IMPROVING REASONING AND RECALL - THE DIFFERENTIAL-EFFECTS OF ELABORATIVE INTERROGATION AND MNEMONIC ELABORATION

This investigation sought to determine whether elaborative interrogati on techniques would facilitate recall of information relevant to, but not included in, mnemonic and representational pictures. Fifty-three a dolescents with learning disabilities or mild mental retardation were taught information about nine reasons for dinosaur extinction, ranked in order of plausibility. In the direct teaching condition, students w ere provided with each ordered reason and an explanation for why that reason may have resulted in dinosaur extinction. In the elaborative in terrogation condition, students were provided with each ordered reason and prompted and questioned to provide an explanation for each. In th e mnemonic elaborative interrogation condition, students were provided with mnemonic peg-words to facilitate recall of the ordered reasons f or dinosaur extinction and also coached and prompted to provide explan ations. Students' recall of ordered reasons was higher in the mnemonic elaborative interrogation condition, and students in the two elaborat ive interrogation conditions recalled more explanations than did stude nts in the direct teaching condition. Further, students in both elabor ative interrogation conditions more accurately linked reasons with exp lanations for those reasons. Findings are discussed with respect to pr evious findings of mnemonic instruction. Implications for teaching stu dents with mild cognitive disabilities are provided.