Re: Learning more from harder-to-read fonts?

I mis-typed just now - the tax form wants to know if you are 'resident', 'o=
rdinarily resident' or 'domiciled'. We had a cat once you might have asked =
that of.

Rob

On 6 Jun 2011, at 01:11, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote:

> Jorge wrote:
> =

>> If I were to design hospital
>> forms that are difficult to
>> fill up, maybe people will
>> pay more attention, but at
>> the end of the day they will
>> be exhausted.
> =

> But this is an entirely different genre, no?
> =

> Most hospital forms are usually intended for record-keeping or some =

> other administrative purpose.
> =

> That doesn't mean we can't learn from them, but I don't think we often =

> do ... nor would this be their primary purpose.
> =

> So, I wouldn't think the study's authors -- who, for the most part, =

> are careful not to make extravagant claims about the =

> "generalizability" of their findings -- would recommend designing =

> hospital forms in Haettenschweiler.
> =

> (And speaking of hospital forms, there was an amusing segment a few =

> weeks ago on U.S. Public Radio's _Marketplace_ about the unintended =

> consequences of "disfluent" medical communications:
> =

>     originally aired on _Marketplace_, Thursday, May 12, 2011
>     "What's in a drug name?"
> =

> http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/05/12/pm-whats-in-a-d=
rug-name/
> =

> I particularly liked the comment by respondent Tom Goodenow (below the =

> transcript, towards the bottom of the page):
> =

>     "(In order to minimize errors by the filling pharmacist and
>     avoid confusion by patients, physicians are taught in medical
>     school to indicate on the instructions line of the
>     prescription the condition for which a drug is being
>     prescribed; but few doctors take the time or make the effort
>     to do this.)"
> =

> And I doubt that switching over to Comic Sans is going to motivate =

> prescription-writing doctors any better, or enable "deeper processing" =

> by pharmacists.... ;-)
> =

> =

>> However, one of the basic
>> premises is that people not
>> involved in a test, but
>> freely able to choose to
>> read or not to read, give
>> up reading quite easily if
>> the text does not appear
>> easy to read.
> =

> I agree. And this brings us to what I consider to be the all-important =

> question of student/reader motivation.
> =

> Only Study 2 looked at motivation:
> =

> 	"After the units were completed and exams were taken,
> 	a four-question survey was administered to test whether
> 	disfluency affected motivational factors. Students were
> 	asked to rate their responses to the following questions
> 	on a scale of 1=965: 'How difficult do you find the material
> 	in this class?' (1 =3D 'very easy', 5 =3D 'very difficult'), 'How
> 	do you feel about the material covered in class?' (1 =3D 'I like
> 	it very little', 5 =3D 'I like it very much'), 'How frequently
> 	do you feel confused or lost during class?' (1 =3D 'never', 5 =3D
> 	'all the time'), and 'How likely are you to take classes on
> 	this material in college?' (1 =3D 'very unlikely', 5 =3D 'very
> 	likely')."
> =

> with the interesting result that
> =

> 	"Therefore, the survey did not reveal any liking or
> 	motivational differences based on fluency."
> =

> I'm willing to accept the authors' finding on this, even though I'm =

> not convinced that this particular set of questions actually measures =

> student motivation.
> =

> But even if we assume that it does, I still question how =

> "generalizable" the authors' finding about "font manipulations" =

> actually is
> =

> 	"That said, fluency interventions are extremely cost-
> 	effective, and font manipulations could be easily integrated
> 	into new printed and electronic educational materials at
> 	no additional cost to teachers, school systems, or
> 	distributors. Moreover, fluency interventions do not require
> 	curriculum reform or interfere with teachers=92 classroom
> 	management or teaching styles."
> =

> 	and
> =

> 	"Fluency demonstrates how [small interventions] have the
> 	potential to make big improvements in the performance of our
> 	students and education system as a whole."
> =

> given that the student population for Study 2 was unusually motivated =

> to begin with:
> =

> 	"Two hundred and twenty-two high school students (ages 15=9618)
> 	from a public school in Chesterland, Ohio participated in the
> 	study. This school accommodates approximately 930 students
> 	from grades 9=9612 and reported a 98.6% graduation rate (90%
> 	continue onto further education) and 95% attendance rate in
> 	2008. Ninety-eight percent of students self-identify as
> 	White."
> =

> (I don't claim to know about the rest of the U.S., but such graduation =

> rates would be quite extraordinary for the state of California.)
> =

> Adult readers I know (both young and old) who have trouble reading -- =

> i.e., who are "disfluent" to begin with -- do not need further =

> impediments, when they're trying to learn-by-reading, in order to =

> stimulate "deeper processing".
> =

> The study authors also warn about this:
> =

> 	"Moreover, less motivated or able students from less
> 	successful schools might be more inclined to give up on the
> 	material rather than persist and encode it more deeply (c.f.
> 	McNamara, Kintsch, Butler-Songer, & Kintsch, 1996). Thus,
> 	further research is advisable before widespread
> 	implementation of disfluency interventions."
> =

> Indeed, my own experience reading thousands of pages of 16th-century =

> English text -- printed with minimal leading in densely-set =

> Blackletter which has degraded over the centuries into its own style =

> of grunge type, complete with print show-through and staining -- =

> convinces me that even the most motivated reader can be all too easily =

> distracted from real learning -- deep or otherwise -- by a difficult =

> presentation.
> =

> Admittedly, I don't think the authors are recommending 100% immersion =

> like this. Among their conclusions:
> =

> 	"It is important to ascertain the point at which material is
> 	no longer disfluent, but instead illegible, or otherwise
> 	unnecessarily difficult to the point that it hinders
> 	learning. It seems possible that the influence of disfluency
> 	on retention follows a U-shaped curve, and the exact
> 	parameters of this function remain to be determined. With
> 	this in mind, the most effective disfluency manipulations
> 	would likely be those that are within the bounds of the
> 	normal variation of fonts and materials that could reasonably
> 	appear in a classroom."
> =

> Not sure that I know what this means, though (nor how we test for it), =

> especially since both studies described here focused on relatively =

> *short* texts (PowerPoint presentations and teacher handouts).
> =

> =

> Rather than introducing more "superficial changes to learning =

> materials" in order to encourage "deeper processing", I personally =

> favor using rhetorically-appropriate and substantive, content-based =

> cognitive triggers.
> =

> The best teaching, it seems to me, challenges us to learn by exposing =

> us to strange & unfamiliar ideas and ways of thinking/seeing that =

> stimulate our human curiosity.
> =

> Relying on typographic nudges that may or may not promote the =

> life-long habits of collaborative inquiry & learning we're all going =

> to need in order to thrive in the 21st century is not, IMO, an =

> adequate substitute ... no matter how cost-effective it may be.
> =

> Deborah
> _____
> =

> Deborah Taylor-Pearce
> [email protected]
> ___________________________________________________________________
> =

> Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: =

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