According to Ausubel, learni ng is based upon the kinds of superordinate, representational, and combinatorial processes that occur during the reception of information. A primary process in learning is subsumption in which new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cogn itive structure on a substantive, non-verbatim basis. Ausubel emphasizes that advance organizers are different from overviews and summaries which simply emphasize key ideas and are presented at the same level of abstraction and generality as the rest of the material.
Organizers act as a subsuming bridge betw een new learning material and existing related ideas.
The most general and ideas of a subject should be presented first and then progressively differentiated in terms of detail and specificity. Instructional materials should attempt to integrate new material with previously presented information through comparisons and cross-referencing of new and old ideas. The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning.