Level of interactivity of videodisc instruction on college students' recall of AIDS information.

Experiment 1 confirmed the greater effectiveness of constructed-response interactive videodisc instruction when compared to a click-to-continue or passive viewing formats on posttest recall of AIDS information by 101 college students. Experiment 2 extended the analysis using a counterbalanced (ABAB-BABA) intrasubject design with 4 students in each of three ability groups. The necessity of constructing answers appears to be an important factor in the effectiveness of instructional programs.

Efficacy of interactive, automated programmed instruction in nutrition education for cancer prevention.

Ninety-two undergraduates were assigned into groups to evaluate the effectiveness of interactive, computer-delivered programmed instruction for nutrition education on the topic of diet and cancer compared to traditional passive modes of instruction. Students were monitored for knowledge gains by means of a single 50-item test and an application task, using a 4-day diet record, administered 4 weeks prior to and 3 weeks after intervention. Results indicated that although subjects in the interactive group took nearly twice as long to complete the program, having the opportunity to respond to program blanks, this group produced significantly greater knowledge gains and lowered their fat intake by 41.8% compared to 26.1% reduction in fat intake in the noninteractive computer group and 18.6% in the passive prose text groups. Results suggest that interactive, computer-delivered, programmed instruction can be a very important adjunct to health care and cancer prevention programs at high schools and university settings.

Verbal responses to past events: Intraverbal relations, or tacts to private events?

Seventy-five undergraduate students worked through a computer program which taught them to correctly identify four solid geometry figures. The video screen background color was incidently different for each figure. Later, when given a colorless background, students were asked to say what color accompanied the instructional frames for each superimposed figure. Taken as a whole, the 75 students correctly recalled the previously paired colors 53% of the time (p<.0001) when compared to a random probability of 25% (a replication of the experiment produced similar results). Results showed great variability from one student to another in the ability to recall colors but scores did not correlate with gender or performance in the course. Successful responding to "absent" colors was assumed to be the product of multiple variables, among these being the possibilities of conditioned seeing and intraverbal relations acquired prior to and during the tutorial.