Prior Knowledge and Recall of Text Details: Assimilation, Correction, and Prediction-Postdiction Discrepancy

Abstract

In Study I, the learning pattern for a group which read a text preceded by an advance organizer was compared to that of a control group. Three hypotheses regarding the expected schema-text interaction were tested: The Assimilation, the Schema+Correction, and the Assimilation+Correction Hypotheses. Findings favored A+CH, which holds that text units predicated by the schema (type 1 ideas) are assimilated resulting in loss of their particularized clarity, while type 2 ideas representing unexpected information are enhanced. The dominant treatment effect was assimilatory loss of type 1 details, primarily a low ability phenomenon. Positive effects on type 2 knowledge-updating were strongest for Ss with good reasoning skills.

Study II employed a biasing paradigm to test four hypotheses regarding specific mechanisms thought to underlie the A+C effect: The False Sense of Security, the Discrepancy, the Structural Importance, and the Change in State of Schema Hypotheses. Findings favored CSSH, which assumes that type 2 text encounters exert accommodative change forces on the schematic memory representation of text, causing a perspective shift which increases the reader's capacity to regenerate text ideas consistent with an evolved state of schema, but decreases his/her ability to recall ideas compatible with the original, non-evolved state. Consistent with Study I results, the shift was associated with information loss and low verbal Ss.