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THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING AN ABSTRACTION-DECOMPOSITION SPACE AS A TOOL FOR CHARACTERIZING A KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN AND ENHANCING LEARNING

Piotroski, Janina
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1161869699

Abstract Details

2006, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Psychology.
An abstraction-decomposition space (ADS) has been used to characterize functional and structural relationships of complex systems. This study used an ADS to (a) describe a knowledge domain of working memory in a cognitive psychology, (b) examine whether organizing the presentation of information about that knowledge domain using an ADS could facilitate its comprehension for students in a cognitive psychology course, and (c) describe how students reasoned within that domain when trying to solve problems. Experiment 1A provided 34 students with an opportunity to study the course material for about an hour using either an ADS-based module or one based on a more traditional hierarchical approach. There was no difference between the groups on any of the pretest or posttest measures. It was proposed that students might need more extended use of the ADS module in order to benefit from its organizational structure. In Experiment 1B, 8 students from another cognitive psychology course were given the ADS module during class and asked to use it to study instead of their textbook. After one week, students were given a test equivalent to those used in Experiment 1A. After several weeks they received another test followed by a third test after another 2-3 weeks. Not only did their performance remain high across all three tests, their performance was also significantly higher than the performance of the ADS group from Experiment 1A . These results suggest that extended use may be necessary in order to take advantage of the organizational structure of the ADS. In Experiment 2 explanations/justifications provided by participants in Experiment 1 for some of their answers to the multiple choice questions on the tests were analyzed by mapping their verbal explanations onto the ADS. These explanations were then sorted into categories and compared to performance on the specific multiple choice question. The results showed that those students who correctly abstracted within the domain usually chose the correct answer whereas those who did not abstract correctly usually chose an incorrect answer. These results indicate that the ADS may be a promising tool for evaluating students’ understanding of a knowledge domain.
Leonard Mark (Advisor)
98 p.
Abstraction-Decomposition Space; learning; ADS; mapping knowledge; knowledge structure representations; KSR

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Piotroski, J. (2006). THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING AN ABSTRACTION-DECOMPOSITION SPACE AS A TOOL FOR CHARACTERIZING A KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN AND ENHANCING LEARNING [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1161869699

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Piotroski, Janina. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING AN ABSTRACTION-DECOMPOSITION SPACE AS A TOOL FOR CHARACTERIZING A KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN AND ENHANCING LEARNING. 2006. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1161869699.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Piotroski, Janina. "THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING AN ABSTRACTION-DECOMPOSITION SPACE AS A TOOL FOR CHARACTERIZING A KNOWLEDGE DOMAIN AND ENHANCING LEARNING." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1161869699

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1161869699
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© 2006, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.