The Knowledge Base and Memory Performance: A Comparison of Academically Successful and Unsuccessful Learners. Paper 5/1987.

The expert-novice paradigm, which demonstrates the outstanding role of domain-specific knowledge in explaining differences in memory behavior and performance, was examined. Two studies are described which compared memory performance of groups equivalent with regard to domain-specific knowledge but differing in intellectual ability. The hypothesis was that comparing good and poor learners with equivalent domain-specific knowledge should provide the base for evaluating the importance of access--the spontaneous and strategic use of potentially available information in order to understand and learn. Both studies dealt with West German third-, fifth-, and seventh-grade soccer experts' and novices' memory and comprehension of a story dealing with a soccer game. Several measures of memory performance, memory monitoring, and text comprehension were used. As a main result of both studies, no significant differences between good learner and poor learner experts were detected, regardless of age. Furthermore, poor learner experts outperformed good learners novices in all memory and comprehension measures. All in all, the findings of the two studies supported the conclusion that the contents of the knowledge base and not access in the sense of strategic use of information determined the extent to which text information is memorized and understood. (Author/GDC)