Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2000

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Philip N. Chase.

Abstract

The present study examined the components of generative instruction through the teaching of spelling rules. In Experiment 1, the effects of direct versus passive instruction and rate building versus equal-time practice were examined. Forty undergraduate students with below average spelling skills participated. Although there were better performances under passive instruction on some aspects of the posttests, and improved performance with rate-building practice on others, these results were not systematic and were contradicted by other results. The effects of rate building versus an equal amount of practice on the training and posttest application of spelling rules were examined in Experiment 2. Four undergraduate students with relatively high transcription rates participated in this experiment. Three of the four subjects had higher rates of correct letter sequences on an endurance test. These differences were correlated with differences in transcription rates from the beginning of the experiment, therefore, the differences in test performance are not conclusive.

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