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Memory and comprehension of narrative versus expository texts: A meta-analysis - PMC
Memory and comprehension of narrative versus expository texts: A meta-analysis - PMC
The full text of the meta-analysis comparing memory and understanding of stories versus expository text. The researchers are careful to note the limitations of this evidence, but overall found that narratives have an advantage over expository text and explanations.
Stories may be easier to remember and comprehend than essays because stories resemble our everyday experiences (Bruner, <a href="#CR10" rid="CR10" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1986</a>; Graesser et al., <a href="#CR39" rid="CR39" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1991</a>). People experience life in the real world as temporally ordered causal events, organized around personal goals, with the encountering and overcoming of obstacles to these goals resulting in emotional experiences; this parallels the structure of stories (Graesser, McNamara, &amp; Louwerse, <a href="#CR37" rid="CR37" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2003</a>; Graesser, Singer, &amp; Trabasso, <a href="#CR38" rid="CR38" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1994</a>).
Familiarity with the structure and content of a text is referred to as relevant “prior knowledge” (Dochy, Segers, &amp; Buehl, <a href="#CR28" rid="CR28" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1999</a>), and stories might be more memorable and comprehensible thanks to readers having greater prior knowledge.
Readers are less likely to benefit from prior knowledge while reading an essay, relative to stories, and are therefore less likely to benefit from easy inferences. This combination could easily put expository texts at a disadvantage when it comes to memory and comprehension (Coté, Goldman, &amp; Saul, <a href="#CR18" rid="CR18" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1998</a>; McNamara, <a href="#CR68" rid="CR68" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2004</a>).
A final reason to believe that narratives may be more memorable than expository texts hinges on the ability of emotions to facilitate memory (Hamann, <a href="#CR42" rid="CR42" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2001</a>). Affectively charged recollections have been dubbed “flash-bulb” memories, to communicate the idea that emotional events are deeply imprinted on the mind, like a flash aiding photography (Winograd &amp; Neisser, <a href="#CR107" rid="CR107" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">1992</a>). This emotional facilitation of memory appears to result from a prioritizing of emotional material when it comes to attention and perception (Brosch, Pourtois, &amp; Sander, <a href="#CR9" rid="CR9" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2010</a>), with personal relevance playing a key role (Levine &amp; Edelstein, <a href="#CR58" rid="CR58" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2009</a>). To the extent that stories are better able to evoke strong emotions than expository texts (cf. Mar, Oatley, Djikic, &amp; Mullin, <a href="#CR62" rid="CR62" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">2011</a>), we would expect stories to be better recalled than exposition.
Our primary research question was whether memory and comprehension differ for narrative versus expository texts. Our three-level random-effects meta-analysis of 150 effect-sizes found that, on average, memory and comprehension of narrative texts was superior to that for expository texts.
Our meta-analysis of 150 effect-sizes (from over 75 unique samples and more than 33,000 participants) found that people had an easier time comprehending and recalling narrative texts compared to expository ones. The average magnitude of this effect was more than a half a standard deviation, with a 95% CI ranging from just more than one-quarter to slightly more than three-quarters of a standard deviation. Moreover, this result appears to be robust, and not driven by any one particular effect-size or study. There was a great deal of variability in these effects, however, almost all of which represents true heterogeneity and not random sampling error. This variability originated primarily from differences between studies.
In closing, the totality of the evidence available finds that people have an easier time comprehending and recalling information presented in a story compared to that presented in an essay. This has potential implications for a number of disciplines, not least of which is the realm of education.
To that end, the advantage afforded to narratives over exposition in this domain should be considered whenever possible. We must emphasize, however, that these results should not be interpreted as a suggestion to force all information into a narrative form for pedagogical purposes, especially when such information is not typically presented in this way.
It is quite possible that mixed genres like narrative journalism, for example, could hold the key for leveraging the advantages of narrative–its ability to capture interest and communicate experience through imagination – to meet the goals of exposition to inform and educate (van Krieken &amp; Sanders, <a href="#CR102" rid="CR102" class=" bibr popnode" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true">in press</a>).
·ncbi.nlm.nih.gov·
Memory and comprehension of narrative versus expository texts: A meta-analysis - PMC
Memory and comprehension of narrative versus expository texts: A meta-analysis - PubMed
Memory and comprehension of narrative versus expository texts: A meta-analysis - PubMed
A meta-analysis comparing how people remember and understand text, broadly categorized as narratives (stories) and expository texts (which they call essays). They acknowledge that the research is mixed, but overall found a "robust" result that stories were easier to understand and remember.
Based on over 75 unique samples and data from more than 33,000 participants, we found that stories were more easily understood and better recalled than essays. Moreover, this result was robust, not influenced by the inclusion of a single effect-size or single study, and not moderated by various study characteristics. This finding has implications for any domain in which acquiring and retaining information is important.
·pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov·
Memory and comprehension of narrative versus expository texts: A meta-analysis - PubMed
Do’s and Don’ts of Scenario-Based Learning - The Upside Learning Blog
Do’s and Don’ts of Scenario-Based Learning - The Upside Learning Blog
This is really a list of common mistakes to avoid in branching scenarios: letting the branches grow without control, providing explicit didactic feedback after each choice, not having plausible situations or choices, etc. I like how Clark Quinn describes the nuance of having scenarios where the choices aren't actions--that's a problem I've seen in several examples this year.
One way to go wrong is to have the choices that learners choose between to be statements, not choices of action. It’s easy to set up a scenario, particularly a mini-scenario with a story, but then ask learners to determine if something’s one of several ‘things’, such as categorizing the situation. It’s a nuance, but the choices should reflect what learners should do, e.g., with such a categorization. Do you then invoke practice X, or do action Y? Make sure you’re having learners make choices that do things, not just think things.
·blog.upsidelearning.com·
Do’s and Don’ts of Scenario-Based Learning - The Upside Learning Blog
Banner GPT
Banner GPT
Paste the text of a blog post into this tool, and it generates banner images for you based on the title and content. Since I've been experimenting with AI for images for my blog already, this looks like a tool worth testing out. If you're not a blogger, perhaps this could help you create header images for Rise courses or similar content?
·bannergpt.dabble.so·
Banner GPT
Custom AI Chatbots: 4 Powerful Applications for Employee Performance Support – Evolve Solutions Group |
Custom AI Chatbots: 4 Powerful Applications for Employee Performance Support – Evolve Solutions Group |
Tristia Hennessey describes possibilities for using chatbots trained on internal data to help with performance support. Chatbots are definitely an area to watch, especially as the technology continues to improve. There's definitely opportunity for instructional designers to help support organizations using these AI chatbots.
·evolve-sg.com·
Custom AI Chatbots: 4 Powerful Applications for Employee Performance Support – Evolve Solutions Group |
The Return of Haji Kamal
The Return of Haji Kamal
Stephanie Harnett has rebuilt Cathy Moore's classic "Connect with Haji Kamal" example in Storyline (with Cathy's permission). The original branching scenario relied on Flash, so it hasn't been fully available to play through for several years. I'm glad Stephanie has made it available again as an example.
·learning.stephanieharnett.ca·
The Return of Haji Kamal
Escape Room Activity Pushes Boundaries of Nursing Education at IWU | Illinois Wesleyan
Escape Room Activity Pushes Boundaries of Nursing Education at IWU | Illinois Wesleyan
Interesting description of how the IWU School of Nursing created an escape room using a mannequin to reinforce learning about medication administration. One thing I appreciate in this description is how it's clear that the clues were placed in ways to reinforce the content, not just as a completely artificial escape room concept disconnected from the learning.
·iwu.edu·
Escape Room Activity Pushes Boundaries of Nursing Education at IWU | Illinois Wesleyan
Hana Feels
Hana Feels

An example of interactive fiction built in Twine. This isn't exactly a training branching scenario, and there isn't always a clearly right answer. While I don't want to give any spoilers, this deals with some mental health topics that probably justify a content warning.

From a structure perspective, I like how the choices themselves are pretty short, but the actual dialogue is often a little longer.

I also think the layout works really effectively with a look like chat bubbles, but just having the choices at the bottom and not bothering with scrolling or fancy animation. Behind the scenes, there's clearly some scoring happening to reflect how Hana feels, how she responds, and what ending you see.

This was also interesting because you make choices for multiple characters who interact with Hana, rather than seeing it from her perspective. Again without giving spoilers, this story structure might be helpful for dealing with other sensitive topics like DEI.

·hanafeels.com·
Hana Feels
Should Instructional Videos Include a Talking Head?
Should Instructional Videos Include a Talking Head?
The research on the value of a talking head with instructional videos is mixed. It can improve the sense of teacher presence and learner satisfaction, but it may also increase cognitive load and interfere with remembering.
Results revealed detrimental effects of talking heads on the recall of factual knowledge covered in the videos. Interestingly, participants rated their perceived learning as being higher for videos with talking head. Furthermore, participants assigned higher satisfaction scores to videos with talking heads and selected them more frequently when choosing between different formats.
<span>Higher levels of teacher presence have been positively associated with student satisfaction and student&nbsp;</span><em>perceptions</em><span>&nbsp;of learning.</span>
Findings suggest that combining talking heads and annotations in asynchronous video lectures yielded the longest watch time, and highest satisfaction, engagement, and attitude scores.
·scienceoflearning.substack.com·
Should Instructional Videos Include a Talking Head?
Everyone is above average
Everyone is above average
Ethan Mollick reflects on possible ways AI might affect skills. It could be a leveler, reducing the differences between the top and bottom performers. it could be an escalator, raising everyone's skills fairly consistently. Or, it could be a "king maker," elevating a small number of power users as the top performers who get the most out of AI. While this isn't written from a training perspective, it has implications for how the L&D field might change in the future.
Modern professional work consists of a wide range of activities, rather than a single specialization.
AI acts as a leveler, raising everyone to a minimum level of performance.
Just because early results for AI suggest that only lower performing people benefit does not mean that this is the only possible pattern. It may be that the reason only lower performers gain from AI currently is because the current AI systems are not good enough to help top performers. Or, alternately, it might be that top performers need more training and work to get benefits from AI. If either of these conditions prove true, and they certainly seem plausible, then AI might act more as an escalator, increasing the skills for everyone, from top to bottom performers. After an adjustment period, the relative skill positions stay similar, but everyone gets more done, faster.
<span>Alternately, it might be that some people are just really good at working with AI. They can </span><a href="https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/centaurs-and-cyborgs-on-the-jagged" rel="">adopt Cyborg practices </a><span>better than others and have a natural (or learned) gift for working with LLM systems.</span>
·oneusefulthing.org·
Everyone is above average
HOME | Pika Labs
HOME | Pika Labs
Text to video tool. This works like Midjourney where you add text prompts in a Discord channel on the Pika Labs server. You can use either a text prompt by itself or provide a starting image to animate. This still feels like a tool in beta to me, and the results often have noticeable AI weirdness in them. But, maybe you could use this for a snippet of B roll or to add slight animation to an existing image.
·pika.art·
HOME | Pika Labs
25 Free Illustrated Characters - Downloads - E-Learning Heroes
25 Free Illustrated Characters - Downloads - E-Learning Heroes
Tom Kuhlmann created illustrated characters in different poses using Midjourney and then cleaned them up afterwards. He's sharing these results for free. Note that some images may still have some weird artifacts, even after the cleanup. These would be a great resource for people looking for a free character set for a portfolio sample.
·community.articulate.com·
25 Free Illustrated Characters - Downloads - E-Learning Heroes
guidde・Magically create video documentation with AI
guidde・Magically create video documentation with AI
This might not be as exciting of an AI tool as all the fun image generators, but it looks very practical. Create a screen capture video, then use the AI tools to generate the text explaining each step and add voice over. The tool also creates documentation at the same time. The text looks more accurate than some other tools I have tried, at least in the demo, but I assume in practice it would still require editing. For quick software training and performance support, this looks useful.
·guidde.com·
guidde・Magically create video documentation with AI
Learning Development Pricing Calculator - LXD Central
Learning Development Pricing Calculator - LXD Central

I appreciate the detailed breakdowns of time estimates per task in this article. This would be a very helpful way to create a project plan, even if you've never created an ILT or elearning course before.

However, note the caveat about the hourly rate at the bottom. The calculator uses $60 or $65/hour for pricing, but that's what a vendor would pay its own employees. If you're buying from a vendor, the cost is likely much higher. (Although apparently I'm not taking nearly enough profit for myself if vendors are typically pricing at 2.5 times their cost.)

<span style="font-size: 1rem;">How much should you pay for a learning solution? Why does one vendor quote $5,000 and another $20,000? At its core, the price of a learning solution is a very simple equation –&nbsp;</span><strong style="font-size: 1rem;">Rate x Effort = Price.</strong>
For those organizations that buy learning from third-party vendors these prices may seem quite low, and they are. The $65 rate is commensurate with what one of those companies would pay an employee but does not include all of the overheads, cost of sale, and profit that company would typically account for in the price. As a rule of thumb, a custom learning company will price at about 60% gross margin, which in short-hand means you multiple direct costs by 2.5.
·lxdcentral.com·
Learning Development Pricing Calculator - LXD Central
Why I ditched hourly rates as an ID Freelancer... and you should too.
Why I ditched hourly rates as an ID Freelancer... and you should too.
Anna Sabramowicz explains the value of project-based pricing rather than hourly pricing. I'm quoting her two examples of pricing packages as a comparison point. (Also, it's so weird that her husband Ryan is the first comment and pretends that they haven't discussed this before, so ignore how they publicly fawn over each other.)
- Interactive Story: $15,000&nbsp;<br>Includes needs analysis, scripting for one 7 question interactive story, custom graphics and feedback documentation. <br><br>- Instructional Design Sprint: $7,500<br>One week intensive ID sprint - analysis, design, dev, revisions. For quick turnaround projects.
·linkedin.com·
Why I ditched hourly rates as an ID Freelancer... and you should too.
App
App
Artflow has tools for creating character images and videos with automated voices. The free version is for noncommercial use only, but the paid plans can be used for commercial uses. The samples have some AI weirdness as is seen in a lot of the image to video conversions, but this looks like a fun tool to explore.
·app.artflow.ai·
App
What I Learned Creating AI Images for E-Learning | The Rapid E-Learning Blog
What I Learned Creating AI Images for E-Learning | The Rapid E-Learning Blog
Tom Kuhlmann describes his experiences using AI tools to create images for elearning. Right now, I agree with Tom about the challenges in time spent and lack of consistency; that's what I'm finding in my own experiments. Tom's tips on how to get what you want are a good place to start though.
·blogs.articulate.com·
What I Learned Creating AI Images for E-Learning | The Rapid E-Learning Blog
WIIFM: Beyond Traditional Learning Objectives — Arboth
WIIFM: Beyond Traditional Learning Objectives — Arboth
I appreciate how this post includes examples of how to grab learner's attention with stories and other tactics rather than just listing the full formal learning objectives. This article cites my blog post on learning objectives.
Next example: a training on "Cryogenic nitrogen and associated dangers". We started this training with an impactful image: An industry hall, exit door in the back and some materials obstructing the exit. All of a sudden, a cryogenic fog sets up, making it impossible to see the floor. Question to the learner was: Find your way out, without stumbling (and thus suffocating). Remember the materials? Remember you are dealing with nitrogen? Without explicitly listing learning objectives in the beginning of the e-Learning, we captured learners' attention, making them eager to learn more about other characteristics of nitrogen and the safety measures in such environments.
·arboth.squarespace.com·
WIIFM: Beyond Traditional Learning Objectives — Arboth