widely

accepted elements of cultural folklore that are very tenicious unless ex

phcitly undermined

PERVASIVE THEMES Good Organizational advantage can be taken of

pervasive or recurrent themes dial can integrate or interrelate many
The green version of the BSCS, for example,
different topics or general ideas
uses the beginning cliapiers on the ‘web of life is an integrative device
diroughout the entire book None of die three versions, houeter, makes
adequate use of Danunian theory as a pervasive organizing principle
Evolutionary theory can be related to such varied concepts as uniformity
and diversity in nature, genetic continuity, the complcmeiuanty of organism
and environment, and of structure and function, the classification of and
mtcrrelationships between organisms, yxipulation genetia, ilie role of sexual
reproduction in producing diversity, the geography of life, and the need for
a self replicating mechanism as well as die biological significance of mistakes
in self replication It is obviously necessary for pervasive themes to be
introduced early in a book if tlicy are to serve an integrative function But
m the yellow and blue versions such themes (for example, regulatory mecha
nisms, homeostasis, the cybernetic principle, the relaiionslup of theory to
data) often do not appear uniiJ late in die game
In addition, the nine basic substantive themes of the three texts are not
organically related to the actual content of the yeliow and blue versions In
die yellow version, after being listed formally in the first chapter, they are
presumably forgotten and are no longer identifiable in the content itself
The same is true oi the blue version except that the themes are distributed

quite randomly on separate pages scattered through the text In the green
version, on the other hand, die diemes emerge naturally from and are
organically related to the content of each section

PREC0^CEPT10NS AND THE INOIVIDUAUZATlON OF INSTRUCTION The tolc

of preconceptions mdetermining the longevity and qualitative content of
what IS learned and remembered is crucial, and may very well be the most
important raanipulable factor m
the individualization of instruction This
problem was alluded to above in discussing die need fox differential feedback
(
branching’ programs) and differential practice related to the kind of
misconception exhibited by the pupil, and m rationalizing the need for early
instruction mscience to counteract pre existing folklore or idiosyncratic
mis
Organt^lton of Malertal 337

more common preconceptions of learners are by means of appropriate

pretests and then to matdi suitably tailored organizers with pupils ex
hibiting corresponding preconceptions If I had to reduce all of educational
psychology to just a single pnnciple, 1 would say this "Find out what the
"
learner already knows and teach him accordingly

‘
Conceptual Schemed’ Approach
to Scteiice Teaching

Paralleling the argument for a process’ approach to science teaching,

that IS, teaching the heuristics of discosery ' or 'scientific method ' as ends
in ihemsehes —as the
primary objecincs of science instruction, in relation
to which content is purely incidental and illustratise —
is the notion that the

same set of conceptual schemes can ser\e to integrate the substantive content
of all of the scientific disciplines {N ST A Curriculum Committee, 1964)
In our opinion, on philosophical grounds, no set of conceptual schemes or
pnnciples of scientific method is applicable to all sciences Each science has
us own and methods of inquiry An all
idiosyncratic undergirding diemes
encompassing sec of conceptual themes is (a) by a
apt to be charactcnzcd
level of generality that is reminiscent of the philosophy of science, and
hence beyond the cognitive maturity and scientific sophistication of ele
mentary and high school students, and (b) by farfetdied relevance and
applicability to many The seven conceptual schemes
scientific disciplines
prepared by the NSTA Curriculum Committee are characienzed by both
of these features They are both stated at a high level of generality, and are
applicable to the physical sciences but not very applicable to biology, psy
cliology, and the social sciences But, even if an epistemologically tenable
set of pnnciples comprehensive enough to embrace all sciences with equal

aptness and relevance could be formulated, m

very utility (its transferability
to the separate sciences its ability to serve as suj)erordinate subsumers for
the less general themes characterizing any single discipline) would obviously
be dependent on us being understood and applied at tlie high level of
generality implicit in any sucli formulation On developmental grounds,
however, elementary school pupils could, at the very most, hope to under
stand these themes at an intuitive (semi abstract, semi general) level if at
all, and high school and undergraduate students would typically lack

sufficient sophistication m
a wide enough variety of sciences genuinely to
understand principles at this philosophical level of generalization about
science
The solution to this problem of curriculum development in saence
liesnot in abandoning the conceptual schemes approach This would be
throwing away the baby with the bath water The conceptual schemes
approach is philosophically, psychologically, and pedagogically sound, pro-
 frutruclional Atalenab

conceplions Unfonunalcly lionevcr lery

rcscardi iias been conduclcd
litlle
on ihis crucial problem despite the fact
dial die unlearning of preconcep-
uon. miglit sery nell prose to be the
most determinati.e single taaor in tl!e
acquisition and retention of
subject matter knou ledge

toaduhTLr^l'
“> ““ce
to children or
o' "'O I»h-nt role of precon
f l
prmcmle M^ese o”® ooncejns and

-able (ro"; eiumple

rather than inicrse rclationdi.o
“ra?r;.!rfi^
^ rxptesstie of a postttie
i

causality or on dicI.otomousLid.e^t'hrj^„tm "‘.''7

because reststance to the 'anabthty) and lastly,
acceouncrot ,

beliefs seems to be
cliaractensnc of hun."'"i
“"‘'a'T to prcsailing
“ ^O"" “f die reasons
forindtvtdualdiirerencesmdie Ls'
those that are related probably include
to coLnimrsuk
mindedncss and P«f«>nality traits as closed
to self<onsisieni\ t
aspeedof, eduction,
smiXre’,:t'otg
appear to baiesign,fican?i’mpb^X^°|'^ otianizers Mould
Of insiniciion that ^*P«cis of mdividualizaiion
are related to
the nr^.1
plausible to suppose P'’®“’"ccpuons It seems
that if advance ori^n ^
tzed fashion ^otiindisidual
generally to bridge
know and sshat they ^ ct'^ecn what learners already
have to Icam jf
careers then
inditidualired orranizers
''
‘""'"t m their educational
preconceptions of u
particular tenter
“ "" Particular
effecton meaningful learning 'acbtating
exp ICII account of and relenting
and attempt exolicitl " Ptupused oiganirets take
cepuons .1 seems bkely that ' ““"etu't. emsttng precon
these nice™
new learning of more lahd sc.enlilic "t'®"**
assimilate concern’’"™!
through memonal P""c‘Ples and eienlually
to reduction if
replace them A tery common iin
ideas designed
=‘><>01 children
of sack filled
IS du,t
d,e'’T"“‘’''°"
" 'Utegument conslitutes a
““P"' ‘-^"S
«,th blood prick
no, an implausible „ „ kind

ffecnsely ,„s.r„et such

hypltbenr u It
"
L '>«
t'™
taking into "m uTT"'”'
the crculatoty
can
system u.thout
explanatory ralue
of thi, preeX" a.
'“«•'•= cicdtb.bly and
compared u.th that
of L c,o“d
Thus'“‘"’'
ced
»'8an.mrsTo'r"mn'"XT„X?„^'™" “"“"tettog .ndts.dual
”ence is t„ ascerta.n
uhat the
Or^ani^lto i of \toleTiol 337

more common preconceptions of learners are by means of appropnate

pretests and Uien to matcli suitably tailored organizers uitli pupils e\
hibiting corresponding preconceptions. If I had to reduce all of educational
psscliology to just a single principle 1 would saj this Find out what the
learner already knows and leacli him accordingly

“Conceptual Schetnes^ Approach

to Science Teaching

Paralleling the argument for a process approach to saence teacliing

Uiat IS heunstics of discotery or saeniific metliod as ends
teacliing the
—
in tliemsehes as tlie primary objectncs of science instruction in relation
to which content is purely inadental and illustratise —
is tlie notion tliat the

same set of conceptual schemes can ser\c to integrate tlie substantise content
of all of the saentific disciplines (\.STu\ Curriculum Committee 1964)
In our opinion on philosophical grounds no set of conceptual schemes or
pnnaples of saenuhc metliod is applicable to all scaences. Each scence has

Its own idiosyncratic undergirding themes and methods of inquiry An all

encompassing set apt to be diaractenzed (a) by a
of conceptual tliemes is

le\el of generality tliat is reminiscent of die philosophy of saence and

hence beyond die cognitise matunty and saentific sophistication of ele
meniary and high school siudenu and (b) by far fetdied Telei-ance and
applicability to many saentific disaplines The sesen conceptual schemes
prepared by die NSTA Cumculum Committee are diaractenzed by both
They are botli stated at a high le\el of generality and are
of these features.
applicable to die plnsical saences but not scry applicable to biology psy
diology and the soaal saences. But, c\cn if an epistemologically tenable
set of pnnaples comprehensise enough to embrace all saences ssith equal
aptness and relevance could be formulated its very utility (its transferability
to the separate saences its abililv to serve as superordinaie subsumers for
the less general dicmes diaractenzing any single disaphne) would obvaously
be dependent on its being understood and applied at the lugh level of
generality impliai in any sudi fonnulaaon On development^ grounds
however elementary school pupils could at die very most hope to under
stand these tliemes at an intuiuve (semi abstract semi general) level if at
all and high school and undergraduate students would typically lack
suSaent sophisucation in a v\ide enough variety of saences genuinely to
understand pnnaples at dus philosophical level of generalization about
saence.
The solution to diis problem of cumculum development in saence
liesnot m
abandoning die conceptual sdiemes approadi This would be
throwing away die baby watli the batli water The conceptual schemes
approadi is philosoplucally psychologically and pedagogically sound pro-
338 Imlructional MaleriaU

vided that modiried so that a scp-intc set a[ conceptual scliemcs

it is
is made
available for each particular distapline
However, to seek one set o£ con
ceptual schemes that attempts to encompass
all science is as illusory as
seeking the fountain oi youth or the philosopher
s stone

Effective Communication

Effective
communicatton i„ the classroom that is
appropnale transla
non from the highly sophisticated cognitive
structure of the teacher or text
book ™ter-in terms of cognitive malnrily
and subject matter knowledge
-to he less highly sophisticated cognitive
structure of the student is a
»t communication
stvle hrve"d d'T T'" of llle internal logic of the
m' e,
materialT e K
Sufficient r
redundancy is necessary both for purposes
of ordinary

Xnfamihamy oi ?de"“°"
dundan™ howlv^l sho^wlnirC :rotr"T
and application to other
problems rather than “"“'“Sy’
ot°*!
should be made to arouse
imerlrand to a ^ , 7

pression but not so simple as to

give the imn"'
«
students (asis the case in
most textbooki in eduaimnl
'“ "“"® “
should remember that T
Teachers and writers 1

no amnunt i

inherently complex ideas simplification can make

easy to grasp
always pedagogically
defensible. ™sle1di„g “
no Simplification at all Since a rn*w i ^ „'ve’mmphfi‘'!‘ is worse than

h diould be presemed mosrsimpl"

progressively as the student
m tV '
s level of
sonhisticai
elfecuve coramun, cation maintain
some tvpc of
may take the fomt of “““ary
questions from students^
nuuSl To! qxesUoning class discussion,
Tins
and

Iharlfnm iTd,Tl1“!„Te!!nT„"m
difficult to
read and undemand
71 unnecessarily
“ewer, „mp|y becam
to reorgan.te ihe.r
Hence even Uvough
th.okmg atat Tffim I
«
the mtroducLn o1 7m
- -readier
a„dreviev.er.vv7:7:rrtTr,.7
 Communication 339
Effective

ideas and a challenging level of discourse, rationalize their resentment by

attacking not the ideas themselves but the way in which they are expressed
then easy enough to demonstrate that such a book because it contains
It IS —
abstract unifying ideas is —
less readable” than the theoretically bland

compendium of unintegraied and unexplained facts to which they are

accustomed, and is thus presumably unsuitable for typical students
Examples and should be intended to clarify and not to
illustrations
serve as superfluous padding or to generate a spurious aura of scientific
autlienticity If they are permuted to become excessively detailed, complex,
or esotenc, they tend to become ends in themselves, thereby obscuring rather
than clarifying the ideas they exemplify For example, structural diagrams
of nucleic aad, DNA, and chlorophyll molecules are meaningless to
chemically unsophisticated students in an introductory biology course It
should be borne in mind that intellectually mature students (those who are
adolescent or older) do not require examples routinely but only for atypically
difficult or unfamiliar ideas Beyond the elementary school period, examples
are necessary sometimes for purposes of occasional illustration or clarification
of difficult abstractions, they should not be used in an attempt to reduce
such ideas to an intuitive level
In presenting instructional material, it is almost always advantageous
to proceed from the familiar to the unfamiliar, using previously acquired
knowledge and experience both as a foundation for understanding, inter*
prcting, and remembering related new material tliat is less familiar, and as
a means of rendering the latter less threatening Thus, in elementary
biology It is advisable to consider mammals before simpler animals, and

flowering plants before simple plants Order of presentation should not be

determined on the basis of level of biological organization from molecule
(
to man ) or level of phyleiic complexity Tlie pliyletic principle of orgamza
tion may conform to some abstract cannon of scientific logic, but it violates
everything v>e know about the psychology of learning, and runs counter
to the iiumiivejudgment of anyone who has ever done any classroom teach
mg In ascertaining what is more or less familiar, or more or less difficult,
psychological principles of learning and of intellectual development are
more relevant and reliable guidelines than the wholly gratuitous assumption
that level of phenomenological complexity in science necessarily parallels
level of learning difficulty

Level of Softhuttcalion

In ilie BSCS versions, it appears as if little effort was

yellow and blue
made to discriminate
between basic and highly sopfiisticaied content
between wlni appropriate ind essential of an introductory lugli school
is

course and what could be more profinbly reserved

for more advanced
 Irulrucltonal Materiah
34ft

These sersions mdude lopia. detail, and level ol sophisucation that

courses
appiopnaleness from the tenth grade to graduate school Only
» the
sary m
appropriate level of
green version gives the impression of being at an
a beginning course And since the unsophisticated student
sophistication for
cannot be expected to distinguish bciv^an more and less important material,
he either throvss up his hands m
despair, learns nothing thoroughl) the m
effort to learn ever) thing or relies on rote memonzation and cramming’ to

get ilvrougU examinations

The blue version, espeoally. apjveais sufficiently sophisticated and
challenging lo constitute an introductory college course for students uho
already have an introductory biology course in high sciiool as welt as courses
in chemistry and physics It is mie, of course, that subjects once thought too
difficult high school students (for example set theory, analytical
for
geometry, and calculus) can be Uuglu successfully to bright high school
students with good quantitative ability But in the latter instances, students
are adequately prepared for these advanced subjecu by virtue of uking the
necessary preliminary, and sequentially amei^dcnt coutses mathematics m
The blue vcnion on the other hand, presents biological matenal of college'
and
level difficulty sophistication to students who do not have the necessary
background in chemistry, physics and elementary biology for learning it
meaningfully It should also be remembered that college level mathematics
IS not considered appropnate for all high scliool students, but only for those

brighter students with better than average aptitude in maihematics who are
college bound and intend to major m
such fields as matliematics, saence,
engineering and ardutectuie
An introductory high scliool course m any disapime should con
centrate more on establishing a general ideational framework than m
putting
a great deal of llesh on the
skeleton Generally speaking, only the frame
work is retained anyway after a considerable retention interval, and if more
time IS spent on overlearning the framework, plus a minimum of deuil, than
m superficuUy learning a large mass of oversojdnsticaied and poorly under
stood maienal. both more of die important ideas arc retained in the case of
students taking the subject terminally, and a better foundaUon is laid for
students who intend to take more advanced courses later
Oversophisucated detail is not only unnecessary and mappropnate
for
a beginning course but also hinders learning and generates unfavorable
aiiiludcs toward tJic subject The student can t see the forest
for the trees'

Much of the mappropnaiely high level of sophmication of the BSCS

»
text
books IS undoubtedly a dtlil«raie oveireaoion lo the outdated
urniem. paucity ol
explanatory ideas, ihc completely desoipme approach,
and the kindergarten wnt
mg style and level of difficulty tbaraOeming most textbooks m
miroductorv' hieh
*
school bioloev
Effective Communication Ml

The mam conceptual themes get lost or become unidentifiable m a welter

of detail Both the average student and the student not particularly in
terested mscience would tend to feel overwhelmed by the vast quantity and
complexity of detail, terminology, methodology, and histoncal material in
the blue and yellow versions And a student who feels overwhelmed by a
subject tends to develop an aversion toward it, and to resort to rote
memorization for examination purposes
It IS not necessary for a beginning student to be given so much se
quential historical detail about the development of biological ideas, related
experimental evidence from original sources, and pedantic information
about all of the various misconceptions and twistings and turnings taken
by these ideas before they evolve into their currently accepted form As a
result, the ideas themselves —
which are really the important things to be
—
learned tend to be obscured and rendered less salient This practice also
places an unnecessary and unwarranted burden on learning and memory
effort —
effort that could be more profitably expended on learning the ideas
themselves and the more significant aspects of iheir histoncal development
To give students the flavor of biology as an evolving erapincal science
with a complex and often circuitous history, it would suffice to cite several
examples It is unnecessary to give the detailed ideational and expenmenta!
history of every biological concept and controversy Unsophisticated students
also tend to be confused by raw expenmental data, and by the actual
clironological and expenmental history underlying the emergence of a
biological law or theory —
especially when long quotations are given from
onginal sources that use archaic language, refer to obscure controversies, and
report findings and inferences in an unfamiliar and discursive manner It
is sufficient (as the green version docs) to review the histoncal background

of biological concepts m a schematic, telescoped, simplified, and recon

sinictcd fashion, deleting most of the detail, and disregarding the actual
chronological order of the antecedent ideas and their related expenments

Theoretical Bias

Introductory textbooks should generally be free of strong theoretical

bias and axe grinding They should give the impression that all theoretical
issues are not )et finally resolved, that many different points of view are
stilltheoretically tenable, and that the final word still has not been (and
never will be) spoken This does not mean, of course, tliat it is wrong or
undesirable for a textbook writer to express a point of view or theoretical
bias As long as he explicitly acknowledges his bias and fairly presents cur
rent alternative positions, tlie adopUon of an unambiguous point of view
Ins the advantage of theoretical consistency over blander and more
eclectic
approaches Pliilosopliical indoctnnation, however, is indefensible when
 Imtruclion^l Materiab
342

a given iheoreucal
students are too unsophisticated to esaJuate ihe ments o£
onentauon Unul Uiey are sufficiently mature to form
mdependenl judg-
ments. u is imporiant that they be permitted to reum an open mind on
conuoversial usues in the philosophy of wnce
The green version is more disposed than the blue and yellov^ sersions
to concede that very little is knovin about some topics, that
some concepts
subject
are based on relatively little solid evidence, that tfie same evidence is
to different interpreutions. and the contemporary biologists do not
always
agree VMth eacli other It also siiesscs. more ilian the other versions do. that

biological knowledge is not inunuiaUe. and that it changes both as new

facts and techniques arc discovered and as new theories are projxised
Finally, the green version suggests more explicitly tfian the oilier versions
do that biological concepts and classifications are man made attempts to
interpret, organize, and simplify our understanding of natural phenomena;
and that such concepts and categories are neither coextensive with the data
from which they are derived, nor represent ilie only ways of concepiuahang
and categonung the same data. Tins disttncuon between an abstraction and
empirical reality is important for beginning students, who frequently tend
to think of concepts and categories m absolute and axiomatic terms, as if

given in reality itself and possessing the same reality status as data

Instructional Aids’**

With the growth of our psychological and pedagogic knovvledge about,

and technological cajiaaty for. presenting instructional matenals effiaenlly
to leamm at each stage of cognmve and subject mailer sophisucation, the
role of iiuirucuonal aids in education is gradually changing Xo longer do
these aids sene merely enrichment or evaluative funnions m
iransmiiung
subject matter content to students, but do. and largely should, carry the
rouune burden of such transmission Thus, ideally, after the primary grades,
curriculum matenals should be produced for students rather than for
leacliers When the content of a cumculum program is appropriately pre-
pared and pre tested for leamabvlity and tuadiiy, and contains adjunctive
feedback devices, there is little value m
using the teacher as a filter through
which the content of subjea matter reaches pupils (Novak, 1965). Perliaps
0 I percent of teachers can prevent subject matter as luadly and effiaenlly

'« Thu iCTin IS used in the generic

sense and includes all media which die
leather uses lor murucuonal purposes apart from oral communicaiion—textbooks,
workbooks, tdicmatic models and diagrams, demorntraiiont.
laboratory woik. bx>-
tion pictures. lelcvmon. teaching
Instructional Aids 343

as properly programmed materials and the use of programmed material

does not necessarily imply teaclnng machine programs or scrambled text
books that granulate material into such small segments that its logical
structure and interrelationships are no longer perceptible
When programmed subject matter matenal is transmitted to pupils
directly not only reaches them more clearly and effectively but can also
it

be delivered on an individualized self paceable basis thereby circumventing

the ideational and pedagogic limitations of nine hundred and ninety nine
teachers in a thousand The teachers role is not eliminated but is channeled
more into the stimulation of interest the planning and direction of learning
activities the provision of more complete and individualized feedback in
instances that are idios>ncratic to particular learners the evaluation of
achievement the guidance of independent study thinking and problem
solving and the direction of discussion about issues that are too contro-
versial or speculative to be programmed efficiently The teacher is far too
valuable a person to spend his time giving routine lectures about relatively
stableand ffxed areas of knowledge (Encksen 2967) Typically programmed
materials would consist of texts that are written by teams of subject matter
and learning theory specialists in accordance with established psychological
principles of presentation and organization that are empirically pretested
and suitably revised to guarantee the maximal lucidity of each idea that
either present adjunctive tests of genuine understanding plus appropriate
feedback after each self contained subsection and /or call upon the teacher
to do so that make provisions for consolidation (confirmation correction
and differential practice) before new material is presented and that provide
for adequate review after progressively increasing intervals of time
For the most part instructional aids have contnbuted very little thus
far to the goal of individualized instruction

Elementary schools high schools and colleges throughout the country are en
gaging ma variety of programs to improve instruction More often than not
however these madificaxions and lunovauatu do not cotrue to grips la a direct and
—
systematic way with the primary event the acquisition of knowledge by the indi
vidual student One basic goal for educational change must be to recognize the
individual student rather than the class as tlie functional unit in the instructional
process The widely publiazed claims that teaclnng machines and programmed

Unless otherwise noted programmed textbook in this volume does not

refer to the typical scrambled textbook currently on the market but rather to
conventional format textbooks that are written in accordance with the instructional
strategy adiocaied in this and preceding chapters Such books are typically supple
mentedbythe adjunctive type of automated instruction advocated by S L Pressey
(19C0 19G2a 1962b) for purposes of feedback and evaluation
 /nUruelwiwit \(altTtali
344

instruction hate established the educatioiwl

breakthrough for adapting to indi
die rale of learning i* on y
Mdual diflerenccs is a gross osmiatemeni <Vdapuug to
respond to the
one dimension and any tutor hte or automated must lie able to
progress o£ each student
other differences that mark die idiosynciauc learning
(Encksen 1967, p 176)

Other dimensions of jndividualizauon include size of step, diiS

significant
and of abstraction of material, degree of prior preparation
let el
and
culty
familiarization, and the prosision of ennehed amtent

Printed MatenaU

For routine transmission of subject matter content, printed ma

llxe

tenals are undoubtedly the method of choice Not only can a mudi greater
quantity of matenal be presented m
a giscn unit of time, but rate of pre
sentaijon is also under die control of the learner Thus, tlic latter can pace
humelf m accordance rsuh his mielligence reading skill, and subject matter
sophistication He can also take as much time as he v>ishcs to sa\or the
language, to rellect on the matenal. and to relate it to other rclesant ideas
The objecuse of increasing speed of reading to the point that precludes
Uiesc latter acusities is educationally unsound Contrary to general belief
among teachers and students, N £ James (19^2) found that the use of a
preferred metliod of learning meaningful material (for instance, reading
sersus lecture) makes no difference uhatsoeser in learning outcomes
The defioencies frequently ascribed to textbooks arc not really inherent
m the medium itself but reflect, rather, defiaenoes
that ate common to all
inadequately prepared instrucUonal materials such as lack of lucidity, m
effective communication, mappropnaie
level of sophistication, and absence
of explanatory and iniegiauve ideas Relatively few textbooks have ever
been written which take into account conviderations $udi as progressive
diflcrenuaiion, integrative reconciliation, sequentiality of subject matter
content, and use of organizers. AItJiough textbooks can contain some built m
adjuncuve feedback and evaluative devices, and can, to a limited extent,
sumulate and guide the student » indcjiendent study, thinking, and problem
solving activities, furtlier provisions along these lines must be made
by the
teacher Tlie latter is also responsible for such matters as
differential prac
lice, review, rccitauon. and prompting, and for coordinating
textbook
the
with lectures discussion laboratory work, otiicr audiovisual
aids supple
mentary reading and independent student projects (such as
essays, reports)
It sliould be remembered that beyond
the junior high school penod
concrcie-empincal props should not ordinarily be used
to foster an intuiiiuc
type of meaningful learning—except in
the early stages of muoduang
InstTuctional Aids 345

students to an unfamiliar new discipline At other times, their function is to

facilitate and clanfy the abstract learning of concepts and propositions

Laboratory

The medium of instruction implies more than direct

laboratory as a
contact ivith and observation of objects and esents As differentiated from
demonstration and observational exercise, it also involves discovery ex
penence and concern, wntli such aspects of the process of science as hy
pothesis formation and testing, designing and conducting expenments, con
trolling and manipulating variables, and making inferences from data Thus,
in saence education one can hardly disagree with the proposition that
a heavy emphasis should be placed on ihe nature of saence or the process
by which new knowledge is Insimction should be planned to develop
obtained
understanding of the basic ideas of saence concomitant with the appreaation of
the methods of science these two aspeas should not be treated independently
(NSTA Curriculum Committee 1964 pp 17 18)

The trouble with this statement, m our opinion, is that it is not

sufficiently explicit It emphasizes the role of the laboratory m teaching
the process of science and the importance of coordinating laboratory and
expository instruction, they cerutnly should not be treated independently
But primary responsibility for transmitting the content of saence should
be delegated to teacher and textbook, whereas primary responsibility for
transmitting appreaation of scientific method should be delegated to the
laboratory This does not imply that laboratory and classroom should not
be coordinated, or that related substantive and methodological pnnaples
should not be considered together whenever relevant
Yet saence courses at all academic levels are traditionally organized so
that students waste many valuable hours m
the laboratory collecting and
manipulating empirical data whicli, at the very best, help them rediscover or
exemplify principles that the instructor could present verbally and demon
strate visually in a matter of minutes Hence, although laboratory work can
easily be justified on the grounds of giving students some appreciation of
the spirit and methods of saentific inquiry and of promoting problem
solving analytic, and generalizing ability, xt is a very time-consuming and
inefficient practice for routine purposes of teaching subject matter content
or illustrating principles where didactic ejcposilion or simple demonstration
are perfectly adequate Knowledge of die methods whereby data and
principles in a particular disaplme are acquired
also need not be gamed
always through self discovery m
die laboratory In many instances, this
purpose can be accomplished much more efficiently through didactic ex
position in conjunction with demonstrations and exercises
 IttilTucltonal Materials
3i6

inductive or h>pothetico
Laboratory v.oik in this context refers to
deductive discovery experience and should not
be confused with demonsira
Neverilieless Jt involves a contrived type of
lions and simple exercises
discovery lliat is very different from the truly
autonomous discovery ac
ivviues of die research scholar and scientist
The immature or unsophisti
of raw unselecied
cated student is only confused by the natural complexities
and unsystemauicd data Before he can discover generalizations efficiently
problem must be structured for him and the available procedures and
tlie

mediods of handling data must be sVulluUy arranged by others tliat is

simplified selectively schematized in sudi a
and sequentially organized
way as to make almost
ultimate discovery inevitable Occasional inde
pendent design of experiments may have a salutary effect m
conveying tlie
actual spirit of scientific inquiry but should hardly be a routine procedure
Most students below the graduate level of msiruction lack both sufficient
sophistication in saence and sufficient ingenuity and originality auiono
mously to devise all of the experiments that arc necessary for learning the
process of science and even if they could the procedure would be much
too time consuming to wanant the modest advantages in understanding and
appreciating scientific method that such an approacli would confer over
arranged laboratory work U is no more necessary autonomously to dis-
cover methods of discovering scientific knowledge in order genuinely to
understand and appreciate the process ol science than it is necessary
autonomously to discover die products of saentific investigation order m
meaningfully to learn soenufic concepts and pnnciples
In short personal laboratory exiierience is both useful and necessary
for the understanding o! science but truly independent laboratory research
m the schools is useful only occasionally (radier than as a routine practice)
to give students die flavor of autonomous scicnufic inquiry The latter kind
of experience m other words can hardly be equated with individualized
laboratory v ork Individualization of instruction in the laboratory conforms
to the same principles of individualized instruction m
expository teaching
that were discussed above and does not necessarily or typically presuppose
indci>endent design of experiments or wholly autonomous discovery learn
mg
Thus in dividing the labor of saentific instruction ihe laboratory
cames the burden of conveying the method and spirit of science
typically
and teacher assume the burden ol iransmiiimg subject
Vihereas the textbook
matter content The laboratory however should lie carefully
integrated
wiili thetextbook that is it should deal widv methodology
related to the
subject matter of die course and not
with experiments chosen solely
because of their suitability for illusttaung various
strategics of discovery It
goes widiout saying of course that laboratory
mcUiods can be used only
where the undcrlyingmediodology andsubsuniive
pnnciples are thoroughly
 JmtTUCtional MalermU
348

Programmed Imlruction
instruciion is an nidi
In die generic sen^e of the term programmed
\idualued form of selfinstrucuoii m
whidi emphasis is placed on sequen
in the presentation of learning tasl^s,
tialiiy, lucidity, and graded difficulty

on and corrcciue feed^ck and on consolidation and subject

confirmatory
matter readiness An attempt is made in programmed instruction to
manipu
transfer variables that
late as optimally as jxissible all prjciice, task and
matter content
are relevant for the acquisition and retention of subject
preceding sections and chapters we liave reviewed mudi researdi
on
In
these variables in a programmed tnsirucuoii content, on die general elTeclive
ness of this ajjproach, and on presumptive reasons for lU effectiveness Only
a brief summary statement, dterefore. is necessary at this point
Our conclusion with regard to jirogrammed instruction has been that
11 IS potentially the most dleciive mcUiod lor transmiliing the
established
content of most subject matter fields Aldvough piogtammed instruction can
include some guided discovery and vicarious concreie-empmcal cxjicncnce,
it IS obviously less elTecuvc than laboraiory and demonstration for leant

ing socntific meUiod and (or acquiring observational and discrimination

skills It IS also less suitable than discussion and project methods for con
sidermg more controversial aspects of subject matter for expressing ong
mabiy and independence of thought, and (or learning how to adopt and
defend a debatable position As pointed out above the most effiaent form of
programmed instruction can be effected wnliin a conventional textbook
format, providing the material has been pretested for sequentiality and
luadiiy, contains adequate provision for the testing of knowledge and for
feedback, and takes into account cstablulied substantive and programmatic
pnnoples of facilitating die acquisition and reiention of subject matter
content
The weight of the evidence regarding die effectiveness of programmed
instruction indicates that it leads to learning outcomes
that are eitlier
equally as good as or slighdy liciter than d»ose of conventional meUiods
(Glaser, 1965 Hughes and McNamara, 1961, Popplcton
and Ausiwick,
19&4 Sdirarara 1964. midock, Copeland, and Craig, 19G3)
Most students
tend to react favorably to the programmed learning format (Eigen,
1963),
at least m
die beginning, loss of cntliusiasm sets in earber at
the university
level (Roth. 1965) dian m
elementary school (Porter, 1959) Tins latter find
ing suggests iliat some of its demoiuirited effetuveness may be ailnbutable
eidier to novelty or to die Hawlliorne effect
It cannot be sttnsecl loo strongly that
most of Ule aiailable eililence
about tins mode ot instrucuoti ts not tlcnsed horn
ptogrammcil instruction
in ilte generic sense deBnctl abosc, but raUtcr
Irom rcsearclt on ’ teachme
madimes- ami scrambled tenbool. that employ a relatiscly small frame
Curriculum Reform Movements 349

and small step size approach Various other special features of the Skinnerian
linear programming technique such as emphasis on overt, constructed re-
sponses on a low error rate (on invariably inducing success and avoiding
uncertainty), and on the direct reinforang effect of rewarding every correct
response, have already been shown to be either empirically unsupportable
or theoretically untenable
Whatever effectiveness automated instruction has been found to possess
can be attributed to such factors as consolidation, lucidity, individualization,
prompting and confirmatory and corrective feedback The important pro
gramming principle of sequeniiahty has not really been tested yet on a
longterm basis, since most programs (at least insofar as subunits within a
given learning task are concerned) do not presuppose a logical sequence
of Items such that each sub unit is sequentially dependent on the preceding
intra task sub unit, it apparently makes little difference whether the frames
are carefully sequenced or presented m
random order (N R Hamilton,
1964, Levin and Baker, 1963, Roe, Case, and Roe, 1962) Also, apart from
several short term studies, the effects of both substantive aspects of program-
ming and of such programmatic principles as progressive differentiation,
integrative reconciliation, the use of oi^anizers, spaced review, and attention
to the internal logic of the instructional material, have not been investigated
S L Presseys (1962a, 1962b) adjunctive use of sell scoring devices makes
possible only those beneficial effects on learning that follow from evaluation
and feedback, and does not deal with the optimal organization and presenta
tion of subject matter

Curriculum Reform Movements

The Biological Sciences Curriculum Study may be m

taken as typical
approicii and objectives to the many flourisliing curriculum reform move-
ments that have arisen in the past fifteen years its principal objective is to
re establish the close contact and congruence of high school biology with
current conceptual and methodological developments m
biological science,
wliile still maintaining, and even increasing, its congruence with current

psychological and pedagogic ideas about the learning teaching process as

they apply to tenth grade students (Schwab, 1963) According to
J J Schvsab,
the content of Inghsdiool biology, during the heyday of progressive educa
tioii, \Nas no longer mainly Uctenmned by the state of knowledge in the
scientific field,because of its excessive prcoccupntion with such matters as
'

mtcllectual readiness, the Icirnability of material, and induidual differences

among learners The BSCS ajipioach, however, has veered precisely toward
the op[)osiie extreme m
trying to correct tins unsatisfactory state of affairs,
Its three texts arc reasonably congruent v>ith the content and methods of
 InilTucI o al MatenaU
350

are psjdiologially and

modem biolog) bul except tor Uic green xersion
pedagogically unsound for lUe majority of lentil graders
incompatibility hetn'een sub-
Actually of course there is no inherent
cttectiveness on the
jectmatter soundness on the one hand and pedagogic
produce pedagogically inappropriate in
other It IS no more necessary to

struclional materials m
an attempt to tnaU them rellccine of the current
state of knowledge in a given disaphne tlian it is necessary to jiresent dis-

credited concepts or inaccurate facts in order to make tlie subject

matter
more learnable In practice however as the >ehow and Wue SSCS versions
demonstrate preoccupation with the recency of subject matter content and
coser
with the completeness of conceptual methodological and historical
as
age can easily lead to the neglect of such basic pedagogic considerations
the educational appropriateness of course approach and objectives the ade
quacy of the pupils cxisung academic background for learning the content
of die course and the psy-choJogital tenability of the diosen ways of present
ing organiang and sequencing materials The inevitable outcome under
these circumstances ts the production of instructional materials that arc
admirably thorough accurate and up-to date but so inenectivcly presented
and organized and so impossibly sophisticated for their intended audience
as to be intrinsically unlearnable on a longterm basis
Although the BSCS does not state explicitly m
specific dissatisfactions
with conventional highscliool biology textbooks these dissatisfactions can
be readily inferred from die content of its numerous publications and are
generally illustrative of the perceived need lor curriculum reform in the
saences (1) Convetuiotul texts aliound m
outmoded ideas and inconcct
information and ignore important contemporary developments in the bio-
logical saences (2) They are wntten at a largely descriptive level and con
lam relatively few explanatory concepts loo much stress is placed on struc
tural detail useless terminological distinctions and classification thereby
plaang a premium on rote memory (3) Their approach is loo naturalistic
and insulliaently experimental quanUtaiive and analytical (4) They tend
to focus excessivelyon the organ and ussue levels of biological organization
whereas recent biological progress has been greatest at the molecular (bio-
physical and biochemical) cellular population and community levels
(5) Theyare wntten at too low a level of sophistication and
contain a pro-
fusion of elementary and self-evident gencrahtauons (6) Insufficient em
phasis IS placed on biology as a form of inquiry as an
experimental science
and as an eier changing open ended disaphne
(7) the biological ideas they
contain are not presented mterms of tlieir historical development and arc
not related to die soaal and technological contexts from
whicli they anse
(8) Tliey lack organizing and unifying Uicmes present a mass
of discon
necicd (acts and fail to integrate related concepts
and different levels of
Cumrt./t.’i lUjioTTt

biological orgaimacoa- TLer place cxcsss-\^ -i*. ^

\9)
~
lion of biologv to such areas as maacue pub'' 'b. ~s.

consenation, and msu^oenc emphasis on basic bto cecal "i:

“
't'N u> '

m ihemseh^

Speaficalton of Objectxza
m Behavioral Terms
For man) )ears noi^, evaluanon speaalists base been cvhcrtin^ c* r-
nculum ivorkers “State >our objectises in beliavioral temiv ‘O that ih ir
realization can be subjected more casilx to objectixe ex'aluaijon V> Vtl.iu

(1963) points out hotxeser, such exhortation often does men. Innu ihtn
good In the first place both ps)chologists and subject miller
sjxMiU s
•^^ygnemore attention to relamel) tniial but readil) defiinblt ^ixiK thin
lv»
to goals that
are intrinsically more important but resistiic to precise
to dtluu
^laiioral definition
Second, few cumculum speaalisis are trnincd
goals in behavioral
language Most important houever is the fici thu be*
c;o.iK
liaworal tennmology
more often obscures tlian clarifies educiuonil
The taxonomy of educational objectives (Bloom Engelhart FuiM Hdl
Krathttohl 1956 krathuohl and others 1964 ) for example cilCi^oiucs
educational goals in great behavioral detailBut since such basic icnu'* t'
memory knowledge understanding meaning
transfer coj,nt
uul
and have very different meanings for ps>chologists
affective
educators of different curuculnm
theoretical persuasion classification of
ngrccmcni
objectives along
such lines merely results in considerable pseudo
among psychologists dcfiiung
and curriculum workers without ever leilly
at the actual objectives
in question are
A taxonomy of educational objectives in behavioral terms
can o
eourse be potentially very useful both for curriculum plinnmg md
tv ilua
“on and for
designing functional and differential measures of tducition
il

otcomes once a cer

the discipline of educational psychology itself attains
‘n minimal there is
degree of sophistication and stability However until
genuine understanding of and general igreeineni about the under
I'ng processes of c ass-
of and interrelationship among the important kinds
oom learning conipara c
outcomes its use for these pur|X)scs is somewhat
0 employing
a micrometer to measure inches feet and yirds
Taxonomic
ea ing
'^iinctions at
the species level arc somewhat premature and inis
distinctions between the major phyla arc still generally unsett c
n
present state of pr® ^
our knowledge in education U psychology it is
^ objectives in
realistic and educational
generally saiisfictory to define
and more descriptive terms that arc closer to the language o t le
'rulum v^orkcr
than to that of the psychologist
 liuiruciional MoStrwU
352

Collaboration of Subject Matter, Learning

Theory,

and Meaiurement Specialists

person
A basic premise of all curriculum reform projects is tJial only a
itfith subject matter competence** in a
given discipline should prepare cur
nculum materials m
dial discipline Only sucli a jjcrson is sufficiently so-

phisticated (a) to identify unifying and miegraiise

concepts ssiiU broad
generaliiabvlityand explanatory power m die field (b) to perceive the inter
setjuence,
relationships between different ideas and to\Mcs so as to organize,
and
and integrate them optimally, (c) to comprehend the process of inquiry
the relationship of theory to data in the disapline m order to select appro-
priate laboratory exercises and lo integrate process and content aspects of

the curriculum program and (d) to understand die subject matter content
well enough either to prepare textual maienals lucidly himself, or to judge
whether odiers have done so
To be pedagogically effective sucli cumculuni materials also have to
conform to established pnnaples in the psychology of classroom learning,
and must include evaluauve devices diat conform to established principles
o! evaluation and measurement Obviously, it is difficult for any one jicrson
to possess all diree comjietcnucs But a pure educational psycholog;ist or
measurement spcaalist cannot really collaborate with a subject matter spe
cialist in produang aimculum materials and measuring instruments—'apart
from communicating to him general pnnciples of learning tlieory and mea
surement
This type of help however is inadequate for the actual collaborative
task that needs to be done In die actual operauon of produang cumailum
and evaluative materials diat are sound on both subject matter and learning
dieory measurement grounds die educational psydiologisl and measurement
spcaalist can collaborate effecuvely with dieir colleagues in subject matter
fields only if they themselves arc sufficiently sophisticated m the subject mat
ter to pariiajiaic actively in the production of die curriculum materials
from the very start Only in this way can they ensure that the dcuiled con
tent and structure of the material conform lo established principles of learn
ing and measurement theory One possible solution lo this problem of pro-
duang sound imiructional materials is lo tram a new type of cumculum
worker either a subject matter s|>eaahsi who is sophisticated (but not ex
pert) m
learning theory or measurement to collaborate vsiih learning theory
and measurement speaalisis or a learning theory or measurement spcaalist

12 111 actual pranice three

different kinds of person* proiide different kinds
of subject mailer a* well as pedagogic, competence m
projecu such as ihe BSCS
a professional biologist, a spcaalist m the teaching of biology and a classroom
biology tcadier
Currtculum Reform Movements 353

who IS sophisticated (but not expert) in some subject matter field, to col

laborate with subject matter specialists

Stngle-Umt versus Integrated Currtculum Approach

Generally speaking it is not pedagogically tenable to produce science

curriculum materials apart from an integrated plan encompassing each of
the separate scientific disciplines at successively higher levels of difficulty
from elementary school through college A collection of supplementary
grade appropriate units in various saentific disciplines, even when used in
conjunction with existing curriculum materials, presents many dfficulties
(a) It does not further the construction of a sequentially organized cumc

ulum in any particular discipline at any grade level that is logically coherent
and systematic in its component topics (b) Students fail to develop a con
ception of eacli scientific discipline as a sequentially organized, logically
integrated, and coherently interrelated body of knowledge (c) For a given
discipline to be organized for optimal learning on a longitudinal basis, one
must plan in advance for the articulation of the various levels of difficulty
so that some topics are considered at progressively higher levels of sophis
ticaiion whereas other topics are introduced for the first time when specified
levels of subject matter sophistication and cognitive maturity are reached
This kind of large scale, integrated curriculum planning requires no
greater certainty m
the minds of the specialists on exactly how science
materials should be scheduled to guarantee learning titan does the produc
’

tion of small unintegrated units of maternl The same principles are m

volved but on a much more massive scale One starts with the same tentative
outline based on logical interrelationships between the component aspects
of a discipline, as modified by pertinent developmental and learning theory
considerations, prepares tentative units, and revises these units on the basis
of tryout experience or alters their grade placement level If this is done
by a team, say twenty times larger than the one ordinarily envisaged, it can
prepare an integrated saence curriculum in the same length o£ time that
It takes an average sized team, to prepare an unintegrated series of units

Adraitledly, this involves many more administratiie problems, but if one

adheres to the principle of immediate tryout of component units, there
should not necessarily be any problem of ‘ rigidity The deficiencies in the
existing large scale, integrated projects stem more from (a) untenable theo
reiical ideas about teaching and learning (for instance, overemphasis on the
importance of discovery in learning, overemphasis on the basic science,‘
’

experimental analytic approach), (b) uncoordinated team effort, resulting

in the production of textbooks consisting of unintegrated units, and no
pervasive organizing ideas that are organically related to the textual mate
nal (for example, blue and >ellow BSCS versions), (c) failure to try out the
352 Instrucltonal Materials

Collaboration of Subject Matter, Learning Theory,

and Measurement Specialists

A
basic premise of all curriculum refonn projects
is that only a person
mih subject matter comjsetence^ in a gnen discipline should prepare cur
nculum materials in that discipline Only such a
person is sufBaently so-
phisticated (a) to identify uniryiiig and
integrative concepts uitli broad
generaluabihty and explanatory poiser in the
field (b) to perceive the inter
relationships between different ideas
and topics so as to organize, sequence,
and integrate them optimally, (c) to
compreliend the process o£ inquiry and
die relationship of theory to data
m
the discipline, m
order to select appro-
pnate laboratory exercises and to integrate
process and content aspects of
the curriculum program, and
(d) to iiiidcniand the subject
matter content
well enough either to prepare textual
materials lucidly himself, or to judge
whether others have ^ *
done so
P'‘l>g<'S‘«ny cfctue .ucl, cumcflum matenaU alw haac w
" •!« pajcholog, of daasroom laaramg,
ana mau f
mclucic avaluauae device, contomi lo eatabl.shed prinople,
ilia,

0 ;te„ a^l
'1;“^ lor any oL J«n ,

LTeln
measurement speualiat cannot really collaborate aiiili
pajcliolopac or
a subicet matter sne

and evaluate materials

that ate sound on‘boih°"l
theory measurement irrouniU ii. matter and learning
1

speembst tan measurement

co.labo^.red^tet^^rbtrL^^^^^^^^
fields only if Uiej
themselves subject matter
ter to partiapaie
actively m mat
die subject
die nm.1 ^
from the very start Onh ^ cumculura matenals
in ilii«
ten. and s.mc.otTof
u?ma.™ir„t“"
mg and measurement Uicory established pnnciples of Icam
One possiwc"*
duang sound mstructionarm^^eLu P™
siotbet eahet a subject ma.Ter
pert) in learning theory
or measuLnent
sm^
Jt
to coll"!
“
T "ot ex
and measurement learning theory
speaahsu or a learning
theorvT'‘'
ineory or measurement specialist
®

Ol subject °‘
manor 1'r,I'e"
«™daBo™.."'c<IrK’
a professional
biology teacher ^
b.ologi.c a sjJTciab.,
“ b“ ol biology
''' “acbing
“ "s' ““
and a dassroom
Curriculum Reform Movetnenls 353

who IS sophisticated (but not expert) m some subject matter field, to col-

laborate with subject matter specialists

Single-Unit versus Integrated Curriculum Approach

Generally speaking, it is not pedagogically tenable to produce science

curriculum materials apart from an integrated plan encompassing each of
the separate scientific disciplines at successively higher levels of difficulty
from elementary school through college A collection of supplementary
grade appropriate units m various scientific disciplines, even when used in
conjunction with existing curriculum materials, presents many dfficulties
(a) It does not further the construction of a sequentially organized curric-
ulum in any particular discipline at any grade level that is logically coherent
and s)stemaiic in its component topics (b) Students fail to develop a con-
ception of each scientific discipline as a sequentially organized, logically
integrated, and coherently interrelated body of knowledge (c) For a given
discipline to be organized for optimal learning on a longitudinal basis, one
must plan m
advance for the articulation of the various levels of difficulty
so that some topics are considered at progressively higher levels of sophis-
tication, whereas other topics are introduced for the first time when specified
levels of subject matter sopiustication and cognitive maturity are reached
This kind of large scale, integrated curriculum planning requires no
greater certainty in the minds of the specialists on exactly how science
materials should be scheduled to guarantee learning than does the produc
'

tion of small unintegrated units of materia! Tlie same principles are m

volved but on a much more massive scale One starts with the same tentative
outline based on logical mterrelaijonships between the component aspects
of a discipline, as modified by pertinent developmental and learning theory
considerations, prepares tentative units, and revises these units on the basis
of tryout experience or alters their grade placement level If this is done
by a team, say twenty times larger than the one ordinarily envisaged, it can
prepare an integrated science curriculum in the same length ol time that
It takes an average sized team to prepare an unmtegrated series of units
Admittedly, this involves many more administrative problems, but if one
adheres to the principle of immediate tryout of component units, there
should not necessarily be any problem of rigidity The deficiencies in the
stem more from (a) untenable theo
existing large scale, integrated projects
about teadiing and learning (for instance, overemphasis on the
retical ideas
importance of discovery m
learning, overemphasis on the basic science,
experimental analytic approach), (b) uncoordinated team effort, resulting
in the production of textbooks consisting of unmtegrated
units, and no
pervasive organizing ideas that are organically related to the textual
mate
rial (for example, blue and yellow BSCS versions), (c) failure to try out the
 Irulmclionai 5falenab
354

and (d) lack o(

matcmls cmpinally umil llie cmirc senei >s compleled,
basis, ssilli learning dicory and
raea
actice collaboralion, on a da) tojay
suremcnt specialisis (nho arc also sopliisucaled in the sub)c« mailer)
m
ihe actual preparation of curriculum and measurement maicnah

“BasUf’ versus “Applied” Science Approach

The strong emphasis m

the ^ellowf and blue BSCS sci^ions on basic
applications to
science’ pnnaples. and their rclamc lack of concern svilli
trends
familiar or praaical problems, is in acoirtl uith current fashionable
in saence education Current curriculum projects lute tended to over-
emphasize the basic sciences (because of ihcir great generalizing power and
relative umelessness). and unwarraniedly to denigrate the role and
impor-
tance of applied science in general education If tJie aim of the saence cur-
riculum is to acquaint the student with the goals and limitations of
the

scientific enterprise,and to help him understand, as an end in itself, the

conceptual meaning of the current phenomenological world iljat confronts
him, It cannot afford to overlook the applied sacnces Tlie) constitute 3
stgnifuant. aspect of modem roan’s phenomenological and intellectual en*
vironmenc, and hence an important component of general education
Knowledge about such subjects as mediane. agronom), and engineering
should be taught not to make professional phystoans, agronomtsu and
engineers out of all students, or to help tliem solve everyday problems m
Uiese areas, but to make them more literate and intellectually sophts-
ucaied about die currecit world m
which tivey live
The lime bound and particular properties of knowledge in the applied
sciences have also been exaggerated Sucii knowledge involves more than
technological appheauons of basic saence generalizations to current prac-
tical problems Aldiough less generalizable Uian the basic sciences, they are
also disciplines in tlveir own nght, vviih distinctive and relatively enduring
bodies of theory and methodology that cannot simply be derived or extrap-
olated from the basic saences to wliicli they are related. It is simply not
true dial only basic saence knowledge can be related to and organized
around general pnnaples Each of the applied biological sciences (for ex-
ample, mediane, agronomy) possesses an independent body of general pnn-
aples underlying the detailed knowledge in its field, in addition to being
related ma sull more general way to basic pnnaples in biology
Applied saences also present us with many strategic advantages in
teaching and curriculum developmenL 'We can capiulize on
the students
existing interest in and faniihanty with applied
problems in saence to
provide an mlelleaual and motivauonal bndge for learning
the content of
the basic saences Previously acquired knowledge
in Uie applied saences,
both inadental and sysiemaiia can serve as die basis
for rendering basic
CuTuculnm Reform Moiettieiits 355

science conceptsand propositions both potentially meaningful to the learner

and less him There is also good reason for believing that
threatening to
more learnable than basic sciences to the
applied sciences are intrinsically
elementary school child, because of the particularized and intuitive nature
’

of his cognitive processes and iheir dependence on the here and now
properties of concrete empirical experience For example, before the tenth
grader ever enters the biology class, he has a vast fund of information about
immunization, chemotherapy, tlie symptoms of infection, heredity, and so
forth Finally, knowledge in the applied sciences probably is retained longer
than knowledge in the basic saenccs because of the greater frequency of
their subsequent use (by virtue of more frequent applicability to intellectual
experience in adult life)

Overemphasis on Analytical, Quantilatwe,

and Experimental Aspects of Science

One of the characteristic features of the curnculum reform movement

ISan overcorrection of the unnecessarily low level of sophistication at which
many high school subjects have been and still are taught In the sciences
this tendency is marked by a virtual repudiation of the descriptive, natural
istic, and applied approach and an overemphasis on the analytical, expen
mental, and quantitative asjiects of science In introductory high school
biology, for example, mucli of the new content consists of highly sophis-
ticated biochemical content that presupposes advanced knowledge of chem
istry on the part of students who have no background whatsoever thism
subject The implied rationale of this policy is Bruners untenable asser-
tion that any concept can be taught to any person irrespective of his level
of subject matter sophistication
By any reasonable pedagogic criterion, introductory high school biology
should continue to remain predominantly naturalistic and descriptive in
approach rather than analytical and experimental This does not imply
emphasis on descriptive information or on disconnected facts unrelated to
theory, but on explanatory concepts that are stated m relatively gross and
descriptive language, instead of in the more technical, quantitative, and
sopJiisticatedterminology of biochemistry and biophjsics In short, high
school biology should concentrate on those broad biological ideas that con
stiiuie part of general
—
education physiology, evolution, development, in
hentance, uniformities and diversity m
life, ecology, and man s place in

—
nature rather than on a detailed and technical analysis of the physical
and chemical basis of biological phenomena or of the morphology and
function of intracellular microstructures This is particularly true for the
substantial number of students who will receive no further instruction m
biology As a matter of fact, tJiere is sul] mucli significant but as jet
unex
 Imltuci onal MalertaU
35fi

in
ploiled concsplual conient m
imioductoiy biologv that can be treated
ntdiout liaving to
much more sophisticated terms at a descnpliie lescl jellow
and cellular detail gircn in the
resort to die depth of biochemical
and blue BSCS >ersions
blue and yellow
Contrary to the strong and exphaily stated btas ot the
the natural
versions Uiere is still much room jn introductory biology for
isuc approach It is much more important for the beginning student
m
to obsertc etents in nature systematically and
precisely
science to leam how
liow to lorraulate and test hypotheyss on the basts ot independent
sets
and
o£ naturally occurring antecedents and consequences than to leam how to
manipulate an cxpcnmenial \2nable and control other relevant variables
takes
by design in a laboratory situation The former approach not only
precedence in the student s intellectual development and is more consonant
prob-
with his expenenual background but also has more transfer value for

lern solving in future real life contexts To dogmatically equate saentific

method with the expenmenta! analytical approadi also excludes rather
suinmanly from die domain of soence such fields in biology as ecology
paleontology and evolution and such other disaplines as geology asiron
omy meteorology anthropology and soaology
Tins bias against the naturalisuc approach has already reached the
point where pupils are being uught and explanatory
that cause and-elfeci
relauonships between independent and dependent variables can be tvar
rantedly mfened only if the independent variables under imesiigauon can
be reliably manipulated and if other relevant variables can be adequately
controlled This pseudo-scienufic dictum ignores both statistical methods of
controland the more important fact Uiat controlled expenmenu m
nature
occur spontaneously every day m
ilie week, inviting the student of science

merely to formulate and test relevant hypotheses without any need what
soever for experimental manipulation and contioL
Retention of the naturabstic and descriptive emphasis and of some
applied content, mintroductory high school biology is thus consistent with
the fact that tenth-grade biology is the terminal course in saente for many
students. It 15 also more consistent than is the analytical-experimental ajv
proach with ilie tenth-grader s existing background of experience his inter
ais his intellectual readiness and his relative degree of sophistication in
science This proposed emphasis is also in no way inappropnale
for those
studenu who will subsequently take high school physics and chemistry as
well as more advanced biology courses Tliese latter studenu
would be much
beller prepared after lakingsuch an inuoduaory course
for a second course
m biology in Uie twelfth grade or in college
dm
takes a more quantitative
and expcnmental analytical approach introduces more esoienc
topics and
considers the biodiemical and biophysical aspects of biological knowledge
By Aisume they would also have the necessary mathematical sophistication
and greater experience with expcnmental
methodology
CuTTiculum RefOTtn Movements 357

Early Try Out of Materials

An essential aspect of the preparation of instructional materials that
IS unfortunately, ignored much too frequently by many curriculum reform
and continuous try-out both with individual
projects IS the matter of early
pupils and in classrooms Only in this way is it possible to ascertain their
appropriateness and effectiveness, and to modify the original logically de
veloped outline in terms of empirically relevant information regarding
leamabihty lucidity, difficulty level, sequence, organization, practicality,
and attitudes of pupils, teachers, and administrators All too often huge
sums of money are invested in preparing an integrated senes of curnculum
materials without making any provision for try-out and evaluation until the
finished product is published

Overemphasis on Discovery and Inquiry

Most curnculum reform projects in mathematics and science place

inordinate emphasis on the inquiry process and on learning by discovery
Implicit in this approach are the assumptions that subverbal insight is
superior to verbal insight, that generalizations are not really understood
unless they are discovered autonomously, and that the student can learn
best by engaging in the same kinds of activities as mathematiaans and
scientists These assumptions are subjected to detailed scrutiny in Chapter
14 Their principal weakness ties m
failure to recognize the time-consuming
aspects of discovery learning and to appreaate the respecuve roles of ex
pository teaching and discovery expenence in acquinng subject matter con
tent, on the one hand, and in learning problem solving skills and the
scientific method, on the other

Difficulties mEvaluating
the New Currtculums

As W A Brownell (1965) points out, curriculum evaluation is more

difficultthan it often appears on the surface This in large part, is a func
tion of the fact that standardized acluevement tests both cover various
traditional subject matter units deliberately ignored fay the new cumc
ulums, as well as fail to measure knowledge of the more modern concepts
which the latter emphasize Further, many curriculum projects either make
no provisions whatsoever for evaluation or fail to provide for an adequate
control group and to eliminate the Hawthorne effect The weight of the
evidence indicates that on the basis of achievement test results, the new
cumculums in mathematics and science are approximately as effective as
existing cumculums If this were our ultimate criterion of effectiveness,
however, these findings would be quite disappointing Much more impor
3S6 IruiTtultonal Materials

plotted conceptual content tn introductory biology that can be treated in

much more sophisticated terms at a descriptive level, without having to
resort to the depth of biochemical and cellular detail given in tlie )elIow
and blue BSCS versions
Contrary to the strong and expliatly stated bias of the blue and yellow
versions, there is still much room in introductory
biology for the natural
istic approacli It is much more important
for the beginning student in
science to learn how to observe events in nature
sjsiemaiically and preasely,
and how to formulate and test hypotheses on the basis of
independent sets
of naturally occurring antecedents
and consequences than to learn how to
manipulate an expenmenial vanabic and control
other relevant variables,
by design in a laboratory situation The former
approach not only ukes
precedence m
the student s intellectual development,
and is more consonant
with his expenenual background, but
also has more transfer value for prob-
lemsolvnng in future 'reallife contexts
To dogmatically equate saenufic
muhod wd, die <=c(^m£nLilanal)tical approach
also excludes, miher

r”"-,
omy, meieorology anthropology,
““ geology, asuon
and sociology

""eWes
LnJ^^ed Zs can be adequately

omtr sponuneousl, esetVday expenments tn nature

In the
merely to formulate and " '““ient of science
tes/rele.au, iT'’
-eserforexpenmeuul ma„,p„,,„„„ “> »'«

appherc:r„.::„-^r~.rscht^^^^^^ —
proach with the ** ^^>Hcal-expenmental ap-
tenili eradM- l
ests, hr.
.n.elleaur;S:;r.',rhf,tt7e“d‘‘
saeuce This proposed “P'>“‘'cauon tn
emphasu .s also
studenu ssho util subsequLil, ''*>','"“PP">P'm'e for those
ueU as more ads-ancedholog,
tale h..h oh
P'>““ e"'* rhemtsiry. as
courses Th
better prepared, alter
uktu^ud, t^^urmf' "“uld be much
in biology, in the a «cond
and expenmenial
twelfUi grade or roll m course
" "”«= l-anutause
analyrljrat^^d.
mnudera the biochemical ““ ‘“P'"- “*
By this tune, they would and^btophsstQT
^ of biological knowledge
also Iiave ih
aod greater ex^ence
u.th
Curriculum Reform Movements 357

Early Try-Out of Materials

An essential aspect of the preparation of instructional matenals that

IS, unfortunately, ignored much too frequently by many cumculura reform
projects IS the matter of early and continuous try out, both with individual
pupils and in classrooms Only in this way is it possible to ascertain their
appropriateness and effectiveness, and to modify the original logically de-
\eIoped outline in terms of empirically relevant information regarding
learnabihty, lucidity, difficulty level, sequence, organization, practicality,
and attitudes of pupils, teachers, and administrators All too often huge
sums of money are invested in preparing an integrated series of cumculum
materials withoutmaking any provision for try out and evaluation until the
finished product is published

Overemphasis on Discovery and Inquiry

Most cumculum reform projects in mathematics and science place

inordinate emphasis on the inquiry process and on learning by discovery
Implicit m
this approach are the assumptions that subverbal insight is
superior to verbal insight, that generalizations are not really understood
unless they are discovered autonomously, and that the student can learn
best by engaging m
the same kinds of activities as mathematicians and
scientists These assumptions are subjected to detailed scrutiny in Chapter
14 Their principal weakness lies in failure to recognize the time consuming
aspects of discovery learning and to appreciate the respective roles of ex*
pository teaching and discovery experience m
acquiring subject matter con
tent, on the one hand, and in learning problem solving skills and the
scientific method, on the other

Difficulties tn Evaluating
the New Currtculums

As W A
Brownell (1965) points out, curriculum evaluation is more
difficult often appears on the surface This, in large part, is a func
than it

lion of the fact that standardized achievement tests both cover various
traditional subject matter units deliberately ignored by the new cumc
ulums, as well as fail to measure knowledge of the more modern concepts
which the latter emphasize Further, many cumculum projects either make
no provisions whatsoever for evaluation, or fail to provide for an adequate
control group and to eliminate the Hawthorne effect The weight of the
evidence indicates that, on the basis of achievement test results, the new
curnculums m
mathematics and saence are approximately as effective as
existing curnculums If tins were our ultimate criterion of effectiveness,
howeser, these findings would be quite disappointing Much more impor
 JnsiTUcUonat Materials
358

and performance in
tant, therefore, are results on delayed tests of retention
sequentially related courses Unfortunately, however, sucli
more advanced,
data are not available

The Leveling Effect of iTisinutioml ^ids

on Degree of Existing Knowledge
It seems reasonable to suppose iliat tn a
nonindividuahzed learning
teaching
environment organizational aids and other improved methods of
tend to benefit the average and dull student more than the bright student,
that IS, to exert a leveling influence on the relationship between
degree of
existing knowledge and aptitude, on the one hand, and new learning in tlie

same subject matter area, on the other The bright student, after all, could

be expected to structure and organize unfamiliar learning matenals more

successfully by himseU The research evidence in this area, however, tends
to be equivocal The lucid integrative tcaclung in die PSSC high sdiool

physics program not only brings it well within die ability of most high

school physics students (Ferns, 1960). but also tends to produce progressively
deaeasing correlations between academic aptitude and physia achievement
as the course progresses Brighter students are evidently able to do for them
selves part of what improved methods of teacliing do for mediocre students
Conventional methods of teaching, on die other hand, tend to maintain
and perpetuate the existing learning and achievement advantages inherent
in supenor verbal ability When students are thrown back on dieir own
devices, the superior student has a better chance of learning Both D Porter
(1959) and M H Detambel and L M
Slolurow (1956) obtained almost zero
correlations between general ability measures and achievement on pro-
grammed learning tasks and L W
Joos (1961) showed Uiat automated
teaching programs marithmetic diReieniially benefit low IQ children
D S Northrop (1952) similarly found that whatever increased learning
results from emphasizing the outline of an instructional film comes primarily
from the low ability group The use of organizers is suggestively more bene
fiaal for low ability students m
the learning of completely unfamiliar mate-
rial (Ausubel and Fitzgerald, 196^, but is unrelated to academic aptitude
when the learning material is substantively related to existing knowledge
(Ausubel and Fiugerald, 1961) The dull individual is more apt to profit
from advance organizers than the bright individual, because he is both less
hkely to possess and choose existing relevant subsumers m
his cognitive
viruciute for the new nvavenal, and is also less able to improvise appropriate
new organizers by himself
Teaching machine programs that gear the difficulty of the
material to
the ability level of the lowest ability group quite naturally
tend to reduce
the relationship between general ability
and ultimate learning outcomes
Cumcufum llefoTm Moionentt 559

In adiluton lo lowering difiicull) level by such devices as prompting and

the use of small lasV. and step size (L M
Smith, 1962), sucli programs benefit
the slow learner fast learner b) compensating for the (omicr’s
more than the
relatively greater inabilityboth to organize the material sequentially by
himself and to keep pace with a rate of instruction aimed at the pupil of
average ability L M
Stolurow (1961b, pp 121, 126, 136 138) Ins suinma
nzed considerable research evidence showing increased homogeneity of per-
fonnance following teaching machine training, as well as practically zero
correlations between general ability scores and gam scores rcsnUing from
automated instruction S R Meyer (1960a) oblaincd a moderate negative
correlation between pretest scores on knowledge of English prefixes and
gam m sudi knowledge after ten days of self instruction with a programmed
workbook Programmed instruction m clcctrocartliography differentially
benefits academically jioorcr students others, 1965) J K Little
(Owen, and
(i960) similarly found that drill macliincs giving nnmcdiaic knowledge of
results of practice tests m
an educational psychology course, as well as oi>-
portumiy to correct mistakes by drill, bcncfiu those students most who
usually score m
the lower half of the distribution As a result of such tcacli-
mg, both the more and the less knowledgeable students move upwards m
attainment, but the terminal achievement of the two groups converges
£ R Kcislar (1959), on the other hand, found that programmed m-
siruction in elementary arithmetic was more successful for brighter pupils
G R Klare and others (1055) showed that patterning, m
the fonn of out-
lining, inhibited learning m
the low ability group but facilitated learning
in tire upper ability group
When teaching machine programs arc more demanding, low^ ability
students make lower scores than high ability students on tests covering
material completed by each group (Beane, 1962, Keislar and McNeil, 1961,
Shay, 1961, Silbcrmaii, Mclaragno, and Coulson, 1961, \Vitirock, 1963c),
and if the abler students are also {rcrinitied to learn at their own pace and
to complete as many programs as rapidly as iliey can, individual differences
in achievement between the bright and die dull obviously tend to increase
rather than to decrease during die course of sequentially organized instruc-
tion (Beberman, 1958) This phenomenon apparently reflects both the in-
creased learning opportunities given the more able pupils, as well as the
reciprocal circular relationship between relative success and failure, on the
one hand, and interest and motivation, on the other Despite this divergence,
however, dull pupils who are permitted to learn at their own rate of speed
obviously acquire a sounder foundation of knowledge, and also maintain
higher educational morale than when forced to proceed and flounder at a
rate exceeding their ability level
AFFECTIVE AND SOCIAL
FACTORS IN LEARNING
 Chapter 10

MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS
IN LEARNING'

/Vfter fifty ^ears or more of research on motivation

perhaps the most striking conclusion that emerges from consideration of
tlie staggenng mass of research data and theory in tins area is how little
we know about it and how much is still a matter of conjecture and
really
speculative preference Fortunately lioucvcr since the focus of our concern
IS on the role of motivation in learning particularly on longterm mean
ingful reception learning uc shall not have to grapple uitli such general
issues as Uie nature and classirication of drives Only tlie following kinds of

issues need engage our attention Is motivation necessary for learning? How
do motivational variables differ from cognitive variables? \V1iat arc die re
spective roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation m
subject matter learning
and how do they cliangc with the age of the learner? In what wajs docs
reward (the satisfaction of drives) influence learning and retention? Can
meaningful learning be reinforced? How do intention ego-involvement
and atucude influence learning? Are punisfmicnt and aversive dnves eilec
tive in motivating learning?
One
of die theoretical biases that should be made explicit at the very
outset die assumption that both the role and relative importance of dif
IS

ferent kinds of motivations (for example cognitive homeostatic material

ego-enhancmg aversive and afBhative) vary depending on the type of learn
ing involved and on the species membership and developmental status of
the learner Hence it could be anuapated dial the role and relative impor
tance of these various kinds of motivauons in classroom learning would be
quite different than m
short term and fragmentary varieties of rote instru
mental motor and discovery learning

1 Some
of the matenal m
this chapter has been excerpted with permission
from an article Motivation and Classroom Management by the author in Edu
cation 1966 86 479-483 Copynght 1966 by The Bobbs-Memll Company Inc.
Indianapolis Indiana

363
 MoUvational Factors in Learning

Is Motivaiion Necessary
for Learning?

Few theoretical issues m

ps>choIogY prosokc more heated controversy
vary all the way from
than the role of motivation in learning Positions
the assertion that no learning wlijisoever takes place
without motivation
that motivation is a significant variable in the learning
to a complete dental
process The tveighi of the evidence indicates that although motivation is

a highly significant factor in and greatly facilitates learning it is by no

that
means an indispensable condition’ Considerable research suggests
muclt learning is apparently neither energized by motivation nor reinforced
by drive satisfaction (reduction) Classical or Pavlovian conditioning for
example, merely dejiends on tem|x>ral contiguity of the conditioned
and
unconditioned stimuli A good deal of learning as jxnnted out above, occurs
incidentally without any expliat intention to learn Appreciation of a
means-end relationship is frequently acquired and selectively retained, either
through insight or trial and error variation of responses, even jf unaccom
panved by the ongmal existence and later reduction of a drive state
Apart from classical conditioning however, motivation is probably less
indispensable for meaningful reception learning (particularly on an unorga
nized shortterm basis) ilian a is for any other kind of learning Because
sudi learning requires relatively htilc effort,less reliance need be placed

on existing drives and motives wahm the learner, on incentive conditions,

and on extrinsic rewards than is the case, for example, rote learning orm
problem solving But to assert that meaningful learning (particularly of a
fragmentary and short terra nature) can occur in the absence of motivation,
does not of course, imply denial of the fact that motivation can significantly
faahiate learning whenever it is present and operative
Even where motivation is clearly operative m
human learning, it is
misleading to extrapolate the familiar jiaradigm of homeostatic drive re
duciion that is characienstically used to explain animal learning (Harlow,
1955) Such drives are quickly satiated and, when accompanied by intense
effect disrupt learning (Harlow. 1953) Hence, hunger, lliirst, pain, and the
like, rarely motivate human learning and although material rewards are

’ On theoreiical grounds it may be hypothesized tlut molivation becomes a

progressively less imi>ortaiii facior m learning as children advance m
age As
learning Irccomcs easier and leucflocaul due to ihc growth of cognitive capaaiy
atiemion span and ability to concentrate. Jess energization of the learning process
IS necessary In addition cognitive struaure vanablcr become increasingly more
imporum as dctcrminams of learning Lastly since the child »s mouvaied more by
<»gniiivc afliliative and ego-eiiliantcmcm drives maicnal reward and punishment
become levs salient faaori
Is Motivation Necessary for Learning* 365

often effective intrinsic (task oriented) and ego enhancing motives increas
ingly tend todominate the motivational picture witli advancing age Mate
rialrewards also tend to become less ends in themselves than symbols of
earned or attributed status and sources of selfesteem
The trend in recent research and thinking has been to place greater
erapliasis on the motivational power of such intrinsic and positive motives
as cunosity (Berlyne, 1960), exploration (Montgomery, 1954), activity (W F
Hill, 1956), manipulation (Harlow, 1950, Terrell, 1959), mastery or com
petence (White, 1959) and the need for stimulation (Butler, 1954) In addi
tion, these latter drives have been elevated to the status of primary dnves
in their own right Unlike oilier drives, they are, furthermore, gratified
(reduced) merely by the very fact of successful learning itself It is hardly
many human learning situations the provision
surprising, therefore, that in
of explicit rewards makes relatively little (Abel, 1936) or no (Auble and
Mech, 1953) difference in speed of learning or in performance level Because
so much learning attributable to task-oriented or ego enhancing motives has
already occurred, the later introduction of homeostatic or material rewards
into the learning situation does not dramatically accelerate the rate of learn
mg as It does m
comparable animal ( latent learning”) expenments
At the human level, cognitive drive (the desire for knowledge as an
end in itself) is more important m
meaningful than m
rote or instrumental
learning, and is, at least potentially, die most important kind of motivation
in classroom learning This is so, both because of its inherent potency, and
because meaningful learning unlike these other kinds of human learning,
automatically provides us own reward That is, as in tlie case of all intrinsic
motives, the reward that satisfies the drive inheres in the task itself In addi
lion, as £ C Tolman (1932) points out, motivation may facilitate learning
m
ways other than by energizing behavior and by reinforcing the successful
variant through drive reduction It also exerts a purely cognitive effect by
highlighting or emphasizing what is to be learned, and by providing con
firmatory and corrective feedback This is evident both in meaningful dis
covery learning and in meaningful reception learning where the choice of
correct alternatives is rewarded and the choice of incorrect alternatives is
not
The causal relationship between motivation and learning is typically
reciprocal rather than unidirectional Both for this reason, and because
motivation is not an indispensable condition of learning, it is unnecessary

to postpone learning activities until appropriate interests and motivations

have been developed Frequently, the best way of teaching an unmotivated
student IS to ignore lus motivational state for the time being, and to con
centrate on teacJiing him as cffertnely as possible Some degree of learning
will ensue in any case, despite tlie lack of motivation, and from the initial
satisfaction of learning he will, liopefully, develop the motivation to learn
3G6 Molwattonal Factors in Learning

more In some circumstances, most appropnate way of arous-

therefore, the
ing motivation to learn is to focus on the cognitive rather than on the
motivational aspects of learning and to rely on the motivation that is de
veloped from successful educational acliievement to energize further learn
ing
Even though particular instances of learning may be largely unmoti
vated. It IS undoubtedly true tliat the subject
matter in question must be
related to felt needsif significant longterm meaningful learning
is to occur
Inability to see any need for a subject is the reason
students mention most
frequently for losing interest in high school studies
(F M
Young 1932)
Doing without being interested m
what one is doing, results in relatively
little permanent learning (Cantor,
1953) since it is reasonable to suppose
that only subject matter material which
psychological field of the individual can
is relevant to areas of concern the m
be meaningfully and efficiently in
corporated and integrated into cognitive
structure on a longterm basis
Learners who have little need to know
and undersund quae naturally ex
pend relam ely lmle learning effort,
manliest an insufficiently mcaningrul
learning set, fad to deselop precise
meanings to reconcile new material with
“““P"' “
eefoimulaie new proposilions m
Ihe.r own lerms
In, I d? “
f. 'T*'' “"‘i ''View Knowledge
«>"">l'>lated 10 form an adequate foundation
for^rurm “““ “ “ lhat school sub.
tis erh ff

'"‘-eh school
knowledge can
nete?be
""*“" : '!'= demands o[ daily Ling
Once sue?? f “
1

‘‘“'''“fd ''=>™ng naturally becomes both a more

mLLraful and “'"‘>'"8 '‘P'nence, but tt ,s
Te de?Wem dtlHcult to stunula.e

" P'™"‘“ Phenomenon, tt can be

ach.eveTonTv?;i;f"H"“!,".““*''^
“ “"‘"S •“ “P'"'' >he -l.oe effort
o tmclte Vew ' n ,
required
Thir^^m wallmm? ^ ''phrasing 'eame o£ relerence
relaung them to Ins own
new ideas into his own terns and
personal history, and system of ideas
(H D Carter, 1935)

must he with die pupd responsibility for lu accomplishment

"pumk^,"^
uons and .0 he Ze
with learnmg auTwTrs
. n r
more of the qoes-
m P'»hlems foan
Pmhleras are not perceived (Can
tor, 1953) The teacher cannot I r

l':ho?ar"mran„rJe^'Sir“^^
he perfonned by
the .earner f. lolfo’^r itTarlr'forh^yTm";^
Cognitiie Drive 367

upon pupils or passively and uncntically accepted by them cannot possibly

be meaningful in die true sense of the term

Cognitive Drive

Because meaningful learning provides its own reward, cognitive drive

(the desire to know and understand, to master knowledge, to formulate and
solve problems) is more important than in rote or instrumental learning,
and is potentially the most important kind of motivation in meaningful
learning It is probably derived, in a very general way, from curiosity ten
dencies and from related predispositions to explore, manipulate,’ under
stand, and copie with the environment (R W
White, 1959) These latter
predispositions, however, originally manifest potential rather than actual
motivational properties, and are obviously nonspeahc in content and di
rection Their potential motivating power is actualized in expression and
particulanzed m direction by the developing individual, both as a result
of successful exercise and the anticipation of future satisfying consequences
from further exercise, and as a result of internalization of the values of
those significant persons in the familial and cultural environments with
whom he identifies Far from being largely endogenous* in origin, there
fore, speafic cognitive drivesor interests are primarily acquired and de
pendent upon particular experience Hence, we observe again that the
relationship between cognitive drive and learning, like the relationship
between motivation and learning generally, is reciprocal from a cause-effect
standpoint
Despite the potential centrality of cognitive drive for classroom learn

3 The desire to explore, manipulate, and be stimulated does not, m and of

Itself, lead to disciplined learning effort In its untutored expression it is directed
more toward immediate gratification

* We have already referred to the mistaken notion m some educational

arcles of regarding endogenous or spontaneously expressed needs as the only
possible basis on which to organize a cumculum and as axiomatically reflective of
what IS truly best ‘
for the individual The choices that individuab make themselves
are not invariably as appropriate as teleological theonsts would have us believe
In fact one of the primary functions of education is to stimulate the development
of potentially worthwhile needs Recognition of the role of needs in learning means
that teachers should try to develop needs in pupils for the subject matter they wish
to present as well as take cognizance of exuung concerns It does not mean that
the curriculum should be restncied to the speafic interests that happen to be
present in a group of children growing up under particular conditions of Intel
lectual and soaal class stimulation
 MofwaltonaJ FaCton in
36S

mg, It IS nevertheless true that m

our utiliunan, competitive, and achieve*
ego-enhancement,
mennsrienied culture, sudi extrinsic considerations as
increasing age,
anxiety reduction, and career advancement become, vudi
piogiessively more significant sources of motivaiion for scliool learning
Beginning with the first four years of school life, ratings of adiievemeni

and recognition seeking behavior tend to remain quite suble, and are tea
adult
sonably predictive of analogous behavior during adolescence and early
life (Moss and Kagan. 1961) Even
matena! rewards tend to become less
ends in themselves than symbols of academic status achievement, and com
petmve advantage
Eventually of course, dve viabilvty of the cogniuvc drive as an mintisic.
task-onented type of motivation is impaired as a consequence of the in
creasing, almost exdusive. associauon of inicllcciual interests and actl'^lles
with ego-enhanang and anxiety reduction motives If die desire to leam
and undenund is almost invariably exercised in die context of competing
for grades obtaining degrees, preparing for a vocation, stnving for advance
ment, and reduang the fear of academic and occupational failure, there is
little warrant Cor believing that muclv of tt survives as a goal lU own m
nght This trend is reflected m the progressive decline m school interests
and imelleciual enthusiasm as duldren move up the academic ladder
(Jendd and Tasch, 1949) Theoretically, of course, it is true diat some
cognitive drive may be developed as a functionally autonomous by product
of successful learning, even dtough the intellectual activity in question is
onginally mouvaied by extrinsic considerations
Hence if we vvisb to develop the copuuvc drive so that it remains
viable during the school years and in adult life, it is necessary to move $ull
(utUver away bom the cducatvonal doctrvne geanng the cumcul'U'm to the
current concerns and life adjustment problems of pupils Although it is
undoubtedly unicalmic and even undesirable m
our culture to esdievv
enurely the utilitarian egoenliancemeni, and anxiety reduction mouva
lions for learning, we must
place increasingly greater emphasis upon the
value of knovsing and understanding as goals m
their own right, quite apart
from any practical benefits they may confer Instead of denigrating subject
matter knowledge, as so many allegedly progressive educators have done
over die past fifty years, we must discover more effiacni methods fostering
of
die long term acquisiuon of meaningful and usable
bodies of knowledge,
and of developing appropriate intrinsic mouvations for such learning

The Mediation of Molivauonal Inlluences

How do mouvavional factors artually influence meaningful learning

and retention, and how does this influence differ from that
of the cogniuve
The Mediation of Motivational Influences 369

vanables we ha\e considered in previous cliapters? In the first place,

cognitive variables influence directly the very conditions (parameters) de-
termining the interaction between new learning material and existing
and hence the emergence of new meanings and the
cogni<ti/<? structure, mam
tenance of their separate identity and availability during the retention
interval (their dissociability strength) Sucli variables, for example, include
the availability in cognitive structure of relevant anchoring ideas, the sta
bihty and clarity of such ideas, and tlieir discnminability from the learning
material, additional opportunity to relate the new learning material to a
cogniti\e structure already sensitized to its meaning by virtue of prior
exposure (spaced review), the confirmation and correction of newly acquired
meanings tlirough recitation, implicit testing against original or subsequent
presentations of the material, or explicit testing with feedback, opportunity
to profit during review from awareness of specific factors promoting for-
getting, and the amount, difficulty, pacing, and internal logic of the instruc
tional material
Second, the e0ecls of cognitive variables are also mediated through the
same mechanisms in both learning and retention That is, these variables
determine the accuracy, clarity, and discnminability of emerging new mean
mgs during learning (their dissociability strength) by iniluencmg the cog
niuve mieraciional process in die particular aforementioned ways, and this
same influence of cognitive vanables on dissociability strength both (a)
can be exerted dunng retention as well as during learning and (b) continues
to operate cumulatively during the retention interval, thereby determining
the relative degree of availability of the newly learned meanings
Typically, however, motivational and attitudinal variables are not
directly involved in the cognitive interactional process They energize and
expedite this process during learning by enhancing effort, attention, and
immediate readiness for learning and thus facilitate dissociability strength
catalytically and nonspecifically (rather than through direct involvement
m the parameters of the interactional process) Furthermore, the effects of
motivational vanables on learning and retenUon, respectively, unlike their
cognitive counterparts, are not mediated through the same mechanisms
After learning is completed, these vanables cannot independently affect
dissociability strength (that is, apart from their effects on learning itself), and
therefore can only influence retention dunng the reproductive phase of
memory by elevating thresholds of availability and by shaping the quali
tative aspects of imaginative reconstruction
Thus motivational and attitudinal factors affect meaningful learning
and retention in ways that are qualitatively different from the comparable
effects of relevant cognitive vanables These latter variables (the availability
of relevant anchoring ideas and their relative stability and clanty) directly
and specifically influence the parameters of the cognitive interactional
 Moinaliona! Faclors in Learning
370

retention, and are

process underlying meacungful rccepUon learning and
dissociability stiengiu
thus organically invohed in the determination o£
not or
Motivational and altitudinal variables, on the other hand, are
ganically involved m
the cognitive interactional process or m
the determina

non of dissociabihly strength For the most part they merely impinge
indirectly on this process and influence dissociability strength in
a non

specific facilitating fashion For example, through such motivational effects

as mobilization of effort and concentration of attention, more repetitions
of the material can he completed williin the stipulated learning
lime, and

each repetition is conducted more efficiently The net result is an indirect,

nonspecific, overall increase m dissociability strength for the learning
process so energized
It is also reasonable to assume that the effects of cognitive variables
on
meaningful learning continue along similar lines during retention and are
mediated by the same mechanisms Whatever these effects on die interac-
tional process are they are simply extended temporally from learning to
retention Thus, the rate at which dissociability strength declines during
retention rellects die continuing influence of these same cognitive variables
on die interactional process during the retention interval However, once
the learning sessions have been completed and die cognitive interactional
producu have been formed, a channel of communication no longer remains
oi>en for the energizing and expediting aspects of motivation to influence
dissociability strength even m
a catalytic or nonspecific sense Hence, if
motivational factors ate to affect retention independently of learning, a
new mechanism is required to mediate diis influence, a mechanism that
becomes operative not during the retention interval, but during die repro-
ductive stage of memory

Learning
During meaningful reception leatmng motivational and altitudinal
variablesmay energize all or selected aspects of the learning field They im
pinge caialyucally and nonspecifically on the cognitive interactional process,
by enhancing effort attention, and immediate readiness, without affecting
any of its basic parameters (for instance, the availability of relevant appro-
priate subsumers, the latter's stability, clanty,
and discnminability from the
learning task) Hence, tfiey neither determine
any of its qualitative attri
buies nor differenually influence dissociability
strength apart from a non
s^ieafic faciUtating effect
on learning- lllustraUvc of die energizing effect

Apparent cxcepuons to this genetaluaivon

include ilie effens o! meaningful
learningSCI. iniegrame dme
KllcnUcal auuudes and cognitive style wliicli
Uoence ihe emergence, preasion
m
integrauveness. and other qualiuuve aspects of
The Mediation of Motiiational Influences 371

of motivation on learning is the fact that subjects who have high needs for
achievement are more persistent (Feather, 1961), learn more effectively
(Kight and Sassenrath, 1966) and tend to reach solutions in problem solving
tasks more often than do subjects with low achievement needs (French and
Thomas 1958) Persistence in task performance is also related to strength

of cognitive drive (Kohn 1965) and to the relative incentive value of the
task (Nakamura and Boroczi, 1965) On a long term basis, high achievement
motivation tends to be associated with greater academic achievement (Krug,
1959 Uhhnger and Stephens I960) Measures of such motivation, vvlien
used in conjunction with measures of academic aptitude, are excellent pre
dictors of college performance (Weiss, Wertheimer, and Groesbeck, 1959)
Much of the facilitating effect of motivation on learning is mediated
by an increase in attention **
Merely directing students attention to certain
aspects of subject matter, irrespective of how this is done, promotes learning
(Entwisle, 1961) Academically achieving male college students arc less sus-

ceptible to distraction tiian their underachieving peers (Baker and Madell,

1965)
Many properties of the learning situation that foster cognitive dnve
facilitate learning by attracting and sustaining attention These include
and conceptual conflict (Berljne,
novelty, incongruity, surprise, change,
I960) A moderate amount of disaepancy, incongruity or gap between
existing knowledge and a new learning task is most effective mobilizing m
attention particularly when the learner is dissatisfied with what he knows
In J Piagets terms, a cluld is most attentive to new learning tasks when
they require some degree of accommodation on his pan before they can
—
be assimilated when existing schemas are not wholly adequate for under
standing or problem solving and require some but not too much modi
fication On could be anticipated that the diminutive
this basis alone, it
step-size approach of teaciiing machines would not he optimally effective
for meaningful learning
In addition to its energizing effects on meaningful reception learning

meanings Bui despite the terms used these facion must by definiuon be
con
sidered cognitive or at most quasi motivational vanables They impinge
directly
on the dissociabihty strength of new meanings but their influence unlike
that
of true cognitive vanables is not earned over into the retention
interval

« Attention, of course also depends on factors

other than motivation
(for
instance relevant expenence and training) One of die
principal reasons whv
culturally deprived children fail to learn is that they
have not been adequatelv
trained at home in paying attention (M Deutsdi
1963) In part however
low attention span is refleeme of insuflSaemly developed their
intrinsic and extrinsic
motivation to learn
 AfoUiational Factors m Learning
372

motivation also mobilizes

(by enhancing effort, attention, and pcnistcnce),
such learning by
nonspecificaUy the individuals immediate readmess for
and responses
loiiEnng the tliresholds of those general kinds of perceptions
Exemplifying this
that are customarily implicated in the learning process
latter mechanism is the lowering of reaction times that
occurs res|X)nse m
to instructions to work faster (Owens, 1959) (as opposed to task oriented
instructions or instructions to relax) It is important, howeicr, not lo con

fuse this nonspecific motivational faalitauon with the more direct and
specific influence on dissoaability strengtii tliat is exerted by such \anafales
as meaningful learning set integrative dme, and selfcniical attitudes As
a result of the operation of these latter, more specific quasi motivational
mechanisms during learning, dearer and more stable meanings are acquired
and retained, which in turn facilitate the sequential type of learning in
volved in Uie mastery of subject matter For example, both L Festinger
(1958) and D E Berlyne (I960) speak of the need to reduce dissonance,
incongruity, or conflict beiwcn two cognitions This may lead to diange m
one of the beliefs to integratne reconciliation, or, as pointed out above
to summary dismissal or comparimentahzauon of the contradictory cogm
tion
An optimal level of motivation or ego involvement (neither too high
nor too low) apparently exists for complex kinds of learning (Iverson and
Reuter, 1956) According to J S Bruner (1957), impelling dnve states may
conceivably disrupt meaningful generic learning both by overempliasizmg
the parucularity of newly learned concepu, and by limiting the learner's
ability to apply previously learned principles to newly learned tasks, and
hence to go appropriately beyond the information given In support of'

this proposition he ales an experiment conducted by L Postman and him

self in vihich subjects under stress made less improvement than a nonsiress
group in lowenng ilieir perceptual thresholds while learning to recognize
tachistoscopically presented Uireeword sentences Stated in terms of an
hypotliesized physiological basis of motivation, a moderate amount of ac
livaiion or arousal seems to have an optimal effect
® /MaJmo
on learning' ^
1959)

Retesilion

Once the learning sessions have been completed and

the cognitive inter
actional products have been formed,
a diannel of influence no longer re
nums open tor ihe cnergiiing and expediting aspects of mouvauon to affect
disiociabilit; sltengili csen in a calal)tie or noiiipeciric sense' At this

As xiUbe poiaied oat below in the discnsiiim

of selective reieniion ol diose
coniroienial nuienab toward which
leariicn have a positiie as opposed to a
ncgaiise aiiiiudinal bia^
p„s„„e ego-insohcment (iii this iitstaiice, pitilise am
The Mediation of Motivational Influences 37S

point therefore it is more parsimonious to postulate that motivational and

altitudinal variables continue to affect retention outcomes tliat is indepen
dently of their pnor effects on learning only insofar as they impinge on
tile reprodiictwe aspects of memory
Both theoretical considerations and tlie weight of the available evidence
suggest that motivational factors influence meatiingfttl retention selectively
by inhibiting (raising) rather than facilitating (loivenng) parucular thresh
olds of recognition and recall* Positive ego involvement and favorable
altitudinal bias words do not increase retention by lowering
in other
thresholds of memorial elicitation but rather strong motivation to forget
and certain kinds of altitudinal bias (for example in ego-threatening or
anxiety producing situations) may selectively promote forgetting by raising
thresholds of availability (repression) Thus unlike the situation in learn
ing not only is the selective influence of motivational variables on mean
ingful retention inhibitory ratlier than facilitating (catalytic) but tlie
influence of these variables is also mediated solely through a cliange m
thresholds of memorial elicitation without any change whatsoever dis- m
sociability strength itself Although the latter remains constant recall or
recognition is nevertlielcss rendered momentarily more dilHcult because
of the selective elevation of particular thrcsliolds of availability*

tudinal bias) cun faaluaie retention by increasing dissociability strength However

th s IS not a genuine motivational effect on retention but is attributable to cognt
live or nonaffeciive components of attitude structure w'hidi in the case of positive
attitudinal bias tend to provide a highly clear and stable set of subsuming concepts
for the learning and retention of the controvers al maienal

* There is suggestive evidence that ihresliolds of availability of rotefy (but

not meaningfully) Icattvcd items can be lowered after learning (a) Motivational
and affective factors (ego-involvemcnt ego enhancement considerations a need to
remember and so forth) have been shown to enhance rotely learned memones See
Ausubel (1963a p 231) for a summary of relevant studies (b) Drive states such
as hunger both generally lower all response thresholds and selectively lower the
thresholds of el citation of simple responses ^for instance sucking) and perceptions
that are particularly relevant for satisfying the underlying needs (Ausubel 1958

p 207} The fact that th s selectivity is manifested at birth implies that the thresh
olds of el citation of these relevant responses are differentially sensitive on an un
learned basis to the general threshold lowering effects of drive states It is con
ceivable therefore that when this same relevant
acquired on the basis of
is
prior successful learning experience the affectively satisfying effects of drive reduc
tion selectively sensitize the thresholds of eliataUon of the drive reducing responses
to the later general threshold lowering effects of the drive The only comparable
evidence for meaningful learning outcomes suggest that affective and motivational
states (for instance anxiety) raise but do not lower thresholds
of availability
* As previously indicated motivational and attitudinal
factors not only help
determine by raising thresholds of availability whether or not material of near
374 Motuational factors tn Learning

It appears likely, therefore, that motisational factors influence rctcn

non —by raising thresholds of availability—only in those relatively rare
instanceswhere retneval of particular information would be cgo-threaten
mg or productive of anxiety as (or example, in the repression of memories
that would, if recalled, give nse to feelings of guilt or self disparagement
These kinds of forgetting however, would not occur very frequently in
typical classroom learning situations
How, would one explain the more common facilitating effect of
then,
on retention' Why, for example would a Democrat
positive attitudinal bias
tend to remember more pro-New Deal matenal than a Republican? The
most parsimonious explanation is not diat pro-New Deal sentiments lower
and anti New Deal sentiments raise tliresholds of availability, but rather
that attitudes have a cognitive as well as an affective componenL That is,
along with his pro-New Deal sentiments a New Dealer tends to possess a
stable set of abstract and mclustve proposiuons reflective
of New Deal ide-
ology Uut more easily enable him to learn and retain differentiated infor-
mauon and evaluative implications favorable to New Deal ideology
Although Uie pnmary and direct efiect of motivational variables on
meaningful reienuon, when they are operative, is to elevate
thresholds of
availability (or to make the memones in question less available m relation
to their intrinsic dissociabihiy strength)
it is theoretically conceivable diat
motivation strong incentive to recall) could also
(a
indirectly lower Uiresh
olds of availability It would do this
by counteracting or disinhibiting
certain inhibitory factors (distraction
inattention, inerua. dmndmauon
toward effon) that lemporanly raise such
thresholds We
have already ob-
how .anom mhibuory conduion, sod. as
.„mal learning shod, and
compeunon of aher„a...e memones tend
1^ to dns.pa.e sponlaneousl).
and how h,pno,.s on reduce U,e mlnbuory
effect both ot coi^ung mean
ones and ot mouses and aunudes promoung
repression, as tor example,
of ^x>«)prodi.ang ma.enal
It slill has to be emp.ncally
de.e™,^^
nmrrrLut'" egixmiolvemen. could
->'''“*‘'-"8 f-PO-nl) elesamd diresh
o.rofastub,b.r

prob!HrriL‘;.er.:r:fi-"“rr,—

to meet ihe demands ot a curreni '«bal response

S.ua.mn e
framing ot a response m wh.d. memones
reienuon process
^ reixuteu is not part of f"
llie

diresliold dmoaab.luy
mllmnce
sircngih » aiailabi^ .n ^ T

^ ' P’’"' ^
tgo Enhancement and Affihaltve Componentt 375

Ego-Enhanccmeni and AHiliatnc Components

of Acliie\ement Motivation

What IS generally regarded as adtievement motivation in school set

tings IS by no means tiie reflection of a unitary or homogeneous dnve It
has at least three components One which we have already en
of these
countered is cognitive dnve — the need for acquiring knowledge and solving
academic problems as ends m
themselves This drive certainly underlies
the need for academic achievement to the extent that sudi achievement
represents to the learner the atiainmnt of the knowledge he seeks to acquire
It is completely laik oriented in the sense that the motive for becoming in

volved in the task in question (acquinng a particular segment of knowl

—
edge) IS intrinsic to the task itself is simply die need to know, and hence
the reward (the actual attainment of this knowledge) also inheres com
plelely in the task itself since it is capable of wholly satisf)ing the under
Ijing motive
A second com|x>ncnc of adiievement motivation on the other hand
ISnot task-oriented at all It may be termed ego enhancing because it is
concerned with achievement as a source of primary or earned status namel),
the kind of status tliat an individual earns in proportion to his achicvcincnr
or comjictcncc level It is ego enhancing inasmuch as the degree of acliicve
ment determining how much primary status he enjo)s simultaneous!)
determines how adequate he feels (his level of self-esteem) feelings of ade
({uacy in this case alwa)s being a direct reflection of relative primary status
The ego-cnhancemcnt component of achievement mouvition is therefore
directed Ixnh toward the attainment of current scholastic achievement, or
prestige and toward the future academic and career goals (later sources of
pnnnry status) that depend on the latter One of its central ingredients
as —
we shall see later, is anxiety fear in rcs|>onsc to any anticipated threat
to tlic loss of primary status and scif-cstcciii that results from academic
Itilurc Approval from teachers satisfies tlic ego-enhancement component
of achievement motivation by constituuiig confimiation of adiicvcmcnt or
a source of primary status
1 he final or a^iUatwe comjxmcnt of acliicvcment motivation is neither
nsk-oricmcd nor primarily cgo-cnlnnang It is not oriented toward aca
ilcmic aclucvcnicni is i source of primary status but nllicr toward such
icincvcincnt insofar as it assures the individual of the approval of a super
ordinate |)erson or group with whom he idciuifies in a dc|>cndcni sense
•nul fiom whose acceptance he acquires vicarious or derived status The
latter kind of status is not dctcnuinctl by the individual s ovsn achievement
level, hut !)> ihc continuing trurinsic iccepiaiite of him hy
the |)crson(s)
With \>hoin he identifies And the mdividtial vsho enjoys denved
status is
374 Motivational Facton in Learning

It appears likely, therefore, that motivational factors influence reten

tion —by raising thresholds of availability —only m those relatnely rare
instances where retriesal of particular mfonnation would be ego threaten
ing or productive of anxiety, as for example, m
the repression of memories
tliat would if recalled, gi\e nse to feelings of guilt or self disparagement

These kinds of forgetting howeser, would not occur very frequently in

typical classroom learning situations
How, then, would one explain ilie more common facilitating effect of
posuise altitudinal bias on retention? Why, for example would a Democrat
tend to remember more pro New Deal material tlian a Republican? The
most parsimonious explanation is not that pro-New Deal sentiments lower
and anti New Deal sentiments raise tliresholds of availability but rather
that attitudes have a cognitive as well as an affective component That is,
along with his pro New Deal sentiments a New Dealer lends to possess a
and inclusive propositions reflective of New Deal ide-
stable set of abstract
ology Uiat more easily enablehim to learn and reum differentiated infor-
mation and evaluative implications favorable to New Deal
ideology
Although the primary and direct effect of motivational
variables on
meaningful retention, when they are operative,
is to elevate thresholds of
availability (or to make the memories in quesuon less available m relation
to their intrinsic dissociabiluy sirength)
u is theoretically conceivable that
motivation (a strong incentive to recall) could also
indirectly lower thresh
olds of availability It would do this by counteracting or disinhibumg
certain inhibitory factors (distraction
inanenuon, mcrtia, disinclination
toward effort) diat
temporarily raise such thresholds
\Vc have already ob-
served how various inhibitory
conditions sudi as initial learning shock and
aUernauve memories tend to dissipate
sjwntaneousl),
and how hypnosis can reduce the
inhibitory effect both of competing mem
ones and of motives and aiutudes
promoting repression, as for example,
"‘aienal It still has to be empirically
motivation or pos.uve ego involvement could

devaced d.,=»h

probaSfaUo m ^ "“''“onal variables are

'
pSc“ ol Ure reprodueme
rr "
‘"v
Lraber dTtls ® re

Iram ng or a r™„se
re,e„„o„ proiss'^
„ T?" >
'«>»='errhe
no, par, o£ U.e

ihrcsilold ciissoaabiliiy *
sireneth » avail,.i i Z
I (;o I nhanifmftil aitd C*t npontru 375

Ego-Enhanccniciii and AHilutnc C6tti]>oncnt«

of Uiiictcnicnc ^fa(tta{iOIl

Uhat 1 $ ^ciicrall) tcgirdctl as i(hic\cincni luoiiv iiton in %c]iool

(iiir^s n b> nu iiions ttic tciicction of a unitary or homo^yintoiu dtitc It
tnv 41 Ica^t ihicc cuni]>uncniv One uf tliLM.> uluch uc liatc alrcul) cn
tountiicd i» fo^niiivc ilri\c— ihc nccil furacquiiinj; V,noukiit,c and solving
academic piublcms is ends in tliciitscUcs lliis drive certaud) underlies
the nerd for icadtinic achievement to ihc cvicnt thu such ndiicvcmcni
tcprescnis to the learner the aitaininnt uf the knouledgL he seeks to aniuirc
ft IS coniplefclj taik-ortmird in ific sense (hit tJie motive for f/ccoming in
volvetl in the i isk in ciuesiiun facqiiiriiig a piriicular segmcni of knoul
cd|,c) IS initinsic to the task itself — is Minply the need to know, and hence
the icvsaid (the nciual 'iitiiiiuient of this knuukdge) also inlicrcs com
{ileicty in the task itself since it is ei|uble uf vshotly satisfying the ninkr
lying motive
\ second cum]«)ncnt of achicveiiicttt mottvatinii, on the otlicr hand,
tv not taskajiienicd at all It miv Ik termed r^iH'n/mrtcing iKcause il is
cunccinctl vsith achievement as a source uf primary or earned stains, inmely,
the kind of sialus that an individual earns in piujioriion to ))is aciucvimrnl
or ioni{Ktcncc level It is cgo-cnluncing iiusinuclt
vs the degicc of achteve
mriu dctrnnining how nmch prim try he enjoys, sunuhaiicuuslystatus
determines hovs adcipiatc he feels (his level of selfesteem), feelings of ade
<P'<>ty in this ease als« lys being a direct icllcctiun uf rrl itivc primary status,
fhc r,;4>ciduiuemciit touijuncm of achievement nioiivaiion is ilicrcforc
shircled IkiiIi lovsard the aliaiiiiiirm of runeiU wholastic athicvemcni. or
and lostard the future academic and caiecr ^oals (later viuiics of
pic-itne.
|iuiuiy status) that dc{<end on the latter One of us tcniral ui,^ictliciics.
as wr dull
see Ulrr. is anxiciy->fear in lojAilise to any anlicijuicd ihicat
to the hns ul ptu lary sialus and scllestrcm that results from atatlcmic
laihitr NpjioVal liniii teachers saiislies the r^oeidiatuemciil (oiu|»;ncnt
uf a«h csrmeni itiotisaiioti by lonstitiiling tsiufttmaiion uf achscvctucnt ur
a uHirir of (iiuiuiy status
II e hnal or a ibafisr tumjauirisi of achievement mutivation is neither
latVoncniid luir |tu)iiiily cg'scnhaiiciitg It is not onciur«l toward ata
dcinu jcl »fsnji»m at a s»»utsc of jrimais status but rather toward uuli
aihirseiofoi uiMifar as it auotrs the indisidual <>| t!ic aj losal o| a suj«rr
j
«i«Iiiate }*!». ti ,,r ftiouji s»iih wlw i Irf idetudcs a »'cj«t»Ienl sense, m
ai^l Jioii ,.uej la ne he accjUirr* ticaruMit ur tkriitvf ccaius. I he
line* lir. 1 c ( ualus IS i> a c'rVcii uiinj hs i’.e its 'isoluat s owij ai’ursrmri t

!rt,i t,> i!vf itatunuiu:; tiillinuc a<ir|aaoie <( Jm » bs iJ e jeisrxi •)

wuh wU -lie* kiiu' r-s, \od f*rt“ in Nsidual wl.*i eii^Ms dciiscd Mala* »s
376
Moltiational Focloti m Learning

superordinaie person—
motivated to obtain and reuin the approval of the
including those (or aca
by meeung the latter's standards and expectations,
demic achieiement—since such approval tends to confirm his
denied status
Varying proportions of the cognitive, ego^nhanceraent, and alllialive
components are normally represented m
achievement motivation, depend
vng on such factors as age, sex, culture, social class membership,
ethnic

origin, and personality structure Affiliative drive is most prominent during

early diildhoodwhen children largely secL and enjoy a derived status based
on dependent idenlificauon with, and intrinsic acceptance by, their parents
Dunng this penod they strive for academic achievement as one v>ay of
meeting their parents expectations and, hence, of retaining tlie approval
they desire Actual or threatened withdrawal of approval for poor perfor
mance therefore motivates tlicm to work harder to retain or regain this
approval Since teacliers are largely regarded as parent surrogates, they are
related to in similar fashion
AfEliauve dme is thus an important source of motivation for academic
adiievement dunng childhood As we shall see later however, children who
are not accepted and mtnnsically valued by their parents, and who Uiere
fore cannot enjoy any denved sutus. are compensatorily motivated to seek
an inordinate amount of earned status tJirough academic achievcmenL Thus
high levels of achievement motivation typically represent low afSliative dnve
that IS more than compensated (or by high ego^nhancement dnve
Dunng late diildhood and adolestxnce, affiliative dnve boUt diminishes
m intensity and is redirected from parents toward ageraaies Thus, academic
competition against the opposite sex group or other age grade classes con
stilulcsa powerful motivating factor (Mailer, 1929, Sims, 1928) Desire for
peer approval, however, may also depress academic achievement when such
aducveinent is negatively valued by the peer group This is a
more com
mon occurrence among lower-dass and cerum culturally depnved minonty
groups (Ausubcl, 1965g) Middle-class peer groups, as pointed out later,
place a high value on academic achievement and expect it from their
mem
ben
In most cuhurcs, and parucularly in Western civihzauon, ego-enhance
ment dnve is die dominant component of adiievement motivation
in ado-
lescent and adult life,w This is cspccuHy true among males and
middle class
groups m our culture For about a decade and a half after World
War II.

w w.ih incTWimg age matenal rewards are

-Hiu.
sought less as ends in
ihci^hcs ilian as symbols of earned siatus prestige and
egexnhanccment Remote
goals also become more saheni as longterm ambitions
displace the need lor im-
^laic hc^nmic patifiaiion. as the temporal dimensions
oI the child s psycho-
logical world expand and as his frusirauon
tolerance increases
Ego Enhancement and Affilialwe Components 377

however, the dnve for competence and earned status gave ground in the
United States to the affiliative dnve as epiu^mized by the character structure
of the organization man ” Affability, social poise, and ability to "get along,"
‘play It safe,” equivocate,conform, and "swim with the tide” displaced
initiative, competence, individualism, forthnghtness, and moral courage as
the dominant values m American society Then, partly in response to the
challenge emanating from spectacular Soviet achievements in science and
technology, traditional Amencan values staged a remarkable but far from
complete comeback during the sixties A new and emergent feature of this
latter shift in cultural values is an almost cult like veneration of intellectual
acliievement and creativity

Efficacy of Ego-Enhancement Motivation

The effectiveness of ego enhancement drive for academic achievement

IS borne out empirically by many kinds of evidence Achievement motiva-
tion leads to greater persistence and a higher rate of success in problem-
solving situations (Feather, 1961, French and Thomas, 1958) and to higher
short term (Right and Sassenrath, 1966) and long term (Krug, 1959, Uhlinger
and Stephens, 1960, Weiss, Wertheimer, and Groesbeck, 1959) academic
performance Relative need for academic achievement discnminates sig-
nificantly between normally achieving and underachieving men (Todd,
Terrell, and Frank, 1962) In egoKinented laboratory situations, as when
successful completion of a task is represented to subjects as being reflective
of intelligence, both level of motivation and performance level are enhanced
(Alper, 1946, Kausler, 1951) Under achievement conditions, high need for
achievement in high school boys is associated with greater meaningful learn
mg of academic materials^* (Caron, 1963) Finally, J B Miller (1929) and
V M Sims (1928) found that individual nvalry stimulates academic per
formance more than group rivalry does, and D P Ausubel (1951) found that
gifted elementary sdiool children work much harder at an academic task in
response to a prestige incentive than when they are merely trying their best
but believe their work products are anonymous Achievement motivation,
howe\er, is not linearly related to achievement level As is the case with
potent motivational status generally, very strong achiveraent motivation may
lower the level of performance and achievement

Data from studies using themauc (fantasy) measures of achievement motiva

lion tend to be equivocal because of the tendency in many instances for an inverse
relationship to prevail between real life' and fantasy indices of ego-enhancement
drive
 Sfotnational factors tn Learning
378

Advantages and Disadvantages

of Ego-Bnhancement Molwatjon

learning
The emphasis that has been placed on ininnsic moU'saiion ior
importance of deieloping
should not be interpreted as a denigrauon of tlie
ego^nhancement, status, and presuge
extnnsic momauons The need for
vocational aspi
through achievement and die intemaltaation of long term
rauons, are, after all, tradiuonal hallmarks of personality
maturation our m
culture educational aspirations and achievement arc both necessary
and
prerequisites for and stepping stones to tlieir vocational counterparts Hence,
also neces-
m addition to encouraging intrinsic motivauon for learning it is

sary from the standpoint of personality maturation to foster

ego-enhance
ment and career advancement rootivauons for academic achievement Fur
iheimore few individuals ever develop enough cognitive dnve to master
large bodies of subject matter as an end in itself Long term ego-enhance
ment mouvation is also necessary
One might legitimately even go a step further and assert the unfashion
able view that aversive motivauon, namely, the Uueat of those penalties
assoaated v>ith failure u as necessary as the posiuve motivation stemming

from antiapated reviards for sustaining the long terra academic achieve
ment required for reaching professional goals Although educators ihcoiet
ically on it to keep
decry the use of aversive motivation diey implicitly rely
students studying regularly for their credits, degreesand diplomas They
do this because they knovtf that cognitive dnve and antiapated reward for
hard work are not suSaent to overcome both inerua and the typical human
prochvity toward procrasunaaon and aversion to sustained, regular, and
disaplined work. i'Vny teacher who imagines that the majority of his stu
dents would conunue at their studies in the absence of structured programs,
assigned work deadlines and examinauons is living in a world of fantasy
The mouvational force of an examination lies more in the fear of failure
than ihe hope of success Thus uithrn reason, the threat of failure is a
jji

pedagogical!) l^umate form of motivauon Students study not only to

avoid tile actual consequences of failure but also to reduce both the anxiety
which this threat generates and the guilt feelings dial accompany lack of
attention to academic duty
On the average,
ego-cnhancement mouvauon is undoubtedly the
strongest moinauon available during the active portion
of an individuals
academic and vocational career More than any other factor,
it accounts for
die persistence of high levels of aspirauon
(Ausubel and Scliiff, 1955, Ausu
bel Schiff, and Goldman 193Sa, Ausubel Schilf,
and Zeleny, 1953b, P S
Sears 19-10) and task atiracuveness (Schpoont,
lOoa) both in laboratory and
real life sellings, despite exposure to repeated failure experience Carried
Reward artd Punishment 379

to an extreme, of course, this type of motivation may generate suffiaent anx

lety to disrupt learning (Ausubel, Schiff, and Goldman, 1953a), it may also

lead to highly unrealistic academic and vocational aspirations that are later
followed either by catastrophic failure and collapse of selfesteem (Ausubel,
1956) or by disin\oIvement from academic tasks as manifested by unreal
istically low S Sears, 1940) A related possibility is
le\els of aspiration (P
that excessively high needs for academic achievement may impair a student's
capacity for perceiving his limitations, may predispose him to rationalize
his failures, and may discourage him from acknowledging that his views
are logically or empirically untenable
Still another disadvantage of exaggerated ego-enhancement motivation

isthat Its utilitarian orientation limits its longevity Thus, a student whose
academic motivation is principally extrinsic tends to perceive little value
in a subject after he passes a course, or in continuing to learn after he re
ceives his degree —
if sucli knowledge is unrelated either to future course

work or to vocational success In other words, he no longer evinces a desire

to learn when he does not have to
Finally, overemphasis on academic achievement (assignments, examina
tions, grades) insuch countries as France and Switzerland suggests tliat in
dividuals normally manifest an upper limit of tolerance for academic stress
and pressure, and that when this limit is reached relatively early in life it
leads to disinclination for further academic striving adult life mcom* A
parable phenomenon in the United States, attributable to the publish or
pensh climate in the early stages of a university career, is the premature
burning out of academic motivation once the initial hazards of perishing
are overcome

Reward and Punishment

Rewards influence learning in three general wajs First, by serving as

incentives, they help set a meaningful problem by relating a specific sequence
or organization of component responses to a specified goal outcome ^Vith-
out such goal relatedness, behavior would often tend to be amorphous and
undirected Concomitantly, by providing significant information about the
success or failure of responses, rewards give selective emphasis at critical
choice points to desired or correct reacaons, thereby facilitating discnmina
tion between relevant and irrelevant cues Second, the actual receipt of re
wards tends to augment, on a long term basis, whatever motivations (drives)
are originally operative in energizing and directing behavior toward them
(the rewards), that is, by satisfying certain drives at a given time, rewards
strengthen, on a more permanent basis, those dnves which they satisfy at
the moment (or temporanly ‘reduce ) Finally, rewards may increase the
380 Motivational Faclort in Learning

relative probability of response recurrence by selectively “sensitizing’ to

later lotsering, Uie thresholds of eliatation of the parucular responses that
lead to obtaining the reward and thereby satisfy (or temporanly reduce)
tlie drive in question This last property of rewards will be considered m
greater detail in the next section under die heading of reinforcement, where
the position will he taken that reinforcement iMicurs only in relation to rotely
learned associations and instrumental responses and does not characterize
meaningful learning outcomes
Punishment (in the sense of nonreward or failure to obtain the reward)
acts as the reverse of reward in the following ways First, it also helps struc-
ture a problem meaningfully, furnishing direction to activity and infor- —
—
mation about progress tov^ard goal in terms of what
is to be avoided
Thus, the unsatisfying consequences of an act tend to elicit
avoidance, with-
drawal, or variauon ratJier dian repeuuon. the
individual learns whidi
responses lead to nonreward and hence should be avoided
Second, punish-
raent lends to vveaken, on a longterm basis, the
motivations energizing the
behavior that is punished Lastly, punishment
may decrease the relative
probability of rosponso recumnee, by tailing
lo sennme to later loiveniig,
the diresholds of elicitation of die
particular responses that lead to non
reward It should be borne in mind,
however, that llie inlormaiional aspect
of nonreward i, less explic, than
that ol ret.ard Allliougl, rt does aid dis-
mmrnation belneen correct and incotTect cnes through the inlormalion
It less ditetuse and provides less

be done, but does not tell him what to do Reward, on the other hand
clearly mtlicates that the same response is to be repealed
"=' "P^'Anienf was con
sidemdtbo e i’'

LeSl 'o avoid tmlur r^ fear and ol rho

ahmulalton, and this distinction is
lually quite delensible'in ac
mant"'"^
for learning merely “‘“adons where nonreward
lrustratc5'^ai?T"
equivalent "to pnm'vhmem I" "“
ponenl ol human adiievemenl
motivation^
knowledge "lien knowledge is

aa^ronminr -v:
sourfit as an’enT'

^ ^
“
Reward and Punishment 381

the threat of current and/or future loss ofprimary status and selfesteem
Thus, for all practical purposes, nonachtevement or academic failure has
all of the aversive properties of true punishment
” To the effects of punish-

ment, considered as nonreward, that are listed above, we must therefore

add the dnve to avoid the threatening implications of failure
Reward and punishment are positive and negative sides of the same
motivational com in school learning, and both are typically involved, in
varying degrees, in motivating such learning It is admittedly more enlight
ened from the standpoint of mental hygiene for the school to focus on re
ward rather than on punishment, and to minimize rather than emphasize
explicit threats of failure On the other hand, it is both unrealistic to deny
the existence or effectiveness of punishment as a motivational variable in
school learning, and unwarranted to deplore it as either immoral or peda-
gogically unsound
It has already been asserted that effective extnnsic motivation implies
both reward and punishment Over the past four decades, however, the role
of punishment m learning has been unwarraniedly denigrated by both
psychologists and educators Confusion about the legitimacy and effective-
ness of punishment as a motivational factor in learning may be attnbuted
to five principal sources First, the progressive education movement fostered
various child centered and permissivist views about the philosophical and
mental hygiene impropriety of punishment Sentimentalists associated with
this movement regarded punishment as unnecessary, authontanan, and
reactionary Education was supposed to be an exclusively happy and non
anxiety producing expenence, and m accordance with this gratuitous as-
sumption, proper motivation for learning could be only intrinsic in nature
or be instilled by positive incentives (reward) In support of this assertion,
numerous straw man aiguments were adduced (see below)
A second source of confusion is more semantic, emanating from failure
to distinguish between the more restricted meaning of punishment in psy
chology as the opposite of reward (as nonreward or as the threatening con
sequences of failure to learn or perform successfully) and its more general
meaning as a penally for moral infraction (blame, rebuke, reproof, chasuse
ment, censure, reprimand) Thus the suggestion that punishment, in the
more restricted sense of the term, be used for motivational purposes tends
to arouse a storm of protest simply because of confusion with its more
general meaning as retribution for moral wrongdoing Illustrative of such
confusion is the use of the term “reproof as synonymous with “disap-
proval in describing various classroom experiments comparing the relative
’

effects of approval and disapproval on learning Actually, moral censure is

ne\er senously advocated today for honest mistakes or failure to learn, but
only for irresponsibility, laziness, culpable neglect, or inexcusable failure
 Moliialwtul faeloTi in Learning

rclame probabihiy of respond recurrence by selectively semitizing' to

later louenng tlie thresholds of eliatation of the particular responses that
lead to obtaining the reward and thereby satisfy (or temporarily reduce)
the drive in quesuon This last property of rewards will be considered in
greater detail in the next section under the heading of reinforcement, where
the position will be taken that reinforcement occurs only m
relation to rotely
learned associations and instrumental responses and does not characterue
meaningful learning outcomes
Punishment (m die sense of nonreward or failure to obtain the reward)
acts as die reverse of
reward in the following ways. First, it also helps struc
ture a problem meaningfully furnishing direction to activity and infor
mauon about progress toward goal— in terms of what is to be avoided.
—
Thus die unsamhing consequences of an act lend to eliat avoidance with
drawal or vanauon rather than repetmon the individual
learns which
responses lead to nonreward and hence should be avoided.
Second punuh
menl tends to weaken on a longtenn basis the mouvauons
energizing the
behavior that is punished Lasdy punishment
may decrease the relauve
probability of response recurrence by
failing to sensiiue to later lowering,
the ihrcsliolds of eliauiion of the
particular responses that lead to non
rward. It should be borne in mind, however
that the uiformauonal aspect
of nonreward is less expl.ai than
that of reward. Although it does aidTs-
CTmiMiion between correa and incorrect cues through the information
gives as m the consequences of an act. it is less du-ective and provides less

clearly indicates that the same response is to be repeated.

punuhment con

;rn7dcr
r r'--' - ^
’ of anuapau^d tear and of the
neS^ rr. o.d Inf rr" ‘•"“'--on and Uns d.suncnon n ac
;^Snyq„';°dcCM
tor learning merel)
tauualn
7"° '“"""p “ore nonrenard

ponen. of human achietemeni

njouraiion L’’r
““
knowledge "'im knowledge
n “ aop""!
threatening In pracuce. has»««- itself is not particularly
i
ment components of actneseme affiliause and egoenhance
cnsironmem aZ^t
o« inZaZ ,„phe.
msanabl, . T'Z”
esdter the Utreat of
•»
disapprasal or
Reward and Punishment 381

the threat of current and/or future loss of primary status and selfesteem
Thus, for all practical purposes, nonacliievement or academic failure has
all of the aversive properties of true punishment
'
” To the effects of punish

ment, considered as nonreward, that are listed above, we must therefore

add the drive to avoid the threatening implications of failure
Reward and punishment and negative sides of the same
are positive
motivational com and both are typically involved, in
in school learning,
varying degrees, in motivating such learning It is admittedly more enlight
ened from die standpoint of mental hygiene for the school to focus on re-
ward rather than on punishment, and to minimize rather than emphasize
explicit threats of failure On it is both unrealistic to deny
the otlier hand,
the existence or effectiveness ofpunishment as a motivational variable in
school learning, and unwarranted to deplore it as either immoral or peda-
gogically unsound
It has already been asserted that effective extrinsic motivation implies
both reward and punishment Over the past four decades, however, the role
of punishment in learning has been unwarrantedly denigrated by both
psychologists and educators Confusion about the legitimacy and effective-
ness of punishment as a motivational factor m
learning may be attributed
to five pnncipal sources First, the progressive education movement fostered
various child centered and permtssivist views about the philosophical and
mental hygiene impropriety of punishment Sentimentalists associated with
this movement regarded punishment as unnecessary, authoritarian, and
reactionary Education was supposed to be an exclusively happy and non
anxiety producing experience, and in accordance with this gratuitous as-
sumption, proper motivation for learning could be only intrinsic in nature
or be instilled by positive incentives (reward) In support of this assertion,
numerous straw man arguments were adduced (see below)
A second is more semantic, emanating from failure
source of confusion
to distinguish between the more restricted meaning of punishment in psy
chology as the opposite of reward (as nonreward or as the threatening con
sequences of failure to learn or perform successfully) and its more general
meaning as a penally for moral infraction (blame, rebuke, reproof, chastise
ment, censure, reprimand) Thus the suggestion that punishment, the m
more restricted sense of the term, be used for motivational purposes tends
to arouse a storm of protest simply because of confusion with its more
general meaning as retribution for moral wrongdoing Illustrative of such
confusion is the use of the term ‘ reproof as synonymous with "disap-
’

proval ' m
describing various classroom experiments comparing the relative
effects of approval and disapproval on learning Actually, moral censure is
never seriously advocated today for honest mistakes or failure to learn, but
only for irresponsibility, laziness, culpable neglect, or inexcusable failure
 Motivational Factors in Learning

to display reasonable eflort,*^ and it is obiiously even mder of the mark

to equate reproof wiUi such punisliments as objecine cnticism of perfor
mance or report of learning uhich arc less exphally Uireatenmg
failure,
than disapprosal The latter kinds of punishment also constitute an infor-
mational form of feedback that is quite essential for meaningful learning
— e\en if it has threatening implications oser and above its purely infor-
mational value Thus, on purely cognitive grounds, awareness of learning-
failure IS necessary and unavoidable in school learning, and the dreaded
anticipation of such avsareness is also inevitably threatening and productive
of aversive motivauon
Third, criucs of aversive motivation in the sdiool environment appar-
ently fail to appreciate that its objective is liie faalitation of leammg
through the antiapated threat of failure (thereby overcoming inattention,
procaslinauon, laziness, and lack of cITon), rather ilian through tlie actual
application of the punishment itself Its aim, in other words,
is to make
the student avoid punishment by learning rather
than to experience pun-
ishment by fading to learn Thus, in the vast mjjonty
of instances, senous
punuhment is never actually experienced liecause it is arcumvented
by the
learning that israouvated by die fear of the threatened
consequences of
not learning
Founb, [requencly no disuncuon i$ drann
bemeen ihe longterm e£-
fecu of failure luelf in ueakening the
mouvalions energizing unsucceuful
behatior, and in reducing ihe
attractiieness of failed tails, on the one band.
Md Ihe cowesponding elfecu of antiapated
threat of failure to ielteleem
’
''“I'Me indiates that a high lesel of anxiety
1
» '“S'' ""‘i sustatned lesei of aspira
non a Tf V r
®
for aodenuc achiesemcnt r generally
shortterm learmng rails and
Simdarly. ,t ,s frequently not appre
" ‘''““1’“'''

IS— ——~
>h= quahiy of imme-
dme
iamb) mI t'"'”'
tolloumg perfonnance (R, R
Sean, 1937, Walerhonse and Ould,

" = h—
»ed exp„,„„.a (Chase, 1332, Hutlodu
'rar,°°gfne.^rh;L dut'X”"'
for dauroom learning reproof (duapproial)
OUicf
(Sdimidi * report equivocal findings
1911) or iugg«t Uiat the rel
depends on the personal., °
y of U,e th.ld (Cra'lS' tT a

edett man ponn.,

rerr.;„nt;:r‘'“""^
Reuard and Puntsbmenl 383

Utopian key to all learning, hence, suitable programming should make

learning tasks so easy that almost every response can be correct and thus
be rewarded and positisely reinforced (1958) Under these circumstances,
there is little need for even nonreward to extinguish incorrect responses
The actual doctrine regarding the ineffectiveness ofpunishment is general
ized from two operant conditioning expenments (Skinner, 1958, Estes, 1944)
in which punishment (as contrasted to nonreward) was shown to lead to
temporary suppression rather than to extinction of a simple, previously
reinforced learned response (lever pressing) requiring no discnraination
whatsoever The difficulty with this line of reasoning of course, lies in the
fact that the extinction paradigm in tins type of operant conditioning is
hardly comparable to the typical situation in which threat of punishment
IS used to motivate classroom or laboratory learning
Contrary to Skinners and Estes findings punishment, conditioned
fear, and anxiety have been remarkably effective in a wide variety of avoid
ance training (Solomon and Brush, 1956), instrumental conditioning, and
discrimination learning (Penney and Lipton 1961) experiments The ob
ject ofthreatened punishment in these experiments (as is also the case m
classroom learning) was not to extinguish or induce unlearning of a simple
and nondiscnminating type of previously reinforced response but to mo
tivate a more complex and discriminating variety of original learning by
training the learner to avoid either a painfully cued choice or the pain
associated with failure to learn or resjxind It is quite probable, therefore,
that punishment is more elTeciive than nonreward in complex and dis-
criminating instances of original learning both because it generates aversive
motivation (motivation to avoid the punished response) and because it
gives more informational emphasis to the alternatives that are to be avoided
As pointed out above, caution is indicated in the application of aversive
motivation Used excessively it may generate a level of anxiety out of all
proportion to the actual risk of failure involved in a particular learning
task This may not only disrupt learning but also generalize to other areas
and induce a negative self concept (an emotional block about entire
)
knowledge such as mathematics It can also lead either to ego-dis-
fields of

mvolvement from a task or to unrealistically high levels of aspiration The

13 In point of fact meaningful learning as previously indicated is

suffiaently
complex and involves sufficient discrimination that successful outcomes cannot be
guaranteed by fragmentation of the learning task It is also greatly facilitated by
the purely cogniuve or infonnational elfeos of nonreward or report of learning
failure particularly if such report is differential in nature

Even using an extinction paradigm H

P Weingold and R L Webster
(1964)were able to extinguish previously reinforced cooperative behavior by
punishment but not by nonreinforcement
384 Molnaltonal Factors tn Learning

solution, however, is not to outlaw aversive motivation but to keep it within

reasonable bounds, to balance with cognitive and positive ego enhance-
it

ment dnves, to make more

successful for most pupils, and to pro-
learning
vide particularly anxious diildren with counseling

Drive Reduction and Reinforcement

Whether drive reduction (temporary satisfaction of a need) has a selec-

tive reinforcing effecton drive reducing learning outcomes (thereby increas-
ing their later availability or the probability of tlieir recurrence),
and how
this effect is mediated, are exceedingly complex
and controversial topics,
full discussion of which is obviously
beyond die scope of this diapter. It
will suffice to lake, and briefly to jusufy, the position here that, (a) drive
reduction selectively reinforas drive reducing learning
outcomes only in
the rote learning of discrete, arbitrary, and
verbatim associations or of in
strumenial stimulus-response connections, and
(b) a does so not by retro-
actively and
selectively increasing assoaattve strength
between stimuli or
between stimuli and responses, but by retroactively
and selectively sensiuz
ing to later lowering, tlic diresholds
of eliotation or availability of such
'
associative units
In role, as in meaninglul learning,
drives also merely energize and di-
reet behavior nonspecifically and catalyucally.
wliereas die actual strength
" '“^"'"5 » <letem.tned by sJch
‘Int infoimat.onal effects oi
rewLd I,

of dme reT.“r
“PP°» ">« "nt affectively satisfying effects
»!«n,ely >">• make more stiscepuhle
t la?er' 1^ "a"?
® tl't^l'oltlsof avadahtlit, of
those parttcular asso.Jat.ve
un n lo J "
obtatntng the reward The
iri holdlf P°“'lnl.., ,S enhanced by evidence soggesttne
VlTe! V 1 that- (a)

lhreshoIdrof”mikbXy) memory (lower

drive slate ttnr i w'
"’"l ''amed items, and (b) a generalized
"" ‘“'ver the thresholds
orelia a on of Zve
mg learning Tins effect Jif dn.e. P"™ /'^aalion of the drive dur-
of eliciiaiion can he
.
* “‘"'‘l' “""mg
i
sucli thresholds
explained m i"
"
that the retroaenve
sJnJivm"
learning outcomes, makes
diem differen.i^"''
eS tirtve satisfying
by assnm.ng

old lowering effecu of ibresh.

driv e smretlr
parnoilar responverfm^^aeLdrsa.
elicitation become ^ 8*'en drive, their diresholds of
pre-cmmuHv
m ijuesnon i, o^rj^r '„d ^haTT
peralive, and what applies
O"'''
genemlly .elation to a given
Drive Reduction and Reinforcement 385

drive also presumably applies to the satisfaction of the same drive in a

particular learning task
In the case of meaningful learning, on the other hand, no mechanisms
exist through which the satisfying effects of reducing the cognitive, alEli
ative, and ego enhanang components of achievement motivation can rein-
force successful (drive reducing) learning outcomes Unlike the informa-
tional (cognitive) consequences of feedback (confirmation, correction, and
clanfication). which impinge directly on, and can therefore increase the
dissociability strength of previously learned meanings, the affectively satis

fying effects of drive reduction are not intrinsically related to the factors
determining dissociability strength, and hence cannot increase it retro
actively, they can increase it only indirectly during the course of learning
by nonspecifically and catalytically enhancing learning itself The possibil
ity remains, of course, that the effects of drive reduction could be mediated
through their influence on the thresholds of availability of
retroactively

—
meaningful learning outcomes ^just as in the case of rotely learned items
However, there is no comparable evidence suggesting that motivational
and can directly lower the thresholds of availability of
affective factors
meaningfully learned items Apparently thresholds of availability, rela m
tion to dissociability strength, differ in this crucial respect from correspond
mg thresholds of availability in relation to associative strength
This does not mean, however, that reward and punishment do not
meaningful learning in other ways Reinforcement, after all, is
facilitate

—
only one consequence of reward that aspect winch directly increases the
ehciiabihty of rotely learned responses by sensitizing their tliresholds of
availability to laterlowering when drive stales are operative In the case
of meaningful learning, reward and punishment have two otlier more in
direct kinds of facilitating effects In the first place, from a motivational
standpoint, awareness of successful learning (satisfaction of cognitive, aifilia
live, and ego enhancing drives for acquiring new knowledge) energizes sub

sequent learning efforts by enhancing the learners self confidence, by en-

couraging liim to persevere, and by increasing the subjective attractiveness
of the learning task At the same lime it motivates the individual to make
further use of, that is, to practice, relicarsc, and perform what he has al
ready learned, and also encourages him and exer
to continue developing
cising the motives tliat were satisfied or rewarded, namely, the desire for
knowledge both as an end in itself and as a means of enhancing status and
selfesteem
The experience and tlireat of punishment (failure to learn success
fully), on the other hand, generate considerable aversive motivation The
learner is thus generally motivated to avoid learning failure by pajing
attention, by displa)ing suitable effort and jjerseverance, by delaying the
gratification of hedonistic needs, and so fortli In addition, when lie is in-
 Moliiational Factors in learning
3S6

previously learned understanding is incorrect,

formed that a particular
the threatening implications of this report motivate
him to some extent to
*•'
of elicitation
avoid or reiect it presumably raising thereby its thresiiold
than
These facilitating effects of aversive motivation undoubtedly more
long
counterbalance the negative impaa of failure experience itself on the
of the underlying moiivaiton and on longterm task attrac
term strength
tiveness when experience of failure predominates or when aver
However
motivation is unsuccessful in aveiting failure this is obviously not
sive
the case
Second reward (awareness of successful learning outcomes) and pun
ishmeni (awareness of unsuccessful learning outcomes) whether jn relation
also
to the minnsic or extnnsic components of adnevement motivaltoti,
have all of the cognitive or mformalwnal ellects of feedback These latter
effects are probably just as important for meaningful learning and reten
uon as ate dve motivational effects of tevvard and punishment- By coti
firming correctly understood meanings and at the same time indicating
areas of confusion correcting errors and clanfying ambiguities and mis*
conceptions the cognitive aspects of feedback inacase the stability, daniy,
and ducriminability of meaningfully learned ideas (enhance their Jissoa
ability strength) increase the subject s conhdence in the correctness of lus
understandings and enable him to focus lus learning efforts selectively on
inadequately learned portions of die material Tlicy not only have mfor
mational value for subsequent trials of the same learning task but also
have transfer value for related new tasks (Keislar 1960)

The Efiecu of Intenlion

on Meaningful Leammg and Retention

Although individuals can acquire much miscellaneous information and

some skills madenully deliberate effort is required for die efhcieni learning
of most types of academic material Deliberate intention
to leam (m re
sponsc to explicit instructions) is not essential for learning
as long as be-
longingness IS present Sudi belongingness prevails even
in the absence of

« Since the threat implied by any parluuUir wrong

learning ii obviously not
very formidable the clcvaiion of lu Uireshold
of availability is only a very minor
actor in foi^etting misconcepiions Many
nusconcepuons are amazingly tenaaous
because of ihc influence o! such laciors as
primacy and frequency because they arc
and.otcd lo luglily ..able ibbiumm a™I
becauic they are inherently more itahle
(more eral let. qualifed e«i.re«i,e
„t . po„„te ntthcr than an interse rcla

“onXann”"''
The ElJecIs of Intention on Mecmngful learning and Retention 387

explicit instructions, cither when tiie learning material is potentialiy mean-

ingful, or wlien habitual expectancies are applicable to rote learning tasks
In the latter instances, of course, a certain amount of implicit or self instruc-
tion may be operative Nevertheless, many experiments show that deliberate
learning in response to explicit instructions is boili more effective (Bromcr,
1942, Huang, 1911, G C Myers, 1913, H B Reed, 1916), and more precise
and specific (Postman and Senders, 1916). than is unintentional or implicitly

instructed learning To cxphin these findings it is only necessary to invoke

the typical cnergwing of motivation on learning We
and exjicduing cflecis
have already considered why inadcntal practice, in the sense of being un-
structured and uncontrived rather than unintentional, does not lead to
efficient learning outcomes

Somewhat more important for long term school learning is the wide-
spread belief that intention to remember facduates the retention of mean
ingfully learned verbal materials Actually, hovvever, the experimental evi
dence bearing in this issue is quite equivocal for one or both of two reasons
the experimental arrangements have been such as (a) to induce intentions
to learn rather than to remember, or (b) to make impossible the isolation
of the effects of intention on learning from its effects on retention
Numerous studies, for example, have sliown that intention to remem
ber enhances the longevity of retention IVIien subjects learn material with
the expectation of recalling it for a designated period of time, recall is
superior for the expected as against cither a longer or shorter interval
(Aall, 1913, Biel and Force, 1943, Geyer, 1930, Tliisied and Remmers, 1932)
O p Lester (1932) demonstrated that reieniion is facilitated by expecta
tion of recall and by foreknowledge of the occurrence and possible inter-
fering effect of interpolated materials Unfortunately, however, since these
experiments introduced differential intentions to remember at the time of
original learning, they did not isolate the effects of the intention on what
was learned in the first place from its effects on retention alone Under the
circumstances, therefore,all of the superior retention could be plausibly
attributed to the energizing effects of the intention on learning without
assuming that had any indeiiendent mffuence on retention
it

To D P Ausubel, S H Schpoont, and

test tins latter interpretation,
L Cukier (1957) conducted
an experiment in which undergraduate students
learned an extended historical passage and were then tested on it imme
diately afterwards After this test, an expliat intention to remember was
induced by announcing that an equivalent form of the test would be given
two weeks later The same procedure was followed with a control group
except that an unannounced retest was administered The two groups were
not significantly different in mean learmng s<»res or in the percentage of
material retained from test to retest It was concluded, therefore, that inten
tion to remember in the previously reported studies primarily facilitated
 AJoHiaUorMii Factors in Learning
38S

rather than by tirtue oC any effect on the

menuon !>( cnl»m.mg learning
The reason why posilisc ego insolicments, such as
retention process itself
not faalitate retention is because
intention to remember, presumably do
neither influence dlssocl
mornational sar.ables, as postulated abosc, can
strcngUi after the material is already learned, nor loner thresholds
ability
of availability for meaningfully
learned niaterial
retention is superior
In anoilier group of studies, it uas sliovsn that
(\Iaso. 1929, J Peterson. 1916, Prentice. 1913) and reiroactue inhibition
levs marVed (Prenuce. uhen practice is accompanied by mient to
1943).
'

learn” than ivhen learning takes place inadenially That this

difference is
however, is demonstrated
largcl) attributable to su{)enor original learning,
by the fact that ii no longer prevails when expenmcntal and
control sub-

jects are equated for original mastery of the

learning task (Biel and Force,
studies is at best indirect,
1943) In any event, the evidence jiclded by such
because in each instance an exphat exjicnmenial set was indued to /earn
material for immediate reproduction rather tlian to re/am it for an ex-
tended penod of time

Values and Altitudes

In addition to teaching subject matter sdiools also have sn obligation

to transmit to pupils diemajor values of our culture, including those (such
and ethnic
as die soaal equalit) of persons irtesi>cctivc of race, religion,
on^n) that, unfortunately, are honored more m
theory dian in practice
It IS unnecessary either to pretend dial this does not constitute indoctnna
uon or to ajxilogizc for it, as long as die teaching aims at rational persua-
sion rather than at uncritical acceptance based primarily on emotional
grounds The assimilation of values will, of course, tend to follow die de-
velopmental trends outlined above for motivation generallj Younger cliil-
dren are naturally influenced more by considerations of personal loyalty and
prestige suggestion, with increasing age, however, considerations of intrinsic
ideauonal ment and ego-enhancement become more important. For ex-
ample, college students who prepare suiements of position contrary to their
currently held beliefs tend to maintain these positions if they are rewarded
(Bosirom. Vlandis, and Rosenbaum, 1961, W A Scott, 1957)

Changing Ailitudes
Aldiougli It js admiiicdly difficult through mere presentation of facts
lo diangc auiiudes iliat arc firmly established
both on a cognitive and on
an emotional basis, diis can be accomplished if it is attempted systematically
and if the implications of the facts for die
attitudes m question are drawn
The Ejects of Attitudes on 'lieamngfut Learning and Retention 389

explicitly A Bond (1940) demonstrated tins to be the case in modifying

racially prejudiced ideas througli a speaal instructional unit on genetics
Greater lasting change in attitudes can be alTccted if a tivo sided presenta
tion of the issues is made (Lumsdaine and Jams, 1953) This approach not
only discounts the counterarguments in advance, but is also less likely to
give the impression of constituting biased propaganda The evidence is
equnocal ^vhether discussion leads to more lasting change of attitude tlian
does mere presentation of a controsersial position in lecture form, but it
does appear that a greater change in opinion occurs if an individual plays
the role of a sincere advocate of a given point of view (Jams and King,
1954)
Teacliers, of course, are particularly concerned with pupils' attitudes
toward scliool As pointed out previously, tliere is, unfortunately, progressive
disenchantment with school as diildrcn climb the educational ladder A1
Uiough part of this trend can undoubtedly be attributed to the progressive
alienation of dnidren from the adult world, much of it also reflects the
schools failure in the past to stimulate and satisfy the child s interest m
knowledge as an end noteworthy, in this connection, that high
in itself It is

school students who are saiisficd with sdiool generally out perform on
achievement tests those who arc dissatisfied with school (Brodie, 1964) This
relationship between favorable attitude and achievement also holds true
(Garvcnck, 1964) In tins
in such individual subject matter fields as biology
same connection it may be noted that interests are better predictors of
the completion of a given college curriculum than is ability (J French,
1961)

The Eilects of Attitudes

on Meaningful Learning and Retention

Only u been recognized that cognitive, as well

relatively recently has
account for the differential effects of positive and nega
as affective, factors
live altitudinal bias on liie learning of controversial material This recog
nition was largely an outgrowth of H
Peak s theoretical formulation of
altitude structure as consisting of an interrelated group of ideas organized
around a conceptual nucleus and manifesting affective properties (1955)
Little doubt exists that the learners prevailing attitude structure dif
ferentially enhances or inhibits the learning of controversial materials that
are congruous and incongruous respectively, with it Both motivational
and cognitive variables are probably involved in such differential learning
outcomes When their attitudes toward the controversial material are favor
able subjects are highly motivated to learn they put forth more intense
and concentrated effort and relevant perceptual cognitive, and response
390 MolnaUonal Factor* tn Learning

thresholds are gcnerallj lowered. Furilicrmore, since the cognitue com

ponent of the attitudes in question is uell-establishcd the subjects {x>$sess
clear, stable, and relevant anchoring ideas for incorporating the new mate
nal When, however, tlieir attitudes toward die controversial material are
unfavorable, all of these factors operate tn precisely the opposite direction
In addition a strong need to reduce cognitive dissonance or incon
gruit) —ojieraiing either as a generalized
trait or aspect of cognitive style,
or more speafically in relation to a particular set of strongly held beliefs
may lead to a closed minded attitude that obviously impairs ability to learn
new ideas contrary to existing beliefs A person who summarily dismisses
sucli new ideas on this basis fails to leam them adequately because he may
not even be willing to read or listen to them, because he makes little or no
effort to understand or rcconale diem with existing beliefs, or Ixrcause he
selectively misunderstands distorts discounts or reverses their implications
in accordance wiUt his bias But although these motivational, quasi motiva
iional, and affective components of negative amiudinal bias selectively in
hibii, both s|)caficaUy and nonspccifically the learning
of controversial
ideas contrary to belief (account for the low
dissonabiliiy strength of these
ideas), they probably affect retenuon
only insofar as they adversely affect
learning itself No channel exisu for die
purely affective motivational com
ponents of such bias to exert a direct influence
on retention unless it arouses
sufficient anxiety to elevate
diresholds of availability
^ ““anls. 1911. Lcine and Murph). 1943, Zlllig.
'"‘1.' •>»' eonirovcrsial maienal,
IT sitien are Itamed most
leaddy d.,y ate consistent rather than
inconsislent ssiih die subiect’s
esalualne Iramesiotk But ,n none
ol the aloremenuoned studies, despite
die lact that selective learning
„as attnbnied solely to alleelise mechanisms,
^ ‘he lespeetue effeeu on
leamme T.T'"
D Fi nL 3n“'f “"-I”"'"!* Ol attitude stmetnre

telr^lhe
m n T oondneted a classroom ex
'"‘"O" logh school students to
ol t e c^ninse laclor (knossledge about die Cud War period) uas stalls-
1° “Jcriine laeton.
mluZlfhi^'"
Hor of he rS e''
'> H'o predicted direction

lOinled to die mlllnce ol

only did cosnitive
c!,gnime”l'aUe“s L T" ""“''"S’
learning outcomes Not
faciliuic the learning
niaicnal bm the morfkn^i of the controversial
^ubjccu, irrespecuve of atutudinal
bias, were also better
able to ^ *”3161131, presumably because
found It more discnmmablc diey
from n learned related ideas than did
die less knowledgeable
suljjecu
The Efjects of Altitudes on \teamngjul Lerrmng and Retenhon 391

Furiher cMdcnce concerning the role of cogniti\c factors in the effects

of attitude structure on learning, comes from E E Jones and R Kohler’s

(1958) study of the interaction bciucen 'itiitudinal bias and plausibility in
their effects on learning These investigators found that prosegregation
subjects learned plausible proscgrcgation and implausible antiscgregation
statements better than they learned implausible proscgrcgation and
plausible antiscgregation statements The reverse vsas true of the anti
segregation subjects Evidently, plausibility enhanced the learning of the
iwsition favored by a particular subject and inhibited the learning of the
position he opposed This suggests that controversial material is learned
least well when it is least relatiblc to the prevailing ideational comjxment
of attitude structure —vvhen favorable tnaienal is implausible and unfavor
able material is plausible
L Gustafson (1957) found that members of three different American
ethnic groups selectively learned best those facts about American history
and culture that jicriamcd to their own ethnic group This finding held up
even when general knowledge of American history and culture was held
constant But since the effects of six^cific knowledge of owngroup culture
(m relation to which the differential learning was manifested) were not con
trolled, the influence of ideational factors on learning outcomes was not
eliminated The results of this study are, therefore, consistent with tlie
hypothesis that both cognitive and motivational mechanisms account for
tile effects of positive ego-invoivcment on learning

Jletentton

In many studies (Alper and Korchin, 1952, Clark, 19-10, Watson and
Hartmann. 1939) of the effects of attitude structure on retention, no measure
of initial learning was obtained Hence, there was no certain way of ruling
out the possibility that selective differences in retention (in favor of the
group positively biased toward die material) were wholly attributable to
attitudinal effects on learning In some studies (A L Edwards, 1941, Levine
and Murphy, 1943, Taft, 1954), however, where retention was measured both
immediately after learning and at subsequent intervals thereafter, original
differences in learning between jiositively and negatively biased groups were
found to widen progressively during the course of the retention interval
These latter findings suggest that attitude structure exerts an additional
facilitating influence on retention that is independent of us cognitive and
motivational effect on learning
But although attitudinal variables undoubtedly facilitate the learning
of controversial material through both cognitive and motivational mechan
isms, It IS likely tliat cognitive factors alone mediate most of the effects of
attitude structure on retention In the first place, as pointed out earlier.
 Chapter 11

PERSONALITY FACTORS
IN LEARNING

DO PERSONALITY FACTORS ENTER iniO ihC learning prO'

cessand how are ihcir eflecu similar lo and diflereni from motivaiionai and
cognune faaon> In Uie fint place like mouiauonal vanables personalit)
facton deal with subjecuie and allecuie soaal rather than with objecuie
and intellectual aspects ol learning This means that the) topically affect
meaninglul learning nonspeci^aHy and cctalyttcally rather than being
directly and specifically imoUed (like readiness cognmie structure 'an
ables intellectual ability and cognmve style) in the parameters of the cog
mtnc inicracuonal process Second like measures of intelleciual ability and
cognime style (and unlike mousauonal sanablcs) personality factors deal
with stable and self consistent individual differences m
learners but in the
aflecuie soaal rather than jn the a>gniu\e domain
In oUier words not suffiaent for the educational psydiologist to be
it is

able to make generalizations and actuarial prediaions about the average

eilecuse on classroom learning of either cognitive or mousational s'anables
m a group of individuals It is also important that he endeavor (a) to deter
mine the impact on learning ol stable individual differences both, cognitive
and affective social and (b) to ascertain wlietJier general cogmU'c
affecuvesoaal vanables affect learning processes and outcomes differently
for individuals who are bnglit radier than dull who lend to be levelers
rather ilian sharpeners wivo are pnmanly motivated by ego-enhanang
railier than by cognitive and aihhative drives who manifest a high rallier
than a low level of anxiety or who tend to be open rather than closed to new
ideas
In Uus chapter we cannot consider all kinds of personality traits feen
crahzcd. stable and self-consisicnt beiiavioral tendenoes in the affective
sooal domain) but only tliose seleaed personality vanables lliat have been
Motivational Ortentalwn to Learning 395

shown significantly to influence learning effort, value assimilation, and

problem solving style The most important of these variables are motiva
tional orientation to learning anxiety level dogmatism, authoritarianism,
tendency to conform and personality adjustment

Motivational Orientation to Learning

In the previous chapter, in addition to discussing cognitive drive we

distinguished between two essentially different extrinsic components of
achievement motivation One component, termed affihatwe drive, is oriented
toward vicarious or derived status, it is not concerned with achievement as a
source of primary or earned status, but only insofar as it secures the ap
proval of, and hence signifies continued intrinsic acceptance by, super-
ordmate persons (parents, teachers) or groups with whom the learner
identifies The other component, termed ego enhancement drive, is con
cerned with achievement as a source of earned status It was pointed out
that affihative drive is typically predominant during the preschool and
elementary school periods, and is then gradually superseded by ego
enhancing drive, particularly during adolescence But it is important to
recognize that although this is tlie typical developmental state of affairs,
and that even though cognitive, affihative, and ego enhancing components
are invariably present in the achievement motivation of all learners, their
relative proportions tend to vary depending on both individual inter-
personal experience with parents and cultural and social class factors ' In
this section we shall examine tlie developmental basis for individual differ
ences in the relative strength of afliliative and ego enhancement drives and
the consequences of these differences for degree of achievement motivation,
for mode of assimilating values, and for academic achievement

Satelhzatton versus Nonsatelltzatton

Whenever and group life is characterized by differences

interpersonal
in roles and and by dependence of one person on another or on the
status,
group as a whole, one of the more basic kinds of human interaction that
arises under such conditions is identification of the dependent party with

I Not infrequently also as a result of continued successful experience, moti

vaiions that arc originally absent in a gneii learning activity arc developed after
wards during die coune of that activity A rejeaed child, for example, may seek
originally to adiicve competence in some academic field solely for compensatory
ego-enhancement Eventually however, he may develop genuine task oriented in
tercsts thit arc functionally autonomous of lus original motivation
396 Personality Factors in Learning

Uie superordmate parly Tins lype of relationship includes in varying

proportions the elements of dominance subordination leadersliip*
followership and care dependency desmbed by
J P Scott (1953) for
different infra human vertebrates Much confusion however results from
the failure to disunguish between two essentially different kinds
of identiii
cation each of which involves a reaprocal relationship between
a relatively
dependent and subordinate individual on the one hand and a relatively
independent or dominant individual (or group) on the other (Ausubel

One type of identification which is characteristic of the early parent

child relationship in humans may be called satelUzation (Ausubel 1952)
In a satellumg relationship the subordinate
party (child) renounces an
independent earned status of his own and
accepts a sutus dependent on
that of the superordmate party (parent)
tliat is identifies in a dependent
sense wiUi the parent s status and die
him as an intrinsically valuable entity
superordmate party m turn accepts
m his personal orbit The satellirer
iliereby acquires a vicarious or
derived biosocial status which (a) is wholly
a function of the dependent relationsliip
and independent of his own com
^tenc= or portormance ab.li.y and (b)
,s bes.oned upon Inm
by the fiat
' “ superordmate individual or group
whose aulhonty and a
power to do so are regarded as
unchallengeable.

relatf m ea h n transacuon could

ca«
di s case
this t “ ‘‘““'.a
I nonsatellirer-could party-m
‘Ubordrnate
a acknowledge Ins dependency sitnnlv as a
ii“?e,Zii^
“
“a iTaccemma a7
1952) TnTurn he T 7
iZ
“"J ‘Inference bn.
“atut as a pemon (Ausubel
wnhout
' “ ‘’“‘"eht or could be accorded
SiancZot 7n“n
°p'any tiZZt, E
boil, of ,™ reaionriiS °"""
thVmZT""
'
“-'nl
qualified inmnnc aceZneeTh,
valuer him bancally Z exZn’ ‘‘'"“i''
child or

s“- " -
Motivational Onentation to Ltaming 397

the typicaldog who simply oozes desotion, slavishness, and seUeflacement

Itwould also be reasonable to expect that diildren who are temperamentally
more assertive, self sufficient, independent, and “thick skinned” would be
less disposed to satellize than children witli the opposite set of character*
istics Differences related to culturally determined social sex role might also
be anticipated For example, an experimental population of 10 yearolds in
Champaign, Illinois (Ausubel, Balthazar, Rosenthal, Blackman, Schpoont
and Welkowitz, 1954a) rated thirty six items of parent attitude and behavior
reflective of acceptance rejection and intrinsic extrinsic valuation Analysis
of the ratings confirmed the hypoUiesis that girls are (or perceive themselves
to be) more highly accepted and intrinsically valued than are boys

EFFECTS ON ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION From the Standpoint of scliool

learning, the wider significance of satelltzation versus nonsatellization in
early personality development is the each of these outcomes is associated
both with a distinctive pattern of achievement motivation and with a distmc
tive mode of assimilating norms and values Generally speaking, the non
satellizer exhibits a mucli higher level of achievement motivation in which
the ego-enhancement component is predominant, whereas the satellizer
exhibits both a lower level of achievement motivation and one m which
die affiliative component tends to predominate prior to adolescence
The satellizer identifies with his parents in a dependent sense and is
accepted by them for himself He enjoys by the fiat of this acceptance, both
an assured derived status and the accompanying feelings of intrinsic ade
quacy or self-esteem that are relatively immune to the viassitudcs of achieve
ment and competitive position Thus he has relatively little need to seek
the
kind of status that he would have to earn through his own
comjietence the
kind of status that would generate feelings of extrinsic adequacy
commen
surate with his degree of achievement He does not, in other
words view
academic achievement as the basis of his status or as the
measure of his
worth as a person, it is metcly a means o[ meeting the
exjiettaiions oi his
parents and of retaining thereby the approval that confirms
for Jnm Ins
good standing in their eyes
The nonsatclhzer, on the other hand, ts either rejected, or
accented on
an extrinsic basis by his parents Enjoying no derived
status or intrtnsic
self-esteem, he has no choice but to aspire to a ->10105
status mat
iiio, i,
c f ,
he earns through
I
his own accomplishments Since
, , . .
his feelings of adenua/-*, ,, i ,

a reflecuon of the degree of achievement he can

necessari y ex
hibits a high level of aspiration for academic
achievempuE^
prestige a
level that is much higher, and more tenacious
the fa m° ailure expen
ence, than that of satellizers This is obviouslv
am
his part that reflects lus lack of derived
status ,
Consistent with his higher aspiratrons for
>chteveinent™e manSs'^rn'o^
 PersonalUy Factors tn Learning

\oIitional and executive independence than the satellizcr. and is better able
to defer the immediate gratification of hedonistic needs in order to strive
for more long term goals (Ausubel, Balthazar, Rosenthal, et al Blackman,
Schpoont, and Welkowitz, 1954a) Similar personality differences between
individuals manifesting ego enhancement and afhliative drive orientations
to learning, respectively, were reported by
J W
Atkinson and G H Litwin
(1960) and by D C McClelland J \V Atkinson, R A Clark, and E L
Lowell (1953) As will be pointed out shortly, however, higher achievement
motivation does not necessarily lead to higher academic adiievement, in
any case, this relationship is complicated by age and sex factors
Other aspects of the jiarent child relationship are also implicated in the
development of adiievement motivation Achievement motivation tends
to be higher in those children whose parents have
high intellectual achieve
ment aspirations both for themselves (Katkovsky,
Preston, and Crandall,
1964a and b) and for theiroftpnng (Rosen and D Andrade 1959), whose
parents independence training and high standards of excellence
stress
(McClelland. Atkinson. Clark and Lowell.
1953, Winterbottom, 1958), and
whose parents, when present m
problem solving situations with their off
spring exhibit greater participation,
instigation, encouragement, and dis-
approval (Ka.kovsky, Preston, and Crandall,
1959) It IS also apparently stronger
1964b, Rosen and D Andrade,
in instances where an achievement
nwce
" I'onte, a dominant, demanding, and
successful father on the oUier hand, is perceived by Ins sons as providing a

3ru;“e:k'\958T°"~^^^
““auanons (as well as mdmdual
m ifaX^r' differences)

S od'er mmfr ‘ '"'“ded tmttal ways of relalmg

.canon Thu, although ,t ts true that as the satell.c.ng

duld grows older he

conteLdl hmari ’ll'''

“rher
tntcrXM^^ulhtpr'’"”'
"

,a.c..n“der^r.dT„“n'' hase“’„t’'m
w-eMl;:
T
h~e::L;fni; r-r:; :::!
the satelhzers motivation directing
organization orhwT^
acceptance and appeoTa" „1 ”he "“‘f *“ *=
status Hence, he develop, a P™”'''' delved
general set I
‘

ofu.=va.uesa„dea(«cL,.^;^“~;^r.nd:;:;i::L^^
Aloliiadonci Onentalton to Learning 399

assimilation is thus an act o£ personal loyalty in which the actual content

of what IS internalized is largely irrelevant, that is, from a motivational

standpoint The nonsatellizcr,on the other hand, is primarily motivated, in

his orientation to values, by considerations of expediency and attainment of
primary status, and, hence, his motivational set is not to accept values blindly
and uncritically but in accordance with diese general aims The prestige sug
gestion of authority figures, in tins instance, is not derived from the learner s
need to agree with them, but from his acknowledgment of their suitability
as emulatory models and stepping stones to power and prestige Nonsatelliz
mg elementary scliool children are more disposed than satelhzing children
to disagreewith the perceived opinions of tlieir parents (Ausubel, Balthazar,
Rosenthal, Blackman, Schpoont, and Welkowitz, 1954a)
When ideas are accepted on a satelhzing basis, resistance to new learn
ing stems largely from conflicting ideological trends in the new set of
values,which can be accepted only at die cost of repudiating prior loyalties
and assuming the associated burden of guilt Nevertheless, this must take
place before new values can be assimilated The saielhzer feels secure in his
derived status only as long as approval is forthcoming He finds disapproval
threatening and, wiien incurred tJirough disloyally, productive of guilt
feelings In the case of the nonsatellizer, on die other hand, new ideas are
resisted because they constitute a potential threat to selfesteem by challeng
mg (a) the existing system of values organized on an ego prestige basis, and
(b) various presumptions of independence, originality, infallibility, and

omniscience Because he lacks intrinsic feelings of worth and is therefore

more vulnerable to the ego deflating implications of failure, he is more
reluctant than the satellizer to venture into new areas of learning where his
capability still remains to be demonstrated, such learning activities, in any
case, arehighly threatening until success is assured Resistence to new learn
mgs, as well as to new values, is usually overcome when he is able to perceive
thezr usefulness for future ego-enhancement
The different motivational orientations toward learning characterizing
satelljzersand nonsatellizers, respectively, suggest differential interpersonal
handling on the part of teachers On theoretical grounds satellizers should
learn best in a warm and supportive interpersonal environment in which
they can relate to teachers as parent surrogates It has been shown that they
achieve best when teaching methods are indirect rather than direct
(Amidon and Flanders, 1961) Teadiers must always guard against the
tendency of satellizers to overconfoim to tlieir directions and expectations
(Kagan and Mussen, 1956, Livson and Mussen, 1957) Both their resistance
to and acceptance of new values stem largely from considerations of personal
identification and loyalty Nonsatellizers, on tlie other hand, require teacher
approval as objective evidence of achievement rather than as confirmation
of personal acceptance They resist actxpijng new values not because of
400 Peisonalily Factors in Learning

Io)alty to parentb but because they lend lo

threatened by unfamihar
feci
ideas By the same token, noscl learning tasks and metliods of instruction
should be jiresented to them gradually, with as much prefamilianzation as
|x)ssibleOvercritical, deprecatory, demanding, and authoritarian teacher
behavior appears to raise the anxiety level of anxious nonsatellizers, pre-
apitatmg hostility, aggressiveness and uithdraw'al, accepting and supportive
treatment, on die other hand. lowers their anxiety level and promotes more
task-oriented and iniegTalive behavior (Flanders, 1951)

EFFECT ON SCHOOL AciiiEVEMEVT It IS self-evident that an excess of

ego enlianceraent drive or acliievement motivation can have
long term effects
on school achievement only if it is a liighly stable and somewhat generalized
personality trait Rcseardi data clearly indicate
Uiat both of these conditions
actually prevail The impressive evidence
of stability characterizing achieve
ment motivation from age 6 to adult
(Moss and Kagan. 1961) un-
life
doubtedly rellecis, m large measure, the strongly
enduring properties of
ego-enhancement dnve denved from die parent clnld
relationship It is also
a reasonably generalized trait, as can be
inferred from the moderately high
intercorreUiions bodi (a) among level of
aspiration and goal tenaaty scores
laboratory usks and real life achievement
an? (b) among goal tenacity scores situauons,
'

and over a broad range of hypothetical

®^*'“** Zeleny,
Srsbl
f *‘rong „«d. for rocauon.I

imi arly driven by die culture

to actualize their
ambitions, and hence need
not be so unrealistic and tenacious
m
their vocational behavior
Finally high

egornhanang druc (tcamiie of demonstrable that high

lurmiaTr
generally leads lo higlier acceptance)
I9j la), die school
leselsof mmm.n
^ T Scluff, and Goldman,
performance of il i”
to that of
.nt„nsS;™i;X:
some individuals the academic
...an the need for
corollary
success that
n«d for J ability. In

the fese. of
«r:v?„g^f;Vs:ir.oTef;d rp'r^
Anxiety and School Learning 401

vent even the remotest possibility of failure experience Otlier individuals

with high achievement motivation lack the personality traits (persistence,
self denial, high frustration tolerance, ability to defer hedonistic gratifica

tion) necessary for implementing high aspirations, merely aspiring high,

without ever intending to implement the aspirations in question, yields a
certain compensatory measure of ego enhant^ment
A third factor interfering with the faaiiiating effect of high ego
enhancement drive on academic achievement is a disablingly high level of
anxiety, paiticularJy die kind that leads to withdrawal from competitive
situations or to paralysis of adaptive behavior Lastly, cultural influences
mediated through age and sex role exjiectaiions are important determining
factors Thus, low nurturant and unaffectionate mothers tend to have
daugluers (but not sons) with superior school achievement in the elementary
school (Crandall, Dewey Katkovsky, and Preston, 1964), since this is a
culturally sanctioned form of compensatory ego enhancement for girls at
this age level At the late adolescent and young adult level, on the other
hand, the much greater cultural stress on male vocational achievement is
apparently responsible for the association of parental rejection with high
anxiety and academic achievement in male but not in female prospective
teachers (Gnagey, 1966)

Anxiety and School Learning

Anxiety must be differentiated from other kinds of fear like states

Genencally, it refers to an actual phobic response or to a tendency to respond
with fear to any current or anticipated situation which is perceived as a
potential threat to self esteem It differs from ordinary fear in that the threat
is directed against selfesteem rather than against physical wellbeing and
may be anticipated or current in nature A person is fearful when a mad dog
lunges for his throat, he is anxious when he experiences or contemplates the
loss in selfesteem that results from vocational failure Anxiety differs, like
wise from feelings of insecurity, which are similar to fear but arise only in
response to anticipated threat, m the fact that the threat eliciting anxiety is

individuals selfesteem and not against his

specifically directed against the
physical safety In many situations however, insecurity and anxiety are
aroused concomitantly The threat of possible vocational failure, for ex
ample is not only damaging to ones self regard hut also generates genuine
appreliension regarding ones chances for survival

Normal versus Neurotic Anxiety

Within the generic meaning of the term, as defined here, one can con
ceive of several qualitatively different varieties of anxiety arising under
 PersonaUly Factors in I tnming
402

Situationally for example

basically different conditions o! instigation
m
medical students when they are confronted
wth
anxiety generated
is
o{ a life goal closely
important examinations that thteaicn the aclucsement
type of
identified suih their sense ol adequacy One can
induce a similar
situational anxiety experimentally by giving subjects
bogus reports which
reflect adversely on their competence or personality
integration Anxiety is
such as
aroused dunng transitional periods o! personahiy dcvelojinient
when individuals have to adiieve a new and
biosocial status
adolescence
are hepi in a prolonged state of unccruiniy regarding the
outcome Feelings
of hostility can generate anxiety by ilireatenmg an individual willi loss o£
status as a result of on whom he is dependent- Simi
antagonizing persons
to a
larly feelings of guilt can generate anxiety by exposing an individual
sullied reprehensible portrait of himself at odds with the moral
values he

has internalized.
These normal anxiety have one property in com
different varieties of
mon which In each situation
disunguishes them from neurotic anxiety
described anxiety by an objeciwely dangerous threat to self
is instigated
esteem In some instances this threat may be external in ongin— as for
example the crucial examination in die case of medical students or the
need to acquire adult status under conditions of uncertainty in the case of
adolescents In odier instances die source of the liireat is widim the person
—It may come from aggressive impulses or from the individual s awareness
that he has violated certain of his moral scruples The important thing in
all of these cases —regardless of vvhedier the source of the direat is internal
or external — is diat the direat is objectively capable of impairing self esteem
in normal persons In all cases the threat comes from a source distinct from
die entity that is being threatened in no case docs the threat to selfesteem
arise from impaired self-esteem iiself In all cases the response to the threat
IS appropriate and projxirtionate to die objective degree of jeopardy con
fronting the individual s self-esteem
In neurotic anxiety on the other hand die essential source of die threat
to self<sceem does not he outside selfesteem but is to be found in cata
stropluc impairment of self-esteem itself Hence a person suffering from
neurouc anxiety apparently ovcrrcacu with fear to a jierceived threat.
But this over reaction is an over reaction only when considered in relation
to the ostensible source of the direat to self esteem— die threat lying outside
self-esteem which preapiiates die anxiety It is not an over reaction when
It isconsidered in relation to the major source of direat to self-esteem which
lies within self-esteem itself Highly anxious children
manifest more self
dissatisfaction and self-disparagement than low anxious
children (Lipsitt
19o8 Phillips Hindsman and Jennings 1960)
Tlic distinction between normal and neurotic anxiety can be high
bghicd will! an analogy from Inart plijunlogy Wlien
a person has a normal
Anxtelv and 'ichool Learning 40S

undamaged heart how can he develop heart failure? It is not very easy He
has to be subjected to tremendous exertion without rest prolonged exposure
to heat severe pulmonary disease, and so forth The threat to cardiac
adequacy when one has a normal heart, therefore lies in an objectively
punishing situation Less rigorous threats to cardiac adequacy are easily
compensated for because of the great reserve of posver of the heart If the
heart shows signs of beginning to fail when the external pressure increases,
the outcome is hardly disproportionate to die degree of strain invoUed
But a person with a damaged heart has already exhausted all of his
power to compensate for increased external demands Require him to run
up a flight of stairs quickly, and he will be thrown into heart failure In his
case, the source of the threat to cardiac adequacy lies m
his own damaged
heart muscle, just as the source of the threat to self-esteem in a person with
neurotic anxiety lies in his own damaged selfesteem Certainly he is over
reacting with signs of cardiac insufficiency to a flight of stairs, just as the
anxiety neurotic is over reacting to a new adjustive situation with signs of
fear and further impairment of selfesteem But m neitlier case is the reac
tion disproportionate to the actual degree of jeopardy confronting the heart
or self esteem

The Ongtn of Neurotic Anxiety

How do anxiety neurotics develop catastrophic impairment of self
esteem so that they overreact with fear to perceived threats to selfesteem?
A definitive ansuer to this question cannot be given at this time because
there is as yet no definitive evidence But considerations of normal per
sonality development as well as clinical study, suggest that an individual
can never develop neurotic anxiety as long as he enjoys intrinsic feelings of
selfesteem, by which is meant a deep inner conviction that he is important
—
and worthwhile for himself apart from what he can do or accomplish, and
apart from the position he holds in life (Ausubel, 1956) As long as he
possesses this intrinsic self-esteem, failure in achieving superior competence
or status is intense, deeply felt discouraging —but always peripheral to
basic selfesteem, and hence never catastrophic However, if he has to rely
on success in school performance or vocation for whatever selfesteem he
enjoys catastrophic impairment following some very traumatic failure
experience is much more possible If such failure occurs it is not penpheral
but central —
^since tliere is now no basis wJiatsoever (intnnsic or extnnsjc)
for a feeling ofworth as a human being The individual s sense of adequacy
being purely a function of Ins competence or reputation, little self regard
can remain if these are seriously undermined
Feelings of intrinsic selfesteem as we have already seen, can develop
—
only in one way from a diild identifying in a dependent sense with his
 Penonahiy Ftutori in Learning
404

and valued for

parents He can do tins if he perceives that he is accepted
himself His all pov^erful,omniscient parents can endow all objects, includ
resjxmd to him as a
mg him. with intrinsic value if they so desire If they
person who is worthwhile and important m
Ins own right—just because
tends reart to himself in tlie same way, since
they accept him as suclv— he to

he has no other standards of value but theirs He thus acquires an

intrinsic
his dependent
sense of adequacy, a vicanous status whicli is derived from
relationship to his parents, and whidi is independent of hi$
actual com

peicncicv As he liecomes older, he will increasingly strive for a

more primary
feelings of
status based upon lus own accomplivliments, and will develop
self-esteem related to them But there will always remain a residual sense
of worth which his parents conferred on him by fiat —
when as a child he
perceived this to he within their power
As pointed out above however, not all children arc fortunate enough
to lie accepted and intrinsically valued by their parents Some arc rejected
outright, and otlicrs arc accepted but extnnsically valued, that is, accepted
only m
terms of ilicir potential capaaiy for enhancing their parents egos
by becoming important and successful individuals Such children do not
undergo dejicndcnt identification with their parents, since they cannot
acquire any vicarious status or ininnsic feelings of self-esteem from such a
relationship From the very beginning their self-esteem becomes a function
of what they are able to do and accomplish, and, hence, becomes very vul
nerable to catastrophic impairment
Of course vulnerability to caiastropliic impairment of self-esteem docs
not, in Itself guarantee that sucli impairment must inevitably occur How-
ever, tins catastrophic impairment frctjuently occurs for another related
reason It has already been pointed out that when individuals lack intnnsic
feelings of sclf-cstetm, Uicy arc compcnvatonly mouvaicd to aspire to higher
goals and ambitions than die general run of mankind This is hardly sur
pnsing when one considers that the less adequate an individual feels in
trinsically the more need he lias to prove his adequacy to himself and odicrs
by sujicrior accomplishments In a learning experiment with anxious sub-
example, it was found that their levels of aspiration, in relation to
jects, for
previous performance and to prior feelings of failure, were significantly
higher and more tenacious than those of nonanxious subjects (Ausubel,
Sclidf and Goldman 1953a) Tins means that their aspirations
were more
unrealistic, that their goals were not only too high but were also extremely
rcsisiivc to lowering in the face of realistic indications for so doing Sarason,
and odiCTs (1958) also found diat high anxious cluldrcn
were Jess task
oriented and had higher achievement moiivaiion than
low anxious children
Ihus itsccrmreasonableioexpcaihatrejecledandcxlrmstcally
valued
cluldrcn who have no intrinsic feelings of
self-esteem, will tend to set their
academic and vocational goals high, and
often unrealistically high If they
Anxiety and Scfiool Learning 405

happen to be extremely able individuals, all may go and they may

well,
achieve in accordance with their aspirations However, there is no reason
to believe that such rejected and extnnsically valued individuals tend to be
more than usually gifted, and there are limits to what motivation alone
can accomplish Hence, the chances for large scale collapse of their grandiose
and unrealistic aspirations are rather good, and since they have no intrinsic
selfesteem to fall back upon, a defeat is centrally traumatic to selfesteem
and commonly precipitates acute anxiety Recovery from this condition,
furthermore, tends to leave a permanently damaged selfesteem or, other m
words, a chronic anxiety neurosis, which may flare up at any time and be
come acute when the environment becomes too threatening

Effect of Anxiety on Learning

We have postulated that personality' (neurone) anxiety is the phobic

overreaction of an individual with impaired selfesteem to the threat antici*
pated m adjustive situations The threatening implications of the latter are
derived from their capacity to further impair self-esteem in the face of an
inner feeling of inadequacy to copie with them Normal anxiety, on the other
hand, is the fear evoked by antiapation of objectively hazardous threats to
selfesteem Normal subjects do not display anxiety when confronted with
ordinary adjustive situations, because they do not lack confidence m their
ultimate capacity to acquire the necessary adaptive responses
The relationship between anxiety and learning is complicated by the
fact that although high anxiety individuals exhibit more than average mo
itvation, (that is, although they tend onginally to manifest an excess of ego-
enhancement drive and are further dnven to acliieve as the only practicable
means of reducing anxiety), their high level of anxiety also tends to have a
disruptive effect on novel problem solving Thus, it has been generally found
that anxiety facilitates rote and less difficult kinds of meaningful reception
learning, but has an inhibitory effect on more complex types of learning
tasks that are either highly unfamiliar or are more dependent on improvising
skill than on persistence (Ausubel, Scliiff, and Goldman 1953a, Caron, 1963,

Castenada, Palermo and McCandiess. 1956, Lantz, 1945, IMcGuigan, Calvin,

and Richardson, 1959, Marks and Vestre, 1961, Palermo, Castenada, and
McCandiess, 1956, Pickrel, 1958, Russell and Sarason, 1965, Sarason, and
others 1960, Stevenson and Odom, 1965, Tomkins, 1943, Zander, 1944) The
latter kinds of learning situations are obviously highly threatening to
anxious individuals and tend to induce a disabling level of anxiety It does
apjjcar however, that anxiety may enhance the learning of complex tasks
—
vvhen they do not seriously threaten self-esteem when they are not in
ordinaiely novel or significant (Van Buskirk, 1961, Wittrock and Husek,
1962), vvhen the anxiety is only moderate in degree, or when the learner
406 Personality Factors in Learning

possesses effective anxiety coping mechanisms (Suinn, 1965) The learning

o£ complex verbal materials in a typical school setting for example, seems
to be a relatively familiar and nontlireatenmg task as compared to novel
problem solving situations
These findings make sense when one considers that it is prescisely with
respect to the need for improvising solutions to novel problems that the
individual with personality anxiety experiences feelings of inadequacy
Since such problems pose an exaggerated threat to lus selfesteem and
sensitizehim to overrespond with fear when he is obliged to face up to them,
It follows that he can mitigate his anxiety most easily by removing, as best
as he can, the element of improvisation from the problem
solving process
The response set of the neurotically anxious individual, therefore, is to
avoid putting his improvising ability to the test and frantically to search
his available response repertory for an appropriate solution
that would not
involve any reorganization of existing patterns However, if
it so happens
that the problem is one that requires improvisation for solution, this in
flexible response set to avoid improvisation will not only inhibit learning,
but will also render learning impossible until the set is eventually aban
doned
Thus, to the panic that results
from anticipatory over reaction to any
new situation is added the panic resulting from initial
failure to make any
progress toward solution The
cumulative impact of this disorganization
may be disabling enough to induce blocking
of response (Hartogs, 1950)
which, m turn, may sumutale a face
saving aliempi to produce any kind
of response regardless of how
mappropnalc or unadaptive Later, with in
m»ng exposure ro the problem-providing
that .he panic is not .00

uofaTl ar ^
’’
sufficiently desensitired to tts
properties .0 recover from li.s d.sorganira
®
lion and adopt
1 a mote efficacious (improvising)
response set

Schi"a°„d Gom"”'" me?,*'’' (Aosubel,

-ndergradoares who sl.oVed eillier
tot or luelM veT"'r T’’

” eem
trItub
"" ‘I'roat .0 Llf

te exp^ imenTer atT b°‘ f 'I

1e"»"s>rot£d to

provisaiion
^ accomplished without im

llicycould learn to
imt»»i«Tu.!^™iv w t*T"l practice And
failed, so what? So
they weren t good
iiiey ^1 ”* ^ if they
vnn I at solving mazes blindfolded The high'
Anxtet\ and School Learning 407

anxiety subjects had a different onentation Lacking normal self-esteem, they

lacked confidence in their ability to tx>pe with new adjustive situations They
were frightened when their habitual visual learning cues were removed,
when they had to improvise And lacking any intrinsic feelings of adequacy
they were naturally very dependent on the self esteem they could achieve
through successful performance Thus, they could less afford to say, So
what? to failure
What were the results? The high anxiety subjects apparently over
reacted to the threat to self esteem emanating from the maze situationThe
real tlireat, however, came from their own impaired selfesteem And in
terms of thattlireat they certainly did not over react On the first trial of the
maze they became panicky and flustered making a significantly greater
number of errors than the low anxiety subjects But after the first trial the
maze was no longer a new learning task requiring improvisation It became
more and more familiar and old hat By the end of ten tnals, there was
no longer a significant difference between the two anxiety groups
The role of novel adjustive situations that demand improvisation, in
investigating anxiety m neurotically anxious subjects
was demonstrated m
a corollary experiment (Ausubel SchiS, and Goldman, 1953a) When high
anxiety subjects were allowed to practice on an easier maze, first with and
then without vision they benefited significantly more from this advance
preparation than did low anxiety subjects Consistent with these findings,
highly anxious subjects show less curiosity than nonanxious subjects (Penney,
1965) exhibit more rigidity and earlier perceptual closure (I S Cohen,
1961, Smock, 1958), and evince less preference for novel tojs (Mendel, 1965)
These experiments could defensibly illustrate the following facts about
tile nature of neurone anxiety and ii« effect on learning (a) that an actual
threat to the individual apart from his own impaired self-esteem is the
precipitating factor, (b) that the most effective threat is a new adjustive
situation requiring improvisation since it hits at the very core of impaired
selfesteem (when adjustive situations become routine and familiar they are
no longer threatening), (c) that the anxiety response is disproportionate to
the objective danger of the threat but not to the actual degree of threat
expenenced, and (d) that the major source of threat in neurotic anxiety
lies in impaired self-esteem

Effect of Anxiety on School Achievement

As could be reasonably antiapated, the effect of anxiety on school

achievement is comparable to its effect on learning, except that on a long
term basis its disruptive influence is much less intense School achievement
tasks, after all, lend to lose their threatening implications as students gam
experience in coping with them At die elementary school level, anxiety
 PcTSonality taclors in Learnmg
408

and
Zax, Klein, Izzo,
generally deprcsbes scholastic achievemenl (Cowen,
Trost, 1965, Feldliusen and Klausmeier. 1962,
Lunneborg, 1964. Reese,
motivational
1961, Sarason, Hill, and Zirabardo, 1964) In high scJiool, as the
effects o£ anxiety become stronger relative to its disruptive effects, the nega
decreases, par-
me correlation between anxiety and academic achievement
ticularly in bojs, It IS either weaker or entirely absent when grades are used

as an index of adiievement (Sarason, 1961, 1963, Walter, DeixzJer, and Sara-

college
son, 1964) This weak negative or rero correlation also prevails at the
level (Alpert and Haber. 1960, Grooms and Endler, 1960, Spielberger
and
Katzenme^er, 1959), or is replaced by a positive relationship between anx-
iety and academic achievement (Lundin and Saw)er, 1965), especially among
academically superior students (Spielberger, 1962) In higlily structured
learning tasks such as programmed instruction, a positive relationship has
been reported between anxiety and achievement (Kight and Sassenrath,
1966. Traweek, 1964) This finding is consistent wiUi the fact Uiat anxious
when compulsive, do much better in highly structured
pupils, paiiiculatly
learnmg situations vvhere novelty and the need for improvisation are nun
imal

Anxiety and IntelUgence

Research evidence indicates almost uniformly that there is a low but
significant negative correlationbetween anxiety and intelligence (Cowen,
Zax, Klein, Izzo, and Trosi, 1965, Feldhusen and Klausmeier, 1962, Feld
husen, Denny, and Condon, 1965, Hainct and Kaplan, 1959, Sarason, Hill,
and Zimbardo, 1964, Spencer, 1957, Spielberger and Katzenmejer, 1959,
Wnghlsinan, 1962) These findings are consistent with die previously dis-
cussed inverse relationship between anxiety and novel problem solving,
they suggest that in a threatening test situation, the negative effects of
anxiety on complex learning tasks overshadows its positive motivational
effects on test performance Another equally plausible explanation of this
relationship is dial the low IQ individual may feel generally anxious as a

A less likely mterprctalion is Uiat

result of his inferior school achievement.
anxiety maj actually depress the development of intelligence rather than
merely depress performance on an imelligencc lest

Dogmatism and Audioniartanum

Dogmausm, as poinleil out abosc. is Imili a„ ajp£„ „£ cogniiisc slsle

and an alTcciise social pcnonality traiL It is sell-esidenlly related to the
fomiaiioit of beliefs and salue ludgnienu, inhibm pioblcm solving and
synilicnc limiting, and is posimely
coirelaied nub anxiety (Fillenbaum
Personality Adjustment and School Achtevtment 409

and Jackman, 1961, Rokeach, 1960) Some of its more important compo
nents according to M
Rokeach (1960), include (a) closedmindedness un —
willingness to examine new evidence after an opinion is formed, a tendency
summanly to dismiss evidence or logic in conflict with one’s position, (b)
a tendency to view controversial issues in terms of blacks and whites, (c)
—
opimonation a tendency to form strong beliefs, highly resistive to change,
on the basis of equivocal evidence (d) a tendency to reject other persons
because of their beliefs, (e) a tendency to isolate contradictory beliefs in
logic tight compartments, and (f) intolerance for ambiguity —a need for
early closure in reaching conclusions about complex issues
Authoritarianism is a related personality trait that is characterized by
orthodoxy, veneration of traditional beliefs, and a tendency to overconform
uncritically to the views of authority figures (Adorno, Frenkel Brunswick,
Levenson, and Sanford, 1950) The authoritarian personality tends to be
ethnocentric, prejudiced against minonty groups and intolerant of ambi
gmty (Adorno, Frenkel Brunswick, Levenson, and Sanford, 1950), and he
IS found more commonly m
lower class and low occupation groups (Adorno,
Frenkel Brunswick, Levenson, and Sanford, 1950, Livson and Nichols, 1957)
Students making high scores on scales of authoniananism are more likely
to structure novel stimuli in rigid fashion, to reach closure more quickly,
and to change their attitudes in response to prestige suggestion {Duncan,
Signori, and Rempel 1964 Harvey, 1963, Wnghi and Harvey, 1965)

Personality Adjustment and School Achievement

Several lines of evidence indicate tliat poor personality adjustment is

associated with inferior academic achievement Both teachers ratings of
adjustment (Ausubel, Balthazar, Rosenthal. Blackman, Schpoont, and Wel-
kowitz, 1954b, Ullman, 1957) and scores on the California Ps)chological In
veniory (Gough, 1964) are moderately correlated with such criteria of success
m school as grade point average, completion of high school, and graduation
with honors High achievers in school indicate fewer problems on the
Mooney Check List (Frankel, 1960), and are characterized by such traits
as high ego integration, independence, matunty, and responsiveness to cul
tural pressures (d Heurle, Mellinger, and Haggard, 1959) Negative self
concept in kindergarten is predictive of poor progress in reading^" (Watten

- Tlie identification of negative

self concept at kindergarten age m
this study
precludes the interpretation that all of the inverse relationship between personality
adjustment and academic adiievcment can be attributed to the negative effects of
scliool failure on the self concepts of pupils
410 Penonalily Factors in Learning

berg and Clifford 1964) W B Bnx»ko\er, S Thomas, and A Patterson

(1964) found that positive self-a)ncept is assoaated vvitli higher

achieve-
ment in four subject matter areas Academic success is correlated with
realistic goal setung (Bjers, 1962) and with self-confidence and clear voca
tional goals (Todd, Terrell, and Frank, 1962)
It IS hardly surpnsing, of course, that personality maladjustment is

negauvely related to scliool achievement, inasmuch as all of the symptoms

of sucli maladjustment self-evidently interfere in one way or another with
the cognitive and motivational factors promoting effective longterm learn-
ing First, a common complex of symptoms assoaated with diffuse brain

damage, namely, hyperactivity, hypenmtability, distractabiliiy and emo-

tional lability, impedes effort, attention, and persistence Second, we have
already observed that, in elementary school, school achievement correlates
negauvely witli anxiety despite die
high achievement motivation charac-
terizing this conditionThird, severe withdrawal reactions obviously render
any kind of longterm learning impossible Fourth, exaggerated aggressive-
ness leads to hosuliiy toward the teacher, uncooperaiivcness, and a nega-
uvtsuc attitude toward learning^ Fifth, lack of self-confidence is associated
with failure totry, easy discouragement, learning blocks,’ and a tendency
*

to withdraw from difficult situations Sixth, school achievement depends,

m large measure, on such attributes of personality
matunty as responsibility,
execuuve independence, longterm goals, impulse control, and
persistence
ability to defer graufication of hedonistic
needs Lastly, both personality
maladjustment and infenor school acliievement
are correlated with lower
soaal class suius and cultural depnvauon,
and hence with each other The
more common signs of personality maladjustment
assoaated with these
rondiuons are low aiieniion span,
hypcracuvity. aggressive rcacuons, low
level of academic aspiration, and
personality immatunty
Tuo Ollier laclors Jso help accouni for ihe micisc
relalionship be
laeen pcrsonaliiy maladjuilmeni and
school achiesemenl. In ihe Brst place.
*e cause an^aelTecl aipccl ol ihe relaiionship
obnously norls in bolh di-
«cl,ons school achiesemenl a delenn.nani as nell as a consequent of
^^nahty adjusunenl. Second. „ ataost impossible to eliminate the
halo edea ol ea* sanable on the
other, teachers tend bolh
to dostngrade
“diusted children, particularly if they
Se a'^r“
')P<™«i'e. and to gise poor adjusunenl
raun,?^rrr’
sures of ar.r
ol achievement
®
and adjustment are used.
“-"'“HI objccise
^
mea

^ “lenufy ksi ^,th their parents (Long

ureih and Rite
 —
Personality Development and Mental Health ResponsibtliUes 411

The Personality Doelopment and Mental

Health Responsibilities of the School

Most reasonable persons would agree today that the legitimate func
tions of the school extend beyond the development of intellectual skills
and the transmission of subject matter knowledge The school also has un
deniable responsibilities with respect to mental health and personality de-
velopment, simply because it is a place where children spend a good part
of their waking hours, perform much of tlieir purposeful activity, obtain
a large share of their status, and interact significantly with adults, agemates,
and the demands of society By virtue of their interaction with teachers
and peers and of their participation in curricular and extracurricular school
activities, adolescents, for example, make significant strides toward eman

cipation from parents and the acquisition of adult personality status

Particularlyduring adolescence, current problems of adjustment
vocational choice, emancipation from parents, somatic deviations, relation-
—
ships with peers, adults, and members of die opposite sex are very real
and important to pupils Psydiologically, these developmental tasks are too
urgent to be ignored Hence, education must perforce be concerned with
problems youth consider to be important If young people perceive the
school as uninterested m
tliese problems, they react either by losing interest
m the academic areas the school values or by feeling guilty for being pre
occupied With supposedly trivial matters If current concerns are not re
heved, they inevitably serve as distractions from academic responsibilities
Hence, as long as the organizational, administrative, disciplinary, and
interpersonal asjiects of the school environment inevitably affect the mental
health and personality development of its future citizens, it obviously be
hooves society to arrange these matters as appropriately and constructively
as possible Nevertheless, because the mental hygiene role of the scliool has
been oversold and misrepresented so frequently by educational theorists.
It will be worth our while to consider some of the more serious misconcep
tions about the mental health functions of the school

The Primary Responsibility of the School

To we need to recognize that the pnmary and distinctive

begin with,
function of the school in our society is not to promote mental health and
personality development but to foster intellectual growth and the assimila
tion of knowledge The school admittedly has imjxirtant responsibilities
with regard to the soaal, emotional, and moral aspects of die pupil s de
velopincm, but cernmly these are only supplementary to those of other
412 / erional ly Factors 1 1 Learning

soaalizing agents &uch as die home dtediurch and the neighborliood The
sdiools role in intellectual desclopmcnt hoiveier is mcontroicrtibly pri

raar) Furdiermore much ol the schools legitimate concern ivith inter

personal relations in the classroom docs not stem merely from interest in
enhancing healthful personality dcselopment as an end in itself no matter
how important this objeeme may lie It also reflects appreaation of the
negatne effects whidi an unfasorablc soaal and emotional school climate
has on academic adiiesement on moiisauon to learn and on desirable
attitudes toward intellectual inquiry For example if pupils feel unhappj
and resentful aliout the disapline and social environment of the school
they will neither learn very mudi while iliey are in school nor remain much
longer than Uiey have to And if they are goaded by fear to accept unent
icall) the views of
tlieir teadiers and to memorize materials they do not

reallyunderstand they neither Icam how to think for Uicmselves nor build
the foundauons of a suble and usable liody of knowledge

The Ltmtts of iNormahty

As was long true in ilie area of physical hygiene some educators also
und to exaggerate die senousness and jiermanence of the effects on mental
health of minor deviauons from the norm of desirable
hygienic pracuce
There IS evep reason to believe however that a
wide margin of safely is
the rule both in physical and mental health
Wiihm fairly broad limns
many different kinds of teadicr jicrsonaJuy
structure and ways of relating
lo children arc corapaiible
«.ai norma! mental health and personality
de clopmenl m
pttpih Tills pnncplc applies
iihen either mddl) undesir
able classroom practices p.esad
ore, an extended period of time or rrhen
more «noiis der.aliont from optimal
standards occur occasional!) In gen
eml children are no, nearly as Iragde
as rre roles, ,o behere and
detelop permanent per«maht) , do not
dtsabtht.e, from lempomry
exposure to
TZrrta
m appropriate'T"r
Furlhennore many popds
^rreniry r^^ard
trho manifest signs ol behartor

tre"^fe„"f„7LrnT,t4T„r;Lr‘T™‘^^
adjustment a, Itome or m the
peel gJup

The Cult of Extroierston

hare succumbed toVil professional leaden

Fonne,., a pupd aould be -^ed mTe

Tie TeacI er’s Responsibthly 413

boisterous aggressive and refractory to discipline Now it is the child who

IS reserved contemplative and unconcerned about the opinion of his peers
who arouses the clinical concern of the cliild guidance specialist Similarly
many excellent teachers v\ho bap|>en to be shy and introverted are viewed
with alarm by their psjchologically onented supenors Yet there is ab-
solutely no evidence that they impair their pupils mental health even
though they may conceivably be less |x>pular as individuals than their
extroverted colleagues and as far as pupil popularity is concerned it has
been definitely established that ihts characteristic may be a grossly mis
leading index of social adjustment An ostensibly popular pupil may be
littlemore than a stranger in his group in terms of the depth of his at
tachments or may be popular simply because he is docile conforming and
willing to be directed and used by odiers (Wittenberg and Berg 1932)
Contranwise the pupil who is unpopular because of temperamental shy
ness or strong intellectual interests is not necessarily socially maladjusted
or inevitably fated to become so (Nfoms Soroker and Buruss 1954)

The Teachers Responsibility in Handling

Personality Maladjustment

It IS important for teachers to recognize that their responsibility in

handling personality maladjustment in iheir pupils is at most extremely
limited In the first place the origin of serious maladjustment does not
typically he in the school but rather in the home and neighborhood and
sometimes in brain injury or genically determined temjjeramental traits
Hence amelioration of the condition largely depends on factors outside the
school environment and beyond the teachers control Second valid diag
nosis and appropriate treatment of personality maladjustment call for qual
ifications that obviously extend beyond the teachers training and comj>c
tence
Available evidence indicates that teadiers are not very successful in
assessing the personality makeup and adjustment of their pupils Tlicy
cannot predict very accurately pupils responses to questions on their hob
bies problems and personality cliaractenstics (Amos and Wadi
interests
ington 1960 H
L Baker 1938) their motivations and academic *tijving»
(Ausubel 1951 Ausubel Schiff and Zeleny 1954b) their scores on objtr
live and projective tests of adjustment (Ausubel Schiff and /deny
VJHib)
and the extent to which they are accepted by their classmates (Aiitubd
Schiff and Gasser 1952 Bonney 1947 Gronlund 1950) IJicte, Uutr jx.r
ceptions become increasingly more inaccurate as pujiiJi progass ihroueli
the grades (Ausubel Schiff and Gasser 1952 Moreno
1934)
It is not difficult to find explanabons for tins sija
of affur# eacfiers I
 Perionaluy Factors in Learning
414

standards and salues that operate

are simply not aware of the disimcuse
adolescence, the estrangement
m the h>cs of their pupils By the age of
has made considerable progress and is
beisseen children and their elders
often compounded by the ouinghi hostility and anu
adult attitudes mam
tested by youth Channels of communication break
down and teachers are
behasior at face saluc or by their own sundards
obliged to interpret pupils
and frames of reference back upon mterprcuve biases from recol
They fall

lections of their own norms of behasior that pertain

adolescence and from
exclusisely to their own backgrounds In evaluating other
middle-class
aspects of the adolescents personality or adjustment, Uiey are also
not
school
unnaturally influenced by his conformity to the requirements of the
situation As pointed out above, lialo effect accounts for some of the
mod
erately high correlation between high school pupils school achievement
and teachers ratings of personal adjustmenL Teachers also tend to over
value the populaniy of children with whom they have satisfactory relation
ships (Bonney, 1947, Gronlund, 1950)
implicauons of these findings are obvious If teachers cannot ac
The
curately perceive the interests attitudes moiivauons, aspirations, and prob-
lems of iheir pupils, they will naturally be unable either to counsel them
very mtelligently or to adapt effecuvely the interpersonal climate oC the
school to the speaal personalty needs of those who are maladjusted. Lack
mg adequate understanding of pupil behavior, die) v^ill be unable to inter
pret misbehavior, to respond adequately to it, or to institute appropnate
prevenuve and disciphnary measures. And unfortunately, aliliough general
knowledge of child development does (aahtate the understanding of par-
tictilar pupils. It is no subsutuie for adequate psychological perceptive

ness or suStaent intimate contaa with pupils.

Ability to empathize with pupils does not, of course, obbgate teachers
to adopt their values, nor does it guarantee effectiveness in dealing with
them Underslandmg is necessary but not suffiaeni for skilled mietpeisonal
relauonships or eSecUveness in counseling, since many other abiliues and
personality traits that are probably uncoirelated with psychological sensi
uvity (poise, self assurance, finnness leadership qualiUes) are necessary for
translaung accurate percepuons into appropnate interpersonal behavior or
skill in guidance

Thus, the teacher’s actual role in handling the beliavior disorders lies
m recognizing signs of venous maladjustment and m
refemng disturbed
pupils to counselors, school psychologists, and p,ydnatnsl
5 It is important,
however, Uiai they view realuucally what these *
experu" can typically hope
to accomplish Fim. it is evident that counseling and psychotherapy have
been greatly ovcnold. The analogy of mcnul disease to physical disease is
sull quite euphemistic, unce mcompaiably less is known about the causes,
nature, and treatment of the fonner than about
corresponding aspects of
The Teacher's Responsibility 415

the latter Second, many of the so-caUed ps)chologicaI "experts” in the

scliools have had little more clinical training and supervised clinical experi-
ence than teadiers Lastly, even the well trained counselor, clinical psjchol-
ogist, and ps)chiatnst frequently lack the psychological empathy,
sensitivity,
and perceptiveness necessary for valid personality assessment This much is
evident from the fact that when counselor use impressionistic interview
and anecdotal data (in addition to grades and aptitude test scores) in pre-
dicting the academic success of pupils, their predictions become less (rather
titanmore) accurate than predictions based on the objective measures alone
(Meehl, 1954) This, of course, does not argue for the elimination of trained
clinical judgment from the assessment of personality adjustment, but, rather,
for the use of more sensitive cntena in selecting empatliic clinicians
 Chapter 12

GROUP AND SOCIAL FACTORS

IN LEARNING
context
Since satooL learning takes place in a soaal
teachers must obviously concerned uiUi group and soaaJ factors that
impinge on the learning process As a member of a classroom group
a
his
pupil s mouvation for learning the Kinds of motivations he exhibits
soaal behavior his personality development and certainly the salues
and
auvtvsvies he learns are adecied by Uts xmeractiott wtdt other pupiU Hot*
then is Ills learning m school influenced by such group variables as working
v»ith and in the presence of ageroaics cooperauon and competition con
formity to group norms relative responsiveness to peer versus adult expec
taiions and die soaal-cmolioiial climate ol die classroom/ %\e shall also
v.aiil to consider how the pupil s membership m a sex, social class ethniG
and racial subgroup alfecis the motivational and atutudinal aspects of school
learning \pari from general classroom climate the teachers contribution
to die social context m —
whicJi learning occurs his role personality cliar
—
acierrsiics and teadnng style ^will be reserved for the folloviiog chapter

It must be appreciated at Uus jiomi that many group and soaal fac
tors impinging on scliool —for example
learning authontanamsm in the
classroom cooperation and compeution conformity and m clianges with
age individual diflercnces in onentation to group experience the aliena
uon of pupils from adult souety soaal class straVihcaiion raoal and ethnic
factors mouvaiional asjiccts of cultural deprivation and so forth—do so
quite iTidireclIy by affecting lx>lh die learner's degree and kind of mouva
lion lor acquiring subject matter knowledge and bis mode of assimilating
cultural norms and values Their relevance for educational psychology is
dicrcfore less immediate and mote tattgiotial than that, ot cogniVvve {actors
motivation or such jienonality factors as anxiety and dogmatism Never
Uicless they must still be taken into account both by
the teacfier and by
sie
ClasiToom Chrriale 417

ihc educational i»)chologi&t in a&sc&sing all of the significant deteiminants

of academic pcrfonnance To a must first be under-
certain extent, also, they
stood as phenomena in their oun on school learn
nglit before their impact
mg can be evaluated Hence a mtnunal background of developmental and
social ps)cliological data and discussion is presented below to serve tins

purjxisc It IS not intended as complete coverage of the topics in question,

or as a substitute for the more definitive treatment whicli these topics re
ceive in courses in developmental and social psjcliology vvherc tliey are
and not merely in relation
quite pro]x:rIy considered as ends in tlicmscivcs
to their milucncc on academic achievement

Classroom Climate

Although the weight of the evidence indicates that the dioice between
authoritarian and democratic classroom climates in the United States has
on subject matter achievement (G G Stem, 1963), there is good
little effect

reason to believe liiat it has profound effects on attitudes toward scliool, on

general social behavior m the school, and on the learning of adult values
(Ausubel, 19C5b, G G Stern, 1963) It seems reasonable to suppose that
as children become older in a democratic society, particularly at adolescence
and be)ond, authoniarian controls should be progressively liberalized to
meet increasing needs for self-determination and growing capacities for self
direction and scif-disciplinc Tins is generally the case in most American
secondary scliools, but prevailing practice in many schools still falls far
behind desirable standards of democratic classroom practice
In general, overt compliance is die most common response that pre
adolescents and adolescents make to excessive authoritarianism in die class-
room, especially if they are girls and if they come from middle class homes
that place a great premium upon success in scliool Adolescents from oilier
backgrounds, however, may neacC widi open aggressron and JtosCdiCy to
teachers, with negativism, or with passive sabotage Still others may drop
Out of school as soon as it is legal to do so Yet even those adolescents who
apparently become overtly reconciled to a continuation of an incongruously
submissive childliood role probably do not really accept the authontan
anism to which they outwardly defer, but respond with suppressed resent
ment and variously negatively toned emotional reactions
The widespread immature attitudes of New Zealand adolescents toward
authority illustrate some of the undesirable behavioral effects of an overly
authoritanan secondary school regimen in a generally egalitarian soaety
(Ausubel, 1965b) First, m
public situauons. New Zealanders tend to defer
excessively to the opinions of authority figures and to overconform to their
dictates Second, coexistent with tins exaggerated public deference to au
 Learning
Crfiup and Social Factors in
418

among uni\ersiiy students, is a puenle species of defi

ihonty. parucularly
hand,
ance. and an impulse to reject traditional %alues out-of
irresistible

to taVe outrageously extreme positions,

and to shock the senstbiVtues o
of resered
convenuonal folk tviih sacrilege profanity and the desecrauon
s)-mbols Tliird, because of resentment touard
a discnminaiory type oi
o%eihabiiuaUon to CKiemal controls, many secondary-
auihoniananism and
school pupils adequately to miemalize recognized soaal norms and
fail

individual restraints Hence they feel quite justified in violating rules and
asserting themselves vshen autlionty turns its back. Finally, the dislincuve
feature of adolescent misbehavior in New Zealand is simply a more exag-

gerated and generalized expression of anti adult feeling and puenle defiance
. of adultauihoniy In its most extreme form, bodgieism, it is basically a cult
of exluhiuonisuc nonconformity, out-ol bounds loutishness, and of studi-
ously labored rejection of adult respectability /Vmong its multiple causes
must certainly be counted vvidesprcad adolescent resentment of an inappro-
priately authontanan type of disapUne and subordination relative to other
age groups mNew Zealand soaeiy It bears some relation to the beatnik
movement m
tlie United States but occurs in a younger age group, is less

mtelleaual m its manifestauons, and is more directly aggressive rather than

philosophical m its protest
Older children and adolescents also do not satisfactorily internalize
values tiiat are indoctnnaied in an authoritarian fashion if the adult culture

Itself u organized along democratic and egahunan hnes Under these ar-
cumstances they feel unjustly treated and discnnunaled against, and not
only do Uiey tend to resent the authontanan disnpline that is imposed upon
them, but also to conform to adult standards only under Uiteat of external
compulsion Thu is parucularly true if they perceive that many adults do
not honor these sundards but, nevertheless, presume to punish them when
ever Uiey are guilty of lapses Hence, when adults preach die virtue of hard
work, ambition, responsibibiy. and self-denial, but do not practice these
virtues themselves m
occupaUonal life, children tend to emulate their ex-
ample rather dian dicir precepts Tliey beoime habituated to slaving and
working hard under external pressure hot fail adequately to internalize
these values. Thus,when Uiey finally enter the adult vocauonal world and
the customary audiontanan demantk for conscientious effort are lifted, the
tenuous structure of their disaplined work habits tends to collapse the m
absence of genuinely internalized needs for vocauonal achievement.
Expcnmenlal studies of the unpaa of authoriunan leadership on chil-
dren s groups also point to vanous undesirable eficcu on
group morale and
soUdanty (Lippitt. 1940) In comparison with duldien
tn democraucally
governed groups, pupils who arc subjected to autocratic
control are more
aggressive, direct their aggression against
Kapegoat group members radier
uian against die group leader, and
adopt more submissive, placatory, and
Classroom Climate 419

attention demanding attitudes in dealing with the leader They also mam
fest less we feeling, show less capaaty for mobilizing constructive group
’

effort m overcoming frustrating conditions, and are less capable of self

disciplined work and behavior when direct supervision is removed H H
Anderson (19-13) obtained similar findings in studying the effects of "dom-
inative and integrative behavior by teachers
’ '

There has been, however, a strong tendency on the part of educators

to overgenerahze the significance of these findings In the first place, the
authontanan leaders in the Lippitc study were hostile and unfnendlj, and
tended to give disruptive commands Typically, authontanan leadership
tends to be more friendly, subtle, and benevolent, and thus has less damag
ing effects on social behavior and group morale Second, the effects of
autocratic and democratic classroom climate are relative, in part, to the
personality structure of individual students Students who have a strong
need for direction and organization react favorably to a directive approach
and very critically to a more permissive one (Wispe, 1951) Most important of
all, Jt is undoubtedly ethnocentric to claim that only democratic teadier

pupil relationships are compatible with normal mental health and person
ality development Many examples of authoritarian Western cultures (for
example, Germany, Italy, Switzerland) exist m
which all of the indices of
mental health and mature personality development compare very favorably
v/ith those prevailing in the United States Hence it is obviously not au

Uioritananum itself that has damaging mental health consequences, but

rather the existence of authontanan practices in home and school that are
incrongruous with the general pattern of interpersonal relations in the
culture at large
Children are able satisfactorily to intemahrc adult personality traits
and mature attitudes toward authonty, even in an authontanan home and
school environment, providing that (a) personal, social, and working rela
tionships among and (b) adults generally
adults are similarly authoritarian,
make as stringent demands on themselves do on young people In
as they
countnes like Germany and Switzerland these latter conditions prevail, and
therefore authoritarianism in home and school has few adverse effects on
mental health and personality development In New Zealand and the United
States, on the other hand, authoritarianism in the home and secondary
school has more serious effects because it contrasts sharply with the egali
tarian and generally relaxed character of vocational and social life in the
adult world (AusubeJ, J965b)
In all cultures, however, even those vvlucli are generally authoritarian,
there are credible grounds for supposing that an authoritarian classroom
climate would generate the same effects on thinking and problem solving
as does the authoritarian personality, and lead to less effective group plan
ning, teamwork, and self direction R Spaulding (1963) found tliat punitire
420 Group and Social Factort in Learning

teachers emphasizing shame tedmique of control tend to inhibit pupil

as a
creatuiiy It also seems likely that an autliontanan and punitive dassroom
climate would increase the anxiety level of less able and anxious pupils
and make tJieiu more defensive about exposing their inadequaaes
Partly as a reaction against traditional autliontanan practices a small
minority of schools and teachers under the inlluence of ultra permissive
doctrines of child rearing have instituted a laissez faire social climate in the
classroom This approach permits pupils to do as they please emphasizes
freedom from restraint and discipline as an end in itself stnvcs for lack
of structure and organization in school activities and conceives of frustra
tion as an unqualified evil to lie avoided at all cost Under such catch as-
catch can conditions
aggressive pupils become ruthless whereas retiring
children become even more withdrawn Observation of groups in which
this pattern prevailsshows that it leads inevitably to confusion in
security and keen comjietuton for pov\cr among group
memben (R Cun
ningliam ISol) Pupils fail to learn die normative
demands of soacty and
how to oi>eraic within the limits these set
do not learn how to deal efiec
lively with adults and develop unrealistic exiiectations
of Ute social stnic
ture of vocational life

Interaction among Pupils

-ndiududly or m
pnscnce ol olhers on Uic ,.rc and nature of the group and
on nlteliier

ort,rcr^n“emT„"°ri™ir“‘’ ^ p™**""*

a stimulus generating contagious

beliav.rl t
^ “
:r
"

a conea tolut.on „ factl.tated by

hypotheses (dttcigcnt thinlung)
gLera^ra "’'Taltcrnaltse
grotti. ellorf ,s
dividual effort {\| Goldman * apparently su|>cnor to in

:::i;;go';:L""heraV.n:^r<:.T”^
™nnfthe,rod„rtso,.ts‘n^;rt=”^^^^^
Interaction among Pupils 421

other words, largely because it increases the possibility of having

live, in

one person who can arrive independently at the correct solution

at least
This advantage however, is vitiated if the group is so congenial (Back,
1951 Shaw and Shaw, 1962), or if its leadership is so personal (Fiedler, 1958)
that considerable group time and effort is diverted into purely social activity
or pleasant conversation Also if the task requires evaluation or deasion
making, cooperative deliberation and the reaching of consensus is usually
superior because it avoids the pitfalls of idiosyncratic or extreme judgment
(Barnlund 1959) Although group support undoubtedly reduces anxiety
and enhances confidence in problem solving situations, it also reduces, by
the same token, individual responsibility and initiative
The cohesiveness (congeniality) of the group may also affect the out
come of Its collaborative work m a problem solving situation The mere
presence of congenial co workers may increase the effectiveness of coopera
may enhance motivation by increasing task attractiveness, and
tive effort,
may provide a source of mutual social reinforcement upon successful com
pletion of the task (Lott and Lott, 1961, 1966) This, at least, appears to
be the case for cohesive groups composed of high but not of low IQ in
dividuals (Lott and Lott 1966)
Group another limiting factor in the group problem solving
size is
situation in a small group eacli individual can make a contribution and
thereby increase liis problemsolving skills In a large group on the other
hand, the individual s opportunity for participation is not only limited by

the number of participants but also by the fact that the more aggressive
group members tend to take over and monopolize the problemsolving ac
tivity (Carter, Haythorn Lanzetta, and Afairowitz, 1951)

Third, if the learning product of each group member is used as our

criterion of success m
the former problem solving situation, it is evident
that the less able members of the group can accomplish more than they
could individually, by virtue of being stimulated by and being able to adopt
the ideas and strategies of the more able pupils (Gurnee, 1962) In effect,
they enjoy the benefit of pupil tutors Thus, the gam m
skill is always
greatest among low ability pupils and among pupils working with superior
partners (M Goldman, 1965)
rourth, certain tasks (for instance, the drafting of a rejxirt) requiring
consergcnt thinking, intense concentration, and persistent attention to de
tad can self evidently be performed more efficiently on an individual rather
than on a group basis This is obsious to anyone who has ever worked on
a committee
Fmally, as ixjinted out earlier, self paced, individualized (programmed)
instruction is a much more efficient and less iime-consuming metJiod of

learning the cstablislied content of a discipline than the traditional recita

Uon or Iccture-djscussion approacli used in most classrooms Discuision, on
422 Group and Soaal Fatlots in Learning

ihe Other hand is die most effective and reall) the only feasible method
of promoting intellectual groMih uith respect to the less established and
more controsersial aspects of subject matter It prosides the best means of
broadening the pupil s intellectual horizons of stimulating lus thinking
through cross-fertilization of clarifying hts \iesvs and of measuring their
cogency agairut the viesvpoints of others Interaction widi peers further
more helps the pupil overcome both his egocentncity and his cliildhood
perception of adults as die absolute source of truth and wisdom widi regard
to all value judgments He learns the extent to which both his ideas and
those of die teacher represent idiosyncratic positions along a broad spectrum
of opinion whose validity is indeterminable

Indtvtdiuit OrtmlalioTi to Group Experience

V brief word might be said at this point about pupils differential per
sonality onentations toward group experience The child s idiosyncratic
manner of relating to significant persons in the family setting has ample
opportunity to become solidified long before he is ever permitted to venture
unmoniiored from the home It is hardly surprising dierefore tliat this
approadi to interpersonal experience with lus earliest soaalizere sliould be
generalized to other kinds of social situations To the satelhzing child the
peer group provides derived status much m the same way as the parent
except that the status-giving audionty resides
m
body of which a corporate
be himself is part By relating to it he obtains
the same spontaneous we
feeling that he experiences in the family
group
The noniatelhzer on the other hand cannot
ataume an intemahted
ponuon of sell subserviency relauon to the group Tlte field ot tntra
poup lelauons like the home ts no place lor tse leehng- tt is just an
^llaggrandtrentent. He does not subordinate h.msell
group interests or
Ckpenenre s^ntaneous saiislaciion in
greganous acuvity Escry soaal mote
ts ^e y dehberated lor the posstble adtantages that Lay
° “ ‘“PP''"* >'‘= Lndieue manu
lactre of aT.

rte LlaLe'^LTr ' » E-'en s.tnat.on He ts

i
lurtesung t, canons status
Ld.
wiui prestigeiul
pTentnul membership from .dent.fieat.on
h or reference ptoutt* h..* , ,

merely as a graiu.toits lonn ot » incorporated

'ancemcnl or as a springboard for
die reahzauon of personal
satellmng onenmuon to
ambm^
group expcncnce
ercasingly
g y to cliaraclcnze
atametenre lie**
d e ma.nnng
****** trnds on a nonnative basis
leiiS'"''
m
snd.t.dnal as he approaches
adult
426 Group and Social Factors tn Learning

Conrormity is a self consistent nonnaHy distributed personality trait

with a fair amount of generality from one situation to another (Vaughan

1964) The tendency to conform to group opinion is greater die more attrac
live group membership is perceued to be (Kinoshita 1964) In general
particularly during the adolescent period girls are more conforming than
boys (Tuma and Livson 1960) and as one might anticipate from the data
on authontariamsm conforming tendenaes are greater among lower class
(Tuma and Livson 1960) and religious (Fisher 1964) adolescents
Conformity to group standards depends for the most part on the in
temalization of sliared expectations and of a set of norms whicli the group
members themselves help to formulate overt pressures and sheer physical
force are relatively minor factors (Shenf and Shenf 1964)

The group nomu that are roost binding

and most oonsequenttal tn die members
sctieme of concerns are the ones that regulate
matters of solidarity among members
and that set standards of conduct m
the very spheres of motivational promptings
that (bring] them together The most tightly knit groups those obsened [are]
whose members [have] fewest stable ties with other groups and instuuiions hence

268^*^
importam to them (Shenf and Shenf 1961 250pp

Group solidanty is iheretore highest in low ranh neighborhoods in

all groups loweier the range of acceptable
behavior exliibits least latiluile
for Uie leader and high slaius members in
matters related to the mam
poup activities and of lojalt, the leader
ZTl
exemplar (Shenf and Shenf 1964
is expected to be the
179)
* ”^®**^*7 for iwo important reasons
that the peer group demand

Z
roncirt

ha
due rteard ItvT'"® t.“"“r’
First no tnmtutmn espeaally

“y *'"6* »' me
willtoul
f ""fotm
to a se^ ol J regular and predictable adherence

Li de.™™.
»">* “ -'»'= a unique set ol criteria for
m .is Z
adult s«.ctv wl^ 1
r
“r'
'“'“'S' g'-P
“ m“S”>tably disunct and
"- <<> -verithmg
separate from the
aitualiv auatn^i ! T “ !" dts.tncm eness ts to be
Second contonmiy'.,'aZnZTrm""“’' "> ’'ed
IS necessary to olfei ellect.ve
of adult auihoritv If no ,
oZ
and rganizcd
‘'’'= S^^up solidanty that
resistance to the encroachments
adolescent behavior is standard of
to

p:iL„t:iLL:“rr
an Z7Z ii.--'.ZdZL“TrLLlz‘Lm'’LT
%:z:i z
Conformity and Individuality 421

acceptance Much more so than the child or adult, he is desperately depen-

dent on die peer group for tvhatever status and security he is able to adueve
during these hectic years of transition The group implicitly and explicitly
makes clear to him that it expects conformity to its standards, interests,
activities, and value systems in return for the moral support, the feeling of
belongingness, tJie attributed status, and the opportunities for earned status
that It extends to him, and he in turn, like any person with marginal status,
is what little status he enjoys
excessively sensitive to the threat of forfeiting
as a result of incurring the disapproval of those on whom he is dependent
Thus, to allay the anxiety from the threat of disapproval, he tends to con
form more than is objectively necessary to retain group acceptance or to
avoid censure and reprisal
After he wins an assured place for himself in the group, still other
factors reinforce conforming tendencies He learns that group approval
brings a welcome reprieve from anxiety and uncertainty If liis group ap
proves, he can feel absolutely certain of the correctness of his position
reelings of loyalty, belongingness, and indebtedness also influence him
to render conformity automatically as a voluntarily assumed obligation
Finally, if these implicit group pressures and internalized restraints and dis
positions of the individual are insulHcienc to keep him in line, explicit sane
tions are imposed Depending on the seriousness of tlie offense and the func
tions and nature of die group, ilie punishment may vary from ridicule,
censure, and rebuff to physical chastisement and complete ostracism
It IS clear, therefore, that die adolescents margmahty of status makes
him prone importance of conformity and to exaggerate the
to overvalue the
degree of conformity required for acceptance by the peer group Sociometnc
studies show that adolescents consistently overestimute the status of popular
individuals and correspondingly unJeresuraate the extent to which deviant
or low prestige jicrsons are accepted by die group (Ausubel,
1955) Some
evidence also points to the conclusion that apparent disregard for the group's
approval tends to enhance the individual s soaometric status by making him
appear above the need for currying favor with others (Newsletter, Feldstein,
and Newcomb, 1938) Hence, many perfectly safe opportunities for the ex
pression of individuality are lost
In the light of the structural properties of their peer group and of pre
vaihng overconforming trends in the culture at large, it is small wonder
that American adolescents tend to overvalue conformity and expediency
and to
avoid independent thinking and ideological commitment In the
adolescent peer culture of Frame City, R
J Havighurst and Taba H
(1919,
p 87) found that accepting familiar stereotypes [was] one outstand
‘

ing cliaractenstic
of most beliefs Individual positions deviating from
the generally
accepted code [were] feared and shunned This [was] shown
y hesitancy m
expressing opinions contrary to common beliefs, and by
428 Group and Soc al factors in Learnt g

ajjproMng wrong l>eIiavior if most of one s associates [were] involved in the

act There [was] a marked tendency to subordinate individually
held posi
uons to both adult and peer group opinion even when
ones own positions
[were] considered morally right Other expressions of these same conform
mg tendenaes include the approved attitude of
coolness toward and
emotional detadiment from moral and
controversial issues and the low
status accorded intellectuality and
intellectual status in most peer groups

Qualifications and Positive ispects

3 ''*cw of these seemingly negative fea

tures of adolescent conformity
a is important that we now consider some

Zn.Tr"' 1*“"™ The transfer of allegtencer

By P^vptltng a new
o Zee ‘
f “ ,
tource

nerlon he 1 " T bPPl'PPvtng at a wveretgn

" switching his basic lojahics to the peer

the adolescent taL group
!oZeofha" LZiZ” ""“""Pfion He fiVds f new
P PBe emotional anchorage
liad hitherto kent to parenu that
him
Cmtng °n tfs IrsT. '‘‘w''"'''"
*”
""‘B of clttldhood
‘‘'P'"'''"-
nght standards he affirms his own
to self deteimination on” w"***
longer need he iraDliciilvsi.h from them No
ran dclcnmne what ,s
nght The' Zr'Z''' T'
strength m
combating authoritv “ bulwark of
and throwing up bamer,
ference adolescents manage to
of one kind LZ Z S'°‘'P’

exclude
the coernons that
[adultsl are
TltepeergroupsdZteIl.,?,[Zr
nrone Z >hemsclvcs from
P 220)
of ideas and moial lalues lu '"“‘'"p 'P’'“'
Jl T
noms” 'B' “O-liscent with a new and
stable frame of reference T"'''*'
from unccrtainiv and conduct It furnishes relief
indcasion
mg feeling and Wiaving
liiause
wme halo of sanctity surrmm i
Z “Bout pro|jcr wajs of think
group is never dignified by the
more frcd> w.Ui
functZrnn ® exjienment
sonal and logical ^
approach to
of this new aciive ^ *ore full exploitation
indcpcndem i
obviously limited by approadi to moral values is
liis mar* .n-xi .
group norms The conform to peer
difference liou
standards liecause
he conforms to external ”
consciomlv^^
toll.crU,a„hccau«:hc,,„p/,e„,,,„^‘i^""/';'J*P'*™0^ of so doing
Conformily a id Individuality 429

Finally the dreary picture of adolescent conformity must be qualified

by certain limiting factors In the first place its existence tends to be re
stneted to the particular developmental requirements of the adolescent
period liiat induce it One of the surest signs of approaching adulthood is
a resurgence in the legitimacy of deviancy Second along witli their con
forming tendencies adolescents display a concomitant urge to be unique
to acliieve individuality and separateness After the young adolescent has
submerged himself in the group to die point where he cannot be criticized
for nonconformity he tfien proceeds to gain recognition for himself
as an individual (Tryon 1914
p 223) He must be careful hovvever to keep
his urge for uniqueness and creativity within the narrow framework of ac
ceptability recognized by the group Lastly as we know from the history
of innumerable youth movements there is among many adolescents a vig
orous strain of exuberant idealism and impatient dissatisfaction with many
outmoded traditions and features of contemporary life This aspect of ado-
lescent personality when channelled intelligently constitutes a most stra
tegic means for effecting social cliange

Conformity and Individuality

A Prescription for AdoUscetils

^Vhere do all of these developmental and cultural considerations re

garding conformity and individuality leave us in proposing a feasible and
morally defensible prescription for adolescents?
The crucial role of the peer group as a socializing agency and as a
source of earned and attributed status counsels a ceruin minimal degree
of deference to its standards during the self limited period when such an
exaggerated premium is placed on the value of conformity During adoles-
cence deviants are not m
an enviable position In varying degrees they all
face social ndicule abuse and isolation The fortunate ones achieve some
measure of status and secuniy by forming warm attachments to agemates
of their own kind Sometimes a sympathetic adult fnend or teacher will offer
them affection direction and encouragement Often however they are left
to flounder uncertainly to drift further and further away from group living
to develop feelings of anxiety and infenonty to withdraw deeper and deeper
into themselves or into a compensatory world of unreality
As far as the wider community is amcemed the adolescent should be
encouraged to adjust satisfactorily to the kind of world that currently exists
not the kind adults wish existed but as yet have been unable to create
Even while endeavoring to change them it is necessary to recognize estab-
lished lav%s and customs irrational or otherwise (Partridge 1947) This does
not imply that the status quo must be impliatly accepted for what it is but
 Group ond Sacfol factors in Learning
430

rather that a mature attitude lot\ard soaal

change be adopted, an attitude
encourage tlie adolescent to baiter his head
against the tvall
tliat does not
‘

of custom simply because these customs are

inconsistent
peer
Houeser, this nimimaj and desirafaJe degree of conformity to
group standards and soaal custom is still a far cry from advocating a
policy

hunting vath the hounds Those who counsel adolescents would be

of
remiss in their responsibility if they failed to appreaate the importance
of

nonconformity for the optimal differentiauon of personality struaure, for

self realization, and for the development of moral courage and tlie
ability

to stand alone without group support Counselors must also be sensitive to

individual differences in the need to conform The highly self assertive teen
ager, for example, can only restrain his individuality to a point, and the
introvert inevitably draws a line beyond whidi be refuses to partiapaie in
exhibitionislic activities The adolescent who has a highly developed set of
moral or religious convictions may refuse to condone the practices of lus
group Other individuals may have all absorbing interests that are regarded
Witli scorn by their agemaies Finally, as has already been pointed out, the
mental hygiene dangers of nonconlormny and social unpopularity have been
vastly exaggerated Even the peer group tolerates much more deviancy than
the adolescents anxiety and marginality of status lead him to believe

Adult Venus Feer Group Norms

It IS impossible for anyone to leacli m a secondary school or college for

any length of umc without becoming aware of the fact that a distinctive
adolescent subculture exists, and that tlie values of this subculture are partly
at variance with those of the adult community This alienation is
a source
of concern for tlie school because it extends beyond such peripheral matters
as dress and language and tends to be focused on the value of academic
acluevement Adolescents accept scholastic achievement as necessary for
college entrance and for the middle-class rewards ol managerial
and profes-
sional status, but they do not typically regard u as
a legitimate basis for
high status in the peer group or as a value worth stnving
for m
lU own
nght (Coleman. 19ol, J B Marks, 1951) What arc some of the
origins of
this adultyouth abcnalion?
Adolescents in our culture, naturally, have the same needs
for greater
earned status and volitional independence that
adolescents have
pnmmve and traditional cultures But die greater complexity of
more m
our tech-
nologial society nccessiUlcs an extended
period of education and economic
dependence on parents, prolonged vocauonal training,
and the postpone-
ment of marriage well beyond the age of
sexual matuniy Under dicsc ar
cumsianccs, the adolescent cannot experience
any real volitional indepen
yiduU imus Peer Group Nor/ru 431

clence in Uie adull sense of Uie lerm, and can obsiouslj acquire onl> a token
earned status outside the mainstream of the adult culture He not onl) re
sents his exclusion from adult splieres of independence and status-gising
actisities, but also tends to resent sucli aduk-conirolled training institutions
as tJiehome, die school, and eanous joudi organizations because they con
duct their training functions cnurel) 3{>art from any opportunity for him to
exerase \olitional independence, or to acquire earned status within the
context of the adut culture Hence, he is alienated from adult staiuvgiwng
actiMties and from adult training institutions, and. accordingly, from adult
standards as well
Tins alienation from adult soaety, coupled with the accompanying
resentment and prolonged frustration of his needs for adult solitional
independence and adult earned status, has two serious consequences namely,
the generation of aggresstse anti adult attitudes and the compensatory forma
tion of distinctise peer groups with distinciue sundards, slatus^ving
actisities, and training (unctions of their own The aggressive anti adult
onentation not only promotes furtlier retaliatory rejection of adult stan
dards, but also makes it more diBcult for adolescents to idenufv with adults,
to obtain any aitnbuted status from such identification, and currently to
accept adult values impliatly The formation of peer groups, on the other
hand, increases the existing adult youth alienation Preasely how it does
these things deserves more detailed scrutiny

The Role of the Peer Group

m Adult-Youth Alienation

Because all adolescents are in the same boat, so to speak, because they
share the same deprivation of their needs for adult status and independence,
the same alienation from adult soaety, the same resentments, and tlie same
anu adult attitudes, because they feel they are not wanted do not belong,
and are excluded from the larger scheme of things, they reach out toward
each other for mutual support and for providing in concert die dungs that
they want but cannot get individually (Shenf and Shenf, 1964)
Thus since the modern urban commumty is unable to provide teen
agers unbthe kind of earned status, lohuonal independence, and training
m soaal skills that they desire, the adolescent peer group is constituted to
gratify, m part these cruaal needs. It
is the only cultural institution in
which their position not marginal, in which they are offered earned status,
is
independence, and soaal idenuiy among a group of equals and in which
their own activities and concerns reign supreme The peer group is al</^ the
major training insutution for adolescents in our soaety It is in the peer
group that by doing they learn about the soaal processes of our culture
They clarify their sex roles by acung and being responded to, they learn
132 Croup and Social factors in Learning

competition, cooperation, social skills values, and purposes by slianng the

common life' (Trjon, lO'M) The peer group provides regularized media
and occasions for adolescents to gratify their newly accjuired desires for
increased social contact with the opjiosite sex, as well as a set of norms
goserning adolescent sex behavior
By virtue of performing these essential functions, the jiccr
group also
displaces parents as themajor source of attributed status during adolescence
By and acquiring acceptance in the group, by subordinating
identifying with
himself to group interests and by making himself dependent on group ap-
proval, the adolescent gams a measure of intrinsic
selfesteem that is inde
pendent of liis achievement or relative status in the group This *
wc feeling
furnishes security and belongingness, and is a powerful ego-supj)ort and
basis of loyalty to group norms
How docs
of tins increase adult youth alienation? In the first place,
ill

the adolescents very membership

in a distinctive j>ccr group, with its own
staiuygiving activities, standards and training
separate subculture apart from adult
functions, puts him a m
society Second, since the ticer group
IS composed of his kind of
jKoplc and since he is largely dcijcndcnt on U
for his volitional indejKndcncc for his earned and atinhuied
status, for his
^elongingticsi and for htv opixirtunities to acquire
n social skills and
lends to assimilate lu standards As he
resjionsivc to lU approval
and disapproval, he
lo adult norm, and valuL,
to adult
suggestion, and to adult
approval and disapproval Lastly,
exaggerated needs for rigid confonniiv ^ the iscer eroup's
® wuioiTniiy lo
to Jis
.. Horms, as well as us power to
eic-yrt c
“ " “ “"‘'1“' ‘b.l.ty w
thm nTdr urd satisfy

Hut adult JOUII, alicnalioi. .s also not an all-or none matter That is

ror::.\ar: rdeT'^
all". „ t r®" r
t -u™
8'""-'
'ad^u^utlai e"
»dln„ each
'''"hto.ttn,
OnTrthes cZ T '"T-“ tr.tl. adult soc.cty
other ts a Wacv Z t-r Ihc future, the

adolescents paiucularl'y
ilZ'from 'i'll
'
'T' m
from adult .landards and “re alienated
|>teoccui»ed acl“cving vicarious forms of
adult status and
independence in iho
engaged in and iiUeiLly
concerned v^iTr
that serve as stcnpinii
stones m V
and other pursuits
*'^'***
to full membership adult sociav Thc^
m the {)ctr groui>— that
iii

ii ih^ .i I
V
mdejwndcncc and
«/limare goals are not high
status
prcstigLl ^hle'te. the dancer, !hc most
mm
successful faddist, tl.e most popular and most
Adult versus Peer Group Norms 453

frequently dated girl, the most daring drag racer, the most shockingly so
tlie crowd
phisticated or anti adult person in —
but rather, well paying pro-
fessional ormamgerial jobs, hnanaal security, a comfortable home in the
suburbs, marriage and a family Tlicy also realize that attainment of these
goals requires longterm stnving, self denial, postponement of immediate
hedonistic gratifications, the approval of persons in authority, restraint of
and avoidance of an unsavory or delinquent reputation
aggressive impulses,
Furthermore, the assimilation of new peer group values does not by any
means imply complete repudiation of previously assimilated adult values
Thus. It greatly overstates the case to daim that adolescents are entirely
oblivious of adult approval, that they completely reject adult values, stan
dards, and aspirations, and tliat they manifest no feelings of moral obligation
to abide by earlier assimilated nonns of conduct This much is clearly evi-
dent when we pause to consider that one of the principal functions of the
peer group, in addition to providing its own distinctive set of standards, is
to transmit from one generation to the next the appropriate social class
values, aspirations, motivational patterns, and character traits that adoles-
cents are often unwilling to accept from parents and teacliers, but are
willing to accept from their agemates It is easy, therefore, to exaggerate the
existing degree of adult youtit alienation As a matter of fact, both parties
tend to perceive it as greater than it actually is (Hess and Goldblatt, 1957}
Indeed, where conditions are propitious, the norms of the peer group include
the same intellectual concerns and excitement that prevail among the college
faculty (Newcomb, 1902)
It must be admitted, however, that the progressive moral detenora
tion characterizing our culture since World War II has tended to undermine
the counterbalancing effect of these two factors (aspirations for genuine
adult status and previously assimilated adult values) on adult youtli aliena
’
tion First, since the adolescent preceivcs adults as being able to get ahead
without fully exemplifying tlie traditional middle class virtues, he is
naturally led to believe that (a) he too can achieve the adult status and
ituLependetvce he craves wmSwaiv \lvoto\igWy acquiring vhese same virtues
himself, and (b) adults are not really concerned whether or not he acquires
these virtues Thus, he is not as highly motivated as pre war adolescents were
either to develop such traits as self restraint, willingness to work hard, a
sense of responsibility, impulse control self denial, personal integrity, and
respect for the rights and property of others, or to seek adult approval for
so doing Further, the middle class peer group, which has the responsibility
for transmitting middle class standards to Us members, can transmit only
those standards that actually exist Second, the adolescent s realization that
adults do not actually live up to the standards that he had implicitly ac-
cepted in childhood as axiomatically right and proper, tends to undermine
his impliat belief in these standards and in his feelings of obligation to
434 Group and Social Factors in Learning

abide by them When diildren become sufficiently mature to interpret adult

behavior for what it actually is, tliey are impressed more by example than
by precept Lastly, the adolescents awareness of Uie gnevous lack of moral
courage m the adult world and of the premium that adults place on con
formity and expediency furnishes him wiili a very poor model for holding
fast to lus moral convictions in the face of group pressure

Sodal Sex Role and the School

The quite different social sex roles of boys and girls at all age levels
have important effects on their respective adaptations to the school environ
ment By virtue of their differential training in the home, girls find it mucii
easierthan boys to adjust to the demands of the elementary school have We
already observed that they are more intrinsically accepted by parents,
satellue more, identify more strongly wnili amhonty
figures, have less in
needs for independence, earned status, and emanapauon
sisient
from the
home, and are more habituated from the very beginning to
docility, sedate-
ness, conformity to social expectations, and restraint
of overt physical ag
grcssion It is hardly surprising, dierefore.
dial boys find it correspondingly
more difficult to idenufy with the school,
with the teacher, and with class-
room activities Girls play scliool as readily *
as they play ''house.’' whereas
any normally robust boy would not be caught
dead playing cither game.
It 1 $ not only that most elementary
school leacliers are women, but also
that feminine values prevail ,n the
school with respect to what is tauglit and

"'Otlesty. paying aitenuon to

"‘t
' '«'“> in liandl.ng yerbal symbols, and the
Vr
control ol fidgcuncss, curiosity,
and aggresstscncss
G.rls also receive much
considerably scolding and reproval from teachers
less
pieycr and Thompson, 19o6) In terms of cultural
expettauons and peer

Sru^r’sirrT
or Uie male sex role m elementary "PP">P"«= lor the female than
and junior high school At this age lesel
“ cellectl fl 1^:
ta erteuit'rr'"'
°
'‘ca"ous status
n
boys furnish a dis-
p opTrt ortelare d
Lh^rPhi^mird'
ladically change
Acadcmm'tducitmm“b^rK'rmo''“”
and. accordingly, die "laJe virtue
acluevemenf ira
close Boys uith Imv
m.rms.c selfesL^ a„rh;h ?nxi“y
slamt^tL'::
Socid/ Class Stratificalion and Education 435

do their female counterparts to find compensatory ego-enhancement and

anxiety reduction in sdiool achiesement, and gifted bo>s tend to maintain
their high IQs better in late adolescence and adulthood

Social Class Stratification and Education

The social class membership of a pupil has jmjxirtant implications for

achiesemcnt, his aspirations for academic success, his achievement
his sclioo!
motivation, and his attitudes toward school It is true, however, that social
are becoming increasingly less distinct now as
class differences in these areas
college education becoming more available to and prevalent among lower-
is

class groups (Havighurst and Neugarten, 1962) Nevertheless, there is still

a moderately high relationship between socioeconomic status and school
aduevemeni (Havighurst and Breese, 19-17, Havighurst and Janke, 1944,
Janke and Havighurst, 1945, Pierce Jones. 1959a and b). and by the time
pupils reach junior high school age this relationship is greater than that
between IQ and achievement But it is important to note tliat
(Kahl, 1957)
membership on sdiool achievement
the characteristic impact of social class
does not prevail among high ability sixth graders (R L Curry, 1962), after
studentsentercollege (Wasliburne, 1959), or in upwardly mobile populations
(Udry, 1960) Apparently, the limning effects of social class conditioning
cease to operate as fully be>ond certain cmical ability and aduevement
levels Once students exceed these levels, tliey seem to be influenced more by
the new student subculture with vvhtdi they identify than by their social
class origins The difiiculiy for lower class pupils, of course, lies in entering
college in the first placeTypically, because of either financial or raotiva
high school graduation marks the terminal point in the educa
tional reasons,
twnal careezs ol most intellectually able lower class youth (Havighurst and
Neugarten, 1962)
Recent research (Ausubcl, 1965a, Hanson, 1965, Shenf and Shenf, 1964)
has made it clear that youth of all socioeconomic ranks has assimilated the
scholasivc and vocational aspirations assooated with material affluence in
modern Western society It is not the appropriate aspirations that are lack-
ing therefore, but rather those factors that are necessary for their imple-
mentation, namely, underlying needs and motivations for achievement,
supportive personality traits, and perceived pressures and opportunities for
academic and occupational success (Ausubel, 1965a, Rosen, 1964) In the
first place, lower class parents do not place the same value that middle class

parents do on education, finanaal independence, social recognition, and vo

cational success Hence, they do not really encourage, to the same extent
the implementation of these aspirations by voicing appropriate expecta
 Learning
Groufi and ioctal factors tn
436

demands, ciisiiensing suilable reiiards and punish

lions, making unequisocal
of the necessary supporuse iraiu
menls, and insisimg on die deselopment
(Ausubel, 1965a) .

dubious atxiut
Second, since lo3ser<lass adolescents are understandably
the attainability of the promised rcivards of stnsmg
and self-denial for
same internalized needs for
persons of vheir status, ilte^ do not desclop the
socauonal achievement and presuge, and thus see less point in
deselopmg
supportive
to the same degree as ilierr middle-class oiniemporanes the
academic
middle-class personality traits necessary for the acliicvement of
and vocauonal success (A. Dans 1943) These supporuve traits include

habits of initiatiseand responsibility and the 'deferred gratification pattern

of bard work, renunaauon of immediate pleasures, long range stnving. im
pulse control, thrift, orderliness, punctuality, restraint of sexual and aggres-
sive urges,and willingness to undergo prolonged vocational preparation
(A Davis, 1913, Havighurst and Taba. 1949, Schneider and Lysgaard, 1953)
It IS hardly surprising therefore, that lower-class children are less
interested in reading ilun are middle-class children, take their school work
less senously. and are spend the years of their youth in school
less vv tiling to

in order to gam higher presuge and social rewards as adults Lacking the
strong ego-involvemeni which middle-class pupils bnng to scliool work and
which preserves Uie attracuveness of academic tasks despite failure expert
ence, they more quickly lose imticst m school if they are unsuccessful
Lower and imddle-class adolescents didcr markedly both tlieir soaal m
value systems and in Uieir vociuottal interests Middle-class youths and
tlieir parents are more concerned with community service, self realization,

altruistic values, and internalized standards of condua (Kahn, 1959, Stefllre,

1939), and prefer demanding, res|wnsible. and presugeful occupauonal pur
suits (Pierce Jones. 1959a and b. Sewell, Haller, and Strauss. 1957) They
also make higher vocational interest scores in the literary, esthetic, per-
suasive, sacntific, and business areas than do lower-class adolescents The
latter adolescents and their parents, on Oie odier hand, place greater stress on
suclt values as money, security, respectability, obedience, and conformity to
autlionty, and tend to prefer agrtcviUural, mechanical, domestic service, and
clerical pursuits. In ilie school environment
respond more than middle-
tliey
class pupils do to such learning incenuves as praise and
material rewards
(Terrell. Durkin, and Wesley. 1959. Zigler and de Labry,
1965. Zigler and
Kanzer, 1902)
Tlie v\orking class mothers desire for unquesUoned
domination of her
offspring, her preference for harsli. puniuve,
and suppressive forms of
control, and her icndencv to maintain considerable
social and emouonal
distance between herself and her children
arc probably responsible, in part,
for the ^eater prevalence of the
auihonianan personality syndrome in
lower than in raiddle-dass cliildren
(Dickens and Hobart. 1959. I Hart.
Social Class Slratificaiion and Educaiioa 437

1957, Ijp$et, 1959) Louer'clau children tend to develop ambivalent atu*

tudes tovsard authonty bgures and to cope Hith tins ambiv-alence by malang
an exag^rated show of overt, impbat comphantx, b) maintaining formally
appropnate soaal distance, and by interacting with these figures on the
basis of formalized role attributes ratfier tiian as persons Their underlying
hostility and resentment toward and often unfair authonty is
this arbitrary
later expressed in sucli displacedforms as scapegoaung, prejudice, extreimst
pohtical and religious beiiavior, ethnocentnsm, and delinquency (Dickens
and Hobart, 1959, Hart, 1957, Lipset, 1959) They are coerced m
scliool by
tile norms of tlieir peer group against accepting the teacher's authonty,

seeking her approval, or entenng into a satelltzing relationship with her.

Social Class Bias of the School

Most teacliers m
Amencan schools have middle-class backgrounds
But even if they do onginate from oilier soaal class environments, they still
tend to idenufy with tlie school's impltat mission of encouraging the de*

velopmenc of middle-class values Thus, quite apart from the issue of

ivhether tins mission is appropnate and desirable for our culture, teachers
find It difficult to undersund die goals, values, and behavior of pupils from
other soaal class backgrounds Normal eUinocentnc bias predisposes them
to believe that their owti class values are self-evidenily true and proper, and
that deviauons therefrom necessanly reflect waywardness On die other hand,
since middle-class boys and girls behave in accordance with their expecta
tions and accept the standards of the scliool, teachers are usually as preju
diced in their favor as they are prejudiced against children from other soaal
strata.

Understanding the background and values of lower-class children does

not, of course, imply acceptance of their attitudes and behavior when these
are m conflict with the objecuves and standards of the schoolIt merely im-
plies suffiaent awareness of relevant background faaors to make possible
intelligent interpretation of the behavior of lower-class pupils and the avoid
anceof discriminatory attitudes and pracuces toward them
In addition to their natural indmations to reward conformity to middle
class ideology, teachers are influenced by other pressures, both expliat and
iraphat, in giving preferential treatment to pupils whose families enjoy
high soaal status Middle and upper-class parents are active m
avic and
School affairs, members of school boards, and leaders in parent teacher
assoaaiions Even if no expliat pressures are exerted, teachers and school
admimsirators, knowing on what side their bread is buttered, are disposed
to see things their way Teachers arc also inuimdated somewhat from taking
action against refractory but popular members of leading student chques
Hho, when supported by tlieir cliquemates, may be surprisingly rebellious
 Croup and Social facton in Learning
438

reluctant
(Hollmgshead, 1949) Under such arcumstaflces, many
teachers are
the enmity of pupiis who are
to force a shot^doun that rvould provoke
of their parenu
mnuential in Uteir own right as well as through the position
the retention of
organization of the high school also tends to favor
The
middle-class pupils and the earlier dropping out of lower-class pupils A
disproportionate of the latter are placed in slow learning sections—
number
also, more in
not only on the basis of low ability and motivation, but
formall), because of their sooal background (Hollmgshead, 1949,
Havig
of
hurst and Neugarten, 1962) Similarly, a disproporuonate percentage
low er-class pupls are lonnd «v the vocawontil commeraal, and general hi^
school cumculums rather than in the college preparatory cumculura Thus,
as a result of being typedand stigmatized as members of these low prestige
groups, and of enjoying relatively low scliolastic morale lower-class pupils
are more disposed to drop out of sdiool
The values of the dominant peer group in high school are predomi
nantly based upon middle class norms and standards, chief of which is
aocepiana: of the importance of gelling good grades (Havighursl and Taba,
1949) Middle class adolescents participate more in extra curncular activities
and occupy the choice elecuie and activity positions (Havighurst and Taba,
1949, Hollmgshead, 1949, H P Smith, 1945), and evidence suggests that
pupils whose behavior conforms best to the extracurricular norms and ex
pectaiions of Lite school also do better academically (Weinberg, 1964) More
impxirunt. perhaps, arc the subtle and intangible barriers to participauon
in ihe mote mumaie crowds and cliques, very Imle crossing of social class
lines occurs in clique organization (Hollmgshead, 1949) Boys and girls from
lower social class strata bitterly resent ihc paironiring and condescending
attitudes of their more fortunate contemporaries They feci snubbed, un
wanted, and left out of things When this situation becomes too intolerable
Itundoubtedly influences Uicir decision to leave school (Havighurst and
Taba, 1949, Hollmgshead, 1949, Johnson and Legg, 1944)

Raaal Factors in Education

All of ihe foregoing properties of die lower class environment

also apply
to die segregated Negro community Most auihonties
on Negro family
life agree tfiat well over 50 percent of
Negro families live at die very lowest
level of the lower-class sUndard (M C Hill. 1957) In addiuon, however,
Negro families are diaracienzcd by a disproportionate number
of illegal
and loosely connected unions (\f C Hill. 1957) Illegitimacy
is a very com
mon phenomenon and is assoaated with relatively little soaal stigma in die
Negro community (Cavan, 1950)
Negro families arc much more unstable than
comparable lower-class
Racial FacloTs m Education 439

white families Homes are more likely to be broken, fathers are more fre

quently absent, and a matriarclial and negative family atmosphere more

commonly and others, 1956,
prevails (Dai, 1949, Deutsch, C Hill, 1957) M
Thus, the lower Negro diild is frequently denied the benefits of bi-
class
parental affection and upbringing, lie is often raised by his grandmother
or older sister while Ins mother works to supiJort the family deserted by the
father (Deutsch, and others, 1956) One consequence of the matriarchal
family climate is an open preference for girls Coys frequently attempt to
adjust to this situation by adopting feminine traits and mannerisms (Dai,
1949)
Negro family even more auiliontanan in nature than is that of
life is
die lower social class generallyChildren are expected to be obedient and
‘

submissive” (M C Hill, 1957), and insubordination is suppressed by harsh

and often brutal physical punishment (Dai, 1049, C HiU, 1957) ‘South M
ern Negro culture leaches obedience and respect for authority as a main
spring of survival(Greenberg and Fane, 1959) Surveys of high school and
’

college studentsshow that authoniarian attitudes arc more prevalent among

Negroes atall grade levels (Greenberg, Chase, and Cannon, 1937, Greenberg
and Fane, 1959, Smith and Prodiro, 1957)
Being a Negro also has many other implications for the ego development
of young ciuldren that are not inherent m lower class membership The
Negro child inherits an inferior caste status and almost inevitably acquires
die negative self-esteem that is a realistic ego reflection of such status
Through personal blocked opportunities, and unpleasant contacts
slights,
with white persons and wuh institutionalized symbols of race inferiority
(segregated schools, neighborhoods, amusement areas) and more indirectly —
through the mass media and the reactions of his own family he gradually —
becomes aware of the social significance of racial membership (Goff, 1949)
The Negro child perceives himself as an object of derision and disparage
ment, as socially rejected by the presiigeful elements of society, and as un
worthy of succorance and affection (Deutsch, and others, 1956), and having
no compelling reasons for not accepting this officially sanctioned negative
evaluation of liimself, he develops a deeply ingrained negative self image
(V W Bernard, 1958, Wertham, 1952)
In addition to suffering egodeffation through awareness of his inferior
status in society, the Negro child finds U more difficult to satellize and is
denied much of the self esteem advantages of satelhzation The derived status
that IS tlie principal source of childrens selfesteem m all cultures is largely
discounted m
his case since lie can satellize only m
lelation to superordinate
individuals or groups who themselves possess an inferior and degraded status
Satelhzation under such conditions not only confers a very limited amount of
derived status but also has deflationary implications for selfesteem can We
understand, therefore, ivliy young Negro rfiddren resist identifying with
440 Group and Social Factors tn Learning

their otsn raaal group tvhy they seek to shed their identities {Deutsch, and
otners 1956) 4»h) they more frequently choose white than Negro plajinates
(Stetenson and Stewart, 1958) why they prefer the skin color of the cul
turall) dominant caste (Clark and Clark 1947 Goodman, 1952) and why
they tend to assign negatne roles to children of their own race (Stevenson
and Stewart, 1958) Such tendenaes persist at least into late adolescence and
early adult life insofar as one can judge from the attitudes of Negro college
students These students tend to reject ethnocentric and anti white ideologies
and to accept authontanan and anti Negro propositions (Steckler, 1957)

Educational Achievement of Aegro Children

Partly as a result of unequal educational opportunities Negro children

show serious academic retardation They attend school for fewer years and,
on the average learn much less than wlute children do (Ashmore. 1954,
Bullock, 1950, Cooper 1964 Osborne I960) One of the chief reasons for
diis discrepancy is tlie inferior educauon and training of Negro teachers who

themselves are usually products of segregated educauon The inequality of

educauonal faalmes exists not only m
the South but also in the urban
North, where, for the most pan segregation in fact prevails
(Smuts, 1957)
Eighty four percent of the top 10 percent of Negro
iugh sdiool scored below the nauonal mean on
graduates m
one southern
the Scholastic Aputude Test
(Bullock 1950) Thus the mcenuve of readnng
the average level of pro-
fiaency in the group is not very siimulaung
for Negro children, since the
mean and even the somewhat supenor child m
this group are sail below
grade level Teachers in segregated schools also
tend to be overly permissive
and to emphasize play skills over academic
achievement, they arc^ceived
their pupils as evaluaung them
^ ncgauvely and as more concerned with
behavior than with school work (Deutsch
and others 1956)
Even more important perhaps as a cause
of Negro educauonal retarda

ralue.Thuj i Th^
>nd tacc are unable to a^re^e
Uiey do not ptotide acute,
m
ttholchearted suppon for hich letel
academte performance by dcntandtng
couocnuout
tendance from thetr chddren
Furthermore, bccaute of then
larg^^amthes

»rLTdTe':ur"rb!:.r-"„v\r^"^
:‘e.r?™erh“
. egro puptlt are undoubtedly
handicapped tn academte atutnment by
Racial Factors tti Education •441

a lower average le\el of intellectual functioning than is characteristic of

comparable white pupils In both Northern and Southern areas, particularly
the latter, Negro pupils ha\e significantly lower IQs (Carson and Rabin,
1960, Dreger and Miller, 1960. Osborne, 1960) and are retarded in anth
metic reading language usage, and ability to handle abstract concepts
(Bullock, 1950, Osborne, 1960) The extreme intellectual impoverishment
of the Negro home over and above its lower social class status reflects the
poor standard of English spoken in the home and tlie general lack of books,
magazines, and stimulating comersatton

Educational and Vocational Aspirations

All of tilefactors inhibiting the development of achievement motiva

tion and its supportive personality traits in lower class children are intensi
fied m the segregated Negro cliild His over all prospects for vertical social
mobility, although more restricted, arc not completely hopeless But the
stigma of his caste membership is inescapable and insurmountable It is
inherent m
his skin color, permanently ingrained in his body image, and
enforced by the extra legal power of a society whose moral, legal, and re
hgious codes formally proclaim Ins equality
B C Rosen compared the educational and vocational aspirations of
Negro boys (age 8 14) and their mothers to those of white Protestant
Americans, French Canadians, American Jews, Greek Americans, and Italian
Americans The mean vocational aspiration score of his Negro group was
lower than the mean scores of all other groups except the
significantly
French Canadian Rosen concluded that although Negroes have been

exposed to the liberal economic ethic longer than most of the other groups
their culture, it seems is least likely to accent achievement values The Negros
history as a slave and depressed farm worker and the sharp discrepancy between
his experience and the American Creed would appear to work against the achieve
ment values of the dominant white group Typically the Negro life situation does
not encourage the belief that one can manipulate his environment or the convic
tion thatone can improve his condition very much by planning and hard work
(Rosen 1959 p 55)
Negroes who might be expected to share the prevalent American emphasis
upon education face the painfully apparent fact that positions open to educated
Negroes are scarce This fact means that most Negroes in all likelihood do not con
sider high educational aspirations realistu^ and the heavy drop-out in high school
suggests that the curtailment of educational aspirations begins very early (Rosen
1959 p 58)

Ethnicity was found to be more highly related to vocational aspirations

than was soual class, sizeable ethmc and raaal differences prevailed even
when the influence of soaal class was controlled These results are consistent
442 Group and Sofia/ Factors tn Learning

tliat white students tend to prefer

With Uie finding very interesting jobs,
whereas Negro students are more concerned witli job security (Singer and
Stefflre, 1956)

Sex Differences

Negro community show much greater superionty

Girls in the segregated
oter bo)s in academic, personal, and social adjustment than is found the m
culture generally (Deutsch and others, 1956) They not only outperform
bo)s academically by a greater margin, but also do so in all subjects rather
than only in language skills (Deutscli, and others, 1956) They have higher
adiictement needs (Gaier and Wanibath 1960, Grossack, 1957), have a
greater span of attention are more popular with classmates, show more
mature and realistic aspirations assume more responsible roles, and feel less
depressed m comparing tliemsehes with other children (Deutscli, and others,
1956) Substantially more Negro girls than Negro boys complete every level
of education in the United States (Smuts 1957)
Adequate reasons for these differences are not difficult to find Negro
children in this subculture Ine in a matnarchal family atmosphere where
girlsare openly preferred by mothers and grandmothers, and where the male
sex role is generally deprecated The father frequently
deserts the family
and in any case, tends to be an unreliable source of economic and emotional
security (Dai, 1949, Deutscli and others, 1956) Hence, the moUier, assisted
perhaps by her mother or by a daughter, shoulders
most of the burdens and
responsibilities of cluld reanng and is the only
dependable adult with whom
the child identify In this environment male
diauvinism can obtain little
foothold The preferential treatment accorded
girls is even extended to
opiwnunilies for acquiring ultimate primary
status If the family pins all of
Its hopes on and makes desperate
sacrifices for one child, it will
often be a
daughter in preference to a son Over and
above his handicaps at home,
Uie Negro boy also faces more obstacles in
the wider culture in realizing liis
vocational ambitions, whatever they arc.
than the Negro girl in fulfilling
her adult role expectations of housewife,
mother, nurse, teacher or clerical
worker (Deutscli, and others. 1956)

Implications for Education

Racial Factors m Education 443

changes in ego-struciure can be accomplished in ii\o different but comple

mentary tsays First, all manifestations of die Negro s inferior and segregated
caste status —
must be sisept away in education, housing, employment,
religion, travel,and exercise of civil rights This in itself will enhance the
Negro s self esteem and Ojicn nev\? opportunities for self fulfillment Second,
through \anous measures instituted in the family, school, and community,
character structure, levels of aspiration, and actual standards of acliievement
can be altered in ways that will further enhance his self-esteem and make
it possible for him to take advantage of new opportunities
DESEGREGATION Desegregation, of course, is no panacea for the Negro

childs personality difficulties In the first place, it tends to create new prob-

lems of adjustment, particularly when it follows in the wake of senous

community conflict Second, it cannot quickly overcome various long
sundmg handicaps which Negro children bring vviih them to school such ‘

as their cultural imjxnenshment, their helplessness or apathy toward learn-

ing, and their distrust of the majority group and their middle class teachers’
nor can it compensate for oversized classes, inappropriate cumculums,
‘
m
adequate counseling sen ices, or poorly trained or demomUzed teachers"
(V W
Bernard, 1958, 158) Yet it is an imixntant and indispensable
p
first step m the reconstitution of Negro personality, since die school is the
most strategically placed social institution for effecting rapid diange both
m ego structure and in social status A desegregated school offers the Negro
child his of soaal equality and his first ex]>enence of first class
first taste
citizenship He
can enjoy the stimulating effects of competition with white
children and can use them as realistic yardsticks in measuring his own worth
and diances for academic and vocational success Under these circumstances,
educational achievement no longer seems so pointless, and aspirations for
higher occupational status in the wider culture acquire more substance
It IS also reasonable to antiapate that white children will be prejudiced
and continue to discriminate against their Negro classmates long after de
segregation accords them equal legal status m
the educational system Atti
tudes toward Negroes in the South, for example, are remarkably stable, ev en
m periods of rapid social change involving desegregation (Young, Benson,
and Holtzman, 1960), and are not highly correlated with anti Semitic or
other ethnocentric trends (Geenbeig, Chase, and Cannon, 1957, Kelly,
Person, and Holtzman, 1958, Prothro, 195^ Prejudice against Negroes is
deeply rooted in the American culture (Raab and Lipset, 1959) and is con
tinually reinforced both by the soao economic gam and by the vicarious ego
enhancement it bnngs to tliose who manifest It (V W
Bernard, 1958, O
Herr, 1959, Rosen, 1959) It is hardly surprising, therefore, that raaal
prejudice is most pronounced in lower soaal class groups (Westie, 1952),
and that these groups constitute the hard core of resistance to desegregation
(Killian and Haer, 1958, Tumm, 1958) Increased physical contact between
444 Group and Social Factors m Learning

white and Negro children does little to reduce prejudice (Neprash 1958
Uebster 1961) but more intimate personal interaction under favorable
arcumstances signihcantly reduces social distance between the two groups
(Kelly Person and Holtiman lOaS Mann 19o9 Yarrow Campbell and
Yarrow 1958)

COMMUNITY ACTION 1 hc Support of parents and of the Negro com

muniiy at large must be enlisted if we hope to make permanent progress in
the education of Negro children This is the case because the cliaracter of
the ghetto community largely determines what goes on m
the slum school
It IS therefore wholly unrealistic to contemplate significant
change in the
school achiesement of Negro cliildren without involving tlie Negro family
and community (Conant 1061)

\Vhaie\er can be done to strcngtlicii family life and to

gue the fathers a more
important role in it will make a significant
contribution to the development of
Negro potential (Smuts 19o7
p 462)
Working with mothers and getting them to adopt a
more positive
auiiudc toward school is an imporunt first step
m
improving the cduca
tional adiiovemcnt of urban Negro
children (Conanl 1961) Typically only
10 percent ol Negro parenu arc high school
graduates and only 33 percent
complete e ementary school (Conant
1961) Thus enrollment of parenu
tn adult education programs ssould
signihcantly raise the cultural level ot
the Negro home and stimulate an interest in nesvspapers magazines and
possibly even Imoks One ot the troubles ts that when the chfldren leave
”")‘>’'"8-not even newspapers
onr ^ ptojcct in New York City

ch.ldrer^„“r‘
’’i
“
T"‘ “
'"‘'O'" »cf1™.cally Ulented
>“ “P'to 1° college education
Thif ntoemi
-ntproved coLsehng and
inslniction and die sympathetic °
involscment of parents

the l“wer!!^i''nrh!'n“N“
“‘''‘•“Mes m the structure of

ch,ire:^p;L^r,=^:,r4=“‘er“ r'""
ascendent oser die >>ccomc
affiliative dnsc for sdioof'^d'ij”'''’
 —
Mottvaling Ike Culturally Deprived Pupil 445

U> offer appropnate educational and 50caUonal guidance, to encourage

Morthuhile and realistic aspirations, and to stimulate the development of
mature personality traits In view of Uie serious unemployment situation
among Negro )outh, they should also assist m
job placement and in cushion
ing the transition between scliool and work. This will naturally require
much expansion of existing guidance services m
the school
Research has shown that Negro childrens distrust of white counselors
and authority figures m
general makes it extremely difficult for a white
counselor to develop an interpersonal relauonship with a Negro student such
that the latter can gam appropnate insight into his problems How can the
counselor ever hope to view the personal or soaal worlds as his chent does
as he must necessanly do if he wishes to be effective in the counseling situa
—
tion if a vvhite person can only imagine but never really know how a
Negro actually thinks and feels or how he perceives most personal and social
problems? “The cultural lenses whtdi are formulated from unique milieus
’
are not as freely transferable as it is assumed, or as we are led to beheve
(\V B PhUhps, 1959,
p 188)

Mouvaung the Culturally Deprived Pupil

We have already considered the cognitive charactensucs of culturally

deprived pupils as well as vanous instructional measures that can be uken
to prevent and ameliorate their eduotional retardation In the present con
text, It is important to realize both (hat not all lower-class children are
culturally depnved and that cultural depnvauon is not restricted to urban
slum environments Lower class status is a necessary but not a suffiaent con
dmon of cultural deprivation in addition, a culturally depnved home is
charactenzed by extreme mtellectual impovenshment, and by what O
Lewis (196/) calls the culture of poverty ” This implies more than economic
‘

impovenshment It also includes attitudes of helplessness, dependency, and

marginality, a highly depressed level of aspiration, and a feeling of aliena
tion from the culture at large Much lower-class Negro culture in the United
Slates, espeaally that which has been untouched by the avil nghts move
ment, representative of the culture of poverty Other examples are found
is

among migrant workers, families for whom relief is an established way of

life, and families living in chronically depressed and relatively isolated rural
areas
It only remains in this section to examine some motivational considera
tions that apply to culturally depnved pupils The problem of reversibility
IS inasmuch as the environment of cultural depnva
particularly salient here,
tion typically stunts not only intellectual development but also the develoji-
ment of appropnate motivations for academic achievement
 Croup and Social Facion sn Learning
446

Inlnnstc Moirvaiion
motivation for
The development of cognilne dme. or of intrinsic
learning (for the acquisition o! knowledge as an end m
iiseU or fox its own

sake). IS tlie most promising raouvaiional strategy

which can be adopted m
relation to the culturally depmed child It is true, of
course, view of the m
and pragmatic amtude toward education that is char
anu intellcctualism
acienstic of lower-class ideology that a superfiaally belter case
can be made
retenuon,
for the alternative strategy of appealing to the job-acquisition.
and advancement incentives that novs apjAy so salvently to conunuvng edu
cation because of the rapid rate of teclinological change Actually,
however,
ininnsic motivation for learning is more potent, relevant, durable, and
easier

to arouse than its extrinsic counterpart

Meaningful school learning, in contrast to most rote kinds of laboratory
learning requires relatively JjiUe effort or exinnsic incentive and, when
successful, {uTOvshes «a own reward In most instances of school learning,
cognitive dnve is also the only immediately relevant motivation, since the
greater part of school learning cannot be rationalized as necessary for
meeting the demands of daily living Furthermore, it does not lose its rele
vancy or potency in later adult life when utilitarian and career advancement
considerauons are no longer applicable Lastly, as we know from the high
dropout rate among culturally deprived high scliool )ouih, appeals to
extrinsic motivation are frequently not very effective because of the prevail
ing social-class ideology Among other reasons, this ideology reflects a limited
lime pcrspcaive focused pnmarily on the preseni, a diaractcr structure that
IS oncnied toward immediate rather than dela>ed graiificauon of needs,

the lack of personality traits necessary to implement high academic and

due to the absence of necessary family, peer group,
vocational aspirations
and community pressures and expeaaiions, and the seeming unreality and
impossibility of attaining the rewards of prolonged striving and self-denial
in view of current living conditions and family azcumsiances, previous
lack of school success, and the discriminatory aiutudes of middle-class
soaety
It must be conceded at the outset that cuhuralfy depnved children
typically manifest little intrinsic motivation to learn
They come from family
and cultural environments in which the veneration own
of learning for its
sake IS not a conspicuous value, and m
which there is little or no tradition
of scholarship Moreover, they have not been
noubly successful in their pre
vious learning efforts in school Nevertheless, we
need not necessanly despair
of moiivaung them to learn for mmnuc
reasons Psychologisu have been
emphasizing the motivation learning and
die interest activity sequences of
ausc and effca for so long that they tend to overlook
their reciprocal aspects
Since motivauon u not an indispensable
condiuon for short term and
AlotwaUng the Culturally Deprived Pupil 447

limited quantuy learning, it is not ncf£ssary to postpone learning activities

until pupils develop appropriate interests and motivations Often, as pointed

out above, the best way of motivating an unmotivated pupil is temporarily
to by pass the problem of motivaiion and to focus on the cognitive aspects
of teaclnng Much and to Ins teachers, he will learn despite
to his surprise
las lack of motivation, and from die satisfaction of learning and thus
satisfying latent cognitive drive,he will characteristically develop the motiva
tion to learn more on the same basis
Paradoxically, therefore, Vve may discover that the most effective method
of developing intrinsic motivation to Icam m
a culturally deprived pupil
IS to concentrate to teaching him as effectively as possible in the absence of

motivation, and to rely on the o^inve molivation iJiai is developed retro

actively from successful educational achievement This is particularly true
when a teacher is able to generate contagious excitement and enthusiasm
about the subject he tcaclies, and uhen he is the kind of person with whom
culturally deprived children can identify Masculinizing the school and
dramatizing the lues and exploits of cultural, intellectual, and scientific
heroes can also enhance die process of identification At the same time, of
course, we can attempt to combat die and lack of cul
anti mtellcctuahsm
tural tradition m the home through programs of adult education and
cultural enrichment

Extrtnstc Motivation

As previously indicated the current situation with respect to developing

adequate motivations for higher academic and vocational achievement
among culturally deprived duldren is not very encouraging But just as in
the case of cognitive drive, much extrinsic motivation for academic success
can be generated retroactively from the ego enhancing experience of current
success in school work Intensive counseling can also compensate greatly for
the absence of the appropriate home, community, and peer group support
and expectations necessary for the development and implementation of long
term vocational ambitions By identifying with a mature, stable striving,
and male adult figure culturally deprived boys can be encouraged
successful
to internalize long terra and realistic aspirations, as well as to develop the
mature personality traits necessary for their implementation Hence, as a
result of achieving current ego enhancement m
the school setting obtaining
positive encouragement and practical guidance m
the counseling relation
ship and experiencing less rejection and discrimination at the hands of
school personnel, higher vocational aspirations appear to be more real
istically within their grasp Further encouragement to strive for more am
bitious academic and vocational goals can be provided by making available
abundant scholarship aid to umversiues community colleges, and technical
448 Group and Social Factors tn Learning

insuiutes, by acquainting culturally deprived youth with examples of suc-

cessful professional persons originating from tlieir own racial, ethnic, and
social class backgrounds, and by involving parents sympathetically in the
newly fostered ambitions of their diildrcn The success of the Higher
Horizons Project in New York City indicates that an energetic program
organized along these lines can do mucli to reverse the negative effects of
cultural deprivation on Uie development of extrinsic motivations for aca
demic and vocational achievement
With regard to aversive motivation, it can be argued, of course, that a
long history of school failure has a demonstrably negative effect on the
academic motivation and achievement of culturally deprived pupils, alien
ates them from scliool and school work, and increases tlieir desire to drop
out as early as possible It is self-evident, however, tliat failure and fear of
failure cannot motivate academic striving when pupils have never ex
perienced any success in school ha\e given up hope of succeeding,
have dis-
mvolvcd dicmselves from the school situation, and have
internalized no
aspirations for academic success But the
the ilireai of failure from the category of
remedy docs not he m removing
respectable motivations Nor does
It he m the self defeating practice of social
promotion which fools nobody,
least of all the child who is ostensibly
rewarded for fading to learn To be
su^rc. his ultimate academic
achievement might be slightly higher if he moves
ahead to ihe next grade instead ot repeating
the same one, and he may be
stigmatized as an oversized
dot nr Th
dullard by“i!"*
his younger classmates
Nevertlieless he is still acutely aware of
his actual failure in scliool
acquires unrealistic perceptions about llie
eompeienee reward relationship ihe real world, and enters high scliool as
7"' «>"«™«.ve remedy ,s to change the
“f”
m stri '.l " “ l>'>«>n»l«y structure,
°f -he culturaUy de
so that aeadcraie success
not oifbetr
able as a realist c aspiration
When this happens, he too will be nos,
mottvated, a, other pup.l, are, by lively
destm lot knowledge as an
by egouml.ane.ns rewards, and by
averstve mm.vat.ons as
end m
melf
wel^
 Chapter 13

TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS
It seems self evident that the teacher should constitute an
important variable m
the learning process From a cognitive standpoint U
should certainly make a difference, in the first place, how comprehensive
and cogent his grasp of his subject matter field is Second, quite mdepen
dently of his degree of adequacy in this regard, he may be more or less able
to present and organize subject matter clearly, to explain ideas lucidly and
incisively, and to manipulate effectively the important variables affecting
learning Third, m
comraunicaang with his pupils, he may be more or less
capable of translating his knowledge in a form appropriate for their degree
of cognitive matuniy and subject matter sophistication Certain key aspects
of the teadier’s personality would also seem, on a logical basis, to have an
important bearing on learning outcomes m
his classroom Theoretical con-
siderations suggest that chief among Uiese would be his degree of commit-
ment to or ego involvement in the intellectual development of his pupils
and his ability to generate intellectual excitement and intrinsic motivation
for learning Apart from these cruaal cognitive and personality attributes
that impinge directly on the learning process, a broad range of personal
characteristics should be reasonably compatible with effectiveness m teach
mg
Actually, very little is known about which
characteristics of teachers
make for success mthe teaching learning process In part, this situation is
a reflection of the difficulty of measuring the aforementioned teacher attri
butes that seem self-evidently related to pedagogic competence, and of the
consequent lack of research evidence on these significant variables In part,
also. It IS a reflection of the undue emphasis that has been placed over the
past three decades on those personality characteristics that were thought
to affect the mental health and personality development of children In

449
 Teacher Characterislics
450

acldiuon, much of the existing research evidence m this area tends to e

the absence of a
ambiguous equivocal, and unmterpretable because of
effectiveness Ratings
sausfactory cntenon against which to measure teacher
superficial, subjectivistic,
of teacher performance are notonously unreliable,
pupils, as vve shall see
and capricious, and the achievement test scores of
later, are limited in depth scope, and validity
But even though teacher training institutions tend to overemphasize
is some evidence that
the importance of these personality factors, there
pupils are primarily concerned witli their teachers pedagogic competence
or ability to teach, and not with their role as kindly, sympathetic, and cheer
ful adults (P H
Taylor, 1962) Despite the recent trend m
such fields as
government and business administration to place ability in getting along
with people ahead of professional competence, it is obviously a cause for
some concern when professional personnel in any field of endeavor are
judged mainly on the basis of purely personal qualities Clearly, since teach
ers deal with impressionable children and affect their personality deveIoj>

ment tiicy should not have unstable or destrucuve personalities Never

theless, the principal cntenon m
selecting and evaluating teachers should
not be the extent to which their personality characteristics conform to some
theoretical ideal promoting mental health or personality development, but
rather their ability to stimulate and competently direct pupil learning ac
uvity
In this diapcer it will also be convenient to consider the role and im
pact of different styles of teaching on learning as ueiJ as the problem of
classroom discipline

The Roles of Teachers

One approadi to evaluating teadicrs characienslics in terms of their

relevance for teaching effectiveness is to consider both the different roles
that teachers play in our culture as well as the relative importance
of these
various roles. In recent times, the scope of the teacher's role has been vastly
expanded beyond its original instructional oire to include such functions
as patent surrogate, friend and confidante, counsellor, adviser,
representative
of the adult culture, transmitter of approved cultural values,
and facilitator
of personality development, but without m
any sense disparaging the reality
or significance of these oilier subsidiary roles, it is
nevertheless undeniable
that the teadicrs most important and
distinctive role m
die modem class-
room IS still that of director of learning actwines ‘ Unfortunately,
however,

*
‘1‘recting pupillearning activities, the tcadier's diicf function
J”
or should
no longer
i*. be the going of mfomuiion As
emphasized aboie this latter funaion
caiacntljr by appropnaicly programmed
insiruction ma
mnah.
Cognitive Abilities 451

as \ietted in retrospect by students, teacliers are apparently not impressisely

effective in any of their roles One sample of college students, for example,
reported that only 8 5 percent of their teachers had an important influence
on their intellectual or personal development, no appreaable influence m
this regard vvas attnbuted to over three quarters of the teachers in question
{Allport, 1964)
One interesting study of adolescent pupils' perceptions of teadiers in-
dicates that teacliers are seen as playing three major kinds of roles as —
friends, opjionents and manipulators of status in learning situations (R
Cunningham, 1951) As friends, they arc “older and uiser” persons, helpful
’’
counsellors, heroes, givers of security, confidantes, and occasionally “pals
As opjxmenis tliey are cast as kill joys" who arbitrarily interfere with legiti
*

mate pleasures, as 'enemies to be fought and outwitted," and as demons

’

of power to be feared, respected, and placated Much of this latter role ob-
viously represents a displacement of hosule feelings from original parent
targets Teachers also share mucli of the brunt of adolescents general anti
adult orientation In the learning asjiecis of the school situation they are
perceived as *
efficient organizers m the direction of work projects, as neces-
sary evils ’
m the acquisition of knowledge, as stepping stones to future
’

status rewards, as dispensers of approval and disapproval, and as moral arbi-

ters who can absolve from guilt as well as point the accusing finger

Cognitive Abilities

At first glance it might seem iJiat the inieJJigcnce of teachers should

be highly related to success in teaching Nevertheless teacher effectiveness,
as measured by pupil gams in achievement and by principals' and super
visors ratings, isonly negligibly related to teachers' intelligence (Barr, and
others, 1958, Morsh and Wilder,
1954) In all probability, therefore, intel
hgence operates as a limiting factor in its influence on teaching success A
certain minimal level of intelligence is obviously necessary for teaching effec-
tively But beyond this critical point, the intelligence of teachers may not
be significantly related to learning outcomes in pupils, other more irapor
tant cognitive and personality factors account for most of the difference m
effectiveness between successful and unsuccessful teachers
cannot furnish adequate feedback to
It is self-evident that a teacher
students or clarify ambiguities and misconceptions unless he has a mean
ingful and adequately organized grasp of tlie subject he teaches Vet there
are no really adequate measures of the teacher's actual grasp of his sub-
ject matter field in terms of such crucial dimensions as comprehensiveness,
cogency, stability, lucidity and preasion of concepts, integration of rela
tionships between component aspect of the field, aivareness of significant
theoretical issues and underlying philosophical assumptions, appreciation
452 Teacher Characteruticj

of meihodological and epistemological problems and so forth Hence al

though such factors presumabl) influence many signiflcant aspects of the

pupil s mastery of subject matter and affect his general lesel of interest m
and intellectual exatemeni about a given disaphne we know little that is
definite about these important relationsliips Obviously of course the same
stand in the way of measuring these significant cognitive
difficulties that

vanables in teachers create obstacles in mcasunng corresponding learning

outcomes m
pupils Actual investigation along these lines has therefore been
restricted to the study of relationships betv^een relatively
formal and super
fiaal aspects ofteadien and pupils mastery of subject matter
In generaldegree and quality of teachers academic preparation as
indicated b) grade point average amount of work taken in the major field
and achievement test scores bears only a low positive relationship to pupil
learning outcomes and supervisors ratings of success in teaching
(Barr and
others 19a8) On theoretical grounds however it seems somewhat unlikely
Uiai Utesc aspects of academic preparation are not
more highly related to
success in teaching than they appear to be The empincally demonstrated
low relationship may conceivably reflect m
part ilie superfiaahty and low
intrinsic validity of both the pupil and
teacher measures of subject matter
mastery It is also possible of course that
academic preparation hke iniel
hgcncc may influence teaching cfleciiveness
onl) when it is below a certain
enucal level
reasonably aniiapaie the provision of effective
t

If'?,,?, h ‘‘"I'’'
'»P'E“'on the learning
related to clanty and cxprewiteness in the
teacher
“"* 'S«) Connuent «.ih this Bnd
M
ng IS
. i£ fact il.at
die 1 ideauonal duenq, correlates
significantly ,.ith ratings
of teadung effecUveness ^ ^
(Knocll ig^S)

semtusurm o^antrtng fnastnaunn and

,
learning aclisiuts and m man.pulalmg learatng
ter a '“a I'’."?' '“-"S »-»-.» - pup, Is tL! ah":,,"
"•
ported 'rP"'"" ‘'“'-"B '''h “«pt for a re
achietenten, pop, I, (SpL^i'oT'^Oe'^?'?!'"
sparseand.angen'^oa'; PupLoS a Ls oSlri'r'h
'
" T'
'rthe teacher
''ho judge
as orderly and svsiemai.r h.. ,i “wroom
management and arrangement
of Icaminff acunties reimrr
dleir d^la^rX
regard (Cogan 19a8) iheir
X dassr^m i"'*!
"“'t l.an Ise of

tlie elementary sdiool

level (Ryans rLli
19^1^ Teachers
” productive at
^ rated
Uicir pnncitwls tend m as sutienor by
infer, ^r by‘f Xm
‘
!>» .-w

»)“<unat,c. responsible
'“dtars' rated as
and businesslike
Personaltly ChaTactemtici 453

behaMor in tlieir classroom procedures (R>ans, 1960) Finally, teacliers who

are adept at diagnosing learning difficulties and at appreciating the relevance
o£ particular instructional matenals for Uic acquisition of particular learn
mgs are more successful tlian less adept teacliers in terms of pupil aclueve
ment (Fattu, 1963)
Unfortunately, no evidence is currently available about the relation
ship between the teacliers effectiveness and his ability to adapt the com
munication of ideas to the pupil s level of intellectual maturity and subject
matter sophistication Particularly at the elementary school and less advanced
levels of instruction, this ability should be significantly related to the acquisi
tion of clear, stable, and unambiguous meanings

Personality Characterutics

A tremendous literature has accumulated over the past half century on

the personality characiensua of teachers Very little of it, however, is illu

minating insofar as it indicates the kinds of traits that are assoaated with
success m teaching For die most part, the personality of teacliers has been
studied either as an end in itself or m relation to those aspects that influence
personality development and mental hygiene m the classroom not rela— m
tion to factors Uiac affect learning outcomes or other criteria of teacher e£
fectiveness This has been the case despite the fact that many aspects of a
teachers personality may obviously influence pupils' affective response to
him without necessarily influencing the effectiveness of his teadung
It IS inconiroveriible dial pupils respond alTectively to the personality
characteristics of a teacher, and that this affective response influences their
judgments of his instructional effectiveness (F W
Hart, 1934) They not
only admire teaching skill, danty, task onentation, and good classroom con
trol, but are also highly appreciative of fairness, impartiality, patience,

cheerfulness, and sympathetic understanding In addition they approve of

teachers who are interested in pupils and who are helpful, kindly, and con
siderate of their feelings (F W
Hart, 1934, Leeds, 1954) On die otlier side
of the com, they dislike reluctance to bestow praise, favoritism, punitive
gamilousness, bossiness, and brittleness of temper
ness, irritability, fussiness,
Thus, from the standpoint of simple congeniality, it can certainly do no
harm and may do some good if a teacher possesses those characteristics that
make him well liked by his pupils Nevertheless, from the standpoint of his
pnncipal role in our culture, it is self evidently more important that a
teacher be instructionally effective rather than that he be liked or popular
In general, teachers personality characteristics have not been highly
correlated with effectiveness in teaching The two principal exceptions to
this generalization are warmth and understanding, on the one hand, and a
454 Teacher CharactertsUcs

tendency to be stimulating and imaginatise, on the other Thus, since a

wide variety of personality traits appears to be consistent both with mstruc
tional effectueness and with normal personality development and mental
h)giene in the classroom, a teaclier should not try to remake his personality
to conform to the theoreucally ideal cluster of diaractensttcs in these re
spects—even if it were possible to do so Tlie more realistic and defensible
course of action for him is to make the most effective use of those personality
assets tliat he enjoys
Teachers who are warm and understanding tend to graufy the affihative
dnve of pupils This is particularly important for the many elementary
school pupils who seek in teachers a parent surrogate and a source of ac
ceptance and approval indicative of derived status It becomes less important
in secondary schooland umversity when adihattve drive constitutes a less
salient mouvauon for learning than the
growing need for ego-enhancement
and earned warm teacher can be identified with easily by pupils
status Tlie
He provides emotional supjxiri, is s)Tnpaihctically disposed toward pupils,
and accepts them as persons Characteristically he distributes much praise
and encouragement and tends to interpret pupil behavior
as charitably as
possible He is relatively unauthoritanan and is sensitive to pupils’ feelings
and affective responses For all of these reasons
he tends to score high on
the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory
which is ke>ed
and to promote more wholesome self concepts in
this direcuon, m
elementary school pupils
(Spaulding. 1963) Warm teadiers tend to be
rated more tatorably prin by
observers (Cook, Leeds, and Callis,
1951, McGee, 1955, Ryans 1960, Solomon,
Rosenberg, and Berdek, 1964)
t all grade levels, including
the elemenury school, teacher tsarmth
less important tor pupils
whose moiivational onentaiion to
learning is
“'So^oboottng rather than alSliat.ve
For such pup.U,
hl?nt’'or'^'“'n
“ degree of warmth or to his
^re o^ the a, Teacher Altitude Inventory
(Della P.ana and Gage,
IMSlTr.
I9aa) d
In sharp contrast, pupils who ore highly concerned wiUi their inter

«e'”chmaaer'’l h‘’
“
i'"''"®*
‘o ble leaclters who
° “n the Minnesota
¥L*er ?tmu 1 l''
Teacher Aiutude "“""‘v and to
Inventory), disl.le teachers who are non
‘ "
“‘'"‘“’’"K *“'• “ «acher. a pupil is obviously
more'^ '“fto assimilaielm
more disposed values Theoreucallv also,
al„ he
be should
n fw more i
iiehlv moiiLTi/s.i lo I— 1 1

=d.“vernrirutum ev,de„r"‘^ T “ ''8'"=^ -“‘‘e"'''

“
signiricanilyUlaied to
1958), to pupils- inicresl in
Ui'e 3™^ „ ’l r'""
by r""""'
pupils (Cogan,
science in
1961), and lo the -producliven^-
c^ (“ * ""“d.
school (Ryans b'bavior in the elementary
1961)' p s Sears ( 1963) h presented some evidence
b“>
whidi
Teething SlyU 455

suggests that pupil adiicsemcnt ts more creative sshen teacliers are uarm
and encouraging
Ability to generate intellectual exaiement and intrinsic motivation for
learning is anoUier personality diaractenstic of have
teaclicrs that appiears to
significant implications for their instructional effectiveness Teachers vdio
are lively, stimulating imaginative, and entlmsiastic about their subject
are judged as more successful by pnncipals and other expenenced observers
(Ryans, I960) Under this kind of stimulation, pupil behavior is also more
productive, bodi in the primary and secondary scliool (Ryans, 1961), and
greater gains in pupil comprehension are made (Solomon, Rosenberg and
Bezdek, 1964)
Perhaps die most imjxirtant personality diaractenstic of teadiers in
fluencing their effectiveness is the extent of their personal commitment to
the intellectual development of pupils There is general agreement that this
IS a central component of a teadiers professional motivation It determines
in large measure whether he expend the necessary effort to teach for
vs ill

real gains in the intellectual growth of pupils or will merely go through

the formal motions of teaching Unfortunately, however, since it is a very
elusive factor insofar as reliable and valid measurement is concerned, we
have no objective evidence regarding its relationship to success in teaching

Teaching Style

Much has been wTiiten and much pseudo-controversy has arisen about
matters of teaching style " This confusing debate, largely plagued by am
biguity in the meaning of terms, by the emotional use of slogans, and by
the absence of definitive evidence, is completely unresolved and promises
to yield few dear implications for teaching practice Perhaps the most de
fensible conclusion that can be drawn at this point is that vanability in
teaching style is both inevitable and desirable Styles of teaching vary, in
the first place, because teachers' piersonaliues vary ^VTiat works well for one
teacher may be completely ineffective for another A
teacher should there
fore adapt his instructional style to strengUis and weaknesses in his back
ground, personality, and preparation This does not mean, of course, that
alltechniques of teaching are equally effective or that jsedagogic technique
ISnot teachable It cannot be assumed, to begin with, that a given teacher
necessanly diooses the style tliat is most appropriate for him, and beyond
the assisunce that can be given in making this choice, most prospective
teadiers can be helped lo use their styles more effectively, that is, can be
provided with certain relevant techniques or shown how to use them to
greater advantage
It is also desirable for teaching styles to vary because of variability in
456 Teather Characteristus

pupil needs and diaractenslics One important pupil characteristic pre

viously stressed in tins regard is the difference in learning styles bettveen
satellizers and nonsatellizers Other important cliaractenstics are intelh
gence, anxiety level, interest in subject matter, the prevailing degree of
auihontananism in die adult child relationship that is typical of a gnen
soaal class background, and Uie student's degree of independence and secu
nty (\Visp6. 1951) Lastly, appropriate teadimg style is always relative to
the particular educational objective that is being stnven for at a given
moment, that is, the effiaent transmission of established knowledge, the
generation or modification of attitudes, the improvement of problem solving
abilities, or the exploration and refinement of alternative viewpoints in

controversial areas of knowledge

Lecture verms Dtsauiion

Most of the discussion about teadiing style has centered around the leo
lure versus discussion issue Most of the studies concerned with tins problem
report little difference between the two methods
in terms of student mastery
oI subject matter (C G Stem, 1963, Walien
and Trasen, 1903), uhere dtl-
tercnccs do appear they arc usually in taior
of the lecture method Although
there is surprisingly little direct evidence that the
lecture mediod faaiitates
problem solving and the application of knowledge,
B S Bloom (1953) re
potted that this method stimulates mote
relevant student tliinking Even
when great reliance is placed on lecturing, it
is evident that some discussion
IS necessary
if students are to receive
adequate feedback and if the teacher
IS to ascertain
whether his listeners are following him
The
choice between lecture and discussion
methods depends boUi on
die per»nalily ol the tead.er and
on whether die topic in question is more
Some teachers are more capable Utan
bL^rwmel 7 teat-

™tLaU r °V tli'erse sources

>"! d"w,ng togeUter scattered
and of presenung alleraattve
vtewpoinls in
rhieHi o
unm 7
veX uncomfortable
fell very
feel
tneapabirof and
about directing discusiion
Riding i|cu,sion along fmnful
OUiers are masterful m
lines or in using a
Socralic Ivpe of ques-

for intelligenl and mlormcd discuSion

k5!.°erd*
ISlacking, discussion condilion
undcmandablv " i
ol ignotance, prejudice,
plaiiiudcs.'^urem
cs, preconceptions,
and vague generalities
School Ductphne 457

Group-Centered versus Teacher Oriented Approaches

Group-centered as opposed to teaclier oriented, teaching styles place

greater emphasis on student activity, on pupil participation, initiative, and
responsibility in setting course objectnes. in determining course content,
and in esaluating learning outcomes, and on the teachers role as a non
direciise group leader These styles of tcacliing apparently do not differ sig-
nificantly from teacher-dirccied approaches with respect to student acliieve
raent or IiLing for subject matter (R C Anderson, 1959, Spaulding, 1963,
G G but are superior with respect to such outcomes as in
Stern, 1963),
creased group cohesion (Bcnne and l^vii, 1953, Lippitt, 1940, Tizard, 1953),
less dependence on the teaclier (Asch, 1951, Lippitt, 1940), and improvement

m group and adjustment skills (Asdi, 1951, Lippitt, 1940) Democratic teacli
mg however, does not increase creativity or improve pupils self concepts
(Spaulding, 1963)
In a group-centered program care must be taken neither to confound
democratic discipline with a latssez faire approach nor to abdicate the
school s primary responsibility for organinng the cumculura Students
should not be gi\en a great deal of responsibility for structuring courses
or for evaluating learning outcomes unless their background m
the field
IS adequate and unless they have prior experience in independent study
and group-centered techniques On the whole, students who prefer non
directive approaclies tend to be more secure and independent (Patton, 1955,
Wispe, 1951), to be more flexible, to have more self insight, and to be better
able to cope with ambiguity (McKeachie, 1962) It is also unwise for teachers
to adopt a nondirective leadung style either when tliey feel temperamentally

uncomfortable with it or when pupils are generally insecure, compulsive,

or of lower class origin

School Disciplme

Since a certain minimal level of order and decorum is necessary for effi
cient school learning discipline is a real and prevalent problem in the class
room It IS a serious concern of most teachers and especially of those who are
beginning their teaching careers (Eaton, Weathers and Phillips, 1957, Ladd
1958), It IS not just a problem of die ineffective or maladjusted teacher
Viewed in this context of relevance for classroom learning it is evident that
discipline should be as impersonal and task-oriented as possible That is
objectionable pupil behavior should be proscribed, punished, and prevented
primarily because it interferes with classroom learning and not because it
Is personally distasteful or threatening Personal punitiveness on the part

of teachers leads to exaggerated pupil perceptions of the seriousness of mis

4o9 Teacher Characteristics

beha\ior, less percened leadier fairness (Kounin, Gump, and Ryan, 1961),
more aggressive kinds of misconduct, more conllictful pupil attitudes about
misbehavior, and less concern with learning and distinctive school values

(Kounin and Gump, 1961)

In contrast to disciplinary practices in other countries, the typical Amer
lean approach to school discipline is impressively incidental Classroom dis-
cipline in the United States does not connote explicit subjection to authority
and implicit habits of obedience that are enforced by a heavy handed set of
controls and punishments, it does not imply an easily identifiable atmo
sphere of classroom control whicli the tcadier maintains with much delib
erate effort —mmuch die same sense that he strives to have his pupils under
stand and assimilate the subject matter he teaches Our teacliers, rather, tend
to feel that the cause of discipline is adequately served if pupils exercise
sufficient self controland observe a minimum set of rules with sufficient
decorum to enable classroomwork to proceed in an orderly, effiaent man
ner They do not mother words strive deliberately for disnplme as an
explicit goal in its own nglii They assume instead that
good discipline is
ordmarWy a natural by product of miercsung lessons and
of a wholesome
teacher pupil relationship, Uiat the vast
majority of pupils respond jxisiUvely
to fair and kindly treatment and that
respect for die teacher is a usual
acrompaniment of the latter s superior knowledge,
experience, and status as
a leader, and docs not have to be reinforced
by such arufiaal props and
status symbols as differences m clothing mode of address, and fear of the
strap

Science or Opinion

“ sti'-nre Ilian a mailer ot opinion It not

n„l " “'Hi «onom,c and ideologtcal factor,,

tcten^T". “
cientific evidenceI
P'OP"''" O' 'Hill Hnd fashion, Objective
about the relative merils of different
types of dtKipline
H-uonable to vILt extent valid
n.m“S;'da.Tar
iZu rr or no,
«'™nt m
matter, of disciphne
‘ ‘‘”P'mai7 practice, are appropriate dej^nds,
m the fim olZ
""li'olion, aid bind, of peSinal
”l tioS, i

“te bv^mencmri ''““111 I'nd to be rendered

“H?'’''’"' “““I “milition. For all prac
t.cal jiurpive,therefit ” 'naplinary policy
rauonally dcfcnvible and involves taking a
seUco'”***
on crdTra.l:
televa'nt
ence and judgment
ofdl rer'""
lopment. and on individual expen-
School Discipline 459

Because djscjpJjnc cannot be jdaced on a JargeJy scientific basis, hosv

ever, docs not mean that one {xisition is as good as another or that no public
jxihcy uliaisoever is warranted Society is continually obliged to resohe
issues of mucli greater moment with c\enevidence on which
less objeciisc

Under the circumstances iJJ we can reasonably expect is

to base a decision
greater humilityand less dogmatism on the part of those engaged in for
mulating disaphnary policy Thus the most disturbing asjicct of the entire
problem is not tlic fact that there is precious little scientific evidence to sup-
port the disciplinary doctrines c\jx>undcd in our colleges of education and
educational journals and tcxiboolvS, but rather the ubiquitous tendency to
represent purely jiersonal opinions and biases as if they were incontrovert
ibly established findings of scientific rcscardi

The Defnutton and ruuettons of Dtscipltne

By discipline is meant the imposition of cxlcrual standards and con

trols on individual conduct Permissiveness, on the odier liand refers to die
absence of such standards and controls To be permissive is to let alone/
to adopt a laisscz fatre policy Authoritarianism is an excessive, arbitrar),
and autocratic type of control which is diametrically opposite to permissive
ness Between tlie extremes of laissezfairc permissiveness and authontari
anism are many varieties and degrees of control One of these, to be de
senbed in greater detail below, is democratic discipline When external
controls are internalized we can speak of self discipline, it is clear, nonethe
less, that die original source of the controls, as well as much of their later
reinforcement are extrinsic to the individual
Disciplinea universal cultural phenomenon whicii generally serves
is
four important functions in the training of the young First, it is necessary
for socialization — for learning the standards of conduct that are approved
and tolerated m any culture Second, necessary for normal personality
it is

matucauoo. — for i,udv avluU pervatvaUty travU depewiabvUty,

self reliance, self control, persistence, and ability to tolerate frustration
These aspects of maturation do not occur spontaneously, but only m re
sponse to sustained social demands and expectations Third, it is necessary
for the internalization of moral standards and obligations or, in other words
for the development of conscience Standards obviously cannot be internal
ized unless they also exist m
external form, and even after they are effectively
internalized universal cultural experience su^ests that external sanctions
are required to insure the stability of the social order Lastly discipline
still

is necessary for children s emotional security Widiout tlie guidance

pro-
vided by unambiguous external controls they tend to feel bewildered and
apprehensive Too great a burden is placed on their own limited capaaty
for self control
 Teaclter Ckaraclertiiics
4C0

out above dis-

From tijc siandjwmt of school learning as pointed
of classroom activities
ciphnc IS also necessary for the orderly regulation

Democratic Dtsctphtte

The proponents of democratic classroom disapline believe imposing m

person
die minimal degree of external control necessary for socialization
lay maturauon conscience development classroom learning and the emo-
tional security of the child. Discipline and obedience are regarded only as
means to these ends and not as ends in themselves They are not striven

for deliberately but are expected to follow naturally in the wake of friendly
and realistic teacher pupil relationships Expliat limits are not set routinely
or as w a) s of showing oho is boss but only as the need arises when they —
are not implicitly understood or accepted by pupils
Dcraocrauc disaplinc is as rational nonarbitrary and bilateral as pos-
sible It provides explanations permits discussion and invites theparuapa
non of children in the selling and enforcement of standards whenever they
are t^uahfied to do so Above all it implies respect for the dignity of the
individual makes us primary appeal to seif<ontrolsand avoids exaggerated
emphasis on status differences and barriers between free communication
Hence a repudiates harsh abusive and vindictive forms of punishment and
the use of sarcasm ndiculc and intimidation
The aforementioned attributes of democratic classroom disapline are
obviously appropnaic m
cultures sucli as ours where sooal relationships
tend to be egahtanan Tins t^pe ot discipline also becomes increasingly
more feasible as children become older more responsible more capable of
self-control and group control and more capable of undemanding and
fonnulaiing rules of conduct based on concepts of equity and reciprocal
obligation But contrary to whai the extreme petmissivists would have us
IkIicvcdemocratic school discipline does not imply freedom from all cx
temal constraints standards and direction or freedom from disapline
And under no circumstances does u presuppose the eradication of all dis-
tinctions between pupil and teacher roles or require that teachers abdicate
responsibility for making the final decisions m tlie classroom

Dutortiofu of Democratic Daetphne

Many educational tbconsts have misinterpreted and distorted

Uie ideal
oI dcmocrai.c diicipline b, equaling ii «iili
an extreme tomi o£ |)ermissne
ne» These Jnloruons hale lieen dosmatically expressed
in sanous psiclio-
logically unsound and unrealistic pra|tosiuons that arc considered
sacrosana
in many leaclicrs colleges lortunately honescr most classroom icaclicn
School DucipUne 461

ha\e only accepted diem for examination purposes — sshile still in training
—and base discarded them in actual pracucc as thoroughly unworkable
According to one widely held doctrine, only "positive' forms of dis-
cipline are oinstructive and democratic It is asserted that cliildren must
be guided only by reward and approval, that disapproval, reproof, and
punishment are authontanan repressive, and reactionary expressions of
adult hostility which leave permanent emotional scars on children's per
sonalities What diese theorists conveniently clioose to ignore, however, is

the fact that impossible for children to leani what is not approved and
it is

tolerated, simply by generalizing m

reverse from the approval they receive
for behavior tliat ts acceptable Even adults arc manifestly incapable of learn
mg and respecting the limits of acceptable conduct unless the distinction
between what is proscribed and approved is reinforced by punishment as
well as by reward Furthermore, there is good reason to believe iJiat ac
knowledgment of wrong-doing and acceptance of punishment are part and
parcel of learning moral accountability and developing a sound conscience
Few if any children arc quite so fragile tliat they cannot lake deserved re-
proof and punishment in stnde
A second widespread distortion of democratic disapline is reflected m
die notion popular among educational theorists that there are no culpably
misbehaving duldren in the classroom, but only culpably aggressive, un
sympathetic, and punitive teachers If duldren misbehave, according to this
point of view, one can implicitly assume diat they must have been provoked
beyond endurance by repressive and authontanan classroom disaplme
Similarly, if they are disrespectful, tlien the teadier, by dehmuon, must not
have been deserving of respect It is true, of course, Uiat much pupil mis-
conduct 15 instigated by harsh and abusive sdiool discipline, but there are
alsoinnumerable reasons for out-of bounds behavior that are completely
independent of the teacher's altitudes and disciplinary practices The mis-
behavior of pupils IS also influenced by factors onginating in the home,
the neighborhood, the peer group, and the mass-media Some duldren are
emotionally disturbed, others are brain-damaged, and still others are aggres-
sive by temperament, and there are times when even the best behaved chil
dren from the nicest homes develop an irresistible impulse w^thout any —
provocation whatsoever — to lest tlie limits of a teadier s forbearance
Both of the aforementioned disioruons of classroom democracy are
often used to justify the commonly held belief among educational theorists
that pupils should not be reproved or punished for disorderly or discourte
ous conduct One can, for example, observe classrooms where everybody
talks atonce where pupils turn their backs on the teacher and engage in
private conversation while the latter is endeavoring to instruct them, and
where pupils verbally abuse teachers for exerasing tlieir rightful disaphnary
 Teacher Characletulics
462

compatible with
prerogatues Some educators contend tliat all of this is
i^holcsome, democrauc teacher pupil relationships
Other educators deplore
is un
Uiis t>pe of pupil behavior but insist, neserdieless, that punishment
assert, reproo
warranted under these circumstances In the first place, they
axiomatically undesirable
or punishment constitutes a negame and hence
would
approach to classroom management, and. second, the inisbehaMor
assuredly ha\e never occurred to begin with, if the
teacher s atutudes had
antagonistic The arguments of the second group of
been less aulocraiic or
educators have already been answered, and to the first group it can
be said
tliat rudeness and unrulmess are not normally desirable
classroom behavior
m any culture
When such miscondutt occurs, pupils have to be unambiguously in
formed that it will not be tolerated and that any repetition of the
same
behavior will be ]iuni 5 hcd This action does not preclude in any way either
an earnest attempt to discover why the misbehavior occurred, or suitable
preventive measures aimed at corcccimg the underlying causes But, by the
same token tlie mere fact that a pupil has a valid psyciiological reason for
misbehaving does not mean that he is thereby absolved from moral account
ability or rendered no longer subject to punishment
Still another related distortion of democrauc discipline is reflected in

Uie proposition Uiat it is repressive and authontanan to request pupils to

apologize for discourteous behavior or offensive language However i£ we
take seriously the idea that die dignity of the human being is important,
we must be it from affront, and apology is Uie most cjvi
willing to protect
lized and means mankind has yet evolved for accomplishing this
effective
goal 111 a democrauc soacty noIxKly is dial important Uiat he is above
pologizjiig to those persons whom lie wrongfully offends Everybody s dig
miy IS important —the teaclicrs as well as the pupils It is no less wrong
for a pupil to abuse a leaclicr dian for a leacher to abuse a pupil
If ajxilogics arc to have any real significance in moral training, however.
It isobvious that, even diough dicy are cxphatly requested, they must be
made voluntarily and must be reflective of genuine appreciation of wrong
doing and of sincere regret and remorse Purely formal and mechanical
statements of apology made under coeraon are less than worthless Apol
ogics ate also widioul real ethical import unless their
basis is reciprocal,
diat IS. unless it is fully understood dial under
comparable arcumstances
the teadicr would be wilhng to apologize to hiv pupils

IVhnt Needs To Be Done

In seeking to correct dicsc undesirable permmue
distortions of class-
room democracy, it would be foolhardy to return to
the equally undesirable
opiwsiic extreme of authoritarianism dm flourislied in this country up to
Sc/ioof Discipline 463

a quarter of a century ago, and still prevails m many \Vcstern nations

Democratic sdiool discipline is still an appropriate and realistic goal for
American education, hence there is no need to throw away the baby with
the bath water It is only necessary to discard the aforementioned pcrmis
sivist doctrines masquerading under the banners of democracy and beliav
loral science, and to restore certain other traditionalAmerican \alues that
have been neglected in the enthusiasm of extending democracy to home and
sdioo]
More speafically, we first have to clear up the semantic confusion \Ve
should stop equating permissiveness with democratic discipline, and realisUc
adult control and guidance with authoritarianism Permissiveness, by defini
tion, IS the absence of discipline, democratic or otherwise ^Ve should cease
instructing teacliers that it is repressiveand reactionary to reprove or punish
pupils for misconduct, or to request them to apologize for offensive and dis
courteous behavior
Second, we should cease misinterpreting what little reputable evidence
we have about discipline, and refrain from misrepresenting our personal
biases on the subject as tlie indisputably established findings of scientific
research The available evidence merely suggests that in our type of cultural
setting, authoritarian discipline —
has certain undesirable effects not that the
consequences of permissiveness are desirable As a matter of fact,
laissez faire
research studies show
tiiat the effects of extreme permissiveness are just as
unwholesome In tlie school situation a
as are those of authoritarianism
pointed out above, leads to confusion, insecurity, and
laissez faire policy, as

competition for power among pupils Assertive pupils tend to become ag

gressiveand ruthless, whereas retiring pupils tend to withdraw further from
classroom participation The child v>ho is handled too permissively at home
tends to regard himself as a specially privileged person He fails to learn
the normative standards and expectations of society, to set realistic goals
for himself, and to make reasonable demands on others In his dealings with
adults and other children he is domineering, aggressive, petulant, and ca
pncious
Third, we should slop making teachers feel guilty and personally re
sponsible for all instances of misconduct and disrespect in the classroom
We do this whenever we take for granted, without any actual supporting
evidence, that tliese behavior problems would never iiave arisen in tlie first
place if the teachers involved were truly deserving of respect and had been
administering genuinely wholesome and democratic discipline
Finally, teachers colleges should terminate the prevailing conspiracy
of silence they maintain about the existence of disciplinary problems in the
public schools Although discipline is the one aspect of teaching that the
beginning teacher is most worried about he receives little or no practical
instruction m
handling this problem Colleges of education, as pointed out
464 Teacher CharacteTultcs

abo\e, rationalize iheir madequaaes m

this regard by pretending that dis-
aphnary problems are relatively rare occurrences involving the disturbed
child, or more typically the disturbed teaclier Due respect for the facts of
life, however, suggests that prospective teacliers today not only need to be
taught more realistic propositions about the nature and purposes of demo
cratic discipline, but also require adequately supervised, down to-earth ex
perience in coping with classroom discipline
DISCOVERY LEARNING
 Chapter 14

LEARNING BY DISCOVERY
Learning by discovery has us proper place in the repertoire
of accepted pedagogic techniques avaiJabJe to zeadiers For certain desig
nated purposes and for certain carefully specified learning situations, its
rationale is clear and defensible But learning by discovery also has its own
elaborate mystique Its legitimate uses and advantages have been unwar«
rantedly extrapolated to include educational goals. levels of intellectual
maturity, levels of subject matter soplusiication, and levels of cognitive func
tioning for winch it is ill adapted—and for reasons which derive from sheer
dogmatic assertion, from pseudonaturahstic conceptions about the nature
and conditions of intellectual development, from outmoded ideas about the
relationship between language and thought, from sentimental fantasies
about the nature of the child and the aims of education, and from uncritical
interpretation of the research evidence The chief aim of this cliapter is to
distinguish between the psychological rationale and the psychological mys
—
tique of the so called discovery method of teaching because there is a
pressing need m these troubled times to dispense with sentimental fantasy
and euphoric slogans and to get on with the realistic business of education
This means helping schools do well the kinds of jobs that schools can really
do best namely developing more effiaent and appropriate ways of selecting
organizing and presenting significant knowledge to students so that they
—
can learn and retain it meaningfully both as an end in itself and as a basis
for future learning and problem solving

Historical Antecedents

Before attempting to set forth the rationale and mystique of the dis
covery method it might be helpful bneQy to consider the more important
 Leaning by Discovery
4G8

of thought from
o£ llie numeroui educational movements and currents
historical antecedents are relatively
recent
vvhicli It has evolved Some of its

whereas others have flourished for centunes

Unfortunately also not all of
Uiese precursory trends are logically compatible
with each other
major
The education movement obviously furnished several
progressive
One movement
strands m the design of the discovery method aspect of this

was a growing empty formalism of much educational

dissatisfaction willv the

content m and the early part of

the latter part of the nineteenth century
die twentieth century with siuUitying drill and catechism UV.e
methods of
leadiing with the cumculums lack of relatedness to the everyday
expen
ence of die cliild Ins physical world and social environment and vvitli
pupils role verbalizauon and memonraiton of ideas for which diey had
no adequate referents in experience Oversiatemeni of the realities underly

ing tins dissatisfaction constituted the basis of the later mystique tliat all
verbal learning is little more than glib verbalismand parrot like recitation
Tins led turn to the exaggerated empliasts that progressivists placed on
m
direct immediate and conaeie expenence as a prerequisite for meaningful
understanding on problem solving and inquiry and on incidental learning
and learning in natural uncontnved situations From this type of emphasis
grew acUMty prognmis and project meiliods and tile acdo of learning for
and by problem solving as die principal objective and metliod respectively
of the educational enterprise Tv\o Anal byproducts oi this point of view
were deification of die act of discovery associated with die inductive and
incidental learning methods of tcadung and extrapolation to the secondary
school and university student of the elementary scliool child s dependence on
recent concrcie-cmpincal proj« in the comprehension and manipulation of
ideas \5 we shall see later both of these developments became extremely
imjiortant comjxincnts of the mystique of learning by discovery
Sucli modem pro|X)nenis of tlie discovery method as G Hendrix ac
knowledge their historical and ideological kinship to the progressive educa
tionmovement but are quick to dissoaaic themselves for some of ilie basic
assumptions made by the inductive and incidental learning approaches to
mstniciion Hendnx (I'JGl 296) quite ngluly points out that the mam
p
fallacy of
ilie inductive approach lies
in the teachers use of the pupils
ability to vcihaluc a discovery as the cnveiton by which ^she) rccognucs
that discovery lias taken place ^nd m
referring to the incidental learning
ilui purjxjticdly ocam m the course of a pupd s involvement m a project
or activity proj,rani Hendnx (1061 p 203) correctly berates the advocates of
this mcdiod because all loo often they look no rcsi>onsibihiy lor seeing that
instances of ihc same generalization came along close enougli together for
llie become aware of cither concepts or princijiles
learner to
y second asjjcct of the progressive
education movement relevant to the
evolution of the discovery method
struction that originated in the
was the clii)d<entercd approach to m
educational philosophies of Rousseau and
Historical Antecedents 469

Froebel The acllicrcnis of dui approadi emphasized the importance of

structuring the curriculum in terms of die nature of the child and of his
participation in the educati\e process, that ts, in terms of his current inter-
endogenously denied needs, and his state of intellectual and emo-
ests, Ills

tional readiness According to this point of \ieu, the educational environ

ment facilitates deielopmciu best by providing a maximally permissive field
that docs not interfere with the predetermined process of spontaneous
maturation The child himself, it is asserted, is m
the most strategic position
to kno\i and select diose educational ingredients that correspond most

closely to his prevailing developmental needs, and hence ate most conducive
to his optimal growth Propositions sudi as these obviously make a fetish of
autonomy and self-discovery, and regard as little short of sacniege any form
of guidance or direction in learning, and particularly the communication
of insights or generalizations by teadicrs to pupils Herein lies, part, the m
origin of die mystique that expository teaching is inherently authoritarian
on developmental grounds, and that self discovered insights are uniquely
and iranscendentally endowed with meaning and understanding tliat can
be achieved through no oUicr means Hendnx (19CI. 296), for example,
p
castigates didactic exposition of generalizations as "authontanan'' and as
only ‘satisfying to someone who
already aivare of the ideas being pre-
if
sented This same mystique also underlies the quite different educational
doctrine that it is authoritarian (undemocratic) for a knowledgeable person
tocommunicate his knowledge to oUier persons lacking his particular back-
ground of thought and study, and that the latter individuals can learn more
through ‘democratic discussion *'
These two strands of the progressive education movement—emphasis on
the diilds direct experience and spontaneous interests, and insistence on
autonomously achieved insight free of all directive manipulation of the
—
learning environment set the stage for the subsequent deification of prob-
lem solving, laboratory work, and naive emulation of the saentific method
Many mathematics and saence teachers vvere rendered self conscious about
systematicaJiy presenting and explajwng to iJieir students the basic concepts
and principles of their fields, because it was held that this procedure would
promote glib verbalism and rote memorization It was felt that if students
worked enough problems and were kept busy pounng reagents into a
sufficient number of test tubes, they would somehow spontaneously discover
m a meaningful way all of tlieimportant concepts and generalizations they
needed to know in the fields they were studying
Of course, one had to take pains to discourage students from rotely
memorizing formulas, and then medianically substituting for the general
terms in these formulas the particular values of specified variables in given
problems This would naturally be no less rote than formal didactic ex
position Hence, in accordance with the new emphasis on meaningful prob
lem solving students ceased memonzing formulas, memonzing instead type
Aid Learning by Discovery

problems They learned how to work exemplars of all of die kinds of

problems they ^%ere responsible for and then rotely memonzed both the
formof eacli type anditssoluuon Thus equipped it was comparatively easy
to sort the problems with whicli they were confronted into their respective
categories and spxmtaneousty proceed to discover meaningful solutions —
provided of course that the teacher played fair and presented recognizable
exemplars of the vanous types*
Similarly as tlie terms laboratory and scientific metliod became
sacrosanct in Araencan high schools and universities students were coerced
into mimicking die externally conspicuous but inherently trivial aspects of
saentific method They wasted many valuable hours collecting empirical
data which at the very worst belabored the obvious and at die very best
helped them rediscover pnnaples whicli could easily be presented verbally
in a matter of minutes Actually they learned precious little subject matter
and even less scientific method from this procedure The unsophisticated
scientific mind is only bewildered by the natural complexities of empirical
data and learns much more from schematic models and diagrams Following
laboratory manuals in cookbook fashion without adequate knowledge of
the relevant methodological and substantive pnnaples
involved confers
about as mucli genuine appreaaiion of saentific method
as putting on a
white lab coat and doing a TV asmmerml for
a patent remedy
Partly as a result of die superstitious faith
of educators in the magical
efficacy ofproblem solving and laboratory methods
we have produced in
die past four decades millions of high
sdiool and college graduates who
never had the foggiest notion of the meaning
of a variable of a function of
an ex^nem of alculus of molecular
electricity but who
structure or of
lime done lU of the ptesenbed laborawry
noth and haae successfully soiled
an acceptable percentage of ilie
required problems in dillerenlial and
mtegia ealeulus in logartihms in
Otim s law
molar and normal solutions and m
liare°dm«rf™“T “^“i' discoicry method
Zl nol guaranlee
does ™a am meaningful
'“““Tr'discorer, »>v,„g in melt
deadening ,us. a, tormalisuc, ,„st a,
L
Problem solving can lust as
mechanitnl jus. m L“"o a^ u!
as rote as die norst form of
verbal eximsmon Xh. “ r .
'

I raie nouimn E. T1 >'5'

(« +» muld not
L.
ujurre (B, +
^ '•ho eouM square
Psychological and Educational Rationale of the Ducovery Method 471

minimally necessary amount of appropriate didactic exposition But this

minimum uill nc\cr be made a\ailablc as long as we adhere to the standard
unisersity formula of devoting one hour of exposition to every four hours
of laboratory work and and penal problem solving
pi|)cr
Historically, the discovery method may also be considered, in part a
revolt against the prevailing education'll psycliology of our time, vvhicli is

an cclccuc hodge |X)dge of logically incompatible tlieoretical proposi

largely
tionssupcnmjxiscd upon a sterile empiricism Perhaps the most significant
example of tins self defeating eclecticism has been the stubborn attempt
made by various psydiologists to integrate Tlionulikian conneciionism and
a Widely extrapolated nco Behaviorism with the major tenets of progressive
education But the glaring contradictions that resulted from the eJTori to
reconcile such antithetical sets of principles as the Law of Effect, drive
reduction, stimulus resjxmse and rote learning theory the transfer of
and trial and'Crror learning, on the one hand, and pro
identical elements,
vicwjxnnis regarding the understanding of ideas, active inquiry,
gressivist
and autonomous discovery, on the other hand, tended to 'lUenate some of
the more independent minded educational jisycliologists in the progressive
education camp Some defected to psychoanalysis, spawning a weird synthesis
of Dcwcyism and Freudianism, whereas others were attracted by the greater
emphasis on cognition and insightful problemsolving which charactenzed
such field theorists and Gestalt theoreticians as Tolman, Lewin, Kohler,
Wertheimer, and Katona Also included among the defectors were many
vigorous supporters of the discovery method, wlio viewed ilie extrapolation
of rote learning theory to verbal classroom learning as sufficient proof of
the essentially rote nature of verbal learning, and as ample justification
for designing nonverbal discovery (cclmiques of teaciiing
A final current of educational thought influencing the evolution of the
discovery method is the militant sentimentality underlying the currently
popular educational objective of making every child a critical and creative
thinker This objective is, in part, a wisli fulfilling extension of our present
day preoccupation with actualizing the creative potentialities of gifted
children But it also harks back to certain conceptions within the mental
measurement movement and to the official environmentahsUc bias of pro
gressive education

Psychological and Educational Rationale

of the Discovery Method

An all or none position regarding use of the discovery method is war

ranted by neither logic nor evidence The method iiseJf is very useful for
certain pedagogic purposes and m
certain educational circumstances The
objectionable aspects of the method are ixrtain unwarranted assumptions,
 Learning by Discovery
472

pniposttions, and, above all, some of

oierstalca claims, inadequately tested
ihe rensons advanced for Jts efficacy

It IS evident that tlic )oung human being

must receive considerable mstruciion
but also that he dvould be eternally -.igilani m making additional observations His
life IS a complicated blending of instrucuon and discovery Many fads will be
handed to him outright At the same lime dunng every day of his life,
he will be
engaged almost unknowingly in mduciive reasoning the process of bringing to-

gether a number of experiences and exlraciing from them some common factor The
issuebetomes then not instruction versus discovery since both are essential, but a
consideration of the relative important* to be accorded each m
ihe educational

process (Stanley 1949 p 457)

WNiat are some of the legiiiniate claims, die defensible uses, and the
palpable advantages of the discovery method* In die early, unsophisticated
stages of learning any abstract subject matter, particularly prior to adoles-
cence, die discovery method is extremely helpful It is also mdisjiensable for
testing the raeaningfulness of knowledge and for teaching scientific mediod
and effective problemsolving skills As an adjunctive pedagogic technique
It can be very useful for inaeasing die mcaningfulness of maienal presented

primarily by expository metliods Finally, various cognitive and motivational

factors undoubtedly enliaiice the learning, retention, and transferability of
potCiUially meaningful ideas learned by discovery
Occasional use of inductive discovery techniques for teaching subject
matter content is didactically defensible when pupils are in the concrete
operational stage of cognitive devclojiment It is true of course, that only
die availability of some concrcte-cmpincal expenence is necessary to gen
crate the semi abstract or intuitive level of mcaningfulness characteristic of
this stage of cognitive development Hence, cither simple verbal exjxisition,
using conCTCte-crapincal props, or a semi autonomous type of discovery,
accelerated by the judicious use of prompts and hints is adequate for teach-
ing simple and relatively familiar new ideas But when die learning task is
more difficult and unfamiliar, autonomous discovery probably enhances
intuitive meatungfulncss by intensifying and personahimg both the con
cxjsenence and die actual operations of abstracting and gen
crctciicss of
crahzing from cni/uncaj ibia Jn ibesc ctrcumnsinces alio, tite tinte^ost
disadvanuge of discovery learning is relauvcly less serious, since the time-
consuming concrclc-cmpirical asjsecis of learning must take place anyway,
vnd since a large volume of subject matter cannot be covered
during the elementary school period
m
any case

In lesser degree, this same rauonalc also applies to

adolescents and
adults who arc relatively unsopinsticaicd in
the basic concepts and termi-
nology of a given discipline Tlve older individual,
however, has the Ijcncfii
of greater general cognitive soi>liisiication
and linguistic faaliiy, as well as
of iwst successful cxjicricncc
in mcaningfuliy relating abstractions to cadi
Psychologua{ and Educational Limitations of Learning by Discovery US

other \Mtliout the ajd of concrete empmcal props Hence, he mo\e

will
tlirough Uie intuituc, sub\crbal phase of insightful understanding much
more rapidly than the comparably unsoplusticnted cluld, and, unlike the
soon dts{)cnsc uith this phase entirely
latter, will

The dtscosery method also has obMous uses in evaluating learning out
comes and in teaclung problemsolving tcdiniqucs and appreciation of
method There is no better way of developing effective skills in
scientific

hypothesis making and testing, desirable attitudes toward learning and

inquiry, toward guessing and bundles, toward the possibility of solving
problems on ones own [and] attitudes about the ultimate orderliness
,

of nature and a conviction that order can be discovered (Bruner, 1960, p

i20) As a matter of fact, this is the major rationale for laboratory work Jn
addition, independent problemsolving is one of the few feasible ways of
testing whether students really comprehend the ideas they are able to
verbalize
Finally, in spue of the inconclusive empirical evidence, when all is said
and done and one lias properly discounted die exaggerated daims made for
the unique virtues of learning by discovery, as well as the fanciful reasons
offered for these virtues, it suit seems plausible to suppose tliat the greater
effort,motivation, excitement, and vividness associated wall independent
discovery lead to somewhat greater learning and retention One might expect
the advantages conferred by discovery ledimques to be even greater with
respect to transferability, since the experience gained from formulating a
generalization from diverse instances obviously facilitates the soluuon of
problems involving this generalization
The crucial points at issue, however, are not whether learning by dis-
covery enhances learning, retention, and transferability, but whether (a)
Itdoes so sufficiently, for learners who are capable of learning concepts and
principles meaningfully without it, to warrant the vastly increased ex
pendiiure of timeit requires, and (b) in view of this time cost consideration,

the discoverymethod is a feasible technique for transmitting the substantive

content of an intellectual or saentific disaphne to cognitively mature
students who have already mastered its rudiments and basic vocabulary It
IS largely to an exploration of these issues tliat the remainder of this chapter
IS devoted

Psycliological and Educational Limitations

of Learning by Discovery

For purposes of analysis, the psychologically and educationally unten

able arguments advanced in support o£ learning by discovery can be con
veniently considered under the following twelve headings All real knowl
474 Learning by Discovery

edge iS5clf-<iisco\crcd Meaning >s an exclusive product of creative nonverbal

discovery Subvcrbal auareness is the key to transfer The discovery method
IS the principal method transmitung subject matter content Problem
for
solving ability is the pnmary
goal of education Training in the heuristics
of discovery is more important than training m
subject matter Every child
should be a creative and critical thinker Expository teaching is authon
tarian Discovery organizes learning effectively for later use Discovery is a
unique generator of motivation and self-confidence Discovery is a prime
source of intrinsic motivation and Discovery ensures conservation of
memory

All Real Kntntledge Is Self Discovered

The most general and niciaphysical of die twelve propositions is the

familiar assertion tliat to really possess knovslcdge
or acquire an idea, the
learner must discover u by himself or through
his own insight This proposi
lion stems in part from the deification of
problem soiling acinuy program approach lo
the act of creative discovery the m
leaching and from John
Deiieys extreme preference for problem
solsmg abilily raUier than ability
to acquire knowledge as die proper criterion
of inlclligencc It is also partly
densed from die cliild-cenlered and clicnt<cntcted
doctrines that the in
dntdual himself is best equipped to regulate
the process of learning about
htmself and It,, untteru: and dtcielore
that any umpermg tv, ill tins
autonomy is by deBnition detrimental
to learning outcomes
"“"“y scnumenul type of Roosseauean mysuctsm and pnm,
J
“>
Zlt 1
“ " '«>
snpcrtmpoid o,x.„ the
“"npl'lied by J limners
afore
state
mem °ha,

.. .1" ; ""-“"S '>' Prrlrfoim n

be , a. d:re,er,„ter'
l...-.ce.. tbc knoMedge ponetsed a.m
“t’
hood iiwolir* an imtvwi;.,.
tie poisS
P«»s«»r The T I'T’
Iransiiion lo adult

plorauori of new «pcncncc ihe discovery and ex

,KTa‘^rs.?2;“

of cvpenence expcnencc unimagined realm*

Uiai »d
tioo Son al„ „ detXo ““ ‘
ti eT^^
to'loptl.
___ ...dniJoai
Psye/ olagical and Educational Limifaltont of Learning by Discovery 475

IS capable of going beyond the cultural isays of his social world able to innovate
inhoweser modest a way so that he can create an interior culture of his own For
whateser the art the science the literature the history and the geography of a
culture eadi man must be his own artist his own saentist his own historian his
own navigator {Bruner 1961b pp 76 59)

It IS perfectly true of course that one cannot simply soak up one s

culture like a piece of blotting pajicrand expect it to be meaningful But
who advocates doing anything of the kind? The very processes of perception
and cognition necessarily require that the cultural stimulus world must first
be filtered through each individual s personal sensory apparatus and cogni

tive structure before it can have any meaning Meaning can never be any
thing more than a personal phenomenological product that emerges when
potentially meaningful ideas arc integrated witliin an individually unique
cognitive structure Invariably therefore the achievement of meaning re
and reconciliation with
quires translation into a personal frame of reference
and propositions All of tins goes on in any program of
established concepts
meaningful expository teacJimg and ts obviously a far cry from ilie straws
man picture of passive absorption which Bruner draws to disparage this
method and thereby enhance the relative attractiveness of learning by dis-
covery Most of wiiat anyone realty knows consists of insights discovered by
others that have been communicated to him in meaningful fashion
Quite apart from its lack of face validity the proposiuon that every
man must discover for himself every bit of knowledge that he really wishes
to possess is in essence a repudiation of the very concept of culture For
perhaps the most unique attribute of human culture wind) distinguishes n
from every other kind of social organization in the animal kingdom is pre
cisely the fact that the accumulated discoveries of millennia can be trans
mitted to each succeeding generation in the course of childhood and youth
and need not be discovered anew by eadi generation This miracle of culture
is made possible only because it is so much less time consuming to communi

cate and explain an idei meaningfully to others than to have them redis-
cover It by themselves

The infant is born into a logically ordered world abounding in problem solu
tions accumulated during the long span of mankind s sojourn on earth and this
distilled wisdom called culture constitutes his chief heritage Were it wiped
away he would become in all respects a wild animal even less well equipped to
cope with nature than are the insiinct aided beasts of the jungle An individual is
sagacious m
direct proportion to the faality with which he can acquire and use
existing knowledge for even the most bnlliantly endowed person can make but
few valuable original discoveries (Sunley 1949
p 455)

Within eadi generation therefore we can only expect a given indi

vidual to internalize meaningfully a reasonable fragment of the total fabnc
476 Lear ig by Utscoiery

of the culture that is exjMunded lo hrm by

vanous educational agenaes
the
If v\e arc at all concerned ^ith the breadth of his knowledge we cannot

I>ossibly expect him to discover everything he is expected to know The

obligation of going bejond ones cultural heritage and contributing some
thing new is an obligation that applies to an entire generation not to each
of Its individual members Hence as we shall see later the school cannot
realistically set for itself the goal
of having each child leap into new and
unimagined realms of experience and emerge wiiJi ideas that are dis
continuous with what v^ent before The sciiool can only hope
to help one
cliild in a thousand do this or more likely one
child in a million

Meaning Is an Exclusive Product

of Crealiwe, Nonverbal Discovery

\ related proposmon Uiat relics somewliai

less on flat epistemological
assertionand is more naturalisucally grounded holds
lhat abstract concepts
and propositions ate forms of empty
verbalism unless the learner discovers
«npinc=l nonverbal expenence
I”",
Inoihcr slightly diBercm way ol expressing Use same
idea is to say that
Genemhrauons are products ol problem
solving and are attatnable tn
no odter way (Brownell and
Hendnekson lOaO p II 9 \
Stnerahraiions are forms of
elibyclLbsm"un1
glib sctbalism unless die“S'"""
“‘“t‘ learner discovers them himself resu we have seen

W ontot'orbr""'";" '“'"'"S ““ phenomenon

Lsm^near„r'‘ nean.ngtui d.
*' "nwatiantcd gcncraljralion to
adults ol diildren d adolescents and

mTanrm’a;::;",:u%^rmrrrv^^^
exclusive product of creative knowledge is not an
nomerK^i
^ discovery For
ful presented material poienually meaning
I

bilrardy w.ihm Ins cognitive ‘“P°“

stnictme'””''
**'' discovery with die act
ol undcrslaiming H
discovery
die
„ccursLdw|„,m.|.
orgamrmg pnnaples embedded
'
S'
^Tal'iTllSmT"!'*''
of

relationship of the facts

nrany^ coXm ‘fisiance can see die
and can rLic what
" hi™ i
Ix'forp
,

dcriimioii of all 'elually ibis is a

incanmglid Icaniin.
or discovery learning 'vhether u is reception
Discovcm enthmii i^
from concrete to abstract coimin i
' * ” transition
leaniers caiinoi
undcrsland a^
aiwracrv''c°rl"'l'’’ ^al
relating It to concrete jiroposition wiihout first
mpirical
eminrtcal ex,«.e„ce and iranslalmg
ti .„,o subverbal
Piycliologtcal and Educational Limitations of Learning by Discovery 477

temis Thus G Hendrix (1950, p 337) asserts that “a cognitnely sophisticated

student, who is sufficiently sHllful in interpreting sentence structure as well
can read a sentence which expresses a generalization
as referential 5)inbols,
and then construct or find enough examples of lus own to make the general
izaiion an organic part of himself —
that is, to acquire the subverbai thing
prerequisite to meaning of the sentence"

Subverbai Aitareness Is the Key to Transfer

We have seen, up to the reasoning underlying the

this point, that
mystique of discosery as a prerequisite for meaning, has rested eidier upon
bald metaphysical assertion, or upon unwarranted pseudonaturalistic as-
sumptions regarding iJie nature of understanding and knowledge Hendrix
tned to fill this theoretical void by constructing a more systematic and so
phisticatcd pedagogic rationale for die discovery method than had been
attempted heretofore She did this by adapting to the problem of transfer
the time honored labeling tlicory of the function of language in thought
Hendrix denies that verbal

is tlic primary generator of transfer povNer

gcneraluiiig As far as transfer
power concerned the whole liiiiig [is] there as soon as the non verbal aware
[is]

ness [dawns] The separation of discovery phenomena from the process of

composing sentences which express those discoveries is the big new breakthrough
in pedagogical theory (Hendrix. 1961, pp 292, 290)

The Hendrix (1947, p 200) states, is a "subverbai

key to transfer, ’
m
—
ternal process something which must happen to the organism before it has
any new knowledge to verbalize Verbalization, she asserts further, is not only
unnecessary for the generation and transfer of ideas and understanding, but
isalso positively harmful when used for these purpxjses Language only enters
the picture because of tlie need to attach a syanbol or label to the emerging
subverbai insight so that it can be recorded, verified, classified, and com

municated but the entire substance of the idea inheres in the

to others,
subverbai insight The resulting problem then, according to Hendnx
itself

(1961, p 292), becomes one of how to plan and execute teaching so that
language can be used for these necessary secondary functions "without dam
age to the dynamic quality of the learning itself

The principal fallacy in Hendrix’ line of argument, as we have seen

above, lies in her failure to distinguish between the labeling and process
functions of language in thought Furthermore, it should be self evident that
discovered generalizations are available for transfer only tf and not until
after they are discovered
The unqualified generalization that verbalization of an insight prior
to use inhibits transfer, lacks both logical cogency and empirical support
•178 Learning by Discotery

Nonverbal understanding of pnnaples undoubtedly exists, espeaally in

children and unsophisticated a precursor to some verba! under-
adults, as
standings (Hull, 1920, Luchinsand Luchins, 1947) This, of course, does not
mean that nonverbal concept meanings and propositions are actually used
in the generation of new insights such a feat should be very difficult, as
already explained, because ideas that are not represented by words lack
suffiaent manipulabibty to be used in any complex type
of thought process
Itmerely suggests that a preliminary intuiuve (subverbal) stage
exists in the
product of thought when the emerging new insight is
not clearly and pre
asely defined. However, when this product is eventually
rcHned through
verbalization it acquires thereby much greater
transfer power The verbal
ization of the iruight that takes place at this
point is actually a later phase
of the thought process itself, and is not to
be confused with the still later
represcnuiional process of naming verbalized meanings as a result of whicli
the latter meanings become more mantpulable for purposes
of thoughL
Thusseveral expenmenu on childrens
ability to solve transposiuon
and Terrel). 1955, Weir and Stevenson,
1939) show ihat icrbal insighu are more
uamlcrable than subterbal in
nghta Knowledge of underl,.ng terbal
pnnaples also enhances problem

" "" '“'*= i«ponses are asailablc, they

Sd m
tend to taahute concept acquisition
and conceptual transfer Verbal gen
^altrauon ..pamcularly tmporun. lor
eoneepr^tutntnmt tn ct^ntfeK
mph s teated learners (Hetdbreder
and ZtmLrman. 1955) In^ welN

medtai eaper.emcTd'VaX a,":>'

meaningful grasp of such
abstract verbal exDowiion
cation m
abstract, ons
.c
the pariioilar su'bicct man
&
d„eX
‘«cuy,

^
thT,"n°^
mat is, through
^ minimal level of sophisu
“
direct

higher level of intellectual

deselo
^
graduate into die next

end Ln
 479
Ps^thological and Educational Limitationt of Lrarnmg by Dticoier)

reasonable to suppose that preltmmar) acquisition and

utilirauon o£
it js

semi abstract level of insight both faahtatcs learning and

transfer-
this
abiht), and promotes the eventual emergent of full abstract understanding
attained
(Hendrix, of course, would say that full understanding vias already
in the semiabstract phase, providing that the understanding
was discovered
individuals
rather than presented She vsould also insist that the older
verbalization of lus understanding detracts from its transferability)

Now, assuming for the moment that Hendnx (1917) experimental find
mgs are valid, explain the fact that immediate verbalization of
how can we
trans-
newly acquired subverbal insight apparently renders that insight less
likely that
ferable than when verbalization is not attempted? First, it seems
insight is ade
premature verbalization of nonverbal insight, before such
quately clear, stable, complete, and consolidated further by extensive use,
may more adequate emergence and consolidation at this
interfere vsith its
level, as vsell as encourage rote memonzaiion of the marginal
and ineptly
likelihood
stated verbal proposition Even more important, however, is the
that a verbally expressed insight —
when ambiguous, unstable, unconsoh
possesses less
dated, ineptly expressed, and only marginally competent
pnmitive and
functional utility and transferability than die ordinanly more
less transferable subvcrbal insight that is more adequate m
these latter re

specis This IS particularly true in die case of children,

beause of their
proposi
limited hnguisuc faality and their relative incompetence in formal
tional logic.
Drawing these various strands of argument together, what can we
just
legiumately conclude at this point? First, verbalization does more than
encode subverbal insight into words The use of manipulable words to
represent ideas makes possible, in the first place, the very process of
trans-

forming these ideas into new insights, and the verbalization of emerging
process
subverbal insights into sentences is an integral part of the thought
It there-
that greatly enhances the precision and exphainess of its products
gready
fore makes possible a qualitatively higher level of understanding with
enhanced transfer power Second, direct acquisition of ideas from verbally
has at
presented abstract propositions, presupposes both that the learner

propositions
Crete empirical props in relating potentially meaningful concepts and
to his cognitive structure, the initially resulting subserbal meanings
are inherently
grounds
intuitive (particulanstic, semi abstract and semiprease) on developmental
level
Thus even if they are verbalized later they can never transcend this intuitive
The adolescent, on the other hand, relates potentially meaningful
concepts and
props
propositions to his cognitive struaure without the use of concrete-empmcal
hence the subverbal meanings that iniually emerge are not intuitive on
develop-

mental grounds and —

can be refined in pteauon. clarity, exphainess and generality

— through the later process of verbalization

480 Learning by Uiscavery

tamed the stage of fonnal logical operations, and that he possesses minimal
sophistication m
the particular subject matter question The typicalm
elementary sdiool child, therefore, tends to be limited to an intuitise, semi
abstract awareness of difficult abstractions The older, cognitnely mature
mduidual, howeser, who is also unsophisticated in a parucular subject
matter area, is able to dispense wiili Uie scmi abstract phase of asvareness
rather quicUy —as soon as he attains the necessary degree of sophistication,
and once he attains it, he probably short circuits the semi abstract phase
completely Lastly, premature serbalization of a nonverbal insight, when
this latter insight
is still incomplete, unclear, and inadequately consolidated,

probably decreases its transferability This phenomenon can be explained

by means of the general developmental principle, that an ordinarily higher
and more efficient stage
of development, while still embryonic and only
marginally corajieicnt, is less functional than an ordinarily
more primitive
and less effiaent phase of development Running, for example,
is eventually
more effiaent than creeping but ,f a year-old
1 infant had to run for his life,
he would make better progress creeping
G Hendrix, lionever, comes out «iUi somcirlial dillcrem
and more
sueeping conclusions (rom the same set
of data First, she regards nonserbal
auareness as eonta.nmg uitlnn .tself
,|,e entire essence of an emerging idea,
merely adds a consenicnt symbolic
fjl “*‘i
handle to this
S'""”"” d”Wrons deisendence on a prehmtnary sem.
Is
"> “ 5' Imels, to all degrees
ma ter
mat JiT, of subject
cr soph.sticat.on, and to all lesels of ideational
dilHcuUrActually, Uus
1"*'“'’' "O'" lotng tAtUren leL.ng
lessdSuh luTr f’
togntttvclymature tndtvtd
u“ sto,h

urisatmmcd’r ""'I””* "'mn Uns latter sLphist.ta

n
the inhibitory clleci ‘"‘"P"“ exjxirimenlal findings regarding
>c,balizatio„ on Uie transLaSli.y ol
suhslance of af. lia aZ dZeLmZhlZl”/transfer
'"r power
in their eniirpiv •.»
.* are present
Uicsc findings merely emerges .Nfore probably
show "baTr rel
‘“"•
scrbal insigln „ „„„
lunciional and uim'femb?e“L'"‘‘ “I”'"'"'''

allege students, who

already
rudiments of a disanhnc meaningful grasp of the
liLp*r„ .1
meaningfully and w.,h
maximal cffio^ni.rZl^Udie mcdiod
cxjxisition, suppltmcnicd l»» of verbal
.'.a. the urn o!

U.
^brd™
lunc<onsuraing. wasteful
ami rarely
asiclul, and i «
^ «rcums(anccs
ur'''™ is inordinately
Ml,,,
Psychological and Educational Limitations o/ Learning by Discoi’cry 481

techniques seem to tvork so tvell in programs sudi as the one devised by the
University of Illinois Committee on Sdiool Mathematics? For one thing,
the students entering theprogram, being victims of conventional arithmetic
teadiing m do not have a sound, meaningful grasp
the elementary sdiools,
of the rudiments of mathemaiics, and have to be reeducated, so to speak,
from scratch For another, we have a very strong impression that as the
program develops, the discovery clement becomes progressively attenuated,
until eventually accorded only token recognition Lastly, stnpped of its
it is

quite limited discovery aspects, the UICSM approach is a much more

systematic, highly organized, self consistent, carefully programmed, ab
siractly verbal system of verbal exposition Uian anything we have known to
date in secondary school mathematics If it proves anything, the success of
this program a testimonial to the feasibility and value of a good program
is

of didactic verbal exposition in secondary school mathematics, wliidi pro

gram is taught by able and enthusiastic instructors, and in its early stages,
makes judicious use of inductive and discovery techniques

The Discovery Method Is the Pnnctpal Method

for TransmitUng Subject Matter Content

Educators who are convinced that abstractions are mere glib verbalisms
unless independently discovered by the learner, have no other logical alter
—
native than to advocate the use of discovery techniques in high school and
university as well as m
tlie elementary school —
as a principal method of
transmuting the substantive content of subject matter J A Easley (1958,
1959), for example, argues strenuously for reorganizing, in whole or part, m
the curriculum of science, madiematics, and other secondary school and
along the lines of inductive discovery He also insists
college level subjects
that nonverbal understanding and application of principles should be
required of and demonstrated by students before they are permitted to use
them in verbal form
From a practical standpoint, however, u is impossible to consider the
pedagogic feasibility of learning by discovery as a primary means of teaching
Subject matter content without talung into account the inordinate time cost
involved This disadvantage is not only applicable to the type of discovery
where the learner is thrown entirely on Ins own resources, but also applies
in lesser degree to the contrived ’ or ‘ arranged type of discovery Con
siderations of time cost are particularly pertinent in view of our aforemen
boned developmental conclusion tJiat the discovery approach offers no sink
ing learning advantages expect in the very limited case of the more difficult
learning task, when the learner is either in the concrete stage of cognitive
development, or, if generally m the abstract stage, happens to lack minimal
sophistication in a particular subject matter field Also, once students reach
 Learning by Discovery

secondary school and unucrsiiy the time cost disadvantage can no longer
be defended on the dual grounds that tlie time consuming aspects of dis
covery learning (the need for concrete empirical props) must take place any
way and tliat in any case elementary scliool pupils cannot be expected to

cover a great deal of subject matter Subverbal intuitive tecliniques have

more general applicability dunng the elementary sdiool period but are
alsomore time consuming and confer a qualitatively infenor type of under
standing than does the verbal expository approach which can be successfully
employed once students reach the abstract stage of cognitive development
Thus whereas the relatively frequent use of discovery techniques in the
transmission of complex and abstract subject matter content can be defended
m the elementary school on die grounds that the acquisition and transfer
of intuitive insights may possibly faahtaie the later acquisition of abstract
understanding it is difficult to rationalize the same practice
m
high school
and bejond It is true as already pointed
out that the utilization of sub-
verbal insight by older individuals might
be temporarily helpful in the
early unsophisticated stages of learning
a difficult new discipline Never
theless since discovery methods are
incomparably more time consuming than
didactic verbal exposition and since
the cognitively mature individual does
not linger very long m
the unsophisticated state iliai is benefited
by prior
acquisition of sudi insights the
use of these methods as a primary means
of trammuung subject maitcr
content is as unteasiblc as it is unnecessary
“'"i'"t» "ata obliged to discover lor

mTiron'l'u ’’""“P'' " “-'y '“““‘d "aver gat

li
''Sard completely auLo

the acquisition ot actual ''

“‘'y
knoiilcdie
^ i, w, important than the acquisition
of ability to discover Lnowi,. »

andiheL^^rm'iXt^ed^— ““ ‘”““5°==^
liow they make to didaclicLixiiiuon ‘l"‘a "f tlic formal
ii i.
non ' “'y "Bard
ot problem solving
abiluv as mot I T"" tlie acquisi
mailer There is Zr ^l tlZZ?, "'I"'"""" of subject
take. a.
ikiM.
m p„„c,paTfu„cr„n
how mntl. iime would
1 ““y “

matter? rSmTtor
possibly remain for
^ the tcadung of subject
'il‘*‘“°'','’’
Psychological and Educational LimilationM of Ltarnmg by Ducoiety 4SS

Discovery meUiods of leaclung arc often based on the nai\e premise

Uiat autonomous problem solsing ncccssanl) proceeds on the basis of m
ducuse reasoning from empirical data Actuall), esen )oung cluldren usually
start uith some preconceptions or spontaneous models densed from their

oivn ex|)ericnce or from the presaihng folLlorc Hence ulicn they are sup-
posed!) discosenng principles tnductisel), tficy are really attempting to use
empirical ex|)ericnce to confirm their existing preconceptions It is un
promising to base a teaching program on Uie expectation that children can
intent modern scientific concepts, because their spontaneously imented
concepts present too mucli of a block A more realistic approach ‘
is

for tile teaciicr to introduce modem scientific concepts (and) follow

the introduction witlt opportunities for the cluldren to discover that nett
observations can also be interpreted by use of ilie concept (Atkin and
Karplus, 1962)
another disadvantage in using a discovery approach for the
2till

presentation of subject matter content inheres in the difficulties caused by

cluldren s subjectivism and by their exaggerated tendency to jump to con
on the basis of limited experience, and to consider
elusions, to overgencralize
only one aspect of a problem at a time (Inhclder and Piaget, 1958 Karplus,
1962a and b, Piaget. 1932) It is true that one objective of the elementary
saence curriculum (to enhance appreciation of saentific method) implies an
effort toeducate them out of these tendencies Uut it is one thing to do so as
part o£ a limited laboratory program, and quite another to struggle full ume
with this handicap as cluldren are required to self-discover everything iliey
have to learn
completely unrealistic to expect that subject matter content
It is also
can be acquired incidentally as a by product of problem solving or discovery
experience, as, u is hypotliesized, occurs m
the typical activity program or
project method Sudi inadencal teadung pays too little attention to graded
and systematically organized content, to substantive and programmatic
aspects of presentation, and to practice and feedback variables
Finally, one might reasonably ask how many students have the ability
to discover everything they need to know Although the ability to under
stand original ideas worth remembenng is widely distributed, the ability
to generate comparably original ideas autonomously is manifested by rela
lively few persons, tliat is by gifted individuals
In conclusion, after the elementary school years, verbal reception leam
mg constitutes the most effective method of meaningfully assimilating tlie
substantive content of a discipline Problemsolving and subverbal methods
are developmentally and pedagogicaily unnecessary and are too ume
consuming to accomplish this objective effiaemly However, the method of
verbal reception learning will be restored to its rightful place in classroom
484 Learni ig by Discovery

instmcuon only \\hen it is related to leiesant but still to-be conducted

research on the nature and conditions of long term meaningful learning of
large bodies of verbally presented material

Problem-Solving Ability Is the Primary Goal of Education

A fifth proposiuon underlying the learning by discovery thesis is the

development of problemsolving ability is die primary goal of
belief that die
education Implicit in diis proposition is the assumption that the objectives
involved m
developing problemsolving ability on the one hand and in
acquiring a body of knowledge on die other are more or less coextensive,
and therefore that the learner somehow manages to acquire all of the
important subject matter content lie needs to know the course of learning m
how to discover knowledge autonomously Actually however although these
ivvo sets of objectives are related and
mutually supportive diey arc
in a sense
far from being identical Hence it cannot be assumed
that methods proniot
mg one objective necessarily promote the other and that the process and
goal of education are one and the same thing
as Bnincr 1961 a) claims (
they are
In the place quite apart from its frequent
first
usefulness in problem
solving tlie acquisition of knowledge as
an end in itself must be considered
tht major goal o[ tduoatmn Dospue
the lac. Ihal a Jargo pro,x.rt.on ot ..hat
human being, loam m
the courw of a I, feme has no
numediate uuhly and
1. no. applicable to an)
premng problem of adjustment people are neser
Uieles. strongly mo.i.ated to leam
so that the, can better understand
Uaem
se .es the umiersc and llie
liuman condition \fud. of this kind
of Ijio..l

considered Ute cmerton for Ls.g

nmnr o ' V"?
' "" EEcc concerned .v.U. the
on t r;
lion to pro! lem sols mg and d.sco.er, tedinKjoes
mqncs
The use of these tedt
as already |x,micd out
furthers die pmblemsolsmg
cducanon bo. except ob.ccme of
m
die elemenutry sdll
and unucr "r omer special uL otiTZa J
circumstances not verv effidi-nr
is
™‘'C"‘ lot Iramrailting
i-,
subject matter content
Second the ac.,1 I I
tudi.idris I . lie L ? , “'''"S “d.tty most m
.har.tts;‘.‘X:.:r3t,rr "'-‘e
.he., jiemanem s.ore
...
of k„o”w“ a
«-oivnoHicil^c»For
“ "''‘'‘'c'E
""T"""'
as stated previously although

..iii.r. .. a.i

“ -"y '-scTni-rof
Psychological and Edncattonal Ltmitahons of Learning by Discoiery •185

the abjJity to understand or/giml ideas north remembering is indely dis

tnbuted, the ability to genente comiurably original ideas autonomously is

manifested by only rclatisely fen that is, by gifted individuals It is

true, of course, that ‘arranged or ‘contrived rediscovery would require
considerably Jessgifiedness, but even the use of this expedient on the part of
die relatively more able (if not gifted) segment of the population would be
so time consuming as to render learning by discovery an impractical method
of learning everything they need to know
Jn the realm of educational thcorv, if not in actual practice, the impact
of Deweys exaggerated emphasis on problemsolving still continues to dis-
turb the natural balance beUscen the transmission of the culture and the
problemsolving objectives of education Enthusiastic proponents of the
discovery method still assert that more basic than the attainment of con
cepts is tlie ability to inquire and discover them autonomously (Sucliman,
1961)
These somewhat extreme value judgments regarding the principal
function of die sciiool inspire, in turn, correspondingly one sided proposals

J R Suchman, for example,

with respect to curriculum and pedagogy con
tends Uiat the scliools must have a new pedagogy with a new set of goals
which subordinates retention to thinking Instead of devoting dieir
efforts to storing information and recalling it on demand, they would be

developing the cognitive functions needed to seek out and organize informa
tion in a way that would be most productive of new concepts’ (Suchman,
1961)
The development of problemsolving ability is, of course, a legitimate
and significant educational objective in its own right Hence it is highly
defensible to utilize a certain proportion of classroom lime in developing
appreciation of and facility in the use of scientific methods of inquiry and
of other empirical, inductive, and deductive problem solving procedures
Eut this IS a far cry from advocating that the enhancement of problem
solving ability is the major function of the school In addition, to acquire
facility in problem solving and scientific method, it is not necessary for
learners to rediscover every pnnaple m
the syllabus Since problem solving
ability IS Itself transferable, at least within a given subject matter field
facility gamed in independently formulating and applying one general
ization IS transferable to other problem areas in the same discipline Further
more overemphasis on developing problem solving ability would ultimately
defeat its own ends It would leave students with insufficient time in which
to learn the content of a discipline, and hence, despite their adeptness at
problem solving they would be unable to solve simple problems involving
the application of such content Thus although actual practice in the
process of formulating and testing hypotlieses and in applying general
principles to particular problem situations, is necessary for enhancing
486 Learning by Discovery

problem solving ability much leaching for problem solving necessanly

involves the effiaent transmission of fundamental widely generalizable
principles that are dearly understood and can be stably retained
Teaching for cnucal thinking and teaching for problem solving"
are really somewhat grandiose slogans although obviously much more real
istic than teaching for creative thinking To be sure the critical thinking
and problemsolving abilities of most pupils can be improved But this is
not Uie same thing as sa)ing that most pupils can be trained to become good
critical thinkers and problem solvers Potentialities for developing lugh
admittedly mudi less rare than corresponding
levels of these abilities are
potenuahtics for developing creauviiy Nevertheless there are no good rea
sons for believing that they are any commoner than potentialities for de
veloping high general intelligence Vanabilily in genic endowment is prob-
ably responsible for more of the measured variance in critical
thinking or
problem solving ability than is variability in educational experience
kptitude in problem solving also involves a mudi different
pattern of
abilities than those required for understanding and retaining
abstract ideas
The ability to solve problems calls for qualities (flexibility resourcefulness
improvising skill originality
problem sensiuvity veniuresomeness) that are
less generously disinbuicd m the population of learners
Uian the ability to
comprehend verbally presented materials Many
of these qualiues also can
not be taught effectively Although
appropnate pedagogic procedures can
im^ove problem solving ability the number
of persons who can be trained
to be good prob km solvers is
relatively small m companson
with the num
" * meaningful grasp of various subject matter
rM
individuals and concentrate solely on p«v
clntJT
dueng ulc„.cj problem roirers Mould
be cdocauonally mdeteiurblc.

meanmgtol probTem »bmg (Um"kmd'\lm

“"^enumely underruod a pro^.Ln w.d.

teLrab el
LurTrui a™ll " problem suuar.oor be

Conrcnel)
Iiscll dome '.“u "'r^w
'nlbnent m die understanding by

nece^rr,ye,d,erp,e.„pU„r^",.re"
Irt^TnV"
Suclrman’ held of
science education express
pnnapal objective of saence the view that llic
sacn instruction is the
quiry acquisition of general in
skillsof appropriate
hcunsiici of discovery
“hi science and of training
in the
Imnlint
bat d.c iratticular d.mcc ol
<> suujctt
subicT/rSficri"'
matlcr cliosen lo implement Uiesc goals
 Psychological nrtfl Educational Liinttatiora of Learning by Ducoiery 487

IS a mailer of indifference (as long as it is suitable

for the operations of
inquiry), or that soniehoiv in the course of performing a senes of unrelated
experiments in depth, the learner acquires all of the really important sub-
jectmatter lie needs to knots Thus, A R Hibbs (1961) states It does not
matter Viheihcr the student learns any particular set of facts, but it does
matter tvhether lie learns how much fun it is to fcarn — to obsene and ex
penmeni, to questionand analyze the itorld without any readymade set
of answers and without any premium on the accuracy of his factual results,
at least m the field of science
In our opinion, any science curriculum worthy of tJic name must be
concerned with the systematic presentation of in organized body of knowl
edge as an explicit end in itself Even if it is relatively superficial and orga
nized on an intuitive basis, as it must be in the elementary scliool, the
scienceaimculum should make a start in this direction and give die stu
dent a feeling for science as a selectively and sequentially organized struc
lure This is no less important than imparting the view that science is a
method of inquiry
Another significant difficulty with this approach is that its proponents
tend to confuse the goals of the scientist with the goals of the science stu
dent They assert that these objectives arc identical, and hence that students
can learn saence most effectively by enacting the role of junior scientist
But are the goals of the rcseardi scientist and of Uic science student really
identical? The scientist is engaged m
tune search for new general or
a full
applied principles m his field The student, on
tlie other hand, is primarily
engaged in an eiTort to learn the same basic subject matter in this field which
the scientist learned m
his student days, and also to learn something of the
method and spirit of scientific inquiry Thus while it makes perfectly good
sense for the scientist to work full time formulating and testing new hypoth
eses, It is quite indefensible, in our opinion, for the student to be doing the
same thing — either for real, or m
the sense of rediscovery Most of the stu
dent’s time should be taken up with appropnaie expository learning, and
the remainder devoted to sampling (be flavor and tecliniques of scientific
method the scientist's business to formulate unifying explanatory pnn
It is
ciples in science It is the students business to learn these principles as
meaningfully and critically as possible, and then, after this background is
adequate, to try to improve on them if he can If he is ever to discover, he
must first learn, and he cannot learn adequately by pretending he is a junior

scientist By so pretending he would fail to acquire the minimal degree of

subject matter sophistication in a given discipline that is necessary for
abstract intellectual functioning in that discipline, much less make original
research contributions to science
It IS true that some amount of training in the self direction of learning
IS necessary as preparation for the years when students will no longer be in
 Learning by Dncmery

school But kno^%mg how to hnd die best matenal available on a given topic
IS not die same as discovery learning or even the same as finding and inte

grating all of the primary sources by oneself For most individuals, at any
stage of life, secondary sources typically present interpret, and integrate
knowledge

Training tn the “Heurulies of Discover/*

IsMore Important than Training in Subject Matter
Some advocates of the discovery method favor a type of guided prac
tice in the heunsucs of discovery diat is reminiscent of the faculty psy
diology* approacli to improving overall critical thinking ability through
instruction in die general pnnaplcsof logic Once the
heunstics of discovery
are mastered, they constitute according to
J S Bruner (1961a), 'a style of
problem solving or inquiry that senes for any kind of
task one may en
counter Similarly.] R- Sudiman s Inquiry Training Program is not pro- '

as a new nay lo teadi sacnce but as a way ol leacliing basic cogn.uvc

skills [that belongs] in the science program and in escry other cumc
ulum area tliai requires reasoning and the tormulauon and testing o[
lijpoUicses (Sucllman l'J61)
The pnncipal dilEculty wiUt this approacli
as die tacully iisschologists
“bility can be enhanced only ttilliin the
“
meS H
‘‘'“‘P''"'
“
«d“tg'cs of discotery, like scientific
neither
Whfnt-nf T T' ''‘“P''"'
dtscpltnaJy
>"'"'1 '"a more general
1,

fotm anat from ‘ seltject matter content Tins prmciple

co^t ‘
Tl ^ has been

StdL I'u f7' 7'’""“

'-f ‘‘'•ngmshed saenusu and scltolars who
^7n cn.n7^ Iv r' base
are the tranw
of s«ar skdt T‘;"‘1
oad or orientation to a stx;ari»lP""“P’"-
a"**
gtiicru mm
gTnen approacli
rliw of i »
of
cal tlnnkmg cannot be taught
a, a Efnetatei “bd u
be enhanced only by adomme practice, it can
a
proadi to the teaching
Articular oU '

dlsSl “P"
apptcaauon of sccm.f.c u.eU.otl
dieoteucal ilandimml alo.ic
it harJK
dtat
vjl
d^^ptae
i i
“viTf “ P"'"''
'°T
mqmty. wludi must ncccssatily be btoL en
a strategy of
range of dtsapl.nes and
ptobItLs, an “PP''”'*'' ““
e^er hate aMl'
particular rdcsance to be ’ «‘”‘c'enl
bclnful in il.- i ,
band And from die standiioint of f»»ldein at
cleme'?
“'''""'nlary sd.oof cbddren,
' one wonders
' -nic Jotuinc (.[
It mil verymudi aluc
Psychological and Educaiwnal Limilalions of Learning by Dsscoiery 489

^vhcther principles o£ inquiry pitdicd at tins lc\el of abstraction could be

meaningful enough to be used successfully in problem solving
The rapid rate of obsolescence m
science is often offered as a rationale
for tile heuristics of discovery approach to science teacliing Since the con
tent of what taught today will be obsolescent in fifteen jears, the argu
is
raent runs, students should be taught the process ratiier than the content
of science Actually the rate of obsolescence in science is vastly exaggerated
Although the sjxicifics of science diange rapidly, basic principles tend to
manifest impressive longevity This aigumcnt is also strikingly reminiscent
of the objection small boys offer to washing their faces daily, namely, that
they will only get dirty the next day Obsolescence is a fact of life that must
always be kept in mind, but this does not render futile the assimilation of
the current content of
knowledge or counsel exclusive attention to the pro
cess whereby knowledge is acquired It merely presupposes a readiness to
knowledge that gradually become outdated A
revise those aspects of one's
related argument invokes ilie allegedly rapid rate of forgetting in school
learning Actually, however, meaningfully learned subject matter exhibits
impressive longevity—even over a penod of years (\V?rd and Davis, 1938,
Tyler, 1930, 1934)

Every Child Should Be a Creative and Critical Thinker

Discovery methods are often rationalized in terms of the currently

fashionable slogan that the school s chief resjwnsibihty is to make every
child (or nearly every child) a critical and creative thinker This incredible
notion IS based on the highly questionable assumption that all discovery
activity, irrespectiveof degree of originality, is qualitatively of one piece.
On a watered down, more ‘democratic definition of creativity, broad enough
to include any type of independent discovery, on the belief that the very

multiplicity of human abilities gives every individual a good chance, genic

ally speaking, of being creative in at least one area, and on naive clean slate

Conceptions of human plastiaty winch maintain that even if a given child

has no creative potentialities, good teachers can take the place of missing
genes
J S Bruner is an eloquent spokesman for this point of view

Intellectual activity anywhere is the same, whether at the frontier of knowledge

or in a third grade classroom What a saentist does at his desk or in the laboratory,
reading a poem are of the same order as what anybody
1‘hat a literary critic does in
else when he
does —
engaged in like activities if he is to achieve understanding
is

The difference is in degree not in kind The schoolboy learning physics is a physi
cist, and it is easier for him to leam physics behaving like a physicist than doing

something else (Bruner, I960, p 14)

 Learning by Ducovery
490

(1961) also explains Uiat the

ultimate goal of his Inquiry
J R Suchman
formulate explanations
Training Program is for clitidien to discoser and

the causality of a single instance in terms of

broad uni
svhicli represent
\ersal pnnaples and generalizations This is the unification of concepts for
ulu
uhidi die saenust smses It can and in our opinion should be the
mate goal of children s inquiry as well
of this
We will consider in another context tlie oscrall plausibility

proposition It only remains to point out here tliat from the standpoint of
enlightened educational policy m
a democracy the school should concen
irate ns major efforts on teaching both what is most important in terras
of cultural sursual and cultural progress and what is most teachable to
the majoniy of its clientele As tmprosed methods of teaclung become asml
able most students will be able to master the basic intellectual slulls as well
as a reasonable portion of the more important subject matter content of
the major disaplmes Is it not more defensible to atm at diis realistic goal
whicli lies wiUnn our titan to focus on educational objectives that
reacli
prcsupjxjsc exceptional endowment and arc impossible of fulfillment when
applied to the generality of mankind? Would it not be more realistic to
strive first to have each pupil respond meaningfully activelj and cnucally
to good expository icaclung before we endeavor to make him a creative
thinker or even a good critical thinker and problem solverr
We are by no means proposing a uniform curriculum and pedagogy
for all diildren irrespecuve of individual differences By all means let us
provide all feasible spcaal opportunities and faahiics for die exceptional

duld But in so doing let us not attempt to structure die learning environ
mcni of die nonexccpiional child in terms of educational objectives and
leadiing mediods dial arc appropnaic for either one diild in a hundred
or (or one diild in a million

CxpoiUory Teaching Is iulhontarusn

\dvocaies of the discovery method also take advantage

of the oppro-
brium assooated with authontanamsm in education
to discredit didactic
exposition and to further their own cause
In doing this they not only rel)
on die straw man icdiniquc of representing a
highly exaggerated tell ni
and drill approadi as typical of cx|x>sitory icadiing
but also assert that
cxjjosuory teaching u mhcremly audmritanan
When a leadier stands in
from of a classroom and resenu facu concej
j is and pnnaples he is ac
rording to G Hendrix and odicrs
behaving in an autlioritanan fashion
This IS presumably so because he is allegedly
coercing puj ils by the prestige
of Ills j-jsition and by ius power
to dispense reward and punishment into
umiucstionmgly accepting on faith Ins
own version of die truth instead
of giving them an opporiunuy
to discover u for themselves Bruner (lOGlb)
 b> Uncover, «>
EducMoml UmdMdm d
nttnhod of
.. tins nay Insofar as .nssstble. a
L objecme of icadtng the clnld
liasc
and then testing them on niiat they is likely
lor leannne
of prodnang bench bonnd
learners nbosc tnottvation
hand-pleasing the teaclier, getting
to L extnntc to the task at
mainiaimng seU-csiccm
lege, artificially inchinc is a
picture o
in the mil place, this distressing
schools and e‘>"‘^S
bit oterdrann kVc do not deny that j ex
is certainly
teachers Hut this characteriration
itse ;“‘‘I"ir
e th"re is nothing
position, nor inherent in die method
it
otliers as long
is

inherently authoritarian in presenting

or exp aining i
I , „„
explicitly or
as they ale not ohhged. either ‘‘rgogie
laitli Didactic exposition has
““‘“““te only feasible and elHcient
because
system, and probably, aln ays mil.
Tjie deference to author
method of transmiujng large bodies of kno\ g in. been condemned
knowledge ha
ay implied in accepting already discosered
olt ol all reason If students were
required
be ore ac p
proposition presented by Uieir instructors
ne\er progress bejond the rudiments of
any discip
nonarbitranly
to them as rationa y
established knossicdge be presented only the
that they accept a
tenutivcly and critically as
as possible and
available approximation of the truth

Later Vse
Ducovery Organizes Learning Effectwety for

We turn now to the last four propositions adsanced

propo
mg by discovery These propositions were recently j psvcho
(.%ll) and. taLn together, may he
rove^medml
logical, rather than philosophical, rationale for nreciselv
discovery in
hypo.hesircs that emphasis upon
Bmner
the effect upon the learner ol leading him to be
a cons ru
"8
^ .
^
on y “j®"'
mre what he is encountering in a manner not
lamy and relatedness but also to avoid tlie km
o i
wh.ch mformation might
fads to keep account ol the uses to
However, learning by discovery, m
our opinion
more orderly integrative and viable
'
lead to
the learn g ,.,u,tion
is
and use of knowledge It does so only insofar as
highly structured simplified and skdlfully
programmed to
carelul y g
number of diversified exemplars of the same principle,
order of difficulty But under these orcumstances
one ‘

outcomes to the teaclier s or textboo

w
attribute these latter
to be made rather than
niration of the data from which the discovery is
to the act of discovery itself
492 Learning by Discoiery

Ab a matter of fact pure discovery techniques as employed by scholars

and saentisis could lead only to utter chaos m the classroom Put a young
physics student into a bathtub and he is )ust as likely to concentrate on the
soap bubbles and on the refraction of light as on the displacement principle
that he is supposed to discover In the UlCSM program therefore students
are given a prearranged sequence of suitable exemplars and from tliese they
spontaneously self discover the appropriate generalization Elementary
scliool pupils in the Inquiry Training Program are similarly shown a care
fully prepared demonstration him illustrative of a given principle in physics
and are Uicn permuted to ask questions answerable by yes or no Under
both of these conditions pupils are engaging in true autonomous dis-
covery in the same sense that a detective independently solves a crime
after a benevolent Providence kindly gathers all of tlic clues and arranges
them for him m
the correct sequence This type of discovery is obviously
a far cry from die kind of discovery that takes place in research laboratones
As J C Stanley observes

If as a few ultra progreisive educators seem lo imply education were solely

discovery ihcti teachers would no loi ger be necessary Usually these theonrers are
ihinkii g of classroom siiuacions in whidi site process of discovery resembles an
Easter egg hunt or the piecing together of a
j gsaw puzzle the participaiils make
discoveries that could hardly have come about vviihoui
previous structuring of the
uiuatioii The teacher activity which is involved
in setting up good learning situa
lions is as iruly a form of insiruction
as is direct tcadimg from lesson plans Simply
turning diildren loose without direction
and expecting each of them to discover
for himself imporunt relationships
sudi as the fact that the first letter of die first
word in every scnici cc is apiiahred would
probably prove deodedly inefrecltve
and wasteful of lime (Stanley 1919
p 455)
Now in making these observauons we certainly
do not wish to create
die impression that we quarrel widi
the UlCSM method of induang dis-
covery or that we favor die
use of raw unselected and unorganized data
in thscovery programs ^\e
quarrel only widx liruncrs
interpretation that
u c and ,n.eg,a...c dice of leaning
by docoverj: are aimbul
able 10 the act of ditcotcry raUier
tliati lo the siruclurc
and orgamralion
'‘
01'’'“ ' »I sttcli cumculums as the UlCSM
It!
in secondary school raalli
eiMim and
einaiics physics res|icctivcly
’

" ‘^“pltne ts certainly not

o Ute "T indigenous
to dt^scry method a. If laba (1302) sectns to tmpk ft
.s also the
" techtng or rLplton leirn.Ig
?“'lact »me“m
Psychological oriii Edxicattonal Lsmttaliotu of Learning by Dtscotery

problem sohing or inquiry processes In Suclimans Inquiry Training, for

example, there is no attempt to present systematically the content of a sci
entific discipline Content is largely a matter of indi/ference, or incidental
to the process of discosery Any kind of content is as good as any other as

long as It lends itself to disco\cry and inquiry Hence unsystematic and

haphazard sampling of scientific coniciu is characteristic of his Inquiry
Training Program
Learning by discovery is not necessarily antithetical to programmed
hauls of anguish winch teaching machines frequently
instruction, despite the
elicitfrom discovery enthusiasts True, ihc more unstructured kinds of
discovery methods (for instance, the Inquiry 7 raining Program), winch
demand more genuinely autonomous (unprompted) discovery on the part
of the learner, are incompatible with the ruleg type of programming
(Homme and Glaser, 1960) in which a verbal rule is stated at the outset
and the learner then tested on his ability lo ajiply this rule correctly to
is

various relevant examples Advocaics of these kinds of discovery methods

also prefer to give the learner greater scope for independent thinking than
IS implied m
the use of closely graduated steps in jirogrammed sequences
On the other hand, luglily structured discovery mctJiods, such as tlie U1CS^^
which lead tiie learner to a desired generalization through the use of care
fully graded problem examples arc quae compatible with a programming
tedinique that follows the same general procedure R M Gagnd and L T
Brown (1961) recently conducted an exi>eriment in whicli one group of
learners guided discovery ) was required lo discover a principle after
(
working a hierarchy of problems whicli reduced the learning task to a grad
uated series of sequential steps

Discovery Is a Unique Generator

of Motwation and Self Confidence

JBruner (1960, 1961a and b) and other discovery enthusiasts (Hen

S
drix, 1961, Sucliman 1961) perceive learning by discovery as a unique and
unexcelled generator of self confidence of intellectual excitement, and of
motivation for sustained problem solving and creative thinking We have
already acknowledged that discovery techniques are valuable for acquiring
desirable attitudes toward inquiry, as well as firm convictions about the
existence and discoverability of orderliness in the universe It is also reason
able to suppose that successful discovery experience enhances both these
attitudes and convictions and the individual s feeling of confidence in his
Own abilities On the other hand there is no reason to believe that discovery
methods are unique or alone in their ability to effect these outcomes
As every student who has been exposed to competent teaching knows,
the skillful exposition of ideas can also ^nerate considerable intellectual
 Learning by Discovery

exatement and motivation for genuine inquiry,

altliough admittedly not
quite as much perhaps as does discosery Few physics
students who learn
thepnnaple of displacement from expository
teaching will run half naked
itaough the streets shneking Eureka But then aga.n, hou many stu
den s of Archjmedei ab.hly are enroUed
Ute typ.cal phjs.cs or mathe
matia class How comparable to the
exc.teu.ent of Archimedes’ purely
autonomous and original discosery „
die exatement generated by discover

Doh™f"n “'T
"*
d'agenals m
an n sided
1^00^0.",° ""= "
‘'‘= textbook? And
J“"'ors raotivauon and selfeonlidence if,
after sevSten
hin^B soaUng w7?'"‘°"‘
ptfthological cxpeninent ated by Bruner (I96Ia)
bv
vLr„r<;r:::;‘-etdi''r2:r::r“^““""
more convinced
before Bruner rtE-krr7 tva.e - .
tlian one was
w.U. a tssoehoice apparatuTm
ubfcIT' 'hTpToll'
'“7"S
random and ^ * “qtttttt « arranged at
there is no pattern Some .1
to the fact (and rightly qmtkly begin to catch on
w in ih.< e 1
by chance [and] very soon reverrl •'appenmg quite
a^*'
ptncally more su Jssful] strategy
wherein
the side that has the allocated to
greaier otl"
souls, however, persist m
beliefing^hat diL"""'
m the sequence e that remla..,.
i 1 P®"'™ to be found
trying one unsuccasful
hjpouSis afi«‘'anoir°''"‘'’‘''
number of responses given “f which the
of times It pajs off
w
each side '* roughly
equal to the proportion

biectathandr asks Bruner

For the pcrwin
«ardi oui and Sn.l
env.ronmcm he must be teguianuei
,
and relauonshipi
armed w„h , ,s h.s
to find and once aroused ""te will be somelh.ng
by exnet.a,
finding One ol .he thief enennerrf o' "Sis oI searching and
exMe.!"
!”* '"’‘’“nnsem by ““““P"“n 'here is nothing
™i“"p
1361a 21)
y f'
V of regularity or relauonsliip (Bruner,

cannoi sec what '°®" ftgumcnl, but we

rclm'ance‘’,fh"/j' still
lional virtue, of ‘J''
the discover, tlie unsque mou.a
die absence ol a firm me.lIod‘%'r,f
consiciion about"il.e^™"“ “ “ t^'ttt’
lanlsei in a parucular ““stence of dsseoscrable regu
problem lolvine
trial anderror
behas.or-.u.t l.ke .T°"’ Tl.™ resort to simple
V'hj Uiould discovery
methods neccsJl'^
cats m
die puzzle box But
die existence of >nipirc any more
discoverable rcxularu.*.. ^ confidence in
cgulanuo m
the universe than
U.c method
 Psychological attd Educational Limtlalions of Lfarning by Discoiery
495

o£ didactic exposition uiiicli. after all, is dedicated

to the presentation and
explication of these regularities? It is true that successful
disco\ery expen
ence strengthens such confidence, but unsuccessful experience
has precisely
die opjxisitc elFect— as demonstrated by the resurgence
of magical and super
stiuous thinking tliat follows in the wake of failure to find patterns
of order
hncss III nature

Discovery Is a Prime Source of inlrtmtc Motivation

A
related moinational proposition put forili by Bruner (1961a) states
that “to the degree that one is able to approach learning as a task of dis-
covering something rather than learning about it, to that degree uill there
be a tendency for the child to carry out his learning activities with the
autonomy of self reward or. more properly, by reward Uiat is discovery it
self” Bruner feels that learning by discovery frees the clnld from the imme
diate control of such extrinsic motives as high marks, desire for parental
and teacher approval, and a need to conform to the exjieciaiions of authority
figures In sup|X)rt of tins hypothesis, he cues research data showing that
early ‘overacluevers’ in school tend to be conformists, to overdevelop rote
and to be deficient in analytic and critical thinking ability
abilities,

In our opinion, hovvcver, there is no existing or necessary association

between a discovery approach to learning and intrinsic motivation, on the
one hand, and a reception approach to learning and extrinsic motivation,
on the other But because of certain cultural influences on personality
development in our type of social system, we would tend to postulate pre
cisely the opjxisite kind of relationship, namely, that discovery learning is
ntore often associated with extrinsic motivation than is reception learning
Whether an individual primarily manifests intrinsic or extrinsic motivation
in learning it seems to us, is largely a function of two factors (a) how much
intrinsic self esteem he possesses, and hence how great his relative need is
for compensatory extrinsic status, and (b) the strength of lus cognitive needs
in their own right, that is lus need to acquire knowledge and to understand
his environment, as influenced by genic and temperamental determinants
and by previous satisfactory learning experience
On grounds, vve would think that a more plausible interpreta
tliese
tion ofBruner s data is that it is the learner who is lacking in intrinsic self
esteem wlio develops an overpowering need both for such external symbols
of achievement as high grades and teacher approval and for the glory and
prestige associated with independent discovery in our culture Hence the
overachiever is typically a child who is defiaent in intrinsic selfesteem He
reliesunduly on role memorization both because it is the surest route to the
high marks and the teacher approval he craves, and because (on account of
his anxiety and impaired self esteem) he lacks the self-onfidence to improvise
iSS Learning bv Discovery

^alid CMdencc of this nature is virtually nonexistent It appears that the

various enthusiasts ol the discovery method iiave been supporting each other
by taking in each others laundry, so to s^icak, that is, bj citing
rescarcli wise
each others opinions and assertions as evidence and by generalizing wildly
from equivocal and even negative findings
In view of the apparently sound ilieorctical reasons listed earlier (under
‘
and Educational Rationale of the Discovery Method
Ps)diological for
)
predicting modest advantages in teaming retention, and transferability
attributable to the use of discover) techniques
these largely equivocal and
negative findings are somewhat disappointing In many cases, of course,
findings are equivocal simply because of failure to control
such other relc
vant variables as the rote meaningful the inductive-deductive,
the verbal
nonverbal and the intra material orzanizaiion dimensions
of learning, while
varjing die reception-discovery factor In other
instances, it is quite possible
that negative findings are less indicative of
inadequaacs in the underlying
theory than of inadcquiacs tn rescarcli design,
which unfair!) load the dice
against the jwssibiliiy of confirming h)podieses
And as far as long term
curriculum studies arc concerned, one might
anticipate that any short term
advantages accruing from tlic use of discovery
techniques would be more
than ofiset by us iime-consuimng aspects
and the consequent low rate of
acquiring subject matter content

Long Term Studies

»<
currSr rctom.
cumoilum T’ projccl, Iiaxe failed d.us
far
pr.napl«, ,he var.ou,
w
yield any research cvi
dence ,n sup,x.,i of die discoser,
medi«f This is not to" S^t Uic ev
den^ IS ncgatise bn, radicr ilia, iliese
,u,. is no. any es!5encrot .ray
or die Oiher-nolssidistanding
die fact that ihcse projecu
are often cited

d,.;dfe'rzi‘'r‘“"
liecn thoroughly
constneed oHIns front d.e ou«[
die) hate not esen attempted
to obtain comparaiilc
ach'.ctcmcm 'tesTdau

sometlnng „e„ and m.ercs.tng

nig ...cd, or tha! the teadte be
.
and C.ilhus.asi.c, and rece.se
spctia'l tram.r‘'^'''‘”’^i“"''*‘'"‘'
don. and sumn.tr
,„s.,.u.es,an7:;;™:5,:;r-;-
 499
Research Eitilence

motements were all

But even if tlic sjjonsors of the cumeufum refonn
im|iossiblc to test
imbued iMth uiisMoinry research zeal, it iiould still be
curriculum research In the
the discosery h>|)Othcsis ivithiu the context of
sigiiiricant variables are necessarily
oper
first place, a large number of other

atiie in such programs The UlCSM program, for example, not only relies

gencrilirations but also on an

heavily on the principle of self discovery of
of subverbal insight, on
inductive approach, on the problemsolving use
programming, and,
abundant cnipitical experience, on careful sequential
uiiaiiihiguoiis and sysiematic verbal
above all, on precise, self consisicnl,
variable or to which combination
forniuhtion of basic principles To ..Inch
should the success of dus
of these variables and the Havs.horne
elfect,
earlier in this
program be attributed? For reasons enumerated
systematic
Lidd nominate the factor of precise and
rather than the discovery variable
(Students enrolled in *= p
gram learn more rnathcmatics, m
our opinion, not ’
« ““
I
but because ‘ “V
to discover generalizations by Ihcmscivcs.
explanatory and
disposal a sytlematie body of organizing,
ciples vslucli are not part of the
conventional course
^
the subject or
mathematics These principles illuminate
mudi more meaningful, coherent, and exciting)
htprature are
A number of long term ‘='""“’“'1’
i|,e discovery method
frequently cited as protiding empirical
suj^
T Prynnell a9S41 C L
Using baLally identical rescarcl. designs
compared the “ ,nd
Thie and E J Swenson (19-19)
(1938),
‘generalization’ methods of teaching
number ac s
repeti
memonzaiioi
The
non
drill approach emphasized rote
of anthorttatively presented facts
and rules w-hereas 8“'”“
generalization

method meaningful perception of

stressed " had the
q j also
geuerahzatmus Pupils taught
McUjnne r
added benefit uf concrete props in ihe hy G L
sm y w
grouping of materials in Ihe S'*enson
very
Anderson was also conducted along
(1949)
fourth grade pupds [ound to be superior
Needless to say, the generalization immediate and
calling for
m all four studies, except lu enterwn ” „ form from that
automatic recall of knowledge relative y discovery
aj-gnt than the
learned lu the rraintug situation c ia„-"S'“‘
variable in each of these studies
howe ' generalization
and m studies, the dilferenua a
two of the foaming materials further
group of visual aids or of organize 8 he remembered
findings
complicated interpretation of ihe learners first enter
that It is
relation to t is age group
precisely m unsoplus
and still completely
comple y
logical operauons
mg the stage of concrete
 Lean i
g by Discovery

lhat ihe efficacy and

ticatcd in a nc^^ difficult and ibsiract subject mailer
least disputed The umecost factor
{easibiluy of the discovery method are
at tins age le\el because time consuming concrete
IS relati%el) unimportant

empirical props must be used m

any case because large bodies of subject
matter cannot be learned through expository leaching
anyway and because
abstract ideas at this stage of
die semi abstract mtuiiue understanding of
it would
deselopmcnt is oCien facilitaied by discosery learning Houever
findings that meaningful
he quite unwarranted to gcnerahie from these
learn
recepuon learning of twelfth grade mathematics is less efficacious llian
Program
ing by discoscry Preliminary findings of die Inquiry Training
(Sucliman I9a9 1962) also fail to supjxirt die discovery hypothesis

Short Term Studies

The well known Gestalt vvniings on insightful problem solving by \V

Kohler (1925) M ^Vcrtlieimer (19a9) k Duncker (19*15) and C Kalona

(1910) arc iradiuonally cued m the discovery literature as supportive of

the discovery mcUiod however the Gestalt emphasis
of teaching Actually
on insight deals only with the rote meaningful dimension of problem solving
and has no bearing wUaisoever on ihc rclauvc efficacy of ibe exixssviory (re
ccption) and discovery approaches As pointed out earlier botli reception
and discovery learning may each be rote or meaningful depending on the
conditions under whidi learning occurs TIic Gestalt theorists merely insist
that the concept of insight is more valid than Uie Thorndikian trial and
error or the Hullian jximi of view in explaining problem solving behavior
that lies within an organism $ verbal or subverbal reasoning abilit)
Kulilcrs Wcriheiracrs and Duncker s monographi also do not really
report research findings in die usual sense of die lerm. They arc rather
elaborate and sophisticated analyses of die nature and conditions of in
sightful problem solving from the Gestalt jwini of view vvhtdi use observa
tions infomial experiments anecdotes and demonstrations to illustrate the
principles under discussion Katonas studies on liie other hand are more
genuinely cxyKrimcntal but at the very most dcmonsirale lhat undcisiand
iJ}g oS a {wnciple as opposed lo rote metaoeuatson leads ca
superior refen
lion and transfer One exjiCTinient in particular shows dial a rotcly memo-
rued verbal prinoplc is less transferable lo new problems than is mere
empirical cxjxrricncc witli problems exemplifying the prinaple in question
But ihu indicates only dial undcrslamling of a principle even when un
vcrbalued is more transferable dian rote mcraonration It does
not suggest

* ne research iwues tcUiccl to these studies

and some o! ilic imphcationi of
c findings arc ducvuied
tl

practice
under the heading of prompUr
g and guidance m
Retearch biidence 501

Uiat newly emerging non\erbaI awareness is always more transferable than

^erbal understanding
This study by Kaiona is reminiscent of G Hendnx previously
latter
discussed cxpcnmciu (1917), but Hendrix carried the design and arg;ument
one step furtlicr She also included another control group of subjects who
first acquired meaningful nonverbal awareness of a prinaple,
and then
attempted immediate verbalization She sliowed that her experimental sub-
who were sent out of the room while tliese control subjects were at
jects,

tempting to verbalize nonverbal awareness, were not only superior in trans-

fer power to tlie control subjects who had merely learned the
pnnciple

through verbal e\|X)sition, but were also superior to this other control
to verbalization Hen
group whicli had acquired nonverbal awareness prior
transfer power an su
dnx interpreted her findings to mean tliat tlic full
insight,
sunce of an idea are already present in the emerging subverbal
is invariably
dial this dawning subverbal awareness, when left unverbalized,
more transferable Uian when put into words We have already
explained m
detail why we dunk that premature verbahzauon
of insight reduces trans-
enhances transferability
ferabihiv, and why we believe diat verbahzauon
to consider meth
under all oUier circumstances At diis point, we wish only
odological and suiistical aspects of Hendrix’
expenmenc
, i, ««
In reporting her study. Hendnx frankly acknowledged the
achievement o unv
^
^
devising bodi ‘a good behavioral test for die
was a so t e ormi
awareness,” and a suitable test of transfer There
obtaining the co^ect answer
problem of deciding ’'whedier subjects were
izati^ (
dirough counting or through applying the genera '
, .

Hendntt taely ad
W,U. r.,pect to flte ma.ntenance of neccstary control,.
mttted, tahennore, that » oas dtOicolt to pretent .„ter
grou^ in
discuMion among members of the different melho
val bettteen learning and testing,’ and to
^'^^arex^n
an expen
the subjects that
experimental procedures without rctcaling to
ment was in progress (1947, pp 203 204) and
fn addtttL SM
cl these acknowledged
for all 3 p P ,
control problems, only 40 subjects were available
this relatively small number was achieved
on y y poo
populations,
three very diLrent kinds of experrmentaf
f
homogeneity of vartance was not even c^m
comparability
population, and Ihe undetermined assignment
ponenm. rendered untenable Hendmt’ ™„p”.tth rasped
these gr P
of treatment groups equahred
subjects to the three
tarables
to the inOnence of the uncontrolled ,
, ,

on the transfer
Lastly, the difference s.gmlicant at
tion’ group and the ’ nonverbal
f„„'^,,et„een the ’nonverbal
dilterence
the 12 level, and the cotrespondmg
502 Learning b\ Discovery

a^^a^eness group and liie group which had \erbalized their nonverbal
awareness was only significant at the 33 level Neither of these levels of
significance is regarded very seriously by either statistiaans or educational
research v^orkersTaking all of these factors into consideration tlierefore
the experimental foundations for the far reaching conclusions vvhtcli Hen
dnx draws from these findings can hardly be considered impressively firm
We come finally to a senes of experimental studies in which varying
amounts of guidance vvere furnished to different groups of subjects in prob-
lem solving situations C L Stacey (1949) studied the effects of directed
versus independent discovery on solving a group of meaningful problems
eadi of whicli required subjecu to identify the one item m
a set of five that
did not belong He found that active paruapation and
self-discovery were
more efficacious for learning than was passive partiapation involving only
recognition or idenufication of information presented to the learner This
finding of course was wholly predictable
since Uie fostering of such com
plete passivity m
problem solving expenence as providing the correct answer
for eacli problem as well as the reason
for same is self-evidently inadvisable
and 18 seldom if ever practiced today But
even so surprisingly enough
stgnifiani differences were not found
between these extreme treatment
groups on a transfer test
° "* ““'8= rather dian

or ff'orable
"'"r''
e bS eaZ'? “ hnef
re amer P'"'"’- >“rned and
^ 1“°" P""“P'“ "“n did bis independent group
«lud. bad^

r:: z;:
'""thiate amount of guidance but ncicrthe
less an ainount which .

eitlicrdie proiisioo o( P°"|hl) transfer more than

less cuidanie nr il
cad, of the problems. '“'"'hmg of specific rules for

college sluJenls siliidi

^a^s cVi'bmls'dS;
-rmdmgs floweser --.t
“mSull; ^r^;
 503
Reieatcli Eiidence

on problems A>licre ihc coding rules ^\erc gisen than where they
had to be
independently dented rurthcniiore on j delayed transfer test there was
no dillcrcnce whatsocter in the number of correct code idenufications
made
problems
for the problems learned originally with the rule given and the
on
learned originally by independent derivation of the code Nevertheless
greater for
the grounds that the gam from the first to the second test was
those problems where the rule had been independently
derived the m
are
vcsiigators principles vshicli are independently derived
concluded that
more transferable tlian principles for wludi Uie rule is given This m our
race horses trained
opinion, equivalent to saying that of two matched
IS
the criterion
by metliods and U respectively who are tied at the end of
A
because at the half
race the horse trained by method B is really superior
way marh he was one lap beliind the horse trained by method
A but never
tiielcss caught up to him by the end of the race

m th.s area by B V Kerth (1958 1962) yteldea result,

Other S.UC1.CS

practically ttlentical to Uiose ol Craig Kitlell and Hasclrud and Meyers

opposite to those ol Kittell on
on the ot original learning but results
test
design however Kersn
the delayed retest By using an ingenious research
llie greater interest
was able to exphui this latter finding on the basis ot
discovery group to con
and motivation on part ol the independent
tlic
interval Kersh concluded
linue praelicing tite cash during the test retest
undcistandmg or mean
that discovery experience in ilscll does not enhance

ol varying amounts ol
^.d
In another group ol studies on the effects
were found between t
ance on problem solving either no difference,
guided discovery was
ment groups or a limited amount ot gu, dance (
)

whatsoever or to
found to he superior both to no guidance
Maltrman E Eisman and L O
ance I Moss (1960) I

R iM TomhnL (1962) and R H Forgus and R J

ported no significant differences m
delayed retention “"‘I
f
guided dtscovery types “
direct detaifed t

Ray(195I)a„dJlIRow.e.t(,90^„.^
and
“LTZ emded

superior rclen.ion ol
at least part of the
Larson hii^iound
. r
diat
6 G tL isrsanl effect—a tendency to
,,„hiitable to the Zeigarnik
Kersh, disuwery poop was Bndiogs suggest
remember more
^ of initial
‘
j .he rule at the conclusion
this conies.
:^r;rhir„":,r "’e'n-haL motJunn to learn
guidance
relatively complele
expl.c s.etvby smp type ot
r A
 looming by liut-overy
5M

to a large step prorapted-dis-

as superior both lo the nilcg method and
cosery procedure* B Gormans findings (1957) svcre dilferentiated with
R
respect to the ability lesel of lus subjects highly
expliat instructions were
less able subjects
most effecuve with tus more able subjects whereas his
benefited equally from more and less explicit instructions C N Grote {I960)
students
found that ilie direct-detailed metliod was superior for high ability
and that die guided discoiery procedure was superior for average-ability
students m learning a lever pnnoplc
The issue of expository teaching versus independent discovery in the
learning retention and transfer of prtnaples is still very much in doubt
because of die non comparability of the various studies serious defiaenoes
m research design and the failure to hold constant or tabe into account
rote meaningful inducuve-dcduclive verbalization ability level cognitive
maturity subject matter sophistication and mouvational variables In gen
eral the research findings support E L Thorndike s well known conclusion
that refusal to supply information on the ground that the learner will be
more profited by discovering die facts himself runs die nsk not only of
excessive time-cost but also die strengthening of WTong habits (1955 p 147)
Providing guidance to die learner m the (onn of verbal explanation of the
underljing principles almost invariably faalitates learning and retention
and sometimes irarufer as well Seff-discovery mediods or the furnishing of
complete!) expliat rules on the other hand are relatively less effective
The most cSicaaous type of guidance (guided discovery) is actually a
variant of expository teaching diat is very similar to Soaauc quesuonmg
It demands the learner s active participation and requires him to formulate
hisown generalizations and integrate his knowledge in response to carefully
jjiogrammcd leading questions and it is obviously much more highly stnic
lured than most discovery methods widi ihe jjossible exception of the
U1G5M Funlicr research is needed lo determine whether guided discovery
ISsujicrior to simple didactic exposition in terms of relative effectiveness
for liic lime cost involvedwhen such factors as cognitive maturity subject
matter soplusucauon and verbal ability are varied. To be definilive such
rcscardi must also deal with large segments of instructional material and
not merely widi short term problem-solving exercises m
the laboratory

• S M
Ervin (1900c) uKc! a simiUr guided discovery approach
in teaching
clcnventaryvdiool dnldien ihe vcibal ptinaples undcri>»ng various
moior per
formances. Tlic diildreo were helped by Icadttg questions
to formulate dc prin
tipics from their own obscrvauons. This method
transfer than did a oonverba! lype of guidance
of irutniciion resulted m
greater
 The Acquisition and Use of Concepts
506

him to be differentially auare

tne structure This latter concept influences
house as a sumu\us obycct and to ignore others to
of certain properties of a
interpret the resulting sensory expenence m
the light of certain preconceived

cntenal attributes of house and to infer the existence of other attributes

impressions but simply
that he actually does not experience as sensory
assumes are present on the basis of the objects designated
membership in
the generic category of house
In shortbecause of the influence of concepts within his cognitive
structure man experiences a highly simplified schematic selectise
and gen
eraliied conscious representation of reality rather than a complete
and
faithful sensory representation of it Nevertheless this conscious experience
IS much more detailed particularistic and idiosyncratic
in its denotative
and connotaine aspects than the culturally standardized meanings svhich its
corresponding generic terms have for him and which he actually uses in —
acquiring new knowledge (via reception learning) in thinking and problem
solving and in communicating with others

Consequences of Conceplualizatton
for CogntUve funcUoning

The simplified and generaliied represeniaiion of reality that is achieved

through the existence and use of concepts males possible the invention of
a language v«ith relatively uniform meanings for all memben of a culture
thereby fanhtating interpersonal communication (Vgoisky 1962) Equally
imporunt it also makes possible (a) the csublishmeni cognitive structure m
of inclusive and generic constructs (and of propositional combinations of
them) in relation to which new correlative and derivative meanings can be
acquired and rciaincd more eJficienily as part o! an organized body o!
knowledge ‘ and (b) tlic manipulation inierrelalion and reorganization of
ideas involved in the generation and testing of hypotheses and hence in
meaningful problem solving
Ry sewvttg up equvsafeuw by grouping Telatcd items of expen
that vs
cnce into categoncs defined by the cntenal aiinhutes of their memlicrs con
cepls therefore standardize and simplify the environment and hence
faahtate reception learning problem solving and communication Because
It IS cumbersome and cognitively ineffiaent to
deal with continuously gnded
events man resorts to categorization responding to heterogeneous objects

I It ould be realled at this point that although ihe fint

i>
phase of the assim-
ilation proens faalitates ihc aiquisiiion and
retenuon of meaningfully learned
knowledge as totnpartd to the /ate of roiely learned maicnals the
same trend to-
ward the iimplifation and generalizaiioti of ideas in cognitive
struaurc (by re
duang them to a lean common conceptual denominator that
is to the ideational
import of an established anchoring idea) also
accounU for live /orgetting aitnbut
able CO obliieratne auimilaiion
 507
The Sature of ConcepH

or e%cnts as a class or as members of a class Concepts free

thought learning

and communication from the domination of the ph)S!cal environment

They
absence ot concrete
mate possible Ihc acquisition ot abstract ideas in the
empincal experience— ideas that can be used both to
categonze nm
situations under existing rubncs and to sene as
anchonng foci for the
new Icnovviedge Finally the grouping o con
assimilation and discovery of
responsible for the genera
cepts into potentially meaningful combinations is

tion and understanding of propositions

Are Concefjls lielaled io Physical Realily?

reality
to assert that conceptual
siould be quite fallacious houeser
It
ishatsocser to the real uorld
A more >“PP°™ble
bears no resembiLce
conceptual an p
appraisal of the relationship betuecn
selectively schematic enion
reality charactenze the former as a
uould be to
Out of the many ptusible and
logically
ot the latter
and p enomena
delineating categones into vvliicb objects
tain designatedlnterial attributes in common
genencally more inclusive classes a grven
can
culture
be

=
f“
^ ^“
" nf
_p„i,pr5 o

.°J
fltemativL In this choice distinctive va
and economic institutions and ways of
ues
^ fmert^na "he
random decision
relation, hips-a, well as sheer

guages clearly indicates the P'^^ and events

„,, oper,ie5 of objects
hysimilar physical functmnal
,

elassification' In short con

and by the in
in the real wiorld
f F „ .|l„pcal representa
ceptual reality is far from being
eii

tionof the physical world identifies

the extent to which it
Thusthe vendicahty of P
objective reality-is an
concept
gcnSation In formulating new
salient
important dimension of “"“P , » . more or less central

rbormTetrure':^^^^^^^
lem solving and communication

zlre Concepts Themselves Heal!

metaphysics that con
PS .mohat in classical Greek
The no .
reifie
axiomatic givens and exhibit
essence j &
ceptual meanings or
 The AcquiittiOfi and Use of Concepts
50S

from
a separate existence m their otsn right, apart from the physical objects
bchemanzed is both saentifically and
philo-
ivhicli the) are sclecliiely
sophicall) unsupportable As abstractions, concepts obtiously represent only
a class and enjoy no actual existence
one of many possible v.a)s of defining
concepts are real
m the physical ivorld Psychologically spcahing hos^ever.
and
in the sense that (a) they can be acquired, perceised, understood,

manipulated as 1/ they enjoyed an independent existence of their own

and
(b) they are percened and understood, both denotatively,
and in terms of
culture
their syntactic functions in much the same way both within a given
and from one culture to another For example, culture itself 1$ an abstrac
tion (concept) that hasno independent existence of its own since it consists
merely of modal attitudes typical v»ays of thinking and characteristic ways
of msiitutionahzing interpersonal relationships in a particular society Vet
"culture as an entity, 15 psychologically real Even though it is an abstrac
tion that has no physical reality apart from the totality of the behaviors,
altitudes, and values of us individual earners, the distinctive properties of
a given culture (although only statistical abstractions in their own nght)
comiiime lehably identifiable perceptual and cognizable conceptual entities
about whicli there 1$ much consensus of judgment* and wrhjch also in

fluences die Jives of us members in many predictable and uniform ways

Tunher, culture as a generic idea is a very useful tool both for acquiring
‘

and discovering new knowledge

The concept meanings represented in a given language, therefore, may
be thought of as both a product or reflection of culture and as a patterning
or limiting factor in the cognitive development of ihe individual camera of
the culture It reflects the idiosyncratic kinds of, and approaches to, cate-
gorization, as well av the cJiaracterisiic atmudes, values, and v-ays of think
ing that prevail in a given culture Once comtiiutcd, then, the structure of a
language and ihe conceptual and syntactic categories it contains, definitely
influence, in turn the percepiual and cognitive processes of the developing
individual He learns to perceive, think and acquire new meanings selec
lively m terms of the classificalory sdiemcs available to him
in his mother
tongue, if the latter fails 10 recognize certain conceptual distinaions, he 1$
greatly handicapjicd in making them himself Tlius, characteristic jiatfems
of thought in a particular ctiUutc affect dm nature of the
language that
evolves and ihe language reaprocally patterns and limits
perceptual and
cognitive experience and the types of thinking in which
individual memliers
of the culture engage

2 Underjjraduaie itudcnii for example can predict vith almost uncanny accu
ncy il\e precise dtrttte of orthodoxy or heterodoxy diaractcrumg the mean »>chcf»
of .her claumaiei will,regard lo detailedmu« relating 10 .ucli conirosen.al area*
at theology and immortality (Ausuhel and Sdipoont
19 d7)
 509
Different Ha)J of Acquiring and Uiing Concepts

Problems in ihe Acquisition

and Use of Concepts

meanings in human
In considering the role of concepts or genenc
it is etident that two quite
different kinds of ps)
cognitise functioning
the problem of how
diological problems require explanation First there is
psjchological processes in
concepts are acquired and the different kinds of
important problem
\oUed in such acquisition Second there is the equally
perceptual categorization
of how concepts once acquired influents (a) the
of experience (b) the acquisition and retention
through reception learning
(c) meaningful problem
of new conceptual and propositional meanings and
solving (discovery learning) ,

include (a) allemause theones

Subiidiarv issues requinng considenilion
(b) deselopmental chants
regarding the nature and acquisition of concepts
lesel lo anot er) (c)
in acquiring concepts (changes from one age
isttc sequential dianges occurring in
the cognilise properties o
acquisition teit/nn “
^
concept from earl) to late stages in its
the culture ly
lesel (d) reasons for disaepancies bettseen
and actual meanings it elials in
mg of Vconceptual term the
gu g
the role
viduals (e) dilferentssa)s of classifying concepts (0
on
concept Lquisition and (g) the influence
factor as age experience IQ sex „
"
instanros relevant and
experience ^sitise versus negative
exemplars learning set op^rtunities
perence coiugu.ty and sequence of
or heterogeneity of exemplars
for application and the homogeneity

Concepts
Different Ways of Acquuing and Using

differences

The Acquuttton of Concepts

Webavealreadydistin^-^^^^^^^^^

and older individuals

 The Acqmsilton and Use of Concepts
510

Concept formation is charactenstic ol the preschool child s mductsse

ideas (for instance
and spontaneous (untutored) acquisition of generic
i>pe of dis-
house dog ) from conaete-empmcal cxpenence It is a
cotery learning intolving at least in primitive
form such underlying
psjchological processes as discnminame analysis abstraction differentiation
hypodiesis generation and testing and generalization Less typically in
real life situations and m the laboratory it is also exhibited by older indi

siduals —but at a much higher leicl of sophistication with respect to the

component psycliological processes iiwolved
Most of our information about the nature of concept formation both
in young diildren and in individuals of school age and beyond comes
from
laborator) type situations m
which the learning task calls for the inductive
ideniifiGiiioti of the common critenal attributes of a class of stimuli from a
large array of instances vhicli vary m
regard to both cntenal and non
cTiierial attributes experimenter for example may present the subject
The
with an array of squares circles and mangles each of which is either red
blue or yellow and then say I have a particular idea m
mind eiUier a
particular form (square circle or triangle) or a particular color (red blue
or yelloH) Each of the cards in the display in front of you has one of these
forms ivhich ts colored red yellow or blue You can point to any one of these
cards in any order you clioose and I will tell you whether it is or is not an
example of the idea I hate in mind From the answen I give you you will
etcniually be able to deierminc whidi particular idea—one of the three
forms or one of the three colors—I am thinking of Your job is to discover
this by using as few cards and asking as few questions as possible Let us
suppose that the experimenter had a square in mind From his response of
yes this ts an example to red yellow and blue squares and No this is
not an example to red yellow and blue triangles and arcles the subject
finally discovers that square is die concept that the experimenter was
thinking of
Many oihcr researcii designs have been used m the experimental in
vcstigaiion of concept formation Only one additional method will be
described here This method mvohes a mining session m which the subject
first learns the nonsense-syllable names of different classes of stimuli by
being presented with different exemplars of each class each exemplar being
appiopnaicly labeled vsilh its class name He is then tested for knowledge

At pointed out earlier ilic utc of die term inductite ovenimplifes

*
die
actual process of concept fonnaiion levr pToWmsobing
or concept formaiion
wiuaiions are approached from scraCcli—by generating new
hypoiheses solely from
ihe data at hand More typically the learner approadies
new problems by general
fng hypotheses derned from existing concepts
ture These Utter hypotheses may be influenced
or propoiiuons m lus cogmtisc «nic
iniiially or Uicr on by the dis-
tinctise (eatutes of the current pro! Icni
situation
Difjerent llajj of Acquiring end Using Concepts 511

of the criterial atinbi'les of each class by being asked to name correctly other
exemplars of tliesc same classes

In real life situations, of course, concept formation is both a more pro

longed and less orderly process For example, as a result of being exposed to
many different sires, shapes, am! colors of both dogs and other animals, a
prescliool clitld cscntually acquires a concept of dog tint is both generic
m nature and a reasonable facsimile of the culpiral consensus regarding the
psychological pro
nature of the concept in question Botli the component
cesses underlying concept formation, and developmental
changes in the
concepts and in the processes insohed smII be
dis
cognitise properties of
cussed in subsequent sections
age) children as iiell as
Characteristically, licmecer. older (school
process of concept
adolescentsand adults, acquire nen concepts through a
being pre
assimilalwn That is, they learn new conceptual meanings by
relating these atm
sented mth the criterial attributes of concepts and by
structures In the
butes to relesant established ideas in their cognitive
the assimilation process
concrete operational stage, as pointed out previously,
empirical props name y,
requires the facilitating influence of concrete
to cognitive structure
exemplars of the criterial attributes which are related
Learning the meanings of
in conjunction with the attributes they exemplify
process o represen a i
concept names on the other hind, involves a
itself In other words,
learning that typically follows concept assimilation
either by being presented vv
these children learn new generic terms
context-by representatmnally
their definitions or by encountering them in
with the
equating the meanings of new generic terms
that are elicited by the combina ion
ceptual meanings in cognitive slructure
contained in the terms definitions or con
of already meaningful words

the appropriate
sfnce“tL necessary definitions and meaning
assimilation is typically a form of
rather than discovered, concept
active cogn.
as it still involves various
ful rTcemion earning but inasmuch
live o^errons, it cannot be
^
phenomenon TIn certain instances
.

word IS no, rnore or

«
considered either a passive or percep.ua

however where the meaning of a new

IS not much difierent f

trom Z
uiai
ri.fFRresntT-itinfT
abstracting ditterentiating
U K «,.irh nf the same processes of
before the new meaning
‘teumg an-d generahring
ry^ti:!*rnfargtnd
emerges

The Use of Concepts

^ A rcinreots scrvc many purposes in cognitive functioning
die
utilization they are obviously implicated in
At tSt"“m''p5‘esrievel of
 Tie Acq\ s tion and Use o/ Concepts
51"

experience such as would be

percepUial cdlegorunt.on o( incoming sensory
perceiMng a paTiiculat house as an exemplar o£ the more
general
in\ohed m
class Simple forms of reception
learning (where a particular more or
member a presented as
less obsious and lepieseniational new of class is

illustraiue or supportne of an existing concept m

cognitive structure) are
Still another perceptual use of
also lefleciive of perceptual caiegoriration
immediate
existing concepts in cognitive structure is exemplified by the
and al
(percepunl) comprehension of the meanings of prevnousl> learned
read) meaningful concepts and propositions when they are encountered
on
subsequent occasions
Cognitive utilizauon of existing concepts is exemplified by that type
of receplton learning in vs inch less self-evident exemplars of a known
genetic

class must be identified as such (cognitive categorization) and

which m
related new concepts subconcepts or propositions are acquired by being
assimilated under more inclusive conceptual or propositional entities Mean
ingful discovery learning represents another cognitive use of a learner's
existing repertoire of concepts It is exemplified by both (a) simpler kinds
of problemsolving operations in vvlucli solution of the problem at hand
merely requires (hat the learner lie able to formulate u as a speaal case of
an already meaningful and more general concept or proposition as well as
(b) the more complex kinds of problem solving in which existing concepts
and propositions must be extended eIal>ora(ed qualified or reorganized so
as to sitisfy the particular rcquiiemenis of the means-end relationship whidt
the learner is obliged to discover
It IS evident from the above discussion that the distinction betv.een

die aaiiiisiiion and use of concepts is m

a sense somewhat arbitrary since
one of the principal functions of existing concepts m
cognitive structure is
to facilitate the acquisition of new concepts more so in the case of concept
assimilation than m the case of concept formation
Nevertheless this dis-
imciion IS still useful inasmudi is it is consistent with the distinction that
has Ixrcn maintained throughout this volume between the original aquisi
tion of a given item of know ledge and its subsequent use m
the acquisition of
further knowledge it gets at the very essence of the transfer process and of
the cemnl role ol cognitive structure variables in this procew Furtliermore
many wayx other than merely in facilitating
existing concepts arc utilised in
the acquistuon of new concepts namely m
the perceptual categorization of
expencnce problem solving and in jicrcciving the meanings of previously
in
learned concepts and pro]>ositions
It should also lx; apj reciated (hat problem
solving on die one hand
and concept formation and utilirition on the other overlap
in many vsays
Simple concept formation— liotli the spontaneous
inductive variety in
irochool tli.ldrcn a. well a. ll.owr atjpiol innantea of concept aMimila
non in wli.tli new genetic meanings are acquired llirougli a dtscoterj lile
The Aa/ure of Cenerie 513

process, after being encountered repeatedly in dnerse verba! contexts— is

acluall)one tjpc of problem solving Acquired concepts are also used in

both simple and more complex vanetics of meaningful problem solving to

discover concepts ^Vhen, for example, the learning of certain presented

new
ideas requires drastic reorganization of existing concepts in cognitive struc
ture (for instance, the formulation of a new concept that is sufficiently
inclusive adequately to subsume two or more otherwise irreconcilable pre
sented ideas), the reorganization process constitutes a form of problem solv
ing But this association between problem solving and the formation and use
instance,
of concepts is bj no means invariable Not all problem solving (for
maze learning, perceptual motor learning, simple discrimination learning)
acquisition
t)pically involves the acquisition or use of a>ncepts, and not all
and use of concepts (for example, perceptual categorization, simple denva
previously
tive subsumption, perceptual apprehension of the meanings of
newly
learned symbols, most instances of concept assimilation and the use of
assimilated concepts in the reception learning of related new
ideas) involves

problem solving
meaningful rela
Principles differ from concepts in that they involve
In ot er
tional combinations of concepts that are proposiiional in nature
words, a principle, b) definition, is a composite idea Although
many con
cepts, especially those of a higlier-order nature, involve
one or more rela

velocity, example, mvo ves

for
iionships between lower-order concepts (
is a concept
’

a relationship between time and distance, and ‘acceleration

is only a unitary
m which velocity is to time) any
related given concept
generic idea

The Nature of Generic Afcaning

simple symbols
A distmcuon has already been drawn between
referring to
to particular objects or events and generic symbols
of course, most of the
words used in ordinary languag,
objects Actually,
the exception of wor^used
exiept for proper nouns and such and with ^
are primarily generic
very mtellectually tmmatnre children,
crttenal
defined concepts with distinct, ve
worfs therefore represent clearly
attributes of the.r own How
then can we explain the genenc ""“"S'
character
elicited bv the conceptual use of
leims in contradistinction to the
objects
terms referring to particular
istic kml of meanings eliated by
experience that emerges, ‘‘'f*"*
ObviLsly since the type of meaning s^bol, the
ts evoked by the eliciting
thrlvne of cognittve content that by part.cu
experiences, elicited respectively
difference between the meaning content
lar and conceptual terms,
must be sought tn the type of cognitive
each category of term evokes
 The AeqwaUon and Use of Concepts
5H
themselves the
Thus paralleling the difference jn the use of the terms
cognitive content corresponding to a conceptual
term is genenc rather than
of a
particularistic mnature Instead of consisting of a concrete image
of either (a) a modal or idealized image
of a
particular object it consists

first-order relatively conaete concept such as chair or dog or (b)

first-order or higher-order conceptual meanings
in
vanous combinations of
ways that constitute the criterial attributes of more abstract and complex
concepts sudi as chief of state or chief executwe of a republic in the

case of president
The generic nature of the cognitive content of conceptual terms na
turally reflects the prior occurrence and effects of tlie distinctive
cognitive

processes involved in concept formation When a child through hypothesis-

generation and testing abstracts for example the cntenal attributes of

dog from diverse examples of dogs differentiates them from those which
are not critcnal (or which are cntenal of other concepts) and then general
lies the cntenal properties to all roembets of the class u is evident that the
resulting cognitive content has to be generic in nature The last step in

concept formation is establishing representational equivalence between the

generic symbol (the concept mmc) and the generic cognitive content it

evokes Thisis not actually part of the concept formation process itself but

ISan example of representauonal learning thit occurs after this process is

completed

Concept Asstmtlaiton versxis Concept rormation

In most instnnces of concept attainnicnt after early childhood pariicu

larlym the scliool environment the criienal attributes of concepts are not
discovered inductively through a process of concept formation but are either
presented to Icarnen as a matter of definition or are implicit in the context
m which they are used Concept attainment therefore largely becomes a
matter of concept assimilation
Since tlie older learner of school age and beyond does not typically
acquire a given concept through such processes as abstmction differentia
lion and generalization where docs the fioteniial generic meaning expressed
mits presented critcnal attributes come from) Evidently wlien an individual
learns the meaning of a new concept as a consequence of
didactic exposi
non us corrcsiioiiding generic rogniiivc content implicitly reflccu the previ
ous occurrence of tlicse latter processes in the liistoncal evolution of the Ian
guigc Tliat IS since his culiiiral forclicars did the al>stracting
differential
ing and generalizing for him in evolving the concept (namely
in discover
mg us ciucTial amibmcs) ns symbolic term subsequently cheus generic
cognitive content alter he currently assimilates
the presented crucnal at
tributes in question
 The ArtjMre of Generic Meaning 515

Thus
in concept assimilition.^ust as in concept formation, the learners
reprcscniatioml cqintion of a particular arbitrar> term (the concept name)
uah Its corres|x)iKling generic tncining for him,
is merely a form of repre
senntional learning tint follous the concept attainment process Tlie more
crucial preliminary operation, tshereby tlie learner acquires the nen
con
ceptinl meaning througli reception learning imolves the acquisition of the
neu generic content itself The most significant aspect of the concept as
similation process, in other words intohes relating in nonarbitrary, sub
stantive fashion, to rclesint established ideas m
the learners cognitise
structure the potentially meaningful generic content contained in the term's
definition or contextual cues (its critenal attributes) The phenomenological
emergence of the new generic meaning in the learner is a product of this
interaction It reflects both (a) the actual content of the new concept's
cruerial attributes and of the anchoring ideas to whtcli they are related and
(b) the kind of relationship (densatise chborame qinhfjing or super
ordinate) established between them
The acquisition of concepts by rccepnon learning is not simply a
process of passive absorption It is tnie that there is not the same kind of
intensive discriminative analysis abstraction, generalization, and differentia
tiOn as in concept formation, this is precluded by the presentation to the
Jearnerof tlie concepts’ critenal attributes Nevertheless concept assimilation
IStypically characterired by an active process of relation to, differentiation
from, and integrative reconciliation with existing relevant concepts The
more active this process is, the more meaningful and useful assimilated
concepts are
As we shall see later, concepts acquired by assimilation undergo both
contemporaneous and developmental change The former change encom
passes the modifications in meaning that occur over the relatively brief
time span dunng which the concept is first acquired and then consolidated
The latter change, on the other hand reflects the longterm effects on con
cept meaning wrought by developmental alterations m
cognitive functioning
and by increasing subject matter sophistication These effects, as L S
Vygotsky (1962) notes, are reciprocal m
nature, that is systematic instruction 1

in concepts influences as well as reflects developmental cfianges in cognitive

functioning P S Treyberg (1966) has shown that the level of concept de
velopment, expressed in Piagetian terms, correlates more highly with mental
than With chronological age IPhen measures of this level are combined with
mental age, the combined score accounts for a significantly larger portion
of achievement test variance in spelling arithmetical computation, and
arithmetical problem solving than does mental age alone
It should be borne in mind that principles of concept formation based
on laboratory studies, are not necessarily coextensive with or even analogous
to principles of concept assimilation m mastering subject matter material
 •fie cnrf Vie of ConcepU
5tG

sanables mfiaenang the processes msolved

in
In the fim place ihe kinds of
discovery of the critenal atln
concepiiializaiion and tlius underlying the
kinds of sariables mflu^encing
butcsol concepts are quite different from the
the meaningful reception learning of the
same cnienal attributes Serand
should maU
some diflercnce uhcilier the learning task in
It ptestimably
tohes merely the shortterm acquisition of single
somewhat contnsed
a laboratory setting or whether it insoUes the long
lenn acqui
concepts m
concepts characterizing an or
Mtion of a complex network of tnterrelaied
assimilation that are
ganiied body of knowledge The pnnaples of concept
meaningful
rclesant to sdiool learning are essentially the same pnnaples of
serbal reception learning discussed earlier chapters In learning a new
m
concept ns much or more depends on existing properties of cognitite slnic
lure the deselopmenial status of the learner and
on on his intellectual
ability as on the nature of the concept itself and ihe way in which it is

presented

Other Theoretical Views

of Concept Acquisition

\ccording to most ncobehaviorisiic tlieonsis ^Goss 1961b Osgood

ICIjS \ \\ Stalls 1961) a concept IS nothing more than a common response
to a class of objects or situations presenting some common attributes Neo-
bchanonsis would say that a concept exists for example when different
kinds of dogs elicit the same overt or implicit response and when this re
sjionscIS different from tliai evoked by cats Tlie heart of their view is Uiat

the cnlire class of objects or events constituting a concept evokes the same
common mrdiiilcd resjwnse typically implicit or verbal Hence a given term
that IS exjjcrienccd repeatedly and continuously wiUi different exemplars of
the same significite would eveniuilly come to elicit this common response
and thus would exhibii concepluaj or generic properties
Tie principal difficulty with tins view of course is that it posits no
differentiated cognitive content of a generic nature to account for the denota
live generic meaning elicited by a conceptual term Even the common
tcvywnsc which is allegedly the tamer of ranceptual meaning has no generic

I
roixrmes in and of itself it is merely esocablc by variable members of a
class of significatcs sharing common attributes The theoretical diffiailties
tint arise — in
accounting for the denotative aspects of meaning and for
the ex| and sharply delineated content of awareness evokes by a mean
licit

ingfiil symliol —
when meanings generic or otherwise are not referable to
tliffercntiateil content in cognitive structure have
already I>ecn disaissed
\ second difficiiliy iv that although not allowing that concepts arc
rixlucts of certain distinctive cognitive processes
I (for instance alistraction
 Segutntial Stages in Concefil ^egumhpn 517

differentntion. generalization) neobehaMonsts fail to speci{> satisfactor>

altematue mcclnnisms whereby concepts acquire their generic properties
Since the criterion of concept acquisition
docs not in\ohe any generic
eognitiife content, only requiring a common response to a family of stimuli,
concepUnl behiMor, from a neobcliavionstic standpoint, is nothing more
than a differentiated conditioned response that is generalized
to a class of
stimulus objects hating identical dements That animals and infants are
capable of such behatior is perfectly clear It is less self evident, however,
vshy such behavior should l>e equated with concept acquisition, inasmuch
as it does not reflect tJie essential conceptualizing operation of abstracting
cntenal attributes from percelitiially unrelated exemplars of a category The
neobehav lonstic explanation, in other wortls, cannot account for the in
elusion m
a concept of physically dtsstmtlar exemplars of the class
Information theory (E B Hunt, 1962) rejects the conditioning para
digm of tlie neobefiaviorisis and their mediating responses It substitutes
instead computerlike information processing units which serve as medi
‘

ators b) operating on positive exemplars of a concept by means of designated

rules for decision making The limitations of this approach have already
been considered in another context

Sequential Stages in Concept Acquisition

Concept formation consists essentially of a process of abstracting the

essential common features of a class of objects or events that vary con
lexiually, m other noncriterial respects, or along dimensions other than the
particular ones under scrutiny Typically these “common features” are not
discrete elements shared by a numl^r of stimulus patterns, but are compar
able configurations or sets of relationships Component psychological
processes involved in the most highly developed form of concept formation
include the following, more or less in the sequence given (a) discriminative
analysis of Afferent iUjiniiJus pattern^ the formulation of hypotheses
regarding abstracted common elements, (c) subsequent testing of these
hypotheses in specific situations, (d) selective designation from among them
of one general category or set of common attributes under which all of the
variants can be successfully subsumed, (e) relation of this set of atlnbutes
to relevant anchoring ideas m cognitive structure, (f) differentiation of the
new concept from related, previously learned concepts, (g) generalization of
the criterial attributes of the new concept to all members of the class, and
(h) representation of the new categorical content by a language symbol that
IS congruent with conventional usage The last mentioned form of repre

sentational learning that follows exmeeptua! learning has already been

discussed, ordinarily it constitutes the final step in concept formation In"^
 The Acquisition and Use of Concepts
518

instances sshere the setbal s)mboI is

simply learned by rote lit tlie absence
ideational referents and does not represent
of tlie preceding steps U has no
a genuine concept
hypotheses or problem
In concept formation the learner generates
abstracted cntenal attributes
solving propositions sshich aim at defining the
of the concept to be learned To be
potentially meaningful a given hy

pothesis a means-end relationship that is the hypothesized

must embody
exemplars The
cntenal attributes must be exemplifiable in the speafic
that such is the
actual process of explicitly confirming or disconfirming
case occurs during Iiypothesis testing Finally the confirmed cntenal attri
buies arc related to lelcsanl ideas in cognitive structure and thereby
become
meaningful that is constitute the meaning of the concept after they have
been assimilated
The anchoring ideas in cognuiie structure to which the cntenal at
tributes of nen concepts are related naturally vary with the abstractness
and complexity of the concept in question When the referent of a concept is
a perceptible object or event its cntenal attributes are related to a common

jicrccpiiial core ol the objector eicm In the case ol a relatively simple but
superordmate concept such as vegetable the anchoring ideas at least
initially nte probably mere exemplars of die claw (carrots peas turnips)
isiitch are simple concepts in tlicir own right The cntenal attributes of the
same concept at a later stage of development or of mote abstract concepts
null nonpcrccptibic referents on the other hand arc assimilated by those
anchoring ideas to v.hich the set of abstracted attributes ( something edible
not tasty but good for you in ihe case of vegetable ) is relatable
The actual process of concept formation is undoubtedly faciUtaied by
the child s acquisition of the general idea of categorization The develop-
ment of this insight IS similar m nature and in fact is related to the
acquisition of tlic insight (hat cvcrylhing has a name The latter insight
It be remembered is an ouigrouili of the realization that (n) all signifi
will
cates isith approximately the same perceptual core have die same name and
(b) significates nitli basically different perceptual cores have different names
Simple mmmg itself therefore constitutes a primitive (jicrceptual) or

prentegorical type of concept formation The more advanced idea of cate

gonzation conceivably arises from the gradually-developing insight tliat
adults also use vsords in a categorical sense that is to include exemplars
that share a common perceptual core As the chihl comes into contact
do not
Viithsuch rucgoncal words as scgciable fruit play work toy
-vnd sofonb be acquires the insight that a given word can l>e usctl to repre
sciu a class of sigmficaics with pciccptuali) dissimilar
core Tins general
imighi m
turn molivaics him first to uleniily some physically dissimilar
exemplars of simple categorical concepts (for imnncc
lo discover that car
rots |«s.aiKl iurnii>s arc vegetables) and
Inter lo discover the abstracted
Concepli at Terms and Cognilne ContenI 519

criicrial attnbutcs both of such concepts and of e\cn more abstract genenc
ideas that ha\c no perceptible referents Once several categorical ideas are
actuallj acquired the) obviously serve as models or paradigms for later
instances of concept formation
Coniemjiorancousl) as i concept is acquired certain characteristic )

cliangcs graduall) take place (\)gotsk) 19f»2) It becomes increasing!) less

global impressionistic and

less less diffuse (S C Fisher 1916) the learner
focuses progrcssivcl) on more salient criteml attributes Generic mental
content also tends to be emptied of particularistic attributes and to become
more abstract and general in nature The identification of relevant critenal
aitnbutes similarl) becomes more prease and refined noncritenal attributes
are sloughed off and new critcrial attributes are added Distinctions from
related concepts also tend to become sharper Idios)ncraiic and subjectivistic
elements become less prominent as the learners venion of the concept
comes increasing!) to conform to a culiuriHy standardized consensus Lastly
new contextual variants of the concept arc acquired with the acquisition of
greater sophistication in the same and related disciplines (Rowe 1966)
an idiosyn
Nevertheless unique individual experience still tends to give
cratic denotative and connoiaiivc flavor to most concepts

Conceptual Terms and Cognitive Content

teirns by different
It IS evident that the use of the same conceptual
ot tne
members of a given culture does not necessarily imply uniformity
this vana 1 y
underlying cognitive content The most obvious reason for
the cognmv
mhercs in the idiosyncratic nature of both experience and of
ate s
structures to which potentnlly meaningful concepts are re
ogmtive y
reason is more reflective of developmental immaturity
mature and individuals have no
intellectually unsophisticated
but to use conventionally standardized conceptual terms
rnffuse
°

win ^
e vag
meanings to represent meanings of their own which may
semigenenc or prec
mprecise under or over inclusive and often only

The commonness ot misconceptions

during
Wed First cliildren do
to several factors not haie the “8
ration and the cumulative background of experience "
mouth
complete development of many concepts The pressure on
gj their
'"adequately understood concepts and at the same
of understanding furtlier encourages ihe developmen j
ot misconceptions
Some children who have ™'“Xey are
ambiguity are predisposed toward
by resorting lo
prone to reduce the threat and discomfort ot tentativeness y
520 Tie Acguistlton and Use of Concepts

premature conceptual closure (Levitt 1953) Second many of childrens

misconceptions are derived from erroneous and incomplete information or
from misinterpretation or uncnticil acceptance of what they read or are
told This is especially true in a soaally taboo area such as sex which has
both a nch folklore and a speaai mythology for children Such misconcep-
tions are highly resistive to extinction since they tend to be insulated from
the corrective influences of social verification Still another
group of child
hood misconceptions can be traced to confusion between words with differ
ent meanings that either look or sound alike
Since there is often a time lag between the correction of misconceptions
and the revision of language usage it cannot be assumed that conceptual
confusion necessarily exists in all instances where svords are used inappro
priately On the other hand some instances of incorrect
diction that seem to
be largely linguistic m
origin may have a conceptual basis The common
tendency lor children to use instead o( asl
tell lor example may indi
cate hek of cognitive appreciation of the distinction
involved rather than a
mistake in concept naming It may also indicate
that althought some ego
expansive children appreciate the distinction
they conceive of themselves as
telling in situations where others would
be asking

Classificaiion of Concepts

’"I'sps most important disunction that can

tlie
be drawn among con
etween t le conjunctive and disjunctive
\
varieties In the case

dts/ttneltue concepts on the other

Imnd Le i'
“^“^’
are L otJw 1 1
"Store (for tnstance a real
degrees
niLber
they

TraZl ts either

Lta one/
A third type ol concept

he omer two
“ really onl7a subtype of
“"fnes since many conjunct, ve and dtsjunct.ve eon
lentrLe
understandably LLcrmLeTbfauLo''""^ Disjunctive concepts are

Ss-e 'L^varnT anL=-,S"

of abstraetnev, (the
tvngihL^L?

Strategics in Concept Formaiion

\anous ^ ^ Austin (1956) have indeniificd

eg cs
strategics ust^
used m tl.e induciivc
I
acquisition of conjunctive
concepts
 Language and Concept Acguiution
521

In consenatwc foaising, ihe subject begins with one typical exemplar and
then successnely searches for other exemplars, one at a time, that are
similar in all respects but one In this tvay he gradually distinguishes between
those attributes that arc criteria! and those that are not Progress is relatively
slow but little riskis intohed In focus gambling, the procedure is very
much the same except that the subject successtsely looks for exemplars that
change more than one attribute at a time This strategy naturally involves
more risk but leads correspondingly to more rapid progress Successive
sinning is the most risky strategy Here the subject attempts to choose m
one operation an entire senes of exemplars, each containing the correct
combination of criierial attributes
Under conditions —
when there is considerable
of high cognitive strain,
pressure to attain a concept quickly, the tendency to use risk taking strategies
understandably increases Irrespective of the strategy employed, liovvever,
most subjects tend to ignore negative information or to shy away from con
cept attainment by exclusion (Bralcy, I96S, Bruner, Goodnow, and Austin,
1956) They rely instead on confirmation of positive instances L S Braley
attributes this phenomenon to the greater demands that the use of negative
information makes on memory storage The essential difference between
positive and negative information is the fact that a positive instance indi
cates explicitly that at least one of the attributes of the instance is criterial,
whereas a negative instance indicates that none of the attributes are criterial
Thus, mthe first case, knowing that one of a given set of attributes must be
cntenal, enables one to eliminate as exemplars of the class all later instances
that do not exhibit at least one attribute of this set In the second case,
knowing that none of a given set of attributes is cntenal, merely enables one
to eliminate all later instances that exhibit any attnbute of this entire set,
It furnishes useful information but does not provide a positive “lead as a
basis for further search

Language and Concept Acquisition

The capacity for inventing and acquiring languageis one of the most

distinctive features of human development It is undoubtedly both a pre

development of culture and a necessary condition
requisite for the original
for the subsequent acquisition by the individual of the complex cognitive,
social, and moral products of the culture in which he lives Without Ian
guage the development and transmission of shared meanings, values, and
traditions would be impossible People would be unable to communicate
with each other except in face to face situations, individual relatedness to
and interaction between groups could not take place in the absence of
physical proximity, and all of the muntless intellectual, interpersonal, and
 Tfe ActfuutUon end I if 0 / Concepts

institutional manifestations of cultural existence tliai depend on verbal con

ceptualizaiion would be inconceivable
In man) respects the speech behavior of infrahuman
organisms re
sembles that of duldren the early stages of language development Thus
m
untutored animals vocalire spontaneously mimic sounds in their environ
ment and communicate eflectivel) with each other Man) animals can also
be trained to react diflereninWy to different verbal cues to mimic human
words and to vocal responses to different situations True
male appropriate
represeniauonal s)mbolism however vn the sense that an arbitrar) pattern
of stimulation is used to signif) the meaning of a totall) unrelated and dis
similar refetent that may remote and abstnet is unknown at
also often be
the infrahuman most animals use s)mbols to represent relatively
level nl

immediate concrete and Verbaf concepluahza

ph)sicaffy similar referents
lion and the use of symbols to represent ideas that transcend concrete cx
penence are undoubtedly nonexistent at the mfraluiman level rurlhermore
only humans can be said to (xissess a true (irivcntcd) language the symbolic
meanings of which are socially rather than genically determined and
which manifests an organized syntactical structure
Why only human beings have developed a true language is attributable
to several factors First they possess an elabtiraie vocalizing mechanism cap-
able of great versatility in sound production tend to babble spontaneously
as infants and are relatively proficient at mimicry Much more important
IS tlieir immeasurably greater capacity for representational symljolism for
verbal conceptualization and for handling abstract ideas Lastly because
they live m
cultural aggregations they art able to standardize and per
petuate shared meanings for the verbal symbols they invent
seems probable that both human infants and infrahuman primates
It
develop rudimentary prccategoncal concepts that subsume significates with
a common perceptual core Because of the absence of language however
the processes of abstraction differentiation
and generalization are exceed
ingly primitive Generic meanings largely
consist of modal or generalized
images abstracted from objects and events that are
physically similar Sym
bols are not used representaitonally eiiUer m the process of concepluaUza
tion m
the attainment of generic cognitive content or in the labelling of
concepts It is largely because of their
unique ability to acquire abstract
concepts (which itself is so largely dependent on
language) that human
beings are singularly capable both of meaningful
reception learning and of
meamngfully solving complex relational problems
without coming into
direct contact with the objects and phenomena involved The
actual roles
of (a) representational symbols m
laolitatmg the transformational opera
uons involved m conceptualization and (b) verbalization in refining the
product of these transformational operations
were discussed m another
 Dei-ehpmenlat Aipectt of Concept Acgmuhon 525

context EMdcnce incljcatue of ihe facilitating effect of language on concept

acquisition has aIrcacJs been ated
It has afreadj been conceded that intuiiise (semi abstract
and often
sub^erbal) concepts exist, particular!) m childliood, and aftensards in the
earl) unsophisticated stage of acquiring a *
ness discipline Such concepts
are intmtneand reJatnel) particulansttc in nature because their acquisition
15 dependent on the asailabilit) of concrete-empirical props
Tlie) are func
tional for purposes of problem solving and further reception learning, but
are not nearly as precise, transferable, or efficient for these latter purposes
as are the trul) abstract and verbal concept meanings that succeed them As
suggested earlier, houever, when they precede the later developmental
acquisition of their abstract verbal equivalents they often enhance meaning
fulness and help prevent rote assimilation of new conceptual meanings
In conclusion therefore, language plays a central facilitating role®
in the acquisition of concepts In the first place, contrary J Piagets
to
(1964) view, language —by virtue of the crucial contributions that both the
representational power of symbols and the refining aspects of veibajjzaijon
make to the process of conceptuaIization-H>bviously determines as well as
reflects the mental operations (level of cognitive functioning) involved in the
acquisition of abstractand higher*or<ler concepts Second, as will be pointed
out the very process of concept assimilation through definition and
later,
context would be utterly inconceivable vvithout language Lastly, language
helps insure a certain amount of cultural uniformity in the generic content
of concepts, thereby facilitating interpersonal cognitive communication

Developmental Aspects of Concept Acquisition

General developmental changes m

concept acquisition have been largely
covered already m
considering the concrete abstraction dimension of cogni
tive development From the pre-operauonal stage to the abstract operational
stage, there are progressive gams in the level of abstraction at which the

* Prior to being verbalized new concept meanings also typically exist for a
short while on a subverbal level —even »n sophisticated older learners Tf-ese sub-
verbal concepts are less transferable than their verbal successors, except perhaps
under conditions of premature \erbahzatton

5 It should be appreciated of course that language is neiiher necessary nor

sufficient forconcept attainment Nonverbal children as well as infrahuman mam
mals can acquire rudimentary concepts It « also possible to attain a concept with
out realizing it or giving it a name JEven aphasics can utilize concepts in problem
solving
 Tfe Acquisition and Use of Concepts
5'’4

process of concept acquisition occurs m

the level of abstracuon of the con
the abstractness and
cept meanings that emerge from ihts process and in
the child s grasp As
complexity of the kinds of concepts that lie ivithm
the three quahta
indicated earlier these changes may be grouped under
development delineated earlier
tisely distinct stages of cognitise
Dunng die pre-operational stage the cliild is limited to the acquisition
of primary concepts — those concepts whose meanings he learns by first ex
plicitly relating Uicir criterial attributes tothe exemplars from which they
are derived before relating these same attributes to cognitive structure
Generally speaking the first of these itxo operations is performed during
ilie hypoihesivlesung aspen of concept formation It is theoretically possible

however and it does occasionally happen that he is presented with the

cntenal attributes of a new concept but under these circumstances the latter
attnbutes would not be rclaiable to his cognitive structure unless he were
first able to test them explicitly against particular exemplars of the concept

In an^ case since intimate contact with multiple particular exemplars of

the concept is necessary for concept acquisition both the conceptualization
process itself and lU products (the acquired new concept meanings) take
place at a loiv level of abstraction
Tlie pre-operaiional child s dependence on concrete-empirical experi
ence also topically limits him to the acquisition of those primary concepts
whose referents consist of perceptible and famihar objects and events
(such as dog house ) This is the case because only with respect to such
concepts are there both suffiaent available exemplars and exemplars at a
sufTiuenily low level of abstracuon for him to handle at his level of cognitive
maturity When he is an adoleKent or an adult he may of course discover
new primary concepts whose exemplars are themselves highly esotenc ab-
stractions but at the pre-opcrational stage tlie exemplars of such concepts
are neidier available nor usable for purjwses of concept formation This does
not mean that the exemplars of concepts must necessarily be nonrepresenta
lional in nature ihat is consist of actual objects or events Txcmplars may
alsobe verbal (consist of concept names) as m
the previously ated examples
of such low -order superordmate concepts as vegetable and work pro-
viding Uiat (a) the concepts they represent are known and have perceptible
referents themselves (carrot bean housekeeping nursing") and
(b) the oiierial aiinbmes of the superordmate
concept wheifier discovered
or presented are explicitly related to them (the exemplars)
The concrete-operational child s acquisition of concepts proceeds at a
much higher level of abstraction and yields correspondingly more
abstract
concept meanings He is able to cope with recoridary
concepts whose mean
ings he learns without actually coming
into contact wall the concrete
empirical experience from winch they are
dented Since such concepu are
acquired by assimilation (by reception
learning) he is merely presented with
 Developmental Aspects of Concept Acquisition
525

tlieir criterial attributes, cither definitionally or by context

But he does not
have to first relate these attributes to particular
exemplars of the concept
before the attributes become relatable to his cognitive structure, he
depends
instead on the use of concrete-empirical props (exemplars of
the attributes)
It has alreadj been explained why the use of
such props implies a much
higher level of conceptualizing operation than the corresponding use of
exemplars of the concept itself Nevertheless the process of conceptualiza
tion is constrained b> the pariiailarity of the input data, and typically yields
a semi abstract and subverbal type of concept meaning Only the less com
plex kinds of secondary concepts, not too remotely removed from the
learner’s orbit of personal and vicarious experience can be acquired at this
time
The higliest level of abstraction in concept acquisition is reached dur
ing the stage of abstract logical operations The critenal attributes of com
plex and Jiigher-order secondary concepts ean be related directly to cognittve
structure without any concrete-empirical props whatsoever, and the emerg
mg products of conceptualization are redefined by verbalization to yield
precise, exphcii, and genuinely abstract generic ideas
Concepts are generally attained more rapidly and effiaently with m
creasing age (Rossi, 1964, Yudin and Kates, 196S) In addition, several
qualitative trends consistent with the stages delineated above have been
adequately established

Increased Abstractness and Precuion

One of the most significant developmental trends in concept acquisition

consists of a gradual shift from a precategorical to a categorical basis of
classifying experience, or from a relatively concrete to a truly abstract basis
of categorizing and designating generic meanings In the precategoncal stage,
conceptualization does not proceed beyond the step of discriminative
analysis (Bruner and Olver, 1963, A E Goldman and Levine, 1963,
Reichard, Schneider, and Rapaport, 1944. Russell and Saadeh 1962, Sigel
1953, Vygotsky, 1962, ‘Wallon, 1952, "Werner, 1948) Objects and events are
grouped in terms of their immediately perceived properties rather than in
terms of their class membership Thus preschool children are likely to
on the basis of nonesseniial, incidental features spatial and
classify objects
temporal contiguity, or similarity of action and location During the ele
mentary school years similarity of structure and function becomes a more
imjxirtant classificatory criterion With advanang age, however as the child

approaches adolescence, and as he becomes verbal directed and freed from

dependence on concrete empirical expenence in his conceptualizing opera
tions, categorical classification on the basis of abstract critenal attributes
becomes the dominant mode of oiganinng experience
 The Acqmiition and Use of Concepts
5'’6

to represent a general class ol

At first concrete images are emplojed
objects But these are graduallj replaced
by more abstract rep-
perceptible
stimulus properties they signify
resenwtional s>TnboIs detached from the
Vanous dimensional
(Malneu l9oo Piaget 19^0 IQa^b Ucmer 19«)
properties (for instance size form color) also lend at first to be restricted
are onginall) expenenced
to the particular objects in relation to t\hicli the)
A\ith inaeasing age they become conccptualiied
and attain indepen
to any relevant
dent status in their ow-n right Tlie) can then be applied
inclusive higher-order
object or situation Concomitantly ne\s and mote
concepts (Bruner
abstractions lend to be formed out of existing first-order
andOher 1963 Puget 19a0 Ueldi 1940)
It IS clear therefore that concepts are cumulative precipitates of cog
nitive experience and that later meanings are not only built upon but

absorb earlier and simpler ones (Strauss I9a2) Conceptual development

involves a continuous senes of reorganizations in which existing concepts
are roodified as they interact viith new perceptions ideational processes
affective states and value systems Increasing cognitive sophistication also
leaves m mark on conceptualization Concepts become more elaborate sys-
tematic and and Strauss I9a0 Vinacke I9al) and less
flexible (Schuessler
diffuse synctetisuc and subjectivistic (Spiegel 19a0 Mnacke 1951) Older
children for example are less disposed to regard conceptual opposites (for
instance ugliness and beauty) as reified entities than as opposite ends of
a conceptual continuum They not only generate concepts of much greater
scope and inclusiveness but also make finer distinnions between closely
related concepts (for example dog and wolf ) In the same way subcon
ccpls develop within concepts ( leiTier and beagle within dog*)
It IS important to appreaate that children s use of culturally standard
ized conceptual terms does not necessarily imply that these terms represent
the same genenc meanings that they do for adults in the culture TTie dif
ficulty arises from the fact that children have no other terms to represent
their immature concepluahiaiions and hence are obliged (and are encour
aged) to use prevailing linguistic terms Thus dog to a toddler is typically
a proper noun (rather than a concept) desigrialing one particular dog and
Daddy does not refer to an adult male who is paternally related to him
but rather to ilie most familiar adult male in his env^ronmenL Later
social
on as the child attempts to generalize his existing concepts to nevr expen
cnee dog represents any quadruped and Daddy any adult male Gen
eralizaijon or extension of use occurs on the basis of the
objective affective
or functional similanty of a new object or situauon to the object
or situa
uon onginally designated by the word m
question (Lewis 19jl) Typically
this extension is over inclusive and requires
differentiauon and restnction
to 3 much lesser extent it i$ also under inclusive
and requires widening
After the true cntenal attnbuies of a class are
properly abstracted over
 Dnehpuettlal Aspects of Concept Acq nsilion 527

inclusive applicntions are appropnitel) restncictl and under inclusue ap-

plications ire approprnieJ) extended DevelopmeniaJly speaking therefore
this problem is one of fitting conientionil symbols idiich have culturally
standardized generic meanings to individual cognitive expenence until
symbol concept rclationsliips for the individual come to approximate cor
responding relationships holding for the culture at large
R Brown (I958i) points out that the development of concepts does
not necessarily proceed from the concrete (subordinate) to the abstract
(superordinaie) To the extent that part of the process of conceptual devel
opment consists of difTereninimg subconcepts out of more inclusive cate
gones (for instance carp and perch out of fish ) this contention is
undoubtedly valid Nevertheless it must be appreciated that fish to a
toddler is not the same superordinaie concept that it is to an adult Actually
at first It 15 not a concept at all but ratJicr a particularistic terra referring
to one or more exemplars of fish and later before a categorical concept
emerges the basis of classification is a common perceptual core Thus before
subconcepts can be truly differentiated from a more inclusive concept the
latter itself must first be acquired by a conceptualizing process in whiclt
concrete (precategoncal) criterial attributes are progressively replaced by
attributes that are more abstract or categorical in nature

Afore Concept Asstmtlalton

and Less Concept Fortnation
Parallelling general trends in cognitive development reception Jearn
ing gradually becomes ascendent over discovery learning in the acquisition
of concepts Beginning with tlie child s entrance into school an increasing
proportion of his concepts are acquired by definition or use in context But
it ISonly as he approaches adolescence that such nonspontaneous concepts
manifest true categorical and generalized meaning Prior to this time (dur
mg the stage of concrete logical operations) they are still somewhat parttc
ularistic and intuitive in nature because of their dependence during acqui
sition on concrete empirical props
It is not difficult to understand why concept assimilation gradually be
comes the predominant mode of concept acquisition once the cluld reaches
school age whereas concept formation although possible at any age level
is generally speaking most characteristic of the pre operational or preschool

stage of cognitive development Concept assimilation characterizes the ac

quisition of secondary concepts it presupposes sufficient intellectual matu
nty to relate to cognitive structure the abstracted critenal attributes of a
new generic idea even though they (the attributes) are not first in intimate
association with tfie multiple particular exemplars of the concept from
which they are derived Since this degree of maturity does not exist before
 The /icquuition and Use of Concepts
528

concrete
scliool age. and onl) does then when the child has the benefit of
empirical props the pnnapal akemame open to the preschooler is to dis-
cover the cnterial attributes of concepts himself, using the necessar)
hypothesis gen
conceptualizing operations of abstraction, differentiation,
eration and testing, and generalization In so doing he is
olniousl) hmitetl
are either
to the more simple kinds of primary concepts svhose referents
perceptible and familiar objects or events, or known concept
words that
that are
represent sucli referents But the criienal attributes of a concept
discovered through concept formation obviously meet the developmental
conditions for lelatabihly to cognitive slruaure, inasmuch as they have
been abstracted from and tested against particular exemplars of the concept
during the process of conceptualization Hence there is no problem vvith
respect to the potential meaningfulness of cntenal attnbutes that he dis-
covers by himself
However once ilie child can meaningfully relate to his cognitive siruc
ture die critenal attributes of a new concept without first relating them to
multiple particular instances that exemplify it he can acquire concepts
much more eSaently By the time he reaches this stage of development, he
has also already acquired for die most part, the available supply of pnmary
He would thus find it rela
concepts with familiar and perceptible referents
by himself (to acquire by concept forrnation) the
lively difficult to discover
more abstract and complex concepts he attains relatively easily through
concept assimilation Hence after discovering the body of simple everyday
them when they enter school, most individuals
concepts diat are available to
discover very few concepts by themselves thereafter Contributions to cul
lures store of more difficult concepts arc made by us more gifted members

over die course of generations, and become readily available to all other
adequately mature members through concept assimilation
During the elementary school years it thus appean that progressive
development of the ability to asumtiate concepts depends on the same three
aspects of cognitive and language development diat generally bring about
the transition from concrete to abstract cognitive functioning (a) gradual
acquisition of an adequate working body of higher-order abstractions that
provide die component properties and relational elements constituting the
cnienal attributes of more difficult concepts, (b) gradual acquisition of
transactional terms, that is of substantive words such
as state,’ ‘condi
tion basis property, quality, and relationship" and of funcuonal
or syntactical terms such as conditional conjunctives and qualifying expres
sions that are necessary for bringing abstractions into
relationship with
eaclv other m vsays characienstic of the dictionary
definition of new con
cepts. and (c) gradual acquisition of the
cognitive capaaiy itself, that makes
possible the relation of alKlract ideas to
cognitive structure wntliout the
benefit of concrete-empincal props
Increased Abstractness and Precision 529

It IS important to recognwe and take account of the highly significant

interaction that takes place Ijeiwecnmany assimilated concepts and their
subaerbal or intuitne precursors As L S Vygotsky (1962) notes, the ele
mentary school child, in acquiring assimilated concepts, is greatly assisted
by the existence in his cognitise structure of analogous spontaneous con
cepts at the pre operational level whicli he uses nondeliberately and with
relati\ely little cognitive awareness®These provide a springboard for the
acquisition of "scientific and for their 'downward exemplifica
concepts’
tion and everyday reference But although these spontaneous concepts un
doubtedly enhance the meaningfulness of their analogous assimilated coun
terparts, and probably discourage rote reception learning, they may also,
because of their primacy and vividness, interfere with the learning of more
precise and categorical critenal attributes The same kinds of relationships
also undoubtedly prevail between the more precise and abstract concepts
acquired at the secondary school level and their more intuitive elementary
school precursors
In teaching scientific concepts therefore, it is essential to take account
of the nature of their spontaneous precursors, that is, explicitly to contrast
the two sets of critenal attributes and to indicate why the adoption of the
more abstract and precise set is preferable Within the limits imposed by
developmental readiness, systematic verbal instruction in abstract concepts
at the elementary school level, combined with appropriate use of concrete
empirical props, is pedagogically feasible and can greatly accelerate the
acquisition of higher order concepts (Arnsdorf, 1961, O L Davis, 1958)
It IS unnecessary and educationally wasteful to wait for such concepts to
evolve spontaneously from direct experience Furtlier, many abstract con
cepts (for instance, "pliotosyntliesis,’ ‘ionization’) can only be acquired
verbally since they are not susceptible to direct experience Other, more
concrete concepts ( 'house,' dog,” ‘red, “hot ), on the other hand, are
practically meaningless in the absence of actual experience with the objects
or phenomena in question

Increased Awareness of Conceptualtang Operations

Both J Piaget and L S Vygotsky agree that awareness of the cognitive

operations involved in concept acquisition does not develop until the child
approaches adolescence and has been exposed to considerable systematic
instruction in scientific concepts

® Work for example is both a spontaneous concept acquired from direct

experience and a more formal abstract aincept wrth precise critenal attributes

’ Vygotsky s term for assimilated a>n<xpts in contradistinction to

concepts ac

quired by concept formation ( spontaneous concepts )

 TAe and Vse of Concepts
530

child is not conscious of them

In operating with spontaneous concepts the
attention is always centered on the object to which the
concept refers
because his
never on the act of thought itself
control only
A concept can become subjeo to onsciousncss and deliberate
when n is part of a system In the laeniific concepts that the child acquires in
relationship to an object is mediated from the start by some other
con
school the
cepi superordmaie concept implies the existence of a senes of subordinate
A
it also presupposes a hierarchy of concepts at different
levels of gen
concepts and
erality Thus the very notion of a saentilic concept implies a certain position
in relation to other concepts The rudiments of sysicmaiitation first enter the
child s mind by way of hu contaa with saentific concepts and are transferred to
everyday concepts dianging their psychological structure from the top down (Vy
gotsky ISfi’ pp 92 93)

Awareness of concept acquisition develops late Vygotsky (1962) be

Ueves because u requites awareness of similaniy Tbis in turn presupposes
a more advanced structure of generalization and conceptualization than
awareness of difference even though a child cannot use a
Nevertheless
word like because and does not reall) grasp
deliberately tn a test situation
causal relations except in a very pnmitive and intuitive sense he is able
to use because correctly in everyday convenation The rules of syntax
too can generally be employed correctly by young children despite complete
lack of awareness of the nature of these rules However deliberate use of
such words as because is possible tn relation to scientific concepts because
the teacher working with the pupil has explained supplied informauon
questioned corrected and made the pupil explain (\ ygolsLy 1962
p 107)
It IS hardly surpnsing therefore that awareness of concept acquisition and

deliberate use of concepts arise earlier in relauon to saentific than to spon

caneous concepts

Faaon Influencing Concept Acquisition

Experience, /nte/figence. Sex

By virtue of the very way in which concepts are generally formed it

IS jneviiable that the acquisition of particular concepts is
dependent on a
nch background of relevant expcncnce (Serra 19o3) Concepts in
early and
middle childhood espeaally refiett the cumulative impact of firsthand
concrete-empirical experience over extended periods
of lime Hence there
tends to be a higher relaiionslup between degree
of expenence (as indicated
by school grade and clironological age) and scores
on concept tests tlian
between the latter scores and IQ (Deutsche 1957
Vmacke 1951) For this
reason also genuine understanding of sudi concepu as are involved
appreaation of temporal and sociological
the m
relationships cannot be matcnafly
Factors Influencing Concept AequmUon 531

increased by exposing dnldren to brief special periods

of essentially second
hand, serbal practice m
school (Eaton 1944. Pistor, 1940) at the %ery least,
systematic didactic instruction using concrete empirical props is necessary
When abstractions are introduced prem'iturcl), some children become quite
adept at mouthing them and at the same time, concealing their lack of true
understanding This ob\iousIy becomes a fertile source for misconceptions
and uncritical acceptance of ideas
Although superior mental age, in the absence of corresponding life ex
penence (chronological age) prosides little advantage in comprehending
abstractions, such comprehension is deRnitely related to IQ withm a given
grade level (Braun 1963 Elkind 1961, Osier and Shapiro, 1961, Osier and
\Veiss, 1962, Serra, 1953) The correlation between concept scores and either
vocabulary or verbal intelligence is higher than the correlation between
these scores and nonverbal intelligence (Deutsche. 1937 H N Hoffman
1955) Apart from conditions of actual cultural deprivation, cultural or
social class environment does not have much effect on ability to concep-
tualize (Deutsche, 1937), but does sensitize the individual to particular areas
of conceptual experience Thus it is likely that conceptual learning ability
IS not a unitary trait, vanes with differential patterns of experience
it

Whatever sex differences appear in concept acquisition appear to conform

to this explanation (Elkind I9GI. L A Olson 1963)

Heterogeneity of Instances

Provided that sufficient redundancy or repetition is present to insure

adequate unit mastery (overlearning), the defining attributes of a concept
are learned most readily when the concept is encountered in a large number
of different contexts (Callantine and Warren, 1955, Duncan 1958, Haygood
and Bourne, 1964, Hull, 1920, Johnson and Zara, I960, Lloyd, 1960, Mor
risett and Hovland, 1959, Sassenrath 1959, Shore and Sechrest, 1961, C
Stern. 1965, Wittrock and Twelker. 1964) By de emphasizing the particu
larity of single or homogeneous instances, multicontextual learning facih
tales the abstraction of commonality, strengthens the generality and trans-
ferability of the resulting concept, and endows it with greater stability
Small and barely discriminable differences among instances on the other
hand, increase the difficulty of concept attainment (Sechrest and Kaas, 1965)
Jn practice the proper balance between heterogeneity and consolidation
can be achieved by promoting mastery within a given context or subcategory
of exemplars before proceeding to another context

Positive versus "Negative Instances /

The weight of the evidence indicates that positive instances lead more
effectively than negative instances to concept acquisition (Braley, 1963
Hov
 The Acqumtion and Lse of Concepts
532

land. 1952. Ho%land and 1955 L. A Olson, 1965) In part, this re

fleets the greater amount and the more expliat
nature of the information
con%e>ed h) positne instances and the smaller burden they place on mem
ory (Brale>. 1963. Holland and Weiss 1953) More important perhaps is a
disinclination on the part of most learners to make use of potentiall)
useful

information piesenied m
negaii\c mstantxs and to adopt a strategy of ex
elusion (Bruner Goodnotv, and Austin 1956) Huttenlocher (1962), as a
J
matter of found that a negamc lolloued b) a positise instance svas the
fact,

most effectne combination With increasing practice, the initial difference

between the relaute effectneness of posittse and negative instances tends
to become progressively smaller (Freibeigs and Tulving, 1961, Fryatt and
Tuhing 1963) Tins suggests tliat teachers should expliatly train pupils
to make more effectne use of negaiive instances in aetjuinng new concepts

Jlelevanl verstu Irrelevant Informatton

Inaeased salience of relevant dimensions of a concept tends to facilitate

concept acquisition whereas an increase in the amount or salience of irrcle
v-ani information fus precisely the opposite effect (Haygood and Bourne,
19M, O L McConnell, 1964 Rasmussen and Archer 1961, Thysell and
SchuU, 1964, Walker and Bourne. 1961) Irrelevant snlormaiion obviously
oimpbcates the task of concept acquisition by inaeasing the leamers task
of identifying relevant CTitcnal attributes As might be readily predicted,
relevant information is more clTeaive when it is obvious rather than subtle
(Ardier 1962. L. A Olson. 1965)

Ctmtiguity and Set

\\’hen an entire array of instances is simultaneously available to the

learner rather ilian being presenied successively, concept acquisition is sig
nificanily faaliuied (Bourne and Jennings. 1963, Bourne and
Parker. 1964,
Boume Goldstein, and Link 1964. Kates and Yudin, 1964) This effea pre
sumably reflecu the avoidance of memory loss and the possibility
of closer
grouping during the process of absuaamg the cntenal
attnbuies of a con
cepi A set or oneniaiion to respond ainceptuallj to
stimuli also faalitaies
die acquisition of conccpis pella Piana. 1957. Shaffer.
1961. Sieeel
^ and
Siegel 1965)
 Chapter 16

PROBLEM SOLVING
AND CREATIVITY
Problem solving refers to any activity m
which both the
cognitive representation of prior experience and the components of a cur
rent problem situation are reorganized m
order to achieve a designated ob
jective Such activity may consist of more or less trial and error variation
of available alternatives or of a deliberate attempt to formulate a principle
or discover a system of relations underlying the solution of a problem (in
sight) When the activity is limited to the manipulation of images, symbols,
and symbolically formulated propositions and does not involve overt ma
nipulation of objects, it is conventional to use the term thinking It is clear,
however, that depending on the approadi taken, thinking may either em
ploy the method of insight or may be merely an implicit vanety of the trial
and error procedure Whether insight or inal and error learning is employed
in the solution of a particular problem is a function of both the kind of
problem involved and of the age prior experience, and intelligence of the
subject
Problem solving, of course, involves discovery learning The important
distinction between meaningful discovery learning and meaningful recep-
tion learning has been discussed both generally, m
terms of its wider im
plications for education, and in more explicit detail in earlier chapters The
different pedagogic ways m which these two varieties of meaningful learning
can be related to each other in classroom learning and the manner in which
they are sequentially interrelated during the different phases of problem
solving —
in understanding or formulating the problem, in generating a solu
—
tion and in incorporating the latter soluuon into cognitive structure have
also been made explicit
Thus despite the significant differences between these two kinds of
meaningful learning — in terms of both underlying process and role in edu
533
 Problem Solving and Creativity
534

canon—Jt is imporimt lo bear m

mind both their interdependence and the
Discovery learning
commonalities they share in contrast to rote learning
a
IS meaningful when the
learner nonarbitranly and substantively relates
problem setting projiosition to hts cognitive siruc
potentially meaningful
that, in turn, is potentially
ture for the purpose of generating a solution
(relatable to his cognitive structure on the same basis) It
there
meaningful
fore implies, under these conditions all of the essential elements that axe
implicated m meaningful learning generally a meaningful learning set, a
logically meaningful learning task and the availability of relevant estab
lished ideas in the learners cognitive structure The distinctive and stgnifi

cant way in which it from meaningful reception learning is that the

differs

pnnapal content of what is to be learned is not presented to the learner,

but must be discovered by him before it can be incorporated into his cog
nitive structure and made meaningful

The Nature of Problem Solving

In terms of approach, two principal kinds of problem solving may be

distinguished, both of wludi occur at all age levels The trial and-error
approach consists of random or systematic variation, approximation, and
correction of responses until a successful variant emerges The insightful
approach, on the other hand implies a set that is oriented toward dis*
covery of a meaningful means-end relationship underlying the solution of
a problem It may involve either simple tramposinon of a previously learned
principle to an analogous new situation, or more fundamental cognitive
restructuring and integration of prior and current experience to fit the
demands of a designated goat Characterisiically, insightful solutions appear
to emerge suddenly or discontinuously They are also invariably accom
panied by at least some implicit appreciation of the principle underlying
the solution of a {problem—even if itcannat.hftuu-j:aui/jiJAy vesh-iJAVt'l. Tb.'.v.
understanding is demonstrated functionally both in being immediately re
producible upon subsequent exposure to the same problem, and m be
mg transferable to related problems Hen«. not only is insightful solution
frequently a reflection of transfer or application of relevant established
principles to new varnnis of the same problem, but
transferability itself
IS perhaps the most important criterion
of insight Precisely verbalized
undersunding of a general pnnaple greatly facilitates (through
transfer)
the solution of particular problems exemplifying it
Tlie utilization of hypotheses is a necessary but not
a sufficient condition
of insightful problem solving However, jt does
not. m and of itself provide
assurance that an insightful approadi is being
taken toward solving a par
The Nature of Problem Soiling 535

ticular problem Unless hypotheses incorporate means-ends relationships,

they may merely represent systematic trial and error elimination
of asail
able alternatives The absence of overt tnal and error also does not neces
sinly imply insightful problem solving, trial and error manipulation in this
instance may simply be covert or implicit in thought On the other hand,
insightful solutions are not always complete, perfect or immediate They
often appear after a protracted period of inaiispiaous search consumed in
pursuing unpromising leads
Trial and error learning is more or less inevitable m problems where
no meaningful pattern of relationships exists or is discernible Hence, it is
generally characteristic of motor learning and of the solution of most mazes
and complex puzzle box problems It occurs most efficiently when the sub
ject IS both aware of the direction and extent of his deviations from the
desired solution, and is permitted to execute the necessary correction and
approximation by himself Copying for example, is a much more successful
way of learning to write tlian is tracing This does not necessanly mean,
however, that either verbal coaching (explicit pointing out of errors, sug
gestmg more effective tecliniques) or drill aimed at specific disabilities (Leh
man and Cole, 1928) is not efficacious in the learning of motor skills As is
true of rote discovery learning generally, the occurrence of positive transfer
m maze learning is not attributable to the application of relevant, previ
ously learned principles, but rather, to elimination of initial warmup
time and to such factors as general familiarity with and orientation to, the
type of approacli necessary
Insightful problem solving is obviously a type of meaningful discovery
learning m which problem conditions and desired objectives are nonarbi
trarilyand substantively related to existing cognitive structure It involves
"going beyond the information given (Bartlett, 1958, Bruner, 1957) trans—
forming information by analysis synthesis hyj>othesis formulation and test
ing, rearrangement, recombination, translation and integration As pointed
out previously, however, it does not necessarily imply completely autono-
mous discovery 'TypicsUy, as a matter of fact proidem solving mthe class
room constitutes a form of guided or arranged discovery
Much that passes for meaningful problem solving is simply a species
of rote discovery learning It is exemplified by the ubiquitous 'type prob
lem approach to the teaching of mathematics and science There is nothing
wrong of course, with solving problems by genuinely indentifying them as
exemplars of a larger class to which certain principles or operations apply
— providing that one understands the pnnaples in question, why they apply
to the particular case, and the relationship lietween the principles and the
manipulative operations used in the application All too frequently, how
ever, this is not the case In most mathematics and science classrooms the
 Problem Solving nnd Creativity
5S6

than rote memorization an

solving of type problems involves little more
symbols and the use of in
application of formulas rote manipulation of
trmsically irrelevant cues for identifying
problems as members of a class

Insight Process versus Product

Insight can be thought of in terms of process or product

As product
insight refers to certain dislinctisc cliatactcristics of tiie
end result of mean
ingful problem solving as process ii refers to a distinctive
method of or
approach to problem solving
Insight as product possesses the following cliaractenstics (a) subjective
a pleased feeling of apt discovery ol seeing the light or Eureka (b) ob

jective immediate reproducibility and transposability In the first case we

are dealing with a largely affective reaction to the learning product in
the

second case vve are speafymg what we can do with insight once it is achieved
More significant however both for learning theory and educational prac
tice IS to indicate how insight is acquired in the fint placeand how it differs
from other types of problem solving
Because of common misconceptions about the nature of insight st
might be helpful to summarize this discussion by specifying what it does
not involve contrary to Gestalt formulations its emergence depends
First

on more than just the structure of the problem task it is by no means inde
pendent of the learner s prior experience Second it rarely appears abruptly
—
and immediately despite subjective feelings to the contrary More com
monly u follows a penod of fumbling and search of gradual emergence of
a correct hypothesis Thus the emergence of insight is reflective of a process
of progressive clarification about means-end relationships in which the for
mulalion and rejection of allemaiive hypotheses plays a cruaal
testing
and integral role in the appearance of correct solutions Insightful problem
— —
solving like other forms of learning does not conform to Uie all-ornone
paradigm Third an hypothesis onenied approach while characteristic of
insightful problem solving does not neccssanly guarantee that an insightful
approacli is being used Hypotheses can be generated on a purely pragmatic
or empincil basis without any intention of coming to grips with the basic
cause and-effect issues underlying a given problem and they can also lead
to successful problem solving without any genuine understanding of
why the
solution is successful Lastly insightful problem solving does
not in anyway
presupjxjse completely autonomous discovery
In conclusion a$ a process of problem solving distinct from
insight
blind trial and-error solution of a problem implies the existence
of a set
oriented toward hypothesis generation and testing for the
purpose of under
standing the significant means-end relationslnps m
a particular problem
Tlic SCI IS not just to vary responses by approximation
and correction until
 The tiolure of Problem Solving
537

a successful variant eventually appears Once the insight emerges, there must
be conscious awareness of its existence, significance, and availability rather
than mere blind advocacy of a successful vanant just because it works'
without an) understanding of why Ability to verbalize solutions undoubt
edl) reflects greater original completeness and clanty of insight, both of
vvhicli are further refined by verbalization itself, it therefore implies greater
transferability Unreportability of insight however, does not necessarily
imply either lack of awareness or inability to transfer (Griffin and Beier,
1961)

Logic and Thought

A —
commonly held position in psychology today particularly among
psychologists —
who have had some philosophical training is that logic and
thought are more or less coextensive and that thought consists of the cog
nittve exemplification of abstract logical processes in particular individuals
It IS true that by virtue of his cognitive capacities man has both discovered
logic and has learned how to use it in drawing valid interferences from
premises and data Nevertheless the position that logic and thought are
one and the same constitutes an unwarranted supenmposition of an ab
stract and idealized state of affairs onto the reality of cognitive functioning
— It equates thought itself with one of us specialized tools and products

Although J Piaget (1957a} exphatly denies that logic and thought are one
and the same, both his extreme emphasis upon the purely logical aspects of
thought, and the fidelity and symmetry with which the logical operations
he identifies m
children s thought parallel the formal structure of rules
found in logic and mathematics imply greater perceived coextensiveness
between logic and thought than he explicitly acknowledges
Actually much thought involves very little logic It is not illogical but
alogical That is most persons can be reasonably logical about affectively
neutral issues when the occasion arises for the application of logic, but in
many ei-er^day aspects of thought, the need for and the opportunity of
exercising logic simply do not arise Many of the problems vvith which
human beings are typically confronted either cannot be reduced to terms
that are susceptible to logical proof or cannot be solved merely by invoking
the application of rules of inference to data It is not implausible to suppose,
therefore, that we have somew-hai unrealistically oversold the role of logic,
and have correspondingly underestimated the role of other factors in typical
instances of human problem solving by (a) using the mathematical or log
ical problem or the scientific experiment as the paradigm for all problem
solving tasks and (b) modeling die general operations of thought after the
more formal and specialized operations that serve as rules of inference in
mathematics logic and science Tlie kinds of insightful problem solving in
 Irobteti "iolving nnd Crealnily
538

cilcmiie paradigm
tlian the
which human beings engage are both more
torraal and rigorotis tlian the model suggests
allows and less abstract

Types of Tfitnkmg

Conventional distinctions beisveen inductive and deductive and

be

tween divergent and convergent ibinVing tend to be somtrvvbai misUadmg

First as already pointed out it is seldom the case than an individinl ap-
proaches a problem with no general h>{H>ilicscs v\hatsoever to direct the
mterpretalion ot data It is a gross oversimplification therefore to insist
that when thinking inductively he proceeds from particular instances to
generalizations generating hypotheses solely from the dan itself \l the
very most it vvould be warranted to claim that in inductive tliinking both
the initial general hypotheses tint are generated as well as the final hypoth
esis that is selected are typically less familiar and less well-cstablislied than

m deductive thinking Second in most instances of problem solving irre

whether it ts called divergent or convergent tliinking the typical
speciivc of
sequence of problem solving opcniions involves the generation of multiple
hypotheses (divergent thinking) followed by the gradual elimination of those
hypotheses that are less tenable (convergent thinking)

The Role of Cognitive Structure

in Problem Solving

That existing cognitive structure plays a key role in problem solving

15evident from Uie fact that the solution of any given problem involves a
reorganization of die residue of past experience so as to fit the particular
requirements of the airrent problem situation Since ideas in cognitive
structure constitute the raw material of problem solving
whatever transfer
positive or negative occurs obviously reflects the
nature and influence of
cognitive structure variables
TheiJoiKjMon of releiam baclground knoivledge
(concepts pnnciplcs
transactional terms asadable funcuons
) m
cognitire structure particu
larly ifdear stable and discnminabfe faalitates
problem sohine (Saue
stad 1955 Sangstad and Raaberm I960)
W
. tl, out such knowledge as a
matter of fad no problem solrmg is possible
itiespectue of the learner s
degree of sUlI m
d.scoser, learning „,u,out
it he could not eren begin to
understand the nature of the problem contronuug
him Stdl anotlie? cot
mtive structure source of posiiise tmnsler
inhere, in applicable general
elemenuol straten onenta.ion nnd re, dial rellec.
prior expenenre wid.
related problems Fina
y cognime structure is related to problem soiling
m a repositoi, as well a, in a deiermmal.ve
sense ibe subilan.ive or
 a

Language and Thought 559

methodological prcKluct of a problem soUing process is incorporated into

cogmtise structure in accordance tsitli tlie same principles that are operative
in reception learning
Cognitive structure also provides an abundant source of negative trans
fer m
problem solving One type of negative transfer reflects the preserva
tion of inapplicable habitual sets (Einstellungen) derived from prior experi
ence with similar problems (Luchins 19-16) The solution of novel problems
obviousl) requires both improvisation and a search for new directions —
requirement that is often interefcred with b) a tendency to use the same
approach that was found successful in previous problem solv^ng expenence
(Maier, 1930) The latter ex]>enence tlius generates both helpful and inter
fenng sets whose relative strength is a (unction of such factors as primac),
recenq, frequency, vividness flexibility, and level of anxiety
A second, related source of negative transfer m cognitive structure is

commonl) referred to as functional fixedness (Chown, 1959. Duncker,

1945) This term describes an inabtlit) to conceive of other possible uses
or functions of an object in problem solving because of the preemptive
influence of the more conventional or established use (for instance, the
failure to use a pair of pliers as a weight m a pendulum problem) Func
tional fixedness is increased vvhen the conventional use of an object is ex
penenced first rather than later in the course of a series of exposures (\onge,
1966), and is reduced by expenence vvah unusual uses dunng the training
penod (Flavell, Cooper, and Loiselle, 1958)
A final type of negative transfer in problem solving merely reflects the
prevalence of certain general reductionistic trends found in the thinking of
most persons within a given culture for instance, conceptualiang problems
in terms of single rather than multiple causality, the tendency to think in
terms of allor none and dischotomous (either-or) propositions and the
preference for conceiving of vanabihty in categoncal, as opposed to con
tinuous, terms

Language and Thought

The developmental relationship between language and thought is still

a controversial and unresolved 'chicken—or egg type of problem It is
clear at any rate that language and thought are not coextensive Language
can obviously be exhibited without thought and vice versa (V>gotsk), 1962)
Although simpler kinds of reasoning depend mereJj on reaJnvely concrete
perceptual, and imaginal operations —and are evident in action prior to the

emergence of verbal thought— the ability to think in abstract terms obvi

ously requires the use of abstract concepts and sj-mbols, only the most
primitive kinds of problem solving are possible without language The role
 Problem Soiling a I Creot iity
MO

of manipulable rcpresentitioml
sjmboh in facilitaling the transfomniional
\erbahzation refining vfie ptodum ol
m
aspects of thought and the role of
xhought have been discussed another context It is also possible tint
m
transferalnlit) because
premature verbalization of insight raa) impair its
solutions ire obviously
incomplete unclear and unconsolidated verbalized
less functional for purposes of iransfcr than
subvctbil solultotis that are

more adequate m these respects

Thus the role of language m the facilitation of thought is very similar
to Its role m concept acquisition It not onl> facilitates ideational problem

solving (Gagne and Dick 1962) hut also die solution of motor and per
ccptual problems (Egstrom 1901 Ray lOa?) HypoUieses can be formulated
and tested much more preasely and cxpcdiiiously when they are expressed
m verbal form

AUcmative Views on Problem Solving

Neobchavioristic theorists (Lerlyne I9a4 1965 Cofer I9a7 Maltzman

195a Osgood 19a7) lend to conceptualize tinnking as a complex form of
effective habit strength whtdi produced by mediated generalization
is

(Maltzman 19aa) Depending on whether a given stimulus elicits a single

response or multiple res^ionscs convergent and divergent mechanisms re
spectively are said to exist Mechanisms that ire mediated by a distinctive
common response are conceived of as belonging to the same habit family
In essence then problem solving is regarded as a temporal sequence of
responses connected in chain like fashion through a verbal mediator Un
answered by this theoretical formulation of thinking arc such crucial ques-
tions as the basic difference between insightful and trial and-error problem
solving the role of existing background ideas m
cognitive structure the
way m whidi ideas are reorganized in problem solving and the entire
problem of conscious awareness of the process and content of thought
Gestalt theonsts (Duncker l9lo Katona 19-10 Kt hlcr 192o \\ert
heimer lOaO) deny that thinking is nothing more than the assoaalive chain
mg of responses etnphasiang instead the central role of a reorganization
of ideas cventuaiing in insight According to them the achievement of
msiglit depends solely on the struaure of the problem and is an all-or none
phenomenon essentially discontinuous
wiih prior unsuccessful tnals in a
given problem solving exjicnence Insight deals not witli items and blind
connections lietween items but with the contents and the
results of the
operauons thus understanding the reasonable inner relauons
between
operations and results is the distinguishing feature of insight
(Wertheimer
19a9) Wertheimer regards thinking as conforming to an
organic raiJier
than a medtanical mode ol atuck if the
learner first defines llie goal
542 Problem iolvmg and Creatiinty

occumng in concept acquismon Espcaally in the area of thinking and

problem solving, it is important to distinguish between tiiose developmental
changes that are qualitative in nature and those that are merely quantitative
Despite J Piaget s (Inhelder and Piaget 1958) assertions to the contrary, the
weight of tlie evidence points to the conclusion that some kinds of thought
processes, logical operauons and problemsolving strategies are empIo)ed
at all age levels differing principally in degree or complexity
(Burt, 1919,
Long and \VeIch. 1941a and b Welch and Long, 1943, 'Werner, For 1948)
example, equivalence, discnminative, and eliminative
logical operations
seem to be qualitatively similar at all age levels once they
emerge Tlie older
child s greater competence m
using these operations largely depends on his
superior ability to think abstractly and to
generahre Similarly the use of
trial and-error and insightful approaches
to problem solving does not under
go qualiiauve change from one age level to the
next Neither approadr can
said to be characteristic of children at
^
development, both are found at all age levels
a designated suge of miclleciual
The choice between the two
approaches de^nds mainly, on the mirinsic
difficulty and complexity of the
problem, on the individuals prior
background of exenence and general
degree of soplusucation in the problem area, and on the
susceptibility of the
hypothesiH^nented mode of attack It
u
mr^Vev
ing T“”
makes sudi an approach more
feasible
-bstrSet think

.n U..„Ung do oc<n,r
g g ‘•“f
Tlicse arc gradually
occumng changes in kind that

^ iransiuon from subjective to obiective

lin? 1,

dedme that occurs dunng the clemcniarr'I^^ ' i

striking
sdiool years in autistic, animisuc,
eihnocentnc
" rnamcal
® ' miK
UonTi^g atolu..„.c aod nora.nah.uc

fn>o.''co“„rtt?a“l“"a'^T « reflocLoe ot .he on

cliaraceniuc tca.urcs of
cannot meaningfully '
manipnlale
rdauond,™tel
uons, his thought processes *^etwcen secondary abstrac
an- n,.,--. " i
ftracl.on and al«> j.eld conducted at a low Iciel of ab-
'™“C H
produtu
’ 1 at a c»„e,pond.ngly low
letel Thu, he

Itn. „ much
lc„ n'a^m atld » loch alto
confronution v*,th uaram,i,„ rondiuons, such ai
phenomena or problm'LS*'*'^
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 piuOlem Soiling and Ctealtvily
5<i

tliai llic abilil> to use verbal s>mbols

provides for
inheres in Uie adsanuj^ts
h>^»v\vcscs tot ptoecss vuCorma
die process of {,cncr dizauon for generaving
lion and for cmplo>mg efficient strategies (Ueir, 19G1)

^Ige Level Trends in ProblemSohtng Approach

Wall advancing age as might readily be antiapaicd, the frequency of

ovui inaland-crtoT appioathcs lo problem solving declines (G V N
Ilatnilton 1916 Munn 19 j 1 Nelson 1936) Hypothesis oncnicd approaclics
become more evident (G V N Hatmliou 1916) and insightful soluuons
become more complete (AIjrcn 1928) These trends obviously reflect in part,
increasing ability to generalize and to manipulate absinct symbols As K-
Levsin (19j1) jroims out tlicy also reflect tlic v^idcning and greater dilfcicn
union ol the child s life sysacc In the detour problem for example
older children focus less exclusively on the obtrusively obvious barrier and
arc Ixnicr able to appreuate that the movt direct route to the goal is not
necessarily (he shortest
more aware than younger children of (he existence
Ollier children arc
of a problem wlitn ex|iO'-cd to one (lltidhrcdcr. 1026) Tlicir plan of attack
IS mure systcniauc and their solutions tend to be more flexible and less stereo*

ty])cd and |>crscvcrative (Elkiiid I9C6 G V N Hamilton 1916, Lindlc),

IbJ7. Maicr. 1936 Kaahciiu 1965) Since their knowledge tends to be or
gani/cd in tenns of more highly sysiciiiatucd inclusive and self consistent
cjtcgorus they adopt a less fragincnicd approach to problem solving and
Ijccausc they aie iKUtr iblc lo bniig prior cxi>cncncc to l>car on i current
problem (Maicr 1936) they profit more from jasl mistakes (Dndlcy. 1897)
\ouni,cT children on the other band are burned by ihcir inability to locus
on more than one aijicci of a problem at a time (Piaget 1952a) by the dif
(usciicss of their ihinkmg (Piaget I'Jjtb) by their low frustration loltrante,
and by their rcliuiancc to accept the imtiiut ible givens of a problem They
are more situation Ixiund and less able ro gciicralwc beyond a particular
context (Puget 19jU 19jlb) I heir (onuuUlions arc mote dcjicndcni on
fonttctc imagery and the physical picsente of objects utd derive less iKittfil
ftuni the use of abstract symbols htf,hcr-onlcr concepU, and categorical
piojwutiuiis (Puget 19alb Welch and Long 1913) i-inally after solving
a roblcm they aic less ia|MbIc of
I vcrhaluing (and lienee transfering) the
undcilyiiigjniuiplcs(Hcidbicdcr I92i Pia,,ct. PJalb Rol>crti 1910)

Igr Lent Trends in the Objettnity o{ T/ioiig/it

Hie }.io„icssnc dedinc in the cgotentnuiy an.l subjctiivam of tin!

.iKii V ihou,,hi u one ol the two pnntiiMl
asj<tu of it)j.mtivc development
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 Problem Solving and Creativity

By amimsm means Uie '

tendency to regard objects as living
J Piaget
and endoived with aviIV (Piaget. 1929) The related concept oE aruficialism
refers to a type of personification m which creative acUvity in nature is
naturalistic phenomena At
attnbuted to some human agency rather than to
first, according to Piaget, the child
regards everything that is active, whole,
objects The
and useful as alive Later, life is attnbuted only to moving
sail more sophisticated child applies the entenon of spontaneous
movement.
Finally, only plants and animals, or only animals, are considered to be alive
Ollier investigators (Huang and Lee. 1945, Klmgensmith, 1933) have shown
that when a dnid stales that something ts ‘alive, he mostly means that it
IS active, and does not necessarily attribute to it tlie anthropomorphic
charactenstics of feeling, seeing, knowing, thinking, wanting, brcailiing.

and so forth
Animistic tendencies are also not restricted to children, but are mam
fested even by educated adults in our culture wlien required to explain
events completely beyond tlieir sphere of experience and competence (Har
litt, 1930. M £ Oakes, 1946) This suggests that the crucial factor in causal
thmUevg IS maUng a judgment ot televance betvveen antecedent and con-
sequent For the unsophisticated diild (or adult) antecedence in itself, as
well as animistic, magical, and artificiahstic connections between antecedent
and consequent, seems be sufiicteni criiena o! relevance (Piaget, 1952)
to
Given the benefit of inaeased incidental exj>enence and insirucuon, how-
ever, he learns to avoid attributing causal significance to irrelevant and
purely temporal antecedents of consequences, and to avoid generalizing die
expectation of similar consequences m
all siiuauons superfiaally similar to

a parucular cause-effect sequence (Ausubel and Sdiiff, 1954)

Factors InQuencmg Problem Solving

Much can be learned about process factors inQuenang problem solving

by cQcapatuj^ the. ol i,-octessi-a\ and unsuccesslul
problem solvers (Bloom and Broder, 1950) To begin with, successful prob-
lem solvers flounder less, they are more decisive in choosing "some point at
which to begin their attack " In many instances this simply reflects greater
attention to and comprehension of die directions
Second, they focus more
on die problem to be solved rather than on some irrelevant aspect of the
problem Third, they can belter bring to bear on the problem the relevant
knowledge they possess They perceive more clearly the
implications and
applicability of Uieir knowledge to the problem at band, and are less con
fused by a change m wording or ootauon Fourth, diey exhibit amore active
and vigorous process of search Tlicir approach is
less passive, superfiaal, and
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 I'roblerii Soiling a’lil CreaJiviJ)
548

and Rabmoruu, 1951), tend to induce negative

related silualiotis (Birch
establish a pcrsevcrative. interfering set
related
transfer They apparently
to functional fixedness

Inlrapersonal Factors

Intelligence one of the most im|X)rtant deterrmnanis of problem-

is

solving ability For one thing, reasoning power is a prominent comixjncnt

of all intelligence tests For another, many odter miellectual
abiliUes

measured by the intelligence test (comprehension, memory, infomiaUon

processing, ability to analyze) affect problem solving IQ is positively related
to both trial and error (Afunn, 1951. Nelson, 1956) and insightful problem
solving (Gellerman, 1931, Haroouinian and Tate, 1960, Munn, 1951) How
ever, for those kinds of problem solving that depend on cumulative ina-
dental experience, for example, cauvil thinking (Deutsdie, 1937) and ajj*

plications of the lever principle (C M

Peterson, 1932), grade in school is a

more significant correlate of success than cither IQ or sonocconomic status

Brightness level also affects approadi to problem solving ^Vhen mental age
ISheld constant in a categorization problem, older (and duller) diildren
adopt a more concrete and less $eIf<onsisient approadi use more categories,
and are more immediate minded’ They also find it more difficult to shift
from one basis of categonzatton to another (Kounm. 1943)
It cannot be emphasized too stronglv that the possession of relevant

background knowledge is an important determinant of problem solving

capamy Heuristic skill is no subsiiiuie for substantive knowledge in most
everyday and academic problemsolving tasks This simple principle, how
ever, is frequently overlooked when findings from laboratory studies are
uncritically extrapolated to real life situations it is typically forgotten tliat
problem tasks m Uie laboratory arc deliberately selected on Uie bisis of
relativeindependence from antecedent relevant experience Nevertheless,
understanding of relevant principles and concepts, while necessary for prob-
lem solving IS not a sufficient condition, many other cognitive and person
ably variables are implicated Thus, alUiough successful problem solving
unambiguously indicates iliat undersUnding is present, unsuccessful problem
solving does not prove lliat understanding is absenL
Odier cognitive traits sucli as open mindedness,
flexibility, capacity for
generating multiple and novel hypotheses, attentiveness,
incisiveness, prob
lem sensitivity, intellectual ainouty, and ability to integrate ideas
influence
problem solving in rather sclfevidem ways Cognitive
style, as suggested
previously, isobviously a relevant factor, particularly with
respect to general
strategies of problem solving Altiiough evidence is lacking,
it seems reason
able to suppose Uiat problem solving ability is not
a highly generalized trait
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 Problem "iohing ofld Ctealivtiy
550

process and from comparaute

from theoretical analysis of the thinking
observations of successful and unsuccessful
problem sobers SucJi general
the problem before t^
hints include the follotsing formulate and delimit
the
mg to solve it, avoid die narrowing of attention to a single aspect of
the possibility of
problem, go beyond the obvious, be aware of and avoid
functional fixedness and negative transfer, abandon unpromising leads and
of
explore other aliematives, question die reliability and represeniauvcness
premises,
)our data, make expliai the assumptions underlying any set of
disunguish dearly between data and inference, make use of the infomiauon
conclusions
derived from disconfirmcd hypotheses and accept with caution
agree vsitli your own opinions Some success has been reported for
this
that
approach (Bloom and Broder. 1050. Maicr, 1930) It must be appreaated.
however, diat such instruction while having applicability to almost all
problems, is so general m
nature diat us usefulness m
any particular prob-
lem is rather limned Tlie aspects of problem solving diat are more specific

to a given discipline undoubtedly influence ptoblcm solving outcomes more

significantly than do these hints about problem soh mg in general
Shortterm training programs designed to develop or enhance speafic
kinds of dunking ability have not been generally successful (Ausubcl and
1954, £rvm 1960b, Smedslund. 1961, W'ohviill and Lowe, 1962)
Sdiiff,
However, longterm and intensive training, using programmed instruction
techniques, has led to the acquisition, retention, and transfer of rather
complex problemsolving skills m first grade diddren (R, C Anderson,
1965) Similarly, training m using altemauve solutions has been shown to
enhance positive transfer in problem solving (Ackerman and Levin, 1958,
Riopelle, 1953 Schroder, and Rotter 1952) In all of those studies, of course,
the generality of the transfer effect was minimal More ambitious inuning
programs striving for more generalized enhancement of thinking indude
J R Suchmans Inquiry Training Prc^rani, M
L. Abercrombies group
discussion approach, brainsionnmg lediniques (Fames and Meadow,
1959) and R, S Crutchfield s (1966) provision of systetnauc, long term prac
uce and feedback m
exercises designed to enhance productive thinking
None of Uiese invesugalors, however, has been able to demonstrate any
impressive degree of transfer to problem solving situauons m
other contexts,
disaplines or subdisaplmes. Thar efforts, in other words, foundered on
the
improbable thesis that there is such a thing as a general heunsucs of dis-
covery Discredited theones in psychology, such as the
doctrine of formal
disaplme, tend to die hard. They arc periodically revived
under other more
palatable rubna and slogans B O
Smith s (I960) approach, based on train-
ing m
the logic and heunstics of parucular disaplines
is more consonant
with what 1$ known about saenufic method, the heunsucs of problem solv
ing, and die transferability of problemsolving skills However, he has yet
to adduce cmpincal support for his
formulations
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iss
 Problem Soiling and Crealtitly
552

regarding ihe nuriurance of creaiiuiy, and

many othenvise uell trained
themsehes into believing
educational and sdiool p5>cltologt«s have deluded
pupils willi unusual potentialities for creativity
that they are able to identify
stems
Mudi of the semantic confusion regarding the term "creativity
'

as a trait inclusive of a wide

from failure to distinguish betucen “aeaumy’
the “creative person
and continuous range of individual differences, and
singular degree of this trait,
as a unique individual possessing a rare and
that IS a degree sufficient to set him off quahl/xlively
from most other indi-
difficulty also esusts with respect to ‘
intelli-
viduals in this regard The same
gcnte, but gives rise to less confusion because the term is mote familiar
imbecile
t.ver>onc agrees that all degrees of intelligence exist, that even an
exiiibiis some manifestations of intelligent behavior But when we
refer to

an "inielligeni person, we mean only someone who is at die upper end of

die distnbution of IQ scores, someone vsho exceeds a hjpoUietical cut-off

point separating intelligent individuals from the general run of mankind

Thus, although acaiiviiy undoubtedly vanes along a continuum, only Uve
rare individual who makes a singularly onginal and significant contribution
to art, science, literauire. philosophy, government, and so forth, can be called
a creative person The creative person i$, by definition, a much rarer indi-
vidual Uian the intelligent person Thousands of intelligent individuals exist
(or every one vsho is truly acauve
It 1$ important, Uierefore, to preserve the entenon of unique and
singularongmahiy in designating a iierson as aeative All discovery acuviiy
isnot qualitatively of one piece In the course of growing older, for example,
every infant inevitably discovers that objects continue to exist even when
they are out of sigiu. this discovery, however, hardly manifests the same
ijualily of creativity as Einstein’s formulatjon of the theory of relativity.
Similarly, a sixth grade pupil may exliibu some degree of creativity in
comixising 3 song or wnuiig a jx)cm. but dus docs not mean that his ac-
complisiimcnts differ from ikicli s and Shakesjiearc's merely in degree ratlier
than III kind The fact that it is often difficult to measure originality, and
that great discoveries may
fsequcinly go unrecognized for decades or cen
tunes, docs not detract m
the least from die existence of qualitative differ
dices m creative achievement A
creative person must do more than simply
produce something that is novel or original in terms of his own
life history,
A truly creative individual, therefore, is rare not primarily
because he
lacks appropriate cxixncncc u> develop liis creative {xiieniialitics, but be-
cause he by definition, at sucli an extreme jioint in the distnbiiuon of
IS.

creative potentialities that he is qualilaiivcly discontinuous from jicrsons

exhibiting lesser degrees of creativity Tins is not to
deny die important
role of the cnvvronmcnl in the development o!
creativity; many rxitcnujl
.Mozarts, for example, base sjxmi tlitir lives as
jjcasanu and cobblers But
even assuming an optimal environment,
creative individuals would still
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£SS
556 Problem Solving end CrealivUy

measuies o£ creatne aptitude, on the other hand, cxlnbit satisfactory gen-

erality over component eiements, and can, therefore, be considered reflective
of a stable cognitive trail that both plays a supiioriive role in creative per
formance and is independent of intelligence
Much more important than the relationsliip between iiuelligencc and
supportive measures of acativity is the relationship between intelligence
and true substantive creativity The evidence invariably shows iliat creative
individuals in art, literature and science are more intelligent than non
creative individuals (Drevdahl and Cattcli. 1958, Hitt and Stock, 1963), and
that high IQ persons contribute much more than their share of notable and
original discoveries in die vanous disciplines (Terman and Oden, 1959)
This suggests, of course, Uiat intelligence like other supjxirtive cognitive
traits, makes possible and implements the expression of substantive creativity
(Pnee and Bell, 1965) In other words, a certain minimal
degree of intel-
ligence above the average is necessary for the
actualization of creative poten
tiahties But above this critical level the relationship between intelligence
and true creativity
approximately zero (Drevdahl. 1936, MacKinnon, 1962,
IS

Terman and Oden, 1959) Tlie noncreativc high IQ individual who does
very well on academic tasks and is vocationally
successful, but who never
generates an original idea, is a very familiar
figure in our culture Conirari
wise, many highly creative individuals do not
sport spectacularly high IQs

CrealtvUy and Academic Achievement

^ between acauv.ty and academ.a

'"'“Pgawr, (Chne, Richards,
Yamamofo 1^4
tvoe creau
‘
V ,
T “ ‘“2. Torrance, 1960a,
'=“‘"“-1 “""I Torrance

XvcLm b
" -ademre

ofurouns Hieh
‘ between the two kinds
i j f
creanv; duals
o?^;r.t:n.:^ors:ro'^;=
'n:«ri?6R;Tp;:ctr7.^'3r^
ship between creaiivuv ili
’ o^^^ained no significant relation

M P Edwards and L F x achievement scores, and

ol n.nlh Xs
raent lest scores
"
as sopelr^^^
and gra^e point atetaK
"
“ '"if'

‘^'"“P ™
Sroop

.nlelbgcnceLstscorS
scotes. ft
It n atgued
c^„| he
could T “
that the positive
cotrelations be.
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isff iCjjdijpjjp
 Problem Solving and Crtalivily
Ssi

Mtiltipliasic Personality In
tend to make deviant scores on die Minnesota
o£ complexity ot personality,
ventory, but tins is undoubtedly more reOecUve
to exiierience tlian of genuine
candor, lack of defensiveness, and openness
personality distortion (Barron, 1963, Drevdalil, 1956,
DrevdaW and Cauell,
1958, Hammer, 1961, aMacKinnon. 1900, 1901. 1962)
the personality char*
Of somewhat less psydiological significance are
creativity
aciensucs associated with the supportive cognitive entena of
M A ^Vallach and N Kogan (1905) found that their high creativcs tended
to be broad rather ilian narrow caiegonieis, to be tolerant of an unconveti
uonal type of hypothesuing about die world, and to be responsive to affec
tive aspects of the environment Tlicir high-creative high intelligence group
were high in self confidence and self-esteem and low' in defensiveness, en
joyed a high sociomeiric status actively sought the companionship o! others,
and exhibited a high attention span and ability to concentrate, but at the
same tended to display more dian their fair share of attention seeking and
disrupuve behavior On die other hand high cicaiivcs who were low m
intelligence exhibited the opposite set of characteristics except for attention
seeking, disruptive behavior m
the classroom Anxiety level was middling
for the high creative groups when it was eidicr very high or very low, it
appeared to depress creativity This suggests either tliat a moderate degree
of anxiety is necessary to generate aeative behavior or diat the expression
of creauvity is productive of moderate anxiety

Identtficatton of Creative Potentialities

It follows from our substantive conception of crcauviiy that potenuahiy

for creativity can be measured only in tenns of capacity for sustained and
highly onginal achievement in an important area of human endeavor AI
diough knowledgeable experts can reliably and validly identify creativity
after it has matured and eventuated in a substantial body of work or per
formance, the identification of creative potential pnor to actualization is
a much more difficult matter Satisfactory methods are not yet available
Self-estimates are invariably inflated and liave little validity (Feldhusen.
Denny, and Condon, 1965, Ricliards. Chne, and Needham, 1964) Teaclier
estimates are not much more satisfactory because they are based on general
ued impressions, lliey exhibit low inter rSitcr reliability (Piers, Daniels, and
Quackenbush, 1960) Tlie only feasible approach seems to he expert m
judgments of actual work products ukmg mexjjenencc, immaturity, and
varying rates of development into consideration (Eisner,
1965)
Some shortcomings of Guilford and Torrance type tests, emphasizing
divergent ihmVmg as measures of creative poienual have already been
considered In die first place, they do not exhibit an independent common
quality, generally correlating as ^ghly v*ith intelligence as they do among
 '

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6?s
 ProbJem Soiling and CrMtiwJy
560

mauNc leadiing lo coax u into glorious bloom This notion has received
some indirect supjiort from recent developments in the mental measurement
structure of in-
movement If, for example v.c accept the premise that the
identifiable cog-
tellect can be analjzed into a muluplicit) of scparaiel)
or factors~as many as 120 according lo J I*
Guilford (1951))
muve abilities
of probability,
—the conclusion seems inescai>able that simply on tlic basis
almost every child is destined to become a genius or a
near genius with
respect to at least one factor, and cicn if a [articular cJuId
ncrc to receive
environment
an unlucky shake of die genic dice, a liencvolent educauonal
would certainly make up for the difference
The currently popular objective of leacliing for crcativaiy" to make —
—
every cliild an original and creative thinker is, therefore, based on
one or
more of four untenable propositions The ftrsi proposition assumes that
every duld, by definiuon has potenualiucs for unique creativity providing
that they arc not stifled by the educational system This, of course, is sheer
sentimeniahiy since sudi poientialiues are extremely rare The second prop-
osition is reflective of die naive view of human nature uhidi asserts
that even if a duld has no creative poteniialiues. inspired and sensitive
teadung can compensate for missing genes Tlie third proposiaon, ignoring
the disunction betvseen creativity and die creative individual, advances a
vvatered-dovvn, democrauc tliat employs an titlra-
deflniuon of creativity
individual criterion of originality and assumes Uiat all aeaiivity is qual>
natively of one piece By thesame token, however, vC dus crvtenoti of
very
creauvuy is used, die educational objective of making every pupil a creative
individual becomes so vvatcred dov^n that it becomes virtually meaningless
The final proposition simply rests on the previously discussed asseruon that
the supportive creative abilities are coextensive with substantive creativity.
Researdi on training for originality has yielded very limited success
Subjects can be trained to respond with moie unusual assooaiions, to gen-
erate more novel ideas, or lo suggest more unusual uses (Anderson and
Anderson. 1963, Cartledge and Krauser, 1963, Crutdifield and Covmgion,
1963. Freedman. 1965. Maltinian. 1960. Mednick. Medmck, and
Jung.
196^), and, in some instances, transfer to related kinds of problem solving
does take place Such transfer, however, occurs in a very restneted range of
contexts and sometimes docs not occur at all (Anderson and Anderson, 1963,
Maltzman, Bellom, and Fishbein. 1964) Moreover, tins kind of training
implicates vanous supportive tram of creauviiy
rather than substanuve
creativity itself The same bmitaiioixs apply to more
general types ol ere-
aunty training iliat depend on classroom milieu (G I Brown, or on 1964)
pnoaples about how to be creaUve (Torrance,
19^

Some research data are available on the school and family backgrounds
of students who make lugh scores on die supporuve aspects of creativity.
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I9S
562 Problem Soiling and Creativity

poienualiiies, Iiov\c\er. like ihe exprcision o£ any gcnjcally detcrmincil ten

denacs. is seldom an all-ornone proposition It is true tliat in certain in

stances genic factors arc so pre]X)tent. or all of the relevant personality,

motivational, family, and cultural variables are so overwhelmingly
{>eer,

favorable, that a successful outcome is almost inevitable But in many other

instances the influence of these variables is more equivocal, and a successful
outcome lunges on die guidance, stimulation, and encouragement that is
forthcoming from such agencies as the sdiool
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XN3raHnSV3JM 30
S33dI0NI3d

1,1 J3)dcii3
5G6 Pnntiples of ^SeaiUTemtnl and Evaluation

from the standpoint of teaching methods and materials With this type of
feedback information we are then in a posiuon either to modify the instruc
tional program, or to redefine our goals if we are convinced that they are
unrealistic. Sucli evaluation is typically longitudinal or extended nature m
since the effects of a curriculum on die educational product are not ascer
tamable immediately These kinds of evaluative studies, therefore, involve
the systematic collection of large quantities of data over many consecutive
years
In tins chapter we can briefly consider only such general issues as the
purposes and limitations of measurement and evaluation, the requirements
that an effecUve measuring instrument must meet,
the nature of standard
izcd tests, the interpretation of test scores, and
various informal methods
ofmeasurement and evaluation Detailed discussion of these
issues as well
as particular aptitude
and achievement tesu bodi individual and group,
more properly belongs m a separate course on
tests and measurements

The Purposes of Measurement

aod Evaluation

In general, die Innciion of evaluanon

is lo delennine die extent to
' “’"““““I »'>)“>'«
To eraZr f “O'U' O'-
actually being attatned
merit, to appraise educa
f
““tta.mng „l.ed,„ such goals are being realued,
any assetsieni'l, 1
‘^’ool.ng is meaningless No
omcre iTedd educational
!

:‘zv:iTotia“:z:,::';riLtr'

dial ne^er
lormnlated m adsance Thus it is small isonder
the imira^

com^ish
to
o";ra3r“
..fniugh°oi%t;:rarirrri:''“
determine the comcm and niMlir. ^
“ ™
— “^
rationally
I t
outcome, of such .“"racl on ,.T f esaluale die
can he meamiiglully educational ohjecuscs
expressed onlv"”
•ngs appreciauons
cS T''
'''''"'oral terms a, understand

.oral go'il. are 'o

L“T„
go bejond a lonnal taxonomy
'leaTraralr “f “ O" '‘“eauon, >,c must
of comiiuL''"'*
different dungs to objectives that mean
uicreni |>er«,„,
different ncr&nti**
fe i
a„a consensus on die pro-
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5C3 Principles ol Measurement and Evaluation

incompatible tuih the ethos of a humanistic education These arguments

ha\e been further bolstered by the assertion that genuine measurement is
possible only m
the physical sciences (B O
Smith 1938) and by calling
attention to limitationsand abuses of measurement education (sec below) m
In our Slew tins position stems largely from a sentimental and semi mystical
approadi both to children and to Uie educational process The fact that
cducauonal objectnes base been \aguely stated in the past or tliat measure
mem of educational outcomes h-s hitherto focused on rclatisely trivial
aspects of school learning does not mean
that this must necessarily be the
case Nor docs die fact that beliavioral measurement
cannot possibly yield
data that are as precise reliable and valid as in
the physical sciences pre
elude the construction of adequately reliable
and valid measuring mstru
ments in psychology and education or tlieir
usefulness evaluating student m
performance and instructional programs Finally
Uie fact iliat any aspect
of ihe educational program necessarily
has its Iimiiaiions and is subiect to
abuse does not mean Hut ,i should l>c
discarded as valueless It merely
argues for mielligcm and sophisticated
use of measuring instruments based
on awareness of ihcir limitations and of
the possibilities of abuse
facl.ialB sludem learn

and elar twir''. >«el'era m formnlalc

ex,>ecnil,onr lo stn
del I C ,uen r

SSTrf—
nnng represented on the exam
inaiiun (Kcidar I9G1)
Tlicwr nr I

or tmpllct lllZtJacc?
student folllori on the
Z ^
‘‘'S'" “P‘-‘
'""ts on
teachers rf""
rrertence «.d. prewU “
ixrctatton. Mtl, re,™, L tZ t
“"'y “
f
the kinds ol mastery to regarding
be tlc^iwimra'ieT— ^'l'°
factual recall evidence of com
prehension critical analvsi» nr
ability lo nurslnl evidence ind problem solving
«m7*^**”*i
evident ihcrcforc ^ »
Hut ,f
l>anicuhr v%a>» by learning outcomes in
iJic ii,nU of cnii
mubtc tfcviccs they use
their objectives they must for
cicarlv
“ «
student, (utstesrl o “>
o
sahd nteasurtug tnstruu 'ol'ablc and
'em. .,.7;:
ate teal, red Irlucattonal
ohjc.t.sc no ma7™i'“
(.a by the hoard simply
,1 ,1 c,> u„ nor rcetise
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 PnnapUi of Ueoii rente il and Evalualion
540

To Appraise Curricula
and to Make Curriculum Judgments
measurement and evaluation are essential lor
As indicated previousl)

monitoring a curriculum—lor assessing die mem

o£ a particular sequence
subject matter content
and organization of courses embracing designated
they furnish are
instrucuonal materials and raeiliods of leacliing The dau
as the grade placement
also helpful in making such administrative deasions
courses It goes uitliout
of subject matter and die optimal sequenang of
sajing that research botJi on curriculum and on the learning process itself
would be impossible and valid measures of learning out
iviiliout reliable

comes

To Assist tn Guidance Couiuehng

and the /ndiuidiudizahoit of hulmction
Systematic measurement and evaluation of aptitude achievement, moti
vation personality atutudes and interests is necessary for individualizing
inslruciton and for purposes of individual guidance and counseling We
must know the current apuiude levels of pupils and die current state of
their subject matter knowledge before we can prepare curriculum mate
nals appropriate to ability levels [and] adapt teacliing mediods to die learn
ers and the content to be learned (Adkins lOaS) In the absence of such
informauon intelligent deasions also cannot be made about grade place
menc grouping die paang of study promotion choice of courses academic
and vocational goals and remedial work. These data Bnally are essential
for reporting pupil progress to {larcnu and for explaining to diem the
basis on which particular decisions are made

LumiatioDS and Abuses

of Evaluation and Measurement

In the long history of die measurement movement m

education many
objections have been raised boUi to die goals of educational
measurement and
to the effects jiroduced by panicular techniques of measunng
learning out
comes Some of these objections do in fact identify palpable limitations
abuses and shortcomings Others are based on sentimental and semi mystical
conceptions of the educative process Ji is imjwrtant to scrutinize these ob-
jecuoiis carefully and to distinguisli between Uiose which
are based on
inherent Iimiutions and shortcomings of educational
measurement and
those which are based cidier on correctable abuses or
on attainable capa
bihucs that are as yet unrealized
First It is argued that educational
tests tend to evaluate the more
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S72 Prtnftplei of Meat remenl and Fi'aluetion

important than the knov\letl*^ tlie\ re|»rc»ent » miidi more a reflecUon of

undesirable soaal attitudes about the rea! \ahie of sdiolarship than a
cause of such attitudes or an inesitablc product of measurement and cs-alua
tion Thus oscremphasis on the cornpetimc aspects of testing and on the
use of test scores for creating a meriiocrac> or a pseudoscientific rank
ordenng of persons tells us much more aljout the kind of socict) that sane
tions sucli practices than alioiii tlie {xitential abuses of measurement Simi
lari) if teachers oreguided in iheir choice of subject matter content sold)
b) the desire to prejiare students for standardired tests and esen go to the
extent of coadiing them on tsjie questions it is more rational blame the to
existing s'alues of parents educators and school ijoards than to blame the
themsehes
tests

industrs
—
\lmosi cser\ aspect of culture gosemment mass media
commerce recreation sex drugs religion— is just as subject to
abuse and jiersersion as arc m'-asuremeni and es-aluaiion
It makes more
sense in our opinion to present sudi abuses In
increasing the lesci of
public enlightenment about the relcsant issues
insolsed in inielJigeni use
than bs atyilishingor outlauing the practice
in question
Fourth adsocatesof €bild<eniered teaching
and client-onented counsel
mg insist that
genuine learning independent tlimking
and creaimis are
I^ible onl) ma nonesaluatne classroom
atmospliere Tlie) assert fur
eiiCKine compeume
"’»""Uon In our op.n.on ilus poulion
““ " ' """ »nd uulhonuinan
fsTol u
""““"S' ”'>^""1 ^orplunce of ,dm,
'>''> "I compenurr
nX
Z aTd
",
iTTr,"?
“"I
» '=>»nnun drgreu ol^nlun

Ind Znal dunk

”
T'’"”
" ° "«n<naluame snlung cratnc eilorl
»' —
n duuMltd in I
undurcred and „„d.,cpl,„rd
orin.Sv" ou.puu Frrtdom

a>p.nngtoniaiieral»d,

lacil.tates
°“d
" «lioo'
irally lor die norld ol ““>!<"« ralii-
«ork in Ue,,™ i“"‘*
aiernie mol.iniion
niZ ri j. 'rnr
ecessarj for sustained academic
effort. School marks
pronde siiid
"-donn. die cumeurm^rc at™™ ">
‘i;" current source of status and
selfesteem dunng childhood a*"'

status «b-"™entof sKat.onal goal, and adult

IletjutTements of an E^ectn-e Tett 573

Fifth, e\'aIuation has frequentU been misused b\ teachers as a means

of rewarding students for conformii)
and doalit) and of punishing them for
nonconformit) and indejiendencc of thoughL In mans schools and uni
employed as a weapon for controlling and intimidating
\crsities It 1$ still

and impressing them (as well as colleagues), and for

students, for fngliiening
making them inadequate subsenient and deferential It is these ser)
feel
same teadiers who concenc of examinations as a contest in sshich students
are to be outwitted and trapped into error Needless to sa) howeser, this
crude abuse of esaluation hardh constitutes a salid argument for non
e\-aluaiise leacliing
Sixth, tt can Ixr claimed with some justification that good scores on
achiesemcnt are bejond the reach of low abilitv students In a \er)
tests
real sense then, the imjxisition of absolute standards of final achiesement,
or the use of grades based on relatne standing in die class depresses their
self-esteemand discourages them from putting forth their best efforts Sucli
deinnienial effects, howescr, can be largel) mitigated b\ concomitant esaJua
tion in terms of their abdits Icsel or in terms of progress from initial levels
of performance These two different bases of evaluauon are b> no means
mutuall) exclusive We need to know how well students are progressing
^th m
terms of their own potentialities and in terms of group norms Fur
thermore, the negaiise impact of informing students that they are inferior
to their peers in abilitv and achievement has undoubiediv been exaggerated.
Realistic awareness of our relative intellectual status among our peers is a
fact of life to which all of us must cventuallv adjust— and the sooner the
better for There is no profit either in sugar<oating
everyone concerned
tlie truth or in self delusion
or
measurement and evaluation often fail to faalitaie learning
Finallj,
teaching because tliej provide no meaningful feedback. Tins is particularlv
true when onl) final examinations are given and when onl> composite scores
are reported to students without comment, explanation speaficauon o
and
component strengths and weaknesses or opportunii) for identifjing
correcting errors Such examinations encourage cramming prov^de
an un
representative student acliicvement, and abet
'book sia^m^,
picture of
therefore
as soon as the grades are inAny defensible program of evaluation
at the end of
relies on periodic and frequent testing—before, dunng and
differential ra
instruction, uses several kinds of measures reports scores in
ther than composite terms and stresses the feedback and diagnosuc
funcuon
of tests

Requirements of an Effective Test

Any effective test irrespective of whether it is

e o
ized, on the one hand, or informal and * teacher made, on t
 Eiatualion
Pnnciplet of Mevuffmtnt and

feasible and should also discnmmale

be valid reliable representame and
individuals rested
adequaiel) benveen individuals or groups of

Validity

%alidity of a test refers to the extent to sshicli it

measures sshat it
The
purports to measure The question of salidiiy is alssays relative to the
A that valid for one purpose (for instance
stated objectives of a test test is

deviates) is not neccssanly valid for

to screen out gross personality
another (for example to make prease assessments of personality status to

make a spcafic diagnosis of behavior disorder to make predictions of indi

vidual outcome)
The problem of validity arises in the first place because psychological
and educational measures tend to be indirect and inferential rather than
based on direct behavioral samples of the trait or ability in question An
acliievetnent test Cor example mere/yt aaumei Uiai ability to answer cor
rccily a particular set of subject matter items ts really rcllective of degree of
mastery of a designated divopline or subdisaphnc unlottunately there is
no more direct way of measuring knowledge If on the other hand we
endeavor to measure the trait of academic honesty by assessing behavior in
controlled situauons in which cheaung on examinations can be deteaed
unbeknown to and unsuspected by the subjects (Canning 19aC Hartshome
and May 1928) the question of test validity is irrelevant the only relev-ant
question in these arcumstances is tliat of reliability—will equivalent degrees
of academic honesty be exhibited in a later time sample of the same situa
uon in different but comparable samples of the same situation in related
but different situations^
The more indirectly and inferentially a test score is related to the trait
or ability it purports to measure the more important die issue of validity

becomes Thus although an achievement lest score is admittedly not co-

extensive with degree of mastery of a discipline it involves much less in
directness and inference for example than does an intelligence test score
In the latter situauon the trait ttseU vs much more of a hypothetical and
debatable construct the tests used to measure it arc much less homogeneous
and much less self-evidently related to the trait and there is a much greater
presumption of the predictiv c value of the test score (of the constancy of the
trait over age)
Several different types of validity have
been delineated. A good test is
characterized by at least
one and hopefully by more than one of these types
Content validity a form of face validity that is invoked for
is
many psycho-
logical and educational tests An
aduevement test for example may be
claimed as vabd on the face of things if
u contains an adequate and repre
sentauve sample of items— both in terms
of the particular subject matter
Requirements of an Effective Test 575

knowledge it purports to measure and the kinds of competencies or under

standings that purportedly reflect such knowledge
Concurrent validity is present when test scores correlate reasonably well
with some contemporaneous criterion of behavior preferably ratings based
on direct observation Typically the question of current validity anses when
some short cut method of assessment is devised to replace a more exhaustive
and time consuming measure The difficulty in these instances is one of

an appropriate criterion that is relevant reliable and valid

itself
finding
School grades for example are a commonly used criterion for determining
the fact
the validity of academic aptitude and achievement tests despite
themselves and
that they are usually less reliable and less \ahd than the tests
deportment
are also influenced by such extraneous factors as the motivation
social class biases of
docility and conformity of pupils and the personal and
teachers An added difficulty is the lack of comparability between the grades
spectacular
awarded by different schools and teachers This is shown by the
grades when t e
increase in the correlation between high school and college
to anot er
former set of grades is rendered comparable from one school
applicable it
(Bloom 1964) Before any evidence of concurrent validity is
18 also necessary to demonstrate that ones population
is comparable a m
validated
relevant respects to the sample on which the instrument was
some
When the criterion behavior to which test scores are related is
sc o
future measure of performance we deal with predictive validity If
ater
lastic aptitude scores for example correlate reasonably well wit
school grades or academic achievement scores the aptitude test
may e sai

to exhibit predictive validity The problem of finding a

suitable criterion
may yield scores t a
still remains Atest measuring aptitude for medicine
school but to w a
correlate satisfactorily with grades earned in medical
extent are these scores related to success in the practice of
medicine? ot on y
IS It very difficult to measure professional success in
medicine but t lerc are
for the most part wit t
also many different criteria of success varying
practice specialty practice
individual s particular career choice (general
administration)
research teaching writing public health hospital
A final type of validity that is often
invoked when the
demonstrated either because t e u
evidences of validity cannot be
of content cannot be adequately spenfied or because of t le a .

as comlnicl validity This is

based on log y
suitable criterion— is known
eridence In the case o
defensible inferences from experimental or other
student population to obtain
achievement test the failure of a totally na.ve
better than chance scores would provide one
form of such evidence Other
kinds of relevant evidence would tnclnde .mptovement tn

from one grade level to another sudi hicrarchicallj ordered eompetenc

m
positise relationship between
as readmfand mathematics and a
sttong

aptitude and acliietement at eacli grade level

 Principles 0/ Measurement and Fialualion
676

VALIDITY IN ACHIEVEMENT TESTING From the Standpoint of meaningful

matter acluevemcnt measures
verbal learning, a truly valid test of subject
sufTicicntly stable,
whether mastery of a designated body of knowledge is
structure of ideas in a gnen or sub
clear, and well-organized to reflect the
jiossible. and to serse as a foundation
discipline, to make long term retention
for further learning in the same discipline hfodern achievement tests, there-
fore, emphasize understanding of the more
significant ideas within each
rote mastery
discipline, and of the relationships among them, rather than
of discrete facts Nevertheless, despite this laudable emphasis on genuine
comprehension of a structure of ideas, these tests fail adequately to measure

the functional retentionand oiganizaiional strength of knowledge because

they arc wimcdiale tests of understanding and application Every teacher
knows that any reasonably bright student can do enough cramming before
an announced quarterly or final test to make a passing score, even though the
same test questions would elicit only a blank stare several days later
Thus, conventional retention tests, covering previously studied material
and administered at the end of a given course of instruction, arc not truly
reflective of the later availability of tins material for new learning and
problemsolving purposes Because a short retention interval cannot ade-
quately test and viability of newly acquired
the organizational strength
knowledge, and because of the contaminating influence of rote memory over
short time intecvah, sudi conventional measures of retention are often mis-
leading They fail to distinguish adequately between the student who
merely understands and retains material well enough at the moment of
testing to answer rote and meaningful questions correctly, and the student
whose understanding and teiention are sufficiently stable on a longterm
basis to serve as a springboard for learning
new, sequentially related material
Both individuals may frequently make identical scores on immediate tests of
retention Problem solving or application items provide a partial solution to
this difficulty since they are less influenced by rote memory and also directly
lest ability to and apply retained knowledge But since successful prob
use
lem solving depends on many other traits (ventiircsomeness, flexibility,
also
perseverence, problem sensitivity) that are unrelated to the functional avail-
ability of knowledge, success or failure on such items is as much
a reflection
of the influence of these latter traits as of the availability
of usable knowl
edge
Three other solutions to this problem of achievement lest validity are
available, none of which 1$ mutually preclusive of
the others or use of Uie
of problemsolving items the programmed instruction approach,
First,
whidi implies testing, feedback,
and consolidation after each unit (topic,
cliapter) of subject matter matenaU
provides adequate safeguards for the
true stability and clarity of knowledge and
insures against the dangers of
cramming and rote learning If students are
given such tests weekly, quar-
Requirements of an Effecliie Test sn

terly and final examinations sene more of a rcMeu function and become
truly \alid measures of subject matter mastery Second, comprehensne tests
of achiesement that are gi\en six months to several years after the comple
tion of a course alsomeasure the functional retention of genuine knouledge
as ivell as discourage the book slamming phenomenon Such delayed tests,
‘

hotseser, obviously become measures of cramming ability unless they are

preceded by tseekly, quarterly, and final examinations
Finally, perhaps the most salid way of testing tlie orgamzauonal
siability of knowledge is not to test retention in itself, or
to
strength and
use problem sohing items, but to measure retention in the context of
—
sequential learning in situations where ability to learn ness matenal
presupposes the asailability of the old Xhe '
transfer retention test (Ausu
bel and Fitzgerald, 1962) constitutes a new approach to the problem of
measunng functional retention It attempts to do this by measunng the
stable
extent to which retained knowledge of subject matter is suffiaently
and well-organized to be asailable as a foundation for learning new, se
quentially dependent matenal that could not be efBaently
learned in the

absence of such asailability At the same time, of course, it also

prondw
a measure of knowledge available for problem sohing because if retained
assume
knowledge is available for new sequential learning, it is reasonable to
that It is also available for problem solnng
addiuon to or in
The transfer retention test may be administered in
routine course
dependently of the cons entional retention test WTien used for
unfamiliar
examinations, the test procedure requires that studenu study an
new learning passage that is sequentially related to and presupposes
edge of the presiously studied material on which they are being examin
scores and ’

Their scores on a test of this new matenal are transfer retention

*

of the previously learned

matenal for
measure the functional availability
new learning ,
the ssortlt of a
Only >alid tests of achiesemcnt can be used to esaluate
ness cumculum or course of study Thus, for the reasons
gisen abuse, u.e
scores on immeifiole tests of
undCT
ability of students to mabc sattsfaclory
inatena is a e-
standing and application docs not constitute proof that the
not
quately leamablc. lucid, or properly progtammed It is
matenal is assessed
therefore, that silien the leamability of curriculum
y

tests olten gisc spunous

,in
conscntional tests of acliiesemenl, these latter
Tins is ap^tent y
misleading impressions of genuine leamability
esaluaied by means of
case sshen the yellots and blue BSCS sersions are
die conventional aclucvemcni lests
sersions are appro*,
Achiesement test data shots that the three BSCS
It ssas demonstraled.
matcly as •learnabic’ as conscntional leetbools
«me'' h*' h'Sh"
example, that studenu using the BSCS texts score
Coraptehcns.te BSCS Test and
students using conscnt.onil texts on a final
 priitetplei of Metutiremeiil omi Efaliintion
578

Cooperame Biology Test (Wallace, 1J03) In the

somewhat lower on a final
well such final tests rcoHy measure
i te
first place, it is questionable how
leamabihty of subject matter content Most adequatcl) motisaied students
quantities of oscrly sophisti
can learn,’ for examination purposes, large
understand,
caied and poorly presented materials that ihc) do not really
unfortunately, howescr in such circumstances httle esidcncc of retention

IS present esen a few days later Second one of the mam objectives of any

new, elaborately prepared airriculum program is

presumably to exceed by
level of academic acliicvemcnt
far, rather than merely to approximate the

attained in conventionally taught courses

Achievement tests also tend to lose validity if they contain items that
the
presuppose knowledge of matcnals that arc not ordinarily included in
scope of the discipline or subdisciplmc vshicli they are dcsignctl to measure
Many teachers for example, believe that they can discriminate more adc
quately between bnght and average students if they use such questions
Actually the reverseis true because these items either cannot be answered

correctlyby any students or else measure knowledge of some other field of

study A good examination should emulate a good detective story the sohi
tion of problems should not dejiend on information that is unavailable to
students or that tliey are not expected to learn
The validity of an achievement test dejicnds in part on how well it

tests the actual competenaes that are demanded of an individual tn those

real life performances for which he is being trained or educated This is the
issue of concurrent or predictive validity For example a multiple^ioice
examination on rules of the road may exhibitgood content validity, but
obviously has less concurrent and predictive validity m
relation to current
or ultimate dnvang performance lhan an appropriate road test Similarly,
patients do not enter a hospital ugged with alternatives of probable diag
nosis, indicated diagnositic procedures, and rational therapeutic measures
from which the physiaan makes the most appropnate choice He is not only
obliged jponlaneouily to generate relevant diagnostic hypotheses, order
leJtvanltests, ehtninate aU other dtaptosoc posstbtlutes
than (he one be
designates as most probable, and prescribe appropnate treatment but in
most instances he must also elicit the pertinent facts of clinical history, ob-
tain signifiont data from observation and physical examination,
and inter
pret the results of diagnostic tests It is apparent, therefore,
that multiple
choice tests, valuable as they are, cannot possibly
serve as complete sub-
stitutes for open ended and practical examinations
in the measurement of
clinical competence m mediane
Rehabtlity

Any measuring instrument i£ u is to be used wiih oinfidence must

exhibit a satisfactory degree of
accuracy or reliability That is. it must yield
Requirements of an Effective Test 579

self thennometer on three successi\e determina

consistent scores If a clinical
tions, for example, yielded readings of 97", 103", and 99 6° for the same
patient, would not be considered very reliable Reliability of course,
it

ISa necessary but not a sufficient condition for using a test A highly reliable
test may be totally invalid or may not measure anything that is psycho

logically or educationally significant The reliability of a single test score

IS expressed quantitatively in terms of the instruments standard error of
measurement If the standard error of measurement, for example, is 2 5,

we can say that there are approximately two chances in three (more pre
cisely 68 in 100) that the true score falls between 72 5 and 77 5 when the

obtained score is 75 By definition, an unreliable test cannot possible be

valid necessary degree of reliability, however, depends on the use that
The
IS of test scores If they are used for purposes of individual assessment
made
and guidance, a much higher degree of reliability is obviously necessary than
if they are used for gross screening or research purposes
Three types of coefficients are used to express the reliability of most
psychological and educational tests The coefficient of equivalence is the
correlation coefficient that resultswhen scores derived from comparable
sets of Items are correlated This can be determined from equivalent
if only one form exists by
correlating
(parallel)forms of the same or test,

scores derived from one randomly drawn half of the test (for example,
odd
Items), with scores derived from the other half of the test (even items) The
latter coefficient of reliability is known as split half reliability it also
,

reflects,of course, internal consistency or generality over items,

and is there
fore, often referred to as a coefficient of internal consistency It represents

a measure of reliability in terms of the equivalence between two halves of

a homogeneous pnmarily used when a parallel form of the

test, thus, it is
between two
test is not available for determining degree of equivalence
behavior
different sets of items purportedly measuring the same ability or
reliability is obtained by correlating only
Since the split half coefficient of
of available items in the
instrument against the
half of the total number
the instrument s actual coeffi
other half, furnishes an underestimate of
it
the full length in
cient of equivalence Thus to estimate the reliability of
is frequently applied
strument. a correction formula (Spearman Brown)
Richardson Formulas
Various mathematical formulas (for instance. Kiider
20 and 21) have also been devised for arriving at a
more generalized estimate
of generality over, or intercorrelation among
homogeneous test items
hand, measures consistency
The coefficient of stability, on the other
over time or short term constancy of a trait when the same set of items is
administrations of the same test Over
used It IS determined from successive
short intervals of time the ability or trait
being measured can be regarded
as not undergoing significant cliange Over
longer intervals, however, a loss
changes in the nature of a
of stability IS more reflective of developmental
trait or of inconstancy m
rate of growth Uian of test
unreliability
 Prmeipki of Measuremfnt ond EvaUtalion
S80

a test
The generohty rmaU> reflects the self consistency of
coefficient of
tlie same trait
Avhen composed of heterogeneous but related measures of
It is
creatmt) for example typically consist of a
Tests of intelligence and of
battery of sub tests each of ashich measures a
different facet of the trail m
intercorrelaied the average
question ^\'hcn the scores on these sub tests arc
intercorrelation may be taken as the coefficient of generality Unless this
the
reasonably lugU it is obviously imv.arranted to regard
coefficient is
various sub-tests as measuring anything in common
The length of a test is the most important single factor innuencing its
reliability Obviously the shorter a lest is the more likely it is
that test

scores will be influenced by chincc sampling or situational factors Failure

to allow sufficient time for most students to complete a test lias the same
effect on reliability as reducing the number of items The reliability
of a

test IS also decreased by macciratc or siibjectiic sconng and by the

presence
of Items that lack discriminating povscr (see l>elo\v) Lastly inadequate or
fluctuating motivation may impair test reliability The inference that a
test score actually measures tnic capacity rather than mere performance on
a single occasion presupposes that the subject is trying his best As poiniccl
out previously aptitude and achievement test scores are less reliable (and
hence less valid) in the case of culturally disadvantaged pupils because of
their unresponsiveness to speed pressure and their generally lovv level of test
motivation
The effect of severe anxiety on aptitude and achievement test per
formance is somewhat indeterminable In general n tends to depress per
formance although much depends on the novelty of test items familianiy
with testing and the adequacy ol coping mechanisms Since high levels of
anxiety can thoroughly disrupt the higher mental processes and even block
any kind of response whatsoever it is not only important to allay test
anxiety as mucli as possible but also to regard with caution the reliability
and validity of test scores that are unduly influenced by anxiety" Both of
these latter requirements can be taken into account by giving frequent tests
m-stead of hiung gtadev completely on ftnal examuvauems When students
are tested frequently they tend to be less anxious because of greater famili

2 J T
Hastings measured lest anxiety by a questionnaire method
as early as
1914 Since then standardized measures of test anxiety have been
developed (Sara
son and others, I960) Although high tensions do not necessarily accompany low
examination scores nor coniranwise pupils show-ing higher tensions as roea
sured by the questionnaire at ihe lime of an examination
produce resulu v.hich
tend to deviate further from prcdioion than do the
examination resulu of those
who give evidence of lower tensions (Hastings 1944
p 161)
D PoUie and 3 Spe»man(1955 p 94) showed that giving students J
W McKeadiie
an opportunity
to write coramenu [about moUiple choice
threat but also in
n cliannehng the
.I,-
questions] aids not only
‘ m reduanz* the
release of a
Requirements of an Effectiie Test 581

anty with the test situation emotional desensitization to it, and the realiza
tion that their entire fate does not depend on a single score At the same
time, the availability of many scores discounts the significance of any single
score that is invalidated by extreme anxiety

Representaltveness

Almost all psychological and educational measures are based on the

pnnciple of sampling Since it is virtually impossible for example, to test
a student for mastery of all of the facts, concepts, and principles in a given
course of study, we typically select a sample of such content as a basis for
assessing the univene from which the sample is drawn For this procedure
to be logically defensible, at least two important conditions must be met
the sample must be adequately representative of the universe, and
(b)
(a)

vv^thm the constraints imposed by the requirements of representativeness

and significance the sample must be randomly drawn The reasons for
these
examination
conditions are rather self-evident if, for example, all of the
or if the
Items test knowledge of only one chapter of an assigned textbook
content, t e
Items on each chapter cover only a restncted segment of its
knowledge
resulting achievement test score can hardly be claimed to measure
test lack
of the textbook in question Not only would such an achievement
content validity, but it also would inevitably (and on a purely
chance basis)
overestimate the knowledge of some students and underestimate the know
those that
edge of others Nevertheless many achievement tests particularly
and
are teacher made, do not meet these two conditions representativeness
randomness
failure to
Two other unfortunate practices also commonly result from
appreciate the nature of a test as a representative
sample Teachers who give
hints about examination questions or who repeat the
same questions year
the inference that scores on such an
after year obviously render untenable
knowledge An even
examination are actually representative of the students
test scores based
more serious error is committed by individuals who regard
are mferennally ntlated to a pven
on a representative sample of .terns that
the tra.t or ab.l.ty .n q-esuou
than
.ra.t or abthty. as more aal.tl measures of
.s direct behLoral evidence over a
period of years This »dua..on anse
regarded as status s^bols rather
when test scores degrees or licenses are
measures of competence The IQ
than as fallible sampling and inferential
achieved almost magical or
and the M D are twosuch measures that have
sacred status m our culture of competence or orh.PVP
achieve
Total evaluation is feasible for certain aspects
a sampling approach A leader,
meet and can be used concurrenlly wiU, a».gnmems,
all of his students homeworl
tor example, may wish to evaluate
per
draviungs workshop products, or clinical
laborato.^ reports, histology
 Prffleiptes of MeantrePitnl ami Etaluation

aucb uieasuveroent not only cx

lormances All otlicr lactois being equal
reliabilit, but also tends to mot.vatc
lubits a high degree oi talid.ly and
eHorts and to genente a high
students consistently to put loith Ibeir best
for jicrfonnance
degree of responsibility and accountability

DtsCTtmtnating Pmver

An obMOUs attribute ol an cflcctive test is ability to distinguish maxi

maUy between individuals who vary with respect to the init or competence
being measured In large part of course ibis attribute dcjicnds on the
dis-
as
criminating power of the component items and accounts for as well
reRects the reliability and validity of the instrument To some exicnl, bow
ever itdepends on the liijtribulion of ilic total scores and on whether the
test provides adequate ceiling for superior persons in the group A normal
distribution of scores for example provides maximum discrimination at
both ends of the scale (where there are few scores spread out thinly) and less
discrimination at the middle part of the scale (where many scores are
bunched together) whereas a rectangular disinbution of scores (an equal
number of scores at all points on ibe scale) provides equal discrimination
over the entice range A tkewed distribution (where as disproportionate
number of scores pile up at one end of the scale) on the other hand is
most discriminating at the end where ihcrc are few scores and least dis
criminating at the opposite end
An must also have sufficient ceiling to jicrmit the sujicrior
effectne test
individuals mgroup to stand out as such Obviously if an achievement
a
test IS easy enough for the average person in the group to achieve a score of

90 percent it is accordingly impossible to distinguish between more and

less knowledgeable students Maximum discriminability generally prevails
when the average score u approximately 50
percent Adequate ceiling how
ever should be provided by including a wide range of items carefully graded
in difficulty rather than depend on a criterion of speed since the ability to
tmyim Tfctes'iiuns qmiViy rfiso reTiccis taclors ynsically unrelated to superior
competence or aptitude Difficulty level can be manipulated by varying such
factors as abstractness complexity faTOiUanty and degree of understanding
required (mere comprehension versus application interpretation inference,
analysis or synthesis)

FeastbtlUy

In addition to sudi theoretical considerations as validity reliability

representativeness and discnminating power various practical matters must
be taken into account before one can decide whether
a proposed test is feasi
ble rust how significant is the information
it yields that is how useful is
The Standardi’ed Objectiie Test 58S

It in interpreting the pupils abilities, knowledge, and personality traits and

in making educational and \ocational decisions^ Tri\ia! test data are worth
less irrespectise of how or discriminating they may be A
reliable, \alid
feasible achiesement test, for example, should proside differential feedback
to both students and teacliers about relatne strengths and weaknesses in
learning and teaching, as well as surest reasons for same Othenvise it is
useless for diagnosticand remedial purposes Second a feasible test should
be suitable in form and content for the age range of students for which it is
intended A third practical consideration is the cost of a test and the
amount
of lime required to administer, score, and interpret it Fourth how
ob
the
and how straightforward is the interpretation of
jectise IS the scoring
required to score and interpret the test^ Does
the
results^ Is special training
lest manual provide directions for administration and
scoring a table of

norms, and guidance for interpreting scores’

The Standardized Objective Test

construct,
Objective tests, although difficult and time consuming to
First and foremost,
owe their great popularity in education to several factors
are eliminate
perhaps, is the fact that subjectivity and variability in scoring
—
Precise and invariable criteria for sconng typically a scoring key esignat

mg —
the correct answers are available in advance Second, the items are
representative
carefully and systematically selected so as to constitute a
evaluated
sample of the content to be covered and of the competencies to be
educational objectives— both
This implies prease advance specification of
applications whicJi
m terms of the particular facts, concepts, principles and
sue i mastery is
the student is expected to master, and of the ways in which
supposed to be exhibited Since the totality of desirable
knowledge a m
given area obviously cannot be tested, great care
must be ta
tiat is °
a representative sample of significant (nontrivial) items
weig it on
quately comprehensive and places the desired relative
of objective tests le y
topics Herein lies the other great advantage
of each item and the speed with which it can be
answere ,

ge lan
comprehensive and systematic sampling of knowle P°
a correct
any other means Although the ability to recognize
It spontaneous y,
does not necessarily imply ability to recall

between the two abilities tends to be reasonably

good (Plumlee,
rw
conneCon *= posv.b.h.y of reSn.ng
An aZonal advantage .n thvs .s
‘‘"‘J of ’
the .terns, after tnit.al use. for clarity and dtscnm.nab.hty
creasing test rel.ab.l.ty and valtditj SeltWen.ly, .terns
have any dtscnm.nattng
correctly by all or most students are too easy to
 Pnnriflei of Meat itemenl aid Fiatualion
5S4

for opposite reasons ilic same

conclusion applies to items that arc
po\\er
anssvered incorrectly by all or most
students rurlher a good item is obsi
frccpicntl) by the more knots ledge
ously one that is anssscred correctly more
making higli total scorn) than by the less knowledgeable
able students (those
knowledgeable
students and anstscred incorrecil) more oltcn by the less
fail to meet these
than by the more knowledgeable students® Items that
cTiiem arc either deleted tessntten less ambiguously or replaced by other
Items
Analysis of the relatite frequency tsitli whicli wrong ahematiscs are
chosen may also reseal either ambiguities in wording or the existence of a
presalcni preconception or misconception If the latter is the case tlie item
serves a useful diagnostic function and should not be altered In fact a
raultiple-clioiccitem should be deliberately written so as to contain at least
one svrong altematise dial reflects a common bit of misinformation or a
misconception The adequacy of learning and teaching can then be cs'alu
aied just as \ahdly by the good students greater asoidance of such sucker
altematnes as by their greater tendency to choose the correct ahematise
On the other hand d good students choose a particular wrong aUernaUve
more frequently than poor students there arc grounds for beliesing that the
Item in question is misleading or ambiguous
Objcctnc tests are also typically standardized svith res])ect to the con
ditions of administration— the instructions the time limns the allowable
help the permissibility of making calculations or of marking the alternatives
and so forth thereby insuring comparability of scores Finally most stand
ardized tests that are published provide the user with a tabic of norms based
on a large and representative sample This makes possible the conversion
of raw scores into percentile scores or p’adc equivalents

Crtbcimu
In recent years objective tests have been subjected to vigorous criticism
(Black 1963 M L Gross 1962 B Hoffman 196^) some warranted but
much based on misunderstanding of their nature
functions and inherent
limitations First despite considerable improvement in this respect over the
past decade many objective tests
measure rote recognition of relatively
still

trivial and disconnected items of knowledge rather

than genuine compre
liension of broad concepts pnnaples and relationships and
ability to in
terpret facts and apply knowledge Paradoxically this
shortcoming of
objective tests has been magnified by the programmed
instruction movement
wiUi us emphasis on small frame and step size

=*In practice this item analyns funaion js performed

by comparing the num
ber of nghi and wrong responses on each item that are
o» tamed by the upper and
lower fifths or quarters of the dismbuUon of total test scores
Interprelalton of Achievement Test Scores 585

Second, because of unskillful construction of test items the correct

answer is sometimes identifiable by means of unintentional hints, for ex
ample, the selfesident implausibility of the wrong altematises, the use of
such words as "alwajs Both of these defiaencies are easily correctable by
using greater care in item construction by selecting more significant test
Items, by stressing items that require understanding thought, and
insight,

by including application and problem solving items and by plaang

greater

on delayed retention and transfer retention scores The

multiple
reliance
choice format minimizes the role of guessing It should be
noted at this

point, that unskillfully constructed essay and problemsolving tests may also
place a premium on the regurgitation of rotely memonzed knowledge an
on rote application of “type problem solutions
sometimes be
Third, the correct answer in multiple-choice tests may
either arbitrary or depend on abstruse hairsplitting In
some instances it
penalize
may also favor the less knowledgeable or more shallow thinker and
subtle and
the more sophisticated student who takes into account more
penetrating considerations
tends to favor tne
Fourth the great emphasis placed on time pressure
student
ghb confident, impulsne, and test wise student, and to handicap the
is un
who either is inclined to be cautious thoughtful and sell-cntical, or
scholastic aptitu e
sophisticated about testing Ideally, a salid test of either
or academic achievement places greater weight on power
than on SP®®

(Yates, 1961), discriminating ability is attained by

provading a
for most students to
carefully graded range of diSiculty, wilh ample lime
complete the test, rather than by including twice as
many items as the
current emp
average student has time to answer In our opinion, the
tests of acliievement
detracts from eir ‘ '
speed in most standardized
unrelated to genu
by plaang a premium on factors that are intnnsically
mastery of subiect matter .

testing must always be tame

,
m
Lastly, the limitations of stardardired
mind For example, multiple choice tests by
relevant 1P°
students’ ability spontaneously lo generate
evidence in >“P^" ^^.’fanroDO-
vahd laboratory or clinical dam, lomaislial
to structure a
sition, to des.^ an onginal expenmem.
to do creative work Other kinds of
measunug devices, however, am
objectives
able to test the attainment of these latter

Scores
nterpremtion of Achievement Test

In general there
^IgraTulm ‘;:iTl”e“apmr"e
mtarof“brir.evi-!de.e™^^^^
 priitcijlei of Veasuremenl end Ftaluelion
586

le
lest, or an milial achvesement
test in
test, a pretest, a prior achicsemcnt
it indicates
course This imporiani for both student and teacher since
is

the extent to svhich normali) expected progress is Ixring made the course m
performance in
The second metliod assesses the adequacy of a student s
relation to that of his peers, it is necessary botli for
grouping pacing, and
the indisidualizaiion of instruction as s»eU as for making important de
asions about liis educational and socaiional fuiiirc As jxjinied out abose,
the other
both kinds of assessment are essential and ncillicr one precludes
Each of these approaches is concerned ssiili a relative standard of perform
ance but in one case the indiiidual serxes as fiis ossti standard and in the
other hts performance is related lo group norms
In some instances howescr, an absolute standard of performance is
indicated v.hieh is quite independent of the performance of others or of
the indisidual s relatiie standing in the group This is tlie case, for example,
Vihere mastery of a gisen topic subject or skill is a prerequisite for more
advanced learnings and v.here a certain minimal lesel of competence is
necessary before an individual can l>e entrusted vsitli certain vocslionat roles
such as hfesaver on a beach physician pliarmacist scacury, railway engi
neer. or airplane pilot R Glaser (I%$) designates such scores based upon
an absolute standard of quality as critenon referenced measures in contrast
to norm referenced measures based upon a relative standard AcJiievement
furnish both kindsof measures Raw scores or percentage
test scores typically

scores areenienon referenced measures wViercas percentile scores (scores

indicauve of the percentage of a designated population of scores exceeded
by the percentile score m
question) are norm referenced measures
In using the norms of standardized tests it is important to make sure
that they are based on a sample that is lx>ih large enough to insure stability
and adequately rcprescnmive of the universe m
vshich they purportedly
pertain The particular norms used must also be relevant in the sense that
they are based on groups of individuals who are comparable to the indi
viduals vse are testing For example in interpreting the achievement test
scores ofa particular tucUth-grade group in an American high school, vie
isould uant to use the norms of American luelfth graders generally, plus
such other differential norms that apply to our group as sex,
region, state,
urban or rural area public or private high sdiool For guidance purposes
(grouping choice of courses college application), it would
also be helpful
to use the local school norms as well as the cut-off scores
employed by van
ous colleges in sclening candidates for admission

Other Methods of Evaluation and Measurement

Because of limitations on the kinds of

objectives that sUndardized
short answer tests can measure,
other methods of evaluation and measure
Other Methods of Eialuatwn and Measurement 587

merit are used concomitantl) in most educational settings Thoughtful

teachers do not place excessne reliance on standardized objective tests

Essay or Discussion Qiiestwns

Essay examinations, despite their many disadvantages have a signif

leant place in the evaluation program of a school They are particularly
useful (a) where spontaneous recall of information and spontaneous gen
eration of hypotheses are important aspects of the competencies being mea
sured (for instance, formulation of diagnostic hypotheses differential diag
nosis), and (b) in less well-established areas of knowledge where there is no
organize
single right answer In addition, they test a student s ability to
’

evaluate
ideas and marshall evidence, to construct a cogent argument, to
ideas critically, and to express himself clearly and convincingly
Essay type
thinking,
questions also provide greater scope for original and independent
an
and give some insight into the cognitive styles problem sensitivities,
suite
problem solving strategies of students On the whole they are better
than short answer questions for measuring students grasp of the structure
of a discipline
On the other hand they are much less satisfactory than short answer
principles, an
tests measuring knowledge of more established concepts
for
there is no
information in a given subject matter field particularly vvhere
spontaneously Since only
premium on ability to recall and transform ideas
content is
a few questions can be asked on any examination, sampling of
to be laborious
neither comprehensive nor representative, and scoring tends
unsatisfactory
and subjective, both reliability and validity are often
hence
padding
Further, essay examinations encourage bluffing, circumlocution,
to
and discursiveness on the part of students, and tend disproportionate y
reward those students who write neatly, excel in the
mechanic of English
o views
composition (spelling, punctuation, diction, and style) and ec t le

constructing essay
and biases of their teachers Finally, the very ease of
slipshod attitude touard
examinations encourages a rather caralier and
evaluation on the part of those who use them
Many
of the aforementioned
disadvantages can be mitigated. Iioiteter
explicitly the scope and
by following a lew simple rules By tndtcattng
the ambigiiit, and ragnene s
dimensions ot the expected answer, much of
ot the global discussion question can be eliminated As a matter ol fact,
limited and .yxcAc in sco^
short essay type questions that are relati.elj
but by
may exhita/con^erable rehabiluy and validil).
distinctisc competencies
they ma, also lad to test some ol the
examination is designed lo
measure Tins fomral however is
exercises in such applied fields «
appropriate lor problem solving
the search for add tional nee. led
where problems of dilleren.ial diagnosis, cenler
inlerpretat.on ol data, and proposed remedies can
inlorraation. the
 Piinci}>{« of AUaiuremeol and rialisation
9S8

presentations To mm.muc the strong chance

on cacli of several short case
that are selected in an essay examination
factor in the particular tpiestions
students he given some degree of dioice in (jucsiions
may
It IS also {wssible to reduce the
siibjcciiMly of scoring by using several
explicit criteria for grading as
readers and by establishing such separate
of expression
content organization logic cogency clarity and fluency
Halo effect can he minimized by cothng students papers and by scoring in
grading each stu
turn each question for all students instead of completely
dents paper before turning to the next paper
disadvan
Oral examinations typically cnyoy die same advantages and
tages of the essay examination but in addition enable the
examiner to
probe more deeply of the students knowledge or meaning
when unsure
and and discuisive answers In this sense they div
to cut short irrelevant
courage bluffing On the otlier hand tliey appear to evoke much more dis
rupiive anxiety than do written examinations and to favor the glib and
soaally poised individual

H'erfe Somplei

In most areas of education but particularly in vocational professional

artistic and physical training it is possible to assess the extent to which
the objectives of education are actually being attained by directly appraising
a performance or work product that is self-evidently reflective of the com
petcnce being taught Such v,ork samples include laboratory skills clinical
performance drawings themes research reports gymnastic or musical per
formance the use of tools an or shop products typing and stenographic
performance and so forth They constuute much more direct and valid
CTiiena of the competences involved than do short answer or discussion
examinations wliicli can only inferentially measure the same competences
It ISobviously much more important to know for example how well a
student physician can interview examine diagnose and presenbe for an
actual patient than how well he can answer questions about the theory and
practice of medicine Such exammauons also make possible direct assess-
ments of sucli traits as flexibility resourcefulness perseverance and ere
ativity Hence their value laigely
depends on the extent to whicli they are
able realistically to simulate realUfe condviions of performance
The most serious disadvantages of these examinations are iliat they
are time consuming expensive and difficult to construct in
many areas
It is also difficult to assure bieaddv and equivalence of sampling
If hov
pital cases for example are used as test material for students
in clinical
medicine how adequately can a single case measure a student
s ability and
how does one equate cases for difficulty? Tins argues for the desirability of
appraising all of a students work products in a given course
of study— all
Other \telhods of Fi-aluation and Meaiuremedl 589

of lus laborator) dnumgs or clinical performances or of using standardized

(for instance, tclesiscd) case presentations that arc uniform for all students

Scoring presentsstill another difficult) and is no more reliable and

sailidthan the observational and rating techniques on which n is based

Tliesc techniques can be materiallj improved if the dimensions on or cn
lena bj whidi the performance is to be judged are specified in advance, if
discnminably different points on a rating scale can be both described and
quantified if the ratings of several trained judges are averaged, and if rat
mgs are made concurrcntlj rather than retrospectively Proper training of
the judges includes discussion of the nature of the trait or competence to
be rated, making a trial run of ratings, companng ratings, and deciding
how ratings are to be distributed over the scale Final ratings, of course,
are made independently Halo effect can be minimized by having the
rater judge each item on the scale for the entire group before proceeding
to die next item
 .

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7 g n*
rtfrffni

AufulufL An aht4Jmn of if r I»''CS aj proacfi to hi?h wf ool Ijiolofp /imer

1> I* o
Tfarfrr !•>/ »<
Uic'i gy
AmuUl I) r Acr.^i»n»r»tnututrilron«fMJoolIr4niijij; In /niirvfiinn ynf
fcnfrn/^rtry 1 rtfi (I ‘•if-rl 1*1) ^an ftaiitiKO Cluntilcr l%7 jip

?0T-:!S7
Au«if<L I) am! I„ Wale mint iiioo m the f Jfjsf'tn S of mniiitiRfii!

kWI matctiil / e'-f fin 57 I15-H9

verbal
Imulif! I) l^anll) fii/rrran H r mir of «!t«nmiiut.ilui i» mraninKfn!
kaininK and rrtrninn / Paffo'
Auiuf^l n !•_ and I) In/seral! OtRani/cf f:ei ctal I adcroumJ am! anicccdciii

''''j.r Pjyf/iol 5»
fcarninR \atta!drt ui w-t[»cntial tcflul Icirnifis; J

rPrti of incnJcnial an<l c\petimcmall)

iti
Auni!<l, 1) I* ard fl \l Vfi.ff n»c
irloam an ! irrcJo ant rclatiomhip^
dutet! r»|>rfjfiifr in iIh- Icatnu r of
li) tlnldrrn J frnrt fjyrM I'l'.l «/
mcauircmcni
AumW n I’^andil 'I Vfu'l \ lorl of atpiraifon approach to tf c
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as^a Iniution o
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in tncatmiRfiiJ parallel
AutyW 1) l*„and\f lomvf flic lotc of diioitninahilitv

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'q*'"'®" o” meaniiiRful
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P S H Sd,,^d
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Thompson G G and C W
Hunnicutt The effect of repeated praise or blame
on the work acliievement of introverts and extroverts / educ Psychol
1914 35 257-266
Thompson W
R and \\ Heron The effects of restricting early experience on
the problem solving capacity of dogs Canad J Psycl ol 19a4 S 17-31
Thorndike E h. The psycl ology of learning educational psychology \ol 2 New
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Thorndike E L The effect of cl anged data upon reasoning / exp Pjycho/ 19^*’
5 33-38
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650

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mi.
Thon.J,te,E L. Menul d«»pl.ne
1 5 1
<79 83-98
.n.ell.gnnce >cor„ Iron, th.neen .o
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Thorndike. R L and others Retest changes in the IQ in certain superior sdiools
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E iVarm up effect a* a function of level of practice in verbal learning
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T^olmin. E
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Tol™„, C., E C
S If.n .„d E P Bm„.„ A Cpcicf
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p.;:k:r.53Lt»«H
 Referencet
651

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 . , , ,

Heftrences
652

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Ullman, C A Teachers, peers and
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cuhnate reflective thinting an experimental _

Ulmer, G Teadiing geometry to

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Underwood, B J Speed of learning and amount retained A consideration of

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Underwood, B J
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]. '
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654

ndtU i^OtUieena, 3 Baliimotc

Wcthiler, D The of

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Mechlte o’ ImeUectual *>elopinenl and
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Wemgold H P.andR L-Uebster Effects ol pomshmem on cooperaiivc beJiaMO

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Weir, M W’ Developmental changes m problemsolving strategics Psychol Rev

‘
1964 74,475-490
Weir M W and H W Stevenson The effect of verbalualion m children s learnt-

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Weisbetg P b and Ka)U Spnnger Envwoivinenul factors in CTCaiive futtaion'J
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Weiss, P Wertheimer and 0 Ctoesbeck Achievement motivation, acsdeouct.

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J
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,

arat.pi o! tompeunte
"'"iSAM
C„P«l..td.,ndA Cig Prognra,m,„g M ,„a.pe„
Pent and,
"'''te.fudl'ra';.'^
Itaining ilenienuiy aeiuuca TachoL
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 .

Rejeretices
6: 1 )

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Wintcibotlom, M. ,M. I he relation of need adnevement to learning cs{>eticiuci m

independence and mastery In Atolnes in fantasy action and nutely, (J \\
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W'lscinaii, S Symposium on the effects of coathiiig and piaiiicc in iiiiclhgcnce
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Wup6. L, C Lvalualing section leadung mcthoils in the inirotlucturv ioiitvc /
educ. lies., 1951. ^5. \6l-ib6
Wittenberg. R. 3f . and J llcrg I he stranger in the gioup .tmer J
1952. 22. 89-97,
Wtitrock, M. C. Set to learn and proactive inhibition / edut lies 1‘*j5 J?
72-75(a)
Witlrock, M. C. bficct of certain sets u|ion complex vcibal learning / edue
rsydiol. 1903. 5f. 85-«8(b)
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Wiltrocl, M. C Kcifioiiic mode »n ilie programing of kinetic molecular thcoiy
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Psychol, 19*1. 55 . iyV2W)
c/iif.
WKirock, ,M. C. and I K. Husek Lllcct of ansicty U|*ori retcrnioii oi verbal
learning Psychol Hep, 19*2. 10. 78
\\miock. C. and L. K. Kcislar Vcibal rues
.\f. the transfer of cumeprs / m
f./uf Piychol, 1%5. 56 |t>-21 ,

\Nuttock. M, C„ and 1’. A. Weller, Vcilsal tuts and vaiictv of vUkv uf pn>fs^
Icmi in transfer of training Piythof Hep, tf. 8-T-aM

k. Absolute ss. leUlusiui diuiniufutiori on the

WoliIvvilL dm,cii»H>n “|
J.
/. gruel. Psytho ! , I'A-U. 96. 353-Vd(a)
Wohlvvdl A the devclop.»e«i of lU i.umUr cuiuepr b*
siU4|) of
a
J. K.
analysis. /, griirl. Psyihol, iyui». V7, 5l*-3I7ib)
of i*,e
WohNilk J. K, and R. (1 Uwc. .\n csj-eim-entAl ansivosof tl e
toiisetvarnui of nuinl^i ChslJ LVsr/p~i , )), laVlu".

Wollcn, K. \ tine trial veisus »iH«u.ei.ral|«i«cd asxAiatt Itarni ^ l<4*y

leiti Ilf hi, , /, Jl-Jl.
W.A>d. 11, II, and k .S. ficrman .in exf-fU'cnUt cf l‘/ r,..,*

fiumcct of tAr lypr-nter en r*c s.At*-.’ i.ajjf.--''* .Nr» k <i

MaimilUn. 1932.
UtHdiow. i( ll,c c.'cvs of tt,< of iratong ira. drrri-r } >•J,..
I'C;. I*. ISA-J72
 Tieferences

hew Vd.V HoU RineUatt and

Hood^orlh R S FxpmmMl Pijrtolos
Winston 1938 ,
,
recently p
Uooduonlt R S Heredtly and envnonmtnl A crtUcal itirvey of
hshed materials on twins and foster children
New \orW Social Science Re
seardi Counal 1911
Woolilinlge D E T/ic ma<fiiTier> <>/ Nch York McCrasv Hill 1963
Worcester D ^ Tlic «<lucafion of cAiWren o/ aWeafcragf meri/fl/i/y Lincoln
Umver Nebraska Press 19a6
Wnght J M and O J Harscy Aliiiude diange as a function of aathoriunsn
ism and puiutiseness / Pen soc Psychol 196a / 177-181

Wrighuman L S The cffccu of anxiety achiesemem motisaiion and task im

portance upon performance on an imelhgence test } educ Psychol 1962 53,
toO-156
Wngliuione J W
Demonstration guidance projea in Nesv York City Howard
educ Rev 1960 30 237-231
WuU F Eher dic Veranderung son Vorstclbingcn (Gedadrtnis und Gestalt)
p5)cfiol Forjth 1922 S S3S-573
Yamamoto K Role oCcreatise dunking and intelUgence in high school aduevement
Isychol Rep 1904 74 783-789(3)
yamamoiQ K Threshold of intelligence in academic achietement of highly aeatite
students J exp Educ 1961 32 40l-l03(b)
Yamamoio K A A further anal)sis of the role of ertatite thinking in high school
adiiescroent / Psychol 1964 58 277-283(c)
Yarcozoucr M Conditioning lest of stiniulus prcdtlfereniiation Amer J Psychol,
1939 /2 572-376
3armey 3 D Overt and covert responding m programmed learning Ontario J
educ Rei 1964 7 27-35
Yarrow Marian K J O Campbell and L. J Yanow Acquisition ol new norms
a study of raaal desegregation / toe fssues 1938 74 &-28
Yaics A J Item analysis of Progressive Matrices (1947) RriUsh
} educ Psychol,
1901 31 132 13?
Yoakam G \ The effects of a single reading Untver loua Stud Educ 2 No 7
Iov»a City Sute Umver Iowa 1924
Y Ol gc C D Structure of expencnce and funaional fixedness
/ educ Psychol
lyob 57 115-121)
\ouig F M
Causes for loss ol inteicsl in high sdiool subjects aa teportcid by
651 college students / educ Jl« 1952 25 JlO-lla
Young, R K and B J Underwood Transfer m
seibal materials with dissimilar
itimuli and response smulamy varied / exp Psychol IGal
47 155-139
\ou..g R k « M Bti.wn and H H Holinnan Cliaiigc m au.lwJes lowarf
die Negro in a southern umvcnity J abnarm soc Psychol I960 60 131-133
Youiz AdclbC Yncxpcnmcmal evaluation of Josi 5 laws Psycho! Tlfonogr, 1941 •
53, (WIioleNo 238) 6 •

'“'“LVI 'S'drs?!:™
-a .dolnwen. da.elop„«„. J
Jlr/erencei U7

/-igona S V and L. \ /urdur Tlic rcbiiondiijj of %cil)al alnln) and other

cogiiituc variables to the o|icn close 1 cognilisc dintcnnon J Piyi! ot l!>bj
60 21i-2J9
Zander \ A study of cxpcrimciiial frustration Piyefiol Motio^r l‘>ll ^6 So
i 0WioIc*No 2 j6)
/iglcr L and J dc Labry Concept suticliing in middle class. losscr class, and
rctardctl clnldrcn J ahnorm toe Ptycho! 19<i5 65 .67-273
7iglcr E and I* Kan/cr I he ellcctiscncss of tuo classes of scibal rcinfutccis
021 the (>cr/onnance of middle and lonerclau children ) Prrsonahiy iVuZ

30, r57-IC3
ZilJjg M Eiiistcllting tind \iissage ^ Ptyrhol J9211 306 SH-JOo
 .

AUTHOR INDEX

Aall. /L. 387 Witnorr II 5 410

AblMlt, L.. 183 Vtkm J M 204 351 4-3

Abe. C. 555 \lLintun J

W 5 >4

Abel, L. n . 3G5 Alwalcr 5 k. 134 140

Abetcroinble. M L.. MI. 550 \ub!e D, 318 So5
AiLerman, \V. 1 , 550 AuMtn. C \ 5.0 521 532
AiLawn, 1^ 234 Aum»*m1. K.. 3*8
Adorno. T U'., 409 \muUl. 1) I* » *0 21 23 34 ^ HO
117. 137 M5 140 155 15* 15" !W
Acbli. II. 197
ICO 1*3 1»9 2*3 277 20 2'i
^Rard. F. II. 77
AIbcti. J.. 172
.-•0 53’» 373 376-37J Ss? 3Xt 392
*05*07 413. 417
AIbcrm L., 79. 543 393 3 *0 400.
435 430, 4** 5*5.
AMiiJi. C 235
410 42*. 4.'7
5*6 550. 577
Allen. D C.
138. 239. 233. 412
All|>o». (. . U
97. 35<. 451
u
M|«cr. Thelma. V. 377. 391 lua. k . 421
lUhmV. II P- 5*9
AliKTt. A, 4W. 543. 5IJ
ttaler, Ik I-.- 3i>
\Iier. Milliccni.
Amtilon. 3/J Ctlet. C, T, 2*1
lULrr. II L.. 413
\rooi. R. r. 413 191. 2*1
lUltr II V,
\nauaU. 184. 254
.\(ulr(tuii, G 1-. 112. 4/9
lUler. K U, 371
V R, •‘•i 173 .*1
GuJciuui. E, 238 23 >. 2*0. 24o. 247 Ililfr.
J
RiWwjn 4- \. 2*1. 24*
Viwletion, J 4 . 245 2'J4
R*»uo p n.
.VndcTKto. L. 13.. 23**
Oj.ihatar. E. I— 3.f7 * "
\iuSej»H«. R 41. 4’.7. 550. 5o0
Date \ 5 .i»l
Vmleivm. R, M.. 5<^ J IS
lUino. T . 5'»r.
Xtuletwxi. T. 3<ri
lUillcJI I «W’ **» ’•*
l>, 302. 3M
Bams 3s
\niMU. I. 3I> aw l>. 2‘-2
Itatt^
\ul>et. F- ), 135. 5»: G. V* :-* J.3.
|Va*r l>
\ti iiviraJ. I- M. 313 ji.U,t.vat. M IW 3 >
CL M. 23*. 2*1
Br*..**. II. :*5
3-*<
\iu.k«l. \ lU «. n7. 5 «
lW.t, II
\Hh
\h I
\|
"vet,
I- 5*7
34 J-. Ml li, . ^
B«t~ 4- 3 3* •

r .C, 322. 332

k I*. «i?
 Index
6C0

Brush £ S 363
Bcnneit G K 238 243
Bryan H L. 190 232 233 236 242
Censbeig C ] 130
235 318
Benson \V 'I 443
C 18j Bullock H A 440 441
Berciier
Bufostead A 7 292
Berg J 4J3
236 Burack U 547
Berkowm L- 171
Btrl^ne D E 803 871 372 aiO Burke Mary L. 321 547
Bernard \ W 439 443 Burks B S 245 230 231
Bernard \V 74 Burlingham 183 D
Bernstein D 186 Bart C 196 243 231 542 345
Bethon Gloria I'll ISa Bunt !I 97 E
Bezdek M E. 452 lal 433 Burus G
413
Biel W C 587 383 Butler R\ 563
B ntcr \ R 151 BuKton £. \V 260
Birch H
O 164 Byen J 1- 410
Bictennan E 543 M
B}< rgen I A. 46 Callantme 51 F 531
Black H 584 Callis R 434
Blackman L 397 399 409 Calvin A D 403
Ba^Vrf N 2i\ 251 154 28BW4 laV Campbell V S 296 299 444
Blake £. 117 143 144 Canning R R 574
Bhesmer P ISa Cannon T M 439 443
Bloom B S, 232 247 Sal 456 546 SaO Cantor *» 866
573 Cantri! H 338
Bios C 423 Carey ] £ t$3 186
Bond A 369 Cailstnitb L 242
Bonney M E. 413 414 Carmichael L. 121 332
Bciroca 574 Caron A J 377 403
Boiitom R N 386 Carr H A 304
Bourne L
E. 317 316 531 532 Carroll J B 163 321
Bouifcid 4V A 66 134 Carson AS 441
Do><l. U 154 Carter >1 D 366
Biacktiilt \\onne 3(6 Carter L F 42)
Bradway Kaihenne P 233 236 242 Carter L 321 322
J
Brame M
D S 192 Canledge C J SCO
Braley I- 5 321 581 582 Case D 192 l94 lOa 202 203 349
Braun Jean 8 531 Cason ii S15 317
Briggs L J 298 301 302 Castenada A
40a
Breese F H 241 212 244 252 435 Cattell R. B 229 234 SaB-SaS
Brenncisc S H 547 Cavan Ruth S 438
Brenner H 5SZ
Brun Clara R 302
Chansk) N 317 318 M
Chapanit A 184 186 2j4
Biiggs L. J in 306 307 327 Chase L. 562 439 445
Bicxlcr l^is } 516 550 Check J 326
Brodie T A 389 Child I L. 362
Bromer J A 387 Chow K L. 167
Brookoier IV B 410 Chown Sheila M 539
Brooks L. O
Brawn G I
503
509
547 Chnsiensen C M 332 SaS Sal
Qaik h B 440
Brown L. 4J3 503 Qatk R \ 234 391 398 410
Brown R
08 202 218 232 302 527 QiBord Clare 410
Brownell W
A 81 112 182 5^7 4/6 Oine V B SSa SaO aaB
Bruce R IV^ J38 J46 CoW» 14 \ 547
Bruner J S 79 101 129 134 Ha 146
150
Coter C S HI H7 322 540
151 172 174 179
211 216 242 2G8 ^80 372 475^75
182 I9I 197 Cogan M I 452 434
Colien I S 407
482 484 466 4&8-431 <95
4J3 49fi Cohen J 154 236
520 521 525 526 552 533 Sal >45
555 Cole D, 2a7 533
 ,

(finnan, S. 'iJ'J'J. UjS •ISO Dienes / 1’ 182 213

J
Collmwn. J I'JI. TO aW Dillon 11 J 2.ri

Cnii^nl. J n. 110. 144 Dnlwcll I’ C rr> 105

Coiutoii. C. 403. SSS Dorn Mifiaiii S 182

Cook. J.
O. S01». 451 Moist) M N 161 478

Conud. II. S. 23'.’ J5I. 212. 243 2I*». 250 Do|)]hIi j E 233
Ctiojxr. IkitiKC. 440. 53T Dfr};er R M 441

CojKUml. L. (X 314 DnsMTlI, 1’ , 280

Coniun, II R 501 .
Diesdahi J L 551 5'i8

Coiiidl. E. U 254. 211

359
Drews llirabclh 'I 2U)
Due! II J 50
Coulwu. J L.. 117. 301. 50J 327
Duncan C 1’ 134 159 409 531, 547
C^jtington. M. V. 5<i0
CoHcii. L. L., 403 Duncan I- M 547
Duntlrr k 500 539 510
Cox. J \\\ 103. 302
Ciaig. R C. 318. 502. 503 Muiiicl 11 B
CramUll. V., 3'i8. 401 Dunn L M 235 267

CionlMcti. U 161 Dutim kathnn 436

J . 103.
D\L Ruih n 230
CtothcT. E. J. 24|, 2 >02 jW
CiDHilcr. N. .\. 300 318 323
CiiiidiricM. R. 5. 550 5o0 Eadcs H 291
Udc) V 481 480
Cukjtr, l_. 33? J
Easietbtuok A 549
CiinniDKluiu, k $. 235. 420 J

CiiniiiiiRiiam. R . 451 Ealon M f 457 531

< utt). C, 31H Lblnnsliaus H 281 321

CiiU). R L.. 433 Etksitand (» 'V 192

LalsoM. k 257
A L 103 111 390 391 392
n. Edwards.
Dai. 439. 442
Eslwaids r 55G 557
Dalicnbach. K M. 115 110. 545
DAnialo. M
5 . 130
telh, k 252 .

D Atiiico, Ecsliom. C II 510

L. A . 425
Uirenticund D 79, 543 ,
Dainrin, Dora, 171. 421, 425
Lifcnnann. Rioka R 201
D’Amltailc. R . 394
DanicU. Jacqueline . 555. 558 M FiRtn. L D. 348
Likenbcrr). D 112 M
Darrow. C \W 522
Eisnian. E, 503. 517
Danes, Doru(lt) K. 302
Dans. A. 252. 430
Eisner, F 554. 558 W 544
fclUnd. D. 192. 194. 195. 531. 543.
Dam. R. A. 112. 150. 182. 252. 281. 489 C. 292
Eli,,. JI
Dam, O L.52‘J
DaHcs. R. .M . 121
Ellis. M. 281, 292
Lllis. N R 250 .

Dearborn. W. I- . 332 408

Liidlcr. N S 250. ,

dc Channs. R . 107. 121 E 185

Liigclinanii, S
dc Crooi, A D 187 .
Engle. TL. 139
dc Jesus, C. 184 D 351 M
Englchart. .

dc Labt), J 430 .
^ English. 11 B. 105. lU
<51. 532
Udl, I'.ana, G M HO. 298. »2, .
Entwislc, Don* R 117, 371 .

Dcmarcsl, R 205 .

Dinms. W. 181. 218, 545 5 c”.!.. .c». 2«. M3. 3«

Dciinc), T, 408, 558 169 192. 218
Enin S. M. 08. 138. 161.
Dcnrlcr, Ixirrainc S 408 504. 550
DctamlKl. M 11.141.358
195. 218. 252 Estes. \V K . 284. 286 288
Dcutscli, M. 183. 185. 180,

371, 439. 440, 442,

530 298 299, 301. 3.8
Deutsche, J. .M . 531,
545. 548
327
Dewey, 401 H 478
J Ew«t. I’. . 169,
dllciirle. Adma. 409 Eysenck. H J 400
Dick. W
540 ,
.

Dickens, Sara L 430

Ditkhoff. J S ,
152
 1

Index
C62

Fawcelt U
P 161 Gardner R W 171 173

Feather N 371 377 T Garreti H E 190 232 233 236 242 245

Fcldhuscn J F 2o5 108 558 253

Felditein 427M Carude R F 139
J
Ferson J E 443 444 Gancens Helen L 139 145 302

Fcstjngcr L 372 Ganenck C M 318 389

Fiedler F E 421 Gasser E D 413
Filicnbaum S 408 Gates A 2 182 296 304
fiWmoie E. A 164 247 Ccllcrmati L W 543 548
Finch F H 231 255 George C 549
Fine Q J 134 Gescll A 178 20a
Finlay G C 140 150 151 197 Cctzels 2 W 256 554 557 56!
Fuhbein M 560 Geicr M T 387
Fisher S C 519 Gibson £ 3
183 191
Fitch Mildred L 569 Gilbert T F 281
Fitu P 549 M Ginsberg R 143 288 299
FiUgerald D 116 117 136 143 144 146 Glaser R 146 147 278 280 298 299 301
154 157 158 160 358 390 392 305 318 327 348 493 586
577 Clare ] A 47 111
TUnderi N A 399 400 454 Clock \! D 229
FUscIl J H 22a 539 OolT R M
439
Fleming Charlotte M 2G0 Goldbcek R A 298 299
Flexher I 256 SsS 5j6 Coldblatl Irene 433
Floty C D 231 282 234 242 241 Coldfarb \B4 W
Folleiiie ] F 328 Goldman A E 52»
Force R C 387 388 Goldman M
420 421 496
Forgut R 11 183 503 Goldman R J |9I 192 194 202 378 379
Forlano G 296 400 404 407
lOHlcr 182 W Goldstein L S 185 532
Frank F 215 257 377 410 Golhn £ S 191
Frankcl E 257 409 Conaaler R C iSa
FiankI n 1 215
Frasc L. T 382
Goodenough Florence U 248 302
Goodlad J 1 264 265
Fraacr C C8 Goodman Vt E 440
Ftedenaon E 187 Coodnow J J 194 19a 520 521 532
Freedman J L 104 560 Goodmn IV R 162 31
Ficeman i S 181 184 231 234 242 245 Cordon H 184 247
247 251 Cordon K 292 294
Freiberp Faira 532 Coss A E 155 136 516
French E
C 571 377 540 Gough IF C 409
French J W
255 2a6 380 Grace Gloria L 382
French R S 138
Cramt A R 121
Frenkel OruniHick Else 400
Grant E I 241
Freud A 183
< real R 236F
Freiberg P S 515
Friedman II 1^ 328
Greenberg H
439 443
Fruiche> F P 112
CswiFAd ¥a\ntia M I'b
CicenFiilF L. P 322 332
Fr) EC 301
GnlTtt Mane 537
Friau M J 532
Crigsb) O 545
Fuller L. J
J 187
Fuisi E Groddiaia N \ 203
J 351
Grocslictk B 371 377
Gtonlund^ £. 413 4H
Gage N L. 11 12 454
Grooms R R 408
Cagn6 R. M
21 131 130 144 152 |,<
Cross M
160 280 298 302 SIS 478 403 L, 584
505 54 Crou \| 425
Caier E L 412
Calantcr E II, 280
Crostack M M 442
CaVUghtt Crete C N 504
J J 25S 266
Crotclueschrn A 1) 137
 1
663
Index

Guilford, J P, 229, 236, 553 555, 560 Hill, D S 101

Gump P V , 458 Hill. K T 408

Gurnee, H 260, 421 .
Hill M C 438 439
Gulhrie, E R 284, 286 Hill, S A , 203
Gustafson, L, 332. 391, 392
,

Hil! W F 365
Guitendgc, V, 191 M Hill, W H 351 .

Hilhx, W A 298
Haber, R N 408 Hindsinan E 402
,

Haer, J L , 443 Hinton, R 248 ,

Hafncr, A J , 408 Hitt. W D ,

556
Hagen, P. E 236 Hobart C 436 437
Hobson, J R 242
,

Haggard, E. A, 229, 240, 409

Haines, A C 424, 425 Hodges A 543 ,
,

Hall, J F, Hoffman, B SS4

117, 265
Haller, A O 436 Hoffman, H N 531
Hoffman L R 280 547
,

Hamilton C E 314 ,

Hamilton, G V N 544 Hogan H P 121 .

.

Hamilton, N R 349 Holm F E 554

,

Hammer, E 558
Holada) P 279
1 ,

Hansel, GEM, 545 Holland J G 142. 299 302 315

Hanson, J. T 435 Holland. J L 555

Haran, H 107
,

llollingshead, A B 438
,

Harlow. H F. 138. 314, 364. 365 Holloway. H D 248

Harootunian, D 543 Holumann W H 444

Hohmger, K J 184 243 247 251
,

Hams. C W. 200, 412. 420

Holiman, P S, 171
Han. F W . 453
Honiim L E H6. 147. 298, 299, SOI,
S18
Hart, 1 . 436, 437
Han, J 327, 495
104
Hartmann, G
J .

391 W ,
Honiik, M P. 238, 239 412

Hartogs, R , 400, 400

Hartshorne, 574 H ,
K;„"bL ”81. 28,, 280 288. 4,8

Martson, L 249 293 296. 502. 312,

,

lIoHand^ C 159,
Hartung, M L, 161
551. 552
321
llarsey, O J , 409
387, 546
Huang
Hasclrud. C M 135, , 502, 503
Huggins.
1 .

W
H . 117
Hastings, J T 580 ,
Hu^es. J L. 181. 248. 348
Hasighurst. R J, 185. 190, 236. 257. 242, 478. 531
Hull. C L. 101. 284.315.
252, 427, 435, 430, 438
Hajgood, R. C. 531. 532
IJunnicutt, C 382 W
Hunt. £ B 517
Ha>thorn, W ,
421
Hunt. J MeV, 173
.

Hazlitt. V 545. 546

Hiirlock. Elizabeth B, 582
Htbb, D O . 183
flusck, T
R 405 ,

Hcidbrcder, Edna F, 170, 478. 543 545 iluttcnlocher. J . 532

Hcinonen, V , 236 C H103
Ilyrant, .

Hendrickson, G 84, 138, 476 ,

480,
Hendrix, C . 80 82. 408, 409. 477. 479. I„l,ddc,. ll. 80. 80
542
490, 493. 501 203 205. 211. 214. 483.
Hcnr), L K 509 ,
Irion. A L.. S05. 314. 315, 321
Heron, W, 183. 3.M. 322 Ininc, R P H .

Herr, S E , 209 Irwm. J. McQ-

Herr, O M. 443 Israel. M I- 302
^
Hcriick, V. E . 2G0 Iscrson, '1 A . 3/«
Hershberger, AV., 315. 332 IMO. L D .
408
Ikss. R 1) 185, 188. 433.

Ilibbs, A. R, 486. 487

Hickc), A. 137
Hilgard, E. R. H. >3* jS“J:T-riS:i73.i92
Hildrelh, G E., 121
Junes F i38 iil kukpatnclc J E. 569
kiiiiil J £ 502 503
James N E 344
Jaws \ U 365 kU« G R 332 3 j9
Jankc U L 190 237 435 Maus I) J 527
Jenkms J G 115 117 2-9 klausmcier J H
233 206 2C0 266 326
Jennings E. 402 408 420
Jtnild A 233 3G8T Klein R 403
John \era E 184 klinebcrg O 181
Johnson C E 257 332 43d 531 klmgcnsmiih S 11 546
Johnson H G 412 kloess P 281 292
Jorcs E. E 391 knoblotJi H 240
Jon» H E 254 242 245 243 231 EiS knocU O 11 432
234 317 Koch tl L 242
Jones. M C 107 121 134 232 234 korika k 113 118 286
Jones R S 500 kogan S Sal 333 358 5d9
Joseph M F 11 300 411 kiMer R 284 286 391 471 500 540
Jost A 294 kohn P \f 371
Judii C H 136 1S2 kotinuamm C A 215 216
Jung C C SCO kookcr E M 369
Joos L 11 142 SsS koofts G Roberu 233
kotihin S )
391
kau Judilli S 531 kounm J S 438 348
kacss IV 298 302 318 ktailiHohl D R Ssl
kagan 1*2 1<S 241 244 5C6 599 400 Krauscf E. E. 500
J
549 kraniu Rhoija S 238
Kahl J A 23? 433 krcUicsski ] 286
kahn M L 436 knicger L
0 297
kalhom J 241 244 knicger 11 C F 29?
kvucr P 436 krug R E 371 377
Uplan S M 406 kniinbolu J D 146 298 317 318
karasik \ 133 136
I}..
kuenne M R 79
kaqilui K 208 209 211 433
197 Kuhlco R G 237 243 233
kaiw S L 192 202 STo 332 345 kum A k 312 332
katkoiski 11 398 401
kacona C III 11$ 138 4*f 500 540 Laws 11 If 80
kau<nint)CT 11 C 406 La«> J 543
kaulinan M 2jC
J
UiW E T 43?
kauslcr \1 E. 377
Lainberi F
109 298 317 318 473
kausmticT J
14 200 Sjy
ka^ 44 121 172
J Ungford T IO3 106 ISs
KciJar F R 136 298 300
Landauer T K 10-1
509 3.,9 386 Eanti Bcaince 403
566
Lamctu J 421
kcll) C„ 443 444
konplcr
J
11 E. 549
Uisoo C E 501 305 303
Lashlc)k 5 286
kcntllei H 14 155 456 191 Laihrop C
T S PJ 191
Laurendcau
11
If
531
Kcppcl C.. 138 M7 223
kCTsh B 1 jQ3
1-akscncc D
162 311 II

1*2
Eajtuck S 254 R
krsscn 11
kciitier N 533 5j4
11
Ijcadtr F 423 D
Kq C. B 184 247
*^h> A M
243 2^0 231
E«- 11 11 546
kiglit 11 R.. 408
teed* C II 453 434
kilian C D„ IO3 Hi
kiUun L. M., 443
Ltgg C 438 E
Kincaid C 2b0 DuroLhf 163 101
king R C, 1J7 2..C 389
Lehman 11 2C< jJa
kuiKlIa 1»
J, l*J 209
Lesser G S 256 2j8
kuk V A l-escnson
1.0 2H 267 IJ
J 409
l*‘withal 1! 172
Index 66S

Lome, J , 191. 349, 390 392. 525, 550 McCuen. J T , 257

LcMt, Grace, 457 McDasid. J W’ 107
Le\itt, E E, 520 MacFatlane, Jean W , 238, 239, 412
Le^vm k, 471. 544 McGee, H M 454
Lewis, M M , 526, 553 McCeehee W 252
Lewis, O, 445 McGeoch, A L 116, 305. 315, 321
Lewis, WD. 252. 256 McGcoth, J A 116 305 315, 321
Liddle, Elizabeth A 182 .
McCuigan F J 405
Lighlfoot. F 244 C .
McGuire, C 255, 555
A M
Lillicnfeld. 242 .
McKcachie \V J 457 580
Lmdholm, B W, 241 McKee. J P 423
Lindle>, E 1! , 544 Mckillop, A S 107, 121
Link. W E 532 .
.MacKinnon 556 558 561 D W
Lippitt. R , 418, 457 McNamara 348 M J
Lippman Frances, 134 McVeil, J D
298 300, 309, 359 ,

Lipset. S M . 437. 443 McNemar O 547 W

Lipsitt, L P . 402 \fc\emar. Q 237
Lipton, Rose C, 184, 383 Macomber, F G 347
Little, J K, 142, 317, 359 McTasish. C L, 281
Litwin. G H . 398 Madcll. T O, 371
R 280. 539, 543 544 547. aaO
Liublinska)a, A A . 135 Maier, N F
Livson, N
. 399. 409
.Mairowitz,B 421 .

Ljung. D O . 232, 236 Mailer, J B 376 424

Llewclijn. Joan E 298 .
Malmo R B 572 .

LIo)d, K E, 531 Malneii, P 526 .

Maluman, 1 503, 540, 547, 560

Locke. E A . 255. 236 ,

G 16 156, 145, 146 161

Lockhead, 287 G R .
Mandier, ,

Loevinger, J , 243. 253

Mann, J H ,
444
Loisellc. R. , 539 H Mannix J B 192
Long, L , 196, 542 544 Margaret. A , 234
Longstreth, L £.410 Marks. J B, 154, 405. 430
Lord. F E , 242 Marks. MR 547
Lorge. 1 , 249. 420 Marquarl. Dorothy I, 420
Lott. A. Marsion M, 188
J . 421
Lott, Bernice E, 421 Marx. M H 293
Loughlin, C 256 Maso, N . 388
J .

Lo\cll, K 192. 194. 197. 202 Matheson, E 543 .

,

Lowe. R C,
215, 550
Mathews. R 134
Lowell, E L , 398 Maw. 4V H . 559
Luchins. A S. 174, 478. 539 Maw. Ethel 'V , 559
Luchins, E. 174, 478 H Maxey. E J 215
,

Lucito, L F, 233, 266 Ma>. M A 302, 574

Lumsdaine, A A . 296, 302, 389 Mayor. J R 139, 144 302
Mead. Margaret, 423
Lundin, R, , 408 W Meadow, A 550
Lunneborg, Patriaa W ,
408
Mech. E V, 318. 365
.

Lunzer. E A 192
Medley, D .M 454
,

Luna, A R . 79
Mcdnick, Martha T.. 560
.

Luther, B , 553, 555

Mednick. S A , 560
L>on. D O, 111, 321, 322
Mcehl. P E. 413
L}sgaard, S, 436
Mcister. M266
R J . 302, 3a9
Mclaragno,
Mabr>. J E,332
Mellinger. Jeanne C„ 409
McCandless, B R . 405
McCarthy, D, 185
Melton, A W.
15, 116

Mendel. Giscla. 407

McClelland, D, C . 398
Mcrnficld, P R . 553
Maccoby, N , 296. 327
McConnell. O L 532 ,

McConnell, R . 112, 499 T

 Index
&G6

Noble C. E. 46 47
MouLk S J 173
\Ie)er S R H2. 318 539 302 oOS Nor0o*t R ] 156
W 518 Nor^oril C A 331
Me)cr J- 236 238
\Ie)CT T- 434 NotlhTop D S 149 332 838
Michael D N, 296 Nortl)t*3y M L. 121

Milgraui S 425 No*ak 3 D„ 842

Miller C A 59 60 123 134
MiUtT J B 377 Oalce* M E. 545 546
Miller K. S„ 441 OaU W F 142
Miller B. \ 267 Oilcn M H 232 242 244 236 257 266
Miller W R 68 218 556
MiUman J 229 OdocD R. D 403
Milton O 262 ODowd D 145
Miiuini 11 Ms Ollenbach S 318 U
Mitchell C B 247 231 Ogihie, 192
Mitiel H 328 434 Ohnmacht F \V 553
Mogar \Iari3nnirU 543 Ojemann R H 215
Monigomer^ Ka^f S&j OBoR U
A 181 243 531 532
Monieasori M^ ]S2 168 261 264 01»cr Rose R 242 32^ 326
Moore O A. 182 184 188 327 OfT D B 328
Moo* D 547 Osborne R T 440 441
Moreno J 1^ 413 Oiler Sonu F 551
Morpheti M \ 179 Osgood C E 62-64 113 115 118 154 136
Mom* DP 413 162 311 332 516 540
Morruett 1. 138 159 531 Otuna J P 182
Mocih J £. <31 Ouihit M C 234
Moter U E. 112 Oiering. R. L R. 138 169 547
Mou n 172 173 368 400 Owen S C 339
Mou J 503 Owen*. M A 372
Mowrer Of! 63 66 67 136
Mo>lan Marie 133 136 PaJcanl. Rjia 258
Mukerji ^ T 420 Page E
B, 280
Munn A L, 134 196 543 544 548 549 Palamuilu N 5a3 Saa
Munra B C 151 Palenno D S 40a
Munungrr 11 |72 Paradise N E 139 144 14a 302
X4urph^ C 390-3J2 Paiier B K 532
Muucn P 11^ Fame* S J 5a0
Muui R. E. 175 Panom T 23?
M)cn C C. 387 420 E
Parindgr D 429
Paiamanick 240 242
^*gSC 3 'V 97 113 Pauerson A» 410
Najarian P 184 PatMm J A 457
SaltamuTa C Y„ 371 Pawl
Sa>lor 3 C, 30G 307
I IE 121 170 173 174
Peak H S69
Nadham M E, Saa 556 338 Icaricwi I_ J72 549
Nfhen \ L. 241 241 544 518
ScpraUi J A., 444
Peel E. A 192
Pendleton R 317 318
Scugatten Beatrice J, 433 438 Penne> R. 383 407
Ne»comb 427 433T P«kina. 11 2a7
Newell A 122
Newman E. B, III U5 117
R E 190 232 233 236 242 243
BaS
Nevman H lU 184
PetcTtoa C \l^ 548
243 251
Newman S. E^ 151
Peterjon H A, 236 281 292 290
Pemion J 388
NcwMrtitr \s 1^ 427
Newton M» 137
Philhpi M
B>, 172 402 423 44a
457
Nichol*. T
J
4, 409 J- ^
87 183 191 197 199 Ml
Nidxt. 3- 254 ^3 2O3 209 214 220 485 a2& 529
Nu«en il M, 187
«7 542 544 546
E.\\,40a
Index G67

Pierce Jones, J , 435, 436 Rcymert M , 248

Piers, Ellen V , 555, 558 Ricc, R E, 410

Pmard, A , 225 Richardson £ L 405
Pines, Ma)a, 182, 184, 188 Riessman F 269, 272 ,

Pinneau, S R , 247 Rigney, J W,318

Pistor, F , 531 Riopelle, A 550 ,

Pitman, J 71 I. ,
Robbins Lillian C 117
Plowman, Lctha, 569 Roberts K E 543, 544
Plumlee, Lunette B 583 ,
Robinson, E S 321 322
Pollic, D
580 ,
Rock. 1 . 46, 284 286 288
Popp, Helen, 302 Roe Anne 298. 349 554
Poppleton, Pamela K , 348 Rt^rs A L 249
Porter, D , 142, 302, 348. 358 Rokeach M 172 409
Postman, L, 97. 114, 136, 138, 287, 387 Rosen B C, 172, 398 435 441, 443
Poulton, E C , 134 Rosenbaum M 388
Prentice, W C H , 388 Rosenberg L , 452, 454 455
Presscy, S L. 142. 266. 267, 298. 300. 317 Rosenthal B C 97 105 115 397,393, 399,
324. 327, 343, 349 409
Preston, Anne, 398, 401 Rosinan. Bcrnicc L 172
Price, B Marion, 556 Ross C C 135 569
Pritchett, K. 215 Rossi E , 525
Probst, C. A , 191 Roth R H 548 ,

Prothro, E . 439, 443 T Rotter. J B 550

Provence, Sally, 184 Rouzer D L 172 ,

Puboli, B 134, 145H .

Rowe, Mary B 519
Purvis, A W., 235 Rowlett, J D 505
P)P«, R. 78 Rude], Rita C 155 ,
J
Ruediger, W G 164

Quackenbush, J F., 555, 558 Runkel. P J 171

Russell D H ,
204, 405 523

Raab, E , 443 Russell. R W .

545. 549

Raaheim, K , 538, 544 Rust. M M 240

.

Rabm, A Ryan. J J
458
1 , 441 .

Rabinowiis, H S , 164 Ryans. D C . 452. 454 455

Ramascshan, R S,235
Rambusch. Nancy M , 182, 188, 264 adeh, I Q . 204, 525

Rankin, R E 549 ,
ckelt. C P. 183
Rapaport, D 191, 525 lu. E. 171
,

Rapp. A 163 ,
nford. R N, 409. 420
Rasmussen Elizabeth A 532 rason. S B 404 405 408
135, 3>*.
Rau, Lucy, 114
,

»enr,lh, J M. 131. IS®.

577, 408. 551

Ray, W
E 503, 540 ,

ngstad. P. 135, 558

Reed, H B 111, 321, 387, 454
ul. E V
,
332
Reed. L. S 134, 145 ,

,
C R408
Reese, H. 408 W ,
wycr,
X, G.
.

182. 318
Regensburg,
J . 256
Rehula, R 287 vegh, Yionne, 248
Rcichard, S. 191, 525
,
andura. J • *38 M
hcnetrki. D . 533. 555
Retd, J. W
, 547

Rcmpel. II 409 , 37S, 379, lOO «.»7,

Rc)nolds, J. E. 136
415. 496. 546 550
Rc>nolds, J. 278, 280 H ,
hlcsingcr. H J .
Rhine. R. , 549 J
hmid. J 280
Ridiards. J. . 555, 550, 558 M hmidt. n o. 382
.

Richardson,
J., 114, 135
Ritscn, A H . 187 hncidcr, U 191. 52a

303
Ricssman, F. 186, 229 387. 397 399.10,.
Reuter. Mary E 372
l;"pSS:-sN-.®79.
,
IMi8

Smcdslund J 151 192 201 2<» 215 225

Schtamoi \V 348
Sdijodet SaO H M 325 530
Schrotdcr \\ 138 H Smith BO 12 13 141 550

Schrom \ 280 Smith C U 459

Schulman M ISs 235 Smith E C 169 4/8
J
SchuU R. 137 255 292 532 Smith 14 P 438
Schutz R C. 13? Smith L M 302 3^9
Schwab J J 349 Smith ME 183
Schuattz R. J 134 503 Smith M H 332
Scon J P 3% Smith S 187
Scott U A 187 388 Smith tv S’?
Scars P S 256 378 3/9 454 Smith \V 547 M
Sears R R 382 Smock C U 173 407
Sebcstax S L 71 SmuU R tv 440 442 444
Scthiesi L
520 631 Snidn B C 215
Scgcl D
234 233 237 2a3 263 Solomon D 383 452 4^4 433
Scidman S B 318 Sommertcld R E 236
SelEndee J A 60 Soncs A M281 292
Setnmes J 187 Sontag L tV 241 244
Senders \ifgmia L 387 Soroker E 413
Seaa M C 191 530 531 Sparki t\ 117 M
Sewell U H 436 Spaulding R 419 432 454 457
Sexion Pauicia C 440 Speer C S 184
Shader L. 1! 532 Spcisman J 580
Shames M H 203 210 Spence K tV 15 16
Shannon D C 206 Spencer R £ 408
Shapiro Sandra L. 531 Spiegel L H 526
Sharpe ] F lOs 106 Spielburger C D 408
Shaw J c 122 23? 421 Spight j B 293
Shaw M E. 420 421 Spiker C C 79 136 4/8 543
Sha> C B 503 309 327 332 35!) Spitz R A 183
ShelTcld F 0 16 290 302 327 Spiizer II F 260 292 502
Shenf
Shetil
C
M
423 424 431 433
423 424 431 433
Spragg SOS 121
SpnngCT ka^la ) 561
Sherman M 184 247 Siaau A tv 63 155 516
Sh pman Sirgmia C 185 Siaais C k 63 133
Shore E. 531 Suce) C L. 503
Shuc) A 249 M Sumer SI \V 547
Shuitlcwortli F K 253 Sunle) J C 472 475 492
Siegel L 171 347 532 Stearns, Ellen 332
Sicpl P S 171 347 532
Stefliie B 436 442
Sigcl I E 172 173 183 191 525 Stem J J 134
Signori E. 409
1
Steinberg H MS 206
Siipola £. M 146 Stcndler Celia B.. 424 423
Silbcrman H t 147 298 501 SO’ 309 Stem C 531
327 328 3j 9 Stem C G 4\7 456 457
Silverman E 298 R Siephcnj tv E 256 317 371 377
Simon II A 122 Stcicns A I_ 142
Suns. % St 81 S*G 377 i21 Sievcmon 11 t\ 80 IO3 106 135 £36 279
Singer S L 172 442 40j 440 478 543
Skaggs E. D 292 297 Stewart E. C 440
Skelton R n |0S Stock / R. 5.>6
Skwls H M 184 247 iAI 2j3 Stoddard O D 279
^ ^ SttJure,
339
UM
157 H4 2M 298 302 3.8

Skodak St.. 217 219 250 253 Stonlahl k £, 333

Slanexka N J, I17 281 Slower N244
Siraiur A 436 a’O
Index 6C9

Strodtbeck, F. L 398 Twining, P E , 116

Strom, Ingrid 163 M , T>ler, F T, 182 214
Stroud, J B. 281, 292, 309, 310. 569 T>!cr L E 241 242 556 557
Suchman, J R , 141. 482 485, 486 488, 490, Tyler R W, 112 489 583
493. 550, 555 Tyrrel S^bil 255
Suet, G J , 62, 64
Suinn, R. M , 406 Udr>. J R, 435
Sullivan E V , 215, 216 Uhlinger Carolyn A 371 377
Summerfield, A, 115
Uhlmann F 171
Suppes, P , 143, 288, 299
Ultman C A 409
J D . 256
Swartz,
Ulmer G 161
Swenson, C H. 139
Underwood B J 25 46, 107, 114, 116, 135
Swenson. E J 112, 499 292 293
.
138 146 287 288
Szuman, S 191
,
Uzgaris, I C 201

Taba, H . 427. 436, 438, 476. 492

Taft, R R , 121, 391, 392
Van Alstyne D 191

Tajfel, H, 172
Van Buskirk C 405

Tannenbaum, P H \ander Mccr A VV 302

, 62, 64
Tasdi, Ruth Vannoy J S 172
J 363 ,

Tate. M
. 547. 548
Van Otmer E B 115

Taylor. P. H, 304, 450 Vernon. P E 190 236

Teeter. Barbara. 172 Vestre N , 405

Ter keurst, A J 142 Vinaeke W E 195 526 550

Terman. L M, 184. 231.

,

232. 238, 241. 242,

Vincent W S 352
Vlandis J 388
244. 252. 253, 256, 257, 266, 556
von Wright M.Sll
Terrell, G
79. 257. 365, 377, 410. 436. 478 J
215. 216. 506. 515, 519.
Vygotsky L
,
S 60
Thiele. C L. 112, 499
525. 529. 530 539
Thisted, M. N , 387
Thomas, S, 371, 377. 410, 549
Thompson Clare W . 233. 234. 238. 242 J E
Wagner,
Walk R D.
318
Thompson, G G 382, 434 ,
183
Thompson. W. R, 183 Walker C C . 298
Thorndike, E L 162, 164, 218. 232. 239 Walker C M .
532
275, 278, 279, 284. 315 Wallace, j 520
Thorndike, R L , 249, 257, 555 Wallace, W \V 578
558, 559
Thune, L E, W.llach, M A. 14S. 280, 554. 5,3
169, 314
Thurstone, L. L 234, 236, 252 Wallen. N E 456
,
,

Thysell, R Walton H. 191. 525

V, 532
Tiedenian, H R , 292 Ualter A A. 121. 332.408
Tirard, Wambatli Helen, 442
J , 457
Todd, F
J, 257. 377, 410 ‘56 229.855. 281. 489
Tolman, E. C 284, 365, 471 ,
229. 314
Tomkins. S S. 405 Ward. L B. 105, 112.
Tomlinson. R M. 98, 503 Warren. J M.
Toohill, N Washburne, N F.
281, 292
Torrance,
.
Washington. R M
E P., 256, 553, 555, 556, 560. 561 382
I k
Tracy, N H 256
VV'atcrhousc. .

Travers, R M W,
.

169, 420. 456, 547 G B. 591. 420

Watson
138, 410
Trawcek. M w 408 Wa“nicg.W 5V, 409,
Weathers. G . 457
,

Trcsselt, M E, 121 444

Trost, Mary Ann, 403 VVebaer. R L. 383'
23-
Trowbridge, M. II 315. 317 Wcchslcr, D . 231.
VVeinbcrg. C ^’8
.

Trump, L
J , 262
Weingold. H P
383
Ttyon, Carolyn
. 428, 429, 432 M War, M M. 80. ‘35, 4/8.543
.

Tulving. E. 532
Tumin. M M ,Ve.J»g. P S 5^
. 443

Twelkcr, p. A, 303, 312, 531 Wcisnian. K ^

 Index
670

AVciss ? 371 377 Wollen k A 287

WoM Sandia R. 531 Wood B D 181
\\ci» 134 532 Woodrow H 138 163
Meibom EL lOa 111 WoodHOrth R S 2al 30d
Mclch L. 172 190 o26 542 544 549 W ooldridge D £ 28:;

MclkowiU Joan 597 399 409 Worcester D A 266

Ucllman B 248 L. Wright J 4W M
Meiner H 191 525 520 542 Wnghtstnan L S 408
iVertham F 439 Wulf F 97
Mcriheimcr M
77 371 377 471 500 540 Wyatt % p 208
\\eunan A C 1G3
ivesuc F R 443 5a Galperin P 216
IVheciCT L R 184 187 247 254 Samamoio K A 553 553 557
Whipple J E 111 YarcoioHcr M ISa 136 138
White R W SGs 307 496 Yatmey A D 298
WhiicBiatth G A 134 Yarrow L.
J 444
Whitlock G II 348 Yarrow Manan R 444
Wickcns U P IG2 Yoakam c A 281
Wienma W
2G0 420 SSa Yongc C D 539
Wiesle) M
436 Young F M 146 366 443
Wilder Eleanor 451 W Youssel M U6 U7 137 143 157 ICO 280
WiUiami C S 5C9 282 290
Williami Jane C C 328 Youu \dclla C
294 293
WtlUatnt J P SOI Yudin L. V92 202 523 532 543
Williams O lOa 184 186 251
Wilson Doroth) 318 7agona s V 173
Wilson Margaret J 183 Zander A. 403
Wilson R C 553 aS4 Zara R C. sSl
WilibanV R T 139 Zax M 408
Winterboiiom M M S9R Zeaman D 236 293 302 318
Wiseman 240S
Zdoiy \i 578 ^oo
W«p4 L 0 419 456 457 ZsglCT E 436
Wukin II D 236 Zillig M
390
Wittenberg R 413 M Ztrobardo p G 408
5SiUf04k M
C 136 144 298 300 502 305 Zimmemun C 1"0 478
309 312 559 405 j 3I
Zutkennan C B 46
Wohlwll J F 191 192 2l3 543 550
Zurcher L A 173
 SUBJECT INDEX

Ability grouping. 260-262 Acquisition, of concepts 509-514 516 517,

diftcrential, 261, 262 523 524
and differential aptitude tests, 261 of knowledge 484
and Dual Progress Plan. 261 of language 82
and Trump Plan, 262 of meanings 47-55, 65-76
Abstract concepts, intuituelv rcstruciureJ. See also Concepts, Concept Acquisition,
213 Knowledge, Language, .ifeanmg
understanding of, 87 Adolescent values, lower versus middle
Abstraction process, 81 class, 436
Abstractions, primary, 198 Adult versus Peer group norms. 43(MS4
secondarj, 198. 200. 201 Adult >ouih alienation, and belongingness,
Abstractness, 525-530 432
Academically gifted, the, 265 cxaggcralion of, 433
8ee aha Gifted children role of peer group in, 431
Acceleration, advantages of, 266 See also Belongingness, Peer Culture,
for gifted pupils, 266 Peer group
implementation of, 266 Advance organizers, pedagogic value of. 149
Achievement motivation, yiS-yil. 397-598 use of. 137
affiliativc components of, 375 use of in learning and rctcniioii, 149
cognitive drive component of, 373 See also Organizers
igo enhancement component of, 375. 376. Age level trends, m
objectivity of thought,
385 544-546
excess of, 400 m problem solving abilit). 545-544
cxiTimic components of, 386 See aha Frohlem solving. Thought
and nonsalcllization, 397 Anchoring ideas, clarity of, 132
parent child relationship in ile\ciopmcnt relevant. 107
of, 398 stabilu) of. 132
satclluation, 397 Animal learning. 16
See also Motivation, Satclliraiion, Cogni Animiun, defined. 546
live drive, Ego cnhanccmciK Anxict), and crraiiticj, 558
Adiicvcmcnt tests, and B,SCi> versions effect of on learning, 401, 405-407
comcntional, 577 effect of on school acliicveiHent. 407
emphasis on spcccli in, 585 and iniclligence, 403
to evaluate new curriculum, 577 and f Q 4C8
.

validity in. 576-578, 581 inotivalional effects of. 408

See also Tests, Test Scores, Testing ncuiotic. 403-403
Acquired meanings, and second language nonnal versus ncuiotic. 401-403
learning. 72-79 orgin of neurotic, 403
See also Second language learning and problem solving, 549

671
 8

Index
C72

173
Bota.(ey Audiorttarianum Scales
\twicty («nO
See alio luthoniarianism
and programmed insiruclion 403
Biology leaching of 311 S34 3j 6
and s<d>ool learning 401-403
Biological Science Curriculum Studies
and self esteem 401
C3») 335 534 349 5o2
and tc*i perfonnance aSO
also CrcaliMiy Intelligence IQ blue scTMOn of 33a 339 340 342 3a0
See
Problem soUmg Programmed iiuinic 5a3 3a4 3o6 577
Comprchcnsite Test 577
non School achicsemcnt
\pplicd approach 'ersus basic science i&'20
and Cooperative Biology Test 5/8
esaluauon of 577
\rin> \lpUa tesu 232
Assimilated iiiaierials dissociabiliiy sUcnglh green version of 33a 840 342 3a0
o( 104 yeftow tetsiotv of 535 339 542 3 j0 3j 3
\s5itnilaUon 89-104 Sa4 3a6 577
ol abstiauand factual tnaicnals fOl lOi
and cognitise organization in childien California Psychological Inventory 409
103 101 Causality ideas of 54a
and derisaiive vcriui corrclaitve sub Child deviiopment 160
sumption lttl-101 See also Readiness
and effect on retention 92 ptoposiiion 217 218
( hild superiority
explanatory salucs ol 0&-92 thesis 216
and induction and deduction process 103 Children bright vtriu* dull 234-23a
103 nicnully retarded 242 207
anl learning versus reuntion 9^100 Chunking. tO 61 123
and memorial reduction 93 93 def ned 59
obliterative sUge of 92 CUasroom climate 417-420
principle of 89 CtawoosD kasning cognitive fatioit in 127
pioa-si 99 118
Mgnuise Mtuciure saiiables in 127
theory 11
ikdine of 9 10
See cUo Lcaniing; Men onal rtduaion tailors influencing 26
Obliterative asvmiilaiion Ketcntion Ians of 15
liiitudinal bias 390-393
psychology oj 37
\udiulingual approach 73-79
See oho Learning- Learning by discovery
Autlioiilarianiim 403 403
Learning lasks Learning variables
adolescent mponscs to fl7
Cognitive ability levels of 236
and dogmatism 403-409
sex dilTcrcnus in 242
in education 490
devciopiucniat change in 206
effees est «s B csvtal Iwaltlv U>
gruiiy <r Cognitive content and conapiual tinns
iiicoi 419
lit Sew Zealand 417 413
519-520
Scales Berkeley 173 Cognitive development abstract stage of
Av»tc«Ti4\«d t«av>nng dmcci 147 87 aw
See alio Tcacliing madiinc loncqjt asuniiUtion in 527
\ulotiia«td insuuttion 317 323-5_j eotiicpl foTtnauon in j27
luioncmous discovery versus guided dis concrete abstractdimension of 198-203
tostrif 501 conuivc miuiiive SUge of 212
wailal lint K-su of 100 and cuftural diprivation 18Z
\»crsi>e moiivaiion {ire Moutatun) dtdatuc instruction m role of 216
general 20C
Ballard Uilliaii s pheiiot laion
gsowth in 206
lOj
BaiUctts Ucoty of inrmoty prc-nperational stage ui IJ3
1”0-JS and readiness 17>-221
Basic science rcscardi 17
Basic sumce versus applied transition from conailc to abstract 224
apptOMh IG-^ ire alK» Concept acquisition
Bchatioial terms sjjcurcaiion Concept as-
of ubicc siiuilaiion
Vtses in 3il
* Concept formation fnu-l
icctual devilopmt-ni Readiness
Belief ivstcnn open dosed diBii-nsion
Cognitive tJrive 367 5f8 371
dcselo/mt-nt ol HG 447
Ikfongjngi ess 278 Z'O 239 330
and meaningful learning 367
Index 673

Cognitne drive (coni) Combustion, theories of 7

potential centrality of, 367 Common sense and educational ps>chology,
See also Learning, Meaningful learning. 7, 8
Communication, effective 338 339
Motivation
Competition, adverse consequences of. 425
Cognitne functioning, abstract 192, 205
child s level of. 212 and cooperation, 423-425
computer models of, 122. 123 and personality 424
conceptualization for, 506, 517 Computer assisted instiuction, 264
concrete. 192, 20S-219 Computer model theoretical value of, 122
concrete to abstract, 203 , 219-221, 528, Concept acquisition, abstraction in. 525
542 developmental aspects of, 523-525
differentiation of, 189, 190 factors influencing 539-532

intuitive level of. 208-219

influence of experience on. 530-531
influence of sex on, 530-532
and language, 79-82
role of concepts in, 509
and irrelevant information, 532
prevcrbal, 80 and language 521-523
See also Concepts, Intelligence, Language and relevant information 532
sequential stages in, 517-519
Cognitive process, 63 516-517
iheorctical views of
Cognitive readiness, 177-190
Concept assimilation 511, 512, 527-529
Cognitive structure, anchoring ideas m, 57. 5*4-516
518 versus concept formation.
132. 519, 527-
and cntenal attributes, 50
Concept formation, 510. 511, 512,
deliberate manipulation of, 148 529
categorization in, 518
established ideas m. 156. 157 524
hypothesis testing aspect of,
hierarchical organization of, lOS
and problem solving, 512
influence of practice on. 274
m problem solving propositions. 518
and influencmg substantive factors, 150-
strategies in, 520-521
152 514-51
versus concept assimilation,
lateral transfer in, 131 Concept assimila*
See also Assimilation,
negative transfer m, 539
lion. Problem solving
new propositions in, 103 508
Concepts, as abstractions,
in problem solving, 533 539
acquisition of, 505-532
relevant anchoring ideas in. 133
learning. 146 assimilaied, 529
stability, effect of on new 520
classification of,
subsumers in. 158 cognitive functioning. a09
and transfer, 127-174
m
conjunctive, 520
vertical transfer in, 131
Problem solv criienal attributes of. 50
See also Anchoring ideas.
in culture, 508
Transfer, Transferability
ing.
disjunctive, 520
Cognitive structure variables, central
roe
meaning of. 50
of. 512
nature of. 505-503 ,,r -17
cumulative effects of, 139 neobthavioristic views of.
5l0-al/
and curriculum rcfonii inovcinenis.
IW
problems in use of. 509
influence of, 132 reality of. 507, 508
long term effects of, 140, 142 relational. 520
long term studies of, 139 rotcly learned. 50
principal, 130-133 systematic instruction m. 515
in.
programmed learning techniques
use of. 505-532
versus readiness, 133 scndicality of. 507
and structure of knowlcd^. ways of acquiring,
500-513
Readiness
See also Curriculum. ways of using. 5K^5I3 Con«pl
Cognitive st>lc, 170-174 0
to ,1., >sn,t..c tuncuomn,!. Ro>c
aspects of, 171 Ncol»h,..or.,n,.
and doginalism, 408 learning
storage of infonnation m,
w* -3-,
Concept Maiuiiiy Tests.
variables of, 170 ncobchaviofistic view
^nccpiual behavior,
Cognitive variables. 569 ^ of. 517
Combinatorial meanings. j3
674
Conceptual leiws and cogniUvc eontini.
519-620
Conccptualmng operations, increased await
ness of 527-629
Concrcie-anpitical cxpciience. 103
child s dependence on, 524
Concrete empirical props, and
opcrauonal child, ^1, 203
depetuleticc on. 200. 208 220
in readiness programs, 269
Conditioned sensory responses,'
Conditioning process 63 00
Conformitv adolescent. 427-429
and inditidualuy 423--430
Consersation of memory,' 496. 497
Conswncs and fluctuation causes of 259-
241
Contiguity and set 652
Coniroscrsial materials, and
bias. 390 392
forgetting of 392
learriing of. 389. 391
organiicri in learning of. 390
organizers in retenuon of. 393
See 4(i« Advance organusn, Learning.
Organizers
Cooperation and competition 423-426
Cooperause Biology Test 578
Counseling 10
Creause poteniialiiy, aisesunenu of. 534
cunosuy as index of, 339
of gifted chiidrat, 530
idcntificauan of 558-359
measure of, 539
realization of 661
See also CfcaviMis, Cilted ihiWren
Creauiity, 331-662
and academic achievement. 56fr437
and anaiciir, 538
"demoaatic" definition of. 560
and divergent ihinVmg. 553
encouragement of. 334
and cnviroiimcni, 552, 655
HcKhert measures of, 566
ftnicring of in the school.
and gcncralil). 580
and inirlligcnce.
555-466
and I Q 566 559
personality cocrcUlcs «{. 657-55«
poicnUatily (or. 553
and pTobkin volvvng 653-662
in scliool. S69-5C2
and vtliool grades. 566
as sulniantive capacity
653, 554
vuppoilive aspects oj, 660
supportive eognitivc miciva
of. 558
luppottivc cortclatca of. 664
Creattvity (cont)
supportive measures of. 556
supportive traits of. 555
teaching for.' 560. 561
lesU, 555 556, 558
See oho Anxiety. Creative potenuahty.
conacte lottUigenfe. IQ. Problem solving.
Tesung: Tests
Critical periods/ hypothesis, 188
phenomenon, 188
65 Cvuseiuire tods. 269
Culturally deprived children. 267-272
and cogoiuve dcvelopmciti, 169
cc^itive environment for 268
compensatory educational arrangements
for. 272
efleeme learning for. 268
imrllcciuat development of. ISS. 272
intellectual deflpt of 208
atutudinal Isn gij^e reiardauon in, 184, 186, 269, 271
mouvation of. 445-448
orientation to language of, 166
preschool enrichment for, 2C!>
readme^ of. 270
stigmatuing ellecu of. 272
teaching strategy for, 268, 270
testing of, 560
unreadiness in. £69. 270
See «Uo Cognitive development, Intel
lectual development. Language, Mott
vation. Readmeu, Retardation
Culture of poverty. 445
Cunsculum. approach, single unit versus
ntegraicd. 353 354
breadth ol 221 224
evaluation. 357, 358
miuittvely oriented, 209
niaicnals. preparation of, 352
planning, prmuples of readiness in, £0
refonn. 549-359. 498-499
spiral." 209
l>avii-EelU “culture fair" test. 233
Ucciuon location test, 175
Dcmotrauc" disapline, 460-454
669 Denotative mcaiungv. 03
Dependent probabilities, 00
Deprivation. cHcas of, 247-218
See efu) Culturally deprutd tinidtert
Development deliut. cumulative nature
of
189
Dewey. John, and account of stages
in
thinking, 541
and preference for problem-solune
ability, 474
Ihdaciic teaching, 215
DiffeTenital aptitude icvlv. 261
Oilfcrcniiaf piaaice schedules, 307-309
 675
Index

407-408
Dogiiiatism, and authoritarianism,
Discipline, defined, -159
dcmocraiic, -lOO-KH
and cognitive stvle 403
and opinionated scales 172
(unitions of. •159, 4G0
See also \uthoritananism
posiinc’ forms of, 461
Drill.309-312
See aLo School discipline
connotations of 309
Discover), act of, 476
length of 310
and “conservation of memory,' 496-497 structured
See also Practice
as generator of motivation, 49J-495
confidence, 49S—195 Drive reduction, effects of. 385
as generator of self
ilullian emphasis on 284
inilucncc of on rctciuion. 496
and reinforcement 384-386
meaningful, role of guidance in, 302
Dual Progress Plan 261
in organizing learning, 491-493
overemphasis on, 357 approach to 32
as source of intrinsic motivation, 495-490
Fducation. child centered
function of. 15
in trial and error learning, 301
for Advancement of
266
See also Motivation, Learning Lund
primal) goal of 484-488
Discovery learning, 54-55. 82
ps)chological principles m, 8
meaningful, 55, 533
ps)cliologica! theories 7m
rote, 535 458-445
racial factors in
versus reception learning. 22-24 32-54
responsibility for directing
See also Discover). Learning, Meaning 435-438
and social class stratification,
ful learning; Reception learning of Negro chil
Eduuiional achievement
Discovery method, 220. 301. 471-473. 481-
dren, 440-441
484 bo)8 442
of Negro girls versus
advantages of, 472
tilucaiional Development,
Iowa Test of. 556
and curriculum reform. 493 objectives, determination of.
Educational
educational rationale of. 471
empirical support for, 499 ps)chological
Educanonal practice appl)ing
enthusiasts of, 493
principles to. 6
and ‘heuristics of discover).'* 488
influence on, 11
highl) structured, 493
truisms in, 7
inspirational values of, 494 as applied saencc.
Educational ps)chology.
m learning outcomes, 473
9
motivational virtues of. 494 sense, 7. 8
and common
and Ohm's law, 470 generalizations in, 19
p$)chological rationale of. 471. 491 for prospective
teachers, 4
and problem solving, 469, 470 researcli strategy m,
14-20
m problem solving techniques, 473 as a saence, 4
rationalized, 489 subject matter of. 9
3-34
research on, 497-504 role and scope of,
movement of, 337
role of progressive education single principle
in, 468, 469 Tliomdikian, 309
psychology. 8. J
and scientific method, 470 versus
15
lime cost consideration m, 473 Educational research,
time cost factor of. 500 applied level m. 19
of. 482
time consuming disadvantages r»„rch
reform. Learning,
See also Curriculum
Motivation, Problem Solving 347
Educational television.
Discussion versus lecture, 456 role of drill m,
104 Filucational theory,
Dissociability strength, convergent current
S^Suonal thought,
Dissociation equilibrium, 97
291-^5 uends m, 28-34
Distributed practice,
29a Effect law of. 471
facilitating effect of, 292. communication, 33^339
effect of, 294 Effective
immunizing biology, 339
291 in elementary
versus massed practice, 338
writing style in.
See also Practice
 Indt^

Feedback (conf)
Ejnstcllung test 174 318
role of >n tncanmgful learning.
Ego-'uliancetncnt, J7>'379 Program
See afro Sutomaicd instruction.
drive exetsv of. 400
advantage* met] invtruction
Ego-«iliaiicemem nionvaoon. of
378-3<9 Forogii language learning advanuges
anil dijadvanugw of,
adult* in. 219
comfKliUDii a» fonn “f*
See alio Second language learning
cilicao of 377
Foigeiiing. amount of. 116
Ve flfw Mcitivation
assimilation theory of 118
Emotional psvtliolog> and uuntnon sen**, 7
during inter trial rat*. 294
EndocTinologv 146
Gestalt theory of. 97. 118
Fjitithnvcnv 26S'"67
interference theory of. 115
clTcclv of 246 249
prior. 282
for gifltrtl pupil* 206
psychoanalytic theory of, 1^
pituiiool 'J/i
rotely learned material, 116
See aba Gifted diildrcn
Culturally sourer* of. lOG, 107
Lnviioiuenial deprivation (see
deprived children) of superordinaie learning. 95
theonc* of 295
Equilibration defined, SOS
of 570-57S
Fioqucncy. 275-291
EMluaUon abut**
limiiatioru of 570'57S as condition for meaningful learning. 2S5
evaluating role of, 2S4
nvvvuvc of 673
priTiian putpove of, 567 in inecmentcd learning 287
influence of 284-289
ptvncpie* of 0C5-689
lave of. 275
purpov* of 5O6-07O
leanUnu to S67 atvd learning. 278-260

uudent learning in 566 in learning and retention. 275, 284, 288

Exifuiicn)Darwinian theory of 132 333 meduivon of. 284

Lamarck* tlieorv of 132 and tetcniion, 260 283
thcoTve* of 7 and tote teaming. 277, 288
Thorndike experiments m, 278
Exaniination content of 563
See afro Qclongingnesv. Learning Mean
tontctvte luntmon of. att>
mgiol learning. Retention. Rote learn
eviav 333
fet-dbati from 569 vng
at learning npenence 569 Fund for Advancement of Education. 266
objective 569
orat. 538 General inicttigencE, indvvtdual test* of. 241
Exceptional cliild faciliuev for 490 K-x Jiffrtenccs m. 241
ExpovKori' organiien (vee Organitcr*) lest* MXirn of. 239
Ex(xniior> leaching authonuriamun of Ccneratiniion method, 499
49(M91 504 Generic tncaning, nature of. 513-516
divenihantment Midi 84 Cesult ilicory. 118-120. 286. 471
method of. 63 Gilud children accelcratiort of, 2%
mivuvcv of 63 creative poieniialitic* of. 559
verjuv independent ducover^ 501
encvihmenv for. 2Wi
Exlrmvic motivation <ver Motivation) See alio Creaiivil); Enrichment
fj.trnicTuoii coll of. 412-413 Ctaphcioe photictnc coftespondence*. CO, 71
Croup-cenirrctl approaciics veriu* teacher-
Eavt learner vcriui dove learner. 107 octented approaches. 457
rredback. 315-519 Group dynamia. 10
in autuaated invifuction, 317 Group effort versus individual 420-
effort.
tognivive avpeiti of. 336 421
cognitive elfccii of. 316. 317 Group experience, individual oricnuiion
laulitaiing edecti of. 316 to 422-423
at practice variable, 310 va nonvatclliter. 422
and programmed mvirvctioii, 319 divadvancagn of. 260
relative frequency of. 318
CroMtit. indtvidual, 237-241
 677
Index

Intellectual ability (cont )

Guidance, 301-305
I Q as measure of 226
most efficacious type of. 504
progressively differentiated 237
Guided discotery, 503-504
tests of. 233
method of, 503
Testing, Tests
\crsus autonomous discovery 304
See also IQ, Test scores
Intellectual development abstract logical
versus reception learning, 303
stage of, 202

effect," 140, 141. 348. 357, 498.

accelerating stages of 214-216
Hawthorne
499
and American school systems, 194
concrete operational stage in, 199
Hcreditanan position, 253
developmental transition in 205
Heredity, environment of, 243
disagreement on stages of, 193
influences of, 243
fluctuations between stages of, 193
'
Heuristics of discovery,” 488-489
444 448 general stages of 191-198
‘
Higher Horizons Project '

general theories of 191

and manner of achievement, 193
Ideational systems, 103 of. 194
Piagets age levels
Implicit behavior, effective, 62 stages of 192, 193
and Piagets
motor, 62
qualitative changes m
196
Incremental theories versus nomncrcmcntal
and schooling 186-187
theories, 286-289 systems, 194
420- and Swiss scliool
Individual effort versus group effort. timetable of 197
421 with 29-31
Intellectual training concern
Individuality and conformity. 425-430 Intelligence, and anxiety, 408
Individualization, 264-265
and oeauviiy 555-556
Individualized instruction. 262 developmental changes in. 231-241
Inference theory, 115-118 and family size 254-255
Information, inelevant, 532 growth of 190, 252
relevant, 532 growth curve of 251-234, 241
536-
theory, 517 influence of on concept acquisition.
Inquiry, overemphasis on, 357
Inquiry Training Program. 488, 490, 492, influcnce of heredity and environment
493, 550, 555 in. 243
Insight, emergence of, 536 nature of, 225-230
Gestalt emphasis on. 500 organization of, 229-230, 235
nature of, 536 plasticity of, 189
premature verbalization of. 540 as predictor of academic achievement,
process versus product in, 536. 557 255-258
and thinhiiig, 540 quantitative, 190
unrcportability of, 537 soaal class differences in, 252
verbalization of, 501
Instances, array of. 532 verbal, 190
heterogeneity of, 531 and vocational success, 257
acquisition,
positive versus negative, 531 532 See aho Anxiety. Concept
General miclligcncc Test
Instruction, automated, 323-325 Creativiiy.
computer assisted, 264 scores. Tests _
229, 25-
individualization of 203. 204. 35a-337 Intelligence tests. 226, 228,
preconceptions of 335-337 compoMte scores on. 236
verbal, techniques of, 84
preschool, 238
value of. 229
Instructional aids, 342-349 -jj. -58
Intelligence lest score*. 190. 227,
Inviructional materials. 320-339
and aJvanang age. 23«
interna] logic of, 328-330
gains m. 232
picparalion of, 357
scaled, 232
Intellectual abihiy. 223-258
variability in, 243
aiul adoI«ccncc,
230-237
See aUo Test scores
and ’core cumculum.' 237 Intention lo remember. 337-588
23‘»-272
individual difrcrcnct-s in.
 Index

Feedback (fonO
EjusltVlung vcsl, ,
learning 3l»
role of in meaningful
fgo inhaiicemcnt. STJ-ayu Program
See also \utomaied instruction.
J[i\e excels oi, 400
inoM'aiion. ad\ania{^ med imiroctjon
adsaniages of
eti. S1&-S»9 Foreign language learning
and disad^aniagcs
of^ ^23 adults in, 219
comptiition as form learning
See also Second language
efficacy of 377
For^ling amount of, 115
’ice also Moiisation
common sense. 1 austnilaison theory of. US
Emoiional ps^cltolog) »"<!
Endocrinology 14G
during inter trial rests 294
Ckxlafl theory of. 97. >19
Ennchtneni. 'i6S-^7
interference theory of, 115
tffccu of 248. 249
SM prior, 282
for gifted pupils,
picscliool 2Q9 psychoanalytic theory of. 122
rntels Icatncd material. 116
See aliO Ciflcd children
Ensironieiiul dcpriialion {see Culturally sources of. 106, 107
depiiicd children) of superordmate learning, 95
Equilibration defined, 205 theories of, 293

Eialuaiion, abuses of 570-573 Frequency. 275-291

litniutions of. 370-573 as condition for meaningful learning, 2S5
misuse of, 573 esaluating role of, 284
peiiiiary purpose of, 507 in inaunented learning. 287
prinapln of 5G3-S&3 influence of. 284-289
puspoxs of, 5^^370 law of. 275
misiance (o 557 and learning 278-280
sludcni learning in, 503 in learning and rcieivuon. 275, 284. 288
Eioluiion, Oanrinun ilieory of |32 353 mediation of. 284
EaniaTiits theory of 132 and retention, 280 283
tbcotici of. 7 and rote learning, 277, 286, 263
Examiiiaiion conicnt of 558 Thorndike expenmepts in, 278
corrictisc tunciion ot. 509 Set also Bclongingnt^. Learning. Mean-
cssav 589 ingful learning. Retention. Rote learn
feedback from 509 ing
»s learning experience 56‘> Fund lor Adtancemcni of Education, 266
cilijeciiie 569
oral 583 General isielligcncc. inditiduat tests of, 241
Exccpiional child facilities for 4!l0 sex differencei in. 241
ExpOMiors organitcra {see Oiganiurs) lesU scores of 239
Ex|iosiiory leaching authonutianism of Ccncralitaiion iiiciliod. 499
4CKM91 504 Generic meaning nature of. 513-516
ihsrnchaninicni hiUi 84 Ccstalt ihcory. 118-120, 286. 471
method of 83
Gifted children, acceleration of, 266
misuses of. 95
crraiisc Jioteniialiues of, 559
•ertcr# rmA^Knefenc iftscDsery
sqj cnriclimcnt tor, 2C6
Extriiiiic molnation <iee Motivatson)
See also Creatnityt Enrichment
fxtrrnersion. cull of. 412-413
Crapiicme phonciiii correspondences, 69. 71
Croup ccnitred approaches sersus teacher
Fast learner snsut slow learner 107 oriented approaches. 457
FcedhaiV. 315-319 Group dynamics. 10
m
auiuniaied instruction 31?
Croup effott verutv txsdixid'Ail. 42!l-
cogmiivc asfietli of, SS6
421
cngiiitise cffecu of, 316, Sly Croup experience, individual oricnialion
{atihutmg enecii 316
ol.
to 422H23
as practice satiable, 316
i« nonsatelliKr. 422
and programmed msiructiori, 319
disadiaiitagcs of, 260
lelatisc ftequeno of. 318
Growth, individual, 257-211
 )

Index 677

Guidance, 301-303 Intellectual ability (cont

most cflicacious t)pc of, 504
Guided disco\cr>, 505-504
method of, 503
sersus autonomous discosct>. 304
versus reception learning, 303
•Haivthome effect.” 140, 141, 348. 357, 498.
499
Hcrcditanan position, 233
Hcrcdii), environment of, 243
influences of, 243
‘
Keurtscics of discovery." 488-489
“Higher Honzons Project,"
Ideational systems, 103
Implicit behavior, effective. C2
I
Q as measure of 226
progressively differentiated, 237
tests of. 233
See also I Q , Test scores. Testing; Tests
Intellectual development, abstract logical
stage of. 202
accelerating stages of, 214-216
and American school systems, 194
concrete operational stage in, 199
developmental transition in, 205
disagreement on stages of, 195
iluctuations between stages of, 195
444. 448 general stages of 191-198
general theories of. 191
and manner of achievement, 193
Piagets age levels of. 194

motor. 62 and Piagets stages of. 192, 193

Incremental theories versus nonmaemcntal qualitative changes in. 196
theories, 286-289 and schooling, 186-187
Individual effort venus group effort. 420- and Svwiss school systems, 194

421 timetable of 197

Individuality Intellectual training, concern with, 29-31
and conformu> 425-130
Individualitation, 264-263 Intelligence,and anxiety, 408
Indmdualiied instructiort, 262 and creativity, 555-556
Inference theor), 115-118 developmental changes in, 251-241
Information, irrelevant, 552 and family size, 25'^235

relevant, 532 growth of, 190, 232

thcor), 517 growth curve of 231-234, 241
influence of on concept acquisition, 550-
Inquny, overemphasis on, 357
532
Inquiry Training Program. 488. 490, 492,
influence of heredity and environment
493, 550, 555
in. 243
Insight, emergence of, 536 nature of, 2^230
Gestalt emphasis on 30Q
organization of, 229-230, 233
nature of, 536
pjastiaty of. 189
premature verbalization of, 540 as predictor of academic achievement,
process versus product in, 536, 537 255-258
and thmlwing, 540 quantitative, 190
unrcportabdity of, 537 soaal class differences m. 252
verbalization of, 501 tests of. 580
Instances, array of, 332 verbal, 190
heterogeneity of, 531 and vocational success, 257
positive versus negative, 531 532 See also Anxiety, Concept acquisition.
Instruction, automated 323-325 Creativity, General intelligence. Test
computer 264
assisted, scores. Tests
individualization of, 263, 264 335-337 Intelligence tests, 226, 228, 229, 232
preconceptions of 335-337 composite scores on, 236
Verbal, techniques of. 84 pres^ool 238
Instructional aids, 342-349 value of, 229
Jnsiruciional materials, 320-359 Intelligence test scores, 190, 227, 235, 233
internal logic of, 328-330 and advancing age 238
preparation of, 357 gains in. 232
Intellectual abilit). 225-258 scaled. 232
variability m, 243
and adolescence, 236-237
and “core curriculum,’ 237 See also Test scores
individual differences in, 259-272 Intention to remember, 387-383
 Index

lavfS, 283. 294, 297.

328
Iiueiferenee. proactive, 116
Josis
itiToatiive, 116
Miowlcclgt acquisition of. 484
theory, validity of, 116
Inugraiivc reconaliation, convpartirtental as end m
twelf. 31

uaiion in 156 as goal of education, 484

organizers in furthering prinaple of 157 meaningful 476
in programming instrucuonal material. of results {see Feedback)
kuhimann Finch Test. 253
155
•Internal ripening," 195
Inira material organuation 331 Laboratory, role of m
saence 345
Intnnyc moiivaiion (srr Motvvauon) Lan^age acquiring of, 521^23
Intuitive learning, advantages of, 183 and cogftitisc functioning. 79 82
generalit) of. 211-212 and oriccpt acquisition. 521-523
premature instances of, 213 organized behavior in. 79
specificity of, 211-212 spoken, ‘natural speed rendition of.’ 78
See also Learning and thought 539-540
Iowa Test of Educattonal Ucvciopnicnt 536 Language learning ability, of adults. 218
Inelevant sntormaiiorv (see Intormiiion) of chitdren. 218
IQ. 187 227 229, 237-239 215. 24<) 530- Language retardation 184-186
531 aspects of adult child comniunicaiion m,
and achievement 433 IS5
of American high school populauon 255 and lower class parents, 185
of children of East Tennessee mountains, Law of Ifiax 471
248 Law of I'rcquency {see Frequency)
constancy of, 238. 239, 241
Learning. 370-572
correlations between parent and child anchoring ideas in,I33-M2
249
attiiudioal effects on 39]
and CTcalivit). 226 533
43-44
conceptual
ciiiciwii of 2Z6
discovery. 54-55
diVTimmatile changes in 245
cffccu of anxiety on 405-407
cnoi of, 238
effect of frequency on. 287
lluciuauons m240 241
cnvitorU'icni, 8
of foster children, 250. 253
experiences, 8
gams in 241 242
Ccstali formulation of 284
oi gilied bo]s 433
of Hawaiian children. 218
group and social factors m 4I&-448
and hcrolitarian posiuon Cuihrian contiguity single trial ' model
250
of. 284
increases in 244
incrcmnital conception of, 286
instability of. 240
influence of rewards on 379
losses in 241
tnuinsic nvouvaiion for. 446
measured change in. 24G
meaningful 45-47, 50-51
of menially rnarded preschool cbililrtn
motivational factors in, 363-393
248
motivattonal onentatton to, 395-401
movlifiabiliiy of. 245-246
of Negro pupils 441
nature of. 20
Ronftequentry coniepiioiu of. 284
in problem solving 548
progrcisue decline in, 246 ouioomes. 275. 473
paired assoaalc. 41, 286-288
progrnsivc inacascs in 246
of rural children. 254 personality factors m. 394-415
scores 23<t-23J ijl
premature. IBI-I83
prinuplcs of, 5, 10
of StottLih children, 253
problems. 8
of Soiiihrrn Negro ciiildrcn, 24?
properties of 8
as status symlxil 581
propositional, 43-f4, 5I-55
tests 227, 229
of (Wins. 251
and putuvhmciii, 380, 381
reception discovery dimension of.
Irreversibility, mechanisms mcdiaung 1«7- 301
tepTtscniauonal. 42. 47-51
set, 313-315
Index 679

Learning (con() Dstening accelerating rate of, 328

subordinate, 53 Logic and thought 537
subsumptirc, 52 Lower class children behavior of 437
superordmatc, 53 values of 437
symbolic, m cognitisc structure, 136
theoretical dcrclopmcnts in ps>cholog) Manipulative variables 11

of. 284 Massed practice {see Practice)

theories of. 12 Matlieniatics. University of Illinois Com
theories of sersus theories of teaching mittee. 481
11-14 Maturation, concept of 177
t)pes of. 20-26 internal ripening theory of, 181
socabular), 48-50 lack of 178
sthole rersus part, 305-307 proportions of. 177
See also Anchoring ideas, Anxict> Dis actual, 44, 43
cosery learning. Frequency, Gestalt Meaning, denoutivc versus tonnoutivc
theory. Meaningful learning Moiisa
62-64
lion
logical 44-45
Learning by discoiery, 467-504 and meaningful learning, 37-82
and conservation of memory. 496 niediational theory of 63-64
consideration of time and cost in. 481 nature of, 37-45
educational limitations of, 473-497 ntobehaviorisuc theory of, 62-67
historical antecedents of. 467-471 phenomenological 44-45
and problem solving. 463-484 potential. 44
and progratnnicd instruction 493 propositional, 66-67
psychological limitations of 473-497 psychological. 40 44-45
subvcrbal awareness in, 477 relationsliip of to meaningfulness,
37
and verbalization, 477-480, 501 selective emergence of, 106
See also Discovery. Discovery learning of a sign. 62
Discovery method. Programmed in
theories of, 37
struction: Problem solving versus meaningfulness. 46-47
Learning processes, meaningful, 108-109 V^Meamngful learning, and acquisition of
rote, 10^110 knowledge. 58-62
Learning set, as condition of practice, 314 assimilation theory in, 114
affects of, 144
cognitive development in, 1/5
problems, transfer in, 138-139, 312 cogniiivc structure in, 128
warm up aspects of. 314 condition of, 37—11
‘
Learning shock," 105 developmental aspect to. 204^
Learning tasks, components of, 58 development readiness in, 175
difficulty of, 323 effects of cognitive variables
on, 370
internal logic of. 328 effect of repetition on, 280
internalizing of, 58 evidence of. 110, HI
potential meaningful, 46, 107 goal of, 46
sequential arrangement 159 in, 108
learning and retention outcomes
of,

simplification of. 311 and meaning, 37-82

relevance of, 10 and problem solving methods, 23
social. 27
Learning variables, affective relationship of meaning to, 42
classification of, 26-27 and review, 281
cognitive, 27 and rote laboratory learning 446
cognitive structure, 26 seeking evidence of. 111
intrapersonal, 26 short term studies in, 133
situational, 26-27 sienihcance of m
acquired knowledge,
tracing
Learning to write, copying versus 58-62
535 subsumptive mode of, 54
Lecture versus discussion, 456 superiority of. 111-115
97
'Leveling" Gestalt phenomena of
and transfer, 128
171
Leveling sharpening tendencies, types of, 42-44
31
Life adjustment’ movement. devices n
use of automated teaching
Linear programming. 349
 Index
680

Mcinon assimilation theory 120

{ \lcamngtul Uatning (fonj)
mitertal Rarllcits ihiory of 120
versus kaming of tiicaningfiil
4&-i7
Mental titaUh cffcas of authontananisiii
versus role learning 24-26 107-115 316 on 419
tcsponsibrtiVy oi Uic school 411-413
321-323, Mid
versus tote learning anil retention 277 Mental liygicne 10
278 5rcntalistic approach 63
Sre also Ijcavnitvg 'leaning Rote leara Menially retarded the 242 207
mg teadiing of 267
McaningJul learning and re-ienuon inicu Middle cliiis values encoutagcmcni of 437
of altitude on 5B11-3S3 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality inven
crtecis o| inieniion on 38&-38S tory 558
influence of 368 Minnesota Teacher Altitude Inicniory 454
molivaiional factorf on 363 Misbehavior (see Discipline School disci
sole ol cogniivse siiuuurc in 127 128 p(ioc)
role of tliscTim/nabiJiiy in J42-145 Modf/iabilily problem of 243-240
Sre alio Cognilise siruclurr Moiivaiion Monicvsoii schools 188
Reteiiiion Mooney ChceV List 409
Meaningful reception learning So 83-123 Motion piaures 347
J
concept assimilation as form of 511 Motivation 363 371-372
main danger 89 m arousal of 366
lUlutc of 83-40 affilutive drive as source of STS
See aUa Reception learning aversive 378 382 383 586 448
Meaningful teienlion 08 and cognitive drive 36a
effeu of vnoiisaiional variables on 374 exutnvvc 417-418
ineuutrmcnt o! 09 increasing Jauroom 393
iee also Retention intrinsic 446-447
NIcanmgful serlial learning cognition scr intrinsic versus extrinsic 493
aus pereepuon in 5>-58 and learning 864-569
relesam anchoring ideas in 158 and meaningful learning 367
See alia Snelvocvng ideas optimal level ol 372
Meaiungfulriest 40 44 366 threat of bilure as form of 378
Meanings acquisition of 47-oa See also £go-cnhancement Discovery
Measurement abuses of 509 573 Learning Meaningful Icatnmg
triueum of 571 Motivational influences incdiation of 363-
of eduational outcomes i08
370
iflslrutiienl of 5C8 Motor behavior 64
liniitaiiuns of 5*0-573 Motor leamniR 158
principles of j6j-589
putpow of 566-576 Natural setting versus siruaurcd setting
MraiuiiTiicni and esaluaiiun abuses of 506-512
576 573 Negative instances versus poiiinc instances
and tbunscliiig 570
531
and curriculum 370
See also Iiivtanccs
and guidance 570
and indiiidualiuiion of instnieiion 570
Ne^ tVitWrtnv academic retardation ol,
439-410
Iimnjtions of 576-573
counseling of 444-445
inctliods of 586-589
education of 444
and studcni Irainmg 507-566
educational achievement of 416-]4I 445-
and icaeliing 5f/9
411
Mnluiiotial l)V|)Oil)esis G2
ego vtnjciurc of. 442
Medical nlucaluxi lOa-lOQ
anil "Vlighcr Uoiuons” project 444
an 1 elinical dononstiaiium 108 Negro community giils versus l>o\* status
tiaiivfi-T piobTaii in 167 111 442
Mcmoiial reduction and eoncrpc fonna Negro familv life aiithonianan nature of.
(Ion 94
439
and forgcliing 91
low level of 438
Itoccssof It
Negro teachers training of, 410
 631
Index

Personality inaladjusiuicnt, and school

Ncobehaviorisiii, 62-67
NonincTcinciUal ihconcs, \crsus macmcn achievement, 410
tcaclicrs responsibility in. 413-^15
tal theories, 286-289
Nonpromotion, 265. 272 Phonemes, 69
Noiuerhal distocry and meaning. 476-477 Phjsical Science Study toinmittcc (P.S.SC)
140 150, 492
Noniiality, limits of, 412
Positive instances versus negative instances
NSTA Curriculum Commillcc, 337 345
'Number anxiety,’ 38
531-532
Practice. 273-319
'
Number shock,” 38
condition of. 314
diifercnlial 308
Objcclise tests, 583-585 distribution of. 291-295
See also Test scores. Testing. Tests
effect of in Icanimg 273
Objectivity of thought, age level general condition of 509-315
trends in. 541-546 and guidance 304
Obliterative asviiiiilalion, advantages of. 94 incidental, 276
for cognitive functioning 94 influence of on cognitive structure. 273-
as a reduction phenomenon, 94 274
resistance to, 107 massed, 291 295
reversed, 95 method. 295-309
Organizers, 143-144, 149, 157 m natural settings 310
for elementary pupils, 333 problem of clinical 167
•’cxpovitory,” 137, 148 and positive transfer, 314
facilitating effect of. 154 progicssivisU. views of 276
function of. 148 schedules, differential 507-509
integrative, 333 structured. 276. 309
perceptual. 33'2-333 task heterogeneity in, 312
in textual material, 333 tnals. 295
use of. 118-149, 338 Preconceptions, problem of, 330
use of cognitive situcturc in, 136 tailoring organizers to. 330
Versus intra tnatciial organization, 331 prcinatutc learning. 181-185
540-
versus ovcrvicvvs, 336-331 Problem solving, altcrnaiivc views on,
See also Advance organizers 541
Ovcraclucvcment, 237-258 anxiety III. 549
Ovcilcariiing 143-141, 159-160 appioacli. age level trends in. 541
(ogiiitivc structure in, 538-539
Overtness, 297-300
cognitive st>lc in, 548
Overviews versus organizers, 330-331
and concept avsimilaiion. jI-
and concept formation, 512
Pacing, 3J7-328 and eicativil). 553-502
Paired associates 314 etcvtlopiiiciual tliaiigcs In.
jU-jP*
Paired associate learning 11 1 emphasis on. 4
b5
I)cwe>
Paranatal brain injur). 212 m dutovery learning. 40-4/0 j 53
506-307 (ffetis of guidance on. 503
Pait iiitiliod versus whole inethoif.
factors inlUicnciiig.
516-549
Pedagogic iriesiwnsibihl), 34
confoiiiiitv. as|)ctu of. 425- flcxibilil) Iigitlny in. 174
Ptxr cultuic.
428 Gestalt formulaiicm of, 511
ahenatton. 431- liruiivlK^ of. 550
Prtr group, in adult jouih
inductive. 103
134
imiglulul approach n. 551-537. 512
ilevitcllizing inliuenec of.
424
cnliajiciMvnal factor m. 5t4
noinis. 430 ... 537-534
alienation, 431- logic ami ihouglit i I.

lole of in adult )m>th

incamngfui. 535
434 learning.
421>
ami meaningful doeovris
as MKialuing agcinv. iiiethcAls. 25
values ul. 434
naiuir of, 534-534
dcvclojmieiit. 10
I'cisonalit)
4-' mgaiive tiandcT ««, SiO
elfrttt of comi'eUiwn on. }Mn>tite iraiider in. 550
 Index

237-241
Rates of growth, individual,
ProbScni loMng (coni)
Readiness, 259-271
preparatory phases of. 541
age ot 177. 179
process. 54
age of reading. 179
process \criiu product. 556-557
53»-535* conexpt of, 177. 183
role of cogmme structure in
as Cunctioit of general cognitive maturity
short term studies »n. 135
176
skills, trainabihiy of. 543
as fiinaion ol learning process, 177
skills, transferability of. 350
general changes in. 176
solution'’ phases of Ml
'internal ripening” thesis of. 178
stages of. 541
swausics nl. W and intuttise learning. 182
levels of. 182
icchnitiues. 473
549
and maturation. 177
training in 551
nature of. 176-190
tiansfciabihiy 'n. 534, 547
542- need for research on cognitive aspects of,
trial and-CTTor approach to. 534-535.
180
544
pedagogic problem of 179
t^pcs of thinking in, 538
principles 179-183
and use of concepts 513
47% <\uatity of cducatiott as dciemtmate of.
scibaluailtfli tn
age level trends in 178
Problem soiling ability,
Reading accelerating rate of. 328
543-544
phonetic versus wholistic methods of
desclopincnt of, 483, 547
teaching 70-72
as goal of education. 434-488
iniclbgence m. 34% Reality ionceplual. 507
sanances in. 551 npcricnccvJ, 505
Programmed instruction. 147. 203-264. 317. physical, 507

S43. S48-349 421 uprecniation of, 506

adsanuges of. 153 Recall of v.i'ords 134
and diseoseiy learning. 403 Recapitulation veisus lealaiion. 296-297
in elccirocaidiography 359 Rcxcpiion learning. 55. 82 84, 296, 302. 497
in elementary arithmetic. 339 distinguishing aiiiibutn of, 84
summary esaluaiion of. 348 meaningful, 533
Programmed learning 503 prompting m, 302
Ptogiammed teitboiAi 147 343 as a rote phenomenon. 84
Progressive diOcrenuation. 154 versus discovery learning. 22-24 527
principle of. 103. 153 Venus guided discovery. 303
inprogramming of subject inadcr 151 Rcutauon ctfectivcncss of, 29G
Prompting 301-305 and meaningful learning and ritcntion.
Propositsonal learning 43-44 54*^5 297
Ihopositiods background, 55 and role learning. 297
meaningful 45 versus recapitulation. 296-297
poteniullv meaningful 52. 57 versus seihaUm recall, 305
pioblem selling. 55 Rehearsal 293
suUitiiinale 53 Reinforcement and drive reduction 384-
substiate 54 3%&
supetordinaie 53 Relevant information versus irrelevant in-
Ps)UioanaI)tic theory. 122 formation. 532
Ps>cliological meaning emergence of O Rdiabiliiy and test vtrengtii. 580
idicnj-nchratic nature o{, 45 Reminiscence, phenomenon of. 98. 105
See alio Meaning Repetition, “tctslbact” role ol. 283
PsydiologitaV principles. G. 7 iinpoitancc of. 289
Pijdiology role of in educaiion. 4-9 role of. 277
versus educational psychology. 8. 9 sensiiiring effcas of. 283
Puniihiucnt Reward, 379-334 Keprcseniaiion. problem of, C4-65
Pupil bchasior (lee Uisopline. 5cfiool disa Reprcscnuiiona! cCfuivalencr, 48-^9
pliiw)
Representational learning, 42, 48-51, 65
Reptesenutionat mtdaiion process, 62
Racul factors in educauon, 43S-44S Rcprescniauoaal symbols, 522. 526
 683
Ind<x

Scliool achicvcivent effects of anxiety on

Resemblance paitnl child di9 -jO
407-408
siblin;; and tssin -50-~5l
and personality adjustment 409-410
Response 29S-299
constmeud 301
and socioeconomic status 433
Scliool discipline 437^58
cosctiness of SOT-JOS 438
value preferences in
nature of 297-305
Xiiicrican approach to 438
osert 293
and authoritarianism 463
Response set 406
and permissiveness 163
Responses compctuiR 300
problem of 437—158
Retention 111 115 372-374 391-393
See alio Hisciphnc
assimilation theory of 117 401
School learning and anxiety
clfccts of attitude structure on 391 developmcni 186-187
and intellectual
and forgetting 115-123
negative transfer m 143
meaningful versus rote 1 14-1 la responsibility m mental health
School
measurement of 577
short term studies in 133 411-413
test 281 282
m personality development

Retention st^lc 173 upphed

Retroactive intcrfciciicc 117
115 curriculum SaS 487
behavioristic mechanisms in in 48>
latc of obsolescence
decreases of tlG approach
icacJung conceptual schemes
increases of UG
to 337-538 _
Review earl) 28i-.83 general .‘KJ
Scicniific inquiry
dcla)cd 281 283
Scolliill Coi.nc.1 lor
Research in Educalion
by testing 292
Revised Stanford Binct Scale 241 audnilingual ap
SccoSTlanguagc learning
Reward and punishment 379-384 pioach to 75
Rote forgetting 09 audiohngual methods in 73
in 74
Rote nicmor) retroactive interference in avoidance of ihc native
language
112 direct reading m 77
Rote learning negative transfer in 138 grammaiical generalization m 77
/6
paired associate 145 paticrn practice drills
and retention major goals of HO ,0,0 learning of pHrascs
m «
198 200 201
retention span for 109 Secondary abstractions
serial 14j Set and contiguity 532
tasks 109 Sequence of chunks 59
theory 10 See aho Chunking
24^.u-IOJ iKR_ieg
5
A versus nicaningrul learning Sequential learning organized
115^16 32 1 323. transfer versus direct
practice m
289-aiJi

concept acquisition
Rote nicmonzation III Sex influence of on
ichance of ovcrachicvcr on 49a
530 532
Rote verbal learning 4G 51 Sex differences 241 243
and community action 444
nonsatcHiMtion 59a and counseling
Salelluation versus
444
401 and desegregation 443
education 442
and efTects on achievement motivation and implications for of J7
Sharpening Gestalt phenomena
397 398 technique
400-
and cdecis on school
achicveiiicni
Skinnerian linear programming

assnn.lation 398 learner 107

and°'ellccts on value Slow learner versus fast
254
400 Soaal class differences 251 education
171 and
Schematmng test Soaal class stratification
atijustmeni to 454-
School boys versus girls
434-435
435 Soci^t^ role and the school
desegregation of 443 Speech behavior 522
feminine values in 434 Spiral curriculum
209
social class bias of
437
 Index
GM
Teutng (coni
Spoken Ungusge "naiwial »pc«l )
power in 582
“8 tlisctiiiiuiating
of, quejuoni in, 577-
dtsicUVMQii vetsHs essay
Stanford Dmet Itii. 2Si. 254
5S8
Step srte. 32C-327
{easthtUiy in. 382-585
Straw man itiUniquc, 85
jiul Halo circct, 588-589
Structural scttinp tersus natural settings
kmitaiions of standardized 583
5W>-512
pioblcni solving in. 576
Subjuiiiptiun. conKtiutncLt of olililcramc
prograiumcd itisicitcUon approach to, 570
H)0-\0V
102 reliability in 578-581
torrclaiiNC 52 100
tcpsew:tvcauc<.iu:ss iti. 581 582
dti'»>s\st 51,
loqiiireiiicfltsm, 573-383
Santas. 07-G'J
vahdii) of 574-378
Hoik samples in, 588
Task factors, inducnce on prolikni solving
5«-548 Tests, athievcnicni, 537. 574-575
Task sice in aiiioiiiatcd iiistruciion 315 concept maturity, 252
and iiicanitigCid \ctsut tote learning 521 Cocipcraiivc Biology 578
and part rntiliod versus whole method oi ctcatisiiy, 580
321 and cultural)) dicadsaiitagcJ 380
atTecii of on learning tlTiatno. 526 ddfcTcntial aptitude. 261
of teacliing machines, 333 essay 585
fcatlirt thatacimsucs 449-461 o( intelligence 380
Teacher [>CTsonalii> pupil response to and KuJer Ridiardson Formulas, 579
435-45} length of. 580
wantiih of, 454 multiple choice. 585
Teaclicrs cogmiisc alilnin of 431-435 norms of standardized. 586
[icttOnalii> iharacitTHiics of 444-fa5 ohjcctiie. 371. 384-565
roles of 150-451 primary mental abililiei. 248
leaching side of 435-437 prohlan solving. S85
Teaching, auioiiiaied 142 Tclialnltty of. 578-581
hasic pnnciplcs of, 15 tct^uifemenis of cflcaivc, 575
es|)Osiior> (it/ Exposiiorv teaching) retention. 57?
iiaihods of 4. 4 20 and school maiU. 571-572. 575
nature of 4 and 3(>camian BroHn correction formula.
piincipln of 6 IS 579
* nilcs’
oi 5 scandaidlzcd 571-572
techniques of. 5 standardizcd-ohjcctivc. 583-583
Uuotscs o4 Ncvvuv Clseofics o4 karninit "transfer leieniion.’ 577
11-14
validity of. 574
Teaching macSsine, 545 Textbook of Pathology. 154
ailsaniagts of, 158 Texibooki. dificicnuet ascrilicd to. 544
dimmuaite seep sice appioach «>f 574 tlicotctical bias in. 341
piogiami 558-559 iiKorics 01 learning versus
training 559
uadiing, U-14
Test scenes achiestmeni. 57 4 5»>-5W» Tlnnking, abilit), training programs In.
and concuiicnt validity 575
550
anil cunviruci salidii). 575
convergent. 558
diunbution 0/ 58’ cseawc, Torrance s deruiiiion of, 553
as ends m (hanvclves 571
Ucwc) s account of stages in, 541
iiiulligencc 574 divcTRovt. 558, 535-354
and pirOictivc validit) 575 Ccsialt theories of. 340
pnilitiue value of, 374
and iRMght. 540
Kludaitic aptiiucir. 575
ncobehavioiisiic ihcorics of, 540
vahdilv of 5S0
qualiuuvc changes in. 342
See alio kvaluauon. Uarninafion.
Intel quamuative changes in, 542
lip.me lest vcoies Measurement teaching of oitical. 531
TevtmR. coclficjrtit of stabihly m. 579 tvpes of, 558
niiKiuiif of. 58I-5M 4ee aLo Thought
Index C85

'TliinJioKl ot a\aiUt)ilit> O" yt 374 Snj rtaiiifciabiliiy (cont

a»<) tiKtiKili ]04 and irzbab/aZiOR 479
llucluiiioiu III lot 'tre alio lianifcr
loMmiif; «tf IOj liiimp Plan _G2
lamii;' of IOj
innuu«<ttKr IO|-I0(t I ndcjacbjcinnrnl —57 2jS
tlc\aicil 'H 101
I miiiiiiy of Ilhnoii (aiinunlCce on School
lc>ft iicnilt in <il>]r<titiit «(
Maihcmatici (I ICSM) HO 431 492-
541 4i3 419 501
and hngiiap? SS-l^'ilO
inlr of Iaii;;ua^ in 5(0
Valuliti of adncicnirni icvti 570 573
an<l logic 537
W aJu/ 1 l/i/ikififf
CIKKUIIllll 57 j
conatnit j7j
Trainfcr 3ii]iinjc}i (u rtdumcmrnt of
(noluitic- 573 578
ll»7-}6J
and coiiMltdation
of Irsl KPin 5M)
I5J IbO
Vc ofio fialiialKin FjiaMiinaiioni Mca
(acilitainig clfrtt i ( irilialiutnm in If )
sincmcni fcit Scom Tciling- Ttii
170
Vaiubln (icr learning lanabln)
loinial <li«ipUne“ tJicur) of }<«.* }<>l
\cTkal Kuirurtion lethiitqun ol 84
“Griicraliraiiou tlicuc) of lo2
Srtbal ]>rc training facilitating ctfcct of
and iilcniiol cicincntt lOt
135
and inicgiatnc ictunciluiion I55>158
Scibaii/alMiii 82 477-lSO 501
nrgalivc in <ogiuiuc iitutiutr 53 >
Sciliatnn xull iciius tcfotniulalcd rc
lugatnc m |ifutilcin Milling 53J
30j
ijKinic
non ijirtilic IJO
Socabulat) Iraining at niraningful learn
{icdagogic facilnatiuii of H'-lfi.*
ing 4J-51
]x»iliir 314
4>|Ht of I8-j0
pruldnii of in nirdical rducafion )65
Sucaiinnal a'|>italioiii Negro ic-nut nIikc
IfiG
411-412
III iirobUni soiling 1113

and piogtesiiie diffcuniiaiion I5.-IS5

Uccbsicr fjclloue tett 232
role of in cducaiion IG1*I(73
UtxliiJor Jniclligmcc Scale lor DiiiJrrn
and ut|ucniial otgarnzaiion f53*l59
lubietlial aMaicncu kc) in 477 211
and laik factoii 547 UlioJc incihcHl icrtui pan nicihod 306-307
icil, 503 Uoiif incannigt acquiiilion of 67
Icaining of Cj-C6
'Trampooiion ifnxirf of JC2 '

TtainfcralniK)and diMOiLt) 473 Word* dcnotatiie iiicaningf of 70

i)iuacuc funciioni of 70
in ]>i(]|jlciu Killing 534
of {iroblcni soiling iVilh 550
of iubicibal iniiglu 4S0 /cigarink rlfcct 503