Learning from instructional text: test of an individual-differences model

Abstract

An individual-differences model of learning from instructional text was tested on 211 Air Force recruits. The results strongly supported the model, with a high level of fit for a structural equation modeling analysis using LISREL 8 (K. Joreskog & D. Sorbom, 1993). According to the model, learning from text is determined by making connections among ideas, including ideas from the text and from prior knowledge. Making the connections depends in part on 4 variables that differ among individuals: metacognition, specifically the ability to sense that one's mental representation is not coherent and consequently needs extra connections; inference-making ability, which spreads activation among the elements within working memory, which provides the arena in which the connections ate made; and domain knowledge, which provides prior knowledge elements for use by the inference-making process to make connections.