ISOLATING VARIABLES THAT IMPACT ON OR DETRACT FROM THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ELABORATION STRATEGIES

The role of prior knowledge in elaboration strategies was examined in 3 experiments. University students were presented with material that a ccessed either a highly developed or a less developed knowledge base a nd instructed to answer ''why'' questions (elaborative interrogation), create interactive images (imagery). create interactive images using keywords (keyword), or read the information aloud (repetition). Across all 3 experiments. elaborative interrogation was most effective when learners were able to draw on a rich knowledge base. However, when the knowledge base was low, imagery-based strategies were more potent tha n elaborative interrogation. These results suggest that creating menta l images encourages the processing of both relations and distinctions to a greater extent than elaborative interrogation when the learners' background knowledge is limited.