On the relation between comprehension and memory of a complex text

Waern, Y. 1981. On the Relation between Comprehension and Memory of a Complex Text. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 25,21-37. The relation between comprehension and memory was analyzed in two studies. The first study investigated how access to text affected comprehension of that text. No effect was obtained, a result which indicates that the information recalled may be more important than information that is on hand. The second study investigated how different learning goals affected learning. One group was instructed to learn the text by rote (memorization instruction), another was instructed to try to comprehend what the author meant (comprehension instruction). To some degree the memorization group had better recall than the comprehension group. In contrast, the memorization group demonstrated a lesser degree of comprehension. The conclusion is that activity during learning is important for later utilization of information. A deficient representation at the time of learning may be difficult to compensate at a later point, even though the actual information is on hand.