Children's understanding and organization of attentional knowledge during learning

Francine Cheryl Blumberg, Purdue University

Abstract

Three indices were used to collect information about second- and fifth grade children's understanding and application of how to attend to relevant information during learning. These indices included (1) performance on a two-choice, visual discrimination learning task, (2) verbal responses to a twelve item attentional knowledge questionnaire, and (3) verbal protocols collected during a tutorial phase in which the second- and fifth graders instructed a first grade student on how to do the learning task. Second- and fifth graders did not differ significantly in their responses to the questionnaire items, in their learning task performance, or in the type of comments made to the first graders during the tutorial phase. The relational analyses between the three tasks also yielded largely insignificant findings. Questionnaire performance, however, was significantly related to learning task performance among the younger children, and mention of cognitive strategies was significantly related to recall of relevant and redundant information during the learning task among the older children. The overall findings support the hypothesis that younger and older children may have a comparable understanding of attention and may apply this knowledge similarly during learning. The utility of the protocol data as an index of children's attentional knowledge warrants further investigation with a larger sample of subjects than was used in the present study.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Offenbach, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Developmental psychology|Educational psychology

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