Jeff,
I did some searching on PsycInfo and the best I could come up with was a
1988 article by Rickard, Rogers, Ellis, & Beidleman. It was titled "Some
retention, but not enough" and appeared in the journal Teaching of
Psychology,Vol 15, pages 151-152. According to the abstract, they compared
59 students who had a psyc course to 15 controls who had not had the course.
While they found differences, those differences were small. In addition,
they compared retention for the 29 students who received traditional
classroom instruction to retention for the 30 who received instruction
emphasizing concepts. The scores in those 2 groups was similar.
Hope that helps,
Larry
************************************************************
Larry Z. Daily
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
White Hall, Room 213
Shepherd College
Shepherdstown, West Virginia 25443
phone: (304) 876-5297
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WWW: http://webpages.shepherd.edu/LDAILY/index.html
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Ricker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 9:54 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; TIPS
> Subject: The 5% Solution
>
>
> I just finished reading a paper by Camac (1995) titled "Public
> perceptions of psychology" (an interesting paper: I recommend it). In a
> section in which she was discussing difficulties that arise in the
> teaching of psychology, she mentioned a finding reported in Ellis &
> Rickard (1977):
>
> "Even if we cannot dispel all the myths, surely students are learning
> _something_ about the field [in our courses]. Well, perhaps not: Ellis
> and Rickard (1977) gave a general test in psychology to introductory
> psychology students four months after they had taken the course. The
> students answered an average of 30% of the questions correctly. A
> control group who had not had the course answered 25% of the questions
> correctly" (p. 33)
>
> On the surface, this finding is fascinating (although, strangely, I am
> not terribly surprised). I wish to order the Ellis & Rickard paper so
> that I can get the details: things are probably more complicated than
> such a brief summary suggests. The problem is that the citation is
> missing from Camac's reference list. Can anyone give me the citation?
> And does anyone know if similar kinds of studies have been done by
> anyone else (and more recently than 1977)?
>
> Jeff
>
> Reference:
> Camac, M. K. (1995). Public perceptions of psychology. Virginia Social
> Science Journal, 30, 20-36.
>
>
>
> --
> Jeffry P. Ricker, Ph.D. Office Phone: (480) 423-6213
> 9000 E. Chaparral Rd. FAX Number: (480) 423-6298
> Psychology Department [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Scottsdale Community College
> Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626
>
> "Science must begin with myths and with the criticism of myths"
> Karl Popper
>
> Listowner: Psychologists Educating Students to Think Skeptically (PESTS)
>
> http://www.sc.maricopa.edu/sbscience/pests/index.html
>
>
>
