The relationship between prior knowledge and interactive overviews during hypermedia-aided learning

Advance organizers have been used successfully to augment the learning outc ome for students engaged in traditional text-based learning [1] and those e ngaged in hypermedia-assisted learning [2]. Prior research has shown that t his effect may occur because the organizer provides cues to prior knowledge which is then used as an elaborative tool for the new information [3]. Nov ices are uniquely challenged, however, in that they have little or no prior knowledge to aid in the learning process. The present study used interacti ve overviews (IOs), a type of advance organizer, to explore the effect of t he interaction between organizer structure and prior knowledge on novices' ability to meet particular learning goals. Subjects were recruited who disp layed some knowledge of animal family resemblances but very little about in terspecies relationships within ecosystems on pretests. They were then aske d to learn about a world of fictitious animals with the aid of a hypermedia program which provided an IO arranged either by animal families or ecosyst ems. They were also assigned the goal of learning about either animal famil ies or ecosystems. Outcome measures focused on subjects' ability to meet th eir learning goals. Results indicated that the ecosystem IO aided learners in meeting an ecosystems learning goal, about which they had no prior knowl edge. The effect was strong enough to produce incidental learning effects, as those assigned to learn about animal families also learned about ecosyst ems when exposed to the ecosystem IO. In the presence of prior animal famil y knowledge, however, the animal families IO had no facilitative effect. It is argued, though, that this may have been an epiphenomenon of the pretest ing procedure which activated subjects' existing animal family knowledge. R esults are discussed with reference to Kintsch's construction integration m odel as well as classroom application [4].