Cognitive and motivational variables underlying text notetaking skill among undergraduate students.

摘要

Despite the prevalence and demonstrated effectiveness of notetaking as a study strategy among undergraduates, very little research has investigated the endogenous variables underlying skill in any form of notetaking. Previous research has identified transcription fluency as the strongest predictor of lecture note quality, which in turn was the best predictor of written free recall (Peverly, Ramaswamy, Brown, Sumowski, Alidoost, & Garner, 2007). As a replication and extension of this finding in the area of text notetaking, the primary purpose of this dissertation was to identify some of the variables underlying text note quality (TNQ) among undergraduates. This dissertation examined the contribution of reading comprehension ability, domain knowledge, verbal working memory, executive attention, transcription fluency, and regulatory focus to TNQ. A second purpose was to determine the contribution of TNQ to performance on outcome measures of memory and learning. The final purpose was to identify any contributions of the endogenous variables to memory and learning over and above TNQ.;A sample of 138 undergraduate students took notes on a to-be-learned text. After a study period approximately one week later, memory for the text was assessed with a free recall essay test and text-based multiple-choice questions. Learning from the text was assessed with inference-based multiple-choice questions. Participants also completed measures of the aforementioned independent variables. All procedures were conducted in a group format.;Results identified transcription fluency as the best predictor of TNQ, followed by reading comprehension ability and promotion regulatory focus. This supports Peverly, et al.'s (2007) proposal that notetaking expertise requires automatization of the basic skill of letter formation into order to preserve cognitive resources for higher-order processes, such as the production of high quality text notes. Greater TNQ by students with higher degrees of promotion focus demonstrates the importance of motivation for success at the college level. Regarding outcome measures, TNQ strongly predicted memory, but not learning, for which domain knowledge was the largest contributor. As such, text notes appear to function mainly as an external representation of text-based material. Future research should extend these findings to middle and high school students, and to word-processed notes.