EFFECTS OF REALITY INFORMATION AND CATEGO RY NAMES OF NEW INFORMATION

The present study investigated whether giving reality information and the category names of the to-be-learned materials affect incorporating of the materials into subject's preexisting knowledge. Forty universi ty students were instructed that they were to learn real facts, while 43 university students were instructed that they were to learn artific ial facts. Actually, the subjects in both groups learned unfamilliar r eal facts. Half of the materials consisted of category names with two attributes, and the remaining half consisted of three attributes. Imme diately following the learning phase, the subjects received a recall t est, a recognition test, and a matching test. They were given the test s again after 1-week interval. The results indicated that giving real information and/or providing category names facilitated the learning o f the materials. These results were discussed in terms of incorporatio n process of new information into preexisting knowledge.