Learning objectives and the organization of prose.

The orienting role of objectives was examined in relation to the organization of 2 texts, defined in terms of the ideational prominence of some of their elements. The texts consisted of short passages on energy, which were studied by 108 female college level students. Ideational prominence, which was experimentally manipulated in the study, did influence learning on its own, but it lost its effect when relevant objectives were also provided. Objectives and structure were interpreted as providing redundant orientation in learning, the importance of each being determined by situational factors. Both orienting factors were also found to be little influenced by a time constraint examined in the study. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)