Rule acquisition design strategy variables: Degree of instance, divergence, sequence, and instance analysis

Investigated 3 design strategies directly related to the development of instructional materials for rule learning. Ss were a total of 118 10th graders. In Exp I, the degree of divergence between instances showed that contrasting irrelevant features resulted in better performance than matching irrelevant features. Data from Exp II show that when the 2 contextually similar rules were learned simultaneously, performance was superior to that of Ss who learned the rules successively. When the Ss were provided with an analysis of how a given instance represented application of a grammatical rule, performance was better than without it. Results are discussed in relationship to a prescriptive theory of instruction. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).