Miguel wrote Ed, I tend to agree with the general tone of your post. However, my colleague, Jeff Nevid, has published evidence that at least one of those learning aids, concept signaling, (when short definitions/explanatory notes appear in the margins of the page) can enhance student performance. Also modular presentation of text, particularly if the students prefer such formats, appears to enhance their exam performance. On the other hand, other research cited by Nevid and Lampmann (see below) indicates that students rarely use some of the gimmicks you mention."
I only wonder if the studies were conducted "in vivo or "in vitro." Too many of these studies give the students a chapter to read. One group gets a chapter with the gimmicks and the other group gets it without the gimmicks. This is what I mean by testing the gimmicks "in vitro." To do it right (in vivo) I'd want to compare students studying for a REAL EXAM using a textbook that lacks the gimmicks and compare that with other students studying for an exam with a standard text (that includes the gimmicks). And I would like to see that books be used the entire semester to avoid any sort of Hawthorne effect. Until that's done, I remain unconvinced. Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Department of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania http://mywebpages.comcast.net/epollak/home.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, bluegrass fiddler and herpetoculturist...... in approximate order of importance. --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
