Operation Management

Factors affecting Learning

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Instructional Design is largely affected by how a user learns:

Meaningfulness effect Highly meaningful words are easier to learn and remember than less meaningful words. This is true whether meaningful is measured by

1) the number of associations the learner has for the word,

2) by frequency of the word

3) or by familiarity with the sequential order of letters,

4) or the tendency of the work to elicit clear images.

An implication is that retention will be improved to the extent the user can make meaning of the material.

Serial position effects Serial position effects result from the particular placement of an item within a list. Memory is better for items placed at beginning or end of list rather than in the middle. An exception to these serial positions is the distinctiveness effect - an item that is distinctively different from the others will be remembered better, regardless of serial position.

Practice effects Active practice or rehearsal improves retention, and distributed practice is usually more effective than massed practice. The advantage to distributed practice is especially noticeable for lists, fast presentation rates or unfamiliar stimulus material. The advantage to distributed practice apparently occurs because massed practice allows the learner to associate a word with only a single context, but distributed practice allows association with many different contexts.

Transfer effects Transfer effects are effects of prior learning on the leaning of new material. Positive transfer occurs when previous learning makes new learning easier. Negative transfer occurs when it makes the new learning more difficult. The more that two tasks have in common, the more likely that transfer effects occur.

Interference effects. Interference effects occur when memory or particular material is hurt by previous or subsequent learning. Interference effects occur when trying to remember material that has previously been...