Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1988

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education

Major Professor

Donald J. Dickinson

Committee Members

Robert L. Williams, Luther M. Kindall, Robert G. Wahler

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the influence of three different correction procedures on the learning of college students using a microcomputer program.

One hundred and four undergraduate students were given a test on the four psychological concepts of (a) positive reinforcement, (b) negative reinforcement, (c) punishment, and (d) extinction. Those students scoring below 50% correct on the test were asked to complete a microcomputer program on the concepts. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four conditions which consisted of (a) feedback (informing the student that his/her answer was correct or not), (b) simultaneous correction procedure (presenting the definitions of all four concepts simultaneously following an error), (c) discriminative correction procedure (presenting the definition of the concept that the student chose along with the definition of the correct concept following an error), and (d) coded correction procedure (presentation of definitions of all four concepts simultaneously along with a code or mnemonic device for remembering the concepts following an error).

After completing the program, all subjects who made three or more errors (and received one of the correction procedures) were given a posttest over the four psychological concepts. An analysis of variance was used to test for pre-post differences among the four experimental conditions.

Results indicated that all corrective procedures resulted in better achievement scores than feedback only conditions. In the corrective procedures, the coding condition produced a significantly higher mean score than the other conditions, followed by the discriminative and simultaneous conditions. No significant relationships were found among the treatment conditions with regard to number of errors made while completing the microcomputer program, time to complete the microinstructional sequence, and pretest scores.

These findings would suggest that microcomputer instruction might be improved by utilizing corrective procedures rather than using feedback alone. Using codes or mnemonic devices to help the learner remember might be a useful component of correcting errors in a microcomputer program.

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