Effectiveness of Self-Generation during Learning Is Dependent on Individual Differences in Need for Cognition

Autor/inn/en	Schindler, Julia; Schindler, Simon; Reinhard, Marc-André
Titel	Effectiveness of Self-Generation during Learning Is Dependent on Individual Differences in Need for Cognition
Quelle	In: Frontline Learning Research, 7 (2019) 2, S.23-39 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2295-3159
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Individual Differences; Cognitive Processes; Difficulty Level; Learning Strategies; Recall (Psychology); College Students; Accuracy; Cues; Incidental Learning; Intentional Learning; Germany; Need for Cognition Scale + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Individueller Unterschied; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Schwierigkeitsgrad; Learning methode; Learning techniques; Lernmethode; Lernstrategie; Abberufung; Collegestudent; Stichwort; Inzidentelles Lernen; Intentionales Lernen; Deutschland
Abstract	Self-generated information is better recognized and recalled than read information. This so-called generation effect has been replicated several times for different types of stimulus material, different generation tasks, and retention intervals. The present study investigated the impact of individual differences in learners' disposition to engage in effortful cognitive activities (need for cognition, NFC) on the effectiveness of selfgeneration during learning. Learners low in NFC usually avoid getting engaged in cognitively demanding activities. However, if these learners are explicitly instructed to use elaborate learning strategies such as self-generation, they should benefit more from such strategies than learners high in NFC, because self-generation stimulates cognitive processes that learners low in NFC usually tend not to engage in spontaneously. Using a classical word-generation paradigm, we not only replicated the generation effect in free and cued recall but showed that the magnitude of the generation effect increased with decreasing NFC in cued recall. Results are consistent with our assumption that learners higher in NFC engage in elaborate processing even without explicit instruction, whereas learners lower in NFC usually avoid cognitively demanding activities. These learners need cognitively demanding tasks that require them to switch from shallow to elaborate processing to improve learning. We conclude that selfgeneration is beneficial regardless of the NFC level, but our study extends the existing literature on the generation effect and on NFC by showing that self-generation can be particularly useful for balancing the learning disadvantage of students lower in NFC. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction. Peterseliegang 1, Box 1, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. e-mail: info@frontlinelearningresearch.org; Web site: http://journals.sfu.ca/flr/index.php/journal/index
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01