Purpose: The purpose of this project was to explore instructional factors and cognitive abilities associated with a student's ability to self-generate new knowledge in both traditional and dual-language education settings. The self-generation process occurs when learners take information learned in one lesson (e.g., heat causes liquids to expand), integrate it with information learned in a different lesson (e.g., thermometers contain liquid), and develop a novel understanding (e.g., thermometers work because the liquid expands as heat increases). This research characterized the development of self-generation and knowledge integration skills across the elementary school years, identified the cognitive abilities involved, and explored the relationship between these skills and academic performance in the context of traditional and dual-language classrooms. This research highlights the importance of integration and self-generation for academic achievement and point to possible routes to intervention.

Project Activities: The research team used a quasi-experimental, cohort-sequential design to address project aims. In Year 1, the researchers enrolled students from K through fifth grade in the study. All students were followed for three years, with different research questions being addressed each year. Each year, participating students completed experimental tasks specific to the research question for that year and standardized measures of academic achievement. At the end of each year, the research team obtained reports of students' academic achievement for the year.

Key Findings: The main findings of this exploratory study are as follows:

• There are age-related changes in students' ability to self-generate new knowledge across kindergarten through fifth grade (Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2017)).
• Self-generation is predicted by vocabulary and is predictive of performance in math and language arts (Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2017)).
• There is a "cost" to integration/self-generation when information is presented in different languages, yet the cost is offset by contextual support and experience in a bilingual environment (Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2019)).

Structured Abstract

Setting: The participating schools were located in a rural area in North Carolina with a racially and ethnically diverse student population. Pilot testing was conducted in the major metro area of Atlanta, GA.

Sample: Participants included about 500 students aged 6–11 years (Grades 1–5). The population from which the sample was drawn is roughly evenly divided among African-American, European-American, and Latino-American students and 84% of students were eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Malleable Factors: The malleable factor was the self-generation of new knowledge through integration of separate yet related learning episodes. A guiding assumption of this research was that this process is promoted by instruction to facilitate learning and enhance long-term academic performance.

Research Design and Methods: The research team conducted a study using a quasi-experimental and cohort sequential design. In winter of each school year, students went through an integration/self-generation activity, which consisted of presentations of pairs of related stem-fact passages, with the two facts in the pair presented 30 minutes apart. After students saw both stem-fact passages, there was an additional 30-minute delay, followed by a test of students' self-generation of new knowledge based on the pairs of facts. Researchers filled the delay periods with unrelated educational activities. Approximately one week later, students completed cognitive and language assessments. Additionally, the research team conducted phone interviews with parents and guardians to gain information about family language use, enrichment activities, and socio-economic status. Each year, the research team addressed a different research question using these procedures. In Year 1, the research team examined students' knowledge integration/self-generation skills when related information was presented in different languages. In Year 2, the research team studied these skills in the context of reading independently. In Year 3, the research team studied these skills when students were extracting information from visual models and integrating it with texts they have read independently.

Control Condition: The research included two groups of students: (a) students enrolled in a dual-language education model in which 50% of instructional time is in English and 50% is in Spanish, and (b) students enrolled in a traditional education model in which 100% of instructional time is in English. In addition, there were within-subjects manipulations of the knowledge integration/self-generation activity that were specific to each research question.

Key Measures: Primary measures included researcher-developed assessments of self-generation skills, subtests of the standardized Woodcock-Johnson-III; the Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (4th edition); the Scholastic Reading Inventory; subtests of the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey Revised; the NIH Toolbox List Sorting Working Memory Task; the Bivalent Shape Task; the Simon task; the Go/No-Go task; and standardized end-of-grade assessments and classroom achievement measures in math, science, language arts, and social studies.

Data Analytic Strategy: The research team used linear regression, analysis of covariance, and multilevel models to address their research questions.

Products and Publications

Journal article, monograph, or newsletter

Bauer, P. J., Esposito, A. G., & Daly, J. J. (2020). Self-derivation through memory integration: A model for accumulation of semantic knowledge. Learning and Instruction, 66, 101271.

Varga, N. L., Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2019). Cognitive correlates of memory integration across development: Explaining variability in an educationally relevant phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(4), 739–762.

Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2019). Self-derivation through memory integration under low surface-similarity conditions: The case of multiple languages. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 187, article no. 104661. doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.07.001

Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2019). From bench to classroom: Collaborating within a dual-language education model. Journal of Cognition and Development, 20(2), 165-181.

Lauer, J., Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2018). Domain-specific anxiety relates to children's math and spatial performance during elementary school. Developmental Psychology, 54(11), 2126–2138.

Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2018). Building a knowledge base: Predicting self-derivation through integration in 6- to 10-year-olds. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 176, 55–72.

Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (2017). Going beyond the lesson: Self-generating new factual knowledge in the classroom. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 153, 110-125.

Book chapters Esposito, A. G., & Bauer, P. J. (in press). Strategies and self-derivation: Means of maintaining and extending knowledge. To appear in D. F. Bjorklund, L. Baker-Ward, & J. Coffman (Eds.), The development of children's memory: The scientific contributions of Peter A. Ornstein. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Esposito, A. G., Sirkin, R. A., & Bauer, P. J. (2016). Bilingual Education. In M. H. Bornstein (General Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of lifespan human development. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage.