DOCUMENT RESUME AC 010 329 ED 050 339 Sticht, Thomas G. AUThOR Learning by Listening in Relation to Aptitude, TITLE Reading, and Rate-Controlled Speech: Additional Studies. Human Resources Research Organization, Alexandria, INSTITUTION Va. Office of the Chief of Research and De.elcpment SPONS AGENCY Washington, D.C. (Army) , REPORT NO TR-71-5 Apr 71 PUB DATE NOTE 50p, EDRS Price MF-$0.65 BC-$3.29 EDRS PRICE *Audiovisual Aids, Intelligence Level, Learning DESCR1?TOBS Activities, *Listening Comprehension, *Reading Comprehension, *Research, *Task Performance United States Army IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT A series of experiments explored the feasibility of substituting listening tot reading requirements in Army training and jobs, with special reference to marginally literate, AFQT Mental Category IV men. Results of these experiments and related earlier research are summarized. Major findings indicate that high and low aptitude men may learn certain materials as well by listening as by reading; some poorer readers prefer to learn by listening rather than by reading. Characteristics of the recorded message that were found to affect listening comprehension include difficulty level of of speech. Extensive message, linguistic features of speech, and rat studies of tLe use of time-compressed and expanded recordings are described. (Author) S OffARMIof Of 101111i. fauctnoo 3 MOM °MU Of fffahlION PHIS DO(11MERI HIS OUR RfPROOLKID MOH OS RFCWID 1ROM 14f MATS OF VILW Of moos PRAM OA OR0A01D.0011 0916103 ERG 11 DIFICIAL OFFICE 01 FDU(ATION Sf&1ID DO 001 11;.(ASSARM RS P051100 OR PDS1CY. Technical Report 71-5 Learning by Listening in Relation 1,4 to Aptitude, Reading, and Rate-Controlled Speech: Additional Studies HUMAN RESOURCES RESEARCE 9RGANIZAV1ON Alexandria, Virginib 22314 300 North Washington Street April 1971 DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY OFFICE OF THE CH:dr OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WASHINGTON. D.C. 20310 April 14, ]971 CRDBES SUBJECT: Learning by Listening in Relation to Aptitude, Reading, and Rat-:-Controlled Speech: Additiona.. Studies ERIC TO: DEFILE OF EDUCATION 400 MARYLANC AVE. S.W. WASHINsJTON, O.C. 20202 This is the second report describing a series of experiments that 1. explore the feasibility of substituting learning by listening for learning by reading, a pyoblem of special concern in situations when.. demands for reading exceed the reading skill of personnel. The first report was published as HumRRO Technical Report 69-23, December ]q69. Five experiments were carried out to explore the pcssible substi- 2. tution of listening for reading requirements in Army training and jobs. Results of these experiments and related earlier research are summarized. Major findings indicate that high and low aptitude men may learn certain materials as well by listening as by reading. Soma poorer readers prefer to learn by listening rather than by reading, which might provide sig- nificant motivation to study for many lower aptitude men. Moderate degrees of speech compression may improve the listening efficiency of men of high, average, and low aptitudes. This report should be of interest to those concerned with training 3. research and with the training of personnel with low literacy capabilities. FOR THE CHIEF OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: kl"1"-' /AYNN E. BAKER US Army Chief Psychologist Acting Chief Behavioral Sciences Division 2 Report No. 1. 2. Government Accession No. Recipient's Catalog Na. 3. 1 Technical Report 71-5 I. Ti:!. and 54.:trifle Ripen Dale S. April 1971 LEARNING BY LISTENING IN RELATION TO APTITUDE, READING, AND RATE-CONTROLLED SPEECH: 6, Performing Organisation Cod. REALISTIC ADDITIONAL STUDIES Authors) 7. Rericeming Organization Report No. 8. Thomas G. Sticht Ps-forming Organisation Nome and Address 9. Work Unit No. 10. Human Res, .....`es Research Crganization (HumRRO) 12-38 300 North Washington Street Contract or Grant No. I. Alexandria, Virginia DAHC 19-70-C-0012 22.314 Type of Report and Priol Cover.: 13. I?, Sponsoring Agnc r Nome arid Address Office, Chief of Research and Developme,:t Department of the Army Washington, D.C. 20310 14. Spoastaing Agency Code 'urtisisfrrinrary Notes IS. REALISTIC: Determination cf Reading, Listening, and Arithmetic Skills Required for Major Military Occupational Specialties HumRRO Division No. Z 2residio o2 Monterev_California 16. Abst( art A series of experiments explorPd the feasibility of substituting listening for reading requirements in Army training and jobs, with special reference to marginally literate, AFQT Mental Category IV men. Results of these experiments and related earlier research are summarized, Major findings indicate that high and low aptitude m.-...n may learn certain materials as well by listening as by reading; sole poorer readers prefer to learn by listening rather than by reading. Characteristics of the recorded message that were found to affect listening comprehension include dlfficulty level of message, linguistic features of speech, and rate 02 speech. Extensive studies of the use of time-compressed and expanded recordings are described. CY Pr\ teN cD um . cp O LA.i II. 17. Key Words Di stribuilen Staisment Aptitude Litel,acy Approved for public release; Compressed Speech Project 100,000 distribution unlimited. Individual Differences Reading Individual Training Listening Verbal Ability 21. No. of Pales 19. Ssevrily Clots' f. hi 11116 report) Price SIDCWi ty Chitral f. tof this pegs) 20, 22. Unclassified Unclassified 45 3 The Human Resources Research Organization alumRRO) is a nonprofit corporation established in 1969 to conduct research in the field of training and education. It Is a continuation of The George Washington University Human Resources Research Office. HumRRO's general purpose is to improve human performance, particularly in organizational settings, through behavioral and social science research, development, and consultation. HumRRO's mission in work performed under contract with the Department of the Army is to conduct research in the fields of training, motivation, and leadership. The findings in this report are not to be construed as an official Department of the Army position, unless so designated by other authorized documents. Published Argii 1971 by HUMAN RESOURCES RESEARCH OKIANi ZATieN 300 North Washington Street Alexandria, Virginia 22314 under the authority of the Distributed Chief of Research and Development Department of the Army Washington, D.C. 20310 4 FOREWORD The researcii reported herein was undertaken by the Human Resources Research Organization as a part of Work Unit REALISTIC, which considers methods for reducing literacy requifemciiis for military training or job performance. This is the second report describing a series of experiments that explore the feasibility of substituting learning by listening for learning by reading, a problem of special concern for situations in which the demands for reading exceed personnel reading skill. The earlier report was Learning by to Aptitude, Reading, and Rate-Controlled Speech, HumRRO Listening in Relation Technical Report 69.23, December 1969. The research was conducted at HumRRO Division No. 3, Presidio of Monterey. California, where Dr. Howard H. Mac, is Dire -tor. Military support was provided by the U.S. Army Training Center Human Researci Unit. Successive mi'itary chiefs of the Unit throughot!., the duration of this research were LTC David S. Mars'nall, LTC Robert Emswiler, r.i:d LTC Ulirich Hermann. The research was carried out by Dr. Thomas G. Sticht with the assistance of Mr. Lynn Fox, Mr. Harry Burckhartt, and Mrs. Rachel Chisum. Military assistants were SP5 James P. Ford and PFC Richard L. Ferrington. HumRRO research for the Department of the Army is conducted under Contract DAHC 19-70-C-0012. Training, Motivation, and Leadership research is conducted under Army Project 2Q062107A712. Meredith P. Crawford President Human Resources Research Organization 5 ' ,- . ?, , MILITARY PROBLEM of Project 100,000, substantial numbers of men who are With the initiation ill-prepared in literacy skills are being accessioned into the Armed Services. To effectively assimilate these men into jobs, information is needed concerning the literacy demands of methods for reducing different needed to explore types work. of Research is discrepancies between literacy demands of jobs and the literacy skills of the manpower available to do the jobs. RESEARCH PROBLEM One method of adapting training or job requirements co accommodate men with deficient reading skills is to remove the reading requirement where feasible. This report extends previou, research concerned with the possibility of substituti4 or supporting reading materials with listening materials where feasible, thereby removing one of the obstacles likely to he encountered by the marginally literate man. APPROACH The first study (Part I) was concerned with possible preference for learning by listening as opposed to learning ty reading as a function of reading ability. If some men prefer learning by listening rather than by reading, they might be motivated to study if listening materials were trade available. In Part II tine fact.irs influencing learning by listening are examined iii a series of five experiments. Experiment 1 determined whether observed limitations in tne ability of niei of different aptitude levels to comprehend very rapid rates of speech were due primarily to signal distortions resulting from the process used to accelerate the speech, or to the rate of speech itself. Experiment 2 was concerned with the scaling of reading passages alo.ig a difficulty continuum from least to most difficult, so that these materials could be used as listening selections of known difficulty levels. Experiments 3 and 4 then examined learning by listening as a function of the difficulty of different listening selections, the difficulty of mr.terials within sentences of a listening selection, speech rate, and mental aptitude. Experiment 5 attempted to improve the amount of learning by listening in a fixed amount of time by means of the time compression of speech. RESULTS Regarding the .:omparisons of preference for learning by listening versus learning by reading, the results indicated that: (1) Preference for learning by listening ranged from 14% for men having high men with poor reading capability. reading abilities to 45% for (2) Preference for learning by listening is also related to AFQT-ranging from Mental Category I men to 28% for Mental Category IV men. for 8% 6 (3) Overall, some 25% of a sample of 300 men preferred to learn by listening rather than by reading. The results of the studies using time compressed speech indicated that: (1) Speech rate rather than signal distortion due to the compression process appears to be the major cause for decreased comprehension of materials presented at fast rates of speech; this was true for both high and low mental aptitude men. (9) The scaling of reading passages for difficulty by direct magnitude estima- tion and a readability formula correlated highly with scaling of these materials by other researchers using Cloze procedures, recall tests, and category scaling techniques. (3) Comprehension of listening passages decreased as a function of mental aptitude, and the difficulty level and speech rate of the listening selection. This was true for difficulty both between and within listening materials. No differences were found in the type of information learned by high and low men`.al aptitude men, although the latter learned a lesser amount from a listening selection. (4) Using the time saved by the time compression of speech to present additional new information did not increase the amount learned over that obtained by presenting less information in uncompressed format. CONCLUSIONS The results of these studies, considered along with previous results from Work Unit REALISTIC, suggest that: (1) Listening is an important training and job performance skill which predicts as do reading test scores or "hands -on" job sample perfcrmance test results as well for selection purposes is of listening therefore tests AFQT. Consideration ability suggested. (2) Many men of low reading ability prefer to learn by listening, and they can be expected to learn many kinds of prose materials as well by listening as by reading. Hence, the provision of listening materials as well as reading materials in training and job situations may provide significant motivation to study for many lower aptitude men. (3) Moderate degrees of speech compression may improve the listening effi- ciency (amount learned per time spent listening) of men of high, average, and low aptitudes. (4) Because listening efficiency may improve with the ur_ of time-compressed speech, the time saved might be used to improve leaning by focusing attention through the use of inserted questions or by selectively emphasizing certain asp.cts of the material. However, results indicate that simply repeating a message, or addirg new information in the time saved by the compression process, is not likely to increase the amount learned over that learned by listening to an unelaborated selection presented once at a normal (e.g., 115 words per minute) rate of speech. for listening difficulty by magnitude (5) Reading materials can be scaled estimation, by a readability formula, by Cloze techniques, by recall tests, or by direct category scaling procedures. Correlations among these methods range from .85 to .95. technology can be used to "tailor" (6) The time compression /expansion listening materials to fit fixed time slots. When coupled with the inexpensive and easy to transport cassette recorders that are currently available, this technology permits a flexible use of audio materials. vi 7 CONTENTS Page Introduction 3 Part I PREFERENCE FOR LEARNING BY LISTENING VERSUS READING Method 4 Materials 4 Subjects and Procedure 5 Results and Dir-ussion 5 Part II FACTORS INFLUENCING LEARNING BY LISTENING Experiment 1: Signal Distortion Versus Speech Rate in Comprehension of TimeCompressed Speech 7 Method 8 3 Subjects Materials 8 Procedure 8 Results and Discussion 9 Experiment 2: Reading Difficuity of Printed Text Evaluated by Three Different Methods 13 Method 13 Sul iects 13 Materials 14 Procedure 14 Results and Discussion 14 Effects of Speech Rasa, Seitction Difficulty, and Mental Aptitude on Experiment 3: Learning by Listening 17 Method 17 Subjects 17 Materials 17 Procedure 18 Results 18 Discussion 21 Effects of Speech Rate and Mental Aptitude on Processing Information Experiment 4: in Listening Mateiials 22 Method 22 22 Subjects Materials 22 Procedure 23 Results 23 25 Discussion Page Experiment 5: The Comprehension of Additional Information Presented in the Time Saved by Time Compression of Audio Tapes 26 Method 27 Subjects 27 Materials 27 Procedures 28 Results 28 2r Discussion Part 111 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION Comments 31 Discussion 32 The Sutdy of Listening in Work Unit REALISTIC 32 Findings on Listening From REALISTIC 32 Listening as a Job Skill 32 I 'stening as Learning Processes 33 Reading vs. Characteristics of Listening Materials Related to Comprehension 33 Research to Increase Learning by Listening in a Stated Time 34 Implications in Selection and Training 34 34 Selection Training 35 Literature Cited 38 Figures Scores for High and Low Aptitude Subjects on Speech Increased by Time-Compression 1 or Maintained at Constant Seed by Time-Compression/Expansion 10 Oral Reading Rate as a Function of Estimated Magnitude of Reading Difficulty 2 of Printed Texts 16 Recall Scores for High and Low Aptitude Subiects for Materials of Three Difficulty 3 20 Levels at Five Speech Rates Recall Scores for High and Low Aptitude Subjects on High/Low Association Word 4 Pairs at Two Speech Rates 24 Scores for High and Low Aptitude Subjects for Time Compressed/Time-Limited 5 or Time-Cripressed/Time-Extended Selections 29 Tables Percentage of Men Who Preferred Learning by Listening Over Reading, by Reading 1 Grade Level 5 Percentage of Men Who Preferred Learning by Listening Over Reading, by 2 AFQT Category 6 viii