Katherine A. Rawson Explained

Katherine Rawson
Occupation:Professor of Psychological Sciences
Workplaces:Kent State University
Alma Mater:University of North Carolina at Greensboro; University of Colorado Boulder
Awards:
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2009)
  • Psychonomic Society Outstanding Early Career Award (2014)

Katherine A. Rawson is an American cognitive psychologist known for her educational research on how to optimize learning, promote effective study strategies, and enhance metacognition. She is Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State University.[1] She is co-editor (with John Dunlosky) of The Cambridge Handbook of Cognition and Education,[2] which surveys research on teaching and study strategies that increase learning.

Awards

Rawson was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, in 2009.[3] This award recognizes "some of the finest scientists and engineers who, while early in their research careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge."[4] President Barack Obama named Rawson one of 100 researchers worthy of the award that year.[5]

Rawson received the Outstanding Early Career Award from the Psychonomic Society in 2014. Her award citation stated that "her prolific research program has both practical significance and theoretical impact on several interrelated problems pertaining to education, strategies that promote effective learning, and the automatization of reading. Her work demonstrates the critical importance of the spacing, timing, and difficulty of retesting on the quality and durability of learning in educationally relevant domains.[6]

Biography

Rawson attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she earned a B.A. degree in Psychology with University Honors (Summa Cum Laude) in 1999. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Rawson continued her education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She completed her PhD in 2004 under the supervision of Walter Kintsch[7] with her dissertation exploring automaticity in text comprehension.[8] Other research, she conducted with Kintsch focused on factors that improve memory for text.[9] Rawson joined the faculty of Kent State University in 2004 where her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation.[10] [11]

Rawson's research focuses on the cognitive psychology of learning and metacognition. Her experiments often test ways to potentially increase the effectiveness of learning in the classroom. She has done research on a psychological phenomenon known as the testing effect.[12] [13] The testing effect occurs when long-term memory is improved by retrieving to-be-remembered information, as occurs when a person takes a test.[14] Rawson has explored effects of retrieval difficulty by varying the interval between tests and the difficulty of test questions. Her research showed that retrieval of information was improved when the amount of time between each test was longer and the tests were more difficult. These variables raised the average score on the tests and resulted in a better understanding of the topic.[15]

Representative publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Katherine Rawson Kent State University. 2020-10-20. www.kent.edu.
  2. Book: Dunlosky, John,, Rawson, Katherine A. (Eds.). The Cambridge handbook of cognition and education. 7 February 2019 . 978-1-108-41601-6. Cambridge, United Kingdom. 1045734554.
  3. Web site: Presidential Early Career Awards Recipients.
  4. Web site: Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). 29 June 2010 .
  5. Web site: President Obama to honor Kent State University professor. 2020-10-22. EurekAlert!. en.
  6. Web site: 2014 Early Career Award Recipient - Psychonomic Society. 2020-10-22. www.psychonomic.org.
  7. Web site: Neurotree - Katherine Rawson Family Tree. 2020-10-22. neurotree.org.
  8. Rawson. Katherine A.. 2004. Exploring automaticity in text processing: Syntactic ambiguity as a test case. Cognitive Psychology. en. 49. 4. 333–369. 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2004.04.001. 15342258 . 23227587 .
  9. Rawson. Katherine A.. Kintsch. Walter. 2002. How does background information improve memory for text content?. Memory & Cognition. 30. 5. 768–778. 10.3758/bf03196432. 12219893 . 0090-502X. free. 11323/2814. free.
  10. Web site: NSF Grant Supports Kent State Researchers' Plan to Help Students Improve Study Habits Kent State University. 2020-12-01. www.kent.edu. en.
  11. Web site: NSF Award Search: Award#1914499 - Enhancing Durable and Efficient Student Learning in Undergraduate Gateway STEM Courses. 2020-12-01. nsf.gov.
  12. Pyc. M. A.. Rawson. K. A.. 2010-10-15. Why Testing Improves Memory: Mediator Effectiveness Hypothesis. Science. en. 330. 6002. 335. 10.1126/science.1191465. 20947756 . 2010Sci...330..335P . 19431054 . 0036-8075.
  13. Rawson. Katherine A.. 2015. The Status of the Testing Effect for Complex Materials: Still a Winner. Educational Psychology Review. en. 27. 2. 327–331. 10.1007/s10648-015-9308-4. 143394699 . 1040-726X.
  14. Dunlosky. John. Rawson. Katherine A.. Marsh. Elizabeth J.. Nathan. Mitchell J.. Willingham. Daniel T.. 2013. Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest. en. 14. 1. 4–58. 10.1177/1529100612453266. 26173288 . 1621081 . 1529-1006.
  15. Pyc. Mary A.. Rawson. Katherine A.. 2009. Testing the retrieval effort hypothesis: Does greater difficulty correctly recalling information lead to higher levels of memory?. Journal of Memory and Language. en. 60. 4. 437–447. 10.1016/j.jml.2009.01.004. 73651886 .

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