“Advance” advance organizers

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted in which subjects read and paraphrased an advance organizer under one of three conditions: (1) 48 h prior to reading organizer-relevant text, (2) 1 h prior to reading organizer-relevant text, and (3) immediately prior to reading organizer-relevant text. A fourth condition (4) was a control in which no organizer was available. The results of both experiments indicated that subjects in the experimental conditions recalled significantly more text content than subjects in the control conditions. Significant quadratic trends were observed among the experimental conditions in both experiments. The results support a knowledge activation and integration view of advance organizers. © 1990, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.