Unpacking Elaborative Learning: The Role of Elaboration in Learning Complex Stimuli
Kang, Phillip
2022
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This study examines the role of elaboration in learning complex 3D stimuli. The stimuli used in this experiment is a model of the A22 cargo bag used to carry supplies for the military. The task is to learn and be tested on errors that can occur with the bag before lifting off to be transferred to the drop-off location. We identified two different hypotheses: (1) participants who receive elaboration ... read morewhen learning will perform better on the memory tasks than will the participants who do not receive elaboration due to elaboration’s benefits, and (2) the elaboration group will perform worse on the memory tasks than the basic group due to intrinsic cognitive overload. In a sample of 25 participants who were mostly young, White/Caucasian, and women, there were two interesting findings: (1) the elaboration group performed significantly better on the memory tasks than did the basic group when recognizing non-error differences, and (2) elaboration had no significant effect on recognizing errors; however, both groups performed well on the error recognition and categorization tasks. These results support first hypothesis that elaboration may help in learning complex stimuli. Further studies that utilize a more representative sample and better examples of elaboration are suggested in order to evaluate the potential effects of elaboration on learning complex stimuli.
Thesis (B.S.)--Tufts University, 2022.
Submitted to the Dept. of Psychology.
Committee: Holly Taylor and Lauren Mason.
Keywords: Elaborative learning, cognitive load, spatial memory, complex stimuli.read less - ID:
- f1882171z
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