title: Accurate monitoring leads to effective control and greater learning of patient education materials.
abstract: Effective management of chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes) can depend on the extent to which patients can learn and remember disease-relevant information. In two experiments, we explored a technique motivated by theories of self-regulated learning for improving people's learning of information relevant to managing a chronic disease. Materials were passages from patient education booklets on diabetes from NIDDK. Session 1 included an initial study trial, Session 2 included self-regulated restudy, and Session 3 included a final memory test. The key manipulation concerned the kind of support provided for self-regulated learning during Session 2. In Experiment 1, participants either were prompted to self-test and then evaluate their learning before selecting passages to restudy, were shown the prompt questions but did not overtly self-test or evaluate learning prior to selecting passages, or were not shown any prompts and were simply given the menu for selecting passages to restudy. Participants who self-tested and evaluated learning during Session 2 had a small but significant advantage over the other groups on the final test. Secondary analyses provided evidence that the performance advantage may have been modest because of inaccurate monitoring. Experiment 2 included a group who also self-tested but who evaluated their learning using idea-unit judgments (i.e., by checking their responses against a list of key ideas from the correct response). Participants who self-tested and made idea-unit judgments exhibited a sizable advantage on final test performance. Secondary analyses indicated that the performance advantage was attributable in part to more accurate monitoring and more effective self-regulated learning. An important practical implication is that learning of patient education materials can be enhanced by including appropriate support for learners' self-regulatory processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Kent State University, Department of Psychology, P.O.Box 5190, Kent, OH 44242-0001, USA. krawson1@kent.edu
authors.forename: Katherine A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Rawson
authors.forename: Rochelle
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: O'Neil
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dunlosky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D013850:Thinking